Blips and Ifs: The Typeface

The Railway Club is a significant venue for all those involved in the creation of Blips and Ifs. Each of the Blips and Ifs producers performed on stage at the long standing Vancouver bar during one of CITR's Shindig festivals. The Railway to this day has a special association in the hearts of the crew, and indeed Vancouver itself. One of the more direct connections is the Blips and Ifs logo.

'The Boats' was studying design one day at school and there the words Blips and Ifs appeared on the side of the projected image on the screen before him. A section of text from a page next to the one his professor was intending on showing the class was peeking out from the corner of the screen. This was the birth of the name of the bloglabel.

Shortly after Blips and Ifs was named and online, and almost ready to begin posting it's 'superflat singles' 'The Boats' was at the Railway Club scribbling ideas and thumbnails of the logo, and quite plainly with a head full of typefaces and type design. A specially sized rectangle, sent italic, with some counters popped through the bottom (almost like a 'b') and finished off with a couple serifs and voila! A logo was born under the heavy influence of type. Not that type hasn't always been important to the group. Garamond was a very specific typeface chosen by 'Stabbington McChopper' for the bloglable due to it's associations with philosophical books.

As seen through the posting dates on the site the label slowed it's releases and eventually stopped production. Mainly due to other projects and the satisfaction of having released over 70 tracks over the 3 first years. The group felt the project had been successful and carried on, 'Stabbington McChopper' continued to work on the ongoing Cruft project and releasing a series of covers songs with images in the tradition of the superflat singles, but added that of posters, zines, and more to fill the mythology of what has become Cruftworld.

A few years later [710W3] was teaching a graphic course at BCIT and happened to mention the font based logo during a typeface lesson, and it sparked an idea in him that soon became evolved into a typeface based on the sites logo. Tbough it can be used by manipulating the letters around in illustrator, this is currently only a typeface and not a font.

Introducing blipsandifs: the typeface.

Cruft keeps coming...

If you didn't hear, there are new tracks being posted almost daily for the past few weeks...just not here. Either snoop around Boomcity or check back here soon for the full report.

Superflat Single #72 / [710W3]

A new instrument has been lent to Moil Studios, a beautiful, huge, Hammond Organ. Check out Moil ink for a slightly more detailed description and a photo of the organ. On and off over the last week [710W3] has been sitting down at the keys, flipping switches and occasionally even reading the manual. Although no stranger to the keyboard, this multi-faceted dual keyboard with footpedals, string section and drum machine adds a whole new level to playing (not to mention sound!). This live unedited recording is a lengthy test pilot for a possible series of releases currently entitled: [710W3] vs. the Commodore

Listen to blipsandifs072.mp3 - 6.7 MB

Old Skool Cut & Paste

A Blips and Ifs 3D logo is now available for download. Allowing you to join in the fun of cutting and pasting a cool project. Print the PDF on light cardstock cut out the solid lines, fold on the dotted ones and glue it all together.


Download the printable PDF and make your own here or find it at the boomcity.biz gallery where you can also find the Boomcity paper craft PDF as well.

banjo_sketch.

Working on Cruftworld data processing this weekend. Found this little banjo sketch and thought I'd try another upload. Does it work?

www.blipsandifs.com/audio/00BAI_cruft_banjo_sketch.mp3

incinerate files.

first attempt at uploading track to BAI.

http://www.blipsandifs.com/audio/04_Incinerate_Me.mp3

if you can download a track from that link, then, I have learned something.
The song, if you can hear it, is me on vox and pete on 12 strings.

Glaiven ~

*** frink noise ***

my bad.
no mp3s ready yet. my inner demons have been monopolizing our time.
our show is tomorrow at about this time.
that's been a monopoly too. But on sunday, the monopoly is over and I can get back to healthy regular activities like clue and risk.

I mean MP3 uploading. Yeah. I will have to have an EP ready by our June gig or it'll be 6 more weeks of self-flagellation and nobody wants that.

There should be a video and various photos of the gig too. Links will materialize. Believe me.

more represents.

T3R had a rehearsal today, got another tomorrow. going well.
recording for our demo is also progressing nicely, despite today's setbacks.
mp3s will be uploaded as soon as demo is done and approved.

***

thought I'd upload a list of all the songs we know or almost know. including indications for covers, without further etc:

CENTRAL WALK SET.
(learned for our first show, though not all songs were played.)

1. Fuck You
2. Miller Lite
3. The Perfect Letter
4. Long Time No See
5. Canoe (Lyrics by Davey)
6. About You (written by Erics Trip)
7. Incinerate Me
8. Another Lonely Day (by Ben Harper)
9. Her Boyfriend's White
10. Police And Theives (by Junior Marvin / Lee Perry)

RETIRED SONGS.
(learned, but not currently practiced or expected to be played)

11. Monster Mash (by some fifties band)
12. House Theme Song (by Massive Attack)
13 All along the watchtower (by Bob Dylan)
14. Italy
15. Life is Long (by David Byrne)
16. Karma Chameleon (by Culture Club)

NEW MATERIAL.
(not yet played live.)

17. When in doubt, go to China
18. Any Sense of Time (by The Inbreds)
19. Winter vs spring (Lyrics by Scott)
20. Jesus on the radio (by Guster)
21. Dancing in the Dark (by Bruce Springsteen)