Luaka Bop is a world music-oriented record label established by David Byrne, former guitarist, singer-songwriter and producer of the art rock-new wave band Talking Heads. It has been a wholly independent label since leaving Universal Music Group’s V2 in 2006. Luaka Bop has been responsible for compilations representing sounds from around the world as well as the release of full length albums, EPs, and singles from individual artists and bands.
‘Brazil Classics’ kicked off the label and a set of seven albums surveying eras and artists ranging from Samba to Tropicália. Ventures into Afro-Peruvian and AfroPean musics unearthed the talents of Susana Baca and Zap Mama, respectively. ‘World Psychedelic Classics’ is made up of three albums and includes artists such as Shuggie Otis, Os Mutantes, as well as West African artists of the late 1960s. Additionally, the label has released ‘Cuba’ and ‘Asia Classics.’
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Luaka Bop
Sun
Sun is the ninth studio album by American musician Cat Power, released in 2012. Her first album of all-original material since 2006’s ‘The Greatest.’
Work on the album initially began soon after the release of ‘The Greatest,’ with Marshall announcing the album’s title as far back as 2006 in an interview with ‘The New York Times,’ where she also claimed that the entire album had already been written.
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America
America is a 2012 studio album by American electronic musician Dan Deacon. The album cover is a photo of Lake Placid. America was recorded using both electronic sounds and live recordings.
An anechoic (echo-free) chamber was built in Baltimore to record the orchestral track ‘Rail.’ Deacon felt that electronic beats were limited by a lack of flaws; he said that he wanted the ‘slight imperfection in timing’ human musicians have.
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Gangnam Style
‘Gangnam Style‘ is a 2012 K-pop single by the South Korean rapper PSY. ‘Gangnam Style’ is widely praised for its humor, catchy rhythm as well as Psy’s unusual dance moves that have introduced many people to K-pop (South Korean pop music). ‘Gangnam Style’ is a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district, an affluent and trendy area of Seoul. The music video depicts Psy dancing at various locations in Gangnam.
The song is about ‘the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild.’ The music video shows PSY dancing a comical horse-riding dance and appearing in unexpected locations around Gangnam such as an outdoor yoga session and a hot tub. The ‘skewering [of] the Gangnam image’ by the ‘non-Gangnam PSY’ is recognizable to Korean viewers, but those less familiar with the cultural context have found the video ‘fresh’ amidst the teen pop idol groups increasingly popular with overseas viewers.
Paul Bacon
Paul Bacon (b. 1923), is an American book and album cover designer and jazz musician. He is known for introducing the ‘Big Book Look’ in book jacket design, and has designed about 6,500 jackets and more than 200 jazz record covers. His first big hit came in 1956 with ‘Compulsion,’ a novel by Meyer Levin.
This cover also marked the inception of the ‘Big Book Look’ that Bacon became known for. This look features a large, bold title, a prominent author’s name, and a small conceptual image. Instances of this ‘look’ include ‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller, ‘Visions of Cody’ by Jack Kerouac, and ‘Bullet Park’ by John Cheever, along with countless others.
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¡Three Loco!
¡Three Loco! is an comedy hip hop supergroup composed of Andy Milonakis, Simon Rex (Dirt Nasty), and Jody Christian (Riff Raff). The trio has self-proclaimed themselves as the ‘Holy Trinity of hip-hop.’ The three rappers are MTV alumni:
Andy Milonakis had a sketch comedy show titled ‘The Andy Milonakis Show’ from 2005 to 2007; Dirt Nasty was a VJ during the mid-1990s; and Riff Raff was a contestant on the second season of the reality show ‘From G’s to Gents,’ before being booted out during the second episode. Their self-titled debut album is slated for release by Mad Decent in late 2012.
RiFF RaFF
Jody Christian (b. 1985), best known by his stage name RiFF RaFF, is an American rapper and performance artist from Houston. He is signed to the Mad Decent record label. He is best known for his initial associations with Soulja Boy, and being a member of the comedy super group Three Loco with Andy Milonakis and Simon Rex.
Riff Raff started his social media involvement as a rapper on Myspace, using the name ‘Kokayne Dawkinz.’ His first public appearance was not as a rapper, but as a contestant on the 2009 MTV reality show From ‘G’s to Gents’ (season 2). Though he was eliminated from series on the second episode, he used this exposure to publicize his career as a rapper. Two years later, he was said to be signed to the Soulja Boy’s Stacks on Deck Entertainment label in 2011, and added ‘SODMG’ to his name for a period. This was later said to be false in an interview by Soulja Boy.
Kaikai Kiki
Kaikai Kiki Co. is an artists’ collective founded by the artist Takashi Murakami of Japan. It was originally founded to manage the many assistants employed to create Murakami’s work. It gradually evolved into a collaborative vehicle for other like-minded artists. Many of the artists were of a younger generation and have benefited greatly by the help in the production, distribution and sale of their own work, and also participating in international exhibitions with Murakami serving as artist or curator.
Kaikai and Kiki are characters that represent Murakami’s spiritual guardians. One is white with big ears and a smiling mouth (Kaikai), the other is pink with small ears, three eyes and some shark-like teeth (Kiki). The word kaikaikiki is used to describe the work of Kano Eitoku, a 16th century Japanese painter who is known as a genius of the Kano style. Murakami uses Japanese lettering to write the term on the ears of his characters, and their origins derive from descriptions of Kano’s work as kaikaikiki ‘bizarre, yet refined,’ ‘delicate yet bold.’
Side by Side
Side by Side is an American documentary film released in 2012 directed by Chris Kenneally and produced by Justin Szlasa and Keanu Reeves who also stars in the film. The film explores the art, science and impact of digital cinema through interviews with leading directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors.
The movie examines all aspects of feature filmmaking: capture, editing, visual effects, color correction, distribution, and archiving. Reeves explores the development of cinema and the impact of digital filmmaking via in-depth interviews with Hollywood masters, such as James Cameron, David Fincher, David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh, Danny Boyle, and others.
Ron Geesin
Ron Geesin (b. 1943) is a British musician and composer, noted for his quirky creations and novel applications of sound. He is probably best known as the orchestrator and organizer of Pink Floyd’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’ in 1970, after the band found themselves hopelessly deadlocked over how to complete it.
Geesin first collaborated with the band’s Roger Waters (the two shared a love of golf) on 1970’s unconventional film soundtrack ‘Music from ‘The Body,” sampling sounds made by the human body. Ron Geesin played piano with The Original Downtown Syncopators, a Dixieland band emulating the Original Dixieland Band during the 1960s. The band was based in Sussex, UK.
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The Body
The Body is a 1970 scientific documentary film directed and produced by Roy Battersby. In the film, external and internal cameras are used to showcase different parts of the human body. The film’s narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide insightful commentary that combines the knowledge of world renowned human biologists and anatomical experts.
Unlike similar films of this subject matter ‘The Body’ strives for an entertaining presentation of the human anatomy, and avoids monotone narration. The film’s soundtrack, ‘Music from the Body,’ was composed by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters, and includes songs that were literally made using the human body as a medium.
Trash the Dress
Trash the dress, also known as ‘fearless bridal’ or ‘rock the frock,’ is a style of wedding photography that contrasts elegant clothing with an environment in which it is out of place. Usually brides decide to have pictures taken on a beach, but other locations include city streets, rooftops, garbage dumps, fields, and abandoned buildings.
Some sources claim that the trend was originally started in 2001 by Las Vegas wedding photographer John Michael Cooper. However, the idea of destroying a wedding dress has been used in Hollywood symbolically since at least 1998 when Meg Cummings of the show ‘Sunset Beach’ ran into the ocean in her wedding dress after her wedding was badly interrupted. It may be done as an additional shoot after the wedding, almost as a declaration that the wedding is done and the dress will not be used again. It is seen as an alternative to storing the dress away.
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