Rubin Recommends

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

I met Nick Helderman my first week in New York when he was in town shooting Dutch bands during CMJ in 2008. Since then I’ve had the good fortune of visiting him in Amsterdam and seeing his joint exhibition with Shawn Brackbill as part of Le Guess Who? in Utrecht. The Handsome Dutchman (as he’s known by his American friends) is in high demand these days for his music and documentary photography. You can check out his work at www.nickhelderman.com.

Lane: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Helderman: In 2008 I photographed Ethiopian saxophone player Getatchew Mekuria and Dutch improv/punk band The Ex on a tour through Washington DC, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago and New York, and I recently showed these photos in Utrecht and Groningen (The Netherlands). Both were amazing exhibits. The one in Groningen is part the Popview 2010 exhibit and will move to London and probably Berlin later this year.

Right now I’m working on a plan to actually travel to Ethiopia and meet up with all these great musicians for a photo project. This has been getting me pretty excited lately.

Lane: Where have you traveled this month or recently?

Helderman: I recently went to New York for CMJ and got to stay at a friend’s place for a couple of days, which gave me the time to do stuff such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, and walking on the Brooklyn Bridge (haha). Next month I’m going to Stockholm in Sweden for a week or so to stay with friends, and hopefully SXSW in Austin. Really looking forward to that.

Lane: What’s your favorite music right now?

Helderman: That question instantly makes me black out, same thing as walking into a record store. But right now I think that would be Dungen, Sleepy Sun (their new album is going to be amazing), Patrick Watson, Kurt Vile, Mahmoud Ahmed, Animal Collective, Megafaun and Tune Yards.

Lane: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Helderman: Last weekend I went to Café Bern in Amsterdam and they had a delicious cheese fondue. It just added another dimension of quality to the whole cheese fondue concept. I don’t remember eating anything in New York that wasn’t good, but the cheese fondue just beats it.

Lane: Anything else you want to mention?

Helderman: Yes! You should listen to this new song that The Ex just released on 7 inch. First release with Arnold de Boer on guitar/vocals after G.W. Sok left in 2008. It’s such an amazing song.

My Year of Mixtapes is Chicago-based DJ/producer Chrissy Murderbot’s heroic attempt to do one mixtape a week for a year. So far, so good.

His knowledge of obscure genres, their history and the connections between seemingly disparate artists is truly impressive. Who else is doing killer mixes of Kraftwerk, UK Rave from 1991 AND Bobby Orlando? Probably no one. Personally favorites of mine are Week 26: Classic Ragga Jungle and Week 36: Italo-Disco. And Week 32: Weed Songs is well-suited for those special times.

Chrissy’s own work as a DJ and producer can be found at murderbot.com. He also runs Sleazetone records – purveyors of highly sleazy tunes.

A beautiful photo essay by Ryan McGinley of the 2010 Winter Olympics shot for the New York Times featuring Hannah Kearney, Kelly Clark, Johnny Weir, Jeret Peterson and others.

View the photography of New York based photographer Jeff Lurker. His blog Stealing Horses has some beautiful shots on it as well.

PS. I was listening to Yeasayer‘s new record Odd Blood while looking at these. Try it, it will make sense. (via Booooooom)

(If they have a STAR by them, it means I’ve heard it and I like it. Album title links go to Amazon. If I miss any good releases, please add them in the comments.)

For all your MP3 needs purchase from iTunes or Amazon.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3 >> Yeasayer – Ambling Alp

MUSIC:
Beach Fossils: Daydream (iTunes)
Best Coast: Something in the Way (vinyl) (iTunes)
Hot Chip: One Life Stand (CD & DVD) (iTunes)
Massive Attack: Heligoland (iTunes)
Phantogram: Eyelid Movies (iTunes)
Yeasayer: Odd Blood (vinyl) * (iTunes)

DVD:
A Serious Man

View the beautiful photography of London based photographer Hin Chua.

(Part of The Weekly Check In series)

Here’s the first installment of a Weekly Check In with another Rubin in the world (who I’m not related to). Jeff Rubin is a funny guy. I’ve been enjoying his stuff on Collegehumor for some time now, enjoy his stand up and his newest show Bleep Bloop (a show about video games).

Name: Jeff Rubin
Location: New York
Age: 28
Occupation: Editor of CollegeHumor.com
Websites: http://jeffrubinjeffrubin.com / http://www.collegehumor.com/bleepbloop

Rubin: What are you currently working on or just finished that you’re excited about?

Jeff Rubin: One of the nice things about the website is we’re always working on a few different things. We just had Chuck Klosterman, who is one of my favorite writers, on my videogame show Bleep Bloop and we’re almost done editing. I can’t wait to post that. I wrote a few scripts that are going to be videos soon (including an Electric Slide parody) so that’s always exciting. We’re currently plotting a CollegeHumor Live event at the Gramercy Theater for February. It’s the biggest venue we’ve ever done by ourselves, so that’s going to be a lot of fun.

Rubin: Where have you traveled this month or recently?

Jeff Rubin: We just did a live show in Notre Dame which is great. We’ve got a show at the end of the month in Utah, so I’m hoping to spend some time in Zion national park.

Rubin: What’s your favorite music right now?

Jeff Rubin: It’s always fun when someone asks that. I’ve been listening to nothing but MF Doom (who I only recently discovered) and Rod Stewart.

Rubin: Best food you’ve had in your neighborhood lately or while you were traveling?

Jeff Rubin: I try to do a bit of pizza tourism anywhere I go and on a recent trip to San Francisco I recently tried Tony’s (in North Beach). It wasn’t just a good pie for San Francisco (a wonderful town cursed with bad pizza), it was a great pie for anywhere.

Rubin: Anything else you want to mention?

Jeff Rubin: Rod Stewart is good! Really! He had some of the best musicians of the era on his early solo albums, and his work with The Faces and the Jeff Beck Group is criminally underrated.

I like what I’ve heard so far from this Brooklyn, NY band Keepaway. (And maybe I heard the whole EP because I knew a guy who knew a guy and I really really like it. So be on the lookout when it gets it’s proper release.) Yes they remind you of Animal Collective but there’s something else going on that’s not just straight up the same.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3 >> Keepaway – Yellow Wings

Find out more at Myspace.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3>> Midlake – Acts Of Man MP3

(If they have a STAR by them, it means I’ve heard it and I like it. Album title links go to Amazon. If I miss any good releases, please add them in the comments.)

For all your MP3 needs purchase from iTunes or Amazon.

The Album Leaf: A Chorus of Storytellers
Fela Kuti: Live With Ginger Baker
Lil Wayne: Rebirth (deluxe edition with bonus tracks)
Madlib & Guilty Simpson: Madlib Medicine Show 1
Midlake: The Courage of Others *
Mount Eerie: Black Wooden *
Pierced Arrows: Descending Shadows (vinyl)
Priestess: Prior to the Fire (vinyl)
Toro Y Moi: Causers of This (vinyl) *
U.S. Girls: Go Grey
Vedera: Stages

MOVIES:
Zombieland *

Well if that’s what they wanted, I really don’t know much about Cloud Nothings except I love their debut record Turning On, his name is Dylan, he’s from Cleveland and he was in a band called Cat Killer before this.

“The debut of Cleveland, Ohio’s Cloud Nothings is an incredibly catchy and nostalgic 8 song full-length album. Solo bedroom pop punk overflowing with infectious guitar riffs harmonizing perfectly with addicting vocal melodies. Expect big things from this kid! First edition of 100 cassettes and second edition of 100 CDs.” (from the Bridgetown Records website)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3>> Cloud Nothings – Can’t Stay Awake

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MP3>> Cloud Nothings – Hey Cool Kid

Buy the record at Bridgetown Records on Cassette or CD.
Listen to more and check out the upcoming tour dates at Myspace.