Brad Trent

Song of the Day

WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS
Act On Impulse

DOWNLOAD: Act On Impulse

OK…I gotta admit that until about twenty minutes ago I had never heard of the Scottish four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks, but I was stumbling around the KEXP website looking for some new stuff to fill up my iTunes folder and how could I not give a listen to a song from a band with a name like that?!! And sometimes that’s all it takes…and it often proves to be great. These guys played their first gig at their High School’s ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition…and they won. Then they get signed to the Indie Power Label Fat Cat Records (Sigur Rós…they recorded their new album at Sigur Ros’ Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland, The Twilight Sad, Vetiver, Animal Collective…). ‘Act On Impluse’ is from their just-released second album, In the Pit of the Stomach. It slowly winds itself up with a thumping drum beat into a wonderfully grandiose anthem to disaffected youth…“…The smell of sweat really helps me sleep…we die alone…”. Check out We Were Promised Jetpacks on their website

Song of the Day

THE RADIO DEPT.
The New Improved Hypocrisy

DOWNLOAD: The New Improved Hypocrisy

I love The Radio Dept., so the news that they have canceled their tour of North America has me kinda bummin’ today. I was looking forward to catching them at the Bowery Ballroom in November, but “family related matters” have shut everything down. I’ve had Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010…their compilation from earlier this year…on ‘repeat’ all day. Here’s hoping they reschedule, but in the meantime listen to ‘The New Improved Hypocrisy’, slide into a mournful groove and then check ’em out on their website.

It’s My Birfday…

Other birthdays of note today:
Hilary Duff (24)

Bam Margera (32)

Young Jeezy (34)
Dita Von Teese (39)

Carré Otis (43)

Naomi Watts (43)

Mira Sorvino (44)

Moon Unit Zappa (44)

Janeane Garofolo (47)

John Sayles (61)

Brigitte Bardot (77)

Jim Grant For Barron’s

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Jim Grant, the publisher of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, is one of Wall Streets greatest critics, and Adrian Delucca had me head downtown to shoot him for a recent Barron’s feature. Jim’s office was pretty small, but an institutional yellow wall behind a doorway…

…and his wall of books…

…gave me what I needed for a couple of nice portraits…

Song of the Day

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
Seeds We Sow

DOWNLOAD: Seeds We Sow

I never would have thought I’d see the day when I would include Lindsey Buckingham among the ranks of ‘indie’ musicians, but even though he’s a gazillionaire and still tours with Fleetwood Mac, with the self-release of his sixth album as a solo artist, he apparently now falls into that genre as well. ‘Seeds We Sow’ is the title track of Buckingham’s new record and besides some pretty high-toned lyrics…‘Sweet things pretty things are dying/In the penny arcade of Edgar Allan Poe’…it’s really a showcase of his acoustic guitar-picking technique. ‘Seeds We Sow’ is available as an Amazon MP3 Exclusive for only $4.99 (or you can pay full price on iTunes) and you can check out Mr. Buckingham on his website.

Driving Into NYC…

Stuck on the West Side Highway…whipped out my iPhone and fired up the very groovy Photosynth panorama app…..

Camille digs traffic! (Click on the image to make it get big!)

Up On The Roof…

Early morning, up on a roof in midtown Manhattan…with some soccer balls…..

Larry Fink for Barron’s

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With over $3.7 trillion (not a typo…with a “T”) of assets under management, BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, and CEO Larry Fink runs the whole ball of wax. And you would be right in assuming that posing for pictures is pretty far down his ‘To-Do’ list, so when Adrian asked me to shoot him for the magazine’s new ‘CEO Spotlight’ feature, I knew I would have precious little time and have to be nailed down and ready to go when he got to the set. The CEO Spotlight is formatted with the subject silhouetted onto the page and has to be shot on white seamless, but with few locations at BlackRock large enough for us to set up a mini studio, we decided to drop our paper right in a hallway on the executive floor. Enjoy…

Initial setup…

Add a couple of skim lights…

Insert CEO…

Change angles for a couple of variations…

Bake and serve…

9/12

I dunno about the rest of you, but yesterday really kinda did me in. The non-stop media barrage of 9/11 remembrances and videos brought everything back in all too lurid detail. It drove me down into the basement and I emerged with a couple of photographs I took back in 1984…up on the observation deck of the World Trade Center. I would much rather remember what it was like the day I took these shots…

Song of the Day

ORLY
Sit Back

DOWNLOAD: Sit Back

I wanna close out the week with a bit of silky smooth Rhythm & Blues. I don’t wanna sound too old-fartish, but with Rap ruling 90% of the radio airwaves, it gets harder and harder to find real music these days. But with Adele’s latest album selling over 10 million copies and singers like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings showing up on Craig Ferguson, there are glimmers of hope out there. Orly is a singer whose delivery is so strong & confident…and not to mention so damned sensual…that she could sing a Chinese takeout menu and make you melt. ‘Sit Back’ is from her recent EP, but she’s putting the finishing touches on her first album…and that’s where you can help. I’m reaching out to everyone on The List to ask that you visit her Pledge Music Page and kick in a few bucks to help her produce the record. And I know it’s not cancer or starving children or people left homeless by any one of the many recent natural disasters, but it certainly qualifies as well-intentioned support of the artistic community and if you kick in as little as $10 you even get a free album download! So jump over to Pledge Music and help her out and then go ‘Like’ her facebook page.

Here Come Da Judge, Here Come Da Judge…

Until recently, William B. Chandler III was a Federal judge in Delaware, serving on the Delaware Court of Chancery with the title of Chancellor. But then he retired as Chancellor and became a managing partner of the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and I got a call from Larry Gendron…Art Director at The Deal…asking if I could do a feature shoot with The Judge. Now Larry and I hadn’t worked together in years…ever since he was at Financial World Magazine…so I really wanted to impress him with a good job, but the offices of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, while very functional, aren’t gonna be featured in the pages of ‘Dwell’ any time soon. We were faced with a lot of beige walls and small conference rooms…but Kaz and I still came away with three situations that Larry liked so much he put the story on the cover!

We started with a view down a hallway…

…then moved into the Board Room for the opener…

…and finally, we stuck him in a corner of the Law Library for what ended up being the cover shot…

Song of the Day

ANDREW BELLE
Colorblind

DOWNLOAD: Colorblind

Andrew Belle recently dropped by the Daytrotter Studio and laid down a stunning cover of Counting Crows “Colorblind”. If there are any of you indie music fans who have yet to bookmark the Daytrotter site and visit it daily, you are missing out on a fantastic resource for new music. Not only will you get to hear new versions of songs you might already know, but there plenty of times like this when an artist will pull out something from left field that will prolly never get recorded anywhere else. Andrew was last featured on The List a year ago when I posted ‘Static Waves’, his duet with Katie Herzig. Head over to his website and give him a listen.

Song of the Day

BAD SPORTS
Can’t Just Be Friends

DOWNLOAD: Can’t Just Be Friends

One minute and forty-eight seconds of snarling, snotty, ass-kickin’, three-chord punk rock that Joey Ramone would be proud of from three guys straight outta Denton, Texas! That’s Bad Sports. ‘Can’t Just Be Friends’ is from their second album, Kings Of The Weekend, a collection of 14 songs that clocks in at 30 minutes and 15 seconds and is guaranteed to get y’all sweaty after just one play. I don’t hafta say anything else…it’s punk rock…just check ’em out on their facebook page!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Have Fun…

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Scott Milleisen is not only the head of the sports banking group at J.P. Morgan Chase, he’s also a Managing Director at the bank, so getting him to do anything outta his comfort zone for a photograph wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve done lately, especially with somebody from J.P. Morgan Corporate Communications over my shoulder the whole time. But even though were were led up to the top floor of the J.P. Morgan World Headquarters on Park Avenue…

…the floor with more modern art on it’s walls than you’ll find at MOMA, but not one that exactly screams ‘SPORTS’ at you…I still wanted to tie in the sports angle to his business. And given that he regularly puts together gazzilion dollar deals funding sports teams, the idea of shooting him in front of the twin Warhol Marilyns (Steve Cohen picked up one Marilyn from Larry Gagosian for $80 million a while back!) just seemed right. All that was left to do was hand him a baseball bat and get him to take a few cuts at the ball I hung from a boom stand.

Next we went around the corner and did a simpler shot of him hamming it up with a football against a brushed steel wall…

…and of course he had to strike the Heisman pose!

Photo Editor Sarah Morse sent me on this one for Institutional Investor and it’s on the stands now.

Song of the Day


WASHED OUT
Amor Fati

DOWNLOAD: Amor Fati

Dream Pop, Chill-Wave, Glo-Fi, Nu-Gaze, Shoegaze, Witch House, Freak-Folk…..Christ, if not for wikipedia I wouldn’t be able to keep track of all the new names that get thrown at musical genres these days! I’m beginning to think that if you wanna get noticed in the indie scene nowadays, you had better come up with a new name for exactly what highfalutin mood your music is meant to evoke. All of which brings us to what may be the first ‘Chill-Wave’ song to ever make it on The List. Washed Out is the alter ego of a rather harmless looking lad named Ernest Greene, who apparently put together his first album, Within and Without, whilst holed up in his bedroom with nothing but a laptop, some synthesizers and a dream. I gotta admit, before I heard a note I was initially drawn by the name of the song…Amor Fati…it had me thinking he was an aficionado of chubby lovin’, but apparently it’s a Latin phrase glommed on by Nietzsche meaning “love of one’s own fate”. My guess is that besides twiddling the knobs on those keyboards, Ernest is reading some pretty deep shit in that bedroom…probably why he looks so serious. The song itself is a fluffy bit of aural wallpaper, complete with the requisite angsty vocals and layers of deep & meaningful synth runs and would feel right at home playing as the credits roll in an 80’s John Hughes teen flick! And while that probably sounds like I’m being a tad dismissive, I actually like it! Hell…I used to listen to Howard Jones, for God’s sake…I got nuthin’ wrong with admitting that occasionally I get off on a sappy, poppy, electronic concoction! You can head over to Mr. Greene’s facebook page and hit the ‘Like’ button and if this sorta things gets your toes tappin’, you can pick up the album on iTunes. And for the rest of you, I’ll promise to find a song with some guitars next time…

Song of the Day


CASS McCOMBS
The Same Thing

DOWNLOAD: The Same Thing

I gotta thank Cheechasaurus Rex for letting me know (via her facebook page) that Cass McCombs is releasing Humor Risk…his second album in less than a year…and is giving away ‘The Same Thing’ as a taste of things to come. I’ve been dropping his songs on The List for years and have always been drawn to the way his subtle songwriting and delicate, Morrissey-like monotone can immediately pull me into his songs, but over the years any similarities to The Smiths have fallen away and he has become more of a sad folk-rock Troubadour…but if it makes any sense, he gives off an almost cheerful dreariness. Humor Risk is set to be released November 7th and in the meantime you can check out Cass on his website

I Love Chicago…

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If you haven’t already guessed from my lack of posts recently, this month has been kinda busy here at Damn Ugly. Sorry ’bout that, but the necessity to work often gets in the way of me filling up the interweb with bloggy bits. So to get back in the saddle, I’m offering a little love letter to Chicago, where we found ourselves last week. I’ve been to Chicago a million times, but I was struck this trip by how much the city has changed…and I don’t just mean because of that gigantic Seward Johnson sculpture of Marilyn Monroe on Michigan Avenue. No, the city just feels more vibrant and polished. From the abundance of public spaces to the overwhelming amount of new buildings dotting the downtown area, everything just has a fresh energy about it. And on the one afternoon that wasn’t busy shooting I had a bit of time to take it all in. Between the iPhone Panorama’s, Hipstamatic shots and some stuff I did on the Canon, I built up a nice little portfolio of my walk around the Loop…..

Remember the Wilco album, ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’?!!

I love that cover…and those buildings…

While I was looking upwards, I became momentarily fixated on streetlamps…

And yes…I know it’s very blue!

What a way to make a living…

Next, I ended up in front of Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ at Millennium Park…

…and it’s Circus Funhouse Mirror appeal…

Walking back to the hotel I knocked off another iPhone PhotoSynth panorama along Wacker Drive…

…and some Hipstamatic prints…

And one last shot of Marilyn with a guy really happy to be in Chicago…

…and finally…back to New York…

Song of the Day


LADYTRON
White Elephant

DOWNLOAD: White Elephant

Based on how their recent music was sounding, I never would have thought that Ladytron would be capable of composing a song so lyrical and dreamy and pretty….and just so bloody sweet…as today’s Song of the Day. But then I heard “White Elephant”, a leak off of their next album, Gravity The Seducer, due out in September. OK, let’s be honest…I know Ladytron ain’t exactly known for being hard-edged, but after their last album, 2008’s Velocifero, I was afraid they had made a creative shift towards being just another electro-disco/house group that I could ignore. Velocifero was a lightweight collection of blips and tinny drums and thumpy basslines seemingly aimed at the dance crowd, and quite honestly left me feelin’ disappointed. Aside from “Tomorrow”, the one track I actually liked enough to put on the SOTD (and they must have loved as well since they released a remix EP of 7 different versions) the album just seemed forced and overworked. I was probably in the minority however, cuz Velocifero has been their best-selling album to date.

But for the new album, they’ve set up shop and recorded in the pastoral English countryside. The lack of distractions, rolling hills, hedge rows and chirping birds have obviously had a calming effect on the girls, cuz based on the two songs I’ve heard, they’re sounding a lot more like when they they released the seminal Witching Hour, with songs like “Sugar” and “Destroy Everything You Touch”. The first thing I noticed about “White Elephant” was the signature harmonizing between Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo that got lost in a wall of electronic fuzz on Velocifero is now featured up front where it should be. The sparkling synthesized harpsichords dance and float and give the song an ethereal, lullaby quality…and I can’t wait for more.

For more Ladytron news and updates, visit their website.

And as an added bonus, you even get a video that looks like it was lifted from the early 80’s!

MTV’s Beauty Academy Gets Damn Ugly

When she’s not applying powder & lip gloss to my subjects, Kelly Stedman…my good friend and makeup artist of the past 15 years…has been producing reality shows, and for quite a while she’s been trying to include me in one of her little projects. I have always declined because I don’t really have a desire to get thrown into some televised ‘reality’ drama, but last month she asked if I could help her out on a new show she’s doing for MTV on a Beauty School in New Jersey and I finally caved in and agreed to give it a go. The show follows hair stylists Thomas McKiver and Oscar Bond and a group of students at The Bond Academy. Thomas and Oscar put the kids through the paces, and as incentives the top students get to assist them on photo shoots. That’s where I come in. For the first shoot, my crew and I trucked out to Bloomfield NJ on one of the hottest days of the year to set up a fantasy hair shoot in a third-floor walk-up, un-airconditioned Salsa Dance Studio. Here is some of the fun that ensued…..

My assistants Vivian Alban and Alex Minkin stand in for the models…

Kaz and I on set…

Hair stylist Thomas McKiver checks how things are looking…

The video and sound crew guys…

Don’t stare at the hair…don’t stare at the hair…..

Try not to mix up the model’s names…

Tall, skinny models on set, please…

Happy models…

…and happy students…

And here is some of how it all looked in the end…

Lauren B…

Roz…

Song of the Day

THE PACK A.D.
Sirens

DOWNLOAD: Sirens

The Pack A.D. (After Death, I’m told) are a couple of hard-hitting gals from Vancouver who have been doin’ the White Stripes guitar/drum thang for a few years and have picked up a pretty impressive following along the way. That might have something to do with their playing a mind-numbing 157 live shows in one year, or it could just be that people finally wanna hear real music again instead of whatever chart-topping crap Rihanna trotted out this week! Their fourth album, Unpersons, is gonna drop September 13th and they just leaked this fuzzy, gritty, sweaty little gem. This is prototypical garage-rock, so comparisons to the White Stripes are kinda obvious, but when they veer off into a more bluesy zone, drummer Maya Miller and guitarist/vocalist Becky Black have a lot of folks also thinking of Black Keys, Soledad Brothers, and even the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion! I just know I’m gonna give a listen on September 13th when that album comes out! Check out The Pack A.D. on their website