Full Disclosure

A screenshot of my workspace - busy day today, 3 shoots and started working on my first documentary.
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!

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!

Welcome back, Zach!

I have been waiting for this day for a long time, and finally it has come. Mr Zach de le Rocha is back in full force, and with good company. One Day As A Lion is the the result of the collaboration between two of my favorite musicians in the world, Zach (Rage Against the Machine, DUH!) and Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta). Zach lays it down on vocals and keyboard while Jon kills it on the kit. The drum grooves seem deceptively simple at first, kick snare hat style, but as the song (Wild International) progresses Jon flashes his brilliance with some killer fills that are lightning fast and ferociously tight, so good!

Just hearing Zach's voice again takes me back to my formative early teen years stuck in suburban hell. His ferocity, flow, and poetic brilliance opened my eyes to the struggles of the world's peoples and helped break me out my protected little world-view.

Aside from being one of my dream duo's, they also got their name from an iconic black and white photo - how cool is that? This from their website:

“The name taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights. It reads: ‘It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.’ This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound.”

Well said. Now - go to their myspace page and listen to Wild International!

Photo credit unknown... :(

PEACE to you all.

Review: Melvins

Nude With Boots just came out yesterday and what can I say other than go out and get it now! This is the Melvins doing exactly what they do best - badass stoner rock riffage. With the boys from Big Business holding down the rhythm section, how can you go wrong? Speaking of Big Business, they have a new record in the works and have added a guitarist, but that is a story for another day.

Anyways, enough blabbing - go out and buy this record!

Highlights: Pretty much everything although Dog Island, The Smiling Cobra, and The Kicking Machine stand out.
Lowlights: Suicide In Progress, The Stupid Creep.

PEACE! to you all.

Say it ain't so...

Austinites - Waterloo video is closing!

Story here.

A sad day indeed, stay strong I Love Video and Vulcan - we need you! Fuck Netflix, patronize local business.

PEACE! to you all!

Binge and Splurge.

OK, my last post about record shops - Amoeba in particular may have come off a bit cynical, for that I apologize. I have been to Amoeba 3 times in 3 days and bought quite a bit! Here is my running list:

Melvins - Nude With Boots (Came out today, AWESOME!)
Russian Circles - Station
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Black Mountain - Self Titled
The Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
King Khan and the Shrines - The Supreme Genius of
Jay Reatard - Singles 06/07, +DVD
Black Angels - Directions to See a Ghost

I think that is it, all the new freshy stuff I will review - Silver Jews, Jay Reatard, Melvins, King Khan. I am going to go broke living so damn close to that place.

PEACE to you all!

Co-Operative Recordings

Well, over the last month I have been working with four of my favorite people on a very special project, Co-Operative Recordings. We have some revolutionary thoughts on the future of the music business and what role small independent labels play in supporting artists.

Our business model is predicated upon Kevin Kelly's article entitled 1,000 true fans, which I thoroughly recommend any creative individual read. We will be printing limited hand numbered vinyl's for each of our artist's releases in addition to digital downloads.

We have a lot of great ideas in the works, and since we believe the future of any good business is transparency, we are already blogging about the process of starting a label - and we are well over 6-8 months away from being launched!

Keep in mind the blog is in an infantile state, but there is some content already up. Check out the CO-OP / REC blog.

PEACE!

Portraiture

For a limited time I am going to be doing gratis portraiture in the metro Austin area. I need to bolster my protfolio a bit and exercise some of the wild ideas running around in my head.

If you are an artist, individual or band who is interested please contact me, ryan.chahanovich@gmail.com.

Here is a shot of the lovely Magera Moon...

peace and love!

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

facelift

just in time for SXSW i have given my website a facelift.

check it out at ryanchahanovich.com!


peace!

48 hours in the life

what?!?! the weekend is over, when did that happen?

bands, bikes, designers, artists, cocktails, people, video shoots, flying kites, sleeping in and a pair of brunches. all of this and still not enough time in the day.

zilker kite festival

hot pink pistol, hope perkins
scorpion child
household names
special thanks to lush life, check out the ll myspace page and be on the lookout for the upcoming launch of the site.

peace!

lushlifeaustin.com

looks like the site is going to be launching next wednesday with a video trailer. last night i shot the household names at trophys and the mock tigers at beauty bar.

for now check out the lush life myspace page at and enjoy this shot of the mock tigers!


peace!

surprise!

i arrived in hawaii this afternoon for a bit of a last minute trip. my father's 50th birthday is coming up, so i flew out to surprise him. i will be here 10 days, LOTS of photos to come...

the old pali highway...
mi madre at dinner...
honolulu harbor...

peace!

behind the scenes

as i mentioned in a previous post i just started working on a new project (Lush Life), a website about whats hot in austin - music, food, events, and so much more. we spent nearly all day yesterday working our way up and down south congress shooting at various locations for the trailer. the site will be launched during SXSW, so i will have a lot more information soon.

here are a few shots from the day.





peace!

new gallery exhibit

ryanchahanovich.com

to view the new exhibit, click on gallery. remember that 100% of the proceeds of purchased prints go towards educating a child in the third world.



peace!

your vote counts!

it's election season - and I am not talking the primaries here. how about making your vote ACTUALLY count for something. as part of the alamo's filmmaking frenzy scott and i whipped together a version of an inconvenient truth. please go to the website and vote, PLEASE!

yes that is me in the polar bear suit gallavanting through downtown.

watch the video and vote here!

lush life and SFA

i just started shooting for an exciting new project called lush life. stay tuned for a lot more information on the project, as we will be making our big debut for SXSW. we did however do a first run last night with a video interview with the front man of the super furry animals followed up by a few shots from the sold out show!

on the technical side of things, emos has to be one of the hardest places in town to shoot. they use these static and very harsh red gels on their lights - i was shooting wide open (2.8) at 1600 iso. it is sort of an unwritten rule that you don't use flash at live shows, which didn't help my situation much. i converted the live shots to black and white, since colors display as tones the red actually works well in black and white.





peace!

sltm, tomorrow

tomorrow night at emos - silent land time machine.

be there!



peace!

brand new

once again i have overhauled my personal site, ryanchahanovich.com. the format change is designed to highlight my professional history as well as showcasing my photo portfolio.

the gallery space is still up, remember for every two prints purchased a child in a developing country gets one revolutionary laptop.

ryanchahanovich.com

peace!