MORE THAN JUST A BAND

Just A Band - Usinibore

MUSIC - Just A Band is a Kenyan band destined for global stardom. Their music is a mix of house, funk, and disco with a hint of electro. The band is made up of Bill "Blinky" Sellanga, Dan Muli and Jim Chuchu.

We could write about how amazing these guys are, but well there’s no need. Watch the video get ‘jiggy’ and enjoy this absolute banger on a Friday.

Check out their YouTube channel for all of their videos - www.youtube.com/justabandwidth

joes[a]fiend

IAM1 LOOK BOOK

SNEAKERS - We do tend to get a little over excited when a courier arrives at the studio bearing a package. Even more so when you know you haven't bought anything recently and they're not returning your broken iPhone.

The package in question was the beautifully produced IAM1 look book [limited to a production run of 100]. The look book contains stills from the IAM1 videos and profiles of the IAM1 artists including INSA. Taking a look through the book only reinforced how much we love the tilt-shift technique which is used in the stop-motion videos for the IAM1 campaign. The image above has been created using the techhnique, making the Pompidou Centre look like a model.

We took some pictures of our favourite spreads, they're on our Flickr page, click here to take a peek.

joes[a]fiend

REAL MEN DO REAL WORK

CULTURE - In an age where most people sit in front of a glowing screen pressing buttons on a keyboard, its easy to forget there are real men out there doing real work. Two of our good friends journalist Mark Smith and photographer Robin Mellor [of the 'TIS BUTS blog] got themselves down to Billingsgate's fish market and interviewed and photographed the 'real men' of the market.

Mark asked the questions and Robin took the pictures. Head over to the Guardian site to listen and watch the 'Getting up at 2am is hard on marriages - a lot of the guys haven't made it' visual and audio article. Our favourite quote from the piece was "I must admit now and then it doesn't hurt to have a Burger King".

joes[a]fiend

READ MORE. PAY LESS

PUBLISHING - It would be safe to say that we get over excited about quality printed matter. Especially the type that is free from the corporate, ad hungry giants like Condé Nast, EMAP and Bauer.

So when we were pointed towards //STACK by magCulture it resulted in a tweeting and exclamation mark frenzy!!! //STACK is similar to a well curated record club, but instead of the latest mp3s you get a selection of magazines that are all independently published. Amen.
They put it perfectly themselves:

//STACK is a unique service that brings together the best independent English language magazines from around the world and delivers them direct to your home. Beautifully made and offering an intelligent, alternative view of films, music, culture, current affairs and whatever else crosses their pages, they guarantee to bring a fresh perspective on the world.

The blog run by //STACK is a must read, the comments on the posts are well thought out and worth a look too. www.stackmagazines.com/content/blog

joes[a]fiend

THE IAM1 JOURNEY [EXCLUSIVE]

SNEAKERS - Last Thursday we paid a visit to 1948 [Nike's concept store in East London] for the launch of the IAM1 range along with an exhibition of Insa's newest work in the gallery space.

Protein® one of London's hottest creative agencies has produced this outstanding video for the launch. We were told at the event that the video is a series of stills edited together. What we like best about the video is the feeling that London is a model village patrolled by a series of worker ants. Goldielocks adds a dirty spin to with video with her accompanying track.

joes[a]fiend

PS
Make sure you check out Protein®'s website. It's a neat site that uses vivid colour beautifully and in a controlled manor - www.protein.co.uk

HAPPY LOVERS TOWN

"a typographical game where the typography becomes illustration and imprisons letters between faces, tears, eyes and false third dimensions… the letters becomes hostage of this new world. the phrase enclosed between these lines is resumption in fact from a Woody Allen film where same it explains that in case of war could have only made the hostage…"

ILLUSTRATION - Artwork by Jonathan Calugi a.k.a. Happy Lovers Town. Click on the image to see it full screen and to really appreciate the work

joes[a]fiend

POST NO BILLS

'Bill Posters Prosecuted' Signs are uglier than the actual bill posters they are there to stop. So the we are encouraging everyone to change that by making these notices beautiful. Bill Posters Project

ADVERTISING - The government in Australia have recently passed a bill to rid the urban landscape of 'undue visual pollution' or bill posters as your average Joe would call them. By passing this bill the government have added to the 'visual pollution' with their own 'Post No Bills' posters pasted over other peoples/brands posters.

So Happy Soldiers [no suprise in the fact they are an ad agency] has come to the rescue of the people of Australia and their afflicted retinas. The agency has produced a set of aesthetically pleasing versions of the traditional 'Bill Posters Prosecuted' posters. To restore the aesthetic balance back to where it should be.

You can download hi-res artwork from the Bill Posters Project Blog itself.

joes[a]fiend

LOOP THE LOOP

PUBLISHING - Whilst browsing the local bookshop at lunch joes[a]fiend came across the new Faber/Domino Records publication, Loops. The predominance of purple was a little much for such an early hour so instead of buying the paper version we made a few notes and went to the website instead. It appears that the design of the magazine works better online – the site is nice and clean with some great typography [courtesy of Wallzo]. However, much to our dismay you can only read mere snippets of most of the pieces in the magazine online [bar a piece by the young author Richard Milward] so it looks like we will have to part with our money after all.

Ps. According to the opening page there is a selection of Domino tracks to download for free if you type in the following code when prompted: DT4G7KHT. We couldn’t find it though so if any of you do please let us know!

Bill Freeman