I've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but frankly, there aren't words strong enough to describe my excitement for this collaboration between two of my all-time favorite artists, Jim Woodring and Yo La Tengo!
Their love story goes a long ways back, as we mentioned on the FLOG earlier this year when we premiered the band's most recent release Fade at the book launch party for Jim's collection Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012. And now Jim has taken the artwork for Fade and interpreted it into The Tree, a set of three figurines and a DVD produced by our friends at PressPop! We'll let them describe the rest:
Experience the magical collaboration of Yo La Tengo and Jim Woodring. The three band members, Ira, Georgia and James come to life as 3 original characters in the land of “the Tree!”
Present/past/future, the real/unreal, visible/invisible, sadness/joy…… "the Tree” will grow, enveloping all. And the ecstatic creatures that inhabit “the Tree” are the 3 beings blessed by the god of music. The curtain has been raised for Woodring’s mysterious and psychedelic dream land. But the story has just begun……
This product is a set of DVD and 3 soft-vinyl dolls. The DVD contains an original animation (5:20 minutes) of a mind-blowing colorful dream world that centers on “the Tree” and the 3 whimsical characters. It is made by a Japanese production company that specialize in hand-drawn animation: drop. And of course, All NEW music by Yo La Tengo! The 3 colorful soft-vinyl dolls were sculpted by Japanese master sculptor: Tomohiro Yasui. Beautiful packaging design by Jim Woodring with a bonus comic on the back.
photos courtesy of James McNew
As you can see, the resemblance is striking! These figures are currently available (in incredibly limited quanties) at the merch table on the band's European tour, or you can also pre-order a set of your own at the Matador Records website. I am already planning for them to take a ride on Mr. Bumper, and maybe get in some battles with Lorbo.