Longtime friends Nick and Paul, better known as the Books, are heading to Iowa on Halloween. I whipped up this 4-color poster for the show, printed by the folks over at 8/7 central. It features fonts that were hand-made by the Books, as well as the iconic fly which functions as the back button on the web site I built for them five years ago. Maybe I’ll see some of you at the show?

In 2005, I built a web site for The Books, which is still probably the strangest web-related thing I’ve been apart of creating. I’ve had a lot of people comment on what a wonderful experience the site is and how much they enjoy exploring all of its various nooks and crannies. Unfortunately in today’s world of mobile web browsing, however, that experience is pretty much lost, along with all other important information, like tour dates, and the ability to purchase albums. This is in large part due to the fact that some popular mobile browsers, like the iPhone’s Safari currently do not support the Adobe Flash plug-in. So I decided to finally bite the bullet and whip up a mobile version of the site today that offers a lot of that basic information, reserving the animated experience for desktop browsers. So now, when you type in the usual URL for The Books site, rather than seeing the “I Love You” tree, you ought to be redirected straight to the interface depicted in the screenshot below. I’m hoping to make mobile versions of more of the sites I’ve created in the past soon, and if any of you readers can think of a site that’s also in need of a mobile makeover, drop me a line.

The release of Pick ‘n’ Aul’s fourth full-length album is on the horizon, but for now I’ve just updated the official Books site with a few new tour dates. Check out the tour section to see if they’ll be playing near you soon!

For those of you who have not yet heard of The Books, they are – in my humble opinion – one of the most innovative bands currently active, and I’ve been had the pleasure of working with them on animations and web media since 2005. Their sound is difficult to describe, but I usually term it as “techno-folk” with highly manipulated instrument and spoken word samples playing a heavy role in nearly every composition.

The Books are not dead! In fact, I’ve been tasked with several new projects for them. The first of these was posting several spring tour dates on the official site recently. Have a look and see if you can catch them before the shows sell out!

Take a break and meditate with this between-songs audience occupying clip from The Books’ live performance.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/meditation.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

“Meditation” by The Books.

As a reminder to check out The Books’ odd and smile-inducing catalogue of sample-soaked music, here’s a clip from the video for “That Right Ain’t Shit”. While touring with them in spring of 2006, they opened each show with this song, and it was consistently a treat to watch the crowds react to this sort of music springing to life in a live setting. If you haven’t taken a look at their Playall DVD, check out the shed on the aforelinked site.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/that_right_aint_shit.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

A clip from “That Right Ain’t Shit” by The Books.

Here’s a song by The Books that I’m betting is one of their lesser-known gems. “8 Frame” is an instrumental published a year after Lost and Safe, exclusively on the Playall DVD. Below is a clip from the video which includes some beautiful ultra-slow-motion shots of balloons bursting near the end. As usual, this and other clips can be found in the shed at the official site I built for them.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/8_frame.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

A clip from “8 Frame” by The Books.

A week with no posts! It’s quite sad, yes, but the dust is still settling from my recent return to Des Moines. Most of the tools that allow me to produce new content are all packed in my car because I don’t yet have a room. Hence, I don’t have a lot to write about just yet. In the meantime I’ve been training a new Shrieking Tree employee, upgrading the blog’s innerworkings, listening to new music by Kirk Brown and Blake Brown, writing new Tod and Bob scripts, and traveling back to Hillsdale for final cleaning and excavating. For now, I’ll leave you with another full-length video from The Books for “Smells Like Content”, which should hopefully be enough to keep you all well-fed and happy until I can put the polish on a new Grimfeather recording.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/smells_like_content.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

“Smells Like Content” by The Books.

When The Books released Lost and Safe in 2005, this was initially my favorite track on the album. I found it very sad and beautiful, and I think the music video captures quite a bit of that. Here’s a one-minute clip from the Playall DVD. More clips and videos are available in the shed I designed for the official site.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/it_never_changes_to_stop.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

A clip from “It Never Changes to Stop” by The Books.

Here’s another full-length video from The Books off the Playall DVD. This is an older song from an album called The Lemon of Pink, which remains my favorite of their releases. You can see more clips from the DVD at the official site in the shed I recently designed.

[kml_flashembed movie="/justinnorman/take_time.swf" height="400" width="540" align="center" /]

“Take Time” by The Books.