PJH Studios

Author: Patrick

  • Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig

    Carolina Chocolate Drops’ album 51F2l76c-YL._SL160_.jpgGenuine Negro Jig is a throwback, reviving traditional country, bluegrass string and jug music. It begins with an instrumental led by a fiddle that sets the tone for the remaining tracks–music from an era that mp3s forgot. Simple, direct and earnest, the album includes a mix of originals and traditionals. The originals, such as Hit ’em Up Style, Kissin’ and Cussin’ and Trampled Rose feel almost contemporary. Hit ’em Up Style has a hip hop beat and emphatic delivery as the fiddle carries the song. Kissin’ and Cussin’ has a sultry vibe with Rhiannon Giddens delivery. The traditional tracks, Cornbread and Butterbeans, Trouble In Your Mind and Snowden’s Jig are playful, energetic and spirted.

    Stand out tracks:

    • Trouble in Your Mind – fun and spirited
    • Hit ’em Up Style – most contemporary track on the album
    • Cornbread and Butterbeans – catchy banjo and homely lyrics
    • Kissin’ and Cussin’ – great delivery
    • Why Don’t You Do Right – great vocals

  • Brandon Flowers – Flamingo

    Brandon Flowers’ solo album, Flamingo, is a good, solid collection of tracks. With Las Vegas as his back drop, flowers tells stories of those to succumb or persevere in the bright lights. He varies the tempo and pacing of the album, beginning with a soaring Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas and kicks it up with Only the Young. At 41 minutes and 10 tracks, the album feels like a first act with Swallow It feeling like an impromptu closer.

    Stand out tracks:

    • Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas – it sounds like an anthem, but it’s a cynical, rocking ballad of the excesses of Las Vegas
    • Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts – sounds like something Bon Jovi would do
    • Was It Something I Said? – a punk pop ditty with a good beat and catchy lyrics

  • Movie Bar Codes

    Slice a frame from a movie, stitch ’em together, you’d get something that resembles a bar code. A bar code that illustrates the color palate of the film. Here’s Singin’ in The Rain.

    tumblr_lhp031ycnm1qhtovi.jpg

    Prints are for sale, too.

  • Social Distortion – Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes

    Some thoughts on Social Distortion’s latest,
    Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes:

    Mostly sounds like garage rock with some bluesy riffs. Not too many punk chord progressions.

    Stand out tracks: Alone & Forsaken (direct and punky), Still Alive (closer, anthemic), Bakersfield (6.5 minute bluesy guitar anthem story)

    Some songs go on too long, with half the tracks clocking in over 4 minutes, and 4 songs head over the 5 minute mark.

  • A rock show at your house

    If bands/artists playing intimate shows to 50 people at someone’s house is a trend, that’s a trend I can fully support.

    “It was at my friend Bodie’s small apartment in Boulder, and Joe Pug was playing,” said Browne, who writes and edits the popular website Fuel/ Friends. “There were probably 40 people in a tiny one- bedroom apartment. But the energy in there, being so close to Joe when he sang, really startled and impressed me. It was almost uncomfortable how intimate it was.”

  • Designing a Photograph – Bill Smith

    Designing a Photograph: Visual Techniques for Making Your Photographs Work by Bill Smith takes a designer’s view of to a photograph. Visually, what makes something interesting or engaging, and apply it to a photograph. Smith makes the argument of knowing how to pay attention to groups of visuals. These visuals include:

    • Figure ground
    • selective focus
    • similar color
    • closure
    • continuation
    • similar size and shape
    • similar texture
    • object proximity

    The book includes exercises for the reader to perform (shoot in bursts, look at a subject a variety of different ways). Later in the book, Smith details when black and white works better or if color is optimal. Consider contrast and tones and how light affects both.

    Images do have f stop and lens information for those curious of technical details.

    Designing feels dated, even for 2001, retaining sample images taken with Kodachrome. Kodachrome is dead, and even in 2001 was gasping its final breaths. Ignoring that, applying a designer’s eye to photography can help tremendously with composition and achieving the desired impact.

  • PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

    PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake contains numerous songs, full of atmosphere and reverb. Some vocals don’t seem to make it through all the layers of production. The only standout track, to me, is On Battleship Hill, but only because it feels tribal, like something Enya would do. Not really impressed with this album.

  • Cage the Elephant – Thank You Happy Birthday

    Cage the Elephant’s Thank You Happy Birthday takes you on a roller coaster ride through an amalgam of 90s rock. In the layers of drums, guitars, bass and slightly nasal vocals, you’ll hear influences of the Pixies who experimented with sonic textures; effect laden guitars, ala Smashing Pumpkins; simple chord structures in the vein of Blink 182; lyrics that resemble Oasis penchant for imagery.

    Always Something leads the album off with a slightly electronica track with a cynical take on modern life–catching your girl with another guy, violence against a homeless guy. Modern stuff. Aberdeen has the first catchy hook on the disc as it builds into a shout about a girl. Indy Kidz is driven by frenetic vocals and sawing guitars with the song building to a Rage Against the Machine like spoken word outtro. Shake Me Down seems to be the lone misfire on the album with no memorable hook. 2024 feels like something Blink 182 would do if they were serious about life. Sell Yourself is an angry more primal, cynical commentary on people selling themselves for a quick buck. Then the album drops in tempo to a warbling ballad, Rubber Ball about trying hard to do good things. With Right Before My Eyes, Around My Head, Japanese Buffalo and Flow… you’re in the final stretch of the ride, where each song will remind you of something you’ve heard before.

    Lastly, after the closing track, the band offers a more down beat take on Right Before My Eyes, where the slower, ballad like tempo fit the lyrics better.

  • Some Kind of Trouble – James Blunt

    Some Kind Of Trouble by James Blunt is offensively bland. Nasal, sugary, signer songer writer pop that all sounds annoyingly similar.

  • 100 days – a design challenge

    Michael Bierut has challenged students at Yale to perform a “design operation” for 100 days.   

    The only restrictions on the operation you choose is that it must be repeated in some form every day, and that every iteration must be documented for eventual presentation. The medium is open, as is the final form of the presentation on the 100th day.

    An additional challenge I see, beyond solving the design problem of the day is having the perseverance, especially through the traditional Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years’ holidays. Being creative and getting something done are two separate things. Doing both, together, for 100 days is a feat. And these exercises are more than a picture a day or a self portrait a day. They have purpose, utility or function.