A whole bunch of people came together in Omaha on Saturday night to say these unjust, anti-immigrant laws are UNACCEPTABLE. And we rocked. Loud. To our immigrant communities, to our Latino brothers and sisters, we stand with you in solidarity.

The Concert for Equality featured Desaparecidos, Cursive, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Bright Eyes, Lullaby For The Working Class, FATHR^, The Envy Corps, David Dondero, The So-So Sailors, Conchance, Simon Joyner, Flowers Forever, Vago and a final Hootenanny at the end of the night. All proceeds went to the ACLU Nebraska’s effort to repeal Fremont’s Anti-Immigration Law.

Fight the Fremont Law! Bright Eyes, Desaparecidos, Cursive, Lullaby for the Working Class and more will perform at an ACLU Benefit Concert in Omaha, Nebraska. On Saturday July 31st people will gather together to fight for equality. The show benefits ACLU Nebraska.

At the intersection of art and politics in an effort to make change: “This way of thinking and legislating is so dangerous, and such a threat to our basic ideals as Americans and humans, that we cannot stand by and do nothing. We cannot play on as if nothing is wrong.“

Always one to recognize the importance of not remaining neutral on a moving train, Conor Oberst is also part of the The Sound Strike, an artists call to boycott Arizona. You can read his thoughts in an open letter on the Arizona law and watch the video below.

This is about a just and humane immigration system. This is about holding true to the idea of America. In Nebraska this about “the Good Life” for everybody. And it’s about beautiful music performed to galvanize a movement for equality to make all of this possible.

The National. The Take-Away Shows.

yeasayer

the faint

russian circles

Very nice posters from doe-eyed. Filed under “wish I’d done that.”

"The Suburbs"

Let’s hear it again for 2010. Out in August. Available to pre-order now. Arcade Fire’s new album “the Suburbs” has quite a lovely cover design and adds to what will be one of the best years ever for new music.

cds

Sole has spent the last two years living in a cabin in the midst of the Coconino National Forest in Arizona with no mayor, no phone lines, broken cell phone reception, just books and environmental canyon sprawl. I’ve spent a good portion of the last two years “figuring shit out.” Having sole’s rhymes handy certainly helped. Must be the plutonium in me.

Playlist #8 Cover

Completely enjoying ISO50 Playlists. So good.

http://www.yeasayer.net/

2010 will be quite a year for new music. My favorite thus far is the new Yeasayer. I will not comment further. Just listen.

Cover art for Live at KEXP Volume 4

Let’s hear it for the honest and the authentic: KEXP! The coming together of an amazing, wonderful and extraordinary music community. (No corporate hacks found here.) If you aren’t a member, do consider it. You’ll be supporting some of the best efforts at keeping music alive and well today. The KEXP Podcast Songs of the Day (free downloads) are more than worth the membership. And not to mention their live albums they put out every year. (Yeasayer playing 2080 in their studios is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.)

Just to be clear, I have no ties to the station, other than I just think they kick so much ass, it isn’t even funny. I don’t even live in Seattle. But there is for sure a special place in my heart for KEXP. So listen up!

I enjoyed this video by El-P from Pitchfork’s Surveillance series (from last year’s ATP). Nice to see a little keytar action these days.

UPDATE: Strange coincidence that the day I post this video I also see rumors of El-P’s label, Definitive Jux, possibly going out of business. Let’s hope its not true.

Cabaret Voltaire - I always liked this cover.

Hard Format is a wonderful site dedicated to “reaching for the sublime in music design,” as curated by a couple of guys named Justin and Colin. The site is clearly a reflection of their personal tastes rather than a compendium of the standard “greatest album covers of all time,” which is what makes it so compelling. They also do a great job of photographing the pieces so you get a real sense of the packaging as a whole rather than just cover designs. I’ve personally never seen a lot of these sleeves and covers, nor have I heard of many of these musicians, so its a real treat to see such an array of great design. Click through the fold to see more images that stuck with me.

Hard Format

As a designer of cover art for films I often think about the differences between designing for films, as opposed to books and music. With a film there is a visual style, tone and story that is set by the director. With books there is a story that needs to be hinted at without giving away the ending.

With music (in general) there seems to be more of an opportunity for artistic interpretation and the artwork can work on its own or as an addendum to the music. As I look at a lot of the album art on Non Format I find myself looking at albums that I haven’t heard and trying to imagine what it sounds like. What the visuals tell me about the music. If there was one thing that I’d love for the fellas to add to the site it would be the ability to listen a track from each of the albums they profile, to see how the the music works with the visuals.

But mostly I just like this site because they include cassette tapes. And The Match Factory loves tapes.

Sum of R, The Vulture Club

Seaworthy – 1897, Map In Hand

Miles Davis - Tutu

Various – Until Human Voices Wake Us And We Drown

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words