Jeff Soto – Off The Wall

Super great, short video for Off The Wall, with Jeff Soto, by Friends We Love.

Doze Green’s OTW video was equally as motivating.

Yoko D’Holbachie

Yoko D’Holbachie‘s paintings are an uncomfortable combination of cute mammal parts stitched together with various unidentifiable insect… things. Her work has a bit of an obvious Japanese flare to it, but I don’t care because it’s all sort of creepy in an adventurously whimsical way. Make sure you click through to her site for much, much better examples of work.

Skinner X Vision

Still impressed and completely blown away by the recent Skinner show at White Walls, I’ve found myself equally excited for his collaboration with Vision Street Wear. Take a peek at some of the goodies he’s been working on for the classic skate brand as well as some behind the scenes type stuff.

The video below is super radical, so watch it too…

Nice work from the dudes at Vision.

Steve Harrington

Steve Harrington‘s work has always been a solid source for inspiration for me. Although we have entirely different aesthetics, I feel like there’s something extremely tactile about his illustrations that I appreciate. His prominent color palettes, bold line work and type treatments are a pretty brilliant combination. It makes me want to break out a pencil and start sketching right now.

Eskmo – Cloudlight

Eskmo‘s “Cloudlight” is an undoubtedly great follow up to the recently discovered Ninja Tune label mate, King Cannibal. Both artists stray outside of the expectant boundaries of the label’s catalog and climb into my possible favorites list for 2010.

For more information on Eskmo and his upcoming release — expected to drop October 4th — please check out his site.

Director: Dugan O’Neal
Director of Photography: David Myrick
Visual Effects and Motion Design: Brandon Hirzel (BEMO)
Producer: Jack Richardson
Still Photographer: Brice Matson

Luchador Collab-O-Mask Project

Peat Wollaeger‘s collaborative luchador mask project has popped up a lot in my personal bookmarks and on blogs since its creation a couple years back. I was pretty excited to find out that the show was here in SF, yet sort of sad I wasn’t around when it happened. You can see pics from the opening at OnSix Gallery and jump over to The StenSOUL Store to click through some of the masks still available for purchase.

For more pictures of the masks, check out Sean Hartman’s photostream on Flickr.

Pictured above: UPSO, Andy Howell, Robert Gimek and Meggs.

The 1st Annual Ball Busters Pinball Tournament

This Saturday at Guerrero Gallery, Rebel 8 and PBR are bringing you The 1st Annual Ball Busters Pinball Tournament to Benefit Keep a Breast. The benefit/pinball showdown will start at 6PM and go into wee hours of the night. Live painting from Mike Giant, music from Shane King and DJ Design. There will also be limited edition merch, food and refreshments available.

For additional information and to RSVP, click this link.

Jimmy Edgar

I’ve known about Jimmy Edgar for a couple years now — via a Hefty compilation album I picked up called, “History Is Bunk, Pt. 1″ — and have a couple of his full length albums. But it wasn’t until I recently picked up XXX that I found myself really appreciating his music to the extent I think it warrants. All of his releases have had a unique House/Electro sound, undoubtedly inspired by his Detroit roots; though XXX has a bit more of a charismatic future-funk quality that I think led me into being so struck. I think it’s safe to say, that it’s on par with the likes of one of my personal favorites of the year, Onra’s “Long Distance” as well as some of the goodies that Dam-Funk has dropped.

Make sure to check out Jimmy Edgar’s side project called Her Bad Habit as well… super good. You can find tracks on his site.

Sebastien Cuypers

Every time I come across Sebastien Cuypers‘s work I get all inspired to sit down and draw. It’s not something I do often anymore, so it’s great to find those little motivators and inspirational resources that make you kick things into “GO”. You can find more of Cuypi’s illustrations and type work on Behance and his blog.

Matt Mignanelli Sneak Peek

Celeste and I took a trip up to Nob Hill this afternoon, to grab a bite with Matt Mignanelli and chat about his show, Transformative Illuminations, opening this Friday at Medicine Agency. We dropped by just in time to see the pieces being unpacked and peek at everything up close, prior to being hung. His definitive use of bright colors and bold geometric shapes sort of had my itchy art eye twitching with visual stimulation. We hung out long enough to meet the Medicine crew and learn a little bit about what they’ve been up to and about their operation as well… we look forward to keeping up them and their work.

After nerding out on the unpacking of the art and spying on the early stages of getting the work hung, we took a walk to find a food spot and rap about living in NYC, the art world and his visit to San Francisco. Needless to say, he’s been working hard at getting ready for the show and is as excited as we are to see it all unfold this Friday.

Meet us there, this Friday for drinks and additional ocular stimulation from 8PM – 11PM.

Matt Mignanelli at Medicine Agency

Matt Mignanelli will be showcasing his latest collection of works entitled “Transformative Illuminations” this Friday at Medicine Agency in San Francisco. The show opens at 8PM and goes until 11.

McBess Interview

In a relatively short amount of time, Matthieu Bessudo (McBess) has taken the stage as a pretty influential figure in the illustration community for his unique style and rock infused, animated shorts. His work walks a thin line between a playful adventure and an anxiety packed, sexual encounter with unclassifiable, human-esque characters — all of which I enjoy. I recently had the chance to chat with McBess about some of his influences, distractions, upcoming projects, the power of collaboration and a grip of other things I’ve been itching to find out. Take a peek at what he had to say…

BWLT: Last I read, you were working at The Mill in London. Are you still there? If so, is there much overlap between the “job” and your personal work, stylistically or as far as projects and how you handle work flow?

McBess: I’m still working at The Mill as a director, so there’s an overlap because we’re trying to use my style for commercials but the result is usually pretty far from what I do, because clients are a bit worried about having too many tits in their images.

The interwebs are a huge distraction for me during the day, which is why I tend to work better in the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping… are there any sort of motivators or distractions that power your day?

I do spend a lot of time on the interwebs, chat with friends, watch series, I also work in Soho London so there’s a lot of shopping possibilities and good coffees around. Then there’s the band, so ya, I’ve got my fair share of distraction during the day but all those things inspire me to draw as well… guess it balances out.

Sometimes your work looks completely analog, whereas other times, it’s brought into Illustrator… do you have a preferred medium to work in?

I never use illustrator, I’m always trying to keep a analog look to my drawings. Most of them are inked in Photoshop which gives them this cold look. I’m trying to be as good with real ink, than with a computer, but I’m not there yet. I think the computer is my favorite medium, because I love the smoothness and the “control+z “.

Your skill set — music, illustration and animation — seems to be a perfect combination for doing animations and shorts… is that something we can expect to see more of? Are there any plans or interests in doing more or doing a full length of any sort?

Definitely, that’s all I want to do… spend more time mixing the two and make them grow bigger. A year ago I was drawing an imaginary band and was recording on the side for some tracks to go along with, now the band exists for real and we’re working on some new music videos, albums … It opened a door to a lot of things to be done and I still want to be lazy most of the time.

Your band, The Dead Pirates, has a pretty distinct sound that I feel reflects a similar emotion as some of your art. Is one a product of the other, or do you feel they feed each off other?

Oh ya, they feed each other, like a 69, for instance we’ve been changing a lot of things in the band to get more of a warm sound and match some of the illustrations. We’ve changed one of the two guitars to an old keyboard from the 60s / 70s, and the mood that comes out this, makes new ideas for new drawings.

Are there any bands that you’re really into lately, or that you’d like to play with?

Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Spoon, Phoenix, Whitest Boy Alive, TV On The Radio, Tame Impala … and I don’t think the band is ready to play with any of these. hahah… but who knows in a year or two …

Collaboration is something I try to embrace in everything I do. How do you feel about collaboration, musically and visually?

I love doing it, always comes out a bit richer, gives me new horizons. I find it easier musically because music is on the instant and it’s very much a game that you play with other people, but it works well with images, it’s just a different rhythm.

I’ve always liked the idea of an art show being more of a whole experience, with music being a driver for the theme. Would you ever consider making a soundtrack or having a band play at one of your openings

Oh ya, I’d love to. I’m really not keen on the white walls with a few canvas and some paint here and there. I don’t like the gallery mood, I would love to do a big show that would require a month of preparation… you’d feel like going in a sexy and dark Disneyland.

What sort of shows, projects or events are coming up?

I’ve got and iPad app coming out that’s mixing music and illustrations which should be really cool. It’ s a pack for the Granimator app. I’ve got a show in Chicago next year, and a few big illustrations on the cooker and there’s the band that’s preparing for a few dates in London.

Any last words or plugs?

meat.

*To stay tuned in on all the latest McBess related info, and wrap your eyeballs around a slew of illustrations please check out his site. Make sure to hit up the McStore as well. Lots of tasty treats in there.

SKINNER at White Walls Tomorrow Night!!

I can honestly say that I haven’t been this excited for an upcoming show in a long, long time! The more that I read or watch about Skinner, the more intrigued and totally hoodwinked I am, by what to expect. I know it’s gonna be a great show just by the way he talks about his pieces and the terms he uses… so fantastical.

Skinner’s opening reception is this Saturday at White Walls Gallery alongside Ferris Plock at the conjoined Shooting Gallery.

McBess Timelapse

Just a little something to hold you over for now… more on McBess soon.

Ms Dynamite – “What you talking about!?”

I just came across the video for Ms Dynamite‘s new track “What you talking about!?”. It’s been almost eight years since I’ve heard anything from this London emcee, who actually used to be a bit more of an R&B vocalist. Her new grime/dubstep feel is sort of catchy and relieving all at the same time.

The track (alongside album?) is set to drop the end of this month and is doing a show with Redlight, Hatcha and Cyantific at Fabriclive on the 20th of August.