Chicks on Speed announce the release of their new single Super Surfer Girl, with remixes by WhoMadeWho and Christopher Just. It's the soundtrack to a collection of clothes with Australian surf brand Insight.
The full-length album will be released in April 2009 on Chicks on Speed Records.
Artist: Chicks on Speed Title: Super Surfer Girl Label: Chicks on Speed Records Label Code: 10673 Label #: COSR41 Indigo #: 920876 Format: 12" UPC: 8 80918 10416 4 Release: December 5th 2008
Tracklisting: A1. Super Surfer Girl - Original A2. Super Surfer Girl - Who Made Who Mix B1. Super Surfer Girl - "Surf Nazis Must Die" Christopher Just Remix
Press release notes:
It may be winter in central Europe, but somewhere it's hot hot summer, like in down under Australia.
The Single 'Super Surfer Girl', in CHIX style, isn't just a song, but a full-blown international advertising campaign, based around a range of girls surfwear, COS designed in collaboration with Insight, Australia, titled "INSIGHT ON CHICKS ON SPEED" to be launched on December 5th worldwide, along with a video, by New York artist Mariah Garnett.
Always with Attitude, the Chicks created the song Super Surfer Girl, as an anthem for surf babes the world over, poking fun at feminist theory, and yet, empowering and encouraging young women to take their destiny into their own hands. 'Super Surfer Girl' is WALL OF SOUND and the love of kitsch combined into a celebration of beach and rough surf culture.
The Chicks; Melissa and Alex created Super Surfer girl with one of their collaborators, Kathi Glas and, A Scholar and A physician, with remixes by Christopher Just and Whomadewho, adding the Beach Boyesque la la's, so it isn't just something for the girls! Keep your eyes peeled and your boards waxed!
Tina Ulevik of Spul Films Australia -- who created the music video for Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' in 2007 -- has her latest short film finally finished and online, describing it as follows:
"Filmed on location in Suzhou & Shanghai, China, & accompanied by music from Finland's Since November, China Life explores glimpses of China seen through the eyes of a foreign traveller evoking the surreal landscapes of ancient & modern China. The film also acts as a metaphor for searching & belonging."
Tina Ulevik, the Australian director/editor of Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' video, just visited Tampere and spent some days here as a part of her current tour of China-Scandinavia-England. Since the entire work process of the video took place between September 2006 and March 2007 through the assistance of e-mails, DVDs and tons of rough cut video files exchanged via YouSendIt.com, this was the first time we actually met in person. Such "essential" sights here in Tampere as the Näsinneula Observation Tower, Lenin Museum, Spy Museum, Moomin Valley (a museum dedicated to Tove Jansson's Moomin characters), Yo-Talo and naturally Kompleksi's home studio at Mike Not's place in Kaukajärvi were visited during Tina's Tampere trip. (It might be added that though I've never visited this continent myself -- Oz being actually about as far from Finland as one can get -- for years I've been a bit of an Australia aficionado myself, and it also seems I've always gotten along well with all Australian people I've known. Perhaps Finns and Aussies share similar mindsets, with both countries somehow situated on the "outskirts" of (so called) civilization...?) You can read more about Tina's adventures and see her tour photos at Tina's blog.
pHinn at Yo-Talo, 16 March 2007. (Photo by Tina Ulevik)
Regina a.k.a. Rellu, pHinn's mother's cat, also seemed to have a good rapport with Tina. (Photo by Tina Ulevik)
Tina Ulevik, an experimental film-maker from Australia, joined as Kompleksi's MySpace friend in summer 2006. During our brief correspondence that followed and having had seen and liked the DVD of Tina's short film Xenophobic Site that was exchanged to a copy of Kompleksi's album (which was still unreleased at that point), an idea was had that maybe Tina would also be interested in creating a video clip for Kompleksi. Tina was into the idea, this being her very first music video, too, and the filming got underway in August and September 2006, both in Australia and Kompleksi's hometown Tampere; the final video combining footage from both countries, thousands of miles and oceans away from each other, on virtually opposite corners of the globe.
Different scenes around the town of Tampere were filmed by me on two early Sunday mornings in September, capturing imagery from the quiet Tampere downtown and the town's famous landmarks, such as the Orthodox Church, Wäinö Aaltonen's statues on the Hämeensilta Bridge, some ugly "Brutalist"-style apartment buildings, the desolate Särkänniemi Amusement Park, looking somewhat spooky after the tourist season was over, and naturally the Näsinneula Observation Tower, the very symbol of Tampere. I also filmed myself lip-synching at home, with a camera standing on tripod and very carefully stationed to get the right angle and position; then did some shots of Mike Not playing synths at his home studio; and the silhoutte shot of me singing at the end of video was shot by Mike through an ordinary bedsheet lighted from behind.
This sort of "no-budget" film-making, using ordinary household objects as props, turned every now and then to be quite demanding and time-consuming, but also seemed to work out well in the final cut. In her turn, Tina -- who played the song's Sara Pain character -- filmed herself at her own home, creating in process some very effective shots of Sara, "a skinny girl with a shirt and tie", walking through the dark corridors and brooding in solitude. Add to this some bleak-looking outdoors shots on the outskirts of Sydney, plus Tina's own archive footage from her trips around the world: a highway tunnel in Norway, the gloomy corridors of the Castle Suomenlinna in an island in front of Helsinki, and of a hostel in Dresden, Germany, which added to the mental moods and claustrophobia felt by Sara Pain, the ill-fated main character of the song.
Three DVDs of raw footage of material filmed in Tampere were then sent via snail mail to Australia, and after Tina had received the package, the lengthy editing process could start in earnest, lasting all through autumn 2006 and winter 2007, as Tina also had her day job to take care of, alongside the creative process of putting Kompleksi's first music video together. Ideas were constantly exchanged and thrown around in e-mails, and we received countless rough cuts sent through YouSendIt.com, which were then commented and honed again, on and on... Eventually, in early March 2007, the final cut was in our hands.
"It's a great example of the way the Web can bring together people internationally to collaborate on music and art." - It's A Trap, USA
"Scary stuff!" - Huge Bass Records (Finland) @ YouTube
"Congratulations on your latest music Sara Pain and the music video made in collaboration with my cousin Tina! The video images are mesmerising and your music is so original and haunting and melancholy! Well done on a highly original and unforgettable work of art!" - Peter Fagerlind, UK
"Wow I like Sara Pain more & more... The vid fits perfectly and makes it real deeper... The track becomes better & better with the vid... Great work. Love it :-) Congratz Tampere Boyz." - aratkiLo, France
"The Sarah Pain video is great! Thank you for the music and Greetings from The Hague" - Danny Wolfers a.k.a. Legowelt, Holland
"... check out their strangely melancholic travelogue-themed vid for 'Sara Pain' [...] The footage and edits remind me of the sort of homemade promos that Cabaret Voltaire used to put out on Doublevision many moons back. Trust me, the track's a real grower." - Kid Shirt music blog, UK
"yo yo, tampere represent! tosi härö video, oudon hienoa industrial vibaa." - p2, Finland
Tina Ulevik is an Australian director specializing in experimental short films. I love this haunting, spooky work which is her latest. "Filmed on location at the sites of two concentration camps in Germany, Xenophobic Site portrays a visually and sonically experimental re-imagining of this dark part of history. Produced on a low or 'no budget', this film was created on digital video and super-8 film and edited on a home PC. Copyright Tina Ulevik Spul Films Australia 2006." You can see Tina's previous experimental short films at Spul Films Australia MySpace site.
And coming soon: stay tuned to this blog for more works of Tina; featuring some Finns you might already have heard something about...
