I took the Gold Line up to Pasadena last weekend to catch just-breaking indie pop band Princeton at the Make Music Pasadena festival. Princeton is the saccharine bittersweet endeavor of twin brothers Jesse Kivel and Matt Kivel, who, along with their childhood friend Ben Usen, sing songs about the Bloomsbury Group in a deliriously dreamy orchestral style that recalls John Cale and The Kinks. It’s Edwardian British high culture by way of folksy LA beach pop. The members of Princeton were kind enough to tell us a little about themselves (and their love of donuts) in the video above.
This is the first video I’ve edited in HD, with many more to come! Watch the compressed version above, or click here to watch the video in all of its High Definition glory over at Vimeo.
“Forget about the aesthetic,” says Becky Stark, the lead singer of Lavender Diamond. “Recent scientific studies have shown that men have a greater tendency to interpret things visually than women.”
Stark and her cartoonist/drummer boyfriend, Ron Rege Jr., are the sole members of a new side project called Mystical Unionists. They played a low-key yet sublime show at the aptly titled Hope Gallery in Echo Park this weekend, where Rege’s artwork is currently on display.
“This is entirely about the aural,” says Stark, hoping to effect a sea change, one small drop at a time, from the hegemony of the male perspective towards something much less aggressive. If she can get this small, devoted audience to even slightly alter the way they process things, perhaps it can affect a widespread shift towards the global acceptance of “love” and “peace” she’s always touting in her music, with utmost sincerity. “Close your eyes and let go of the visual,” she advises before launching into a subdued melody. “Well, except for Ron’s art,” she qualifies. “You should look at that.”
Armed only with a microphone masking-taped to a wooden stick and a pair of carefully decorated floor toms, Mystical Unionists sounds something like a campfire lament at the end of the world and a hopeful appeal to America’s frozen heart. Ron and Becky are a dynamic duo whose artwork couldn’t be more aligned. In her lyrics and his cartoons, in her stage banter and his illustrations, the couple is devoted to building a Utopian world that shares the optimistic ideals of the 60’s, minus the questionable hippie trends of the day (is anyone really longing for a revival of door beads and lava lamps?).
“I had a dream the other night,” Becky tells me when I approach her after the show, “where everything I had ever thrown out was turning into cups of tea that I was forced to drink. Every piece of Scotch Tape– everything.” A regime change or a liberal political upheaval is good, Becky says, but we can’t rely on politics to change the world for us. “Each one of us is accountable for everything we do.” Somehow, when Becky says it, it sounds less like a lecture and more like a fun challenge, full of dancing and color and song. Becky Stark is our generation’s Yoko Ono.
Check out 21 pictures I took at the show, after the jump!
My Orbit commercial finally aired, during the MTV Movie Awards last weekend! Since I don’t have cable, I had to wait to see it on my friend’s DVR last night. It’s so weird and awesome to see myself on TV in this capacity. For the past two years, I’ve done a lot of extra work, but the last time I had a significant “role” on television was way back when I learned my expert dramatic chops: in my infamous Bounty commercial.
My roommate in the spot is played by Ian Crossland, a lovably intense young actor, musician, and deep thinker with a notable YouTube following.
The commercial was directed by the amazing Perlorian Brothers, who’ve been the creative force behind a boatload of hilariously weird commercials that you’ve surely seen and enjoyed (yes, the Perlorians almost exclusively deal in the rare breed of TV commercial actually meant to entertain its viewers) without knowing there was a unique authorial voice (well, a duo of harmonizing, discordant voices) behind them. There are some fun interviews with the Perlorians available at ‘boards and HaveAnIdea, which are online trade publications for people who are unusually obsessed with the advertising world.
Fun Fact: This commercial was shot in an Ambassador Hotel-adjacent penthouse that Ronald Reagan spent much of his life in.
I went downtown to Sci-Arc on Friday for the opening of theoretical architect Greg Lynn’s new Blobwall exhibition. What’s a blobwall? According to MoCo Loco, it’s, well, a blob. Made of interlocking modular trilobal “blob units” constructed robotically out of a “low-density, recyclable, impact-resistant polymer,” the Blobwall provides an unusual alternative to a traditional building material: the brick. It sounds fancy and complicated– but it’s really just a big, weird, candy-colored sculpture that looks cool. The Blobwall is surrounded by a series of plastic orbs sticking out of the gallery walls, encasing Lynn’s personal collection of robot-themed toys. Check out my pictures from the show after the jump!
Update: Apparently, the Blobwall completely collapsed just hours after these photos were taken. Damn unreliable construction robots!
