When Rob Crow first invited us to come on tour with Pinback he mentioned not only that we would be allowed to use their projector but that he was “excited to see what we come up with”. Pressure was on! Luckily we we know some incredible video artists who have been extremely generous in lending us their talents. For anyone who’s been looking for info on all of the crazy video art going on behind us on this tour with Pinback (as well the homecoming show 5/13 at The Uptown in Oakland), here’s a look at the men behind the screen:

Riki Feldmann:

Specialty: Photography, Audio Engineering, Live Improvisational Video
Website: www.rikifeldmann.com
Recommended: New Idria, After the Fire

I can’t really say enough about this guy. He’s on tour with us right now helping us set up and running the projections. He also filmed and produced a few of the videos we’re using (the ones with the sweet nature shots) and even stars in one of them. If that weren’t enough, he engineered Peacocks/Pink Monsters at his recording studio Nu-Tone and has engineering our next record. Last but not least, he’s my favorite photographer. All of those sweet Judgement Day photos? He took’em. His specialty is abandoned ruins.

Luke Judd:

Specialty: Video Installations and Live Improvisational Video
Website: http://rumspringawords.blogspot.com/
Recommended: “Revelations” – Judgement Day
Contact: slowcollapse@gmail.com

If you’ve ever been at a sweet underground warehouse show in Oakland with crazy live video projections you’ve probably seen Luke’s work. Dude works with a lot of our favorite bands: The Burning of Rome, Foxtails Brigade, Devotionals, Silian Rail, Saything and many more. We’ve worked with him a few times now and it’s always a pleasure.

VJ odbol (aka Tyler Freeman)

Specialty: Inventing
Website: www.odbol.com
Recommended: “Finis Omne” – Judgement Day

Odbol specializes in designing interfaces that bring the body closer to the machine. The first time I saw this guy in action he was creating live video for BATTLEHOOCH with a nintendo Wii controller. Awesome thing is, that’s not even his craziest invention. VJacket and DrumPants are just as fun.

Mike Mayfield

Specialty: Animation
Website: www.youtube.com/MikeLMayfield
Recommended: “Song of the Sad Assassin” – Why

We were so incredibly lucky to have Mike do the animation for our Violin Hero video last year. Dude is a total pro animator, working on big network cartoons like American Dad in addition to creating his own awesome shorts. On Violin Hero he went above and beyond, syncing the animation up flawlessly to every note of the music. “I totally played along with a Guitar Hero controller multiple times while I was working on it to make sure it had the same feel, similar intuitive timing, etc, even though I felt like a total dork doing so!” Right on!

John Snapp

Specialty: Video, Editing
Website: www.youtube.com/poorbailey
Recommended: “Jingletown Blues” – Poor Bailey

John is the bass player for one of favorite East Bay bands, Poor Bailey and he releases a new video for them every week or two. He’s also made sweet videos for Audrye Sessions.

AWK:

Specialty: 16mm Found Film
Website: N/A
Recommended: “All in Vain” – Judgement Day

AWK raids thrift stores for used reels of film and rebuilds them into dark collages of doom. You can see his work on many of the Dark Opus music videos.