Today I was clicking through a new site I found called RCRD-LBL and it has regularly posted free downloads of new tracks – definitely one  I’ve bookmarked and will keep checking out.  But what did I find?  Owl City again.  This time for a newer track called Hot Air Balloon released just last month in May 2009. The band caught my eye twice in one week so it was time for some more attention. On the RCRD-LBL site, the free track was no longer available for download, but I discovered if you sign up for the Owl City Mailing list on their site (http://www.owlcitymusic.com) its available for free download.

Also found the following YouTube video, but I’m sure it will get pulled:

The Band

So the band is in fact one guy – kudos to the difficulty in doing that +1 point.  And his name is Adam.  +1 more point.  He’s in his early 20s and is from Minnesota. For those who know me, they know why MN gives him a third point. That’s three more points than I have.

The Music

Adam’s voice sounds vaguely Blink 182-ish – more spoken-word than melodic angel.  The catchy keyboards and melodies remind me of The Postal Service, with a little bit of poppy Jason Mraz kicked in.  (Although I don’t think Adam Young is quite at the Mraz caliber just yet as I think Mraz is obscenely talented, even if his music doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but that discussion is for another post.)  I can’t say the music is the most interesting I’ve ever listened to, and the pop-hater-fanboys will jump on the “I hate Owl City” bandwagon in a flash. But I’m more for enjoying my music, and for a quick listen you will get just that: some joy.

iTunes has the Hot Air Balloon single (but as noted above – you can download it from http://www.owlcitymusic.com after signing up for the mailing list), and an EP (Of June) and album (Maybe I’m Dreaming) both from December 2008.  Haven’t bought either yet, but if don’t stop humming Hello Seattle I may have to.

Bottom line

Owl City is great to jam out to, but I’m not sure I could listen to too many of their songs in a row.  If you listen to Hot Air Balloon and Hello Seattle back-to-back, you might not notice when the song changes. But I’m still humming: Helloooooo Se-att-le….

PS: Suprise! You can also follow them on Twitter @owlcity.

“Sketchbooks are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker.”

While I don’t fancy myself a designer by any stretch, I do find concepts easier to understand by seeing them visually (as most people do).  I like to organize my thoughts, communicate system designs, or diagram process flow using mind mapping programs or Visio, but the use of the technology sometimes gets in the way of my brainstorming process.

I particularly like a quote from the Sketch wikipedia article:

Sketching sharpens an artist’s ability to focus on the most important elements of a subject [...].

So I too have decided to start handwriting more, sketchbooking if you will.  In my case, it’ll be more words than pictures or diagrams.

For additional inspiration, Michael Nobbs posts a lot of links to sketchbooks and related articles on his twitter stream.