We recently finished a couple of posters and realized that they were somewhat related, both featuring women with superpowers of one sort or another. Must be all of the Twilight Zone episodes we’ve been watching lately? I will say that I am personally drawn towards the surreal, the strange, and the mystic, just outside of the realms of our understanding. So are these ladies, apparently.
First is this Prefuse 73 poster we did for Applied Pressure (we have the pleasure of being their official design house, so we get to work on a bunch of rad shows as a result). With this one we decided to try some different techniques than usual, more focusing on directly photo manipulation and overlays.
Then, we just finished up this Crystal Method poster for the Beauty Ballroom. This ended up being a really fun project as the whole time I was working on it, I was thinking about how excited the 17-year-old me would be about the 29-year-old me making it, as I was a big techno baby when I was a teenager and definitely loved The Crystal Method. It’s funny how things work out that way… all I know now, is that I would love to be able to make this into a screen print someday.
We recently finished a video for Derek Roger‘s upcoming LP, Saturations, which from what we’ve heard so far is absolutely beautiful and we can’t wait to get a physical copy. This video is for an edit of the 14 minute track Apparent Weight, a soft and swelling masterpiece that feels like giant clouds, rumbling vibrations, and someplace far off, somewhere on the brink.
This video also serves as a welcome return to the video medium for us, and we can’t wait to start working on and unveiling more projects using moving images. Watch this space.
Saturations by Derek Rogers will be released by Greenup Industries soon, and we’ll be sure to link it here, once it is.
We’re a bit late in posting this, but didn’t want to forget to mention the end of an era – Kon Karne’s Butcher Shop with The Bear. Our very own DJ Kon Karne, and our friend and co-conspirator Butcher Bear from Insect Records decided it was time to lay their monthly at Rio Rita to rest after 3 years. Every month, they would craft a podcast previewing what they would be playing (sometimes with guests, sometimes on their own) and every month we’d also put together a poster and a podcast cover.
The posters proved to be one of the most challenging design pursuits we’ve ever embarked on – as the decision was made at the beginning to have each poster bleed into the next one, creating one long poster, comprised of 37 different posters over the 3 years. It’s impossible to really explain, but you can see them all in a row here, or below, we’ve cut out a section of them to give you an idea of the enormity of the endeavor!
The most interesting thing about approaching the posters this way is that it is a direct example of how we’ve grown in our design abilities over the past three years. The first one is cringe inducing! You’ve come a long way, baby.
On the final night we had the pleasure of Reaganometry playing a short live set, Katy from Katy Cupcake providing cupcakes, and we partied like it was the end times. We also created a mock grave to really kill the night off, just for fun. Thanks to all of you who have come out and supported our monthly over the past three years, and don’t worry – this isn’t really the end – just the catalyst for something new.
Besides the Show No Mercy day party, the other highlight of our SXSW was getting to see Chelsea Wolfe and her band perform live. Her music is a mix of haunting folk, deep doom, and delicate electronics, which all come together to produce some incredibly dark and beautiful music. SXSW is a strange time for those of us who live in Austin, where suddenly our town is overrun with more amazing musicians than we could ever possibly see – so I was really really glad I was able to catch her set at the Beauty Ballroom in between work and other commitments. Seeing her songs performed live gave them a new power and beauty that cut straight to the bone, and the only thing I wished was that she had been able to play longer.
If you aren’t familiar with Chelsea’s music, you can stream her latest album, Apokalypsis straight from her website here. We’ve also embedded the video for the song Mer, below.
Spring is in full swing here in Austin, and we’ve given Recspec.org a little spring cleaning as a result. We’ve added more posters to the design section, updated our identity block, added a couple of websites, and shirts! Last year was a busy one, so its nice to reflect that on the site properly. We’re gearing up to eventually switch everything over to WordPress sometime this year, but for now just a little buff and shine will do.
And our drunk flowers above are making us very happy. They make us want to sip champagne on picnic blankets, blow on dandelions, and listen to this song:
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz – Carmic Waltz (get the whole album for free here)
Whew! SXSW is over, and now that the dust has settled we can take a little look back on one crazy, crazy week. Definitely one of the best parts of it for us was getting to do the projections for Pitchfork‘s Show No Mercy day party at ND – with Pallbearer, Pilgrim, Black Tusk, The Atlas Moth and much much more. It was amazing, and heavy, and everything you would expect from a show put together by Show No Mercy. It was definitely the best metal showcase we’d ever been to!
Austin artist Laurel Barickman of Recspec offered visuals tailored specifically to each group, projecting images of snake charmers, explosions, whirlpools, Japanese theatre, swirling heads and limbs, and half-remembered B-movies onto a huge screen.
Here’s a few photos from the set that catch a bit of our projections:
There’s a video too with an interview and some footage of Pallbearer around the 6:00 mark, and you can see our projections for a couple of seconds! Pallbearer’s set was definitely the highlight of the show for us and the footage of them playing is rad.
Thanks to Brandon from Pitchfork for asking us to do projections, and here’s hoping we get to do it all over again next year.
SXSW is imminent, and we’re getting to work hard and play hard. For those of you who will be in town during the fest, here is where we will be doing projections around town.
First: this Saturday for our friends and awesome local band Fresh Millions who are playing with The Octopus Project at the Swan Dive. You can RSVP for FREE here. Then, on Monday, its the annual Yeast By Sweet Beast festival of abstract and experimental music. This will be the third year we’ve done projections for it – and it never, ever disappoints. Tuesday, local heavyweights Eagle Claw are playing at Emo’s East with High on Fire. Holy shit, we can’t wait for that. Wednesday, March 14th is Pitchfork’s SHOW NO MERCY unofficial day party, and man, is it going to slay. Oh yeah, all that metal awesomeness is FREE. Definitely not to be missed. Then, closing out the week is the final day of the new Wardenclyffe Gallery’s SXSW weekend.
Whew, exciting! We can’t wait. Hope to see you at one of these great events! Or roaming the streets of Austin like some sort of SXSW zombie. Trust us, it happens.
Recently we’ve had the very distinct pleasure of being able to work with two incredibly lovely ladies on their websites, who share a wonderful space on the East side of Austin called Maison D’Etoile. The location is also home to a salon, & with Charm School Vintage and Coco Coquette is a one-stop shop for vintage clothing, wigs, makeup, jewelry, and general beautification.
First, we completed Shari of Charm School Vintage‘s new site, powered by WordPress. Many of her posts consist of Instagram shots, so the idea of having a grid format worked very well for her content, while the site also creates a clean and minimal backdrop for her gorgeous image saturated lookbooks.
Then, it was on to Allyson of Coco Coquette‘s site, converting it from Blogspot to WordPress and giving it a fancy updated feel. Allyson puts on the most fantastic events and we wanted to be able to showcase the photos from them prominently by using a slider on the front page. We’ve also set up a shop for her gorgeous custom wigs, which you can expect to see more of soon!
Maison D’Etoile is also teaming up with Kevchino for a huge SXSW day party at their space, which we also designed the poster for. You can check out the full details of the event at their Facebook Event. And if you’re in town for the festival, or are a local in need of some sparkle, be sure to stop by Maison D’Etoile at 2109 E. Cesar Chavez.
Happy Valentines day to all of you lovers and haters-of-love out there. Here’s a special little mix we made a couple of years ago just for this occasion, aptly called “The Mouth is for to Fuck”. Clicky clicky the lovely ladies below to download the mix, and printable PDF valentines we made just for you. Any man or lady or plant or animal will be sure to swoon:
Also, this Saturday (February 18th) at Cheer Up Charlie’s, we’ll be teaming up with Leisure Tourniquet for a special post-valentines day variety show of music, dance and et ceteras. We’ll be DJing, Little Stolen Moments will be performing, Willow House (some members of My Education and friends) will be playing covers of the best break up love songs, plus much much more.
Recspec loves you long time. Don’t ever forget that.
I don’t think we’ve ever written about it here, but one of the best and most fun events in Austin right now is Exquisite Corpse, a monthly party for witches, held on the First Thursday of every month at the Swan Dive. The inner goths in all of us get to come out and be spooky and I know there is a great many of us who needed that sort of thing here in Austin. Recspec handles the video projections, DJ Pasht is the amazing DJ, and its all brought together by the divine Angeliska. If you live in Austin, you should come sometime — even if you aren’t darkly-inclined, there’s great people watching, delicious drinks, and delightful dancing to be had!
Here’s some photos that Angel took at the last one with our camera. The theme was Vote for The Goat — a celebration for the Capricorns out there + Angel’s own birthday.
Be sure to also check out the amazing photos by Devaki Knowles (Recspec’s photographer bad-ass of choice) for the photobooth, here! She does the photobooth every month and its always perfect.
RECSPEC is an Austin, Texas based art and design studio founded by Laurel Barickman and David Milner. Besides design, we also specialize in video projections and production, show promotion, and DJing.
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This blog exists for updates, inspiration, and other random bits and pieces we find along the way. RECSPEC.ORG
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