September 30, 2009
Chip Kidd has a band?
I am probably late in the game with this: Artbreak (via)
I honestly don’t know what to say.
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I am probably late in the game with this: Artbreak (via)
I honestly don’t know what to say.
comments
Leave a Reply
It’s not that I don’t like it, I do. I just didn’t expect it.
I am pretty sure that is terrible unless it is ironic, and then it is terrible and ironic.
less style, more substance please.
I keep waffling on my opinion which probably says enough about it.
I can’t get enough of the lyrics to comment, but the tune is a fine little tune, and the band’s overall sound is fine. Very 1980.
or I should say, terribly ironic.
It’s 2009. I love his work, just not this.
Haha, this is terrible!
[Terrible, ironic, lacking substance]
It’s Art BREAK guys, haha. I really don’t think he meant this to be serious in the least… the drummer is his neice.
i’m boppin’
I don’t mind the 1980 sound, if it’s done intelligently. I don’t have any plans to run out and buy any Chip Kidd records, but this song doesn’t make me want to plug my ears.
I just got around to watching/listening, and, like Barry, my first thought was that it must be ironic (it’s hard to think of New Wave in 2009 as anything else). But by the time I got to the end, I just felt sad. I’m with Cooper, in that the sound isn’t bad–I loved the New York music scene of 1980. But if this weren’t Chip Kidd, nobody would give it a moment’s attention. It’s an example of someone who is great in one area indulging–and being indulged–in another area.
When people have so little ability to judge their own strengths and weaknesses objectively, I feel compelled to re-evaluate the bulk of their work. It makes me wonder if Chip Kidd is as good a designer as I’ve long thought him to be.
I feel like I’m watching my dad in a rock band.
I feel uncomfortable.
CR
Oh, Cindy. Thank you. I’ve been wondering lately about my own ability to judge my own shit. (Largely, mostly seen in this place I call home.) In the past few weeks/months, I think I’ve wandered far afield. I think it is time to call myself into question. It’s time, I think, to re-center and think hard about what I am about.
I don’t think Chip Kidd is really being indulged here…
A bunch of people are anonymously telling him not to quit his day job!
Google research indicates that the video was at least partially made by a student intern. Giving someone that opportunity– as well as having the courage to publicly try something new… are both pretty awesome!
@Cindy, I wonder if we can’t turn this on its ear –
“But if this weren’t Chip Kidd, nobody would give it a moment’s attention. It’s an example of someone who is great in one area indulging–and being indulged–in another area.”
– if somebody is great in at one thing, must we demand they be great at everything? Once you attain mastery in one domain, are you not allowed to screw around & have fun in others?
I feel like if this was just my pal Chip, and he was rocking out and posting his band’s (obviously no-budget, obviously made-with-friends) video on Vimeo, I’d be all about it.
And I am, in fact, all about it!
I would agree with everything Allison and Robin say here, if it were the case that Kidd did this just for fun and/or to try to help out an intern. But he’s marketing the music, they’ve been on tour, and (if Wikipedia is to be trusted) they apparently plan an album.
From artbreak’s MySpace page:
We know practically no one buys music anymore, let alone actual CDs, but that’s not what this is. This is the first in a series of ‘artbreak-objects,’ the musical equivalent of numbered, signed prints. Letterpress printed on acid-free card stock by Peter Kruty Editions, this first edition of the “Asymmetrical Girl” single is limited to 200 signed and numbered pieces. Pictures here.
Order yours today….We’ll even throw in a free artbreak. sticker or two (great for your bumper, guitar case, or even for the occasional vandalizing of street signs) for your trouble!
Just $25
I’m not a person who wants to bring another person down, especially an artist trying something new. I’m simply expressing the effect that this musical experiment of Kidd’s has had on my own assessment of him and his body of work.
Given that these days anybody can get anything published or displayed at any time, the distinction between artistic aims and just screwing around is more difficult to make. So when a person known for artistic excellence in one area attempts something in another, the sense that an artist’s commitment to excellence is a feature of his or her whole being goes with it. We look at the new thing in relation to the other. If the artist is wearing a lampshade at a party while strumming a toy banjo–we laugh and are happy for the wonderful spectacle of it all. But if this artist wants to book a performance hall and do the same thing–we might wonder about matters of mental health. This seems to broach the subject of artists (and friends) wanting it both ways: if an artist publishes/presents work online and in the publications run by friends, and wants to claim it as a “credit” in that realm, can he then say, when criticism arises, that it was all just a joke anyway and not a serious effort? This is an interesting topic–since the old view of seeing “publication” as a mark of prestige has been unseated by a wide open anything goes forum, and it doesn’t seem that the general understanding of such things has caught up to this yet.
P.S. Naturally I was writing my comment while Cindy–much faster than I am at everything–was posting hers. I should always just wait and see what I’m going to say!
I am the director of this piece. I am not an intern. I met Chip while filming a profile I did on him for Dwell magazine. I asked Chip if he had any music suggestions for the profile at which point he handed me the ARTBREAK cd. It was still being mixed. I used his songs as the soundtrack and even filmed him performing live at the Lion’s Den. A piece of the performance was even used in the profile. Which you can watch here.
http://www.vimeo.com/993723
I jumped at a chance to work with Chip on his music video. I find him an amazing talent. I am super proud of this piece especially considering the tiny budget.
Chip obviously has a love of music – especially from the 80′s. I don’t understand why his maga-talent as a Designer should prohibit him from doing other things? Thanks for posting, debating and watching,
Did I mention that I am not an intern?
I should also mention that Chip has been playing the drums for years and I believe he was even a drummer in The Penn State Marching Band – I could be wrong. He’s the drummer on all the Artbreak studio tracks including this video.
Thank you, Gary Nadeau. You seem like a really nice guy.
And talented, Cindy. Whatever the opinion on the music (and it’s better than I can do), the videography is great.
Oh, Andrew. Gary Nadeau’s abilities as a videographer and your abilities as a musician are entirely beside the point. The point is whether people should be making and promoting videos/recordings of a bad musician, simply because the bad musician is accomplished in another realm. Nadeau’s indication that Kidd himself suggested artbreak’s music for the DWELL piece just cements my newly-formed view of Kidd as a guy who doesn’t know where his own abilities end and the real world begins.
I take Gary Nadeau at his word that he believes Kidd to be an amazing musical talent. I just don’t think we’re going to find a lot of consensus on that one.