Brad Trent

Song of the Day

REMY ZERO
‘Til The End

DOWNLOAD: ‘Til The End

I’ve been stuck in the Google Hole I fell into the other day when I was researching Remy Zero…Jeffrey Cain’s previous band…but it paid off, ‘cuz I not only fell across a new Remy Zero single (and probably the last one ever since the band disbanded back in 2003), but I also I discovered that one of his bandmates has actually already been on the Song of the Day! Cedric LeMoyne (AKA: Scalpelist) is one half of O+S, whose song Permanent Scar was on The List way back in March of 2009. Hey…back in the day, you played in a band and maybe you did a solo album, but these days you need a super-computing GPS to keep track of how many different bands, side projects and underground recording projects these guys are playing with! For the past couple of weeks, Remy Zero have gotten back together to play a few live shows and record ”Til The End’ to honor the memory of their drummer, Gregory Slay, who died earlier this year. True to form, the four surviving members…Cain, LeMoyne and brothers Cinjun and Shelby Tate…all have multiple recording projects going, but you can still follow Remy Zero on their MySpace page

Song of the Day

DEAD SNARES
City Sparks

DOWNLOAD: City Sparks

So this morning I check my inbox and see that Erin Maher from the indie label popantipop (The Morlocks, The Hundred Days, Spleen United) has sent me a cut from the just-released Dead Snares debut album Speak The Language. Knowing nothing of Dead Snares, I fell into a Google Hole and this is what I’ve found….

• Dead Snares is the alter ego of Jeffrey Cain, who grew up in Mobile, Alabama and was a member of Remy Zero, and some of you might remember that Remy Zero got a taste of the Big Time when they opened for Radiohead a while back and their song “Save Me” is the theme song for WB TV show Smallville.

• Speak The Language was produced by Darrell Thorpe, who also twiddles the knobs for Radiohead, Beck and OutKast.

• Cain has recently collaborated with a few top-shelf names…notably Tricky, Afrobots, O+S and the Engine Room. He’s also recording as Isadore with a big favorite of mine, Steve Kilbey from The Church.

I’ve spent the morning listening to the entire album which is streaming on the popantipop website…you gotta check it out! Then head on over to Jeff’s MySpace page and make friends.

Mocean Worker Remixes The Rent’s Too Damn High Guy!!!

Adam Dorn, AKA Mocean Worker, wasted no time pumpin’ this one out…Enjoy!!!

Andrea Jung in the London Sunday Times

Last weekend I had a nice spread published in the London Sunday Times…Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon…

Song of the Day


ANDREW BELLE (featuring KATIE HERZIG)
Static Waves

DOWNLOAD: Static Waves

As is the new trend in indie music these days, Andrew Belle got a lotta notice a few months back when his song, ‘In My Veins’, was featured in the gore-fest that was the Season 6 finale of Grey’s Anatomy, but I never really got around to checking him out until last week when I discovered that he has done this duet with Katie Herzig, who I just saw in concert and I just featured on these very pages! To say Belle has a voice that brings Coldplay’s Chris Martin to mind is easy…but it’s his phrasing and intonation that really stands out for me…and the sweet, rhythmic back and forth between the two makes this a lovely little aural interlude to end the day with…

You can check out more of Mr. Belle on his MySpace Page or over on his website

Palm Beach + July = Very, Very Hot !!!

Click on any image for Full-Size!

Back in July, Eric Godwin, the Photo Director at Bloomberg Markets magazine, asked me to head down to Palm Beach to photograph Chris Cline, a billionaire Coal Baron and head of Foresight Energy, one of the country’s largest producers of coal. As you can imagine, Palm Beach in July is just about as hot as a coal furnace, but with added humidity! Add to that our location…Cline’s 164-foot yacht, ‘Mine Games’…and we were in for a hot time in Florida!

Kaz and I got in a day early and on our scout we immediately were made aware of the quirks of trying to photograph a portrait using a prop as big as a yacht…the boat was in a rather tight slip with very little room to maneuver for good angle and the boat itself…while certainly large and luxurious…offered few spots to do the kind of shots I had in mind. But a couple of locations did jump out…


…this spot…shot from inside a hedge and through a bunch of tall grass…would let me stack up the boat behind him.

…and I thought it could be almost regal having him descending this staircase…

And I guess the Art Director was thinking the same thing when he named the story, “New King Coal”…..

One thing became very apparent as soon as the sun rose in the sky…since the entire deck was gleaming, shiny white…even slathered up with an SPF-50 sunscreen, my white ass was gonna fry like a lizard on a rock in the desert! I spent a lotta time re-greasing myself during the day and did a good job of not turning into a human lobster, but there was one place I neglected to coat…the inside of my nostrils! All that sun bouncing up and into my nose gave me the most excruciating sunburn I can remember, so for any of you who may have seen me after I got back from that trip with a finger up my nose…furiously scratching away…now you know why!

Bear Concerns…..

My mom worries about the fact that I have a lotta bears running around in my front yard, so she sent me this little reminder that it’s not really my yard…it’s theirs and I’m just using it…..

(If your eyes are as bad as mine, you’ll need to click on the above image to make it Full-Size!)

Song of the Day (Two Times)

KATIE HERZIG
Wish You Well

DOWNLOAD: Wish You Well

Wish You Well (Acoustic Live In-Studio)

DOWNLOAD: Wish You Well (Acoustic Live In-Studio)

So last week I drove 135 miles to see Brandi Carlile play at Infinity Hall up in Norfolk CT, and as good as Brandi was (and she was very good!) I left the concert with a handful of CD’s from the opening act…Katie Herzig. How this singer and (Grammy nominated) songwriter has stayed off my radar is a mystery, but now that I own the entire Katie Herzig songbook, that is no longer an issue! Each song I listen to reveals some new emotion…heartache, angst, lust and joyful happiness…it all flows from her in a euphoric wave that’s giving me goosebumps. In a soft, but strong, soprano, she delivers her smart, poetic lyrics without becoming overwrought or sappy…this is lyrical storytelling done well.

The two songs today are from different albums; the first is off of her last release of new material, ‘Apple Tree’, and the second is a reimagined acoustic version from ‘Live In Studio: Acoustic Trio’, a collection of her earlier songs recorded entirely unplugged. Check out more of Katie on her website or over on MySpace and for yet one more version of ‘Wish You Well’, check out this video of her singing it with Brandi…..

Big Jet Engines

Click on Any Image for Full-Size
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A couple of weeks ago, Adrian DeLucca at Barron’s asked if I wanted to shoot a cover story featuring Louis Chenevert, the CEO of United Technologies…the only problem was, United Technologies didn’t want to let Louis leave the office and go play with any of the cool toys UTC makes…like the really Big Jet Engines that I knew they had sitting at the Pratt & Whitney plant right across the river from their corporate headquarters in Hartford! But after a little back-n-forth with the folks in corporate communications at the company, I convinced them that since I had shot at UTC many times in the past and I knew the offices were Death on Toast…very functional, but not exciting in the least…a location scout was in order! And after only five minutes of poking around the Testing Facility Hanger, this was what I found…..

Now all three locations would be perfect for both my cover and the opener for the story, but the problem was, we were only going to get Louis for ten minutes…tops…..and he was showing up at 8:00AM, surrounded by assistants and P/R guys whose main mission in life was to make sure I didn’t get a second longer than what was promised! That meant Kaz and I would have to set up everything the night before and for the shoot, move our subject from shot to shot quicker than we have had to do in a long time. Here’s how things looked…..

Fun At The Fair!

Yesterday I channeled my inner farmer and hit the Harwinton County Fair, complete with ox-pulls, carnival rides, corn dogs and a whole mess of chickens and horses and cows and bunnies! My iPhone (set to ‘Hipstamatic’, of course!) has recorded some choice bits for you to enjoy…

Killer Attack Rooster…

Very Friendly Horse…

Sleepy Bunny…

Tiny Donkey…

Girls Sitting With Cows…

Terrifying Rides…

Whac-A-Mole…

Dead Guys…

…And The Best Damned Potatoes You’ve Ever Seen!!!

Now I know that still pictures hardly do justice to a good carnival ride, but if you watch this video long enough, it might generate enough vertigo to make you sick….

Do you feel like judging a few chickens?!!

Not a fan of chickens? Then how about braving the crowds to look at the prize-winning bunnies?!!

And if all that wasn’t enough fun for ya, The Flying Wallendas were even on hand cheating death for the 7,496th time!!!

Song of the Day

NADIA ACKERMAN
When

DOWNLOAD: When

Johanna Cranitch has been whispering in my ear for a while now about fellow Aussie songbird Nadia Ackerman, and today I have something to share off of The Circus Is Back In Town, her latest album. Now chances are even if you’re unfamiliar with her music, you might know more about Nadia than you think…she’s been getting a lotta notices recently for her vocals on the new UPS ‘Logistics’ campaign…even syndicated radio talk show host Neal Boortz has been Tweeting about it…I actually think he’s got a thing for her, cuz he’s mentioned her more than once…! I suppose it’s understandable that Neil might have fallen for the girl with her breathy, beautiful voice calling out to him from the TV, but still…a teeny bit creepy.

Anyway…I love the song. The relaxed, languid way she shuffles through the verse has an almost narcotic feel to it, and the simple piano and electronic backing loop that accompanies her is both classic and psychedelic at the same time.

To find out more about Nadia Ackerman, check her out on her facebook page. You can also keep your eyes on The List…I have a feeling we will be hearing…and seeing…more of Nadia in the near future. And if you haven’t seen it already, here’s that UPS commercial I was telling you about…

Katy Perry On Saturday Night Live

I have absolutely nothing more to add…..

Are Y’All Ready For An 80mp Digital Back ?!!

Barely a week after I was pissing and moaning about the big announcement from PhaseOne that they were introducing a $42,000 digital back that captures only Black & White images, comes today’s bombshell from Leaf that they’re gonna now about to trot out has to be to most ridiculous bit of technological overkill yet seen on the digital landscape…an 80MP digital back that kicks out a 165mb RAW file and…ya might wanna sit down for this…a 480mb TIFF file! Now for those of you who understand such things, then you know that by starting with a base TIFF of 480mb, your final layered, retouched & messed-with file can easily end up being larger than TWO GIGABYTES in size!!! For those less geek-savvy, let’s just agree that the file size this thing produces is waaaaaay bigger than just about anybody needs, wants, asked for or even thought would be necessary! With resolution like this I would imagine you could stand on top of a tall building in New York and take a pretty sharp picture of Boston (I kid, of course!), but no…the number one reason Leaf claims this thing is necessary is to “eliminate Moiré and more perfectly render objects – from the texture of fine fabrics to the smooth curves of car metal”…! Now you’ll hafta excuse me whilst I digest that statement, because I’m on my third Leaf back and with each new back Leaf has made the exact same claim…and I still have Moiré! Oh…not so much that it makes any real difference and what there is can usually be eliminated with a bit of Photoshop fuckery, but I hafta ask…just what is the new 80mp Aptus-II 12 with its’ newly designed 53.7×40.3mm full-frame CCD sensor really good for besides forcing its’ owner to buy stock in companies that manufacture hard drives?!!

Just for kicks, I took the last job I did with my ‘Old Skool’, 33MP Leaf Aptus 75S and ran the numbers to see what the difference in storage would be if I shot the same job on the new Aptus-II 12. I shot 307 RAW files, each one of which is 68.3 megabytes in size, that translated into 20.97 gigabytes of total space used, and quite frankly, that’s already a huge pile of ‘zeroes’ and ‘ones’ filling up disc space! However, the same 307 RAW files shot on the Aptus-II 12 with its 165 megabyte capture rate will give you a 50.66 gigabyte meatball that you have to store on multiple redundant backups systems until they plant your dead ass in the ground! That’s a lotta gigabytes, Baby!

Oh yeah….the Aptus-II 12 is gonna come in at about $32 Grand, just in case you wanted to start saving up your pennies now…..

R.I.P. Jay Colton


Photo © Claudio Edinger

I woke up today to the terrible news that Jay Colton, photographer, photo editor and educator, died Saturday while teaching at the International Photography Festival/Paraty em Foco, in Brazil. I have known Jay since the early 80’s, but after many years of not seeing each other, we had rekindled our friendship in the past year. Details are hard to come by, but he apparently collapsed while conducting portfolio reviews at the festival and never regained consciousness. He leaves behind his son Christopher and wife Moira and the entire New York photo community will mourn his passing.

The following was a news report from Brazil on the Paraty em Foco Festival that featured Jay…

Song of the Day


THE VACCINES
If You Wanna

DOWNLOAD: If You Wanna

There is precious little information out the on the interwebs about The Vaccines ‘cept that this new London outfit is being set up by none other than NME to be ‘the future of everything’…! Hell, that’s a lotta pressure for a new band that doesn’t even have a MySpace page, but what they do have is a tight, uniquely refreshing Lo-Fi 60’s Pop sound that sticks in your head. I’d tell you more, but honestly, that’s about all I got…so check them out on facebook or on their interesting, if rather obtuse Website

WE’RE ALL GOING TO AUSTRALIA!!!!!

We’ll…..not you and me, but the entire studio full of bawling, drooling, Oprah-obsessed Super Fans who happened to be holding a Golden Ticket to the debut show of her final season are packing their bags and heading off for a free week in Kangarooland!

And if that news wasn’t enough to make the crying masses wet themselves, Oprah told ’em that none other than famous pilot John Travolta would be the one flying them there!!!

This is all giving me a massive headache…….

Song of the Day

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS
I L U (Phantogram Remix)

DOWNLOAD: I L U (Phantogram Remix)

School of Seven Bells latest album, Disconnect from Desire, is practically brand new, but the Brooklyn-based trio already has has a new digital EP set to drop September 14. Heart is Strange is one of those crazy little things that happens when the remix-masters fall in love with a band, and SVIIB is one of those bands. The EP contains only four cuts, two versions of Heart is Strange (the Radio edit and the Pantha du Prince Remix), Dust Devil (White Sea Remix), and today’s SOTD, I L U (Phantogram Remix). Disconnect from Desire has been one of my favorite albums this year, but I’m always up for a good bit of knob-twiddling. Check out more from SVIIB on MySpace or on their Website and for you New Yorkers who plan on doing CMJ this year, they’re gonna be playing the Santos Party House Saturday, October 23rd and it promises to be one of the best shows of the week!

iPhone Photo of the Day

Seen at the Chinese restaurant around the corner…

Ahhhhhh…..Sookie!!!

And Now… A Digital Back For ‘Pure B&W Images’…?!!

The steady march of technology in the photo biz often makes my head spin, especially with the price of admission factored in, but this mornings email from PhaseONE even made me take a deep breath. For the mind-bending sum of $41,990.00, photographers can now enjoy a ‘pure’ digital Black & White experience with the release of the new 39 Megapixel PhaseONE Achromatic+ Back. That’s right…42 Grand and you can only shoot B&W! Now I don’t wanna seem too Old Skool here, but if ‘regular’ digital backs are having such a hard time capturing Black and White images, couldn’t we just load in a roll of Tri-X like the old days and be happy? Was there really that big of an outcry from the photo community for a piece of equipment that essentially moves the medium backwards?!! I’m not saying I don’t love Black & White imagery…far from it…but spending 42 Large on a digital back is sort of like inventing a High Definition Video Camera that only shoots silent movies! And yes…Phase is touting the scientific applications of such a back as one of the main reasons for going forward with such a project, but you just know there are gonna be a lotta kids with messed up priorities who will have the Achromatic+ on their wish list this Christmas!

Song of the Day


ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK
If You Want It (French Horn Rebellion Remix)

DOWNLOAD: If You Want It

You’re all gonna have to cut me some slack, but The List is gonna deviate from the normal flow of Indie/Singer-Songwriter/Guitar-Driven tunes today, because as a dyed in the wool fanboy of anything Synth-Pop, I can’t resist leaking the first new material from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark since 1996! OMD’s new album, History Of Modern, is set to drop later this month, but already the remixologists are twiddling the knobs on a few tracks that fell off the back of the truck. French Horn Rebellion has taken “If You Want It”, turned the bass up to “11” and added some club-friendly hooks and electro-fuzz and the result is a industrial, dark and dreamy, juicy kiss on the lips to all that Eighties UK synthpop we all loved back in the day…

Check out OMD on their Official Website or over on MySpace