I've been thinking about moving to tumblr, it's miles nicer than blogspot, so till i've made a decision I am not gonna bother posting on here till I can make up my mind.

Another music post;

New Dinosaur Jr. song over at pitchfork, from their new album Farm



http://tinyurl.com/dg8ug8

Dead into that.

Also Hammers have put their first demo up for download - http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ddoxdmzdzay so download it, annnnd, they're playing at the dog and partridge in Bolton in July with Humanfly, I love shooting there and both bands are ace. Summer will be goood.

S, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

My neg scanner arrived today! Awesome! Parcel Force drivers are cocks though. I got out some negs and gave it a go, here's a 120 neg that I rescanned - the quality is great. I got the scanner for dead cheap too, the woman that listed it got the name wrong and totally managed to call it by a model number that Epson don't make, confusing it with a printer she was also selling - so I can only guess I got it so cheap because no one knew it was there.

Hopefully my camera will come tomorrow now, fingers crossed later this week I can get out and shoot some film. View the photo of Siggi BIG!

What are your favourite scaremongering/media buzz words so far this year?

Bird Flu? Swine Flu? Global Economy? Credit Crunch? War on Terror? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Pandemic? Global Warming? Binge drinking? Knife crime? Jade Goody? Obesity crisis?

I am waiting for my head to explode. It's amazing how one crisis can take a back seat so quickly when there's new news.

So I was looking through some of my records today and I remember reading a thread on the I<3MM forum about your favourite album artwork, so, I decided I'd make a post about it.

So, cover art; favourite album covers #1


Miles Davis - Bitches Brew


Cream - Wheels of Fire


Big Black - The Hammer Party


Fu Manchu - In Search Of

So this weekend I went camera crazy, I went and bought myself an awesome Canon A-1, a 28mm f/2.8 prime and a flat bed neg scanner so I can get my film on yo! The neg scanner also does 5x4 and 120 filum, I can't wait to try it out (just hope it works, it's been stuck in someone's attic for years!)

This week coming I am off to Formby for a photoshoot, I've wanted to go down for a couple of years now, I am doing the Day For Airstrikes artwork and I thought it would be a perfect excuse to head down and shoot something for that, so Oliver is going to drive us both - well looking forward to it, hope the weather stays as good as it has been. Allsooo I really want a polaroid 340 land camera but I have reservations, right now I am thinking fuck it as it's going so cheap, we shall see because there's a long while left on it.

Job hunting isn't going so well, there's pretty much nothing in the town I live in, fingers crossed for this week - also, can't wait for Wednesday, come on gooners, here's a shot from the game against Villarreal 2 weeks ago taken on my LX3.



One hour photo is on at the moment, is so shit it's actually one of the best films ever! Makes you wonder about those folks in Jessops though.

PS I need models

S, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

THEY'RE BACK!!!

S, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Uploaded this because Siggi asked me for a portrait as a feature is going to be written about him on Computer Arts but I was a little late getting it out and it never got used.

I am looking for a new film SLR, a Pentax k1000 - not even ebay have any though.

Todays playlist;

Public Enemy – Bring The Noise
Conifer – Surface Fire
Grand Funk Railroad – Look At Granny Run Run
Nuclear Death Terror – In The Shadow of The Gallows
The Gap Band – oops upside your head
Dazz Band – Swoop (I'm Yours)
Teena Marie – I Need Your Lovin'
Brothers Johnson – Ain't We Funkin' Now
Mary Jane Girls – In My House
Ohio Players – Heaven Must Be Like This
Slave – Watching You
Earth, Wind & Fire – September
Heatwave – Ain't No Half Steppin'
The Bar-Kays – Soul Finger

William Elliot Whitmore is on Jools Holland this coming Friday night, yes!

I've been suffering from photo block for the past month. I haven't really shot anything but a lot of planning has been going on and the development of something news worthy, worthy of an updated blog post, anyway.

Firstly though, the lovely Hammers champs sent me their debut 7" last week (I did actually pay for it) and it's in a lovely hand/home made paper sleeve with a screen print on each side, if you haven't seen em' yet then you're probably living under a rock because they get around more than I've seen any band do in a long time. Related, they're also in this months Terrorizer magazine too with one of my photos accompanying the piece, I think this is the 5th month in a row now I've been in there (Hi James!!).





I have been commissioned by Day For Airstrikes to produce their new album artwork, it's an ongoing project and I am still working on ideas, but here's a sneak at the cover.



I have some photographs being included in the artwork on Riding The Low's new record. They're a Guided By Voices influenced band, featuring the actor Paddy Considine.

Off to London tomorrow to watch the Champions League Q/F 2nd Leg against Villarreal at the Emirates with my dad, I can't wait.

How good are Burnt By The Sun? A rhetorical question of course because they are bloody good. Touring the UK this year? Yes please.

The Freezing Fog, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

The Freezing Fog

Published again in this months Terrorizer magazine (page 24), that's 3 months running now. They may as well just give me a job.

225, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Strange week this one, highs and lows - the Vice magazine exhibition at the AOP gallery in London came to an end, good feedback all round and have been asked to include some work in a Blackburn gallery with the curators offering to cover printing expenses and Terrorizer magazine will be using one of my Hammers photographs next month for a little feature they're doing on them. Last weekend my mums sister/my aunt died.

Yesterday a few of us headed down to A'Lovely Art gallery in Blackburn, BrownOrangeBlue and Apes Fight Back were playing. Pretty good stuff. Shot of around a few bars and got a bit silly afterwards.

Tried out the HD video on my new Lumix, lovely jubly.



Tomorrow I have to head in to town early to pick up two job interview letters, Monday I have a DWP AO job interview at the City of Manchester stadium.

Anyone playing Quake Live? It's a free browser version of Quake, absolutely awesome. Did I say it was free? Come and frag me. My user tag is 'dagnasty'.

Young Widows, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

I really hate this perspective, but at the same time I love the picture. Love/Hate! I think I've failed to capture how into the band the crowd were, everyone is so static and bored looking - shame really. Who even knows what my friend Dan is smiling at.

Young Widows are a band out of Louisville, USA. They remind me a little of The Jesus Lizard in parts, most folk will probably think my comparison is way off the mark though, but if you like TJL, or more specifically, Breather Resist, Evan Patterson's old band, then check them out.

I was planning on getting out with my new camera today down to the fish market in Bolton but couldn't drag myself out of bed, I didn't really plan the day too well, only going to sleep at 2am.. maybe Thursday when the market's back open.

Hammers, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

More Hammers

The Freezing Fog, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

The Freezing Fog - good old classic rock. Supporting Young Widows.

Tour, Manchester, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Re-upload of an image shot last year whilst on tour with Mínus. I posted the picture up on a forum and a couple of people mentioned how good it was and I realized how much I like it. It was shot in Manchester in March, in the photo is bass player Siggi, drummer Bjossi, Solstafir vocalist, Aðalbjörn and the Sigur Ros sound engineer, Silli - who were both helping Minus out for the shows. Three weeks later we were back in Iceland, maybe it's time for a few more re-edits a year on.

Hammers, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Hammers are a band out of Manchester playing their own brand of d-beat/crust inspired punk rock. I've been following them online through Myspace for a number of months after I heard some of their rough cuts. They've played a bunch of fairly local shows to me but for whatever reason I didn't get a chance to get out and catch them until last night when they were supporting Young Widows. Great stuff if you're into bands like Cursed and The Holy Mountain.

225, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Trying out the 16:9 wide setting on my new Lumix LX3 - I really like this camera so far, I have only figured out the basics so far, yet to even unwrap then manual. I haven't had chance to have a proper fiddle yet. Shot this today on the bus whilst on my way home, from the hip, not too sure if that woman spotted me or if she was just generally giving me funny looks. Best viewed big.

The noise looks very natural, not too un-like film.

Passed my Maths and English exam for the job at the DWP, got the final stage interview in a couple of weeks, it's because of this that I was unable to go to private vice show at the AOP gallery in London which is showing some of my work at the moment.

Been listening to UNSANE all afternoon today, such a good band. More people should like them.



Scattered, Smothered & Covered is my favorite, released in 1995. The record name is the name of a waffle breakfast from an American diner, I like the imagery the band uses too. Click the album cover to download the album, give it a listen then go and buy it.

Or just watch this video, probably their most famous song.

Welcome to the family, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

I've been after a compact for quite a long time now. Being a fan of shooting film on range finders and a being a regular user of a 1Ds system I was looking at getting something as close to both of these in terms of image quality as possible.

I was going to buy a camera before Christmas but I held on for a post-new year price drop, however with the credit crunch and the weakness of the pound at the moment, prices have ended up rising, particularly anything electronic manufactured in Japan, so this includes Canon, Nikon and pretty much every other major camera manufacturer. Bummer!

The cameras I was looking at were the Sigma DP1, Canon G10 and the Panasonic DMC-LX3. I didn't get chance to handle a DP1, no where had them in stock, plus the camera it self is fixed focal length and the ISO performance at higher levels in the sample images I've seen didn't look very good, I really like the design though.

Canons prices went up on 1st Feb, as did Nikons. Panasonic UK were not not reflecting their prices to the pound until March 1st, when the LX3 would be going from £320 to £400. Regardless of price, I was sold on the LX3 after the reviews I had read, and it is like for like the same as the new Leica D-LUX 4, which would set you back a tidy £550. The new Leica compacts use Panasonic electronics and Leica optics, the new Panasonic compacts use Panasonic electronics and Leica optics.

So - I went into town today as Mathers were having a delivery from Panasonic (I went in last week and they only had it in silver, I wanted black, so said I'd call back in today) - I got to the store and they only had silver models delivered. When I said it doesn't matter then, I'll call back next week - I was told that 'they both take the same pictures' - really? do they? I replied. The owner of that place is a bit of a snob, every time I go in it's almost like he's looking down his nose at you, and he's always short handed. He told me that they can't specifically order certain colors because the cameras are under very high demand and they get what they're given as far as stock goes and started going on about me paying a deposit and they'd give me a call when a black one came in stock..

I left the shop and met back up with my mum who was visiting the solicitors, whilst she was in there I went in Wildings to pass some time instead of standing about. Right there on the wall, a black LX3 - I asked if I could have a do, 20 minutes later I am leaving the shop with my new camera. They also price matched Mathers and knocked me £10 off a 4GB SD card. The weather has been really over cast today so I probably wont get chance to geek out until tomorrow, but tomorrow I have a prelim tests for a job I have applied for, so I will just be snapping to and from the 'interview'. The snaps I've taken of the things on and around my desk are cool though, the macro function is awesome too.

Looking forward to some f/2.0 24mm goodness :)

Atavist - Live at Henry's artwork, originally uploaded by thatmackyguy.

Atavist - Live at Henry's artwork, click image to view larger.


(cover/back)

A few weeks back I shot some promo images of Atavist whilst we were all hanging out after photographing/watching The Ergon Carousel in Leeds. I got an email off Chris earlier this week asking for me to mail over a few more of the pictures as some art work was in the process of being put together, so I sent them over, and today after a fairly busy and resource sapping weekend, I came home to have the proofs of the artwork for an Atavist live album waiting for me on facebook.

Pretty stoked as I haven't had any photography used in art-work since the Send More Paramedics/Zombie Apocalypse split Tales Told By Dead Men which was way back in 2005. This record was recorded live in Edinburgh on their tour with Nadja & Satori back on the 21st November 2008.

The designer that worked on the artwork is Phil Robinson, also known as blackravendesign on deviant art, check out the rest of his work.

Photography by Macky
Graphic Design by Phil Robinson.

Copyright © 2009 Black Raven Design

I have a cold, as predicted.

Tonight I was meant to be off to The Ergon Carousel and Reth in Preston but I am really not feeling up to anything. My head is throbbing, true grief! The past couple of days have been miserable, I haven't been out of the house all week except for yesterday when I popped in to Bolton to drop a dvd off in the post. I was hoping to buy a camera too but the place I usually shop at was out of stock on both models I wanted to play with, the Panasonic DMC-LX3 and the Sigma DP1. Mathers are taking new stock in on Monday so I'll head back down then. I've been trying to sell my Canon 1Ds for about 4 months now but there's no takers privately so I am going to have to stick it up on ebay next week. I intend to buy a Canon 5D with the money raised, which will hopefully tide me over until I can afford a mark 2.

In bed watching Groundhog Day, waiting for Weird Science to come on!

When I usually get a cold, it doesn't really last more than a couple of days. I've never been sure why I tend to shake anything like that off pretty quickly, however right now I am sat in bed and it sounds and feels like there are waves crashing against the inside of my head and it's making the palate of my mouth itch, this pretty much means I am getting a cold.

Selling most of my camera equipment at the moment so I haven't really been able to take any photographs, instead I've been putting most of my time into watching films and looking for a job, the latter of which I have been offered an interview for at the city of Manchester stadium next week (working for DWP). Next week is going to be pretty busy, Tuesday interview, Wednesday is meant to be the opening night of the Vice magazine show at the AOP gallery in Shorditch and then on Thursday I am off to Young Widows in Manchester. I remember when there used to be decent gigs on every week in the city but very little provokes me to get out of my seat and to a show these days, I feel guilty but I don't know why. Me and my friends often joke about not being bothered unless it was recorded before 1998.

As for the films I've been catching up on, my pal Lewis recommended I watch [rec], a Spanish shaky-cam horror film (which is the subject of an American remake called Quarentine) that's actually probably the scariest film I've seen in years. Tonight I have Cass to watch after the Spain vs England game. I've never really given much time to Patti Smith, but I watched her documentary Dream of Life, it didn't really inspire me - not too sure what I was expecting.

Film of the year so far for me has been The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Pulls on the old heart strings so it does, I rarely get those feelings when watching films. Not since Supergirl, anyway.