Developing my Working Relationship with TRASH

I recently held a Skype Call with their lead guitarist, Evan Martin.

We discussed the music video in depth (pre-production, production and post-production).

Initial practice: CD cover

As I haven't used Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 very often and when I have I give up because I have made something stupid or got confused with some basic mechanic the software allows.
Using the influences of many other indie bands I have decided to include an illustrative aspect, a cartoonist theme simultaneously mixed with a picture of TRASH or a similar picture.

I have gone for a comic book background that I find really interesting when parallel with the black and white photo of TRASH, however, due to my inexperience with the software I was unable to create a relevant edit of the photograph and ended up creating a stupid, messy album cover.

Next time I will plan a more artistic and believable album cover as I will have more experience, despite my lack of experience I believe aspects of this worked really well, the balance of colours, the overlay of TRASH on a simple cartoon background is something that I am seriously contemplating and am planning to extend upon.

One other edit I completed was this one that I prefer.

This edit is much more professional and the fine tuning of the photo has been completed to a higher standard. I also prefer the effect that I have used and the colours it creates, furthermore, the cartoon-esque vibes are a lot stronger in this rendition. It makes them look like a superhero team.

Album Cover's

Created on: Fotor.com

Album Covers

I have done some research into how my album cover should look so I decided to make a collage of similar artists to TRASH (Top Right in the collage).

TRASH

Trash's album titled 'Urban Glow' features an artistic illustration of an urban area with 'TRASH' written in road so it can be distinguished from the buildings. Because I am doing a song by TRASH I will be taking a lot of inspiration from their previous work. The colours used are blues and purples that merge together and form a messy design of a busy city.

The chief convention from this CD cover is its illustrative theme, the cartoon style that creates a doodle-esque aura to the cover. In reference to the song I am doing (Brochures) I could feature an illustration of a holiday place or of a framed picturesque scene. To delve deeper into TRASH's satirical tendencies I could even draw or edit a picturesque utopia-like setting and show its flaws and downfalls. I will have to do further investigation and experimentation into the software required to do this as I am not the best artist.

The Black Keys

The second album cover I have used is 'The Black Keys' album called 'Brothers' that I have analysed in further detail on a previous blog. The Black Keys are a similar genre to TRASH and their simplistic cover and minimalist style could be a heavy influence in my CD cover of TRASH.

Bombay Bicycle Club

An indie-rock group that definitely has a close sound to TRASH's also has a similar style of CD cover with the symbolic illustration of a body opposed to a city. The organs and abstract drawing of a brain and tongue is rather interesting. The illustrative natures of some CD covers could be a definite feature within mine as it is a repetitive aspect.

Athlete

A 2002 alt-rock group that I believe is a more evolved and developed band of TRASH. I was originally going to do an Athlete song for my A2 music video but decided that the songs were too sad and I could have incorrectly portrayed the song and my intentions could have been misconstrued. If I had made a poor music video then it could seem that I am mocking the band and a lot of its themes which I wouldn't intend to do and therefore chose not to. The band's CD cover is a picture of a deconstructed vehicle turned into a chair with a lot of hospital wires interweaved through it that is reference to it's main song featured in the album called 'Wires'.  The machine is the sole focus of the CD cover and once again it is an abstract photo. This one is not a drawing but it is of a similar, uncommon theme that indie groups often do because of their deviance from mainstream music. Most indie-rock bands pride themselves on their differences.

ALT-J

One of the most famous indie-rock groups, ALT-J feature another abstract piece of artwork. The graphic is very nature-like and contemporary with the tone of the cover. The CD cover doesn't include any information such as: Artist Name or Album Name or even Production Company. The Album is actually called 'An Awesome Wave' and the art perfectly encapsulates that of a wave with curved and jagged colours colliding with a wall of blue (potentially the sea). After further investigation the album artwork was actually a multi-layered radar image of the Ganges river delta in Bangladesh. It was acquired from an Earth satellite and overlaid images from different dates of the river. The artwork shows an abundance of colour colliding with variations of background radiation. This is innovative artwork with overlaid satellite images is an interesting idea for an album cover.

Spector
Moth Boys is a 2015 album from the indie-rock band Spector that is probably most like TRASH. The album cover is simply a symmetrical photograph of an abandoned room. From what looks like the remnants of a DJ set the previous night with rubbish scattered on the floor shows the depth of the room completely. The portrait of an empty room once again shows how effective simplicity can be, my CD cover will definitely be a simplistic design with aspects and design of a cartoon illustration combined with a photo similar to Spector's Moth Boys.

Conclusion
The CD cover I will create will be a hybrid of illustrative art, potentially abstract combined with a simple photograph similar to Spector's or Athlete's.

Culture with Dick Hebdidge

CD Cover textual analysis - Brothers - The Black Keys

The Black Keys' CD Cover of the album "Brothers".

 

 

 

Preliminary Project: Beck - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime

For my preliminary project for my A2 music video I did Beck's Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime and I decided to give it a very arty feel with a simplistic performance piece that features a blurry lens, poured water rewinded and close-ups on flowers. A very arty piece that I shot with my friend (who is the main guitarist in the band I am making a music video for) in an attempt to create an illusory, weird, utopia-like film involving nature and blandness. I believe that I achieved my aspirations but was disappointed with the overall music video that I had made, I made a lot of mistakes with editing, planning and with some technology. Therefore, in my music video I will plan a lot more and use a lot more technology I am familiar with and will explore avenues of editing that I am willing to learn to a high standard.

Similar artists to TRASH - Spector - Case Study

I have decided to do some research not only into the genre of indie-rock but into their style as a whole (music video and social media tendencies).


One band that is similar to TRASH is Spector, especially through their stylistic music video in All The Sad Young Men directed by Laura Baker. It follows a similar style  to TRASH's Hot Coffee through its low-quality montage of friends. Verification of the band's genuine friendship and suaveness. Similar to each other in their satirical nature as in All The Sad Young Men they are playing on a '1D' Merchandise Booth as they probably don't listen to '1D' but are sarcastically mocking the band. However, differences occur with motifs and professionalism of footage, throughout All The Sad Young Men it focusses on a young woman and young man having a good time whilst out at a party but it is juxtaposed by the anti-love song, the depressive lyrics of:


"do you like my clothes?
my hair?
my conversation?
did you hear me when i said you were the inspiration?
it's all meaningless now
as it was meaningless then
all the miserable girls
all the sad young men"


These lyrics hint at the author's paramour unappreciating them parallel with a man and a woman dancing that emphasises the sexualisation of the woman dancing around a pole. The rather melancholy lyrics about inattentive relationships parallel with the drunken madness of a night out with the couple hints at a greater sadness as happiness and depression is compared so closely.
At further investigation due to the words "did you hear me when I said you were the inspiration?" hints at a autobiographic song as it is implied the lyricist was referencing a love song that they had written. The repetition of 'meaningless' gives the song an uncomfortable take on young relationships and creates a rather misanthropic feel and depressive tone.
TRASH are similar with style of music video but opposite with messages in songs. Brochures is about running away with your lover and All The Sad Young Men displays messages of disappointment and the waste of time that relationships are.



Spector are also similar to TRASH in another of their songs, as they mock the indie-rock genre (similar to TRASH when they mocked the fickleness of music taste when they claimed to be selling Stone Roses tickets. The music video shows somebody googling "indie rock video" which hints that the genre is similar and are all out to copy each other. The lack of individualism and originality in indie rock is a key issue that Spector are addressing here and TRASH do similar things through their Tweets.