GelaSkins | What's the Skinny?

Art On - Vol. 2 with Chuck Trunks

Working for years in a secret underground lab somewhere below Camarillo, California engineering some of the deadliest half-man, half-sea otters the world has ever seen, Chuck Trunks has taken a few minutes out of this day to talk with me about, well, Chuck Trunks.

If you don't know Chuck is one of many fantastic artists in our powerhouse family of craftspeople (and responsible for Endless Summer and Deal Breakers) , whom until just very recently was making art on the side. He's backing his artistic side full time now and I had a chance to catch up with him....

In An Interstellar Burst, They're Back To Save The Earth....

The greatest band in the known universe released their 7th album today much to the chagrin of record execs everywhere. Team Awesome, also known as Radiohead, have decided to ram the system by offering In Rainbows via download from their website. There's essentially two ways you can get your hands on this new DRM-free album;

1) pay-what-you-bloody-well-feel-like type arrangement - Including free~! **I'm fairly sure this elicited a collective pant crapping from major labels everywhere**

2)  Pre-ordering a $84 discbox that includes Two pieces of 180 gram vinyl, 2 discs and hard covered book with art and and other randomness that one might find in the liner notes of a Radiohead album.  The discbox also includes a seemingly whole other album's worth of material, many of the tracks that were in fact debuted during their summer tour in 2006.

Here's the track listing:

1. "15 Step" – 3:57
2. "Bodysnatchers" – 4:02
3. "Nude" – 4:15
4. "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" – 5:18
5. "All I Need" – 3:48
6. "Faust Arp" – 2:09
7. "Reckoner" – 4:50
8. "House of Cards" – 5:28
9. "Jigsaw Falling into Place" – 4:09
10. "Videotape" – 4:39

Second disc to be released with the DiscBox
 

1. "MK 1"
2. "Down Is the New Up"
3. "Go Slowly"
4. "MK 2"
5. "Last Flowers"
6. "Up on the Ladder"
7. "Bangers and Mash"
8. "4 Minute Warning"

I've had the opportunity to listen to this baby a few times today and I feel very confident in giving it many, many thumbs up. It's instantly more accessible that either of their previous 3 records (all of which I love, but which took me some time to get into). In Rainbows benefits greatly from Jonny Greenwoods recent pairing with the BBC Orchestra as the Composer in Residence as it displays it's weaving melodies and swelling strings brilliantly. Radiohead seem to have taken a departure from the madhouse of effects they've been so heavily leaning on for the last 6-7 years, but have maintained the fullness in sound with help from, in no doubt, Nigel Goderich. The wünderkind producer of Thom Yorke's solo effort The Eraser  and the band's 1997 swan song, Ok Computer, has made a wonderful mix of acoustic instrumentation with assorted diminished variance of blips and bleeps, pianos and dirty distorted guitar hooks as one comes to expect from the boys.

I love this record, this band and everything they stand for. Way to take it to the next level... I can't wait to see what happens next....

Here's a few selections for you to either download or listen to...

15 Step

Faust ARP

Reckoner

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

UPDATE (10/12/07): I read today that someone that knows someone that took care of Thom Yorke's cat when they were on tour has reported that 1.2 million people downloaded their latest offering in 24 hours.

Yes.

Can you hear that? That's the sound of the record companies, rocking back and forth, crying themselves to sleep....   

 

From the DL to the New Hotness

Thanks to all you folk that came out to say hey at the Digital Life show last week in NYC. We had so much love thrown at us, it was nuts! Gotta love New Yorkers :)

We also picked a winner for our Digital Life exclusive iPod Touch give away and that lucky person was Dianne Lobo! Congrats Dianne! 

Now you maybe asking yourself " Well, if they're giving away an iPod Touch, why don't they have skins for it or any of the new iPods?"

Here's what we might say to that...

1) If you can hang on until next week, I think you'll be some very happy campers.

2) It's not good to ask yourself too many questions, especially if anyone is watching you, they may think you're crazy.

We also released  3 new skins from 3 very awesome artists... check out Monsters , Roma and Fuel.

Dig it.