Tuesday, August 31

Jamiroquai "White Knuckle Ride" + Remix


Jamiroquai returns with a brand new funky single entitled, “White Knuckle Ride.” It’ll be off his Dust Light Star set to release this November. Check out the single below.

Click below to check out the video and a nice remix by NYC's own Penguin Prison.

Monday, August 30

URB presents Two Sides of Cool: Chromeo @ SF Outside Lands Video


With their third album, Business Casual, due for launch on the 19th of September, the URB HD team were able to get a quick sit down with the electrofunk duo and Next 100 alum, Dave 1 and P-Thugg otherwise known as Chromeo. After a slew of releases, remixes, and visual displays (try to catch that P-Thugg original t-shirt collab), they are poised to retake the dance floors, ear canals, and bandwidth of the cool hunting folks all over the world. As industry veterans, their maturity, knowledge, and know how come across as the tools that will carry the duo through the pop culture landscape for years to come. Words by Phil Nacionales for URB Magazine.

via Hypetrack
original: Society Theory

Saturday, August 28

Takashi Murakami x Britney Spears | POP Magazine


When Japanese pop art meets American pop music, very creative things transpire. For the new issue of Pop Magazine, pop star Britney Spears and renown Japanese artist Takashi Murakami collaborate on a manga meets pageant queen style photo-shoot.

via Hypebeast

Thursday, August 26

Jimmy Edgar ft. Theophilus London "Hot Raw Sex"


Offered is the latest creation by musician/ photographer Jimmy Edgar who joined forces with Theophilus London for the animatic tune “Hot Raw Sex”. The title is pretty self-explanatory and does not promise too much. Check it out below.


via Hypetrak

Wednesday, August 25

'Sucker Punch' Comic Con Trailer



More Zack Snyder goodness, coming 'atcha...I really like the look of this one.

Throwback Song for the Day

The Gap Band "You Dropped A Bomb On Me"

illRoots Profile: Lupe Fiasco's Trilly & Truly


To follow up their recent profile with Ibn Jasper, illRoots caught up with Lupe Fiasco on the set of a recent RSVP Gallery lookbook video shoot for Trilly & Truly’s Basic Info. For the Spring/Summer run of merchandise, Lupe decided to stick with a simplistic theme that focused more around iconic imagery rather than complex design. A true innovator in both fashion and music, Lupe goes in depth on his clothing line, how he separates the two, and what he hopes people will take from it. Enjoy!

And in case you haven't caught the first interview with Ibn, check it out by clicking below.

'Machete' Red Band Trailer


I think it's awesome that this went from being an idea Robert Rodriguez had circa 1994, to one of the 'fake trailers' that Robert and Quentin made for the release of Grindhouse to now it's own feature-length exploitation flick. I know that I, for one, will definitely plunk down some scratch to go watch this when it's released.
Oh and for anyone who never caught the original 'fake trailer,' you can check it out below.

Nike x Jordan x Converse Hybrid Shoe Video


Nike’s World Basketball Festival was the first time we saw Converse, Brand Jordan and Nike come together as one. As part of the Make Something!! Workshops, the teens involved in the design classes had the chance to work with Nike designers to create a memorable moment and product, a hybrid shoe combining elements of all 3 basketball brands into one shoe. A first, and a sign of big things to come.

via Hypebeast

Starck Mystery Dial Watches


Few designers have been as prolific as Paris-born Philippe Stark. An extraordinary mix of rock star, mad inventor, romantic philosopher and leading edge designer, Starck has worked tirelessly and passionately to transform the perceptions and realities of our daily lives, touching the deepest wallsprings of our consciousness to evoke response and reconsideration while pioneering a vision of de-materialization. The latest from his line of watches, developed by Fossil, include these two Mystery Dial selections. Each feature two intriguing indicators of hours and minutes, with the hours being represented by a central solid color disc with lone Starck logo for the little hand (or hours). The minutes are indicated by a traditional hand that is hidden behind the hour disc and bends up past the edges to poke out and rotate around the bezel of digits and dashes for minutes. Both are now available through Watchismo.

Sk8thing | Interview Magazine


Interview Magazine recently caught up with rarely interviewed designer Sk8thing, who over the past two decades has created endless designs for the likes of BAPE, Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream, NEIGHBORHOOD, WTAPS, UNDERCOVER, Bounty Hunter, and T-19, to name a few. Amongst other topics, we learn why Sk8thing doesn’t enjoy traveling, his take on the current fashion landscape, and his thoughts on finding new inspiration. Offered below is an excerpt of the interview.

N*E*R*D MTV Live Sessions


As eager fans patiently await for their upcoming Nothing album, N.E.R.D. serves up a little interlude. Recorded exclusively for MTV, this mini compilation is made up of five records, with some new tracks such as “Party People” and “Help Me.” Meanwhile, the tentative release date for Nothing is currently set for a September 7th release.

via Hypebeast

OriginalFake KAWS Wooden Companion Preview


OriginalFake previews what looks to be an upcoming wooden version of KAWS highly popular Companion toy from the KAWS x Dos Equis teaser video. No official information is available, aside from speculation that this will ultimately see an official release. Stay tuned as we uncover more.

via Hypebeast

SILLY BAPE THING Mini-Site Launch


TK fills us in on an upcoming project between SILLY THING and BAPE, which should make for quite an interesting joint venture. No specific information is available at the moment, but a new website for the initiative just went live here. Stay tuned!

via Hypebeast

Mr. Bathing Ape Lookbook | A/W 2010

A Bathing Ape continues to work with United Arrows on the Mr. Bathing Ape Collection, a more grown up line, mainly consisting of suits. For Fall 2010 the collection continues to grow also adding knitwear and more accessories to it. Today we can show you the Fall 2010 Lookbook of the collection, which will release in the coming months.

Austin Reed 110th Anniversary Tie Holder


I ran into this little gem whilst looking around the Web and figured I would share with everyone this really nice, classy and innovative take on the tie holder. I have seen some very interesting holders in my time but I am really digging this one.

Austin Reed celebrate its 110th anniversary this year and with it comes a special range of commemorative products. Among them is a limited edition tie holder. The cylinder design ensures wrinkle-free tie storage and should be a perfect travel companion. The interior is marked by a Regent Street print. Available now at Austin Reed.

via Hypebeast
original: GQ

Tuesday, August 24

Frank Miller's 'Gucci Guilty' Trailer

Kaws “Passing Through” Oversize Companion Sculpture


Kaws is busy working on an upcoming project taking place in Hong Kong this Fall, entitled “Passing Through”. For the exhibition the artist has worked on a massive sitting version of his iconic Companion character. “Passing Through” will take place in October at Harbour City in Hong Kong.

via HighSnob

Monday, August 23

KAWS Pinocchio & Jimmy Cricket Toys Announced


Today the official release of the much anticipated Originals Fake Pinocchio and Jimmy Cricket toys, designed by Kaws, have been announced. The set will be released on August 28th.

Friday, August 20

Kanye West ft. Jay-Z & Swizz Beats "Power" Remix

A lot of people have been waiting on this one and it has finally dropped, here is the link (courtesy of Kanye himself) for the remix. Enjoy.


via Kanye's Blog

Tuesday, August 17

Dos Equis by KAWS


Production company Another Company commissioned street artist KAWS for this video teaser for Cerveza Dos Equis. The video documents the artist creating the brand identity for the new Dos Equis packaging featuring the iconic KAWS double X. The pairing between artist and brand is almost a perfect match as the double X is a shared element in both the existing brandmark, and well as a key element in most of the artist’s works to date.


To check out an image of the final bottle designs (Lager and Amber, releasing in September 2010), click below.

Monday, August 16

Saturday @ Miami Design District

Had a nice little walk around a part of the Miami Design District this past weekend and I saw a couple of cool/interesting things that caught my eye, so I figured I'd take a few iPhone pics of my jaunt and share them here.
Some of them caught me by surprise and some were just captures of designs and ideas that I really caught my eye.


Wednesday, August 11

Takashi Murakami | Interview Magazine


Interview Magazine has maintained an amazing track record of interviewing a heavyweight cast of personalities as their latest interview features the king of Superflat art, Takashi Murakami. The interview was conducted by Alison Gingeras, chief curator of the François Pinault collection at the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice, Italy. The interview begins casually discussing Murakami’s current relationship with dogs and goes further in-depth over a four page interview. The whole interview can be seen over at Interview.
GINGERAS: So we can add dog breeder to the list of all of the various things that you do. You’re a painter, sculptor, animator, gallerist, an entrepreneur . . .

MURAKAMI: Being a breeder is so very hard! [laughs] You’re working with DNA.

GINGERAS: Well, your work is so much about hybrids, isn’t it?

MURAKAMI: I don’t think I’ve realized that until now. I’m always very interested in breeding. Raising cacti is breeding. My lotus plant collection is breeding. The insects are breeding.

GINGERAS: But isn’t that part of what you do visually? Especially in your most recent work—for example, the epic 16-panel painting you made for Palazzo Grassi, [727–272: The Emergence of God at the Reversal of Fate] . . . In a way, you’re cross-breeding Western, postwar art language and the Japanese superflat aesthetic.

MURAKAMI: This specific work is like a DJ style.

GINGERAS: DJ style?

MURAKAMI: You know, bringing records and mixing.

GINGERAS: But you don’t think that what you’re doing is more analogous to bringing together a Western Jack Russell dog with an innate breed of Japanese dog? I don’t think it’s like when you’re deejaying, because with that kind of mixing you know what you’re going to get. But when you make a painting, you don’t always know what’s going to happen.

MURAKAMI: Oh . . . That’s the critics’ take?

GINGERAS: Yes. [both laugh] I was thinking about the work you made for the Pop Life show at the Tate Modern, where you took a Western Pop reference—The Vapors’ track “Turning Japanese”—and retranslated it into a Japanese otaku sensibility [otaku refers to people who have an obsessive interest in things like manga, anime, and video games] in a video starring Kirsten Dunst as a majokko [magical] princess. I thought it was such a perverse and subtly complex way of making your work accessible to a public that might not know who you are—which was the case in London. Yet you weren’t dumbing it down.

MURAKAMI: When I approached the film director, McG, for this project, I proposed for him to use the Akihabara neighborhood—Tokyo’s “electric town”—as a backdrop. The film was supposed to star the Japanese otaku cult girl band AKB48, but at the very last minute, they dropped out. After they dropped out, we had just three days. So I was ready to give up.

GINGERAS: Really?

MURAKAMI: We had the money and planning in place and I thought it would all fall through, but McG didn’t let that happen. He said, “Okay, Takashi, I have a question: Do you want to make a film or not?” So in just one day he got Kirsten Dunst to come to Tokyo, he brought in this music, and he asked me if it all fit with my ideas. It was perfect because my goal was just to introduce people to what is Akihabara and try to explain its significance to Londoners and to serious art people. I was trying to capture what was happening in Japanese kid culture. I didn’t at first understand this process of shooting a video. The whole planning happened over the phone. Three days later, McG arrived in Tokyo and started shooting. It was all done after an 18-hour shoot.

GINGERAS: Had Kirsten Dunst ever experienced this aspect of Japanese culture? Had she ever been to Akihabara? Did she know about cosplay [costume play] and all that?

MURAKAMI: No, no. She may have had some information, but she had no experience with it. I think she really enjoyed it. That McG is really talented with people. He was great at making the actress feel good and motivated. You know, McG twisted my idea so it could fit with Western expectations . . .

GINGERAS: It’s funny, because I had the impression at first that McG twisted your idea by adding this pop song to your piece. But what made it even more perverse is how you then assimilated the hybrid of the Hollywood star and Akihabara landscape in the way you made this monumental wallpaper backdrop for the video for the Tate presentation.

MURAKAMI: I had to do that. I had to make up my identity, right? [laughs]

GINGERAS: Yes and no. Your contribution to that show speaks to how, despite your being one of the most famous and popular artists working today, most people still don’t grasp the complexity of your work. It still seems that most people understand that your work is the Japanese version of Western pop art. But I’m actually captivated by the indigenous Japanese side of your work. It seems that you try to translate or make accessible this deep Japanese-ness to non-Japanese audiences. Just the other day I was talking to this art historian who was saying, “Takashi Murakami is like a Renaissance artist. He has all these different assistants and young artists working with him under the Murakami school.” And while that’s true, as you’ve said yourself, your whole model of working comes out of the Edo period [the pre- and early-modern period running from 1603–1868] and the archetype of the Temple School. I was also thinking about how Geisai [a Tokyo art fair created by Murakami to support emerging artists] is founded on an indigenous Japanese idea—that of the arts festival. It’s not the application of a Western idea of an art fair onto your contemporary reality. Does that make sense?

MURAKAMI: It’s true that I pick up many ideas from different Japanese things. The way I formed my studio and how I organize things actually came out of the model of the Japanese animation studio and the manga industry. The manga industry is gigantic in Japan. There are so many layers to the business, like making a video, making a spin-off game, cards . . .

via Hypebeast

Tuesday, August 10

Nina Sky's 'The Other Side' EP


You know, I can't believe I neglected to post about this when it dropped last week on August 3rd, but better late than never I guess. :\
Here we have the newly released EP from twins Nicole (Ni**) and Natalie (**Na), better known to most as Nina Sky. After taking a listen I must say that this is a great little EP they have put out (and hey, it's free...you can't complain) and I would say that if this is a taste of what has been on their highly anticipated [yet sadly much-delayed] sophomore album (originally titled
The Musical, now Starting Today], then we are in for quite a treat whenever the next full release of new material can finally make its way to our ever-awaiting ears.
For those who only really know their singles
Move Ya Body and Turnin' Me On as well as a few singles they have been featured on, this may seem like the girls are trying to make another mark or come-back in the music scene, when in reality, they never left. As a matter of fact, they have been here (ok, mostly abroad...lol) the whole time, never really stepping away from the scene...in actuality, they have been fighting tooth and nail to get material back out there to their fans and keep their presence in the public conscience. But don't get it twisted, they have been on quite a number of mixtapes, as well as releasing some of their own. Add to that, issues that have arisen between the girls and different labels they have been on over the years, it's been a hell of a bumpy ride for the twins.
So keep a close eye on them as they continue to grow and provide great music to us all by following them on their
blog as well as all of the different social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and SoundCloud).

Monday, August 9

Kevin Smith's "The Widening Gyre"


Following up on one of our older posts on the subject, it's time to go back into the very nerd/geek-y world of both comics and Kevin Smith, specifically his run on Batman: The Widening Gyre portion of his Batman "maxi-series" for DC.
I just finished reading issue #6 and I must say that he has done a great job of weaving a very interesting story with various elements that draw you into the narrative of it all. I also like the different slant he displays for the Bruce Wayne aspect of the character, compared to other writers; in as much as he makes Wayne out to be much more awkward and seemingly not as socially developed as one would imagine in his interactions with other characters when he's not 'being' Batman. On op of that, I find that the plot point involving Bruce's love interest, Silver St. Cloud is also quite refreshing since she is one of the few characters that really seems to know, understand and accept him, going as far as calling him by the whimsical nickname of "DeeDee," something I had never really seen in a Batman book prior to this and I thought it brought a fun new dynamic to a character usually portrayed as dark and grim and gritty in either persona.
I also want to take this opportunity to mention that Walt Flanagan has done a great job on the artwork for this series, taking what he first did on
Cacophony and , has taken it a step further and delivered a great visual interpretation of Kevin's scripts. I know thus far his comic book work has been small, being kept to working with Kevin and childhood friend Bryan Johnson, but it'd be great to see more from Walt. But hey, at this point I might be asking too much as a fan, what with everyone having quite the busy schedule (thank you for all the SMods and Tell 'Ems).
I will spare anyone reading this any spoilers but needless to say, if you haven't picked it up and you enjoy a good Bruce Wayne/Batman story, stop by your local comic shop and pick up the current and back issues and show these guys some love...and if you REALLY want to give 'em more love (short of blowing anyone...they're married), stop by
Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash (Red Bank, NJ).
Maybe it's just fandom for the sake of fandom but I think this is a good Kevin Smith take on a character who has had so many damn stories told about him that although something like this might not appeal to die-hard Batman fans who don't want to think of their hero in terms other than the aforementioned dark/grim/gritty context, I think it's a fun story worth reading for any comics fan that likes a different take. Can't wait for Volume 2.

Friday, August 6

C'Mon Son #16

It's that time again folks...new C'Mon Son comin' at you.
The best part is that the first part of the vid touches on what I had written just a bit ago about the whole Lindsay Lohan bullshit.

Kanye's Video Painting for "Power"


Here it goes. The much anticipated new video to Kanye West’s new single “Power” has dropped today. Already declared in advance as a painting, rather than a simple music video, one can clearly say that Mr. West did things different on this one. The video was directed by Marco Bambrilla and the style was influenced by none other than Michelangelo.
The album will drop in October.


I gotta say, the video is very high concept and I think Kanye & Marco pull it off quite well.


via Highsnob

Monday, August 2

Pharrell Williams | Interview Magazine

A recent Interview Magazine feature focuses on Pharrell Williams in a topic never actively discussed among the superstar musician. as it speaks about Williams’ fascination with science. A comprehensive set of questions focus on his current relationship with Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California. Pharrell talks about his fabric company, what notions have been spawned by his experiences with NIGO and his interest in the sciences. The entire feature can be seen here.
DIMITRI EHRLICH: Dr. Ramachandran, let’s begin with you. I’m assuming Pharrell’s music is not on the playlists of the majority of your colleagues in neuroscience. How did you first become aware of him?

DR. V.s. RAMACHANDRAN: Through my son, Jaya. He showed me some videos on YouTube.

EHRLICH: And Pharrell, how did you first become aware of Dr. Ramachandran and what drew you to him?

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: I think my first time seeing him was probably also on YouTube. But I’d seen him on the Discovery Channel a couple times before, and I was just so intrigued by the way he approached neuroscience. Sometimes when you’re listening to a neuroscientist, they have a tendency to use a particular type of jargon that works in their world perfectly but that would lose the average layman. And while I can keep up with most of them, he just had an eloquent way with his words and I understood it. I mean, it was like listening to [the late astronomer] Carl Sagan or [astrophysicist] Neil deGrasse Tyson. Both of those guys just have this thing, and that’s why they’re rock stars in my opinion, because they have the ability to translate genius to the masses. What we all do is art, you know? We are noticers, we’re sensitives, we notice the rhythms in certain things and we identify them, and then we coin terms for them, and most of the world is not able to keep up. But some people just have that innate thing that allows them to express themselves in a way the majority can follow. That’s when you’re affecting culture.

EHRLICH: A couple of years ago, Pharrell released an album with N.E.R.D called Seeing Sounds [2008] which was loosely organized around the concept of synesthesia—the mixing of sense consciousnesses, like “hearing” colors and so forth. Dr. Ramachandran, you’ve also done some experiments in the field of synesthesia, right?

RAMACHANDRAN: Yes, I’ve long been interested in the creative process, whether in art or in science. People think of art and science as being fundamentally opposed to each other, because art is about celebrating individual human creativity, and science is about discovering general principles, not about individual people. But in fact, the two have a lot in common, and the creative spirit is similar in both. It’s about seeing hidden links, which nobody else has discovered before. And in synesthesia, what’s going on is the brain sees all these amazing links, which you and I can barely glimpse. With grapheme-color synesthesia, every time a person sees a number, a letter, or hears a note, he sees a particular color. For most of us, that doesn’t happen. But some people, maybe one in a hundred, have this ability. And it’s been believed to mean that you’re crazy. But now we’ve shown in our lab, using brain imaging, and also by doing psychological testing, that, in fact, it’s a perfectly real, legitimate phenomenon, and it’s also eight or nine times more common among artists, poets, and novelists than in the general population. The question is why does that happen? Well, it turns out that synesthesia is caused by excessive cross-wiring in the brain. In the fetus, or a really young child, all the different brain areas are connected to each other, diffusely. And as the brain develops, the excess connections are turned off, so you get very specialized areas. So most people have really specialized talents. What happens in creative people is this pooling doesn’t take place. This creates a propensity to link seemingly unrelated things, like tones and colors. But also, because of the excess links, it makes them see hidden connections, made just between things that are seemingly unrelated to most of us. Like when Shakespeare says, “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.” That’s a beautiful metaphor. You think, She’s radiant like the sun, she’s warm like the sun, she’s nurturing like the sun. Shakespeare’s brain probably had more of these connections that enabled him to make these amazingly, hauntingly beautiful connections, which most of us can’t. So my interest in synesthesia is trying to find the link between art and science, and trying to get a scientific understanding of things like creativity and artistic talent. I was invited to watch Pharrell work in the studio, and I was absolutely mesmerized—Pharrell, fill him in on it.

WILLIAMS: Well, he just kind of watched me make a song and how, as a musician, we react to something being right, how we react to something being wrong, and we go searching for it out of what’s seemingly thin air. But for us, we’re noticing rhythms, we’re catching something. My explanation is that curiosity illuminates the correct path to anything in life. If you’re not curious, that’s when your brain is starting to die. And discovering, I think, that’s what separates us from the rest of the other species. It’s that we discover and pioneer, we don’t forget from whence we came. My parents played a lot of Earth, Wind, & Fire, and the lead singer, Maurice White, was part of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, so he had an extensive jazz background, and so all of the songs had very interesting changes that I was privy to as a child. But at the same time, I used to see those colors as a kid. I thought everyone saw music in that way: That’s kind of burgundy, or, This is baby blue! But you start to notice when your friends are like, “Okay . . .” I just kind of blew it off, but what Dr. Ramachandran witnessed with me in the studio was, I’m just the average musician but I was just allowing my GPS to do what it does.
via Hypebeast

GTFO! ...on second thought...stay there.

Man, ain't this some bullshitty nonsense?? Lindsay Lohan's crazy ass has already been released from prison after only serving 13 days out of a three-month sentence...really?!?
I mean, to us regular people, isn't prison meant to make people atone for a transgression? I mean how in the fuck is Lindsay, or any of these 'celebrities' for that matter, who receive the now-commonplace Hollywood-influenced 'slap on the wrist' penalty from our "un-biased" judicial system, supposed to learn that there is a penalty for the things they do which are against the law?
I think that after so many examples over time of celebrities barely feeling any kind of sting for committing these varying levels of crimes, they will probably now come to expect gentler treatment or lighter sentencing, simply because they're famous...meanwhile, there are non-famous members of the citizenry that get much larger/harsher sentences (comparatively) for similar, if not harsher offences.

Just a bit of food for thought. If you'd like to share your thoughts, feel free.