Live, Raw and Hilarious – Feel The Steel! This show was a photographer’s dream. I interviewd frontman Michael Starr for the Station Casinos Blog recently. What a kick in the pants. Great show, too. Let’s wish them luck landing a show on Comedy Central. I’d watch it. Well, I’d Tivo it. Links to the 2-part interview are below the flickr slideshow below.
Browsing Posts in Music
If you consider yourself a rock music fan – you should treat yourself to a Sinners show. They do tribute tunes and originals. I saw them cover Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction a while back – and I was hooked. I have seen them at Ovation at Green Valley Ranch, as well as Club Madrid at Sunset Station. Both are awesome places to catch a great free concert. I’m not just saying that because I work for Station Casinos, either. In fact, you can catch the Sinners with Nawgahyde (don’t miss those whacky rockers, either) opening for Great White at the end of July at Sunset Station.
Here’s a review I wrote of the GNR show at GVR last November.
Here’s some events I’m looking forward to attending in Las Vegas (and/or working with). I hope to see you at some of the shows. Come introduce yourself if you see me there.
Saturday, June 12 (today) REGGAE IN THE DESERT. This is an annual thing for my wife and I. Great food, very chill afternoon and evening on the lawn with some of the best touring reggae bands you can find.
Friday, June 18th: Sin City Sinners first show as resident Friday night band inside Club Madrid at Sunset Station. (Full disclosure: I work for Stations Web Marketing, but this isn’t a sales pitch – I can’t, it’s a free show!) The Sinners bring a rock-legend-guest to almost every show, and always have a great set in store. I’ll be shooting the show for fun (and for work). Did I mention there’s no cover?
Saturday, June 19th: Steel Panther returns to Green Valley Ranch’s Ovation. I’ll be shooting this show as well. And don’t miss the interview on the Stations blog coming up this week. It’s pretty funny. They’re in the new Bud Light commercial about the haircut as an excuse to throw a party.
That’s it for this week. Watch for the photos the following week. I’ll try to keep these updates coming if you like it. Again, hope to see you at the shows!
Its kind of funny to me that there’s a genre on wikipedia (yeah, I know, it’s wikipedia) called Folk/Punk. The author credits the great Pogues as founders. I credit Bob Dylan, probably, for kick-starting this genre, if it really does exist. You could argue that its origins are within blues or even southern rock – but I always tend to lean toward the great Joe Strummer. The Clash were legends: punk as hell – brutally honest, smart and snide social commentary, no doubt. But it’s Strummer’s late work that really turns up the passion and the wisdom. His worldliness shines in the Hellcat Records discography. Go get these records immediately.
But get this album, too. I stumbled upon Frank Turner’s music recently while researching The Revival Tour, a group of veteran punks that just plain kick some acoustic ass. Same vigor, same angst, but acoustic. Epic story tellers, I gotta say. Turner is bold and grouchy, but insightful and often times gutwrenchingly beautiful, too. I purchased The First Three Years from iTunes almost immediately after stumbling upon Turners MySpace page and listening to all of the sample tunes there. 24 solid, soulful tunes for 8 bucks. Thank me later.
For my second photo assignment last night, I shot the new series of Unsigned: Bands On The Rise at Ovation inside Green Valley Ranch. I was excited to see it was old friends, Slow To Surface on the bill for this, the third installment of the local and indie showcase that the Station Casinos Entertainment Team has lined up for a couple Thursdays a month inside Ovation.
The last time I caught a show at Ovation, I was impressed by the venue. Actually, I made note of it on my blog post for Station Casinos. These photos will show that there’s a very impressive presentation for these bands. Great for photography! This time around, I had my gear, and I hope you like the results as much as I do.
I had the pleasure of shooting Michael Burks last night at Boulder Station’s Railhead. I highly recommend you catch as many Boulder Blues sessions on Thursday nights as you possibly can. I can’t believe it’s a free show. $2.00 beers will get you loose if the smokin’ hot blues doesn’t do the job.
Here are some photos from the show. Be sure to check the lineup over at boulderstation.com and I hope to see you at the next show.
I have to assume that SIRIUS/XM is pretty spooked about Pandora and it’s continual surge in popularity due to mobile apps on iPhones and the like… But trust me – don’t cancel SIRIUS or XM subscriptions yet, use them both, like I do! I love Pandora. I also pay for SIRIUS satellite radio. Use the link over >>> there and sign up for a trial. You won’t regret it, I promise. Here’s some reasons why I support both.
ADVANTAGE: SIRIUS/XM
1. JASON ELLIS SHOW – Absolutely hilarious daily train wreck combo of comic relief, action sports, and really dirty jokes. “Dude, is it gay?” segment is hysterical. Mayhem Mondays with Mayhem Miller is great, too. See #2.
2. FACTION 28/ XM 52: The Marky Ramone Show is sort of like going to punk rock church and the sermon was given by God on Wednesday nights. Tony Hawk might be the coolest guy in America. Johnny Moseley is up there, too. Bam Margera annoys the crap out of me, but I think that’s the idea.
3. NO FUSS IN THE CAR – No battery issues, cables, worrying about adapters, compatibility, etc. A dream for long-distance drives.
4. PERSONALITIES – Confession: I’m a rock fan. (Old/new/heavy/indie/folk) I’m biased towards Faction, but Little Steven’s Underground Garage, Alt Nation, Boneyard, and Octane (I’m sure I’m forgetting several others) all have fantastic DJs. Frequent guest channels are cool, too. I hear great things about the Hip-Hop channels, and there’s plenty of talk networks for politicial douchebags who like to argue and people that can stand Martha Stewart and Oprah. Hey, more power to ‘em. Gives them something to do with their time to feel important, I suppose.
5. STERN’S NETWORK – Not my bag, but millions of devoted listeners dig the legendary shock jock. Opie & Anthony and Farrell are great.
ADVANTAGE: PANDORA
1. IT’S FREE, DUMMY – And when you run out of free hours, finish out the month for $1.00. A BUCK!
2. DESIGNER CHANNELS – If you hear a song you don’t like, just skip it or delete it. (Perfect for when Nickelback and Linkin Park interrupt your good channels). Imagine, you can make a custom channel with Slayer, Run DMC and John Mayer. Though, it might make you a little schizophrenic. Ask me how I know!
3. YOU CAN SHARE YOUR MIX – the new mix tape? Check out my Pandora Profile here: http://www.pandora.com/people/nate.ludens
4. BEST EVER SOURCE FOR DISCOVERING NEW MUSIC – I love the voodoo formulas that Pandora uses to know what I like.
5. NO HARDWARE MAKES IT OFFICE FRIENDLY – streaming free radio at work makes the world a better place.
BOTTOM LINE: Get them both. You can say you were there when the power in radio shifted from boring, redundant, record-company crap-oganda to the people’s-choice radio, featuring inspiring music you want to hear, when you want to hear it. Without commercials.
Tonight I had some fun playing with a logo redesign for a band. Good friends, Slow To Surface called last week to see if I could help with a shirt design based on their recent album, The Reason We Do This. (Available on iTunes- pick it up, you won’t be sorry). I designed the CD last spring for the band – see below. (For the record, I like their current logo, but it could use a little more “edge” to match their new style, in my opinion).
Pick up this album. It's damn good.
Here’s a sped-up version of the process. The first thing I did was (duh) put on the album. Then I started to search through my database of fonts from recent projects. Probably about 375 selections. Most are completely incompatible… but I narrow it down to a typeface that conveys their style of music – I settled on Dirty & Classic by one of my favorite artists and fontographers, Billy Argel. I tweaked it until it was easier to read at a smaller size (from a distance, in this particular application), but still gets across the “vibe” I was going for.
Check out this video I made using Jing (killer app!) and let me know what you think. Starts out a little slow (no pun intended).
Love the rock n roll jobs! Another fun project for a great Las Vegas band. If you’re in Las Vegas, be sure to catch this show and tell ‘em Nate sent you. More importantly, check out the CD, the acoustic EP and grab a shirt. I chipped in on those, as well.
You can see some of these in the Black Diamond Digital portfolio galleries, but recently, there have been a few inquiries into what type of products I shoot, and how they turn out, so here are some recent samples for your viewing enjoyment.
Give me a call to set up a product session anytime.
