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!

JC Wears Shades

Have been working hard the past few weeks preparing for yesterday/lastnight's very special live recording. At the moment not at liberty to discuss the details of the project, but can say it was held at a VERY cool converted Pentacostal church and featured more artists and instruments than I could count on two hands.
The performance space.
JC is too cool.
Remarc makin' deals.
My corner of the world.
PEACE to you all!

Busy busy!

Been locked in the studio lately and have had little time to transmit digitally. Currently producing a VERY rad new artist and also preparing for a very large and unique live CD recording coming up this weekend. Been so busy in the studio, haven't even had time to hook up all the new toys seen below...

M O S

Mates of State
Chromogenic Print
1/3, Artist Test Print
Registration is misaligned, but can be cut down.
$100 UPDATE: This print has been sold and is no longer available.
ryan.chahanovich@gmail.com
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!

Animal Collective - My girls

Rad video, beautiful song.

Animal Collective "My Girls" from Chad von Nau on Vimeo.PEACE to you all!

Tis the season

...for the best of the year lists, blah blah. Instead of compiling a list myself, here are my top 35 iTunes plays.

PEACE to you all!

Brilliant

OK, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof is totally from another planet. So good.

Deerhoof Live Show and Q&A, July 27, 2008 from Anthem Magazine on Vimeo.PEACE to you all!

F F F Film

This is what happens when you develop an expired roll of film in bad chemistry...
The National.



PEACE to you all!

Top tier

Seems a little early for an album of the year list I know, but the elite Rough Trade records must be looking to scoop everyone else by releaseing their top 50 list first. Two Austin bands made the top 15 - guess who?

Surprise, surprise - White Denim and the Black Angels! White Denim came in at number 4 (!) and the Angels placed at number 12. Scope the whole list here.

A shot of Christian Bland of the Black Angels during F(x3).
PEACE to you all!

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!

Trifecta

Last night Austin came to SF in the form of Roky Erickson and the Black Angels, playing two nights at the Great American. The Angels played a set on their own, then came back out to back Roky.

Just watching Roky's mannerisms you can tell he is from another planet. This from his Wiki page, "In an unmedicated state, Erickson began a years-long obsession with the mail, often spending hours poring over random junk mail, writing to solicitors and celebrities (dead or living). He was arrested in 1989 on charges of mail theft. Erickson picked up mail from neighbors who had moved and taped it to the walls of his room." Roky has been to the edge, and he never came back. However, it is quite miraculous that he can get in front of a crowd and play music.



The picture below was taking by Stephanie Chernikowski, rock and roll photographer extrodenaire and sister of my favorite person, Sandy Chernikowski.



PEACE to you all!

Straight out of Iran

The band Hypernova, now based out of NYC actually hails from Iran. Here is a great quote from a recent Wired interview:

"We came to the U.S. to show the world know that rock 'n' roll has no boundaries. The kids back home in Iran enjoy the same things that American kids enjoy. We are all one and in this cosmic mess together. We hope that our music can help bridge the cultural divide that exists between our respective nations. Music really does transcend all barriers." Well said.

Wired Story.
Hypernova Myspace.

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!

MF'in White Denim!

There are so few bands that give me goosebumps anymore, White Denim are one of those bands. They have finally released their first full length, Exposion, which you can buy DIRECTLY from the band at whitedenimmusic.com. This just may be my album of the year.

Here is the video for the tune Shake, Shake, Shake along with a few image comps of the band, shot at SXSW and Fun Fun Fun.


WHITE DENIM - Shake Shake Shake from ACIDBIRD on Vimeo.



PEACE to you all!

KTU

The name is certainly a fitting title for these guys, as they generate a sound that is mountainous and awe inspiring. KTU is made up of heavyweight musicians Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson, XTC), Trey Gunn (King Crimson, John Paul Jones), and the Finnish virtuoso accordionist extraordinaire Kimmo Pohjonen.

Check out this vid of KTU tearing it up with their tune Absinth live in Sines, Portugal. You may notice a fourth member in the video, that is Sammuli. He is unfortunately no longer with the band, but is playing full time with the band Müm.



At about four minutes Trey kicks into a pretty incredible solo on his Warr guitar (touch sensitive guitar/bass), but if you notice the bass line is still going. Pat, while on drums has a loop of Trey's bass line loaded into a sampler which he fires off on the downbeat. Man, it blows my mind how good these guys are!

Unfortunately KTU have only done about 6 shows in the states, and I am not sure if they have plans for more in the future. They are working on an album now, and hopefully an international tour to follow. In the meantime, go pickup their live album from Amazon and prepare to be blown away...

PEACE to you all!

Controllerism by Moldover

So, last night I dusted the cobwebs of my digital camera (that can almost be taken literally) and went down to the DNA Lounge for the bi-monthly BOOTIE SF mashup party. Not normally my bag I know, but I was shooting a very interesting DJ. You have heard of turntablism? Well, Moldover is all about Controllerism. He uses hacked controllers to digitally mash up and mix tracks live and on the fly. Really cool shit I must say, and he was awesome - lightning fast hands.

Here is a rad little clip MTV produced for Moldover called the How To Show on how to build your own hacked controller, followed by a few shots from last nights gig at BOOTIE.







PEACE to you all!

Sheet music.

As if Deerhoof wasn't cool enough, check this out.



A rad live clip.



PEACE to you all!