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The MOCAtv web series "The Art of Punk" we told you about is underway and the first installment on Black Flag and Raymond Pettibon is up. Pettibon's album art and logo were key bits of iconography for his brother Greg Ginn's hardcore act in the '80s. Pettibon's often captioned, often disturbing hand-drawn black and white images undercut the return to a golden age that the Reagan years promised mainstream America. Pettibon's work also turned up on Minutemen albums, and later Sonic Youth's major label record Goo. As great and lasting as Pettibon's work (he also named the band, we learn) has been on American punks, his Black Flag logo remains a masterpiece of underground artwork, expressing an attitude in a visual code that's both rebellious, mysterious, and incredibly powerful. The video features Keith Morris, Henry Rollins, and Flea as well as Pettibon himself talking about the Black Flag band name, logo, flyers, and album art.

The Middle Mind Project, Gus Gavino's independent motion picture studio based in Chicago's Logan Square, takes an unusual approach to documenting artists, experimenting with the narrative format, and producing something contemporary and original. Today, we're debuting MMP's video on Debbie Carlos.

See more of the Middle Mind Project online in its archives Tumblr. 

See more of Carlos's work online at debbiecarlos.com

TFBTDC from Middle Mind Project on Vimeo.

In 2010 Chicago singer Willis Earl Beal published an autobiographical novella in the form of a few issues of a zine. For his contribution to Nowness' "Shorts on Sundays" series, he adapted elements of that original zine into the short film, "Principles of a Protagonist." In the six-and-a-half minute film using the same hand-drawn line aesthetic as his Acousmatic Sorcery album cover, Beal outlines the character traits that every protagonist requires. One of those principles, he explains, is the reason for his "Nobody" T-shirt and tattoo.

 

The Hill-Side and Gitman Bros. Vintage continue a healthy collab with these summer shirts, a special collection for the Hill-Side made by Gitman. The Hill-Side collection uses seven floral-printed fabrics (four from Japan, three from the States) in short-sleeve button-down summer shirts.  

The video is something special, too. It features menswear blogger James WIlson of Secret Forts trying on (or peeling off) all seven shirts in photos taken with disposable cameras.

The Hill-Side x Gitman Bros. Vintage summer shirts are available at hickorees.com and online menswear retailers such as shoppenelopes.com and unionmadegoods.com or needsupply.com

The Hill-Side + Gitman Vintage Summer Shirts from The Hill-Side on Vimeo.

 

Bryan Ray Turcotte, founder of Kill Your Idols which published the authoritative volume on punk flyers, Fucked Up + Photocopied, has collaborated with Los Angeles MOCA for a new web series called "The Art of Punk." The episodes feature interviews with Raymond Pettibon, who created the bars logo and album cover art for his brother Greg Ginn's band Black Flag, as well as punk luminaries Flea, Henry Rollins, Jello Biafra, Keith Morris, and more.

The three-part series begins with Black Flag on June 11, but in the meantime check out the trailer below to see Flea on the toilet talking about art and action coming together, as well as details about the L.A. premiere at MOCA this Thursday, June 6. 




The Middle Mind Project, Gus Gavino's independent motion picture studio based in Chicago's Logan Square, takes an unusual approach to documenting artists, experimenting with the narrative format, and producing something contemporary, refreshing, and original. Nothing Major is thrilled to present some of our favorites from the series which has included Ray Noland, The Post Family, and Plural

See more of the Middle Mind Project online in its archives Tumblr. 

Today, we're featuring MMP's video on Veronica Corzo-Duchardt ("Cuban-American artist, designer, teacher, and collector of things") and her Winterbureau design studio. Corzo-Duchardt (who has MFAs from the SAIC in Visual Communications and Writing) designed for V2 Records, Surface, ENK International, and Sony Music. Side note from the director: "The low voice you hear throughout the piece (starting at 00:57) is her grandfather speaking to her. At the end of the film you hear them saying they love each other before saying goodbye. It's from an audio recording she did with him some years ago."

 

Look for a MMP video premiere on Nothing Major soon.

For some of us the aughties were all about the emergence, or re-emergence, of dance punk (summed up by James Murphy as "live drums and synthesizers") and no one did it better than DFA, the New York record label founded by James Murphy, Tim Goldsworthy, and the often unsung Jonathan Galkin. Directed by Max Joseph, the vid does a nice tidy job of summing up the label and its sound, artists, and attitude with brevity and a sense of humor—and also gives us a gimpse inside the label offices and studio.

For the first music video from his upcoming metal album, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei recreated scenes from his 81-day imprisonment in 2011 on a set modeled after his actual jail cell. The video depicts some humiliating moments from his imprisonment, such as a forced shower in front of guards accompanied by a head shaving, as well as a bizarre drag sequence. Australian cinematographer Chrisopher Doyle shot the nightmarish clip, which has already been banned in China, as has the search term "Ai Weiwei." [via BBC]

As a way to welcome visitors to his much larger thesis project examining the world of elaborately decorated Indian truck art, Shantanu Suman created a series of music boxes that recreate the variety of musical horns truck drivers use in India. 

The unique horns aren't just a vanity addition to vehicles. In India, nearly every truck bears a form of the message "Horn Please" to ask other drivers to extend a courtesy honk before passing. After realizing the custom led to hundreds of trucks beeping at once, drivers began to modulate horns to sound more pleasing when heard together. The result is a kind of random mobile sound installation composed of many horns of different tones.

To create the music box introduction to his project, Suman first laser cut the typography and ornamentation, then painted each box by hand. [via UnderConsideration]

Check out more of Suman's "Project Horn Please" online. Watch the trailer for his documentary of the same name and a clip of the horns in action below. 









In 2013, there's both a FLAG and a Black Flag touring and playing Black Flag songs—we won't get into who's putting on the better show. But it was FLAG, featuring former Black Flag members Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson, and Dez Cadena (as well as Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton), that returned to the scene of the band's first ever gig on January 27, 1979, the Moose Lodge #1873 in Redondo Beach, CA for a semi-secret show. FLAG blazed through a 40-minute set at the secret gig, and just this week, lucky for us, professionally shot and edited footage of the show has hit the Internet. In the fight for the legacy of the iconic punk act, FLAG certainly won this battle, if not the war.