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.

Photos by Laurel Barickman for Recspec.

Happy 2012, everyone! We followed our yearly tradition and stocked up over the holidays on fireworks for the rest of the year (or at least until the 4th of July!). One of the main things I love about fireworks are the classic packages, the weird typography and illustrations, and the bright colored cardboard sleeves. Here’s a few of our favorites from the last batch, part of our collection of the inspiring designs of Every Day Things.

The design of this one isn’t that cool (haha, get it?), but my goodness is that tag line hilarious. How could you not buy it?!

Let’s start the New Year off with a bang, shall we? Keep an eye out over the next couple days as we’ll be updating our website with our first (!!) official Recspec t-shirt design, and some other treats. Thanks for reading!

It might be apparent, but we’re big big fans of Twin Peaks at Recspec HQ (see: the photos from our Twin Peaks dress-up party commemorating the 25 year anniversary of Laura Palmer’s death). So it probably goes without saying that I almost had a heart attack when I saw the above image, and of course immediately thought that it was a real physical object, until I checked the copyright date at the bottom.

A little more research uncovered that Jak Locke has created the game as a sort of love letter to Twin Peaks, and has made it available for download (on both PC/Mac) for FREE here. Totally blown away! (Pro tip: read through the manual, its just as Atari-authentic as the game itself!)

Below are a few screenshots I took while playing. Found via Welcome To Twin Peaks. Definitely made my week!

Being serenaded by the best 8-bit version of Sycamore Trees you could ever imagine.

Laura Palmer does not mess around.

In order to keep Bob and your doppelgänger from merging, you must use your ring to control the owls!

Never a good sign.

Huge kudos to Jak for such an awesome homage and totally convincing Atari throwback. Absolutely brilliant.

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What better mail is there than the House Industries Plinc Catalog? I can’t think of any. If you sign up on the Photo Lettering site, they’ll send you one too, for free. You’ll also get one free usage of one of their photo lettering, as well. How generous!

I was really inspired by the color and texture in the catalog, a feast for the eyes. Even the textures of the cover and pages are pleasing. As always, their work is tops. Oh, and the envelope is awesome. Go figure.

Edited to add, also so, so in love with these new tables they are creating with Herman Miller. Especially the amphersand!

Working on a recent (big) project, I took to the clearance section of our local book store to find some books to sacrifice to the art gods. While rummaging, I found these hardcover beauties in the dollar pile and was struck by how simply beautiful they were, the gold imprints, the patterns, everything. The Stars book is Dave’s own from growing up as a child — and I also love the old style of design used on it as well. Old books are just the best, aren’t they? I especially love the way they smell.