lo-fi

8hands featured living room project: Eddie and Keith are listening to…

alon — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:20:02 -0400

It's good to know that Eddie Argos is keeping himself busy even while he's in a between-albums-break. After giving us one of 2007's best albums, the front man of Art Brut joined Keith Totp and together they popped out a tiny project called "Eddie and Keith are listening to…" (by tiny I mean they have 27 friends in MySpace, at least for now).

It's not the first time that Argos and Totp have joined hands: the two were members of Argos's first band, The Art Goblins, and last year they were both feeling the Christmas Spirit in a project called The Black Arts (as you can see, they are very diverse when it comes to picking a name).

R. Kelly BELIEVED he can fly. Argos can REALLY do it. (taken from kirstiecat' flickr stream)

The new project is just Argos and Totp having fun. Their MySpace profile explains it the best: "Every once in a while Eddie Argos and Keith Totp shall randomly choose a song they've been listening to, record a cover of it in their living room, and upload it here".

So far, all they done is an Eels cover (of "I Like Birds") and a Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus cover (of "Run Joey Run", but they named it "Run Keith Run"). Don't expect a lot of new covers to come, as they made it clear that updates will probably be "very infrequently".

Until the next Art Brut album will show up, these lo-fi acoustic jams are good enough for me, but still, let's nag nag nag nag and send them a lot of MySpace messages saying "Please cover more songs" – it can't hurt, right?

8hands Featured Music Act: iBand

Alice — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:54:10 -0500

As technology moves forward, new lo-fi musicians pop up every other day. The three members of the iBand, seem to take the tech and music connection a bit too seriously.

For those of you who haven't heard, the iBand is the last word in today's DIY music scene; their musical instruments are solely comprised of 2 iPhones and an iPod touch.

The idea is amazing. What's more, the iPod and iPhone are the ultimate tools for creating great lo-fi music: they are accessible, not really expensive and can be easily self taught. The music you can produce is intimate and simple, making it ultimately extremely moving.

Marina, Seb and Roger from iBand, were the first to see and carry out the potential of the iPhone. On their website they seem to emphasize the fact that they chose these tools, not out of necessity, but out of beliefs and ideals:

"Although skilled in a range of conventional music instruments, we choose the iPhone and iPod touch to create our music" and they go on saying "you can use the technical development to realize yourself and use the life that is given to you to seek something higher".

These words, on the top of their website, make you wonder- does it really matter? If they would have used the iPhone because they couldn't find a real piano, would it make the music sound differently?

Seems like these guys knew they are onto something and thought they better have an agenda to support their innovation.

And this so called agenda doesn't end in their website. The second video and first mp3, "life is greater then the internet", sends out the clear message that life is what happens when you're not online.

These lyrics, if I may add, are not as witty or intelligent as you may expect from musical pioneers. In fact, the words sung above the beautiful iPhone sounds are as childish as the message they are trying to send out.

They sing lines like "a video can't help you when you cry" and "internet is a time killer". Hey, if the iBand are so tech-savvy, why are they such tech-haters? With lyrics like these, it gets very hard to take them seriously.

But even with these downfalls, their creativity is undeniable and they just might be the first iPhone musicians. If all else, they have opened a way for someone who'll execute this great idea in a better manner.

More iPhone musicians to follow or not, no one can't take from the iBand the magic in their music when they shut up. Perhaps it's way too early to judge them and they will learn and get better along the way, but as my favorite lo-fi musician once wrote, some things are best left unsaid ("Love connection", Casiotone For The Painfully Alone).

8hands Featured Flickr Stream: Psychic_heart

Dania — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:16:34 -0500

I think psychic_heart's photostream is the first I ever fell in love with on flickr. She is a lo-fi queen, master of the holga-verse, and creator of the popular Lo–Fi Light Hunters group.

Oh, and her photos of celebs + the fashion world are some of the best out there. Definitely my guilty pleasure...

Mary Virginia Carmack

lera.

thecoolkids.

band of horses

DENN!S.

whippersnappers.

amanda lepore.

minnie.

untitled

Based in Brooklyn, NY.

You can find more of Psychic_heart's work here: http://flickr.com/photos/psychic_heart