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directorcommentary | jasonbentley.org

Jason Bentley, Santa Clara, California: writing, photography, graphic design, music, audio, video, technology, life

December 5, 2004

Superhot, ultracool Ice Weasels music exclusive!

The Ice Weasels, San Francisco's own indie pop titans, have released another single in their "A year in the life of the Ice Weasels" series! "November," in addition to cover art by yours truly, features the supercool single "Royalty-Free Birthday Song." You can download it here for free!

I've arranged to do a remix of the song (it'll be my first remix in a while), and so yesterday Robey set me up with the tracks. Buried in the single mix of RFBS is a beautiful track of synthesized strings, that while a bit out of tune with the rest of the song, by itself makes for a dreamy and melancholy adagio reminiscent of Phillip Glass or Angelo Badalamenti. After fooling with various levels of reverb and room tones, I finally settled on something that I think is really pretty. The actual remix is in the works, but in the meantime, I'm happy to present the RFBS string adagio here, as a tasty exclusive Ice Weasels hors d'oeuvre! It's boss!

The Ice Weasels
"Royalty Free Birthday Song (Adagio)"



Download

jb | | # |  

Gwen Stefani turns me on

Gwen Stefani is obsessed with Japanese Harajuku kids, if her new CD is to be believed. She goes on about them quite a bit. I'd no idea what she was talking about - since Gary and I stopped dating a few years ago, my J-culture radar has withered on the vine (though if you haven't seen the Japanese TV phenemenon Hey! Spring of Trivia, you should totally check it out Thursdays on Spike TV).

It's easy to see why: Harajuku, named for it's stop on the train, is a section of Tokyo where ultratrendy kids go to see and be seen. Now, when I say trendy, I'm not talking Ugg Boots and Old Navy cotton fleece. These kids use fashion and facepaint as some kind of subcultural performance art. Everybody look like a Björk CD cover. There's elements of kabuki, anime, American hip-hop, British punk, Italian fashion, goth... There isn't a single neighborhood in New York that approaches this. Check out these pictures.

It probably really feels like 2005 there. Domo origato, Gwen!

2005. Gawd.


jb | | # |