Hi my name is Ulrik Hogrebe. This is a random collection of stuff that occupies my mind at any given moment. Probably something to do with design, art, music and pop culture. For examples of my work, go here.

The Straight Satans were a LA biker gang from way back when that used to hang around the Spahn Ranch with Charlie and his Family. This is the kind of thing I imagine they would dig.

(BTW – there is a download link here, ’cause it got pulled by Hulkshare)
The Breeders – No Aloha
Nice piece of 90s flavoured dark-tinged surf from ex-Pixies bassist Kim Deal and her band The Breeders. This is off the bands second album Last Splash – you will probably remember the album from the single Cannonball which was pretty much stuck on repeat for a while in MTV land back when kids were angsty and wore Dr Martens and plaid (Oh wait - isn’t that happening now?).

Original Surfaris – Exotic
Really don’t know much about these guys except they were active in the 60s and seem to have had some sort of name dispute with The Surfaris, (of hit song “Wipe Out” fame). Anyway, this has that nice jangly fuzz sound that evokes more imagery of leather jackets and switchblades than board shorts and bikini babes.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Kill Surf City
The B side to the Glasgow rockers wildly successful single April Skies pushes this tape into even darker waters with their treatment of Brian Wilson’s (Beach Boys), Surf City.

Alan Vega – Fireball
Alan Vega is ancient! Like 72 or something. He is also probably one of the coolest cats alive. Fireball is like Elvis if Glen Danzig lived inside him and he (it?) rode around in a souped up muscle car and lived in a cabin out in the bayou. And even then, Alan Vega is still cooler than all of that squared.

Growlers – Something Someone Jr.
Long beach band the Growlers call their sound “Beach Goth” which is funny in itself. I really dig the slacker-psych sound though, and the surf-tinge just works for this. This is off their 2009 debut album “Are you in or are you out”.

Crocodiles – Stoned to Death
From the second album “Sleep Forever” from San-Diego contenders to The Jesus and Mary Chain throne.

The Raveonettes – Dead Sound
It still boggles my mind that The Raveonettes are Danish, having a very not danish sound… and look… and attitude. Also I know the guy who designed the cover for this album (Lust Lust Lust) which makes me not very famous at all. Even by proxy.

Beat Happening – Black Candy
These guys took being bad at music to epic levels. Only problem is that they still manage to be extremely awesome.

Undertones – Teenage Kicks
Leather teen love from North Ireland punk rockers Undertones. Definitely a classic as is evidenced by the enormous amount of covers by everyone from the Raconteurs to Green Day (sigh…).

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Teenage Lust
You can probably see where I am going with this by now.

The Gun Club – Fire of Love
The Gun Club are amazing. Reading their wiki is like a whos who of bands that Ulrik like with band members from everything from The Cramps to Romeo Void passing through the band. Also this is from the album Miami which I have just learned features backing vocals by none other than Debbie Harry. That’s punk rock pedigree right there.

Link Wray – Fever
Father of the fuzz guitar and inventor of the power chord. How can you even start to add to that? This is Fever, originally penned by Otis Blackwell and performed by Little Willie John. The original is worth a listen too.

The Cramps – Lonesome Town
One of my biggest regrets in life will always not seeing The Cramps live. Lux Interior is to this day, one of my greatest idols. There is some amazing footage of the legendary gig at Napa State Mental Hospital over on youtube. You should go watch it.

This is a completely unrelated picture, but it looks kinda kewl…

Since I read a lot of these – and since other people seem to find my tweets about them interesting – I will try to summarize 10 of the best/ most noteworthy each month. Which will also hopefully give people (another?) reason to return to my ramblings every now and then.

It’s Not Your Face, It’s Ours
Tags – face recognition, technology, New World Order
Jan Chipchase, The Indiana Jones of ethnography offers a rather dystopian view of face recognition. Personally, I think face recognition is kind of cool, but hard not to agree with Chipchase on what has the potential to become a fundamentally Orwellian technology. Am already looking forward to the various legal battles, scandals and general chaos that will ensue when this stuff becomes ubiquitous.

QR Codes Are the Roller-Skating Horses of Advertising
Tags – QR Codes, advertising, annoyance
Whenever I hear the word QR code, I reach for my revolver.

The Friction in Frictionless Sharing
Tags – facebook, sharing, User Owned Data
A very succinctly put analysis of why Facebook’s frictionless sharing is really quite annoying.

When did the Remix become a requirement
Tags – remix, music
Nice article on the remix phenomenon and it’s evolvement through different genres and technologies. Good “sunday morning over coffee and 90s east coast hip hop” read. I would recommend Tribe or Dilla.

Rick Falkvinge: the Swedish radical leading the fight over web freedoms
Tags – copyright, pirate party, obsolete business models
“Musicians earn 114% more since the advent of Napster. The average income per artist has risen 66%, with 28% more artists being able to make a living off their hobby. What is true is that there’s an obsolete middle market of managers. And in a functioning market, they would just disappear.”

Chief ACTA Eurocrat quits in disgust at lack of democratic fundamentals in global copyright treaty
Tags – copyright, ACTA, EU, law
Another week, another daft piece of copyright legislation to combat it seems. This article is interesting because it A) it is about a person on the inside, saying enough is enough and B) kicks up a whole of questions around how laws are made at a European level. Ahhh the days you could just sit back and point at other countries and their corporate… erh, I mean corrupt judicial systems. Transparency is cool, although depressing.

Musicians praise Bit Torrent and Creative Commons
tags – copyright, bit torrent, business models
More proof that there really is an emerging business model for CC music and the music industry in general. Now would be the time to start experimenting with alternate business models, if you are say… a large multimillion dollar recording and distribution music company.

Inside Supreme – Anatomy of a streetwear cult
Tags – fashion, branding, streetwear, pop culture
Nice read on the notoriously shy streetwear brand Supreme and how they built their brand. Also reminds me of this BBC interview with Shawn Stussy from the 90s (Im guessing).

5 Big Ideas For A New Economy
Tags – economy, new models
Well we need some new ones, right? We can all sort of agree on that, right?

The Yin and the Yang of Corporate Innovation
Tags – Innovation, Steve Jobs, Google, Apple
In the wake of Steve Jobs’ death there seems to be a slew of people rushing to hail the “Genius Leader” as the only innovation model that matters, usually using the dreaded “design by consensus” as the polar extreme. I personally think it is slightly more nuanced than (benevolent) design fascism and dysfunctional democracy: great leaders can balance both – honestly it is to easy to just don the iron gauntlet. Apart from the horrible “innovation as jazz” metaphor, this article does present a slightly more nuanced argument.