Image of the Day

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Serge and Jane. Photograph by Tony Frank.

Image of the Day

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Jane Birkin photographed by Ezra Petronio for the new issue of Self Service Magazine. Age ain't nothin' but a number.

Histoire de Serge

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Trailer for Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

Comic book artist Joann Sfar interprets the life of ’60s pop star Serge Gainsbourg (née Lucien Ginsburg to Russian- Jewish parents),1928–1991, beginning with his childhood years in Nazi-occupied Paris, through his early years as a painter and jazz musician (brushing shoulders with Boris Vian), to his life as a wildly popular singer-songwriter, notorious bon vivant, and lover of some of the world’s most glamorous women. Gainsbourg’s two-sided personality (narcissistic and self-loathing) and his over-the-top antics with Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta), Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon), and beatnik icon Juliette Gréco (Anna Mouglalis) share the screen with a giant puppet alter-ego: a scary, libidinous bad-boy who personifies all of Gainsbourg’s worst proclivities. Featuring many of the musician’s greatest hits, with Eric Elmosnino as Gainsbourg and, in a cameo, Claude Chabrol as his record producer. Never have so many Gauloises been smoked to such great effect.

If you're in New York, it's showing for two weeks starting tonight at Film Forum. It comes to Seattle in October, and other cities can find their dates here.

The Ant Farm

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Reason no. 86,078 to read the Obituaries section of the New York Times:

Milton M. Levine, 97, inventor of the Ant Farm. I always wanted one of those things and never got one. Someone had to invent that idea for it to exist and his name was Milt Levine.

The thing I like about reading the obituaries, and I know I've said this before, is that you get to read about ordinary people who in the course of their lives did extraordinary things – or even just one extraordinary thing. But maybe they also had a crummy childhood, went to war, figured some stuff out, moved around, worked a bunch of places, had some kids, failed, succeeded. It's interesting to read about people's whole lives – regular or famous – after they're over.



Reason no. 99,123: John Barry, who died last week at the age of 77. The dude composed the music for (among many others) Midnight Cowboy, Body Heat, and all the James Bond films until they started sucking. Before that he was married to Jane Birkin.

Exactly.

Anyway I think it's pretty fascinating to look back on a person's entire life, almost no matter who the person is. If you don't think that's morbid you can read more obituaries here. Also interesting is a 2008 interview with obituary writer Bruce Weber.

Image of the Day

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Jane Birkin, late '60s, photographer regrettably unknown

Two Jane Birkin records I designed this year for Light in the Attic Records got a nice write-up at The Moment earlier this week (not that I am mentioned, but as any read of this blog knows, I hold the New York Times in such generally high regard that I'm always happy when they discuss something I'm in any way attached to... and I figure they probably don't hate the design if they feel it's worthy of coverage). Anyway. Click here to read and go to lightintheattic.net for music.

Di Doo Dah

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Light in the Attic is on a roll. Their latest release (with design by yours truly) is a re-issue of Jane Birkin's extremely rare 1973 debut solo album, Di Doo Dah. Written entirely by Serge Gainsbourg with arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier, it reads like a sequel to "Je T'Aime...Moi, Non Plus" but, in my humble opinion, delves into deeper and more subtle territory musically. Visit lightintheattic.net to hear sound clips and order on gatefold LP or CD.

Serge & Jane

Re-issue projects take a long time – I've been working on this one with Light in the Attic Records for several months and it's finally in stores today!

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg's self-titled 1969 album features the smoldering cut "Je T'Aime...Moi, Non Plus" among many others.

As a bonus, the LP version comes with this re-issue of an extremely rare 45 featuring the title cut from the equally smoldering film Slogan.


Visit lightintheattic.net to listen and buy Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg on CD or hand-numberd, limited gatefold LP.

Image of the Day

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Jane Birkin photos by Tony Frank, from a project I'm working on for Light in the Attic Records... more later.

Made Me Look

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Some photos from my recent quick trip to NY...

My brother's bulletin board

Laundromat in Park Slope

Crombie, taking meetings in the Shark Bar.

Cable-knit top tube pad

Blenheim Ginger Ale at Jones. I recommend ordering one of these after you eat your brunch.

Botched self-portrait with J. Ralph Phillips and Chad, at Union Pool

Jane B.

His & Hers

Log bench at Droog. Basically this is a big log with seatbacks attached to it. The thing is, some rich person will buy this and put it in their loft in Tribeca – and the juxtaposition would be cool – but for the rest of us, it's just an idea that we could emulate or be inspired by ourselves. That's one thing I really like about Droog, you get the feeling they don't care if people buy the stuff, they just want to think up cool ideas and try them out.

The "D" fell off my brother's coat but the FDNY was out of "D" patches, so they replaced it with an "O." The day I got there, Sky had a 2-alarm fire and smelled like smoke when he got home. The day after I left there was a 7-alarm in Chinatown. Pretty crazy.

Do I Sound Like A Musical Robot?

Neck Face Book

Paper of Record

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Tomorrow is RECORD STORE DAY 2010. If you have a chance, you might consider heading down to your favorite local purveyor(s) of analog audio goodness to pick up releases produced exclusively for the event. Hit up recordstoreday.com for participating stores.

This year for RSD, Light In The Attic is releasing a special Rodriguez gatefold 7" (which I designed). You can't tell from the image but the type and the frame around the photo are silver foil-stamped.

We also did issue No.2 of the Light In The Attic zine. It's 7" square with a cover illustration of Kris Kristofferson by Drew Christie. The page-count is a little lower than issue No. 1, but it's jam-packed with useful info:

Emily interviews Betty Davis about her modeling career and status as a fashion icon (more about that in a later post).

Charles Peterson talks to Jini Dellacio about her photographs of legendary Northwest garage bands such as The Sonics and The Wailers.

Andy Beta interviews Miss Jane B. about her time with Serge Gainsbourg and what that was like. Light In The Attic has a couple Jane Birkin projects coming up that I'm way psyched about.

Kris Kristofferson and Charlie Louvin have a quick convo about old-time country and being, you know, legends.

There's also an excerpt from Andria Lisle's liner notes for the forthcoming Jim Sullivan release, and articles on or by Lou Bond, Gabor Szabo, Rodriguez, Kearney Barton, and more.

So: look out for that at your local record store tomorrow, and enjoy your weekend.

Zut Alors!

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The Quarterly Disorderly is moving to Bastille!

Come to Ballard next Tuesday night!
If you live in Ballard: stay in Ballard next Tuesday night!
I'm playing records (French and otherwise) with Matthew, Spyridon and Alex again for the third installment in our occasional old-guy DJ series. This time it's in the back bar at Bastille. Here are the details:

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2010
After work, 6pm-11pm

BASTILLE
5307 Ballard Ave NW - Seattle WA
No cover charge, great drinks and snacks, rustically chic atmosphere. You'll fit right in – see you there.

Fresh Out of Idaho

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It may be true that the best things in life aren't things, but records don't count. Here's a little playlist of some joints I picked up during our recent trip to Moscow.

*Fresh Borstal mp3
Outlaw Blues Band Deep Gully mp3
*Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg Je T'aime Moi Non Plus mp3
Steven Halpern Taurus mp3
Jimmy Heath Smilin' Billy mp3
*Gas Mask Refugee mp3
Cold Crush Bros vs. Fantastic Freaks Basketball Throwdown mp3
7th Wonder Daisy Lady mp3
Henry "Buzz" Glass Come Play the Stick Game mp3
*Henry Mancini Police Woman mp3
*Kid Dynamite Uphill Piece of Mind mp3
L.A. Sounds Hangin' On the Telephone mp3
Romeo Void Never Say Never mp3
The Osmonds My Drum mp3
The Bob Seger System Doctor Fine mp3
Whitewater G Minor Breakdown mp3
The Wailers Seattle mp3
*Peggy Lee Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay mp3
Double Trouble Stoop Rap mp3

*Duplicates, so if anyone needs 'em, let me know and maybe we can work out a trade.

(Click the images to enlarge.)

Image of the Day

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Since today has been all music. Jane Birkin and the Beatles at Cannes, 1968 [ via Chained and Perfumed ]

For the Record

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For the past several months I've been working with Seattle's Light in the Attic Records on a bunch of different projects (including a forthcoming re-design of their website). One of the most fun things I've had the pleasure of designing for the label is this zine, a free promo produced for International Record Store Day, which is tomorrow. The zine is 7.25" square, like a 45 record jacket, and b&w newsprint with a color cover. Inside there are a variety of features on artists that Light in the Attic works with, such as Serge Gainsbourg, Betty Davis, Karen Dalton, Monks, Rodriguez, Doug Randle, Stephen John Kalinich, The Mighty Pope, Kearney Barton and all the artists involved in Wheedle's Groove, the Seattle funk & soul compilations. There are interviews with the label heads and KEXP's Greg Vandy wrote a great piece about re-issues and radio. The cover, above, was illustrated by the very talented Drew Christie. Here are some of the inside spreads:

Karen Dalton (with an article by Lenny Kaye)

Monks (with an article faxed in by Jello Biafra).

Wheedle's Groove (Seattle funk and soul)

Serge Gainsbourg. Actually the bottom two spreads, of Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin during the making of Histoire de Melody Nelson, which Light in the Attic just re-issued, didn't make it into the final zine because of rights issues…oh well.

Rodriguez. I love those photos of him hanging out with kids in Detroit.

Betty Davis, with an article by Jeff Chang. That bottom photo looks like it could be by Scavullo but I'm not sure who took it. I'm also working on two upcoming Betty Davis releases – one with artwork by the famous fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez. More on that later.

TOC/masthead featuring Betty Davis

The back cover features Drew's illustration of Light in the Attic world HQ, which is in an old hotel on Seattle's beautiful/infamous Aurora Avenue. Label founder Matt Sullivan even has a pool and jacuzzi attached to his office through a sliding door – it's pretty fly.

Anyway, there it is – visit your favorite local record store tomorrow and snap it up.

A History Of Lovers

Today sees the first-ever American issue of Serge Gainsbourg's best record, the classic Histoire de Melody Nelson – a must-have if it's not in your collection already. Light in the Attic has really gone the distance to make this one the definitive re-release, with a 40-page CD booklet, full lyrics, an extended 1971 interview with Gainsbourg, and, of course, re-mastered sound from the original tapes. Vinyl is limited to 2000 copies and I'm sure it will go quickly.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the original several years ago, but one should never pass up an opportunity to celebrate Serge and Jane, so last Friday night Emily and I popped Slogan into the DVD player and subsequently had our minds blown. Birkin and Gainsbourg met and fell in love during the filming of the movie in 1969, and their chemistry onscreen is irrepressible. The styling and color are things of great beauty; the music is, to borrow a word from James Lipton, sublime. Have a look:



The soundtrack is now firmly implanted at the top of my want list, and a smartly re-issued DVD is available immediately from Cinema Retro.