Messy Christmas and a Happy Next Year!

Thanks to all who've been checking my blog and listening to the oddcasts over at Brandysnaps HQ.
Have a tidy holidaze and I wish you all the beast
Pete x

Davey Graham RIP

Saddened to hear the news about the passing of Davey Graham on 15th December at 68 years old. Personification of the word legend and guitar visionary that paved the way ahead for many others. If you are not familiar with his music I plead with you to discover it.

Another uke

This is the first ukulele I painted from earlier in the year. It's a personal piece and I play it (badly) from time to time. I'll be doing more of these custom ukes for sale in the new year. Watch this space...

Ukulele full photo

Sold to the lady of Spain! Adios! x

Record bag drawing

Synthesizer battles are becoming a bit of a recurring theme in my sketchbooks at the moment, I imagine the tweaked sounds that would manifest from the imaginary sessions. This one I drew on a plastic LP cover, think it came from a Camper Van Beethoven album that I got recently (see my top ten below). Go Grongaloids go!

Marker pen fun

Been drawing a lot with marker and paint pens recently and it seems difficult to go back to a pencil and eraser afterwards. The first mark is the one I go with and take it from there. I think because you have a pencil rubber sometimes, it allows you make mistakes... Anyway, here's one of my faves of the recent batch of scribbles, a banjo playing snorse.

December's recommended listening

Here goes a post pub winter top ten...will try and keep this a monthly thing for those interested! Anyone out there still buying music..?

1. Fleetwood Mac - Bare Trees LP.
Top winter listening, the simmer before the boil of Rumours, as rewarding but more pastoral (and hairy).
Great cover art too.

2. Talk Talk- The Colour Of Spring LP.
Going through a mad Talk Talk phase right now, total 80's production on this album but sounds tight and right in the year 2008. Mark Hollis I salute you! What the hell is he doing now though? Loved his first solo LP, 4 Men With Beards reissued it on vinyl a couple of years back. RECOMMENDED.

3.Burzum- Filosofem LP.
Bit of a mad jump from 80's pop cum introspective to Norwegian church burners but you've got to adjust your filters to wide, right? THE black metal LP in my book though haven't explored the genre fully (but how much better can it get!?). Total fuzz/buzz guitars over satanic head nodding beats recorded with no guitar amp, cheap prison issue synth and apparently walkman headphones as a mike....go figure. Total winter listening, cutting through the frost like a 5,000 husky led sled at
-100 degrees mph.

4. Hatchback- Colours Of The Sun CD.
Dont know where to start with this one except that I've hammered this album over the last month. Balearic? Cosmic?...I have trouble genre-fying this LP but it's fantastic. A pal, and methinks, musical soul mate of Sorcerer (the self proclaimed 'motorik George Benson") Also who's White Magic LP I recommend strongly... Final track (16+minutes) is a standout!

5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago LP.
Ok, I'm really riding on the Uncut/Mojo hem here but to be honest I reacted against the 'endorsed by adult music mags thing' by ignoring it. Cue a few months later and it's got under my skin, thanks to my girlfriend's repeated plays.I like the chap behind it, he likes venison stew and so do I. Good eatin'.

6. Hush Arbors-Hush Arbors LP.
My exceptionally good friend Graham and I had the pleasure of dj-ing at the launch of this LP in a local east London boozer of late, and were eagerly awaiting said gig after imbibing the LP for a fist full of weeks. A spellbinding gig and drinks and dances were had and I havent got sick of repeated listens to the LP yet. Out on Thurston 'Sonic' Moore's label Ecstatic Peace, one to add to your Christmas list fer sure. Go get it!

7. Camper Van Beethoven - Telephone Free Landslide Victory.
A real LP from my past here that I've only very recently got around to re-buying and re-listening to. I've been stuck on CVB's version of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk LP for years and kind of eclipsed their own compositions for me. A recent dig into their first 2 LPs brings delights first tickled by my 'if it's weird, indie and American, I'm in' fancy at the time. X years on and it still sounds unique. Seriously one of the most underrated eclectic oddball pop American bands of the latter part of the 20th century.
Investigate.

8. Yellow Moon Band- S/T LP.
Hats off to Jo and Danny, loved the sevens and great to hear them in an album context on this long player on Static Caravan (great label, google it!) Again on heavy rotation at Monsterism HQ and featured on Fred Deakin's Nu Balearica mix CD. Who would have thunk it? The +8 in the mix. Folk/prog/gettin-it-together-in-the-country/jam-tasms galore. x

9. Judee Sill - Judee Sill.
Let's not fuck around here, this is the female-singer-songwriter-honeycomb core! Bit of a late comer to her music but when I heard it on first listen, it felt like a long lost album of a friend knocking on your door. A sorry tale is the life of poor Judee, jail time, prostitution and addiction peppered her short life but somehow this first LP of quasi-mystical-christian content was documented and sounds like nothing else. Classical, almost baroque passages rub up with pedal steel and folk guitar that never fail to melt my woes.

10. Brain Machine - Brain Machine LP
Coming in at number 10 is the mysterious duo of J Trippe and G Zen's Brain Machine project. Deep, expansive, Micronesia-centric modulations communicate with mind and body lapping at the toes, on a deserted black beach.

Ye Olde Synth Jam

They don't make synths like they did in the 1800's.
Big ups to Mr Hellicar!

Pen drawings

I love Pentel sign pens, just got a new one and did some drawings...

Ukulele sneak peek

Here's cheeky preview of a ukulele I've custom painted and re strung for inclusion in a group art show at Stolenspace gallery (Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery off London's Brick Lane 04.12.08 - 21.12.08).

Painting at Three Threads London

For all those who live in or who are visiting the City of London please check out an 8ft by 4ft painting I've done behind the counter of the fine clothing boutique The Three Threads. It'll be up for the next few weeks and then will possibly be auctioned off. Excuse the weird angle of the photo (and empty beers!) as the counter makes it tricky to get it all in shot, you'll see what I mean if you visit there! The store address is The Three Threads, 47-49 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3QT.

The Mighty Boosh toy figures

Finally the Mighty Boosh toy figures I've designed are available to buy. They are the first series we plan to release with more characters from the Boosh's world to come in the new year. Available from www.playbeast.com

Bugbrand Oscillator Workshop

I've just attended Tom Bugs' oscillator workshop today at 93 Feet East in London as part of the Hokaben music festival. The goal of the workshop was to assemble an mini oscillator kit designed by Tom with kit and tools supplied. I've never attempted any electronics construction past wiring a plug, so I must admit to being a little bit nervous even though I was told no previous experience was necessary to build it. After a quick look through the initially bewildering instructions, we were reassured that few people have ever failed in getting theirs to work. Still buzzing from my coffee, my soldering began a little shakily but I soon got the hang of it and was progressing at a pleasing rate. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I got it working (after realising one of the circuit boards was upside down, oops). It's a crazy little synth that's very intuitive and surprising (there's mp3's of sound samples on his website). The kits will be for sale at some point in the future, check the Bugbrand site in my links section. I can't recommend these enough if you like building and esoteric sounds. Thanks for a great afternoon Tom!

New screenprint coming soon

Here's sneak peek at a new screenprint that'll be available from www.playbeast.com from the end on november. Without a title at the moment, the plan is to print it onto B2 size 270gsm paper and it'll be limited to 200 pieces signed and numbered.

Music versus food

In our age of processed and chemically enhanced food it's good to know that food producers are using alternative methods.

Sorbet face a la mode

In the park

Nothing that fancy or special, just a nice picture of a grey goose in regent's park.
There we go.

More more drawings

Dug out from the 2008 sketchbooks...

Birds as individuals by Len Howard

Just started reading this book (from 1952) and it's quite wonderful. I couldnt resist skipping to the many photos in the book that feature Mrs Howard and the tame and characterful birds that seemed to endlessly hassle her from morning til night. It would be a pretty amazing experience to have a bird on your hand while you drew it, until it crapped on the page.
Anyway, an interesting book for birders/ists/oids...

Custom banjo strum stick

A fave instrument of mine that I bought from a maker called Blaine Horlocker, based in Florida. He makes various stringed creations that include strum sticks, dulcimers and electric mandolins to name a few. I couldnt resist painting up the Banjo, here's the body of the beast.
You can view his wares at www.smokeymountaindulcimer.com
(Note the contact mike to the right of the strings...)

new sketch

Owls, their handlers and oscillations.

Electronic sounds from the living room floor

When I'm not drawing, painting, looking at or thinking of owls,  I'm playing around with my ever-increasing collection of sound devices. Big ups to Pete Hellicar, Tom Bugs, Nintendo, Korg, Rhythm Ace, Behringer, international circuit benders and my local wine shop - I salute you!
I'm planning some musical releases sometime in the not too distant future on a micro label I'm setting up with a friend, more info to come as the plans unfold...

Limited edition t shirt

I did a small run of these shirts in dark grey over the summer.... what summer?
Available from The Three Threads in East London and online at the playbeast shop (see my links).

Computer Arts Project magazine plug

My toy design work is featured in the next issue of Computer Arts Projects magazine, on sale October 9th.
Definately worth purchasing from your local newsagent vendor. Nice cover James.

Shindig! illustrations so far...

I've been contributing illustrations to the superb music magazine Shindig! for the last few issues.

The images below have been used (in order) in features on The Dukes of Stratosphear, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and early T-Rex.

What the...

Now for some older paintings

Here's a two small paintings I did on the kitchen table and quite possible now hanging in other people's kitchens.

new painting preview

Not sure what I'm doing with these new paintings or where they are going but they're fun to do.
This is one of the first of a batch I'm working on.

boxfresh x petefowler

The fruits of a recent collaboration with Boxfresh, in shops now I believe...

recent drawings

Here's some recent drawings that may end up on t-shirts next year...

Girl, gonna take you to a dog show!

Well, I've got to start somewhere with this blog. Here's a bad impression of Bob Dylan's finest video moment, re-located to a dog show in Cornwall...with my trousers tucked in to my socks.

'Don't need a dog judge to tell ya who the winner is...'