My desk is covered in Star Wars toys right now, which prompted a short discussion between the Crook and I in regards to the Imperial rankings of Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. This is how we keep ourselves entertained when we’re not busy creating “dat crack.” Thank you Wikipedia for clearing up any misconceptions.

Organization of power

Emperor Palpatine rules the Empire with absolute power, with third-in-command Sate Pestage as Grand Vizier to run the Empire day to day. Vader is the Emperor’s second-in-command as well as the Military Executor and Supreme Commander of the Imperial Forces.

Palpatine dissolves the Senate in A New Hope because the Empire discovers several seats in the Senate are actually taken by members of the Rebellion. Officially, the Imperial Senate is “suspended for the duration of the Galactic emergency”. Below the Emperor, real power is in the hands of sector governors (”moffs“) such as Grand Moff Tarkin. Eventually, the regional governors are granted direct control over their territories after Palpatine disbands the Imperial Senate.

In A New Hope, Tarkin explains the Empire’s philosophy as “rule through fear of force rather than force itself”. The instrument of this power is the military, which includes the Imperial Stormtroopers, Scout Troopers, Sandtroopers, SCUBA Troopers, Snowtroopers, and a large fleet of intimidating war vehicles such as the Imperial Navy’s Star Destroyers and the Imperial Army’s All Terrain Armoured Transports (AT-ATs or imperial walkers) which are intended in part to spread fear as well as destroy the enemy. This policy reaches its zenith with the construction of the Death Star.

Finally! Seems like New Zealand will stop living in fairyland and come back to reality with a quality feature film proud to follow in the footsteps of a young Peter Jackson! I cannot wait!

The Cramps - Garbage Man

Murder City Devils - 18 Wheels (Live)

The Make-Up - I Am Pentagon (Live)

Royal Trux - Ray-O-Vac (Live)

Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken

Green Jello - Three Little Pigs

Ministry - Thieves

Math Head & The Captain are in Trouble & Bass. Math Head & The Captain are BFF… Bass Friends Forever. We at Mishka like to think of all of T&B as our Bass Friends Forever and so we got down on this  mix! It’s like a T&B party captured on CD or in this case on our Doombox! Listening to it at work may cause uncontrolable dancing, so listen at your own risk!

Trouble & Bass are also getting down for their monthly party at Love tomorrow night, Feb 29th with special guest Tayo straight from London. Listen to the mix and head over to Love tomorrow night. You won’t be sorry!

Love
179 Macdougal St.
New York, NY
$10 before 10am, 21 to enter

Continuing my series of albums so awful that they’re awesome I bring you the third in the series. Live’s Throwing Copper. Unlike STP & Bush who earned honers as the #1 and 2 in my series, Live never drew my ire or elicited any sort of violent reaction from me in the 90s. They kind just “were” and my attention always passed over their existence whenever their songs were played. In actually sitting down and really listening to throwing copper I was actually kinda shocked that there were 5 fucking bona fide hit singles on this one album (I’m noticing that’s a trend on this list)! I always thought most of these songs were scattered across various other albums Live may have put out and I ignored.

So what makes this album so awfully awesome? Well Live seems to have this magical way of writing lyrics that are so beyond cheesy they’re actually heartfelt. Like Freshman Seminar poetry you want to laugh at but don’t because the kid writing/reading it is a really nice guy. Dude managed to find away to slip placenta into song lyrics! PLACENTA! It’s like that movie that goes so out of it’s way to play on your heartstrings and make you cry, and you know it, find it silly, cheesy, but you cry anyway!*

Secondly, Live sound like that AWESOME (read sarcasm… well only partially so) band from your High School**. I’d like to imagine that had their been a Degrassi on during the 90s the band that would have formed in that show would have sounded just like Live. Like they would have gotten together after school to jam out on their fave R.E.M. tracks and just riff it from there. They probably would have had the editor of the school newspaper as the frontman, that jock type dude who wasn’t a total douche on bass, etc, etc. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty fucking killer to me brah!

Thirdly Ed Ed Kowalczyk badass rat tail braid!!!! KILLER!

And finally What the fuck was up with the video for I Alone!?? Where the fuck were the drums that day!? Why is he just swaying along behind Ed Kowalczyk? It’s fucking creepy!!! Wait… did VH1’s Pop-Up Videos cover this already?

*Don’t cry you pussies!
**Live actually WERE that band from High School, no joke!

From Patrick Bateman, to Bruce Wayne and now mankind’s only hope… John Conner. John Conner is quickly becoming a Sci Fi James Bond as Christian Bale becomes the 4th actor (I guess actually 5th or 6th if you count quick flash forwards in the 1st two movies) to tackle the role in a newly announced Terminator Trilogy.

Variety Magazine reports:
Warner Bros. will premiere the McG-directed Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins on May 22, 2009, the start of Memorial Day weekend. The movie, which stars Christian Bale (Sam Worthington is also in talks to star), will go up against Twentieth Century Fox’s Night at the Museum II: Escape From the Smithsonian, which also opens that weekend. The project is the first in a planned trilogy that begins after Skynet destroyed much of the human race in a nuclear holocaust. John Connor (Bale) must lead a group of people to try and stop the machines. The last Terminator movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, opened in 2003 and grossed $150.4 million domestically. Shooting on the new movie is scheduled to begin May 5 of this year.

While this won’t have Schwarzenegger reprising his role as everyone’s favorite killing machine, it’s clear that with the success of the Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles TV show that the franchise does not need Arnold to be great.

I’m pretty excited because Terminator is probably my favorite Sci Fi franchise of all time! And if you haven’t seen the TV show you should because it’s a very close third to the new Battlestar Galactica & Lost as one of the best Sci Fi shows in recent memory. You know I’ll have my Terminate Da Game hoodie on and fully zipped at the premiere!

We invites you to take a mind-bending journey into the past, present and future life of acclaimed artist, Joseph Ari Aloi. Known around the world as JK5, Joseph is a jack-of-all-trades possessing a healthy arsenal of creative weaponry that has allowed him to excel in virtually every medium he touches. JK5 is the definition of originality, which is why we are so humbled to have collaborated with him on this special project.

The JK5 capsule collection represents a true collaboration. For several days, we worked with JK5 to deconstruct his 432 paged book Subconsciothesaurusnex. We then meticulously re-assembled the pieces thereby creating two giant collages. The result: a mind-blowing print whirlwind of color,intricate drawings and strange cultural references authentic to both JK5 and Mishka that formed the jumping off point for the collection.

The JK5 capsule collection will be available at the Mishka Pop-Up Shop located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and other select stockists at the end of February.

Gargamel with some of thier new micromen! Oh, and look, the Keep Watch Varsity well represented! What’s up Yutaka!?

I think I could watch this forever.

Click HERE to view with sound.

Her winning an Oscar means we’ll have to endure months, if not years of stories about how wild she is. OMG! She used to be a stripper! OMG! She has like one tattoo on her arm, what a wild child! But worse is having to hear more of her Str8 Outta Freshman Year of Liberal Arts School social commentary and views of the world. In a phrase I’m sure she could appreciate… Gag me!`

Juno was entertaining… but best screenplay!? The thing employed every single hackneyed trick indie films do ever since Rushmore to be “quirky”, “hip” & “charming”. Plus the dialog was cringe inducing! The collective uncomfort in the audience every time Diablo Cody tried to establish just how cool Jason Bateman’s or Ellen Page’s character was funnier than anything she wrote.

She reminds me of something that I thought died out with the 90s. The failed attempt at channeling your own personal Kathleen Hanna. But I guess it never died, I just got out of school. Oh wells, gag me & watch this below!

Protex - Don’t Ring Me Up

The Troggs - I Can’t Control Myself

Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody’s Hero

The Buzzcocks- Breakdown

Good one Bros!

When I first saw the Death Adders Coach Jacket (Soon to drop) I wanted one immediately because of its reference to Death, the band, of which I only have one album: The Sound of Perseverance. But, I knew their significance in the death metal scene. I also had read a lot about Chuck Schuldiner and had a lot of respect for him and his crazy guitar picking techniques. I heard once he did a pick style he called the figure eight!?!

As is written on Wikipedia:“Death was an influential American death metal band founded in 1983 by guitarist and vocalist Chuck Schuldiner, and dissolved in 2001. They are widely credited as the creators of the death metal genre, from the release of their first demo in 1984. The band’s label debut Scream Bloody Gore is considered a template of the genre, described as death metal’s first archetypal document. Schulinder was the only member to remain in the band from start to end. Music biographers have referred to Schuldiner as the father of death metal.”

This is their first video which surprisingly got some MTV airplay. Look at how high they’re holding their guitars! Ripping some crazy double bass… Now that’s some real metal! There’s hardly a breakdown in the whole song, it’s just crazy solos and speed metal riffs… Completely nuts!

Check out the whole Wikipedia page for Death, it has a lot of other crazy statistics, like when one of their video’s was aired on Beavis and Butthead in 1994. It also documents Chuck Schuldiner struggle with brain cancer, of which he sadly passed away from in December of 2001. R.I.P to a death metal god.
Anyhow, I’m very proud of my boys at Mishka, this is a seriously awesome reference.

P.S. I wrote this post before My Pal the Crook gave us all the info on the Death Adders Coaches jacket, good timing.

I am a Huge fan of the BlobPus! Hell I even a JK5 version of it tattooed on my arm.

Our friend Lamour Supreme sent me a preview from the Wonder Festival 2008. I have to say that I’m pretty fucking excited! Plus, I think the name of this little guy is Priest of Darkness or something crazy like that!

Death Adders MC Jacket

Digital Gravel has put up a few items for sale from our Spring ‘08 Collection… Believe me this is like a drop in the bucket of everything you’re about to be hit with. I’m gonna pull aside a few of my favorite things from what they have up for sale right now and I’ll start with the Death Adders MC Jacket. I’ve always loved Motorcycle Jackets… there’s nothing more fucking bad ass or punk rock then a Motorcycle Jacket. But the problem I’ve always had with them is that they’re almost always cut too short (which makes them look awful on some people), most times have that beyond effeminate side laced gusset thing going on and just pretty damn pricey because they’re leather! So besides fixing up the cut, we decided to lighten the jacket to a very nice cotton twill that is very durable but also perfect for the spring. Then we set about adding our own little Mishka touches with pins, color accents and a very tonal Death inspired back print. The only bad thinga bout this jacket is that the Royal Blue version of it never made it past the sample stage! However you can choose from Black or White.

Death Adders Coaches Jacket

Next up is the Death Adders Coaches jacket which to me manages to be everything at once yet at the same time quite subdued. The cut is exactly the same a sour Huzzah! Coaches Jacket from fall and like that Jacket features an intricate back embroidery of a Death inspired logo. The sleeves are adorned with our own mystical language of symbols that we created and re-appropriated for this spring collection and the tour de force is the front featuring our Death Adder Bear, de-skinned and Vic Rattleheadified! This thing screams metal in so many different languages Its like a Maiden world tour!

Swarm Windbreaker

And finally we have the Swarm Windbreaker. I love me some windbreakers, they’re perfect for spring and even more perfect for springs spent on a bicycle. Our Swarm windbreaker is made from a top notch Japanese microfiber rip-stop nylon. It’s water resistant,very light weight, has a brimmed hood, is fully mesh lined, has two side and 2 chest pockets and a buttoned back vent slit. We’ve added 3M details to the zipper pulls and wrist straps. Plus our Logo on back is also printed in 3M as well. It’s available in Purple/White, Black/Teal & Teal/Orange.

For a snowy New York day…

Labradford - Phantom Channel Crossing

Spacemen 3 - Revolution

Der Plan - Gummitwist

Health - Heaven

The Swirlies - Bell

Andreas Dorau - Fred Vom Jupiter

I think everyone can appreciate this!

I’m kind of late to this but New York Mag reported a few days ago that Thurston Moore let slip of an upcoming Sonic Youth Art Show. What would Sonic Youth have to do with the art world? Well over the years they’ve worked with so many heavy hitters in the art world, From Pettibon, Kern, Prince & Dan Graham to name just a few and the show will focus on just that… the works of all the various and amazing artists the band has gotten to work with over their amazing career.