Ewan Pearson – We Are Proud of Our Choices (2010) [Kompakt] // Grade: B-

Ewan Pearson is a behind the scenes kind of guy. The English production wizard has released very few long-running works under his name, but has amassed a never-ending list of commissioned remixes over the past decade for everyone from Moby to Goldfrapp to the Pet Shop Boys. Add in production work for The Rapture, Gwen Stefani, M83 and most recently. Tracey Thorn and Delphic and you’ll quickly realize Ewan Pearson is a name you know, without knowing it.

It’s been three years since Fabric 25, Pearson’s last commercial mix and he’s returned to this arena with We Are Proud of Our Choices, a sprawling, cosmic mix for electronic powerhouse label Kompakt. Not unlike Fabric 25, We Are Proud of Our Choices, focuses on mood-setting and you won’t find any of Pearson’s poppier side on this mix.

Unfortunately, that side is what I’ve always wanted to hear from Pearson in a long-runner. He has a fantastic skill at elevating pop selections to a higher plane, where lush soundscapes run alongside lingering vocals. But perhaps I’m being selfish, We Are Proud of Our Choices is, after all, a mix for Kompakt and with that in mind, Pearson’s choice to imagine a tech house landscape where Lemonade’s “Bliss Out” sprawls infinitely, opening the mix up into a series of calculated, emotive peaks is a direction that’s respectful towards the label’s vision.

Despite We Are Proud of Our Choices being pretty, well-executed and consistent, Pearson plays it too safe, setting an admirable mood, but failing to transport the listener into any new sonic territory. Electronic music aficionados will get a lot out of We Are Proud of Our Choices—there’s plenty of though-out transitions and careful builds that warrant praise. But without any clear risks, We Are Proud of Our Choices falls into hip restaurant soundtrack territory for casual listeners

That giant sucking sound you hear from the north? That’s the sound of Canadian dreams deflating after tonight’s crushing loss to  their continental rivals, Team USA.

As a Buffalo Sabres loyalist, I’m well-acquainted with Ryan Miller’s mastery – and tonight, the rest of the country got to see what I’m lucky enough to watch game after game. As of about 10:30 PM EST, Miller’s name was the #2 trending topic worldwide on Twitter, even getting love from Alyssa Milano. Fuckin a – that’s what stopping 42 shots in prime time against a stacked (and, as the game wore on, increasingly desperate) Canadian team will get you. The East Lansing, Michigan native and former Hobey Baker Award winner played lights out in a hell of a performance, keeping his young teammates in the game after Canada battled back repeatedly and controlled play for long stretches of the game. Wearing #39 instead of the #30 he sports for the Sabres, Miller at times brought back memories of another #39 who dominated between the pipes both in Buffalo and in international play. Miller took 19 shots in the first alone, but threw up wall after wall against waves of attackers in red as the night progressed. Like the steely-eyed Uncle Sam on his helmet, Miller rolled up his sleeves and handled his goddamn business.

And Brian Rafalski is having the tournament of a lifetime. With two goals and an assist tonight, the wily vet and assistant captain continued to destroy the Olympics with his second straight multigoal game. He scored just 41 seconds in and at one point tonight he had scored Team USA’s last four goals. The current Red Wing and former Devil would not be denied on offense – when you’re beating Marty Brodeur, you’re beating the best in the world. And Rafalski did it twice.

Team Canada? Well, it was crickets quiet in the arena just five minutes after the game, as stunned Canadians swallowed a humiliating loss at home. Indeed, the tension had mounted steadily from the opening puck drop on as the Americans scored first and never trailed. The Canadians weren’t necessarily bad, but the US was simply better. Despite getting outshot by more than 20, the US buried their opportunities while the Canadians couldn’t convert on more than a few chances. The box score tells the story: Rick Nash a minus 3, Sidney Crosby a minus 3, Mike Richards a minus 2. Tonight’s loss and the shaky shootout win over the Swiss on Thursday mean that Team Canada has dug themselves a sizable hole. The home advantage hasn’t meant anything but added pressure, and the Canadians now have to win four straight games to win the gold medal that seemed theirs to lose only days ago. One would be foolish to rule the Canadians out of the running, but they’ve upped the difficulty level substantially as a result of their failure thus far.

Meanwhile, Ovechkin and the Russians have to be the favorite now, following a convincing performance against the Czechs today. Everybody see Ovechkin level Jagr? Damn! Here’s the animated .gif (via Puck Daddy) and here’s the NYT write-up. Now on to the nightcap: Finland vs. Sweden…

Back in June of last year, I discussed my love for Boston-area crime novelist Dennis Lehane and reported that Martin Scorsese would be adapting his noir thriller, Shutter Island. Yesterday my parents, my dear friends the O’Keefe’s, and myself all went to see Marty’s finished product. I’ve been really looking forward to this movie. Scorsese is hit or miss with me, but the man is a living god so every time he releases a film it’s a cause for celebration.

Last summer I spent two sleepless nights reading Lehane’s Shutter Island. It’s a perfect novel. Really. The movie was supposed to be released back in October ’09, then got pushed back for Oscar reasons or something to February ’10. Even though it takes 20 minutes to get to the theater, me and my movie anxiety forced my family and friends to leave an hour and a half early. I was afraid it would be sold out. And even if it wasn’t sold out, we had a party of five which is hard to find adjacent seating for in a crowded theater. After all of this god damn anxiety, my mother fell asleep during the movie.

Dig: It’s 1954. Federal Marshall Edward “Teddy” Daniels (Leo Di) and his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), have been sent to Shutter Island off of Boston Harbor to investigate the disappearance of a “patient” at Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Very quickly, it appears that something is off at the hospital, and as Teddy and Chuck dig deeper, ghosts from Teddy’s own violent past begin to surface. Nazis, arsonists, and Hollywood’s version of “fahking Bahston” accents abound against a dripping gothic backdrop. (PS: The Boston Phoenix posted a great photo essay of the actual Shutter Island: Boston Harbor’s Long Island where Lehane once visited as a kid.)

So what went wrong? Why did my old lady fall asleep? Well, for a thriller, it overstays its welcome after the two hour mark. The novel is tight with Lehane’s economic prose, but the movie draws out the flashbacks beyond relevance. At two and a half hours, it got to be a chore at the end. Granted, it’s sort of uncharted territory for Scorsese; I don’t think he’s tackled suspense since 1991′s Cape Fear remake. But Cape Fear was awesome and this wasn’t.

Leo DiCaprio wasn’t bad though. I like that dude. His Teddy ran the gamut of emotions and I was reminded of Dustin Hoffman in Marathon Man and even Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Mark Ruffalo was dope, as always. Honestly, the whole cast brought their A game, but I honestly feel like it was Scorsese that fucked the movie up. I hated writing that last sentence.

Once the lights came back on, I was in such a rush to leave the theater that I left my blacked out Bear Mop fitted behind. I was bummed out and just wanted to go home to watch some Nick at Night and drink Yuengling. I really hope this movie doesn’t scar Lehane’s rep in eyes of those who haven’t read him. The adaptations of his books Mystic River and Gone Baby, Gone were fantastic and successfully reflected his complex take on human nature. Scorsese’s Shutter Island just over-reached. Read the book instead.

Half Cali-funk, half tearin’ stepper, DJ Die figured out quite a formula here, although it is a bit of a “Love Games” bite, I must say. Big tune right now.

Woah. Ruff stuff. Any tune sampling barking dogs is decent in my book. See also Eskobar “Heavy Flo”, which also samples Kids. Woof.

Serum is a murdering, mercky merkster right now. “Souped Up” and “Push It” dropping together on one 12″ is pretty ill. Cant’ be stopped.

Like “Souped Up”, This remix has been floating around for a bit, but don’t know if it’s gotten a proppa release. Pretty much ill if you’re into the V Records sound. Saw Bryan Gee last week and he didn’t drop this one :(.

Taxman’s Drunken Fool EP just dropped. Raw doggie Ganja sound.

Follow me on Twitter for the odd wobble and mostly bad jokes.

While most of Мишка partied in LA this weekend, I traveled to NYC for Vice Magazine’s Over the Edge screening at Lincoln Center. Toilet Cobra and the Vidiot were there too and we all got to meet for the the first time. It was adorable. More on that night in a future post. I just got back to Salem a couple hours ago. I always feel disgusting after a day spent on NJ Transit, NYC subway, and Fung Wah. Anyways.

• The big news this week was the Spring 2010 Lookbook and the opening of Мишка LA, dummies! I wasn’t able to make it out there, but I hope everyone had a blast! The Spring 2010 line is now available at 350 Broadway as well as LA. As always, the line is sexy.

• Baggy Baggy Magnums, ya’ll! Mishka fam member Reed Maidhof and his boy Andrew Kublin (AKA Baggy Magnums) have put together Hood Rat Stuff, an eclectic mix of dubstep, heavy bass, baile, tropical and rap. Check it out if you haven’t already, ya nancies.

• After reading “10 Foods That I Love That You Will Think Is Gross,” something tells me my man Crook would do really well on Fear Factor.

• After a brief hiatus, Kill With Video returns only to blast right off for Mars!!! I sadly didn’t get to spend enough time with the Vidiot on Friday night ( I had a train to catch), but let me just say he’s a very persuasive person and I will now be adding Cradle 2 the Grave to my Netflix queue.

• Toilet Cobra’s latest edition of Packrat Pride features some of his noteworthy NES games. Most impressive, in my opinion. I love Adventures in the Magic Kingdom and I vividly remember my grandpa bartering with an old woman at a PA flea market to get me Caveman Games.

• This week’s winner of Freaky Stylee is Chris Martin of Long Island. Bravo, Chris! To enter, check out the rules on the link and send your pic(s) to bloglin@mishkanyc.com.

• So this bus fight thing…its seems to be the internet thing of the week. I really don’t have much to add;  I’m not down with violence unless John Woo is choreographing it. But here’s the bonus footage and follow-up interview with everyone’s new favorite golden glove.

• Fear of a 12th Planet takes on World Communism.

• The Olympic’s Men’s Hockey tournament gets the Sporting Observations treatment. Wait, is there a women’s hockey tournament. That’s awesome.

• Search term of the week which led people to the Bloglin: “Growing pains.” The kid who played Boner on Growing Pains recently went missing in Vancouver. I searched the term myself and couldn’t link it back to Mishka.

• Only one album rated B+ or above this week, and that album is The Big Black and the Blue from First Aid Kit checking in with a solid A.

A few weeks back during the Styles P & DJ Green Lantern album release rapper Stalley was seen sporting our Sweet Leaf sweater as he rocked a packed house at the Highline Ballroom.

On this historic night of Hip Hop, the stage was graced by performances by Sean Price, D-Block (of The Lox), Pharoahe Monch, Consequence and more, Stalley and his band stop second to take it all in.

Dame Dash showing Stalley some love after tearing down his set and holding his own amongst a sick line up layered with Hip-Hop veterans.

Jungle Gym Magazine also took this opportunity to film Stalley’s performance as part of an interview with him about his influences and what makes the hot young emcee tick.

You walk into Brooklyn Bowl and the size of this place will just fuck your head.  It’s one of the biggest things I’ve seen in Brooklyn.  You enter and there’s a gigantic wall of knock-down carnival punks.  Past the punks wall are about twenty bowling lanes on the right and a gigantic stage on the left.  This gigantic Alexander poster is about twenty feet long and keeps watch over the area in front of the bathrooms.

I’d heard almost nothing about Brooklyn Bowl and thought it was a skate place or that shitty, shitty bowling alley on North 14th street with the lumpy lanes and overpriced bowling.  There are seriously no real fucking bowling alleys in New York City. There’s Bowlmor where you wait forever and pay too much, Chelsea Piers where you just pay too much but they still had arcade games last time I went and that shitshow on North 14th where it’s crowded and the lanes suck and it’s expensive.

The only affordable bowling alley I’ve been to is the one nestled in the greasy/grimy confines of the Port Authority and I’m not going to put my fingers into their balls.  The name of this place is Leisure Time.  Vidiot and I went there one time to play a boxing video game where you put your hands into heavy gloves attached to huge cables and there was some guy passed out in front of it. I guess the game beat him. We came back later and some guys were injecting stuff into him. I asked the guy working at the front desk about it and he said something like , “There are EMT workers here?”  The bar inside the bowling den of evil was called “Splitzzz.” I always figured that it had those extra Z’s because people like to come there to pass out.  I didn’t get a chance to sample Brooklyn Bowl’s bowling but it looked pretty decent.

I bought this hand drawn Total Slacker shirt. The text on the back reads,”Who’s that creep with the bowl cut?” Hand drawn for five bucks. CDs were two. I can’t believe they raised their prices. Used to be that their shirts and CDs were a dollar. They got swelled heads when they got big.

I liked seeing this shirt.  It looks good in real life.  There were some folks in costume and cute girls but I was kinda blown away by the gigantic space we were in to focus too much on any one thing.

Total Slacker were on first. That guy in the Crass shirt is Adly, their number one fan. He sings along and gets really into every song.  He is a good guy and has young sweetness.

The guitarist is Tucker and the bassist is his girlfriend Emily.  They were featured on Hipster Wife Hunting which then got mentioned on Street Carnage. They are super sweethearts. The drummer is Ross.

Total Slacker shows start quiet and slow and they end loud and frantic.  I’m really happy with this photo.

Total Slacker did their first public performance of Hangin’ Tough, originally by New Kids On The Block.  You can download it from a lot of music blogs right now.  They really get into those “whoa-ohhhh-oohhh-ohhh-ohhhs.”

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The Prodigy – Everybody In The Place

ACEN – Close Your Eyes (Optikonfusion Remix)

The House Crew – We Are Hardcore

Digital Boy – 1-2-3 Acid (Extended Futuristik Mix)

A Homeboy , A Hippie & A Funki Dredd - Total Confusion

Bonus:
Nick Chesire – Rainham Nights Vol. 1 (1991)

Welcome back to another installment of Freaky Stylee where we choose the best fit of the week and award that person a $75 credit for our online store and of course bragging rights! If you think your fit is great, then don’t ruin it with a crappy photo! Great fits, deserve great pictures. Contestants can enter multiple times to Freaky Stylee, even past winners. So submit those images of yourself rocking Мишка as part of their outfit and who knows? You may win! Guys and gals are all welcome to enter. Check after the break for complete rules on entering into next week’s Freaky Stylee! Good luck and now on to the fits…

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This week we’ve got a great shot that I’m dubbing “Viva La Comfy and Casual” because of the look and the winner’s name. I’m usually not that big of a fan of so much Мишка in one look, but Chris really pulls it off with confidence.

Name? Chris Martin
Age? 19
Location? Long Island, NY

What do you do? I am currently a student studying civil engineering. I throw parties, get tipsy, and smash. I also run my blog Cmarty Mar + Co.

Describe your style? Thrifty, comfortable, and simple. Just cop what you like and wear it. It’s all about how you like. You want to throw on some hi-top kicks and a button-up with some slim jeans, just do it.

What are you wearing? Мишка Hudson plaid shirt, Мишка Swamp Mop Tee & Nike SB Kiss Blazers.

What are you currently listening to? Theophilus London, A Tribe Called Quest, Melo-X, Kid Cudi, and Big Sean.

Shit, based on his name, I was expecting some Coldplay in Chris’ playlist! Much like last week, this week’s Freaky Stylee winner has a great photo to accompany a great fit… actually, the compositions of the two are pretty similar!

Full rules and information on how you can enter next week’s Freaky Stylee after the break.

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Ever since the release of the Spring 2010 lookbook we’ve been getting call after call after call after call inquiring about the drop date in-store. Well the first delivery of Spring-1 is finally here and just in time for the weekend. We have all the the Spring-1 tees, cut & sew and accessories now available at 350 Broadway.

We’ve got all of the sick T-shirt graphics that you’ve come to expect from along with a brand new D.A.R.T. gear to keep all of our cyclist friends looking sharp this Spring.

With a splash of Spring pastel colors, the fleet of flannels and poplin button-down shirts will keep you looking your Easter best all season long.

One of my favorite pieces from this collection has to the Trailblazer quilted vest with the corduroy collar and embroidered back. And since all the colors (black, navy & olive drab) look equally awesome, it makes for a tough decision on which to get. If you ask me, I say get ‘em all!

Past season’s varsity crew sweaters flew off of the shelves way too fast, leaving a few  of our friends and fans empty handed. So this Spring we came back with 6 hot new crewnecks to feed the frenzy.

Accessorize! The collection is chocked full of some of the sickest accessories so that you can put your personal flip on any outfit.

So make your way down to 350 Broadway this weekend and be one of the first to get your hands on the first drop of the Spring collection before it hits the web. And for all of our West coast fans head on down to our new Мишка LA store opening today as well! It is located on 1547 Echo Park Ave Los Angeles, CA. Now you can get the goods from coast to coast, come one down!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

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