Tag Archives: the xx

[musicmonday] Music Video Collaboration

Hey guys, I did hair, makeup and costumes for this music video! Check it out.

Chieftain (Austin Hafer) is a friend of mine with whom I worked on Edge of the Woods back in January. Kelsey Kopecky is a wonderful singer/songwriter of The Kopecky Family Band and Feather and Belle.

The rest of the crew included several other people that I worked with on EOTW:

Director/Cinematographer/Post Production – Ben Walter
Production Manager – Andrew Callicott
Set Decoration – Taylor Glazier
Prop Manager – Julius Amaker
Key Grip/Still Photographer – Max Ridgeway
Grip – John Thomy
1st Team Assistant – Caroline Hafer

THE VIDEO CAME TOGETHER BEAUTIFULLY, and I am very pleased and impressed with the result! The song has a mellow, smooth vibe reminiscent of The XX (who I wrote about a few months ago btw). The full album will be out soon on iTunes.

It was a pleasure working with everyone, and I hope we get to work together again soon. Chances are, I’ll be seeing several of them on this project.

[musicmonday] What I’m listening to and why you should too

Okay, so I don’t have anything terribly exciting to share with you today – no reviews (rave or otherwise) and no summaries of awesome musical adventures (sorry, I’m not Zac Efron for chrissake). BUT I would like to share with you a couple of the bands that I’ve recently been exploring. They are not new by any means, but I guess we can term them “new to me.”

First: The XX
Who are they: London-based indie-rock band formed in 2005

What I like about them: their music is chill but mostly upbeat, and the female vocalist is vaguely reminiscent of Beth Gibbons’ voice from Portishead (who’s coming to Montreal in October btw). In fact, they’re kind of like a modern, lighter, pop-ier Portishead to me.

What I don’t like about them: Their songs all start to sound the same after a while. If you listen to their album (self-titled) all the way through, you will start to wonder if it’s just one song on loop. It happened to me a few times.

A couple of my favorites from them:

Second: The Breeders
Who are they: American alternative rock band formed in 1988 with Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tonya Donelly of Throwing Muses.

What I like about them: Cannonball. Which has been used in like 14378392 movies. But really, it’s good. Their ability to have a female singer without sounding like The Donnas. Also, their slightly-more-accessible-than-The-Pixies alt rock sound. Harmonizing.

What I don’t like about them: They formed the year I was born. Which makes me feel like a baby. Also, I can only handle so much alt rock at once.

A couple favorites:


(this one feels very Dinosaur Jr-y, does it not?)