Monday, February 23, 2009

The Album Cover Game

1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “Random Article” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to “Random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Click "New Random quotations" at the bottom to get a new list, since the link will sometimes give you same page over and over.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop/MS Paint or similar to put it all together.


This is a fun little time waster. You can come up with some brilliant covers. Here's some I made:




Here are some from other people:





A very interesting read

Did anyone listen to the band The Format? I probably was into them for a little bit a year or two ago. Apparently, they broke up a year ago for hardly any reason it seemed. Now, the band manager is touring around the world researching for his book. On his blog he wrote about the demise of the band and how much they went through just trying to get the band to where it was before it broke up. It's a very interesting look inside the industry and it's all together a good read. I want to read his book when it comes out. I don't even care what it could be about.

http://waywardlife.posterous.com/on-drowning

The story amounted to these two kids bashing their heads against a wall for three years, knowing that they had something worthwhile but unable to find strong support, beyond their booking agent and lawyer (it should be noted here that the band’s new label had some solid supporters but were caught in an industry quagmire, what with eleven year old kids becoming able to get music for free - for eternity - on their six hundred dollar computers). On the surface, especially to the music biz, the album was a complete flop. It didn’t matter that they had been swept under the rug, nor did it matter that “The First Single” was a mega-hit waiting to happen. The data showed that this horse had run its best race and come in second-to-last (always more pitiful than loser).


Sitting in front of me were two young men who were nothing short of desperate. They both smoked an extraordinary amount of cigarettes, perhaps one for every minute in an hour. Their knees shook through the holes in their jeans and they both picked at their food in a way that suggested apathy for the thing that might keep them alive for the next day. It wasn’t sadness or despondency; it was pure depression.


We agreed to work together and they were dropped from their label within a few months...
Click on the link to read the whole thing.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Zooey is a Sweetheart

She & Him are being featured on a new compilation that came out on January 30th. It's called simply "Sweetheart", and is comprised of 14 covers of love songs by various artists.














1. Death Cab for Cutie - Love Song
2. Katy Perry - Black and Gold
3. DeVotchKa - Hot Burrito #1 (I'm Your Toy)
4. Department of Eagles - Love Me
5. Jessica Lea Mayfield - Words of Love
6. Ben Bridwell - Your Love Is Forever
7. Kate Tucker - I'm on Fire
8. Rogue Wave - Maps
9. A.C. Newman - Take on Me
10. Jem - Yellow
11. Richard Hawley - Early Morning Rain
12. Daniel Martin Moore - I Hear Music
13. She & Him - I Put a Spell on You
14. Lila Downs - My One and Only Love


As you can see, it also features Katy Perry, which is amusing if you know about the whole "They look alike!" thing. For those who need a reminder or wanted to see a picture of them together:


Zooey is on the left, and Katy Perry is on the right.

You'll also notice that Death Cab for Cutie is on there. Why is that significant? Because Zooey Deschanel is engaged to Ben Gibbard. Bleh. I mean Gibbard is cool and all, he makes good music usually, and is a good guy. But he's also the most homey dude ever. He's like that guy who is in the friends zone with a bunch of girls and you suspect he smells funny. I think about Gibbard and her and it feels like the most mismatched couple ever. Well...Natalie Portman and that Devandra Bernhardt guy were worse. Anyways, the thought of Gibbard and Zooey being engaged and stuff just makes my stomach turn a little.















On the upside, this post is a good excuse to put up Zooey Deschanel pictures. Also, She & Him Volume 2 is coming this year.