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.
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.
Merry Happy Holiday Christmases, everyone! We’re about to depart on a journey to East Texas (also known as the land of no internet) for a few days, but wanted to share these AWESOME photos by Devaki of Fun Loving Photos from our Christmas Sweater Champagne Jam last week. Here they are! The above polaroid was taken by her as well, and is our impromptu sort of Christmas card this year.
And our wonderful (and handsome!) hosts, Lee Roi and Kon Karne
Be safe and have fun this holiday season, everyone. We’ve got some exciting stuff to share with you in the new year, but until then, have a cookie, won’t you?
It’s that time of the year again — when we don our ridiculously ugly holiday sweaters and play the smooth hits of the 70′s and 80′s… Its the Recspec Annual Christmas Sweater Champagne Jam at Beauty Bar! This is actually our fifth year of doing this party in Austin, and its always super ridiculous fun. We’ve also been doing it longer than anyone in town, so don’t accept any substitutions!
When: Friday, December 16th.
Where: Beauty Bar Austin
How much: 2$ for Party People in Christmas Attire / 5$ for Bah-Humbugs
This year our friends from Zorch are going to do some Live Improve Holiday Karaoke, so come ready to sing your favorite holiday jams with them. Our very own DJs: Kon Karne, Lee Roi, and Butcher Bear will be playing the smooth hits and hot jams before and after karaoke, there will be champagne, and a FREE photobooth from the lovely Devaki at Fun Loving Photos. She’ll also be taking and selling beautiful black and white polaroids for only 5$ each so you can immortalize your ugly sweaters forever!
Here’s a few of our favorite photos from the past four years. Hope to see all of you local Austin folks there!
Our good friends Zorch (who we’ve blogged about before) have a tendency to (sometimes drunkenly) make up fake bands with various friends and musicians in the Austin area. These fake bands, it seemed, all just existed as jokes, nothing that would ever amount to anything — until they started actually making them all become reality. Thus, Raw as Fuck was born, a website dedicated to their side projects and experimentations (like, for example, their Rod Stewart cover band: Raw Stewart).
One of the many band of lore is called Edgar Allan Slow, comprising of a near super-group set of musicians. Recspec’s own David Milner as the front man, R. Lee Dockery plays bass, Henna Chou on guitar and gong and soundscapes, Zac Traeger on keys and soundscapes, and Sam Chown on drums. The concept is simple, yet brilliant: Doom metal with set to Edgar Allan Poe lyrics.
The band was actually formed once the Austin HQ of The Onion asked Zorch to play their Halloween Party at Club de Ville. Zorch suggested Edgar Allan Slow to play instead, and so it came to be!
Here’s some photos from the night, and a video that you can’t see much in, but can hear at least a bit of the performance. The whole set was recorded, so hopefully we’ll be able to post it soon as well. My favourite part was the Tell-Tale Heart, which was ferocious and awesome in its epicness. More to come soon! And you never know, this fake band could end up being a real band after all (or at least every Halloween, or perhaps even, once upon a fortnight)…
“It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood.”
Happy Halloween to all you ghosts and ghoulies out there.
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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