Before going to sleep last night, I heard that another great loss in the music world had taken place.  As reported by Rolling Stone, singer/songwriter/producer, Mark Linkous (aka: Sparklehorse) took his own life yesterday (March 6th, 2010).  According to the magazine, this has been confirmed by the late-artist’s publicist and the following statements have been officially released by Linkous‘ family.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today,”

“We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There’s a heaven and there’s a star for you.”

I laid down with the assumption that I would wake up to endless posts and messages regarding Linkous‘ untimely death, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.  I generally wouldn’t put too much thought into reporting news such as this, but that’s not because I don’t feel that it’s important.  It’s usually because I don’t feel that it’s important for ME to report it, because sites swarm on to the stories of dead celebrities the way that buzzards swarm onto the bodies themselves.  They don’t even wait for them to get cold, “Breaking News is Breaking News!“  People will always get information like this, because it’s posted everywhere.  Today, however, I fear that the loss of  such a vital entity in the music world may risk being overshadowed by something as trivial and worthless as an award show.

(more…)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: dangermouse, dark night of the soul, david lynch, death, died, dnots, home coming queen, mark linkous, Music, overdose, producer, sad and beautiful world, sick of goodbyes, sparklehorse, suicide, the flaming lips, Video

David Lynch is best known as an Emmy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe nominated Writer/Director/Producer.  He is the creator of such films as The Elephant Man, Dune, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet , Wild At Heart, and Mulholland Dr., as well as of the television series Twin Peaks.  With such a prolific and influential career in film making, it’s easy to understand why any of his outside ventures may be over shadowed.  Last year Lynch made one such venture with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, in which the director provided vocal contributions to the Dark Night of the Soul album, as well as accompanying photographs for the project.  A subsequent gallery show of the photographs took place at Los Angeles‘ Michael Kohn gallery from May 30 – July 29 of 2009.

With the hype surrounding EMI‘s refusal to release the music for DNOTS, we posted an extensive two-piece article about the project.  Unfortunately however, we entirely overlooked the fact that Lynch had a completely unrelated gallery show  later in the year.  “David Lynch : New Paintings“, was held from at the William Griffin gallery in Santa Monica from Sept. 12th – Dec. 12th, 2009.  Although Lynch was actually a painter, prior to ever beginning his film career, this collection represents the first of Lynch‘s original paintings to be displayed in the United States in more than a decade.

Due to our past coverage of Lynch‘s art, we were contacted and offered the opportunity to premiere the following footage by DFL.TV (The David Lynch Foundation).  The video not only contains exclusive coverage of the gallery opening, but celebrity interviews as well.  Among those interviewed are actress, Laura Dern, award-winning film-maker, Roger Corman, and even Lynch himself. (more…)

Popularity: 2% [?]

Tags: art, brian rich, danger mouse, dark night of the soul, david lynch, dnots, Film, Gallery, griffin gallery, interview, laura dern, Martha Levacy, new paintings, Paintings, revenge, roger corman, santa monica, sparklehorse, Steve Cole, the flaming lips, Video

Tarantino, David Lynch, George Lucas, Kubrick, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Tim Burton.

You’re probably thinking at least 2 things right now: “Woah, these are pretty awesome!” and “No shit, asshole!  I figured out who they were, all by my-fucking-self.”

“Movie Directors” is part of an ongoing project called Very Important Pixels, created by Kristof Saelen, a Belgian designer and web developer.  The most remarkable thing about his work is the fact that, if you are up on your pop-culture, each character is so incredibly recognizable.  Saelen‘s work becomes more and more impressive to me, the more that I look at it.  The slight touch of his work is mind-blowing, especially considering that, if Kubrick’s eyes weren’t tweaked with that delicate splash of crazy just right, he could have easily come off as a young Francis Ford Coppola.

This is the most recent work (Sept. 7th) but, based on the dates that the various posts were made, it appears that the first group of images were of Michael Jackson, in various stages of his life. (more…)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: a-team, alfred Hitchcock, art, Crockett, Daniel Craig, David Hasselhoff, david lynch, directors, Film, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lazenby, George Lucas, graphic design, James Bond, Knight Rider, kristof saelen, macgyver, Magnum PI, Metallica, Miami Vice, michael jackson, mj, mr. t, Music, Pierce Brosnan, pixelation, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Dean Anderson, Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Timothy Dalton, tom selleck, TV, very important pixels

(To read Part 1, featuring the project backstory and MP3 links, click here)

{David Lynch. Untitled [Grim Augury #1], 2009. Digital print mounted on aluminum.
Edition 1 of 7. Courtesy Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles.}

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Premiere collaboration between groundbreaking music
artist Danger Mouse and luminary filmmaker David Lynch
On view at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles
May 30–July 11, 2009

(more…)

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tags: a camp, art, black francis, dark night of the soul, david lynch, dnots, Exhibit, frank black, grandaddy, gruff rhys, iggy pop, james mercer, jason lytle, julian casablancas, Los Angeles, mark linkous, michael kohn gallery, Music, nina persson, review, spakrlehorse, super furry animals, suzanne vega, the flaming lips, the strokes, vic chesnutt

(To read Part 2, featuring the Gallery exhibit/Book images, click here)

For those that have been following the construction, breakdown, and pseudo-resurrection of the Dark Night of the Soul collaboration between DJ Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous) and filmmaker David Lynch, we hope to provide some additional information about this chaotic project.  We’re even gonna throw a few links and tips your way about acquiring the tracks from the album and peeping out the original artwork.  For those that aren’t up on the craziness that DNOTS has become, we’re gonna start out by breaking it down for you like an X1 model Hyundai Excel.

Producer/artist Brian Joseph Burton (aka: Danger Mouse) hit the scene pretty tough when he dropped The Grey Album, back in 2004.  The album was comprised of mash-ups between tracks from Jay-Z’s The Black Album and The Beatles‘ White Album and EMI, copyright holder of The Beatles material used, lost their shit.  The EMI Group‘s attempts to halt the distribution actually helped to increase the project’s notoriety and demand, as well as that of the artist.  The Dark Night of the Soul project has entered into a similar realm, with Danger Mouse and EMI bumping heads yet again, but we’ll go into that later. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: a camp, art, black francis, dark night of the soul, david lynch, dnots, download, EMI, Exhibit, frank black, grandaddy, gruff rhys, iggy pop, james mercer, jason lytle, julian casablancas, Los Angeles, mark linkous, michael kohn gallery, mp3, mp3s, Music, nina persson, NPR, review, spakrlehorse, Stream, super furry animals, suzanne vega, the flaming lips, the strokes, vic chesnutt