Mark Pesce writes, "What happens when an LED makes sweet love to a smartphone? You get the Light by MooresCloud, 52 full-color LEDs controlled by an embedded computer running Linux and connected to your tablet, smartphone and the Internet via WiFi. This 'lamp with a LAMP stack' takes the Internet of Things in a new direction: these connected Lights provide 'Illumination-as-a-service", so you can take a photo of a flower and set the Light to match its color, or synchronize streaming media with a light show. An on-board accelerometer allows you to enjoy games and literally play with light. Everything about the project is open - open hardware, open software, and a public commitment to open and transparent business practices (more). In order to sell these smarties for $99, they need to raise $700K on Kickstarter. Have a look. If you like what you see, back them and share the word."
Paul sez, "Man is illegally detained at an internal border patrol checkpoint in New Mexico for nearly a half hour, not being allowed to leave and at first told that he wasn't being detained until the border patrol eventually told him he was being detained for unspecified reasons. He recorded the entire exchange on video, and spends most of the time asking when he is free to go. Eventually the patrol gives up and allows him to leave, but not before making threatening gestures, warning him that New Mexico police were on their way, and accusing him of criminally blocking traffic when he was asking to leave and wasn't given permission."
Two days of extreme Sandy weather condensed into two minutes. Created by SMvideoChan, who told Yahoo News it was shot at Northside Piers Towers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The bridge you see is the Williamsburg Bridge. The time-lapse covers two days of the hurricane's assault on New York, from the early morning of October 29 through Oct. 30. [ Video Link]
These Iowa psychpop-kraudrone-WTFwave weirdos return with their second full length for De Stijl, the group now expanded from a duo to a trio, with a sound that while still weird, continues to move further away from the twisted noiseness of the early releases, toward something distinctly more melodic and much more accessible. Titled "Spill Into Atmosphere" (CD and LP), this release melds their psych-kraut tendencies with something that sounds much more like some lost new wave /cold wave artifact, due in no small part to the deep dramatic crooned vox of frontman Shawn Reed, he of the late great Raccoo-oo-oon. But the band get all wave-y too, weaving a lush twisted backdrop of synth buzz, and driving drums, the bass thick and fuzzy and sinewy, the sound rife with playful almost carnivalesque melodies, often blossoming into sun dappled prismatic clouds of swirling synth shimmer, but just as often locking into a tranced out hypnorock mesmer.
If these guys were an instrumental band, they'd definitely be a whole different beast, some sort of heady, druggy psych-kraut-prog combo that would fall more in line with groups like Cave, Lumerians, Gnod and the like, cuz the instrumental stretches here get downright blissy and trancey and dreamily psychedelic. The vocals though give it a distinctly goth-pop cast, adding some Suicide and Spacemen 3 and Interpol to Wet Hair's sonic equation, and transforming this into something much weirder, and in its own twisted way, much cooler.
Friday Freak-Out: Seals & Crofts perform "Summer Breeze" on Midnight Special, 1973. And if you dig that, you will likely love (or absolutely despise) the new tune "Apocalypse Troll" from Eternal Tapestry's forthcoming album "A World Out Of Time." (Thanks, Patrick Kelly!)
My friend Jason Tester pointed me to this oddly mesmerizing and creeptastic stock video titled "City business people." Entranced, our own Rob Beschizza looped it and also generated the requisite animated GIF, and another one after the jump that focuses on the gentleman's knowing chuckle.
"Circles" (CD and LP) is record number three from the beloved modern minimalist psych-kraut combo Moon Duo. Initially an offshoot of psych rockers Wooden Shjips, over the last few years it seems the 'Duo have been way more active than the mothershjip. This latest record from the Shjips' Ripley Johnson and his partner, Sanae Yamada, taking up right where the last one, Mazes, left off -- the duo weaving lush, hypnotic, jams, expanding their sound with every record, Circle being the most polished, and certainly the most poppy.
Inspired by Matt Logue's "Empty LA" photo series, director Ross Ching created time lapse videos of big American cities devoid of people. Above is Empty America: Seattle. Previously, Empty America: San Francisco. Looks quiet -- I wouldn't mind living there. Coming soon, New York City and Washington DC. "The Empty America Series"
(Video link) A Necronomicon to keep in your home -- it's like the Bible, but not really! Not for reading out loud, great for when your guests can't take a hint! (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Watch for the not-Lady-Gaga cameo. Much about this will be controversial.
Music video + story concept by Ninja and Yo-landi Vi$$er. Directed by Ninja, Terence Neale and Saki Fokken Berg. DP: Alexis Zabe. Full cast/credits here, including details on the background artwork.
My friend 
"Circles" (