Jandek with Mike Watt and BJ Miller
Crystal Cove Auditorium – Irvine, CA
1/8/11

Not a lot is known about the reclusive outsider artist Sterling Richard Smith, who records and performs his music under the alias “Jandek.” Over 32 years, Smith has worked in guarded secrecy, putting out music that is at turns beautiful and frightening, engaging and challenging. The resulting 50+ records of his career explore atonal and confounding territory, music that vaguely resembles what might be called blues and folk, but variations of which that are likely to startle the uninitiated listener. →

The Troubadour, West Hollywood
Live Review: 11/24/10

It was a cold Wednesday night on the eve of Thanksgiving, yet I couldn’t turn down the allure of having my face melted off by Phathom. The four-piece band, hailing from Silverlake, features lead vocalist Matt Sikora and lead guitarist Jason Zielonka, bassist Yannick D’assignies and Anton Tilgren on drums. →

Neon Indian has released a creepy new music video for the song “Mind, Drips.” →

Incase is pleased to announce the launch of its third episode of Room 205 featuring Puro Instinct. →

“Melt Down” is the latest exhibition at Project Space featuring a large-scale installation by artist Andrew Schoultz. →

Curren$y
DD172
(2010)

There’s been a lot of talk about Kanye West and his latest record, much of it well-deserved given his position in pop culture as the preeminent fashion rap star. Yet for all public adoration of rappers like West and Weezy, there are rappers like Curren$y who are carving out a niche of their own. →

Henry Jacobs’ “The Fine Art Of Goofing Off” and Other Wide Weirdness!
The Cinefamily – Los Angeles, CA
12/14/10

The Cinefamily, Arthur Magazine and dublab present a special event honoring the work of television and audio pioneer Henry Jacobs. The inventor of surround sound and a large body of video and audio work, Jacobs created a half-hour series of television programming called The Fine Art of Goofing Off, described as “Sesame Street’s psychedelic, philosophical cousin.” →

Representation/Abstraction in Korean Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York, NY
11/23/10 to 3/27/11

This special installation brings together objects and paintings from different periods of Korean art history, whose pairings and juxtapositions highlight the beauty, power, and emotional resonance of both representation and abstraction. Some works offer recognizable portrayals of a given subject filtered through artistic interpretation. Others, because of their distilled form, color, or design, might be characterized as abstractions. Still others are eloquently expressionist renderings that are open to layered translations. Many of the works on view might straddle the two opposing yet overlapping categories. →

Flux Screening Series
Hammer Museum – Los Angeles, CA
12/15/10

Tomorrow, special guests the Neistat Brothers, Vincent Haycock, Angela + Ithyle and Sophie Gateau will join the Hammer Museum for its quarterly screening of innovative short films and music videos. Spike Jonze’s latest video for the Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” (starring Win and Regine as Texas cops) and Geoff McFetridge’s animated video for OK Go’s “Last Leaf” will also be included in the screening. Guests will be on-stage for a Q&A session following each viewing. Free admission, RSVP suggested. →

Austin Saya is a filmmaker and a recent Los Angeles transplant by way of Savannah, Georgia. His latest directorial project with Blue Sky Black Death is their video “Heart Attack” featuring Alexander which debuts today. We hope you enjoy the visuals.