The KVB
While on a recent tour of the Western United States, London-based The KVB moved heaven and earth to make this wonderfully meditative 3-part episode possible. Working with award-winning documentary filmmaker Alix Lambert (The Mark of Cain), cinematographer Conor Simpson, engineer Griffin Rodriguez and editor Forrest Borie, the episode employs a simple set of colored gels, soft shadows, playful synth melodies, one cranky drum machine, one enormously loud Jazzmaster, and two unflinching performers. Welcome to the bracingly Zen-like inner-world of The KVB.
Redd Kross
On this incomparable episode of Room 205, director Tim Manning and cinematographer Ryan Baker used multiple RED Epic and Scarlet-X cameras in unison with more than 20 GoPro HD cameras to capture the smarts, smiles, harmonies, melodies, ripping skills, primary colors, fancy shoes, and hair-spinning showmanship of the truly legendary Redd Kross. (Trust us, making this was bonkers). From the kaleidoscopic, hyper-colored bodega of "Uglier" to the red storm of "Researching The Blues" to the arena-ready white lights of "Pop Show," this is psychedelic power pop at its finest — played by the best.
Hauschka
While on a recent US tour with Grammy-winning American violinist Hilary Hahn, celebrated Düsseldorf-born piano composer Hauschka took a time-out to create this very special 3-part performance series with esteemed director Greg Hunt, set designer Tamarra Younis, and sound engineer J. Clark. Employing elements of magical realism, prepared piano, playful improvisation and inspired collaboration, this episode embodies everything we've come to love about Room 205.
Live from MFNW
While at MFNW 2012 in Portland, Oregon we put our heads together with director Greg Hunt and longtime festival producer Trevor Solomon to curate ‘Room 205 live’. Held at venerable downtown venue Ted’s, (formerly Berbati’s Pan), the night showcased five featured artists from our collaborative Sound & Vision series Room 205. No elaborate sets and no second takes. Just 100% live shredding and raw weirdness. Enjoy!
I Break Horses
While on a recent US tour supporting M83, Sweden's I Break Horses stopped into Room 205 for a deeply weird live session during a brutal heatwave. It was HOT and they were sick as dogs, so they stripped to their underwear before a single note warbled from their synths. Even so, the vibe created by the white light/white heat/white underwear delivered the first almost-perfect episode of Room 205. Huge thanks to IBH and director Forrest Borie for making it through the wilderness. Enjoy.
Peggy Honeywell
For this very special episode of Room 205, director Conor Simpson and set designer Tamarra Younis take us on a journey through the intimate inner-landscapes of enigmatic country/folk singer Peggy Honeywell (aka Clare Rojas). The combination of vibrant abstract geometry, natural wonder, 60s nightclubs, and Peggy's soaring, angelic primitive folk music makes this episode one that will stick with you for a lifetime.
Tropic of Cancer
For this stark, spellbinding episode of Room 205, director Luis Farfan worked closely with director of photography Conor Simpson, set designer Tamarra Younis, editor Forrest Borie and sound engineer Jon Gilbert to capture the band's mesmerizing live performance while crafting a world of abstract symbols, ambient sounds and cinematic contrasts, entirely elegant and arresting in their own right.
Blouse
For this very special episode of Room 205, director Paul Stec and audio engineer J. Clark guide us on a woozy shoegaze through the gauzy, interstitial dreamworld of Blouse. Unbound from the corporeal constraints of Room 205's 15 x 20ft landscape, the resulting collaboration offers a near-perfect flux of ethereal pop, live performance and poetic imagination.
Ty Segall & White Fence
If your musical tastes run from the guitarsenals of Amon Duul II to the mind warps of The Animated Egg, then you might agree that Ty Segall and Tim Presley, aka White Fence, have just made one of the best new psych-garage albums of the early 21st Century. For this episode, they teamed up with friends Mikal Cronin (bass) and Nick Murray (drums) to deliver a sonic freakout par excellence. That director Michael Reich and engineer Jon Gilbert captured them performing live together for the first time is just-in the truest sense of the word-awesome.
Cold Showers
For this supremely entertaining episode of Room 205 director Michael Reich and set designer Tamarra Younis worked with director of photography Jeffrey Peters and editor Forrest Borie to create an arresting video triptych of a Victorian rose garden, brutalist architecture and negative white space. From finery to form to finality...this might be one of the finest episodes we've collaborated on yet.
Led Er Est
For this episode, director Jared Eberhardt and editor Forrest Borie worked with New York-based video artists Brendan Harman and Aurora Halal to create a kaleidoscopic inner world of Dadaist non-sequiturs and Tron-esque dreamscapes. For maximum listening pleasure, we recommend playing these live tracks through a massive PA, preferably with a few thousand close friends as dawn breaks across an open field. Enjoy.
Chelsea Wolfe
Seer/director Michael Reich, wizard/editor Forrest Borie, and white witch/set designer Tamarra Younis tapped their deepest inner goth vibes to film doom-folk artist Chelsea Wolfe. To enjoy this truly spellbinding performance we suggest you turn down the lights, don headphones, relax and get yourself into a gloomy Portishead-meets-Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein state of mind… just let the grime and the glow wash over you.
Craft Spells
For this episode of Room 205, the Polish-born director Monika Lenczewska, Belarusian visual artist Yelena Zhelezov, and Manchester-bred set designer Tamarra Younis have joined forces to create a shimmering dream world of golden gauze, floating spheres, and abstract colored light projections inhabited by wooden folk puppets and special musical guest Craft Spells.
Yuck
For this episode of Room 205 director Michael Reich, editor Forrest Borie, and set designer Tamarra Younis mined deep 90s vibes to film indie guitar rock acolytes Yuck (think Sonic Youth, Twin Peaks, etc). Having already worked with Reich, Yuck and video muse Ariela Marin (reprising her roles as a dog groomer and diaper-clad backup dancer), knew they were in for a weird one: 90s public access TV + homemade green-screens + VHS tape = The Wayne’s World-ification of Yuck. Enjoy.
OFF!
Regardless of what anyone might say, hardcore punk isn’t dead. On the contrary, it is very much alive and wonderfully harshing your mellow. Hardcore supergroup OFF! is undeniable proof. While on a recent break from busy summer touring, the band blasted through a short set inside their dodgy motel room rehearsal space (otherwise known as Room 205). Play it loud.
Austra
On Feel It Break, Austra has crafted a dark, danceable album hearkening back to the sleazier side of New Wave but still deeply rooted in Stelmanis’s operatic and classical upbringing. While on a recent West Coast tour, the band stopped in for a late night session with director Otto Arsenault and set designer/costumer Sophia Rubio.
Ted Leo
Through a unique synthesis of punk and folk, soul and hardcore, traditional Irish music and off-the-cuff improvisation, Ted Leo writes seamless pop songs that are pleasing to the sugar-craving ear and the intellectually curious mind. Ted recently visited Room 205 to perform inside of an ever-evolving set conceived by director Jason Farrell and set designer Tamarra Younis.
The Soft Moon
The Soft Moon is a San Francisco-based neo-post-punk band influenced by early Bay Area avant-gardists such as Chrome, Units and Minimal Man. Their cataclysmic delivery makes listeners contemplate the deeper aspects of the primal self through weeping guitar leads, cutting bass lines, haunting vocals, icy synths and motorik beats. Mix in the mind-bending visuals of band member Ron Robinson and we have one hell of a Room 205 episode.
Daedelus
Daedelus isn't a paint-by-numbers musician. From how he looks (early Victorian Dandyism), to how he makes music, or how he expresses himself and views the world, his is a very individual 'bespoke' outlook. When asked to envision his visit to Room 205, Daedelus decisively stated, "I would like to perform at a seance in a Victorian parlor accompanied by ghosts. Conjuring the music, so to speak."
High Places
Throughout its nearly five years of existence, High Places has toured extensively and performed in a multitude of environments. Whether playing at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan or in an industrial warehouse in Santiago, Chile, the band's enveloping sound and propulsive energy allow the music to translate to a variety of venues. Much to our enjoyment, they recently came by Room 205 to play inside our enormous yarn sculpture.
Avi Buffalo
While on a recent break from heavy touring Avi Buffalo was kind enough to blaze through three songs in Room 205. With director Otto Arsenault (Matt & Kim's "Lessons Learned") helming the lens and engineer Butchy Fuego capturing the audio, our time with Avi, Sheridan and Andrew proved to be entertaining and incredibly illuminating.
La Sera
A few days before embarking on La Sera's first UK tour, mastermind Katy Goodman (vox/bass) and hired guns Jennifer Prince (guitar/vox) and Jonathan Weinberg (drums/dry humor), stopped by Room 205 to blast through a few songs from Katy's upcoming full-length on Hardly Art.
Puro Instinct
According to Puro Instinct vocalist Piper Kaplan, "We recently got back from a very wholesome North American tour with Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Magic Kids. No one got arrested and we made it to every show." Ahem. For your enjoyment Piper and her guitarist-sister Sklyar and the whole P.I. army recently stopped by Room 205 to perform a few spaced-out dream jams from that "very wholesome" tour.
Crystal Antlers
In the words of bassist/vocalist Jonny Bell, "It was mid-summer last year when Crystal Antlers were floating around in a pool and decided to move to Mexico to write our next record. Several months later, after completing our sixth tour in a row, we moved into a barn in a small farming town 100 miles south of the US-Mexico border. This is some of the music that we emerged with from that experience."
Abe Vigoda
Abe Vigoda’s guitarist/keyboardist Juan Velazquez is an ardent admirer of fake fog and 80s-style video montages. When you watch the band’s Room 205 episode, it will all make perfect sense.
