My friend Reverend Alex G is one of the most knowledgable humans on the planet when it comes to music. He’s also never wrong when it comes to amazing restaurants and food, BBQ, Mexican, food trucks, whatever. The right Reverend has uploaded some completely brilliant 8Tracks mixes called “Me So Hungry” — they’re old school funk and soul tracks about sweet salivation. I’ve obsessed over them and even used them to build meals around!

Just for kicks, I decided to make a response mix inspired by those tasty dishes. I picked some yummy edible editions myself, but with an outlaw country, western/southern feel: Me So Dang Hungry: Country Fried! Hank Williams, Guy Clark, and even a lil’ Uncle Kenny:

Me So Dang Hungry: Country Fried from MickOxygen on 8tracks.

“The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.”
– Susan Sontag

UPDATE #1: Added The Cameras from Sydney!
UPDATE #2: I made this into an 8Tracks mix below so you can stream and chill out.

I’ve been collecting songs about cameras and photography for a while now. But lately I’ve been noticing a crop of great new music from performers whose entire being seems to be inspired by the bentlight art: Bands with photography-tinted names! Here’s a little mixtape of my 2011 faves — an indie, alt, lo-fi vibe connects all these songs.

Smile For the Camera
“What Are You Made Of?”
http://smileforthecamera.bandcamp.com/
Kicking it off strong with some britrock!

Toy Camera
“Summer Days”
http://toycamera.bandcamp.com/album/blissful-youth
Download this blissed-out project’s EP for free over at Bandcamp

Kodak To Graph
“I Keep Hanging On”
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kodak-To-Graph/152341958124571
This is assuredly the most brilliant track here, I can’t escape it. Mmmm Mmm! Kodak To Graph has a free EP over at Bad Panda!

Light Leak
“Snow”
I’ve covered Light Leak before, but this is from a slightly newer release. Chill!

Just Polaroid
“My Body”
http://soundcloud.com/justpolaroid
I didn’t dig this one so much at first, but it grew on me. It’s not amazing, but it’s got soul.

The Photographic
“Secure (Amtrac Remix)”
http://www.facebook.com/thephotographic
The original version of this track is a couple years old and even showed up on a C.S.I. soundtrack, I think. But, this uplifting and epic remix is brank-spanking-new-shit!

The Cameras
“I Know” http://www.camerasmusic.com/
Just added! This one starts dreamy, but builds into something of an epic. I am gazing the f^ck out of my shoes (in a good way). From their new album In Your Room which you can stream on Soundcloud.

8Tracks Stream

For a lean-back experiencem I put the whole mixtape into an 8tracks station with a couple other goodies to mix it up. Enjoy!

 
Bonus:

Every Move A Picture
“Signs of Life”
http://www.myspace.com/everymoveapicture
All right, this one’s old. They cats aren’t even around anymore. But, it was best to send everyone home on a high note.

(P.S. Check us out on Facebook for a ZIP of the full Mixtape)

Jonas Åkerlund‘s new video for “Girl Panic” by Duran Duran features supermodels acting as the band members. It’s a really lavish and entertaining mini-movie, and it was apparently banned by MTV for girl-girl sexuality and excessive product placement. But, I was delighted to find that much of the “placement” was for some classic cameras! I love that Åkerlund used vintage cams from the 1980s even though the video is ostensibly set in the modern day — a nice little detail. A couple of them are really interesting pieces as well!

Check out a vintage 1982 Polaroid SLR 680 wielded by Helena Christensen. The 680 was basically a version of the legendary SX-70 that took the newer 600-type film. That would be nice to have these days, since 600 is easier to come by.

(more…)

The Fotomat legend was borne of Sergeant Preston Mitchell “Sandy” Fleet in idyllic Point Loma, San Diego, California. Fleet’s company served millions of photographers over the years, and I’ve collected in this post videos, songs, stories, print ads, and even a comedy skit about this oft-forgotten phenomenon!

Wait, I may need to back up a bit. Many of you may not know what a Fotomat is — err, was. Well blogger Donna Pointkouski spells it out much more eloquently than I could in her explanation to her curious children:

“The Fotomat was a little shack, usually in a parking lot of a shopping center, and you would drive up to the window and drop off your film to get developed.” I explained this with the sincerity of a lesson on Ancient Rome or the Civil War.

“Film? Like a movie?” she asked. “What do you mean by ‘get developed’?”

Like any good legend, the Fotomat also lives on in song; just not terribly memorable ones. There’s a terrible rock song by a band named Interplause that uses the retroness of the term perhaps ironically — “That’s What Happens…(When You Fall in Love With a Girl at Fotomat)” — and it’s so bad I couldn’t bear to embed it. There’s even a strange “freestyle” noise band called The Fotomat Experience. They’re kinda proggy. My favorite though comes from an academically-inspired band from Columbia University: “I Sold My Soul To Fotomat” Yikes!

Of course to really get what it was all about, we’ll cut to commercials. (Important Note: According to Wikipedia, the ladies that worked in Fotomats were called “Fotomates.” Rawr!)

Animated, too!

The guy who posted this video even prepared a pickup line for when he went to Fotomat: “Let’s go out and see what develops.” Har har!

Look, it’s Mindy from Mork & Mindy!

When I went searching for print ads, I found this amazing tale of what happened to a small-town Fotomat when a tornado struck!

The atmosphere was jovial and friendly.

At first.

But then…then things took a turn for the scandalous.

You simply must read it!

As that tale illustrates, I think anyone who has had prints made participates in a shared denial that strangers are peering through their photos. This comedy skit from 1982 brings that out in sharp relief!

Fotomat – Second City by emayoh

That was heard on Dr. Demento on KMET back in the day!

If you have a Fotomat memory, please share it in the comments!

I’m researching songs about cameras and photography and I came across this dark chillwave ambient by a teenager from Erlangen, Bavaria. (I think that’s Germany!) His whole EP is lo-fi photography inspired… and of course he goes by the name Light Leak!

His EP is available for free download at Bandcamp:

Happy birthday to Eric Judy, founding member of the band Modest Mouse. I went back into the archives to dig up some unpublished pics from a recording session for Yahoo! Music at famed Westlake Studios in Hollywood.

 

 

 

 

I was shooting with the original Digital Rebel that day. Ha! Here’s video of the day. Good times!

 

 

Laura Duncan – “Open Arms”

As I was breezing through the monthly HearNoHo musical showcase last night, Laura Duncan was a revelation. I’m talking blues riffs, jazz tinges, and one of the strongest voices I’ve heard in a while. This UK transplant is now based in Los Angeles, and I’ll seek her out again. She can sing, and she can play guitar. I think she’s coming from a musical theatre background. I see she’s played Molly Malones. I wonder if she knows Philip Sayce?

She has a 4-song ep for free download on her site at www.lmduncan.com. Or if Myspace to stream music is your thing: www.myspace.com/lmduncan

I’ve been cranking "Less Earth More Rubber" all the morning after. I’m hooked!

Some bonus photos:

Couple years ago I took some pics at Harvelle’s of a man named Leroy Powell.  He’s a great performer, and I was lucky to see him in a small place where I could take photos.

Leroy chatted with me afterwards, and I sent him my photos which he liked. He still likes them — one of them just got used to make a sharp poster for one of his gigs.

I hope I’m getting creative karma from this. I just found the poster by accident — or was it a mystic occurrence? I wish he’d told me. Oh well.

And now for your foot-stompin’ pleasure, here’s some Leroy Powell gettin’ down:

Music permeates North Hollywood Arts District on the first Thursday of every month with Hear NoHo, a nascent showcase of local musicians performing in community venues spanning the community. I’d written about the series debut a few months ago. I even took photos then. My work makes up the bottom banner at HearNoHo.com. But, I hadn’t been back until July’s summery set. This time out, organizers decided to focus on women in local music. I decided to focus on them with some black and white film. I wanted to try the Rollei in a musical setting. It has a slow f/3.5 lens, but I had a roll of medium-format Ilford Delta 3200 in the fridge. If there was ever a time to use ASA 3200, this was it. I also brought along the M2 with some Arista Premium 400 that I’d push to 1600.

Taking pictures with film is a much different than taking pictures with a digital camera. But, taking pictures of people in action with film, especially older non-motorized manual focus cameras, is yet another level of difficulty entirely.

In concert photography the keys are light, eyes, mikes, movement, and backgrounds. The photographer must keep all of these in mind, and in sight. But, when you shoot one frame at a time with no instant review, you need to have a strong reservoir of faith. And, practice helps so I was going for it.

Results? I struggled with the roll in the Rollei. Even at 3200, with the 3.5 lens there was not enough light to get what I wanted. I struggled to see the images that were there for me.
But, with the Leica, it was a happier story. I found a couple images I am really proud of, and the 50mm Serenar f/1.8 lens helped me get them.

The first Hear NoHo was free. But, the organizers were upfront about the inability to keep it that way. This time around it was a ten-dollar wristband. Access to ten artists at five venues, a couple NoHo Commons lofts, the Cella art gallery, the NoHo Arts Center theater, and even the loading dock for How’s Grocery Store.

I went in expecting a mixed bag of music, but everyone I saw put on a good show. Happily, my favorite artist of the night also gave me my best photo of the night. Adjoa Skinner (above) played to about twelve people in a loft. She kicked off her sandals and walked around while playing her guitar and singing, she was such a comfortable player.

I saw the names “Frank and Derol” on the schedule of a female-only lineup and thought: “Oh God, probably a lesbian folk act!” But, when I got to the theater it was a trio of perky young girls with a backing band playing brisk, sunny indie pop. They, too, impressed me. Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter – no, not Miley. A different one – is in this unsigned band. I saw Beck’s sister, too: Alyssa Suede is her name and she captivated the crowd at Cella Gallery. Paris Carney packed the Arts Center: It was standing room only for that show! So, no good photos for that set. So much for needing to keep it free. I underestimated the support of the local community.

In developing the 3200, the book calls for fourteen and a half minutes when using HC-110. It’s a warm summer, so I probably should have backed off a few minutes. The fact that the film actually expired six years ago, though, caused me to go the full time. I figured it would just even out. The resulting grain was huge. Probably a mix of high ASA mixed with overdeveloping with an industrial developer. Nothing really came out impressive, but it was fun. I should try it with a smoother developer.

 

Pushing the brand new Arista Premium to 1600 was much more effective. The book on that is sixteen minutes with HC-110, but since I was developing at roughly twenty-five degrees, I backed it down to thirteen. I was very, very pleased with how Frank and Derol came out.

I resolve to go to more Hear NoHo events. It’s a fertile ground for my photographic adventures. And, the music isn’t bad either.

Bonus: Here’s an Adjoa Skinner video clip:

I remember tales of Serious Photographers who wouldn’t be caught dead shooting a wedding. I guess it can be considered base or mercenary. I’ve heard stories of photogs doing weddings on the weekends for money but keeping it Very Secret from their contemporaries.

Then there are some photographers I admire who do weddings for fun or profit. They are not so pretentious and see the world as filled with opportunity for great photos. That seems reasonable to me

I recently discovered that concert photography also suffers from a similar lack of respect. Some of my friends and neighbors consider the photography of pop musicians unartful, silly, boring, or even (gasp) too easy. I’ve been told directly by Serious Photographers that concert photography lacks merit and impact!

I don’t care. I love it.

I’ve recently joined the pool of photographers shooting concerts for the Los Angeles life and culture blog LAist.com. You may recall one of my photos being picked as Photo of the Day over there a while back. My first assignment for them was last month to take pictures of a couple great bands: The Dears and Great Northern. The feature was published on LAist.com over this past weekend, and I’m thrilled. The writer of this piece, Jeremy, is very talented and a nice person as well.

I see concert photography as a unique and unparalleled look at human expression, I see sides of humans that can be captured no other way. I think like any photography, it can be easy to do, but hard to do well. I believe it’s valid, worthwhile, and above all exciting. I’m looking forward to doing more concert work for LAist.com in the months ahead.

Great Northern, The Dears @ Echoplex 5/23/09 – LAist.