This is a few months old but I just stumbled on it. And boy oh boy I feel like I just struck gold! One of my favorite indie rock bands The New Pornographers asked fans to cover one of their songs in the style of Michael McDonald (a Yacht Rock legend) -- and post the results on YouTube. What a brilliant idea for a contest! The winning video by dancebuffet almost, almost brought me to tears.
First listen to the original:
Then watch dancebuffet's cover:
What will happen? It's like Y2K all over again. The horror!!
Check out this mashup of stop-motion animated Transformers toys with dialogue taken from the cartoon. Really cinematic use of the camera positioning!
[Via Channel Frederator Blog]
Yesterday we got a chance to hang out and talk to a lot of interesting people at the Independent Spirit Awards. Here, Juno screenwriter, Diablo Cody, answers some questions in the press room.
(Sorry about the shaky camera. The other one was in use.)
I just love this too much. An example of how even the most simple visuals can be compelling in the hands of a talented artist.
[Via Eva Olive]We had the fortunate experience of being on the red carpet for the Independent Spirit Awards this weekend thanks to the good folks at Next New Networks! Vanessa Pappas and Michelle DeForest made it an easy time for us, and we talked to a ton of celebrities and filmmakers. On this week's episode of EPIC-FU we'll bring you our take on things, but Dave Seger and Mike Ambs were there with us as the L.A. Indy Mogul correspondents and they did a great job putting together this video.
[Via Indy Mogul]Our friend Paul Dateh was in New York and went to see our friends at Rocketboom. The result? A charming casual Friday episode. :)
Forget Hulu and their private beta shenanigans. CBS is now streaming all 3 seasons of the original Star Trek series (and a few other classics, including Twilight Zone) on their TV Classics destination. No sign-ups. No international restrictions. Just pure unadulterated Trek madness.
Zadi will get a kick out of this, because I know she's a big fan of TOS. I'm more of a TNG guy. Sadly, no full-screen or embedding options, but the 15-second ads are very bearable.
EDIT: Seems like some of our international commenters aren't able to view the videos after all. Sorry, guys!
What is happening on March 4th, 2008? Download the hi-res version (53.8MB) and let us know what you think in the comments.
Here's an interesting project called Sound of Color. Five musicians, including Swizz Beatz, The Ravonettes, and YouTube star Marie Digby, were assigned colors and asked to write original songs. The tracks were then given to 5 directors who made music videos, also inspired by the colors.
All the songs are downloadable and I like the diversity of music genres represented. On the downside the project was sponsored by GAP, which makes me wonder about the clothes they're wearing and how it plays into GAP's marketing campaign. But still worth checking out.
In this week's show and campfire discussion, we talk about 90dayjane.com. The 90 Day Jane blog was only a few days old before it was taken down by its owner. See, the blog documented the final ninety days of Jane's life before she commits suicide. She didn't know how she was going to do it, only that she was going to do it, and she was taking us along for the ride.
The first computer I ever had was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 2. Along with a crummy little joystick and a cassette tape drive, this little machine introduced me to computers. I would sit and code BASIC programs for hours, and then I would try not to shut off the computer because I had no way to save them! I think the most complex thing I ever coded was a graphics piece that made a blocky train move across blocky tracks.
Anyway, for a lot of people the TRS-80 was their first machine, so I thought this was a cool picture set. It has about 10 images of the machine cracked wide open. It looks so simple compared to today's home computers! More after the jump, and all of them are here.
[Via News.com]
A dog with fresh beats? What more can you ask for?
This made me laugh pretty hard. Play around and record your own mix.
Last December, Oakland DJ Amplive announced he would release a free remix album of Radiohead's In Rainbows. But he made the mistake of not getting permission from the Radiohead camp, which apparently was a no-no because he received a cease and desist from Radiohead's management and the whole project was nixed.
How To: Spy Sunglasses!
Who doesn't want a pair of spy sunglasses?!? I know I always have! See, I grew up with a private investigator for a dad, who had an arsenal of spy gear handy. Never fun when you're a teenager. But now, with this DIY instructional, I can create my own spy sunglasses for under $40. Watch out, I may be watching you! heh. ;)
The guys over at Barely Political do it again. Oh John, you prankster. I don't blame Hillary for looking grossed out. :)
Props go out to Michael Stevens for mixing this one up.
Sometimes not having a loved-one on Valentine's day isn't the worst thing in the world, especially if the person you're dating hails from Psychoville. So for your listening (and viewing) pleasure, here are our top 10 songs to remind you that sometimes being alone and a little sad is far better than being together and totally creeped out... or dead.
I mean, what would you think if someone dedicated one of these songs to you after a few first dates?
Our friend Brian Lerner had introduced us to the guys in The Honorary Title some time back. We listened to their album Anything Else but the Truth and knew we had to interview them for the show. That was a year ago. Since then, they've been rising to the top, releasing a new album (Scream and Light Up the Sky), playing to sold out audiences, and now making appearances on television shows like One Tree Hill. The lead singer, Jarrod Gorbel, also made a guest appearance on our most recent New Year's episode.
There's a behind the scenes preview of the OTH appearance that aired tonight on Justin.tv.
What a crazy ride. Congrats guys! Can't wait to see and hear what comes next!
Check out this amazing piece of billboard graffiti by AUGOR in LA at Melrose & Mansfield. Pay attention to the detail and integration with the original billboard art. PT Anderson should be proud.
More pics and info at LAist.
As if we needed further evidence that we are recklessly befouling our planet, The Independent has a disturbing article about an area of floating plastic waste twice the size of the United States in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
Charles Moore discovered it by accident in 1997 taking a shortcut back across the Pacific after a yacht competition.
He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"
This stuff won't degrade for hundreds of years at the minimum. Ugh.
Via Core77Jedi Ginsu Knife Commercial
If you're not that handy in the kitchen, perhaps the Jedi Ginsu knife can help. Just keep in mind, the fact that you own a Jedi Ginsu knife, does not now, or will ever make you a Jedi.
Remember to watch your fingers.
YouTube user Keshen8 recreated the official Dark Knight trailer (embedded after the jump) shot-for-shot using Legos. There's a higher quality version of the video on Stage 6.
The quite awesome Core77 industrial design blog held The Greener Gadgets Design Competition this month as part of the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City.
I almost majored in Industrial Design at Pratt Institute during my college days (I wound up majoring in Painting), so I have always been appreciative of elegantly designed everyday objects. These designs take things a step further, because they are made to be sustainable and eco-conscious from the ground up.
I saw this trailer and got pretty excited. An official selection of the 2008 SXSW film festival, Second Skin takes a look at the people and lives of those who inhabit Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Second Life.
Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn't quite exist.
Sounds pretty damn awesome. Can't wait to see it.
Remember that inspirational "Yes We Can" music video we posted a few days ago? Well, now John McCain has his own.
OMG. This is brilliant. How did we miss it!?! :)
The Teenagers video for Starlett Johansson was a runner-up for this week's spotlight video. For me its equally amusing as it is catchy. This YouTube comment pretty much sums it up:
"It's a wet dream translated into music with a creepy deep voice." -Wheelsgr
Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo hasn't come without backlash (duh). Fearing the inevitable Microsoft conversion of Yahoo-owned Flickr, almost 3,000 Flickr users have joined the Microsoft keep your evil grubby hands off of our Flickr Flickr group. The above image is 1 of 100's submitted to the group's photo pool.
I'm not thrilled at the idea of Microsoft owning Flickr, but I'm not ready to stop using one of my favorite social networks just yet. How about you guys?
On EPIC-FU the other week we spotlighted Aesop Rock's awesome jam, "None Shall Pass." In this "making of" video, Aesop talks about the meaning of the imagery in the video. The artist who created the pieces in the video is Jeremy Fish, a really talented San Francisco-based artist who created the artwork for the album. For fans of the song and the video this is great stuff.
Barackula the musical will be making its online debut this month. It's Michael Jackson's Thriller meets Jesus Christ Superstar meets... vampires. What more can one ask for?
The fictional story tells of a young Obama fighting off the forces of darkness at Harvard Law. Obama (played by Justin Sherman) must convince the secret vampire society that opposing political philosophies can co-exist or else he gets swallowed by the dark side.
Doesn't matter who I'm voting for, I'm sold just on the dancing vampires.
We're checking out The Uptake Super Tuesday live blogging/video streaming coverage on Veracifier. You should too! :)
I went through a range of emotions watching this. From huh, to WTF, to wanting to dance along, to complete terror. It's strangely addicting and for some reason I couldn't turn it off.
Explore the music video for Arcade Fire's Black Mirror at rorrimkcalb.com while deconstructing its tracks while you listen. Press the numbers shown underneath the video to enable/disable the tracks. A very haunting experience.
One of our viewers, Jimsin, sent us a link to this awesomely bizarre music video. It's by a band called The Native Hipsters, and it's the creepy off-beatness that makes it great.
Jimsin says:
...they recorded their first (and only) single in their bedroom back in 1980 and it got played by John Peel and made it to number 5 in the indie charts & they had to stamp all 5000 copies of the single by hand using a rubber stamp.
Thanks Jimsin!
Rick twittered this a while back, and it's the funniest LOLcat animation ever. :)
Another Robot Sunset is Postal Service meets Commodore 64. They are pretty much your typical 2-white-dudes-and-a-robot hip-hop group. Here's a snippet from their bio:
cadence used to be a rapper. then he died. but he died while jacked in to the matrix, and an imprint of his personality and rap skills was preserved on his deck. this deck was purchased by a delightfully nerdy scientist named paul padgett, along with a poster of 2Pac that said "Only God Can Judge Me" and a previously unused Roomba. [Read more]
In the hundreds of emails we get each week, it's easy to miss the good things people write. I'm really glad we saw this, because it definitely touched us:
Epic-fu, Just wanted you all to know, that I thank you for making my tour in Iraq a little less unbearable. It's people like you, who pursue your dreams regardless of all the negativity that may suround you, that make this country worth fighting for. Zadi some of the things I seen from you outside Epic-fu are inspiration and showcase your creative genius. Peace
—Elroy
Thank you, Elroy. Please get home safe.
Everyone loves a good practical joke right? We are pranksters in hiding here at EPIC-FU HQ, and revel in a good laugh. So it was great to see that humor knows no boundaries... especially when it involves a phone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a politician running for office. :)
So what did Hillary do before she ran for office? She was in a band of course. Seriously folks, you haven't heard her riff on a geetarrr? I'm sure there's some lost footage out there waiting to be found.
Check out this music video inspired by Barack Obama's Yes We Can speech. It's one of others starting to pop up and features a star cast including John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, Herbie Hancock, Amber Valetta and others.
Thanks to Steve Garfield for pointing it out to us.
We've been laughing at this all day and we figured we'd post it here for those of you who may not have seen it yet. It has to be one of Sarah Silverman's funniest bits. Enjoy. :)
