The Nightowlers
Posted by David | Filed under Music, My stuff, News
The Nightowlers is the late-night mini acoustic folk/lo-fi duo project of David Michael Shanks and Lynzi Wang. Coming about in a shared kitchen in London during scrake of dawn procrastination sessions, the sound is maybe somewhere in and around Damien Jurado, Cat Power and Nouvelle Vague. With no expense spared, all songs were made and recorded using a found acoustic guitar and a laptop.
2 free songs for download over at our new last.fm page.
Please do leave some feedback here, or on last.fm if you have an account.
The Nightowlers
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Nightowlers
When cabin fever sets in over Christmas holidays: Valen comes to town
Tags: acoustic, download, free, mp3, Music, nightowlers
Digital Dust & Souvenirs of Barefoot
Posted by David | Filed under Music, News
Taken In
from the Boss Tuneage Album Only Souvenirs
While blowing the digital dust of my music library recently, I stumbled across many songs and rarities from my previous punk band Barefoot – songs mostly confined only to memory. I had a great time and a lot of laughs playing, recording, gigging and touring the UK with the Glasgow-based band between 2003 and 2007 .
It was on listening to these songs again recently for the first time in ages, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: band, Barefoot, Barefoot (Glasgow), download, free, free mp3s, Melodic Punk, mp3s, punk, scotland
Spring Clean, Summer Upgrades and Some New Music
Posted by David | Filed under Music, News, Web
Summer is in the air, the ironic melodic synth pop of The Magnetic Fields‘ appropriately titled album Holiday is on the jukebox album and shanx.co.uk is upgraded with a new look.
The summer weather and Norway’s “Light at Night” at 1 in the morning allowed for some outdoor low-fi (because we know no other way) music with Stefan as part of our “David and Me” project. It was a beautiful evening – “one for the mind and not to be recorded” as a wise man once said. We were visited by a curious beaver, some deer, jumping fish, a skunk (we think) and passers by.
Musically speaking for “David and Me”, melody and simplicity take precedence with bedroom noises from melodicas, ukuleles, glockenspiels and rhythm eggs also making appearances. Magnetic fields and Herman Dune are strong influences. Mostly though, the driving force is some sort of ode to our favourite, sadly departed all-too-young St.Thomas. We hope summer will be kind and give us some recordings of our songs to put out. For now, some roughness (we like roughness!)
- The Willow Tree -
While on the music front, Billy Spring Band have been busy in the studio recording rough demos for a full 8 or so songs. We have quite a mixture of songs now ranging from a “skrangly” Neil Young rock sound to a smooth jazzy tune all the way to a waltz! Check back here in the upcoming weeks for some rough demos. BSB now have, in addition to our Myspace, an online home with the kind collective of bands @ Snotpope with whom we share practice rooms, studio and equipment. Find it by clicking my banner design below.
Digitally, I’ve been particularly impressed with WordPress 2.8 publishing platform’s features that make running a blog a LOT easier and much more intuitive. Plugins, themes and widgets can all now be installed and activated directly through the WordPress Online Site Admin interface. The sidebar widget housing your e.g. Twitter, Flickr and Last.fm feeds can be adjusted seamlessly using drag and drop thanks to AJAX. Gone also are the cumbersome days of downloading your plugins/upgrades as zip files, unpacking them and uploading them via FTP. One standout plugin is the WordPress InstantUpgrade plugin by Zirona. Once set up, WordPress is upgradable in one click – no more worries about file permissions or overwriting important files.
Watch this space for more music from David and Me and BSB. And, above all, god sommer!
Tags: Billy Spring Band, David and Me, InstantUpgrade, Music, Outdoor Music, Summer, Upgrade, Wordpress
More drawings and more thanks
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Drawing, Links, My stuff, News
Firstly a big thanks to everyone who came along to my exhibition in Godt Brød and who gave me feedback.
As those pictures and drawings come down, I’ve put up 12 new line drawings up on flickr. The drawings date from the end of summer to yesterday evening and the themes are somewhat disparate rannging from Kissing to Kerouac to Cancer Research to Leonard Cohen to Ikea and The Dance. You can also browse my pics using this very nice flash gallery by airtightinteractive.
They Said Repent Repent
Beauty And Comfort In A Twisted Logic
Yet When He Called Out Not Even An Echo Replied
Tags: B&W, Cancer Research, concepts, Exhibition, Ikea, Kerouac, Kissing, line drawings, Loenard Cohen, new drawings, The Dance, Themes
Godt Brød Exhibition
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Drawing, News, Personal, Photography, Uncategorized, Writings
Facebook event link
Info/Price List
As of today I have a selection of my pictures and drawings on display in Godt Brød ecological bakery/café, Trondheim.
Godt Brød Trondheim
Thomas Angells gate 16
7011 Trondheim
73 53 61 40
Click here for a map
Opening hours are 8am-6pm everyday except Sunday.
It’s an excellent bakery/café right in the city centre so please drop in, have something to eat, take a look around and leave a note in the guestbook!
The exhibition is a mix of things old and new. On display are my previous black & white photographs from France and Scotland, a more recent surreal/dark series on loneliness and solitude and also a few of my line drawings that are fresh off the press.You can also look at/buy postcards and my collection book Times Beyond the Tree.
You can browse my photos and drawings here
If you are interested in buying any photos/drawings/prints just get in touch for a price and details on size and framing: davidmichaelshanks@gmail.com
Thanks,
David
Tags: David Shanks, Drawings, Exhibition, Photography, Photos, Pictures, Trondheim
“Times beyond the tree” is available online
Posted by David | Filed under Artwork, Drawing, My stuff, News, Personal, Photography, Writings
A collection of my recent photographs, line drawings, texts and song lyrics are available in the form of a book portfolio called Times beyond the tree (hardback and softback!) Click the cover below where you can find out about the book, preview it and order it online.
Times beyond the tree is a short portfolio selection of my recent photographs, line drawings, texts and song lyrics.
Loneliness, solitude, emptiness.
Awareness, connections, excitement.
Beauty.
A tiptoed journey that turns dead-end glances to next door’s shadows
An awkward, onward struggle that can never be as expected
A couple lie in bed and listen to one another breathe
An old woman is reassured as a flag signals her death
Two strangers find out they have already met and spoken without words
And a windowsill sunset somehow connects it all together in perfect harmony
The title is a reference to Chris Marker’s photomontage La Jétée . A man travels back in time to save civilisation and find his former love. While in a park, the couple stare at a cut cross-section of a giant sequoia tree that is marked with historical dates. The man points somewhere beyond the tree and says “This is where I come from”.
- Preview a low quality selection of the book directly here
It is open…
Posted by David | Filed under News, Photography
Just a brief, but very big thank you to everyone who turned up at the Look Up Look Out photo exhibition opening last night. Morten and I were very chuffed with how the evening turned out and how the pictures looked. Skydsstation was bursting at the seams – so much so that it was hard to see the pictures! So as I said, come back during the day soon for a coffee with good light and fewer people. Have a look at our pictures, read our booklet and sign our guestbooks.
All of my pictures on display are for sale so if you have any price/sizes/framing queries just email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ]
Look Up Look Out photo exhibition is now upon us
Posted by David | Filed under News, Photography
Look Up Look Out is opening the 18/01/08 @18.00 in Baklandet Skydsstaion, Trondheim, Norway tomorrow. Morten and I are both very excited! Click here for a map & Click here to see my exhibition pics
If you have arrived here after seeing my work in Skydsstation and want to browse my portfolio please go to my Flickr page. For purchase/print size/framing questions please email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ]
Here is our press release in Norwegian on Morten’s blog: press release
Here are links to some supplementary documents that are on display in the exhibition:
My Photographer’s Biography (for more of an idea on what this exhibition is about)
My image blurbs
Look Up Look Out Expo Booklet
Press Release Text Doc (Norwegian) (again thanks to Morten)
Exhibition details/Flickr/PhotoShelter stock agency
Posted by David | Filed under News, Photography
My photo exhibition with Morten Oddvik titled “Look up Look out” mentioned below will have its opening on 18/01/07 @18.00 in Baklandet Skydsstaion, Trondheim, Norway. Click the flyer below for the images that will be on display:
If you are interested in purchasing any of the images you see on exhibition or else on my site, please contact me via my email [ davidmichaelshanks @ gmail.com ] for prices/prints/framing information.
I have also opened a flickr photo account to complement and possibly replace this website over time. Given its great community/comment/extra features Ill be mostly updating my flickr account with my past and present photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidmichaelshanks/
I have also had some of my pics accepted by PhotoShelter stock photo collection. Here my pics are live and for sale, including several that were awarded the “editor’s choice”.
http://my.photoshelter.com/davidshanks
“Created by photographers in 2005, PhotoShelter has quickly become one of the professional photography industry’s most trusted brands”
New Photos, New Exhibition & Site change
Posted by David | Filed under News, Photography
An overdue update! You can find some of my most recent photography here in a very nice flash gallery called simpleviewer (if you don’t have flash you can see a limited number of the pictures in my normal gallery here). Either way, let me know what you think.
In January I will be having an exhibition of my photos in Skydstation, Trondheim, Norway with Morten Oddvik. More details to follow.
For the new year I will be changing webhost and my site. I hope to have a more comprehensive photography section as well as more of my music content online.
