Jay-Z: The Art Of A Classic Song.

A great song doesn't attempt to be anything — it just is.

Great read from Jay-Z in Rolling Stone on writing classic songs.

Frank Ocean: Acura Integurl

Another great visual feast for your eyes, this time from Odd Future's Frank Ocean. This video has some beautiful shots and top editing and is a world apart from Tyler's Yonkers, and so it should be. I love the colours and filters used in the video and the credit must go to director Dave Wilson. Enjoy.

City And Colour: Fragile Bird

Regular readers of Village Boy will know that I am huge fan of Dallas Green, whether it be in the form of Alexisonfire or his solo project City And Colour. After seeing his incredible Royal Albert Hall performance a little while back, my anticipation for his latest album, Little Hell, could not be any higher. And just to whet the appetiate even further, he has released the video for Fragile Bird.



The video features his beautiful friend Shantel Vansanten, who plays an emotional distressed women. The videos got a really dark and gothic feel to it and reflects the song perfectly, props to director Michael Maxxis.

It's also worth taking a look at the 'making of' below.

Music Monday 53: Bumper Edition.

Yeah it was one of those weeks where new music was coming out of all the cracks, so I'm going to shut up and let you listen this week.

Arcade Fire - Speaking In Tongues



Arcade Fire - Culture War



Bon Iver - I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt cover)



Bon Iver - Your Love (The Outfield Cover)



Yeasayer - The Devil And The Deed



J Cole - Return Of Simba



Limp Bizkit - Shotgun



Dot Rotten - Normal Human Being




Told you it was big.

Outside In: Art vs Law.

Ever since the first person decided to get a can and spray their tag, a word or picture onto a piece of public property, the question has always been asked 'is graffiti an art or a crime?'. Well it's both. But it's a crime that allows people the freedom of expression in a physical and public way, one that even the internet cannot always provide. It's a crime that can make people think, appreciate or even challenge themselves and culture's values (Banksy is the number one example in this). And sometimes it's just simply some art that brightens up a neighborhood, turning some grey old wall into something beautiful. Surely there's no harm in any of this?



This Outside In documentary looks to explore the idea that if graffiti is done on a canvas and put between four walls, is it suddenly legal and acceptable? And does it still have the same artistic value and potency it may have had on the outside world? As one guy remarks, "everyone in there has been arrested for graffiti". Exhibitions like this look to be a sign that the authorities and general society are beginning to appreciate what is a truly magnificent and talented art-form, even if it is on their own terms.

Tarantino: The Disciple of Hong Kong

You know that bloke that does them films, Tarantino, Quentin Tarantino? You even noticed that there's quite a lot of Asian film influences in his work? Yeah thought you did.

For me, Tarantino is one of the greatest film directors of recent times. It's his attention to detail, the perfection of every detail, from the framing of a shot, to a costume, to the soundtrack, it's always perfect. He's not afraid to push boundaries and to give the audience what they want, and quite often what they didn't know they wanted. He is more than a gory film director, his scriptwriting is up there with the very best, many lines and moments going down in pop culture history (see Pulp Fiction).



French duo Jac & Johan present a new trailer for their upcoming made-for-tv film, Tarantino: The Disciple of Hong Kong, focused around the relationship between famed Director Quentin Tarantino and his love for regional Asian cinema. Featured in the film will be a slew of impressive interviews, the most intriguing being City On Fire Director Ringo Lam, who gives his first interview in a decade. The trailer is featured above with further details on the film to come in the following weeks. (Hypebeast)

Nike 6.0: The Pool

This is what Nike is all about, and what other brands need to take notice from. Nike combine the talent of professional sportsmen to put on an event that is watched by the immediate community, but is then shared around the world for all to watch. It is this knowledge of their target audience and the skill to produce what they want to see that puts Nike up with the top brands in the world.

In their latest project, for their 6.0 department, they decided to covert Dagenham's local swimming pool into a skatepark and they get some very, very good BMXers to rip it up. Seriously some of the tricks are insane. Watch.

Music Monday 52.

Ok I have to admit the noise in my ears this week has predominatly been Bon Iver's album. It's incredible. But nevertheless I've still got a few musical gems for you.

Bon Iver - Calgary



I'll try and keep this brief(ish) as I could easily fill the rest of your day with Bon Iver superlatives. There's so many outstanding tracks on his latest album, however I shall stick to the first official single as to not spoil it for those waiting for the official release. This track is a great showcase for the album, Justin Vernon has clearly learnt some new tricks over the past few years since Blook Bank, working with Kanye West, Gayngs and Volcano Choir has no doubt helped. I'll stop now, but I simpyl can't recommend it highly enough.

Drake - Dreams Money Can Buy



Remember Jai Paul from last week? Well Drake has gone and got his mitts on the beat and laid down some lyrics over the top of it. And it works, just. I've got a lot of time for Drake, having listened to a couple of interviews he really appears to be (cliche alert) 'more than just a rapper'. He has real desire to push the music he produces, wanting to work with British talents Jamie XX and Florence Welch, this track is just another example of Drizzy trying new things.

Nero ft Sub Focus - Promises



It's safe to say when you get two of the biggest names of dance/electro/dubstep together, it's going to be something special. There's SO many examples of when dubstep remixes are clearly forced and done just to try and look cool, but the talent of these two pulls it off perfectly. This is definitely a track that will be filling every sort of club from now on.

Digitalism - Forrest Gump



With an album named "I Love You Dude" and the latest song from it called "Forrest Gump", this band is clearly good at naming things (most useless skill ever). They're also pretty tidy at producing a good dance song. Written with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, which is never a bad thing.

Pow Wow: Part 3: The Final Steps.

I've really enjoyed this series from Pow Wow as artists from all over the world congregated in founder Jasper Wong's birthplace Hawaii to bring a bit of art and culture back to the beautiful island. There's many reasons I've enjoyed this series so much, watching such incredible art come to fruition, listen to the artists' views on why and how they approach their work and obviously the finished work themselves.



For me, growing up in a small village in the south of England, it's fair to say that I lacked a certain amount of art and culture in my upbringing. So I felt that I could relate to Jasper Wong's desire to take the Pow Wow project back to Hawaii to inject art and culture back into his homeland, feeling that it has lost some of history and tradition. Much respect.

Audi's 00MPH

We all learnt a long time ago that an advert doesn't have to be be about the product, it's simply about how it makes you feel and Audi are one of the kings of provoking emotion in their audience. Audi seem to be able to put together images, sound and editing in such a way that the audience feels something. They get to feel the brand Audi and their latest A1 car. This is rare in advertising, really rare.



However does it remind anyone else of Jay Z's On To The Next One video?

Madbury Does Goblin.

There's some people who just do things differently in life. They strive to be the best, to be creative, to create stuff that people haven't seen before, to be innovative. They do things their way, not just to be different but because they feel that that is the right way to go about their business. There are few examples of these people in the world, yet these are the people that make things happen, shape culture and make the difference. An example of these types would be Philip T Annand and the boys over at The Madbury Club.

I can't recommend The Madbury Club enough, whether it's album reviews, product reviews or just their general adventures, it's always captured with lyrical and visual beauty.

I digress. Now, if you've been on the internet in recent times, you would have heard of Tyler The Creator and Odd Future. No doubt. With reviews and opinions flying in every direction, or "online circle-jerkers surronding Tyler The Creator's latest album Goblin," Madbury decided to take to the streets of New York with their iPad and Sennheisers and get some real reviews from real people. Or people that don't have Twitter. "Wait, not everybody has Twitter?"



As you can see the boys do it differently, and the boys do it good.

"Im from BK. Name is John. Don't believe in God. Or Luck. Or Government. Only believe in the beauty of life. Like women like this one here. I wish I was a child so she could be my nanny."

Optimist: Festival Of Colours

There doesn't seem to be much behind this festival apart from to celebrate colour. And the way you seem to celebrate colour seems to just be by throwing paint in the air. Nevertheless the events from the temple of Sri Sri Radha Krishn in Utah, come together to produce a rather lovely video.

Nike: Sport Is Art.

Nike are one of my favourite brands, and one of the biggest brands in the world because they understand that you always have to do more. You have to do more for your customers, you have to say more than "we have the best running shoes", they understand that you have to speak to more than your obvious target audience in more ways that the obvious. Over the years this had lead them to produce innovative projects both in the mainstream and the dark, yet influential underground.



This latest project got "array of street artists, designers and illustrators from around the world to splash their flying imaginations onto a T-shirt. By using a T-shirt as their creative canvas, they were to draw inspiration from Nike’s Air Max classic series. Through various mediums, including computer illustrations, sketches and ink splashes, etc., a creative pattern is formed vividly on a T-shirt, fully interprets the essence of “Sport is Art”." (Hypebeast)

Music Monday 51.

Jai Paul - BTSTU



Ok this has been around a little while but that's not what this blog is about, I'm not looking to try and keep up with the internet. Despite hearing this a while back, I've only just started raping the repeat button. It's got a pretty unique sound, whispering vocals mixed with almost chant like vocals, going from acapella to some heavy electro beats. It's a pretty addictive mix.

City And Colour - Northern Wind



In case you missed it, I went to see City and Colour at the Royal Albert Hall last month, and it was incredible (my review). His third solo album is due to be released in June and despite having already read most of it, I can't wait. This is another track that has leaked to pleasure our ears. It's simple and classic, suggesting that the album will have the old as well as some new stuff (Fragile Bird, for example).

Death Cab For Cutie - Home Is A Fire



I've heard mixed reviews for the new Death Cab album so far, which is a shame for a band that has produced some wonderful music over the years. But I'm yet to hear it so I'll try and approach it with an open minded. I do really like this song, BUT it feels a bit all over the place, almost like 3 or 4 songs mixed together. On the other hand, the video is pretty nice. Some really good visuals in there and when I discovered it was by Shepard Fairey and Nicholas Harmer, I wasn't surprised.

Julio Bashmore — Ribble To Amazon



Taken from the Youtube description, I couldn't have said it any better myself: ""Ribble To Amazon" taken from the ep 'Batty knee Dance' which slings a bit lower lower than the title track of the ep.. Staggering pads and the same 808 sorcery conjure up a weightless club beat. The long trance style build up just ensures this track to be played as part of many big DJ sets around the world."

Pow Wow: Part 2.

Just when you thought the Pow Wow Hawaii event couldn't get any cooler, they decided to keep it going way into the night and throw in some DJs. Enjoy some of the latter moments of the night, as the artists keep on creating and enjoying what they do best.



And then watch them wrap it all up by painting over their lovely work.

Just Fucking Do It.

Music Monday 50.

Wow, 50 that's kind of special. Thanks to everyone that checks out the blog every week, or even more often, it really does mean a lot. And thanks for everyone who puts up with my shameless plugging on Twitter and Facebook. It's a pretty huge dance special (almost entirely) this week for you. Here we go.

Toddla T - Take It Back (Dillon Francis Remix)



It’s amazing what a remix can do to a song, sometimes it takes some of the original and just freshens it up a bit, sometimes it can completely destroy a song and there’s the times that it completely transforms it into a new beast. The original Toddla T track featuring Shola Ama and J2K, is ok, just ok. However when Dillion Francis got his mucky mits on it, the song went straight from just ok to incredible. This track does everything I want it to, just when I want it to. Needless to say it’s been on repeat.

Jakwob - Right Beside You



Jakwob is one of my favourite producers and has been for some time now, whether it’s with his remixes or tracks under his own name, it’s always some special. Jakwob always seems to manage to produce soemthing new and different from everyone else, yet strangely familiar. Great new track.

DJ Fresh - Louder



Remember Gold Dust? Remember how good that tune was? Well DJ Fresh is back with Louder, a song that you’ll likely to become pretty familiar with over the next few weeks. Not only will it be all over the radio, but it’s also backing the latest Lucozade advert. I don’t think it quite lives upto Gold Dust, but it’s a big summer tune anyways.

The Bullitts - Landspeeder



Here we are, back to some hip hop. And what a way to come back. This is the latest installment from the hip hop project, The Bullitts. Another fantastic, cinematic effort, it is definitely the sort of thing that can be expected in the future from a projected that includes Jay Electronica, Mos Def and a narration from Lucy Liu. I simply can’t wait to hear the finished article, it’s truly going to be something special.

Tyler The Creator and Frank Ocean - She



When I first heard Frank Ocean, I wasn’t really sure how he fitted into Odd Future, but this track with OF front man Tyler shows that they can go hard and soft, all in the same song. An impressive effort from a group that continue to impress and will do so for a long time.

Lucozade: YES.

I'm really liking the direction that Lucozade are heading in, it's new and away from the obvious sport route, appreciating that every walk of life needs some energy. First came the combination of Tinie Tempah and Travis Barker and now it's time for skateboarder Kilian Martin (remember him?), along with a lot of beautiful people at Venice Beach. The ad also features the latest track from DJ Fresh (see tomorrow's Music Monday for the full track). I'm not sure if it's the right choice for the ad, but there's certainly a lovely, yet energetic and intense, summer vibe to this ad, perfect for the Lite Lime Lucozade drink. Hopefully there's more to come from the campaign and well done to Lucozade, they're definitely positioning their brand in the 'cool' bracket.

Pow. WOW: Art Makes The World Go Around.

This is a seriously cool (yes I use that word far too much on my blog) art project from Pow Wow. Pow Wow is a collabrative effort from a group of different artists from all over the world who will join forces to effectively put on a show. The range of art on display is vast, but it is all immense and each piece stands toe to toe with the next.



As you can see the latest Pow Wow episode takes the artists to Hawaii, the home of founder Jasper Wong. During the entire process the public were allowed to wonder around and see the formation of the pieces and not simply the end product. The video also gets insights to the artists, their pieces and their influences, from their kids' drawings to the Queens peacocks. Really cool (sorry).


Art Makes The World Go Around.

Ksubi Kolors

Very cool new ad from cult Australian fashion line Ksubi and the logn awaited return of their coloured denim range. The simple mix of attractive models, 80's muscle cars and coloured smoke proves to be the winning collaboration here. Directed by Daniel Askill, this is simply pretty cool.

Cadbury's Closet.

When there's a new campaign from certain brands, people stand up (or rather sit down) and take notice. The sort of ads that delay people's wee breaks for another 15 minutes, the sort that make you click on link instantly and share it. There's few brands that rise to this status, it's usually deserved, and Cadbury's Glass and A Half Productions certainly fall into this category. Their Gorilla advert was one that changed the game, it will be an ad that will be remembered for years and be but in top 10 lists. It's fair to say that since their adverts have been slightly hit and miss, but definitely more hit than miss. Here's the latest:



I don't think it's one of the best, but it's good and fun. I'm a little underwhelmed and expected more, but they've brought the high expectations on themselves.

Shh It's Playboy TV.

Really nice and simple campaign for Playboy TV here, I wouldn't say it's classy, but it's certainly subtle.

Neat idea right? The only thing I would add to it would be to change the desktop backgrounds, the first has done it well, but I think it's a missed opportunity. Having some lovely couple or family photos on there would create more of a contrast and make it more humorous.

Music Monday 49.

Just a small post this week as I've been crazy busy and away visiting in-laws and such. Nevertheless, as always, it's always worth a listen.

Ed Sheeran - The A Team



By the looks of his view count, this guy isn't news to many people, but he was to me this week and I was mightly impressed. A young (looks about 12), British talent that is looking to do something different, check his Jools Holland performance below. I'm quickly listening to everything this guy has done.



Digitalism - 2 Hearts



Digitalism were one of the first bands that started my interest in electro music, tracks like Pogo and Idealistic were literally on repeat throughout my uni years. And now the first track off their amazingly named new album I Love You Dude, is here in the shape of 2 Hearts. And it's clear they've still got it, can't wait to hear some more from the album, I've got a lot of time for these boys.

The Deans List - Dear Professor



There's some definite Chiddy Bang/Childish Gambino vibes in here, some cheeky rhythms over a nice pop-dance beat. It's just nice and fun to listen to, and that's sometimes all you need.