In other news, I recently worked with local musician Phoebe Kreutz to lay out her new CD entitled Big Lousy Moon. Phoebe is from NYC and she is a brilliant wordsmith and quite a lovely lady. Here is the bio from her website:
Phoebe Kreutz is a boozy floozy with a heart of gold. She sings silly songs about the things she likes best: boys and bars and vikings and tacos.Growing up in New York’s East Village, Phoebe learned a lot about all these things. She also learned a lot about rhyming from Dr. Seuss and the joys of thinly-veiled social commentary from “He-Man” and “The Smurfs”.
Now she’s all grown up and still loving life in the big city. She gets to sing in all kinds of fun places like The Knitting Factory, Fez, Birdland and The Sidewalk Café. It was there that she found the jolly antifolk scene, which has nurtured and indulged her like a benevolent uncle these past few years. It was also there that she met the boys who would later join with her to become the world’s greatest art-indie-rock band that only sings about animals in the city, Urban Barnyard.
When not rocking out on stage, Phoebe works as the puppet wrangler on the hit show, “Avenue Q”. While there, she grabbed every musician she could get her hands on and turned them into The Phyllis Newman Health Initiative Dancers – a band that blends uptown excellence with downtown crudeness with lively and sometimes dashing results.
But sometimes Phoebe hears the call of The Road and has to set off on wild adventures. She’s played in fun towns like Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Albequerque, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. She’s also brought her message of ridiculousness to college campuses such as Oregon State University and Stanford.This year, Phoebe is proud to have played twice in the “Voices for Change” benefit series for John Kerry, sharing the stage with fancy folks like Tom Wopat, Cady Huffman, Charles Busch and Christopher Durang. Also, she’s been honored to have her songs sung by “Avenue Q” stars John Tartaglia, Ann Harada and Jen Barnhart at caberets around the city like Ars Nova and Joe’s Pub.
She has been the recipient of many awards including an Emmy for her work on Sesame Street, the coveted Sportsmanship Award for her team’s pleasantly incompetent performance in the Broadway Show Softball League and $25 in the “Hot Buns” competition at the Rickshaw Karaoke Bar in Seattle.
There wasn’t much actual design work to be done on her CD because Phoebe already had the artwork she wanted to use. She really just needed someone with technical layout skillz ASAP to get it all together before her tour. It was still fun nonetheless! You should check our her musical projects here.
Fondly,
Crystal
This is a black tote bag with a applique of one of Crystal’s drawings. The drawing is a silkscreen onto a vintage fabric (that used to be a pillowcase.) Expect to see a few up in the Etsy shop before the end of the week.Olive Juice Music is a D.I.Y. label, studio, and mail-order distributor, based in New York City, interested in helping people who are in the developmental stages of trying to do something with their art. Olive Juice Music is not a traditional record label. The artists associated with Olive Juice take an active part in how their music is produced, financed, and marketed. They in turn receive more of the profits gained from the sales of their records directly, which is how it should be. The strength of Olive Juice relies upon the active participation of its members to share resources and help promote a communal spirit among everyone involved as well as claiming responsibility for taking their art to wherever they would like it to go. Olive Juice Music is about independence and community. And if that doesn’t sound cool to you, well then you’re just going to have to buzz off, mister…
This event will take place on May 19th, 2007 at Cake Shop in the LES (one of the best venues around, in my opinion.) I’m really excited to be working on this. I’ve been brainstorming ideas for posters and flyers the last few days. Last night I met up with a group of OJ-ers (Major Matt, Dibson Hoffweiler, Julie Delano and Casey Holford) to talk about ideas and so far we’ve decided to do a poster, a double-sided postcard/flyer, a special edition OJ button, and there is already a website in the works. (Thanks Dibs!) I already have some ideas mocked up and i’m super happy with how things are turning out.
Here is a list of the bands that are planning on performing:
Dave End, The Best, Frank Hoier, Peter Dizozza, Prewar Yardsale, Dan Fishback, Toby Goodshank, The Baby Skins, Church of Lurch, The Leader, Recording Angels, Purple Organ, Huggabroomstik, Randi Russo, The Wowz, Urban Barnyard, Dream Bitches, Schwervon!, Dufus, Jeff Lews Band
fondly,
Crystal
So, here goes:
One of the, if not THE, best thing about living in NYC is the abundance of creative forces. We are, literally, surrounded by the most talented and amazing people. The one downfall of this is because there are so many people making super duper awesome things, to be singled out is quite a feat. we figured that we could try to bring more attention to artists that we know and also benefit by this symbiotic relationship. We scratch your back, we’ll scratch yours? No, really. We aren’t looking for glory, we just want to make things with other people. Share our talents and have something cool to show for it. We are extremely happy to present:
yes, have some: Toby Goodshank
We have teamed up with local NYC musician and artist Toby Goodshank to make a line of items. The meeting of minds will take place this Friday, so there will be a clearer idea of what is actually going to be made. In the meantime, we’ll tell you about the man himself and why he is totally deeeluxe!
Toby Goodshank plays in the bands Double Deuce, the Tri-Lambs, the Christian Pirate Puppets, Moldy Peaches, Bearded Witness, and with himself. His recent discography is as follows:
Toby Goodshank Safe Harbour (2004)Tri-Lambs Self-Titled (2005)
Toby Goodshank Come Correct (2005)
Doube Deuce Camp Candy (2005)
Christian Pirate Puppets White Man-like Object (2005)
Toby Goodshank Music 4 Heroes Volume 4 (2005)
Toby Goodshank Jyusangatsu (2005)
Toby Goodshank di santa ragione (2006)
Toby Goodshank Cover Album (2006)
Toby Goodshank Mogo on the Gogo (2006)
Christian Pirate Puppets Unpruded (2006)
Most of these can be found to download on iTunes or through Olive Juice Music. For more information feel free to email Toby at toby_goodshank@yahoo.com. You can also check him out on myspace.
His visual works are equally impressive. He has mad drawing and collaging skills. Much of his works are…psychedelic and surreal, would be the best words to describe them. His intricate pattern work and painstaking lettering, are truly amazing. Here are some examples from his website (we highly suggest you check out the photos page to see the rest of his work)
These are some examples of the wallet pouches that Crystal makes and we plan on selling. All these ones have already been sold, but there are more being made. They are made from felt and ribbon. They are the perfect size for carrying credit cards, ID, metrocards, whathaveyou. She’s never been into carrying around a big wallet, so she uses one of these instead.
This weekend i’m planning on re-shooting all these items for greater viewing pleasure. Some of them may be up for sale in our etsy shop (that has been sitting idyll while we get our shit together) but some of them have already been sold.
If you’d like to contact us with any questions, you can leave a comment here OR you can email us directly at: yeshavesome@yahoo.com
fondly,
Crystal
**i just tried to upload photos but for some reason, it wasn’t working. Either something in the system is messed up or i’m doing something very wrong. I guess you’ll just have to wait until this weekend to see the photos! Sorry to get you all excited!
fondly,
Crystal