Foals - Antidotes

I already know "Red Socks Pugie," a song off the Foals album, Antidotes, is going to be in my top 10 songs of 2008. This album is an evolved sound that kinda started in the early 2000s with groups like Les Savy Fav, Liars, Hot Hot Heat, and Red Light Sting. Antidotes, however, sounds more skilled and precise. Antidotes makes me want...no no, need to move. The past week I've been riding my buses around SF and probably looking like a retard cause I can't sit still. My legs can't not move. I know this album has been circulating through the blogs, but for you guys that missed it, check this out, and if you like, go buy it please. I would say that if your up here in SF go see them on May 22. But I won't. Because I know it won't be any fun since they're playing at Popscene. Shows at Popscene are like "Hey let's see how many indie kids we can fit into a space the size of my apartment, then have Foals play and see how stupid they all look cause they can't move, but need to move because the music is so good."...or something like that. I realize Foals has a mean reputation for house shows and even freakin' bedroom shows, but I'd rather they feel my energy when it's not being suffocated by all the skinny legs-in-skinny jeans at a Popscene show. So, DL the album, and like I said, go buy it if you like it. They're playing down in SD too.

Foals, Antidoes

(US) Sub Pop, 2008

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Babasonicos - Mucho, 2008

Every once in a while I hear some good Rock En Espanol. I'm not exposed to it as much as I'd like to be so when I hear something good, I get hooked on it for a while. I thought I'd post this album even though the quality of this makes it sound like it was recorded in the 80s with Soda Stereo or something. But maybe it kinda adds to the overall feel of it. Take it or leave it, I think the album is worth listening to regardless of the quality. Maybe it'll make you go buy it if you like it. Better yet, for those of you who are down in San Diego, Babasonicos is playing on May 28 and in Tijuana in the same week. Babasonicos is from Buenos Aires and are pretty straight forward. They play the same instruments as everyone else, have catchy hooks, vocally sound pretty similar to other bands...you get the idea. But the thing is, it sounds totally fresh to me. They give me that same feeling that The Stills gave me in 2003 even though there were bands in the few years prior that had similar formulas. Babasonicos have been around since the early 1990s, but this is the first album I've heard. Damn am I late on this one. The album's got me enough to where I think I'm going to listen to the earlier albums and enough to wish they were playing up here in SF, cause I'd definitely go. If any wants to recommend some similar sounds, please do.

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Yuri's Night April 12th, 2008

What the F is Yuri’s Night!?

I know, I know. This was only it’s 2nd year as a large scale event here in the Bay Area. Basically what it is, is a celebration for science, particularly issues dealing with new technologies, the history and future, and our current relationship with, outer space. The idea began by paying homage Yuri Gagarin. “Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space on April 12th, 1961. The US Space Shuttle first launched on April 12th, 1981. Yuri's Night is like the St Patricks Day or Cinco de Mayo for space. It is one day when all the world can come together and celebrate the power and beauty of space and what it means for each of us” -http://www.yurisnight.net/2008/. When you think about it, that’s a pretty amazing feat. I would say “hell fuckin yeah I’ll be the first member of our species, in the history of our species on Earth, to go into outer space!” I’d probably piss my pants just from the idea that I am ONE human amidst the uncountable humans that have lived since the beginning of the modern human 200000 years ago, to leave this planet. Think about it!
So Yuri’s Night is held on April 12th and is over 90 parties held in over 30 countries around the world. Check this out to get an idea. Here in the Bay Area, we’re lucky enough to have the biggest and best party. Some places throw their parties in a local bar, in the university Science Club meeting room, or in some dude’s basement. But here! We get to go to the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. The event is 2pm to 2am and is held in a huge NASA hangar. This year some good people played like Tipper, Lusine, Tycho, Amon Tobin. At a quick glance the event might look like a Burningman but for science and electronic music lovers. There are plenty of science hippies there, but there are also many people just plain into science and good music…you know like Junia and I. So getting to my point.
This year I had the opportunity to create two works for Yuri’s Night. This came about because I ran into a friend who happened to be this year’s art curator. I offered vinyl signage or help and he asked me to do an installation for some wall space in a VIP tent. Awesome. I had 2 days to get back to him with one and when I did they approved it and asked if I could do another one. Hell yes! So here are my two pieces.




“Where is the Science?” is on 72x48 canvas. (following is very informal writing and probably has tons of grammatical errors.) There is a little boy, dreaming about himself, dreaming about scientific issues and ideas VERY relevant to today and our future. This A to B to C is there to create a disconnection. The idea is that our education and youth are still very disconnected to these ideas.
Let me tell you what those scientific ideas are, starting with the top left:

"Helloooo Kyotooo": This is in reference to the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. As of December 2007, the US and Kazakhstan are the only signatory nations not to have ratified the act. WEAK! we suck!

"Big bang big crunch big mac attack!" This one is just a playful juxtaposition. The big bang, most people know about. The Big Crunch is a theory of what happened before the big bang...or if you want to put it, what will happen when all the universes finally collapse...which would then cause another Big Bang...etc etc. BUT! do people even know about these theories? I'm sure many people might just read "Big Mac Attack!" and laugh it off. I like the idea of a huge astronomical idea being lost by our obsession with fast food.

"Where is the ScienceDebate2008?" This one is super relevant. It’s basically a call....a plea!... to the 2008 presidential Candidates to have a scientific debate.. something they are all afraid to do. But as we can see, with all these important issues, the public needs to get in on scientific issues. Let’s hope Hillary and Obama have the huevos.

"hamburger with "Invincible Defense Technology".. IDT, is not really a technology. It's basically a form of yoga. BUT, theoretically if practiced in large groups or communities, the theory is that it decreases crime and murder, etc etc. I guess there are supposed to be some military training on this sometime this year. It's very interesting. People bounce around sitting yoga-style-legs-crossed, but all together. They say if 1% of the population in an area does it, great things can happen.

"Large Hadron Collider" This is a new physics instrument that is supposed to be used this year! after using it, it might have profound affects on the theories of the Big Bang and how our Universe began. ... those wired tubes you see are worm holes which are related to talks of the expanding universe.

"Moon 2008, 2050" This is a play on the ideas of space travel and it's relationship with Defense in the US. Check this out.. Robert Walker, a former congressman and a member of the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy said "Having a U.S. presence on the moon at least gives us the chance to keep an eye on the standard of conduct," Walker says. "And that's pretty damned important. In military terms, the moon can be seen as the ultimate high ground. A nation could set up hard-to-defeat microwave or laser weapons platforms aimed at in-orbit satellites or, in the best sci-fi tradition, to launch large rocks at the Earth with "mass drivers”.... INSANE.

"Robots and Earth as Art" This is my dive into science and art. This one is more based on my feelings toward how the masses view science and the awesome awesome awesome universe we live in. People believe because you don't believe in GOD or religion that you can't appreciate who and where we are. I feel it's the complete OPPOSITE. How can you appreciate the crazy wonders in our universe if you give one idea credit for the reality that we live in and then shut them out by not exploring and questioning the mind-blowing ideas that arise in our lives. Also, I feel it brings the whole piece together in it's purpose. Art is my means to get these questions out to people who might not normally see them.

"Use the Matrix" This one is a Stem Cell Research reference. There is this new miracle powder called "The Extrocellular Matrix" that they are going to start testing this year on Troops coming home who have lost limbs. One man used it on his finger after losing an inch of it by a blade, after like 4 weeks, his finger grew back.. Stem Cells are the damn future of medicine.

"the Lambs" This is a little reference to another artist piece. Aaron Koblin used the internet and Amazon's new Mechanical Turk to get 10000 "sheep facing left" drawn by people around the world. This new internet phenomenon shows the power of connectivity. People got paid 2 cents per sheep drawing. Corporations will use this thing for MASSIVE information and data cases.

"Pluto and Eris" This refers to the debate over "What is a Planet?" Pluto was all fine and dandy, then comes along bigger Eris (Xena was the original name wanted by Michael Brown, discoverer). Pluto in the end, was demoted as a planet and is now a Dwarf Planet along with Eris. This is important because we will keep finding "planets" or just things larger than Pluto beyond it's orbit and it's important we know what to do with them...so to speak.

"Science does not know it's debt to imagination" a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This ties everything together.. I mean, this little boy could just have some crazy imagination and is dreaming up all this stuff. Science does not push forward when there is no imagination and each of those ideas drawn are perfect examples.




”I Get My Energy From Somewhere Else” is vinyl on 34x34 plywood. Whenever I think about “the energy crisis” and global warming, I immediately start thinking about our children. What do they think of all this? If most of the adults in this country don’t see the seriousness in an issue like this, what about these kids? If everyone put, like, just ONE hour of their life into reading about what might happen in our own life time due to global warming, I think things would change real quick. Kids aren’t like that though. They get their energy from somewhere else. They don’t need us to point a gun to their head and say “YOUR CITIES WILL BE UNDER WATER IN LESS THAN 50 YEARS!” They get their energy from somewhere else.

Thanks to Laughing Squid for some of these pics below

Ultimate nerd alert

Alright everyone. So, Andres is a gamer. Well, I’m definitely not as bad as I used to be (thank J for that), but I still keep up with video game news and releases. Your probably like “ahhh Andres, you’re a nerd!” and I’m probably “Fuck off! Have some balls and be one too!”
I know most of you…maybe all of you, aren’t into video games, but I’m going to write about some none-the-less. Apart from being completely blown away by 2007’s Bioshock,

I’ve finally started, (and by started I mean put in only about 20 hours) the game Mass Effect.


Some of you may have seen or heard the whole “Lesbian sex- Fox news scandal” with this game. Ridiculous. Some self-help writer said this game had porn and should be pulled from shelves blahblahblah. Thing is, she never played it. She heard about some kind of sex scene and Fox news blew it up…go fig. The sex scene is less than what you’d see on a primetime Fox tv show so I don’t know what they be bitching about. But, this game IS for adults. I mean, even if there was a porno sex scene, kids wouldn’t make it .5 of the way there to see it. They’d be bored out of their freakin minds.
But this isn’t why I’m writing about this game.
This has to be one of best sci-fi experiences I’ve ever had. This game isn’t a game. This is a fuckin interactive novel. There’s more reading in this game than the past few novels I’ve read this year. Junia walks by and keeps asking “what the hell are you playing? Your not even playing anything…” And she’s right. For every hour of play there only like 5-10 minutes of space-gunner-blaster-lazer action. But people! That’s the beauty of video games today! This is an art-medium! Just like a well written novel or directed movie, video games are SEE REE US.
You play a space marine a number of years after humans have colonized near-by space. We’ve already been in one war against our first alien contact and now we’ve joined the galactic community of space-faring races. Keep in mind that all technology, races, dates, military and governments…EVERYTHING, is explained in-depth and completely believable. They put serious technological, physical, astrophysical, biological, etcetc, research time in. So the story goes, I’m a marine, but my character, my personality, is entirely up to me by way of choosing the way I converse with other characters in the game. After about 20 hours of playing you start to see the effects of whether you were a dick or a nice guy up to that point.
Anyways! This game is so awesome because it completely re-enforces the fact that our galaxy, especially our Earth, are just tiny pebbles in a river of rocks. This game makes me think about our place and our future here on Earth. It also makes me think about how awesome video games are. So go try a few if you haven’t in a while. They aren’t really for kids anymore you know.

FIRST POST! EVERRRRR!

I'm not really sure why I'm choosing this as my first blog, but I'm in a good state right now with this on and felt like you guys might like this. But first, let me just say, I'm not a music critic nor do I really aspire to be one. 

Music: This is what I'm listening to right now.. 1:35AM. Just started my blog and this is exactly what's playing. This album, for the past few weeks, has been my "I'm-up-late-and-need-to-play-something-good-but-calm-and-beautiful-and-let-me-shut-my-eyes-not-cause-I'm-tired-but-cause-the-music-sucks-my-eyelids-closed-because-it's-so-good" album. This is definitely something you can relax too. 

This Balmorhea's Rivers Arms (Western Vinyl, Feb. 2008)

 This is music without percussion, without a lot of layers, and without a lot of complex instruments. This is piano, violin, guitar. Maybe a few other timbres, but it consistently stays minimal and beautiful. This is what I need to be listening to when I'm peacefully walking half-pace, alone, and in the middle of a wilderness 1,000 miles long, not worried about a single single single thing. I'm not going into this much further, but if you like minimal and hints of classical and music that makes your head just sort of sway with piano keys, then listen to this. you can DL the album on my link below. 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/rentg2

so this is the internets?

So here I am. Finally. Sorta. I'm not totally here yet. But here I am. I've finally decided to start one of these blogs. Junia and I were talking and she convinced me (don't tell her that). But she was right. I love to share things with other people and I love to take in what other people share with me. It's a great cycle to allow yourself to be in...always. I feel like this is what makes me a good person. At the root of all things that is me and what I strive to be, someone who can always appreciate new things shared and discovered and then can't wait for others to be apart of that new connection... That to me is a sign of a good person. And..AND.. these new connections between people aren't there for "cool points" or for personal acclaim. These drives to share and receive need to be honest and need to demonstrate the love of things. Cause that's what I got! I got the love of things!

This blog is going to be that. Music.Design.Art.etcetetc. things I feel others might appreciate. I might not post every day, but when I do post, be sure it'll be something worth posting about.