Pants Party

Les Savy Fav ROCKS my world.
Ilford Delta Pro 3200 film, developed by hand. Shot at FFF in Austin...



PEACE to you all!

Death Is The Most Important Band You Have Never Heard Of

Originally comprised of the three Hackney brothers - Bobby, Dannis and David, the band Death has to be the greatest musical re-discovery in recent history. Punk without even knowing it both sonically and symbolically, Death was doomed to obscurity when refusing Clive Davis' (of Columbia Records) request that they change their name. They pressed 500 copies of a 7 song EP on their own Tryangle records then disbanded the band by moving away from Detroit.

Brother David passed of cancer in 2000, but before his passing he urged his brothers to hold on to the master tapes, as one day "the world would coming looking for them."

David's prediction came true and more than thirty years later, thanks to the help of Drag City records, Death has been resurrected in the form of re-issue of the original 7 song EP, …For The Whole World To See. Death has since enjoyed a new found and quite unexpected bit of fame, the New York Times called them "the band that was punk before punk was punk," and Mos Def has a documentary about them in the works.

Uber hip music festival Fun Fun Fun in Austin hosted one of their select few reunion shows, I was lucky enough to hang with the guys before they hit the stage and shoot their set. Links to music and articles after the (hand developed)photos.





Listen to "Politicians in my eyes."
NYT Article.
Guardian UK.
Mos Def doco.
PEACE to you all!

FFF Film 09 1

Fun Fun Fun, quite possibly my favorite music event of the year went down last weekend. This is the third year I have shot FFF for Skope Mag and Meow Poww Media, and every year it gets better. Growing so weary of digital, I shot mostly film this year - lots of black and white which I have yet to process and a few rolls of C41 and E6. The C41 I sent to the lab and unfortunately the entire roll is underexposed - my fault, changed film too fast and had the ISO set in manual at a stop under the rating of the film. However, just got the E6 roll back from the lab and I am pretty excited. Next week I will do a full FFF recap and write up, but for now here are my favorite shots - 7 shots out of a 36 exposure roll, not a bad hit rate. Many more photos - film and (bleh) digital.

A wide view of the Metal stage, which every year is the only stage without a photopit, so to get shots for this stage I have to stand in the crowd with a telephoto.


Random hero tuning up before going on stage. With festivals like this, there are so many artists around there is no way you can know who everybody is.

Random backstage action.

Living the High Life.

Russian Circles KILLING it.

So far, this is my favorite shot from the festival. One of the dude's from Sugar and Gold.

Focus was a bit soft here, was literally running to another stage when I noticed this blind cat who was JAMMING on the side of the stage. Snapped a shot of him, then came back to the stage later to find he was the keyboardist and singer of the band Foot Patrol - who VM Black describes as "Austin’s favorite foot fetish funk group." Can hardly explain how amazing they were, will type more on them later.
PEACE to you all!

Fun

This is why I love film, there are things that can happen that are truly impossible to reproduce. Ultimately, this is a flawed photograph, my reel was a little wet which caused parts of the roll to stick to itself. But, to me it is beauty. This was a roll of Fuji Velvia 50, which I pushed to 100 and cross processed as C41 - developed by hand. Not sure what band this is, although I know that is Dr. Octagon's MC off to the right.
PEACE to you all!

Blur

I think I said this last year, and it certainly applies again, was it a dream? Am I already back in San Francisco, waking up in my own bed? Certainly I did not hit SXSW (music portion) as hard as I did last year, but still had a wonderful experience. Saw lots of good music, a ton of films, and made lots of images.
Let me start with the thank yous, Scott Gress you were a wonderful host, Gin and Meow Poww Media you rock, Marc Urselli always great to see you, and perhaps thank you most of all to Bettina and Eric at Austin Bikes. Really, lending me a bike totally made my trip and I am so very thankful. If you are in Austin and need a new ride, go to Austin Bikes, they are the best!!! Also, to all of you who I love and did not get to see (Jon, Todd, Duke, so many more), I was just so overextended that I was not able to see and do nearly 1/100th of what I wanted to, I love you all and will be back in Austin soon.
Tomorrow I am going to do a write up on all the films I saw, and the following day will do the same for music and post a few images. Was shooting exclusively film during music, so I need to go buy some new chemistry and develop/scan so I can post some images.

Keep Austin Wierd (and yuppy free).
PEACE to you all!

Coming Up

SXSW will be here with the quickness! I just got my shot list from the powers that be for Screenburn at Interactive. You can view my shot list sched here: http://sxsw2009.sched.org/rc_interactive_foto
I will also be putting together another sched of the Film and Music I will be catching, post that here in the next few days. One showcase I will NOT be missing is being put on by MeowPoww, Gin is arguably the hardest working girl in the industry:) Not to mention, Ume will be there and it is TOTALLY free.
PEACE to you all!

FFF in a nutshell

OK - here is a rundown of my Fun Fun Fun favorites.

Experimental Dental School, a rockin duo and an unexpected surprise. They just finished touring with Deerhunter if that is any indicator as to their coolness.
Dengue Fever, indie cambodian pop and nothing but goodness. I have been a fan of these guys for a long time and it was awesome to finally see them live.
Terp 2 It, yet another unexpected surprise. I don't even know what the hell was going on, but this guy had a whole crew of evangelists running through the crowd touting the word and praising the name of Terp 2 It.
...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead. Being a former Austinite, I can't believe I never saw these guys live. Aside from having the least photogenic frontman on the planet, it was a great set.
Doctor Octagon/Kool Kieth. I really don't dig the Kool kieth stuff, which comprised the first half of the set, but I (and the whole crowd) went nuts when he busted out with the Doc Oc material.
Minus the Bear, my runner up for best in show, what a killer set!
Deerhoof, HANDS DOWN best of the whole fest. Great mix of tunes with lots of stuff from my favorite record Runners Four. Totally blew my mind, also cool because Tim and Eric where standing next to me in the photographers pit.

Dust Bowl

A few snaps from backstage during the Black Angels set, still have lots of photos to go through and edit...



PEACE to you all!

F F F Fried....

Just got back late last night from Austin, where I was shooting the Fun Fun Fun fest, so good!

Anyways, lots of images to edit and deliver, for now here is a shot from onstage at Dr Octagon. Stay tuned for more FFF goodness.


PEACE to you all!

Behind the back

Fun Fun Fun next week, I can't wait. Here are a few snaps from last year, bands pictured: Ted Leo and the Pharmicists, Riverboat Gamblers, Explosions in the Sky.



PEACE to you all!

best of SXSW

well, i survived sxsw and now i shall tell the tale. i saw 50+ official showcases, countless street bands, attended several day parties and so much more. here is my rundown of the best of the best!

Best Japanese Act
Avengers in Sci Fi from Tokyo.

Best Surprise
This one is a toss up between street band 1 and street band 2.


Best Former RATM Member Solo Performance
Tom Morello!

Best Brit Band With a Wicked Long Name
Joe Lean and the Jing Jang jong

Sexiest Bassist That is Not Kim Gordon
Kamara from Earl Greyhound, and I love her.

Best Local Band That is Not White Denim
Grady

Only Band(s) Worth the Effort to See Twice
Another tie, this time between White Denim and Black Mountain.


Best In Show
Hands down, Thurston Moore and band. One encore just wasn't enough, the second time around Thurston had some help from the audience during his guitar solo which made me pee a little.


much love and appreciation to all those who made sxsw so wonderful

lush life austin/jules
meow poww media
the lovely magera moon
marc urselli
diego (and driego)
old friends
new friends

peace and love

my sxsw schedule

you can view my sxsw schedule here, http://sched.org/sxsw2008/ryan_chahanovich

this is only my band list and does not include the must attend parties (spin, iheartcomix, fader fort, vice saves texas...)


also, you have to check out the meow poww/skope magazine showcase on friday!!



peace!