Bees And Trees: December 2013

Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Best of 2013

2013 was a big year for BXT. Here are some highlights.

PAINTINGS by KEITH VAUGHN

Bay Area painter Keith Vaughn has taken a productive left turn and ended the year with his strongest work to date.

Create an Account (Red), oil and acrylic on canvas, 28" x 22" 2013

Create an Account (Blue), oil and acrylic on canvas, 28" x 22" 2013

Plan Your Trip, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30" x 40" 2013

To Advance, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30" x 24" 2013

see more Keith Vaughn paintings here

TRACKS by EQ/DYNAMICS
"Hell Below Heaven Knows," a mashup of Curtis Mayfield and The Smiths, was the debut of the Bay Area's EQ/Dynamics. A creepy Halloween collaboration with The Snowman Electrical Band and three other sample-based tracks followed. Hopefully we'll hear more from them in the coming year.

hear more EQ/Dynamics tracks here

TRACKS by THE SNOWMAN ELECTRICAL BAND

As mentioned above, The Snowman Electrical Band worked with EQ/Dynamics on covers of Captain Beefheart's "When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy" and a nearly unrecognizable "My Son the Vampire" by Allan Sherman. For Christmas this year SXB broke off only one tune, as opposed to the EPs of years past, but their cover of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" sounds so sophisticated we feel lucky to have gotten it.

hear more tracks by The Snowman Electrical Band here

VIDEO by BEN PEDERSON

Brooklyn-based artist Ben Pederson described this to me as a Faustian sci-fi musical. It is everything we love around here.

Monday, December 23, 2013

The Snowman Electrical Band: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

The Snowman Electrical Band is back, and right on time. Check out their cover of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." SXB's version combines a Carpenter's-like melancholy with mid-nineties Flaming Lips style grit. Wearing their influences on their sleeves is obviously the Snowman Electrical M.O., but their own character crystallizes more each year.