Sleaford Mods – UK GRIM – new video

Sleaford Mods‘ video for new single, UK GRIM, sees the duo collaborating with collage artist, Cold War Steve – check it out below:

Jim Mazza – poster hero

This summer Slacker Shack celebrates it’s 10th birthday and I’ve been reminiscing of late about some of the stuff that’s appeared on this blog over the last ten years. One of my favourites from the past were my Poster Hero blogs where I shared the work of artists from across the world. I’m not quite sure why I stopped doing them, so I’m bringing them back.

When I started this blog a lot of the art world was still dominated by galleries and dealers, even when it came to music and movie poster art. Over the past 10 years that’s changed and the challenge is now about building an audience of fans and people who want to buy your work. There are a number of artists and illustrators I follow online and whose work I’ve bought, and I always get excited when I find a new artist to love and be inspired by.

My world would be a far dimmer place without artists like Pete Fowler, JIMP, Jay Howell, Jermaine Rogers, Jay Ryan, Jonathan Edwards and Todd Francis (and that list could be far longer).

The artist I’m sharing today (and the first of many more) is, Jim Mazza. Jim is a freelance artist and illustrator living in Los Angeles and he has a bold and psychedelic style that’s seen him design concert posters for bands including, Foo Fighters, Built To Spill, Ween and Black Keys. I’ve been a fan of his work for awhile and the four concert posters below have become big favourites of mine over on my Pinterest page:

You can check out more of Jim Mazza‘s work over on his Big Cartel page here.

Banksy unveils his latest ‘isolation themed’ work on Instagram

Right now about a fifth of the World’s population is in lockdown due to the devastating corona virus. Except for the odd bit of exercise, food shopping and frontline work, pretty much everyone in the UK is indoors twiddling their thumbs and hoping this craziness is going to subside in the coming weeks.

So what do you do if you’re the world’s most famous and elusive street artist? Well, you bring your work indoors if you’re Banksy.

Yesterday evening the era-defining artist unveiled a new isolation themed work on his Instagram account, showing followers what his bathroom looked like after his latest creative spurt (and his wife isn’t happy). Check out some titillating close ups below:

Happy Christmas from Slacker Shack

GOOD NEWS…

Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings?

A friend sat me down to watch the following mini-documentary earlier this week. It’s all about the hundreds of paintings Bob Ross created during his TV career on The Joy Of Painting.

It’s a quaint and quirky little story courtesy of The New York Times YouTube channel. I enjoyed it so much I thought I’d share it…

Timothy Spall and Vanessa Redgrave star in new biopic, Mrs Lowry & Son

First Turner, now Lowry… Timothy Spall is back as another world famous artist in Adrian Noble‘s new biopic, Mrs Lowry & Son.

Starring alongside Vanessa Redgrave as his mother, Spall plays L.S. Lowry, the Lancashire artist famous for painting scenes of industrial life in North West England in the mid-20th century.

The trailer looks beautiful, with sumptuous cinematography by Josep M. Civit and the kind of weight and gravitas you’d expect from an Adrian Noble film starring two truly iconic actors.

The film’s script is by Martyn Hesford, whose previous scripts include some great Dickens TV adaptations and the award winning Kenneth Williams TV biopic, Fantabulosa, so it’ll be interesting to see how his first foray into cinema fairs.

Check out the new trailer below – the film debuts at the Edinburgh International Film Festival later this month, before a release on the 30th August:

Stranger Things 3 poster art

British artist and Manchester Metropolitan University graduate, Kyle Lambert has been designing poster art for the Stranger Things franchise since it began. Season 3 of the show starts next month and you can check out the illustrated stages that make up the new season’s latest poster below:

As you can see the retro 80’s style is stronger than ever – and the neon touches are very ‘on trend‘. It also teases some sweet little insights into what to expect from the show’s third season, with Millie Bobby Brown‘s, Eleven once again taking centre stage.

Lambert is now L.A. based and as well as creating art for Stranger Things he’s also worked on art projects for NBC shows, The Blacklist and Timeless, as well as the J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg movie, Super 8 (which I’m guessing got him the Stranger Things job). Kyle also designed and illustrated the Muse‘s number one album, Simulation Theory.

Check out the full horizontal poster for Stranger Things 3 below – and get ready for Season 3 on the 4th July:

Two black holes collide on William Basinki’s fascinating new ambient album, ‘On Time Out Of Time’

I love dipping my ears into the odd weird new sound, so I was enthralled to stumble across William Basinkski‘s new album, On Time Out Of Time via a review on the Pitchfork site. It ticks a number of boxes for me – weird sci-fi ambient shiz? Tick. Brilliant back story and concept? Tick. Captivating oddness? Tick.

Don’t get me wrong, if you find the idea of listening to ambient drones and oscillations for fifty minutes incredibly unappealing, I urge you right now not to bother with the album (in fact just stop reading and go and make a brew or something). If, however, you like sci-fi ambient sounds and the idea of constructing an album around the gravitational waves emanated by two massive black holes that collided 1.3 billion years ago, then this album will definitely interest and excite you.

Basinski has made a career out of fascinating aural art experiments. Back in 2014 he released, The Disintegration Loops, a collection of ambient soundscapes recorded from crumbling magnetic tapes shortly before 9/11. He paired the tracks with a haunting video of Manhattan’s damaged skyline, shot from his Brooklyn rooftop, and it’s a stunning and incredibly moving composition.

The tracks across, On Time Out Of Time, come as the result of a collaboration with artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, working with the support of the MIT and Caltech-operated Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (or LIGO). The sounds Basinski obtained are the deep-space recordings captured by LIGO’s interferometers.

Fascinating back story aside, Basinski has rather amusingly described his latest work as, what it sounds like, “when two black holes fuck.” Intrigued? Have a listen to On Time Out Of Time, via the Spotify stream below and see what you think:

Artist Jimpwasere releases new ‘Monogeddon II’ collection

I’m a huge fan of the work of British visual artist, Jimpwasere. I have one of his originals proudly displayed in my lounge and his off-kilter and beautifully wonky illustrations always intrigue and please me.

Jimpwasere has a new limited edition collection of surreal, witty and strangely moving monoprints out now. His Monogeddon II anthology comes in a handmade 48 page zine on random coloured paper and all prints were designed and illustrated over the past year. The zine comes hand-signed and numbered in an edition of 50 (with a free sticker included).

Order your copy here.