NYC’s gallery district on the West Side has a new addition. The Bold Hype Gallery recently opened and will be celebrating its first reception with an exhibit entitled STRANGERS.
I know I’m not supposed to be biased towards one artist or another but I’m really stoked to catch Skinner‘s latest work!
STRANGERS is a group show featuring new works by some of our favorite contemporary artists and illustrators from across the country and around the globe: Adam Alaniz, Chinamike, Andy Council, Heisuke Kitazawa (pcp), kozyndan, Travis Lampe, Sean Morris, Sidney pink, Skinner, Deth P. Sun, Aiyana Udesen, and Kirsty Whiten.
Through vibrant imagery brimming with fantasy, wit, and absurdity STRANGERS explores, challenges, and celebrates our dynamic relationship with modern culture.
The Opening reception will be held Thursday June 3rd from 6PM to 9PM and is open to the Public.
Thursday, June 3rd 6-9pm Bold Hype Gallery
547 W. 27th St. 5th Floor
New York, NY
Not since Jane’s death has Jesse been more on his own. His scheme to sell meth at the meetings with Badger and Skinny has backfired. Skinny’s on step 5 and Badger is “catching up.” Badger did sell a teenth to Skinny, so it’s safe to be they’re not quite sure how the steps actually work. Walt doesn’t trust him and his watching him like a Meth Hawk while they work. And he’s back to sleeping with a recovering addict, Andrea, although this time she’s got a kid and Jesse seemed to have a change of heart when he expressed disgust in her wanting to get off before the kid comes back. All of the Georgia O’Keefe talk during the opening flashback – the idea of painting the same thing over and over until you can almost reach perfection – was hopefully hinting at some change in Jesse. But being Breaking Bad, I bet not.
Jesse approaching Tomas and coming face to face with the child who shot Combo was an incredibly intense moment. I can’t finger exactly what his intention was with buying from Tomas. Was it more than just seeing the face of Combo’s killer? Or was he scoping it the competition? Those dudes who took the money looked pretty hard and I bet they were listening to Cypress Hill.
After all the arguments, divorce papers, and hiding Walter Jr. away from Walt’s drug world, Skyler now wants in. And in a big way. She wants to manage the car wash through which Walt’s money will be laundered. But Saul aint hearing it. Skyler is no “Danny.” I love the ominous legend of Danny already – laser tag obsessed accomplice that he is. It would be difficult to introduce Danny with only two episodes left. I feel like any move like that would feel too rushed at this point. But I hope he’s introduced at some point. Skyler’s awkwardness sitting in Saul’s waiting room was quickly shed for a confident, business bitch Skyler when talking with Saul (whose tie was especially an eye-sore last night).She’s basically rationalizing her involvement in the business like Walt always does.
I really want to see Jesse, Badger, and Skinny play laser tag.
Seeing a humiliated Hank try to take one step while slung up was hard. I felt sorry for him, that is until he snapped at Marie for putting a hospital bed in his house. He’s fueled by his vindictiveness and god help any dark-skinned person in New Mexico once Hank starts walking again. For a dude immobilized in a hospital bed, he was a beast in that scene.
Full disclosure, I have never seen Thee Oh Sees live. With most bands that doesn’t necessarily matter. Hell, for every band that’s good live, there’s ten that suck. But with Thee Oh Sees, experiencing their dirty, hyper psych/garage live feels a crucial piece in their puzzle. The San Francisco quartet’s newest release, Warm Slime, only further serves to convince me that the band’s live dimension is nothing short of epic and necessary, kicking off with the album’s title track, 13-and-a-half minutes of hypnotic garage grooves, led by a single line of Brigid Dawson’s vocals that waft in and out amongst waves of gritty guitar and syncopated shouts.
Most bands would choose to reserve a track as lengthy and downright epic as “Warm Slime” for the closer. But Thee Oh Sees have never been a band up for anything expected, working under four previous monikers and constantly surprising fans by releasing a staggering amount of material (ten releases across multiple labels in 2009). And yet I can’t honestly say I’m glad “Warm Slime” breaks the rules and serves as opener. It is so successful at overshadowing the remaining six tracks that it needs to be separated completely from the album and listened to as its own mini-work.
Once you’ve finally processed, and pushed aside “Warm Slime”, you’ll find upbeat, jangly hooks (“I Was Denied”), a blues-tinged military march (“Everything Went Black”) and reverb-mutilated punk (“Mega-Feast”). But it’s Warm Slime‘s mid-point, “Castiastic Tackle” that is the album’s unsung star, blending surf-rock with fiery guitar and John Dwyer’s impassioned, unintelligible vocal howls. It showcases exactly what Thee Oh Sees have done so well across their career, taking the influence of a genre past and injecting it with frenzy and then covering it with a layer of crud.
Warm Slime harkens to the band’s earlier works and is certainly an ambitious album, the second of god only knows how many 2010 releases we’ll get from Thee Oh Sees, but a work that is truly better suited towards vinyl listening, where the immense title track is allowed to exist exactly as it belongs, commanding the entire A-side.
• Stagg Street jumps off the interweb and onto your coffee table!
• A fake tail doesn’t make you a werewolf, but don’t tell these kids that. Zombies and vampires are hip and now werewolves. I hope the Frankenstein monster comes into style soo. It’d be cool to see mallrats with bolts in their neck.
Young Adults is am apt name for a Boston trio chailing from the college kid ghetto that is Allston Massachusetts. Young Adults play wonderfully fuzzed out melodic punk that reminds me of hanging in my friends apartment on Harvard Ave, drinking Steel Reserve and listening to Lifetime.
The band’s 5 song demo really takes me back. I couldn’t help but be flooded by memories of driving around with my friends in the summer with no particular place to go, or singing along to a favorite local band at house show all hopped up on vegan brownies.
Like Japandroids and No Age, to name a few, Young Adults have created a sounds comprised of a wide range of influences ranging from pop to punk to indie and back again. It won’t be too long until these lads are on the tip of every bloggers tongue. To all of my Bostonians out there the band is gigging all over the city including a show at the end of June with Мишка favs Wavves at where else but Great Scott.
If this demo is any indication of how awesome this band can grow to be its going to be interesting to see where Young Adults will go before I know I’ll be singing along the whole time.
Opening on Friday June 4th, we’ll be presenting a series of work from the legendary Los Angeles based artist, Coop at our Brooklyn based 350 Broadway gallery. This will mark the first time since 2001 that Coop will be showing any work in New York.
The show is a collection of work inspired by Coop’s recent collaboration with NagNagNag on his Boryoku Genjin figure. Much of the preliminary work and concepts such as original sketches and header card will be included in the show as well as a very special custom figure by the creator of NagNagNag.
In addition to the show we will be offering two limited edition t-shirts featuring Coop’s artwork. The first shirt available in both white and black is pictured above and features one of Coop’s classic Devil’s having the Boryoku Genjin sign his soul away for fame and fortune! The second shirt is available in only black and features the dissected Boryoku Genjin featured on the show flier in glow-in-the-dark ink. There will also be a silkscreen print of that same graphic available for sale at 350 Broadway.
Coop arrived in Los Angeles in the late 80’s where he immediately got to work subverting the mainstream applying his artwork to a number of merchandise including t-shirts, mugs, posers and even Zippo lighters. Much of his work included doing a host of poster art, including rock posters for Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Sex Pistols and album cover art for notable bands like the Monomen and the Ramones.
During his illustrious career, Coop has been featured in numerous magazines and has published two books – The Devil’s Advocate and The Big Fat One, a 1008-page sketchbook, which was released in October 2002.
The Coop art show will run from Friday June 4th to July 16th at our flagship Brooklyn store.
The West Coast Мишка branch has been pretty busy as of late so it was nice when native Los Angeles artist Aaron Axelrod stopped by the shop on his way to Burbank to do some crazy work at the NBC Studios (more on that later). Between a coffee & a cigarette, Aaron and I caught up on life’s latest events, the art business and how the Laker’s are looking poised for another parade down Figueroa.
After that, Aaron decided to do a little shopping before his hectic afternoon workload. There’s nothing like getting some fresh Мишка gear before a hard days work and Aaron’s been doing his thing in it all Spring.
Speaking of doing his thing, Aaron’s been on a tear ever since graduating CalArts a few years back. He spent a couple of years doing all of the exclusive Coachella artist portraits for Golden Voice along with numerous art shows and projects. Aaron is as self-efficient as they come in the art world. With a few projects coming up, Aaron’s been keeping busy working for Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. He’s been doing the backdrops where the musical performances take place. Pretty cool if you ask me, check it out above.
Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-536-4234
It’s on! You guys still have all of today to enjoy 30-50% off in-store (NY & LA) and online. This will probably be the last time you’ll be able to get your hands on many pieces from our Spring collection so take advantage of this generous discount because come Tuesday, prices go back to normal.
But that’s not all… Our Summer 2010 Collection* is also now available in our Brooklyn store and online! Our sister store in Echo Park will also have some select product on the 28th, but will be doing their own full release this following weekend.
*Summer 2010 product is excluded from the sale.
Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
— Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234
In a couple hours, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Philadelphia Flyers will commence battle. Game One marks the beginning of the end, the final act of the wildly unpredictable 2010 NHL postseason. To the winner goes the most excellent trophy in all of sport: Lord Stanley’s Cup. I’ve rhapsodized about the glories of the Cup in this space before, so I’ll save you the rerun, but it’s a hell of a prize.
More importantly than donuts and beer with the Cup, however, the winning franchise will end decades of heartbreak and frustration for their long-suffering fanbase.
The Flyers haven’t won it all in a generation; it’s been 35 years since Bernie Parent and the Broad Street Bullies chugged champagne in Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium (RIP) after knocking out the upstart Sabres in six. That 1975 championship made the Flyers back-to-back champs, and Parent was a two-time Conn Smythe recipient. Since then: nothing but a pair of mid-80s losses in the Finals to Gretzky and Edmonton (’85, ’87) and a four game sweep by the Red Wings in 1997. Oh yeah, and a couple of heartbreaking Game 7 losses in the Conference Finals to the Devils (’99) and the Lightning (’04), respectively. Ouch.
As rough as Philly’s had it for three plus decades, Chicago’s endured far worse: The Blackhawks haven’t won shit since the Kennedy administration. Yup, not since 1961 have the Blackhawks raised the Cup in Chitown, and that’s a hell of a long time – the longest drought in the league. (Get ready, Leafs fans.) I imagine more folks remember Stan Mikita from his donut store in Wayne’s World than that championship Chicago team at this point – and hell, in a world where “Wild Out” by the Lox is now “old school” on Hot 97, Wayne’s World might as well be Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. But really, the futility’s even deeper than that – the Hawks haven’t been to the Finals since 1992, and before last year, they hadn’t been to the playoffs, period, since 1997.
Bottom line: It’s been a minute. But the past is the past. For both these cities, happy times are here again – for now. Only one can win. Who’s it gonna be?
It started with Tricky and ended with Efdemin, and all I can tell you is there’s a real six degrees of separation thing going on here. Pre-Millenium Tension is so much inspiration and punchline; the sad joke of my high-school years (back then, nothing felt more subversive than jamming “Christiansands” on the way to our small-town prom); the Bristol-heavy, Londoner sleaze so particular to the 90s; the thing I never imagined would hold up, but hold up—have you heard “Bad Dreams” lately? ‘Cause man, that shit hits.
But it’s not just those toms that do it, or that death-rattle of a bass. There’s something to Tricky’s atmosphere—early Tricky at least, before he reportedly disavowed his only good records on grounds of insanity—that makes the heaviest elements even heavier, and it inspired in me a nightmare ride through piles of understated electro. Stuff that doesn’t worship at the altar of pure beat, you know, even though Pre-Millenium Tension is inarguably beat obsessed. While some of this month’s jams love a kick (oh hello, Jahcoozi), they’re equally reliant on the little things: that one breath in a vocal track, the space blips, lounge samples, dream loops, et al, that turn a track from run-of-the-mill Tiesto thump (ew) to pure effing brilliance.
Hands down the best jam on Pre-Millenium Tension, and second only to “Black Steel” as sexiest Martina Topley-Bird vocals ever. Too bad she’s gone so sugary now; Tricky-era Martina was like the saving grace of my high-school experience.
But at least Jahcoozi’s Sasha Perera is picking up the slack. The Berlin-based trio’s latest, Barefoot Wanderer, is full of rad electro-dub and dancehall, but Sasha’s back and forth with Guillermo E. Brown—plus that rad reverb explosion at the finish—pretty much makes the album. So good.
Speaking of explosions: London’s Elite Barbarian are in, like, a cage match with Oneohtrix Point Never for most creepily robotic space-station trauma. I mean, I’m sure they like each other just fine, but put the duo’s It’s Only When You Get To The End That It All Make Sense in a ring with Oneohtrix’s Zones Without People and there’s no way either is coming out injury free.
Trentemøller, on the other hand, seems to be downplaying any and all robotic qualities for something decidedly hushed and organic. New album The Great Wide Yonder is anything but his typical downtempo, but the Danish producer’s still a total genius; “Sycamore Feeling” wafts with reversed vocals and lazy, hollow guitars that (accidentally) school the fuck out of the XX’s “Infinity”. Whoops.
The Field. Apparat. Even Trentemoller remixes—this London duo comprised of Allez Allez’s Sam Willis and Banjo Or Freakout’s Alessio Natalizia is paying homage to the best of the best. Even their name bows its head, however unintentionally; Walls is the title of Apparat’s amazing first solo record, and this self-titled debut takes a cue. Dreamy, lush electro post-punk with a penchant for bells and airy vocal loops. Get ready to see this self-titled debut on gazillions of 2010 best-of lists.
Standout jam from the beloved German producer’s much-anticipated second album, Chicago. I’m not sure Efdemin could ever go wrong, but this track’s maniacal focus on the perfect lounge snippet and slight, subtle beat is beyond right: the most amazing weirdo, deep-summer space lounge.
