sxsw... le sigh...

sxsw 2007: last night at 4am on the way to the airport for my very long and painful flight home

sxsw, the hajj of indie rock, is going on right now and i am not there. instead i am sitting at home working on web-related indie rock things while visions of texas-sized margaritas and driskill's gingerbread pancakes dance through my head. friend frank is in austin and spent the better part of the morning lining up for VIP wrist bands to get into day parties. meanwhile in vancouver, i've been hitting refresh repeatedly on the "official not at sxsw" beggars live blog. beggars adam posted the following video. i love hillary and think she should be president, but it's never going to happen with supporters like these:

écoutez-vous

scott accusingly points at rob

for the past few years i've worked with 2 good friends, scott and rob. the gospel of paula speaketh the truth; like a rapping cat and a short, crazy cheerleader, scott and rob are as opposite as they come. but they're both stubborn band geeks and so it works. they started up the record label i've worked with because in the months surrounding the release of their last album their labels imploded, or simply disappeared as was the case with their japanese imprint. so they turned doing it themselves into a business, but the ironic consequence was that they found no time to make music themselves. they finally figured that one out and got their priorities sorted and have started making music again.

every month for the next year the salteens will make 2 songs available through their web site, salteens.com. it's like a 7" with an a-side and a b-side, and you get cover art (courtesy of my friend sasha) to boot. and it's free! you should go download yourself some power pop right now. or you can listen to the "a-side" here:

the new cat power site is live!

we just launched the cat power site this morning! yay! how lucky am i to get work like this? the cool thing about this site is that matador has teamed up with the hype machine to create a streaming audio player that will feature exclusive, unreleased songs with comments from chan about each one. that will come in the next week or so, but for now you can stream the whole album.

and now back to work with me.

lucky soul

at my friend frank's insistence i bought every lucky soul single and b-side through emusic a couple of days ago. i bought the 9 songs without ever having heard them before, but i'm glad i trusted in frank's good taste. he first became infatuated with lucky soul last spring, but subsequently fell in love as evidenced by his gushing post hailing their album the great unwanted as the best british debut of the year. sadly, their album is only available for purchase through itunes (boo), which is why i got only the singles and b-sides. nevermind whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens, i'll take motown and spector girls. and look how nicely they would coordinate with my trunkt finds below!


lucky soul - "add your light to mine, baby" from add your light to mine, baby

stream: lucky soul, the great unwanted
watch: lips are unhappy / my brittle heart / add your light to mine, baby

fountains, gowns and ships are here...

i sold my first kitten through my etsy shop last week. yay! thank you carrie for ordering clover and i hope you've found a good spot for her in your home! my first sale gave me a good excuse to make another little kitten to fill the spot on my shelf left empty once i sent clover packing. this is francesca and she's a leggy kitten, standing a good inch taller than the others i've made. she's super soft, and i'm really enjoying working with these muted colours. i think it's because it's so grey outside these days that all i want is soup and a crochet hook.


special needs - "francesca"

over the summer i oooooh-ed and ahhhhh-ed over abigail glassenberg's softies. while her two daughters are napping she makes the most amazing creatures. she makes toys and works of art in those 2 hours a day she has to herself, and they are all so whimsical and original and inspiring. i have posted a bunch about birds lately, and here i go again.



abigail has a few pieces available through her etsy shop right now, and is preparing a number of others for some upcoming shows. you can see them all by visiting her flickr page, and you can read all about them by visiting her blog, while she naps.

this past year everyone has gone to the birds. almost 2 years ago now i started work on album art for a boompa artist named lullaby baxter. she did a really cool photo shoot with taxidermy birds -- whiskyjacks to be exact, which are among my top 5 favourite birds, so i was understandably anxious to get to work on them. i begged, pleaded, connived, argued and prayed to use a certain bird photo for the cover, but lullaby was not having it. there was no way she was going to let me put this bird on the cover. she wanted it to be text only. then why taunt me with such a great photo? i lost the battle. a chronic personality flaw of mine means that i still think i am right, an affliction compounded by how prevalent birds have been ever since that album came out. here are the 2 covers, and regardless of getting my way or not, it's still a beautiful record so here's a song you might like, too. and if you do like it you can visit lullabybaxter.com to stream the entire album.




lullaby baxter - "rattled little clam" from garden cities of to-morrow

drug buddy

when tucson-based artist sasha lewis isn't busy watching old nsync performances on youtube, she's working on finishing her BFA. sasha's illustrations are generally kept under wraps, but i harass her daily in hopes that she might put a few of her prints up on etsy. she's been working on a series of animals doing drugs (heroin hyena, binging bull, rhino on a rodeo) and there's something so obviously absurd about these images, that you can't help but wonder why humans do it.



on the lighter side, she's also working on another series that will eventually become an illustrated book about a llama meeting other animal friends.

and since sasha and i both love juliana hatfield, here are a few of her drug-related songs:


evan dando and julianna hatfield - "my drug buddy" live at kcrw


juliana hatfield - "choose drugs" from beautiful creature


blake babies - "brain damage" from god bless the blake babies

{ it turns out that i chose one of sasha's favourite nsync bootlegs, and she told me that her favourite thing (other than just the idea of nsync bootlegs) is the dance move at the 25 second mark. how can you choose just one move? i think the best part is their not so spontaneous scripted stage banter. }

spilt milk and sparrows

over the summer my friend natalie, along with her neighbour lindsay, came up with the idea of making baby clothes they'd wear themselves if they were only big enough. under the name spilt milk, they silkscreen limited edition tees, tanks, and onesies, and sew and hand paint beautiful dresses using eco friendly fabrics. i love the twee little sparrow image on the tee above, and i also love their little pinafores which you can find through their etsy shop.

while on the subject of twee little sparrows, here are some bird-related songs, and an assortment of feathered etsy buys...



1. betsey walton / 2. nancy's view / 3. ashley g / 4. paper love / 5. geninne
6. cindy jaswal / 7. onegirl / 8. restless things / 9. fern animals
10. oh my cavalier / 11. littlest flower / 12. my folk lover


sparrow - "the quiet revelation" from the new pastoral


the boo radleys - "sparrow" from everything's alright forever


architecture in helsinki - "the owls go" from fingers crossed


the hylozoists - "red bird wishes" from la nouvelle gauche


josé gonzález - "sensing owls" from stay in the shade