What we have here is a failure to communicate...

You think that after all this time we would be able to successfully play a song on the radio, apparently this isn't true. Technology is a tricky mother... It can either make your life simple or it can screw you in the worst way possible. It wasn't a complete tragedy that we couldn't play some songs from She & Him's Volume Two, but I really think our listeners were deprived a really beautiful moment... driving in the car, windows down, with Zooey Deschanel's soulful voice whipping through the air and M. Ward's guitar chords keeping you grounded. But to make up for it, here's one of my favorite songs from the album Thieves.



Regardless, we had a great show. We talked about musicians and their ability to appeal to audiences visually via album artwork. Musicians don't always have the ability to express themselves outside their music. Many of them rely solely on their music and their lyrics to convey something to their listeners and so cover art is a great way to expand on certain sentiments that exist within their songs. Marketing and advertising aside, cover art is as important to an artist as a music video or a performance. Sometimes a song cannot reach its full potential without some assistance. This also allows for great collaborations between graphic artists and musicians.
Here's the website that Maria was talking about with some really great examples of album artwork:
http://inspiredology.com/99-best-designed-album-covers/

One of the examples we talked about was the album artwork for She & Him Volume Two. I think that the cover art is able to achieve a separation of the music from both Zooey Deschanel's and M. Ward's previous work. Zooey is an already established actress and rather than putting a photo of herself on the cover, they opted for more simplistic, childlike drawings, similar to Volume One. And the artwork created for the covers definitely reflect the playfulness of their music.






Also, we talked about the exhibitions that are going on on-campus right now, "Hang Fire" in the UAG (University Art Gallery) by the Cyber A Cafe and "Ornamented Exigencies" in the Room Gallery right around the corner. I really want to encourage you guys to go to these exhibitions because there are some really interesting works at both exhibits. I'm not going to tell you much... which means you'll have to go see for yourselves!



Both exhibitions go until the 16th of April so go check it out! You can find more info on the UAG website:
http://ucigallery.com

Thanks for checking in everyone! xoxo
-K