I enjoyed some lively hit music from Top Shelf at Broadway Brew in Troy, NY featuring my lovely cousin Rachel.
Check out Top Shelf on Facebook for your next wedding or corporate event.

“When we would take trips
We swore we’d never take pictures
Pictures only prove you can’t convince
Now I wish those photographs
could convince you that what we had
would only turn out a negative.”

“Inches and Falling” by The Format

Pondering the phrase “Pictures only prove you can’t convince” a lot tonight. I think it connects with something John R once told me about how when the moment comes, the last thing you’ll need is a camera. I seek to evolve to that point.

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: