Tuesday night @ MoMA (more by Tim Griffin)

Check out the video below...

Continue reading "the Department of Eagles' "No One Does It Like You" video that premiered at MoMA last night"

photos by Tim Griffin

PopRally, the ongoing event series at MoMA and P.S.1, will host the world premiere of the video for No One Does It Like You (2009) by Department of Eagles, produced by the Directors Bureau, directed by Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, and featuring costumes and sets designed by Dzama. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Daughters and Dzama moderated by MoMA assistant curator Sarah Suzuki, and a live performance by Department of Eagles.

Guests of this event will receive an exclusive limited-edition poster by Dzama.

The above description of last night's event at MoMA (3/24) should help you understand what is going on in the pictures below...

Continue reading "Department of Eagles played SXSW & MoMA's Pop Rally -pics"

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Faith-Ann Young

Truth told, it was hard to pay any attention to any of the music because randomly, three drunk chicks in silver spandex bodysuits and green painted legs came onstage and did a little bizarre, nonsensical, inebriated dance tease (doubt they were professionals as they were having difficulty balancing or even standing still in their stilettos...while visibly wasted). When the crowd grew bored of that (after throwing beer cans and dollar bills at the girls' feet), men dressed as apes came on stage and freaked with the drunk man-woman-alien chicks.

I asked around if anyone knew if this was customary for N.A.S.A., but no one had a clue what was going on.... - Faith

That's a description of N.A.S.A.'s free record release party (1/29) for debut The Spirit of Apollo which came out on Anti in February. N.A.S.A. return to LPR tonight (3/12) for a show with DJ Stretch Armstrong. Tickets are still available.

N.A.S.A., the duo of Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, will also tour the U.S. in February and March playing an official SXSW showcase at Emo's on March 19 (plus a few other Austin gigs - see below) and a performance at Coachella on April 17.

N.A.S.A.'s recent album, laden with guest spots from Tom Waits to M.I.A. and RZA, also sported interchangeable artwork from five artists - who seem to be taking turns illustrating the group's videos. Marcel Dzama (who worked on the video for Department of Eagles' "No One Does It Like You," to be unveiled at MOMA) drew N.A.S.A.'s "The People Tree," a song that features David Byrne, Chali 2na, Gift Of Gab and Z-Trip. Artist Splunny created the video for "Hip Hop," below, and the band's newest video, for "Way Down," was illustrated by artist Sage Vaughn. Obama-artist Shepard Fairey (who will be at Coachella) made a video for "Money," discussed here. All of these and more will be collected on the N.A.S.A. documentary in the works.

All tour dates, videos, and more pictures from the last LPR show, below...

Continue reading "more N.A.S.A. videos & tour dates + pics from Le Poisson Rouge where they play again tonight"

by Andrew Frisicano

Department of Eagles @ Bell House, Oct. 6, 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

On Tuesday, March 24, Department of Eagles will premiere the video for "No One Does It Like You" at the MoMA, followed by a live show and a Q&A with video directors Patrick Daughters and Marcel Dzama, as part of the museum's PopRally series. Advanced tickets are supposed to be online NOW ON SALE HERE.

Patrick Daughters, responsible for numerous music videos including Feist's "My Moon My Man" and "1234," and "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's (who are releasing new album It's Blitz! today 3/10), works with The Directors Bureau, who produced the video.

Costume and set designer for the video Dzama has been published by McSweeney's, and has done album art for Beck and The Weakerthans.

Half of Department of Eagles is Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear - the band who may or may not be playing the just-announced Dark Was The Night concert at Radio City on May 3rd. The busy Grizzly Bear also just announced a US tour (w/ 2 NYC dates), and, on February 26, played BAM with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Department of Eagles are also playing two shows at SXSW this year: an official showcase in a church on March 18th, and the Pitchfork party two days later. Daniel will be keeping especially busy in Austin because Grizzly Bear's itinerary includes two shows at SXSW too.

Check out the MoMA event poster, a live video of "No One Does It Like You", and a recent interview Department of Eagles conducted with KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, below...

Continue reading "Department of Eagles to screen a video & perform @ MoMA"

The cross-cultural collaboration of N.A.S.A.'s debut album The Spirit of Apollo has been carried over to the album artwork. Each album will contain artwork for five interchangeable covers by popular artists from varied backgrounds and cultures.

Contributing artists (as seen above) are Mark Gonzalez (the skater) (top left) Shepard Fairey (top right), Marcel Dzama (bottom left), The Date Farmers (bottom right), and Sage Vaughn (below). "All of the cover artists have contributed to The Spirit of Apollo's animated music video project, which pairs these artists with animators to create music videos for songs on the record. The first such video, featuring the art of Shepard Fairey, was released digitally in late 2008." You can watch that video below.

Shepard Fairey is also about to release a Bad Brains poster.

N.A.S.A. play Le Poisson Rouge in NYC tonight for free (1/29). When I first started hearing about tonight's show, I thought "yeah,I covered that already" and "that came up fast". Only now am I realizing that tonight's show is a newly added record release party which is not to be confused with the group's show at the same venue scheduled for March (which is on sale).

All dates, more art, and that video below...

Continue reading "Shepard Fairey, Sage Vaughn, Marcel Dzama, Mark Gonzales & others create art for N.A.S.A. (who are in NYC) "