Pulled Punches: 2 Fer Flinchin' Trailer

Here's a quick trailer i made for a zine that releases next week. It's the first time i've ever done a follow up to one of those things so it seemed fitting to give it the summer block buster sequel treatment. The images from the original zine are below. Barbecue season is real.

 

Holiday Mixerrr / Holiday Party

 Holiday Mixer 2 by ted mcgrath

Once again, somehow, the holiday season is upon us. 2011 has breezed by at an unprecedented pace, the sense of temporal dislocation only heightened by todays weather of 70º and foggy... on December 6. In Brooklyn. Spooky? You bet.


But in lighter news, here's another round up of holiday sonic chestnuts for your seasonal entertainment - some are well-worn favorites, songs long canonized by the gods of pop culture and half-remembered office party slur-alongs, while others materialize warbly and weird like Dickensian ghosts of 45rpm crate diggers past. As with last year's offerings, i think they stand up to the "proper" work of the artists involved, and somehow balance holiday novelty and actual listenability quite well. The amateur edits and fades are back too, but hell, it's still better than that She & Him record. Just sayin. 


ALSO: for those of you so inclined and in the NYC area, the cast and crew of The Pencil Factory Studios will be having our annual shin-dig at The Diamond in Greenpoint this very Friday, from 7PM-? Last year's party was a total blast and it'd be great to see any and all of you if you're around. The Diamond is located at 43 Franklin St. Brooklyn, NY 11222, G to Nassau/L to Bedford. 

Happy Holidays Everyone! And here's to fantastic and Mayan Revenge-God free 2012!

-t.

Panda Bear's "Tom Boy" for NYLON

Last month i got a call from NYLON magazine to do a full page illustration of Panda Bear from Animal Collective to accompany the review of his forthcoming solo album "Tom Boy." Not terribly accustomed to being called for portraits, i was thrilled that the direction was pretty open ended, the only real stipulation being that the piece feel "painterly." It having been a while since i sunk my teeth into some gouache, this was exciting. 

I was very familiar with Mr. Bear's "Person Pitch" album from 2007 and was given a one-time use preview stream of "Tom Boy" to listen to while working on the illustration. From what i could assess from that one listen, the new record dialed up the melancholy undertones and slowed the tempos a little from the previous release. More than ever, the music reminded me of a bizarro world post-Pet Sounds Beach Boys, which in turn set me scrambling through my record collection for the Beach Boys comp "Endless Summer," one of my favorite illustrated LP covers ever. I've attached a jpg below - how cool/creepy are the weathered Wilsons hiding in a psychedelic surf jungle?

Using this as inspiration/homage i concocted the following sketch. The other conceit of this design was that it would grant maximum leeway in terms of nailing the portrait by obscuring a lot of the face with psychedelic flowers. 

This was then translated to the final below:

Coming off the Fashion Week process and some design related work i've been up to, it felt really great to do something of the "hands dirty" painted approach again. Thanks for reading!

Holiday Mix...

 

   Holiday Mixerrrr by ted mcgrath

With Holiday Party season upon us, and as a result the annual assault of "Holiday Music" i thought i'd throw together a few of my own seasonal favorites (with amateur playlist edits and fades, apologies in advance) in the hopes doing my part to combat, in some small way, the ongoing popularity of shrieking sonic turds like "Christmas Shoes" or the better part of the Manheim Steamroller oeuvre.


That said, some of the selections are well worn favorites in their own right and others off beat nuggets by established acts, while a few others are less well known on any level. It's my hopes that the majority of the tunes, in spite of their seasonal subject matter, are selections that hold up against the "proper" work of the artists involved and are enjoyable in their own right (Marvin Gaye's "Purple Snowflakes" is just top notch and James Brown's "Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year" is one of the man's most powerful and unhinged vocal turns and has been known to move me to the brink of tears, no lie). Listen or download above, hope you enjoy, and most of all Happy Holidays.