My wonderful and talented friend Allan got together with my wonderful and talented friend Hera and magical things ensued: here is one of the products of their artistic mingling.
Allan heads VenusWept, and his photography is insane. I don't understand how he does what he does; some sort of strange alchemy of lights and lenses that renders beauty in the most unexpected places. (That's the train station downtown..?) There's also a good at-a-glance set of his photographs at his MySpace that is worth checking out. Allan's specialty is fashion and music photography, but everything he touches is lovely.
Etsy store Painful Cuteness is selling Resurrection Bunnies, Eggs, and Chicks. They're adorable little dead plushie dolls guaranteed to resurrect in time for Easter-- get em' while they're dead!
There's not really a lot I can say about this, other than: hey, adorable! Made by Spike Press, fine folk who also design some fantastic posters for bands and things. (And incidentally, was sent over by Bill the Squirrel. Who is probably not a squirrel anymore. He's probably evolved to some higher life form. Like a chipmunk. Or possibly an armadillo.)
A lovely across-the-pond friend named Elaine sent me this song by Grizzly Bear, and it's haunting and eerie and full of whispery bits. It sounds like a tea party for drunken ghosts. Said The Gramophone has a review of it that I found after some looking around, which tells the story of exactly who Marla is...
Aside from having one of my favorite band names, Heartless Bastards also have one of my favorite
albums of 2006 with Into the Open. Composed of a high school dropout (lead singer Erika Wennerstrom ) a former janitor (bassist Mike Lamping) and a former pizza delivery guy (drummer Kevin Vaughn) , Heartless Bastards know about hard times. So when Erika sings “Lord knows it’s been a while, since my face has cracked a smile.” on “Blue Day” I’m pretty sure she means it. Check it out: theheartlessbastards.com.
Sarah found this adorable lightswitch on Etsy, for those who are always longing for something... in this case, you may be possibly harboring a secret longing to be Frida Kahlo. As, you know, it seems like the sort of thing that would go with her decor.
The 2003 Great Lake Swimmers self titled album was
recorded in an abandoned silo in southern Ontario. A
fact makes itself known by the sounds of crickets in
the background of nearly every song. The following
album "Bodies and Mind" was recorded in a lakeside
church once again in rural southern Ontario. There
current album "Ongiara” was recorded in London,
Ontario's Aeolian Hall but there's no need to fear.
The upgrade in recording facilities hasn’t changed
them a bit. Sure, the production is a little slicker
but the songwriting of Tony Dekker is still intimate
and urgent almost to the point of intrusion. Check them out at: greatlakeswimmers.com
Panic has just come out with a new Katamari Damacy shirt, which is fuzzy, and yellow, and I couldn't help but go and buy so it could hug my happy little flesh. It goes nicely with the Katamari Damacy soundtrack my friend just sent me-- the first song here is the loading bit from the video game, that you can find me humming in alleyways and on buses. The other is a samba remix of the first, which is kind of amazing.
I recently came across the work of Sam Weber, oohing and aahing at his portfolio, and it took until seeing this image to realize where I'd seen him before: here, a year ago. Silly me. In the intervening time, Mr. Weber has put up a hell of a portfolio, full of fairytales and darkness and general wonderfulness. Go. With the eyes, and the feasting.
Tori Amos is due to release her latest LP entitled American Doll Posse on May 1st. There are several tracks floating around the interwebs (most notably on PromoSquad and Perez Hilton) but no full songs have been leaked yet. Here's a partial track, as well as a really lovely exclusive first interview about the new album.
This is absolutely magical. And it takes place on the Paris Metro, and there's nothing more I can say except that you should put down what you're doing and press play.
Hello strangers! Sorry I haven't been around lately. When I come back from SxSW next week hopefully I will have tons of good music to share with you. Until then, here's a rather lazy but still (I think) entertaining post for you full of David Bowie covers.
Dean on 
