Pitch Black - Hate Division (2009) [Recital] // Grade: C-

The second full length from Pitch Black lives up to what you’d expect from a union of Thrash Metal and Metalcore… overdone aggro-political posturing to the utmost extreme. Think of Hate Division as chugging 6 Red Bells back to back to back to back to back to back and watching Fox News just so you could argue back at the TV. It’s big dumb fun for a little while that unfortunately leads to a debilitating crash and a dehydration headache. Honestly were this album a bit more Metalcore than Thrash and went heavy on breakdowns I think it could have been ten times more enjoyable to sit through and even warrant repeat spins. By the end I was just really in the mood to listen to Merauder and forget all about Pitch Black.

I never grew up with Sherlock Holmes however, I’ll watch anything with Robert Downey Jr. in it. Hell, I probably would have liked Star Trek more if it had a touch of the Downey. I thought the trailer was looking pretty good and then slow motion fisticuffs get dropped at 1:06 and the papers were signed.

I am very happy to announce that the 350 Broadway store has become the first store in New York City (well at least Brooklyn) to carry The Next Level Product Line by Japanese super toy brand Secret Base.

Secret Base has expanded their offering from toys to vinyl lifestyle products. The first two items we have received are the 1/1 Skull Head Crazy Glow and the T2K2 Dark Knight!

The GID Skull Head is badass! The skulls are soft vinyl with 3 different glow in the dark colors. White, Orange, and Blue! The one above is a Blue glow. There is no way to tell as they are randomly packed!

The T2K2 Dark Knight is made of soft vinyl and is supposed to mimic a vintage glass decanter. This version is half black vinyl/half Blue-Green Glow Vinyl! The box can be opened up to put small items inside!

Currently these items are in-store only at our 350 Broadway Flagship store! Supplies are SUPER LIMITED so come by this weekend an pick one up!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY

Friday & Saturday: 12-8pm
Sunday: 12-6pm
Monday: 12-7pm

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave.
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

Kurt Vile – God Is Saying This To You (2009) [Mexican Summer] // Grade: B+

On his second full length album, bedroom Folkster Kurt Vile patches together a sun-drenched tales from a psychedelic nomad. God Is Saying This To You beautifully offsets rustic guitars and melodies against waves of Lo-Fi experimentation that give the album the feel of some otherworldly artifact.

Similar to Neil Young’s Ditch Trilogy and Beck’s classic One Foot In the Grave, Chaos is succumbed by songwriting whose lackadaisical foundation is porous enough to let it flow between the notes, songs and emotions until it cements itself as the glue holding everything at strained sense of solitude.

Mishka Memorial Day Weekend Sale Extravaganza! 35-50% Off!

With Summer right around the corner we’re making way for new stock, higher temperatures and longer days.

Starting today, Friday, May 22nd and going all weekend through Monday both online and at our 350 Broadway location we’ll be offering 35%-50% off a wide selection of merchandise. Hats, Jackets, Tees, Hoodies and most things in-between will be marked down as we make way for summer. We’ll be re-stocking previously out of stock product as well so if you missed out the first time around this may be your last chance to pick up that shirt or hat you couldn’t get your hands on.

As an added incentive, customers shopping at our 350 Broadway location who spend 75.00 will get a free pair of socks and customers spending 150.00 or more will receive a free Mishka pillow of our choice. This is for in-store customers only, while supplies last.

In addition, this Friday those of you who come by the store will get first crack at our Summer ’09 line already in-store!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter as we’ll also be announcing 1-day discount codes and specials in addition to the already marked down prices to our followers for the duration of the sale!

So fire up the BBQ and get ready as this weekend will be long, but the dog days will be way longer! See you this weekend!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY

Friday & Saturday: 12-8pm
Sunday: 12-6pm
Monday: 12-7pm

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave.
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

Sorry, no returns on marked down items!

Suckers – Easy Chairs

Screaming Females – Bell

Black Sabbath – Snowblind (Live)

Sleater-Kinney – Get Up

The Kinks – Apeman

I’m not really big on inaccessible movies. I just don’t get that shit. I kind of need a relatively linear story-line and a theme not so abstract that my brain melts trying to figure out important movie elements like characters, dialogue and plot-line. Perhaps I represent the pedestrian element of movie goers. Or perhaps I’m just not weird, artsy or hipster enough to really get movies of these sorts.

For instance, I hated Palindromes, Charlie Kaufman makes me want to pull a Virginia Tech on Parsons, and no, I really don’t think Gummo is like the best movie ever. And yeah, I went to art school all my life, watched naked chicks writhe and call it performance-art and did all that shit was in Art School Confidential…including murdering people and smearing their remains on canvases.

But every now and then, an indie-abstract-weirdo film will come out that I like. For instance, I really liked Elephant (but hated Last Days) and I think Old Boy is one of my favorite films of all time. When Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind came out, I was neither here nor there about it (despite being attached to Kaufman). I definitely didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t riding the Gondry dick like so many others were. I actually think the only time I rode his dick was after the White Stripes video. Anyhoo, I was surfing around and I stumbled on Tokyo. Surprisingly, this movie really got my interest. Initially, I wanted to shit on it because of the heavy Gondry marketing. He’s a good film maker, I just don’t get why he’s treated as some sort of hipster-cinema demigod. But then I clued in that all that marketing is bullshit considering Tokyo is a collaborative film of three directors (Leos Carax of Pola X and Bong Joon Ho of the Host are the other two). Basically the audience get’s three visions on how people interact and shape cities…or vice versa according to the trailer. That’s cool and all, but really we get to see weird sub-human like incarnations of Japanese people which is always exciting no matter how you slice it.

Enjoy.

Screaming Females -Power Move (2009) [Don Giovanni] // Grade: A

Power Move isn’t taking music in any new direction but it is one of those rare albums whose love for Rock N Roll not only bleeds out of every song, but it reminds you of exactly why it is you love listening to music as much as you do.

Take a little of 70s Proto-Metal like say The Flower Travellin’ Band and mix it with Television and Sleater-Kinney and you get New Jersey’s Screaming Females. Guitarist/Singer Marissa Paternoster (much welcome) sloppiness and enthusiasm at guitar heroics not only drive the sound but drains every drop of tension from pairing ability against ambition. It’s rare for a band to be so simple and traditional yet completely effortlessly steer songs into some artsier corner that while unexpected is entirely organic. On their third full length, Power Move, Screaming Females take that next step and become such a band… the first since the White Stripes dropped De Stijl.

I know we don’t tend to cover much fashion on the Bloglin, well outside of anything we do here but I thought I’d throw this up.  FarFetch has just posted a great short interview with the Danish designer who has long been a favorite of mine. While not everything he makes could be considered wearable per say, it is always artistic. I love that he treats clothing and style as just an extension of a greater conceptual artistic process.

If you’re unfamilair with Henrik Vibskov take a moment to read the interview and get acclimated!

Denki Groove are a technopop group from Japan that are big in Germany and, far as I know, are an unknown quantity stateside. Why oh why has America been sleeping on Denki Groove? They should instantly click with anyone who appreciates Kraftwerk or Yellow Magic Orchestra or P-Model. On top of that, they’ve made some of my favorite music videos of the past few years. These three clips manage to incorporate many of the best classical elements of the music video form such as monsters, weird costumes, cute girls, keytars, strobe lights, cash money getting tossed around like it’s no big deal and cute girls shooting guns.