I shoot here and there for Frank 151 and have had a relationship with them for years now. I even have my own little Boner Shorts section on their site called Holding Frank, which is a bunch of my lovely models from Stagg Street covering their boobs with the pocket sized magazine.

A couple month back the Frank guys emailed me about their issue all about Cuba and how they needed some help finding people to contribute. My thoughts went straight to my good friend Sonia who is a medium, psychic and tarot card reader, whose extraordinary gifts I had used in the past.

Sonia wrote this amazing article for Frank about rediscovering her Cuban roots and her spirituality all at the same time. I shot the image (posted above) for said article. Check it out online or even pick up a free copy all over the place, they have them at the Мишка shop. Oh and if you’re interested in recieving your own spiritual guidence hit up Sonia to get a reading done.

Midnite TIll Death No. 34 was almost twenty days ago so it’s a little late for a recap but to quote Chico and the Man,”Eet’s not my chob!” Here’s a video of The Psyched performing their titular song “I’m Psyched.”

These kids were just hanging out in the garbage outside. If I was a pedophile this is where I’d be. “What a waste of perfectly good young boys.”

San Francisco’s Dadfag were the stars of the evening, with their noisy noise.

This is Drew Redmond, he DJed for much of the evening. I’m the giant chicken. He’s the pig.

Antimagic played such an okay set that they broke the club and performed a partially acoustic set that ended with them playing along with what sounded like a fire drill.

“Do the fire drill rock! Oh, yeah, do the fire drill rock! Rock rock rock till it sounds like there’s an alarm clock in your braiiiiiiiin!”

These are the Macbain brothers from Brookline, Mass. They’re in Tunnel of Love and other bands. TOL are almost definitely playing Midnite Till Death in November which I’m very excited about. Oh yeah.

The air is crisp right now and there’s really no other feeling like flying across the streets on your bicycle with the wind rushing across your body. It’s an amazing feeling and something we here at Мишка truly cherish and support, which is why we started the whole D.A.R.T. line in the first place. To go along with the usual offering of tees and caps, we introduced the flannel-lined D.A.R.T. Anorak to this season’s offering. We have also brought back yet again the classic Spetsnaz Mark IV tech jacket in three colors. This thing is built for riding in the city, regardless of the conditions!

We just wrapped up our D.A.R.T. Fall 2010 lookbook with D.A.R.T. sponsored riders John Prolly (D.A.R.T. Manager), Wilis, Shea, Tone and Jeremiah. We had photographer Takuya Sakamoto follow the guys around on a ride in the city to capture them in action. If you head over to John Prolly’s site you can the full scoop on the collection along with some details on a nice discount code and in-store promotion we’re running on D.A.R.T. gear for all you cyclists out there.

Мишка Fall 2010 D.A.R.T. Lookbook (Click to view)

No Age - Everything In Between (2010) [Sub Pop] // Grade: A-

Integrity seems to have fallen by the wayside in favor of promotion these days in music. You could call it “selling out”, but that’s not exactly fair in 2010. The way we discover music has changed, and the means by which musicians earn money for their art has shifted. No Age (duo Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt) are an anomaly, a rare act for whom the punk and hardcore philosophies on which their earliest music was founded, have remained tenets of their ideology despite No Age’s success. Their heavy ties to the LA DIY scene, specifically venue The Smell, and support of the All-Ages Movement Project, position the duo as act that are important champions of integrity, in addition to skilled musicians.

No Age’s integrity buys them time; we’re as curious to watch their actions on the periphery as we are eager for new material. Two years following Nouns, we’re rewarded with Everything In Between, the band’s third full-length album, a less noisy, continued exploration of slight experimentations in the vein of 2009′s Losing Feeling EP. A pattern of tight kick drum opens “Life Prowler”, building agitated then opening wide onto feedback, wailing riffs and clear, paced vocals. It’s contemplative, with a sad undertone. No Age set the album’s tone with Everything In Between‘s first track, digging deeper, and pulling out more.

Lead single “Glitter” follows, equally morosely muted, vocally longing underneath screeching guitar and feedback. Centered on the hook, “I want you back underneath my skin”, it’s proof that if you spend some time looking past their noise, No Age’s talent for angsty pop songwriting forms the core of their compositions. The  cascading pop punk sneers of “Skinned” shed self-reflection, an in your face slacker anthem that rivals anything Nathan Williams pulled out on King of the Beach.

The transition from the album’s melodic material to the experimental is abrupt, the one point of soreness on a pristine release. No Age drastically shift gears following “Valley Hump Crash” into “Sorts”, a calm sea of atmospheric guitar and buried vocal washes. They careen through a long-playing interlude of sorts, three further tracks that are largely instrumental experiments, before finally reconnecting with the album’s first half for “Chem Trails”, a cut that brings together a perfected balance of melody and noise.

No Age’s career is steeped in integrity and like their previous releases, it’s a feeling that unites the tracks of Everything In Between. They haven’t abandoned their basic formula, but have honed their sonic balance and made room for new explorations. Everything In Between leaves no doubt that No Age will continue to be a band that matters, so much.

It always feels like our UK fans are some hot new electronic producer/DJ… So who is Craig Evans from Wales? Is he the next white rapper? The hot new dub step producer? Maybe hes from the sickes† new witch house duo?! Nope. None of the above. Just a huge Мишка fan who was in town for a holiday.

And as I’m sure you can tell by his My Pet Monster Keep Watch fitted and Dead-Eye Dick Flannel, Craig’s been a fan for a minute now. It’s always nice when we get visits from longtime fans from around the world. It’s as big of a kick for us, as it hopefully is for them to meet and greet in our store.

I chatted with Craig for a bit about toys, clothes, Madballs and whatnot. He then told me how he really wanted to get a tattoo by JK5 while he was in town. So you know what I did? I called Joseph and I made some magic happen, and viola! Now Craig has the best possible souvenir from his trip to NY, a sick Rabbit Snake Cosmic Monster on his upper arm courtesy of JK5.

He said that he is going to get JK5 to color it when he comes back next year. We hope you drop by the shop again Craig and say hello and show us what Joseph does with the colors. Any of you hankering for some JK5 ink, go visit him at Daredevil Tattoo on the Lower East Side.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

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

Last week, the United Nations finally stepped and recognized the obvious: extraterrestrials were going to, at some point, arrive and obliterate us. In order to work against this formality, they did humankind the favor of appointing an official United Nations ambassador to aliens. Her name is Mazlan Othman, and she is a Malaysian astrophysicist. Othman recently spoke about the obvious and forthcoming contact with more-than-likely pissed off aliens, and had the following to say.

News.com.au via io9:

The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials [...] When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.

My only concern is that she seems to underplay the fact that should we ever meet aliens, they’re going to want one thing only: to eradicate us from the planet and then harvest our bodies/souls/natural resources for their own profit. Hasn’t this lady indulged in any pop culture in the last twenty or so years?

The pertinent questions we should be asking are something like: Who is going to disrupt their force fields with a virus? Where are our underground bunkers going to be built? Can we have Bill Pullman prepped and ready to deliver an epic speech within moments of First contact?

Playin’ grab ass with these aliens ain’t going to happen, Ambassador Othman. At best, I predict these aliens will want to penetrate our orifices for their spiky speculums. At worst, they’re going to wear our faces as they bathe in our gamma-irradiated lakes. We gotta get real. Do some research.

From: Grateful Meds
Strain: Headband
Genetics: OG Kush x Master Kush x Sour Diesel
Phenotype: Indica dominant hybrid

High: Chilling with momentum. I’ve been smoking this one in the second half of the day and into the evening. It doesn’t impede my ability to be focused and get work done, but it definitely removes the urgency. Body wise its very calming, any familiar aches and pains dissipate, and while I’m energized its not nervous energy.

—–

From: Farmacy
Strain: Kryptonite
Genetics: ?
Phenotype: Sativa

High: Zooming willfully. I’ve been smoking this one in the early parts of the day, and it works nicely. The high sets in pretty quickly, and it starts off with a really strong momentum. The energy maintains a nice pace and tapers off unassumingly. Growing up in South Florida any “kind bud” was referred to as Krippy, or Kryptonite, or Krypto. I bought this one wondering if I’d have some kind of nostalgic pot ritual, but it didn’t happen. Instead I’ve just been having a pretty thorough current pot ritual and I don’t need much more than that from my medicine.

(more…)

Gucci Mane - The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted (2010) [Asylum/Warner Bros.] // Grade: C

I don’t understand why it’s so hard to make a good Gucci Mane album. He’s wildly charismatic, comes up with some pretty inventive similes and rhyme schemes and has a very distinctive persona. All you have to do is put dude over a bunch of beats that sound like they should be played in a Klingon strip club, press record and you’ll get a bunch of songs about jewelry, hoes, cars, coke and polar bears. And that’s all any Gucci fan wants. Yet, here we are with The Appeal, another Gucci Mane album that for some reason doesn’t do that, so we’re left with an album that at best is “OK”.

The Appeal starts off on the right track, with “Little Friend”. There’s triumphant horns over half time drums creating a general feeling of menace throughout. We get Gucci going in over the beat crafting a tale of villainy using Scarface* as a reference point.  You get a story of dudes getting shot, missed chances at going straight, drug deals etc. filtered through a lens of considerable irreverence and absurdity. Great, this is why I fuck with Gucci Mane, because he drops lines like “I got sixty racks laying on the floor in Magic City/ Like Samuel L. Jackson I think it’s time for killing/ I touch this white titty and the nigga started tripping/ That ain’t proper etiquette, see the bitch strippin’?” Strip club etiquette lessons brought to you by Dame Gucci Mane. Excuse me Gucci how do I eat wings at the scrip? Pinky extended or no? Where do I put the bones during a lapdance? How much do I tip the bathroom attendant? Please let this become a regular feature in XXL. Speaking of Samuel L. Jackson, “Little Friend” features a guest spot by Bun B, who may in fact be rap’s Samuel L. Jackson.

“Making Love to The Money” goes pretty hard in a paint by numbers Gucci format, with dude personifying money over a beat that’s triumphant and regal like the Mr. Perfect theme music. It’s nothing particularly revelatory in the Gucci catalog but it’s cool enough. “Gucci Time” is the big single off this album, produced by Swizz Beatz prominently featuring a Justice sample. Much like those credits there’s a lot going on in this song, sonically it’s jam packed. It’s fucking noisy as shit (thanks Justice) but never gels properly to justify the noise, Swizz pulled this same trick off much better with Jay’s “On To The Next One.” Credit to Gucci though, for trying to elevate above the noise by rapping about pulling up on a zebra while landing on an eagle. Once again Gucci shows his love of zoology, dude’s DVR must exclusively be Animal Planet. I’m waiting for the song that shouts out Flower from Meerkat Manor.

Gucci really shines on this album over the most synthetic and outer space sounding beats, which is a slight departure from his recent fascination with baroque beats on his last couple of mixtapes (Mr. Zone 6 specifically). “Dollar Sign” is a stand out joint where Gucci tries to purchase the dollar sign in an attempt to become the definitive signifier of the concept of wealth. “Gucci Mane called Obama, ‘I wanna buy the dollar sign’/ Feels like first day of school, my swag killed ‘em like Colombine/ The dollar sign’s my logo and Gucci’s my label, put on that purple label Polo and hoes say damn he’s fine” Once again this is this ridiculousness we come to Gucci for. How anyone denies he’s the conceptual heir to the Ca$h Money throne is beyond me. Swizz Beatz gets a reprieve after “Gucci Time” with “It’s Alive,” a slow, relaxing, cosmic sounding synth ride around the galaxy. Word to the Silver Surfer. The song actually ends up sounding close to what I’d imagine a Salem X Gucci song might sounds like if you restrained them witch dudes a bit.

The rest of the album feels either like filler (“Party Animal,” “What’s It Gonna Be,” “Brand New”) or like terribly shitty pop pandering (“Remember When feat. Ray J,” “Grown Man,” “ODog”). Considering Gucci has put out 4 or 5(?) mixtapes of mostly original music this year alone, you can’t help but wonder why you wouldn’t cherry pick some of the mixtape gems and put em on the album in place of these duds. If The Appeal had “Atlanta Zoo” or “Shining For No Apparent Reason” from Burrrprint 2 HD, “Late” or “Better Baby” from Ferrari Music, “Socialite” or “It’s Goin Up” from Mr. Zone 6 this album would’ve been massive. This entire project feels like a perfect example of why the music industry is in shambles right now. Instead of producing an album filled with what Gucci’s cultivated fan base have come to expect from him, you get a unfocused smattering of songs aimed at a bunch of demographics. Really, we needed a fucking Ray J feature on a Gucci album? Is anyone fucking with him musically? I hope dude brought over the entire cast of both seasons of his terrible show for that shit. A Brandy cosign would’ve made more sense, at least she can actually sing and maybe she could have dropped some lines about dodging a manslaughter charge.

*At this point in rap can we fucking let go of Scarface already? I get it, it’s an awesome movie, it’s opulent, there’s a million quotables. But, seriously dudes let’s move on and get some other reference point. There are other gangster movies. May I suggest The Pusher series? Shit’s hardbody.

Welcome to the world of Near Mint Condition. A world filled with spandex, and word-bubbles, and juvenile-escape for overgrown children. (Namely, me.) Here are the things I’ll be checking out this week, including a couple of titles I’m looking to add to my list.

Casanova #3
To try and explain Matt Fraction’s Casanova is an effort in futility. The third issue of the series’ reprinting on the Marvel label Icon drops this week, and I’m pumped. I never got to read the first fourteen issues of the comic as they were released back in the day, so the whole universe is new to me. The comic is nothing short of mind-warping. The sort of comic that demands you read it with care, which is an effort for someone with a dwindling attention span like myself. But the pay-off is worth it. It’s James Bond meets Interdimensional Espionage Meets Really Awkward Erotic moments featuring your sister from another dimension?

In some of the more uncomfortable moments in recent comic books reading for me, Casanova gets macked on by his sister…from another dimension. What exactly is the protocol on this one? Like, she’s the sister of the you from a different dimension, so it’s not really you, is it? I have no idea. I wish I was still in school, I’d love to have been able to bring this up to my Social Ethics professor.

—-

Action Comics #893
I was one of the dudes who wrote off Action Comics back when Lex Luthor became character motivating the title. No Clark Kent? Why even fucking bother? It makes sense, right? Well apparently, the comic book is good. Really good. Naturally. Like in all aspects of my life, I should isolate my initial response, and do the exact opposite. Paul Cornell takes the Bald Headed Wunder into combat with a giant ape this month, apparently. And if that isn’t enough for me to jump aboard, what the fuck is?

Wait! I have the answer to that. It was rhetorical.

Action Comics features a back-up story featuring Jimmy Olsen. Now, I normally wouldn’t think much of that either. I’ve never had much love for the guy. Not that I despise him. Just a calm, persistent apathy that manifests itself in barely remembering he exists. But over at Comics Alliance, they reviewed the back-up, and they loved it. Now I’m beginning to pay attention.

But wait, there’s more!

You see, this back-up story features none other than Chloe Sullivan. Yeah, the chick Clark grew up with on the show Smallville. It’s some weird intermedia exchange going on. Jimmy Olsen was created on the Superman radio show. Now he’s starring in a comic book, with a character who was created in a Superman television show. Maybe that isn’t as impressive to you as it is to me. But I’m easily amused.

So I’m jumpin’ aboard the Action Comics train this week. We’ll see how it goes.

—-

Secret Warriors #20
The new storyline kicks off this week in Secret Warriors, and god dammit I’m grabbing on to the train this time. I don’t know how I have put off checking out this comic book for so long. It’s god the god damn Jonathan Hickman penning it, for Christ’s sake! More than likely? More than likely I didn’t know who the dude was, prior to finding his work on Fantastic Four to be skull-blasting. But between F4 and S.H.I.E.L.D, the dude is penning two of my favorite titles right now.

Why not roll the dice on Secret Warriors? I foresee only awesome in my future, should I chose to do so.

—-

What are you guys checking out this week?

Immediately following my introductory listen of this mix, I grew a mullet, teased it, vigorously trained in various forms of martial arts and subsequently, competed in an underground tournament of hand-to-hand combat. After successfully taking the title belt, I went vigilante with a rag-tag group of ex-marines, stole a 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am t-top, and created a tank top out of an American flag. While fleeing from local law enforcement for exposing their corrupt ties in the funding of a deadly crime-ring, I won the heart of a damsel in distress, who strikingly resembled Heather Locklear circa 1982, with an expertly choreographed sequence of punch-dancing and air-kicks. I am now happily married and make a difference in my community by giving motivational speeches and boxing lessons to underprivileged youths at the Y, all to which I owe to Mad Decent’s Blood Bros (not to be confused with The Blood Brothers) and their freshly released mix, First Blood.

First Blood is the essential ingredient to any high-octane training program. The Blood Bros., a DJ duo created by DJA & Dirty South Joe, properly blend together an inspiring mix full of 80’s action movie anthems and samples of motivational quotes featured in said films. From the get-go, First Blood threatens to kick your ass, oozing with testosterone and undying determination to win. The intro really sets the tone of the mix, a collection of snippets of quotations from Kickboxer and Karate Kid.  With help of 80’s icons like John Farnham, Stan Bush, Sammy Hagar, and legendary Swedish outfit, Europe, the Blood Bros. have crafted a beautifully unified piece of absolute awesome. Many of the songs on the mix can be found on the soundtracks to several 80’s action favorites, such as the Rocky series, Bloodsport, Transformers, and The Karate Kid. Furthermore, the Bros. have sprinkled a few epic shredders from DVDA, a band led by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

I truly find the structure of this mix to be quite impressive, the song selection paints a perfect image of optimism, determination, and strength in the face of all odds. According to DJA, “the mix is 100% designed to follow the course of a film, starting with Training, moving on to the Fight….then finally, celebrating the triumph over the rival.” Moreover, the ongoing theme of the mix provides listeners with a taste of something different from the Mad Decent camp.

Without a doubt, this will be included in your soundtrack the next time you drive a monster truck, or fight an eagle. Now turn it up and cue the explosions with each sing-along segment.

Blood Bros: First Blood by maddecent