This guys are actually pretty incredible. A lot of people edit Youtube videos making music with them, but in this case, they get videos that are about to get really popular on Youtube, transform them in music and then sell ‘em on iTunes Store. On which by the way they ranked #63 last week and today they are #38.

And since they make money out of other peoples video, they make sure to share their income with the those guys. The Dodson family and Antoine (stars of “Bed Intruder”) also go together with them on shows.

Now this guys understand social media…

Their Website:  The Gregory Brothers

Check out their biggest hit – Bed Intruder:

Their “Remix”:

- Philipe Diao

Since sometime during my teenage years I’ve been haunted by a recurring nightmare…. In my nightmare I wake to realize that a large number of years have passed, and my life is exactly the same as it was decades earlier. To me, living a boring, predictable life is the worst thing one can possibly do. And yet, so many people do it, year after year… wading along through a stream of lifestyle mediocrity. When I’m old & ready to die, I’m sure I’ll have many regrets. I already have many regrets. But regrets, like memories, are not only quantitative but qualitative. Some mean much more than others. And the regrets I’ll have will be born of grand experience. I won’t say “I wish I would have gone to the World Series in 2012”, I’ll say something like “I probably shouldn’t have stuck around in Phnom Penh when the coup started.”

I like NOT knowing where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing a few years from now. But I don’t think it’s wanderlust. If I find ‘the perfect place’ I’d be more than willing to settle down. I think I’d actually LIKE to find the perfect place, but I’m realistic enough to realize that that place probably doesn’t exist on this planet. Maybe I keep moving because I’m not finished being continually fascinated by human nature, in all of its forms, from the stupid to the sublime. Perhaps I’m trying to learn more about myself, and going to the ends of the earth to do so. The older I get, the more I realize that your entire life is your best work of art. Everything from the print on your sheets to the books on your shelf to the city you call home should be realized according to the ideal in your mind. Ask yourself what kind of life you want to live and then do everything in your power to live it on your own terms. I sure as hell don’t want to live in the world that most people accept as ‘normal’.

- Patrick Buchanan

Two weeks ago some friends and I met up for dinner and to see Lydia, the band.

We arrived at Lincoln Hall (One of Chicago’s finest venues) and all of us check into four square. I got some adverture badge, whatever, I’m not really into foursquare. My friend Mike checked in and got a reply back for 25% off. AWESOME!

Then he got another reply back saying “if you say to the bartender double down he will give you 2 shots and beer” (something to that effect.) Double AWESOME!

Onto the music. The opening band took the stage and what do you know we dug them. River City Extension was super energetic, talented and the best opening act I’ve ever seen. Both Mike and found the band’s twitter handle and tweeted things like, @rvrctyext just rocked lincoln hall! We got replies back like

@nerm22 thanks Lindsay! -nc.  Mike went on to tweet the band to head upstairs and he would buy them a round. 15 minutes into the next performance this guy comes up and says “hey man are you Mike?” It was the guitarist. AWESOME! We talked about how great they were and how we all love Twitter. Through the next two sets we got replies about the band coming back to Chicago and where they were heading after the show. When I grabbed a CD from the merch table I said “we just met your bandmate Nick.” The two guys were like “Oh yeah through Twitter!”

Then we went across the street, had drinks with the band and sang karokee.

How does this pan out marketingwise? Well how many people have we told about this? TONS. The band has new fans, not just us but our friends as well, maybe even you now. Lincoln Hall gets kudos for sounding awesome as always and for being up on the social media world.

Thanks Twitter. Thanks Four Square. Thanks River City Extension and thanks Lincoln Hall.

PS. Mike tweeted the other two bands that played that night…nothing.

- Lindsay Stevens

So I finally got my gas-masked mug into AgencySpy last week! Not exactly the ideal circumstances to be mentioned on AgencySpy, but at least it’s not because of being fired from some high-profile post, or being anonymously called-out by co-workers for being an insufferable douchebag…

This weekend was beautiful. The air was breathable, the temperatures comfortable, and Muscovites seemed to be flocking out into the streets again. On Friday night I saw a solo performance by Alexander Hacke (of Einsteurzende Neubauten) at a very cool little bar/café called Ikra- It was a 3 level building, with a café on the 2^nd floor and the performance area on the 3^rd. Hacke did an amazing set that was part glitch-y electronic freakout, part heavy psychedelic guitar feedback exploration, and part German folksy weirdness. It was extremely cool. He also did a great cover of the Suicide classic ‘Ghost Rider’, and informed the audience that Suicide would be playing their legendary first album in its’ entirety next weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark. I did not know this pre-concert, so of course the second I got home I checked out flight times & ticket prices. To see Suicide play their entire first album live would be indescribable. Since it’s the end of the month, and they have the ‘paid once a month’ policy here (I hate that shit) I don’t have any money. So if there’s any plastic I can max out I’ll try to commit Suicide (nice pun, huh? That’s why they break the bank for me) next weekend…

My cultural explorations continued as I visited the Pushkin State Museum of the Arts on Sunday. A new exhibition has just debuted at the museum, and so there was a line of people a block long waiting for admission. Pause for a moment. There was a line of people a block long waiting for admission. To an ART GALLERY. What types of events command block-long lines in America? Hmmm… Pro Football, Pro Basketball, Pro Wrestling, Pro Hockey, Pro Tennis, Pro Golf, any ‘Adult’ themed convention, Monster Truck / Nascar rallies, a Big & Rich concert, perhaps? It was pretty amazing to see so many people- ALL types of people- waiting to see art. That’s one thing I’ll always love about Europeans- they have more respect for culture (REAL culture, not ‘reality TV celebrity’ bullshit) than Americans do, plain & simple.

But something else has been happening to me… as much as I’ve been in awe of the contrasts in everything from the realities of daily life to the difference in the nations’ collective psyches, I’ve been re-kindling my romance with America again, warts and all. Sure, she’s a stubborn, overweight colonization machine, but damn it, I love her. It’s not so much that I miss living in America, but when you’re away from a place you see it from a new perspective. And as much as I’ve started to understand & appreciate the concept of “the Russian soul”, I’ve ALSO gained a renewed perspective of our “American soul”, and I’ve felt myself more proud to say “I’m an American” than at any time since the agonizingly long 8-year tenure of “the primate president,” W. The last two times I spent an extended absence from America, the Chimp was in office, so obviously I’m happier about the leadership at the top now (even though Congress can’t seem to grow a set) than I was before.

So once again, the mad pendulum of chance swung into a favorable position for me this weekend. I’m already bracing myself for its’ blowback. What’s next for Moscow?

- Patrick Buchanan

Each year, the VCU Brandcenter holds a training session for Creative Directors. Attendance costs a few thousand dollars, but ihaveanidea.org did you a solid this year and filmed a number of the sessions. You’d be wise to spend some time listening to each of them.

http://ihaveanidea.org/articles/

- Jared Davis

After the “Chatroulette Killer” video made for Cannal Buzz Spain, its time for Lionsgate to use the naked.man.website to scare people and promote their new movie.

“The Last Exorcism” comes out only on August 27th but it’s already taking some good reactions out of the people around the world.

- Philipe Diao

How long before Steven Slater is on his own reality show? is the host of SNL? is in an ad?

A beer company really should jump on this. What two beers did Steven take with him?

Budlight of course! That is how I envision it. At least that is how I shot it (it was the only beer we could find in the office), to make the attached.

Keep your beers upright

- Lindsay Stevens

I bumped into this great type treatment to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”, created for the MFA Design program at School of Visual Arts. Great song plus great type equals an enlightened mind. Enjoy.

- Julissa Ortiz

The one thing that I’ve become certain of since arriving in Moscow is this: nothing of any weight (psychic or otherwise) that happens here will do so without an equally baffling 180-degree reaction. It’s as if the best & the worst of nature and humanity are in some bizarre eternal battle with each other inside the city. So it’s actually NOT ironic at all that I would have written last week’s post about the ‘beauty of humanity’ at the Afisha picnic, and now, exactly 1 week later, the entire city is blanketed with a deadly thick haze of toxic smog, while the rest of the country burns to the ground around it. Silly me, thinking that one beautiful afternoon would smooth over the complete insanity that is Moscow. Here, the absurd is completely normal. Yesterday I saw a woman standing outside of work wearing a surgical mask to ward off the deadly smoke… and then she pulled the mask down to take a LONG drag off of a cigarette. I’ve actually stopped trying to make sense of much of it, because I already know I’ll lose that battle with reason in my mind.

I’ve been in LOTS of funky/uncomfortable/life-threatening situations in my life. I’ve been in the middle of a Government coup attempt, I went through a few hurricanes, I was very close to a terrorist bomb explosion, had a near-miss with a Tsunami… and I have to say this is absolutely the closest thing to a “Hell on earth” scenario I’ve ever lived through. At least I’ll have even more fantastic stories to tell as an old man, if I don’t die of lung failure within the next week. As anyone who’s paying attention knows, the wildfires that are raging across the Russian countryside are getting closer to the Chernobyl region, where the trees are soaked to their roots with radioactive nuclear material. And if these fires hit Chernobyl, the only thing I’m sure of is that I’ll be calling Delta airlines and moving the date of my return flight to the US significantly closer to right now.

- Patrick Buchanan

Joaquin Phoenix finally gives away what the hell he was doing trying to rap and looking like he was on lsd the whole time.

Almost 2 years after started being a weirdo he comes out with what everybody kinda knew already, a documentary directed by Casey Affleck. “I’m still here” comes out September 10th and still nobody knows what its about.

I don’t know about you, but I’m interested to know what all that HUGE marketing around him and his personal life will bring.

- Philipe Diao