Brian Eno Videos

The Archaeology of Innovation

Filed under: Exclusive, Spinner Interview Saul Williams is an artist of many talents. He began his career in poetry and rose to international acclaim as the star and co-writer of the film 'Slam' before making the natural leap to MC. Williams spent most of the 2000s fronting bands that played a genre-busting music that was neither hip-hop nor rap-rock. Further refuting any kind of categorization, Williams worked with famed producer Rick Rubin and later teamed with Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor for 'The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust,' which was released in 2007. Despite Williams' insistence of operating beyond boundaries, he seems like the natural "unspoken spokesperson" for the Afro-Punk movement, which was sparked by a 2003 film of the same name. Thus, Williams is currently anchoring the 2009 edition of the Afro-Punk Tour, appropriately sub-titled 'The Niggy Tardust Experience.' While the rest of the roster varies from night to night, other participants include Living Colour, CX Kidtronic, Earl Greyhound and American Fangs. Spinner caught up with Williams moments after he walked offstage following a recent Afro-Punk gig. The costumed and masked musician was eager to drop some bombs on us, such as the role he's playing in an upcoming film, anecdotes from his time with Rubin and Reznor and an unexpected accident that he may or may not have had at a gig. How would you describe the Afro-Punk movement? To me, Afro-Punk is a non-expressed idea. It's more rebellious than hip-hop. In hip-hop, most rappers, their goal is to never lose their cool. In punk, as in Afro-Punk, the goal is to definitely lose your cool. We'd probably only identify the genre as Afro-Punk because that's what the tour is called. Right. My goal -- in my personal life and [with] the stage or the written word -- has been to defy boundaries. For instance, whatever the current definition is of what it means to be male, I feel like I probably have more of that within me because I know within me I have female. Whatever it means to be American, I know that I'm not just that. I'm more than that -- I'm human. Whatever it means to be black, whatever that ruling definition is, I know that in my life -- because I see race as something that's created by people but nothing real -- I think of myself as more than that. I don't accept limitations from myself or from my music, so I pull from everything that I love. And I love music.

Filed under: Video, Exclusive Last month, Spinner premiered a video featuring Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton and Wordless Music Orchestra co-founder Caleb Burhans, talking about their collaborative effort on Braxton's new solo album, 'Central Market.' Now, Braxton is back on camera, with an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of that album. In the interview, filmed at the Warp Records office in New York, Braxton reveals his influences and thought process behind writing and recording 'Central Market'. Watch the new clip to find out which tracks were inspired by Brian Eno, B-horror flicks and 'Ghostbusters.'

Grand Meadow Wind Farm Minnesota, by day and by night.

Rethinking Green

This is using the Memory Stick mode of a Sony TRV-480 Digital8 Handycam, hence the rather low quality and suspect frame-rate. To its credit, the audio on the camera is rather good and even better than most newer video cameras I've used.

Timelapse footage of wildfire north of Los Angeles, 08.30.09 Footage by Dan Blank. Music by Brian Eno. Shot on Panasonic HS-300. Actual length: 40 mins. Filmed from Tarzana, CA Cast: Dan Blank