With the holiday weekend coming up, I’ve got something to be thankful for: Danny McAskill’s insane skills on a bicycle.  I never was huge into any sort of biking.  I used mine to get from place to place during my college years, I had a super sick Huffy growing up (who didn’t) that my Grandpa taught me to ride, I always wanted to borrow my cousin Jake’s Dyno and I taught myself to ride no-handed down the boulevard on my Magna Canyon with Ellsworth back in middle school (his Magna got hit by a train).  Beyond that, I don’t have a real strong background with it.  I can tell you the difference between a mountain bike and penny farthing and we all know that Mishka reps a sick fixed gear squad that the Bloglinites get amped about, but I don’t care what you know or don’t know about bikes of any sort; this video is pure visual poetry.

I could sit here and right a thousand words about Danny MacAskill but it seems a little pointless so here are the basics: He is from Scotland.  He rides for Inspired, DigDeep, Red Bull, POC, Shimano and Hope.  He is a fucking wizard on his bike and all you need to do is watch the video below and then pick your jaw up off the floor at the end.  And then most likely hit play immediately after to watch it all over again.

At times, the tricks come so effortlessly that you almost question the authenticity. No man should be able to do the things he does with such panache without even an ounce of hesitation. The dude fucking rips.  End of story. On top of the rippery, this is one of the most beautifully shot videos, soaking in the epic Scottish landscape from castles to mountains and accompanied by some equally legit audio tracks.

So give thanks, friends, for the simple things in life. Bicycles, rolling hills, Red Bull, turkey legs, boobs, peanut butter and whatever else makes you get all stoked because this video will definitely be one of those things.

What’s that you say? A Black Metal/Witch House record label that releases material solely on VHS tapes set to obscure, chopped up horror films? Yeah, that sounds pretty fucking cool. The recently founded Video Horror Show, or V/H/S (see what they did there?), ain’t your daddy’s Satan-worshiping record label. No, they want to cater to all the elements of your musical consumption. There will be no firing up the minivan to jet over to Sam Goody to snag their CD’s. Hell, you can’t even pirate this shit. For V/H/S, it’s bright purple pentagram emblazoned VHS or bust.

Call me a nostalgic, but I still really like VHS tapes. Maybe it’s because the one’s I still have are just the choicest picks from my childhood, or maybe because (and I can’t believe more people don’t complain about this) they’re way fucking easier to rewind/fast forward than DVD’s. Plus, ever since I first saw The Ring, tapes have gotten all sinister and whatnot. Don’t they just look kind of evil? There’s been a recent re-embrace of the medium; I hope some of you picked up Ti West’s awesome throwback horror The House of The Devil, which was released on VHS last year. But I don’t think I’ve seen it used like this yet.

The first tape, Cult Is Religion Vol.1,  is out now and is set to one gigantic Drone track by Suffer The Shards of the Lost Cult Of Silence. Judging by the above preview it’s some relatively heavy stuff. The artwork, both on the case and the tape, is satanic as fuck. You can buy it here, but move quick as there’s only fifty copies available. Limited edition yo! Even better, the next tape (due out before the new year) will feature recently blogged about Witch House act M△S▴C△RA! Good times!

Мишка Black Friday Up to 50% Off All Weekend Long!

I think you all know what Friday is right? It’s the day you try and recover from your Turkey induced comas and unwind from having to spend the whole day around your family. Well it’s also one other thing…Black Friday. And I think you all know what that means, A HUGE MOTHERFUCKIN’ SALE!

We’re opening our shop at the stroke of midnight this Black Friday, November 26th with savings bloody savings! The sale will continue all weekend long, but check the schedule above for all the dirty details regarding any of the new holiday 2010 collection we have in-store. That Holiday 2010 collection sale schedule is FOR IN-STORE ONLY. Online customers can enjoy 30-50% off our Fall collection along with first crack at our Holiday collection.

Oh and did I forget to mention that the first 50 customers at each shop will receive a FREE exclusive Black Friday T-shirt? Last year we introduced the Oversized Adder to our Black Friday customers, this year you get a special Black Sabbath inspired flip. Get It!?!??! Black Sabbath, Black Friday! Ah screw you!

This shirt will not be available for sale anywhere else. and it’s strictly first come first served. We’ll see you guys at midnight be it in New York, Los Angeles or Online…

Friday November 26th, 12am-8pm
Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
—
Friday November 26th, 12am-7pm
Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

The Fresh & Onlys - Play It Strange (2010) [In the Red] // Grade: B

San Francisc’s The Fresh & Onlys should not be lumped into the category of retro resurgence bands. They may have a 60s inspired garage rock meets lo-fi psychedelic pop sound but they are more like a shadow of the past with various influences trickling in and out than a replication of a sound of yesteryear. It has a familiarity about it yet at the same time sounds new, refreshing and engaging.

Their latest and third full album, Play It Strange is totally a stellar listen from start to finish. It’s full of jaunty upbeat tracks that equally grab your attention and while works fittingly into the background soundtrack of your day. This album tends to play towards a more cohesive melodic pop vibe than their previous two albums. This may have to do with the fact that the band has shifted out of their lo-fi analog home studio and into a proper studio with producer Tim Green to boot.

Often a band’s aesthetic can get lost when they shift from DIY to studio but that’s the case here. If anything, Play It Strange feels like a step in the right direction for the band. Singer Tim Cohen’s voice flows foggily yet prominent throughout the subtle eclectic mixture of instrumentals. His voice seems to fit better on this album fluctuating between airy romanticism, angst whininess and banal disinterest but never sounding out of place. There is that sense of rushed urgency that you often feel with punk music that carries throughout the album which is largely due to the awesome fast paced drumming (or a possible undertone from recording & mixing the album in a week).

Old school country flair is ribboned throughout tracks “Waterfall” (the wandering guitar riffs are fab), “Until The End of Time”, and “Red Light Green Light,” while tracks “All Shook Up,” “Plague of Frogs” are reminiscent of 60s garage-pop. Not to be missed are catchy tracks “Fascinated,” “Summer of Love,” and “I’m a Thief” but album highlight is definitely the 7 plus minute song “Tropical Island Suite.” On the surface is seems to be a fairly repetitive melody except that the track is split on the opposite ends of the rhythm spectrum with a great distorted noise guitar riff sandwiched in the middle.

The Fresh & Onlys just finished up a North American (with Royal Baths and Clinic) but hopefully they keep making their touring rounds as I’m sure they put on a hell of a show! Play It Strange is the perfect distraction from family embarrassments and dramas this Thanksgiving. A good bellowing of “Be My Hooker” chorus, “It may be right, it may be wrong…be…my…hooker!” is sure to create that much needed distance between you and your relatives.

Nowadays, most of us don’t think twice before revealing more and more personal information onto the internet. Photos, videos, relationships, whole days left out for everyone to see. But, as I’ve been told by my parents time and again, it wasn’t always like this. The internet has single handedly changed how we think about privacy.

You might think that this was just a natural byproduct of the growth of the internet. An evolutionary progression brought about simply by the web’s inherent connectedness. But it’s not. It’s because of Josh Harris. In the late ’90s, Harris was the first person to experiment with and realize the immense power of living a “public” life. And he did it better than any of us fools.

I first saw Ondi Timoner’s documentary We Live In Public at the IFC Center last year, and it totally blew my mind.  You can now watch it on Hulu, and I would highly recommend that you do. Timoner, who made the excellent music doc DiG! about Anton Newcombe and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, struck gold again with the story of Josh Harris. I honestly had not heard about this guy before seeing the movie, and now that seems unbelievable to me. The influence that this dude had on how the internet, and subsequently culture in general has evolved over the past 20 years is astounding.

Harris was part of that first wave of dotcom kids who saw the future taking place on computers. But where others gravitated towards business or technology, Harris only cared about one thing: entertainment. His first project was something called Pseudo, and was the first relatively successful internet TV station. He just got a bunch of his friends together and pretty much strongarmed them into producing mass amounts of content for him to constantly stream. Basically it was Public Access 2.0. Come to think of it, it’s actually hilarious that his movie is on Hulu, because that shit would not exist without him.

Pseudo eventually folded, apparently because people didn’t like watching buffering low-quality vids of Harris and his homies. But his next project is where shit really got bananas. He rounded up 100 influential artists and friends (including the curator of MOMA and Ms. Timoner), and locked himself and them into a giant underground space he had purchased in NYC for like 3 months. He gave them unlimited free food, alcohol, drugs, and even guns. He also subjected them to weekly Gestapo-esque questionings by trained interrogators.

He created this fucked up post-modern wonderland, and the only rule was that you could not leave. Oh, and he wired it with hundreds of cameras streaming to the internet at all times. In the bathrooms, in the showers, even above the beds. The footage in the movie from that project is some of the craziest, rawest stuff I’ve ever seen.

Honestly, I could go on and on about this movie and why Harris’ work was so important, so I’m gonna try and cut myself off. But the footage from that and his other projects, coupled with the interviews with Harris now are just so damn interesting. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, all that shit he basically predicted. I’m not gonna lie, his outlook on how all this is gonna turn out is pretty grim, but this movie isn’t, like, overwhelmingly depressing or anything. It’s just super fucking captivating. Watch it, and prepare to think about how you conduct yourself online.

Мишка Amerikana and Exile Scarves ($42.00)

Yeah, yeah we have a Russian name but we’re still making stuff with the American flag on it in fucked-up colors. What of it? Love it or hate it, this is where a lot of you reading this probably live. These knit scarves are available in Bone and Black if you’re a Stankonia fan, Red and Yellow if primary colors are your things and Purple and Turquoise if you likes to get all Charlotte Hornets with your style.

Maybe you’re being patriotic? Or maybe you’re being ironic? Who are we to judge? All we know is that these will keep your face and neck snug and toasty and look pretty damn stylish on. Oh and you can totally get a matching earflap pom beanie if you’re all into being matchy-matchy.

Or maybe you wish America would ask you politely to fuck off to some other land? Nothing would express this better than sporting our Exile Scarves, except maybe burning an Amerikana Scarf. To some people the place you call home is an important and defining part of your character.

For other people it’s just one more thing that happened without your having a choice. Do you feel like that?  Like the people around you are just a buncha strangers and the land you’re standing on is just some dirt? Get yourself one of these and keep yourself comfortable as you pledge. The Exile Scarf is available in Blue, Green and Mint. Plus if you’re feeling matchy-matchy again, there’s the Exile Western Flannel Shirt!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
—
Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

Ghost - Opus Eponymous (2010) [Rise Above] // Grade: A

When someone says NWOBHM do you know what that means? I sure as hell didn’t. Upon clarification this acronym makes perfect sense. I was talking to a pal about Ghost and that’s what they replied to me with. NWOBHM, or New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Bands that embody the sounds of the great metal bands from the early English heavy metal movement. Think Iron Maiden, Venom, Witchfinder General and later, Cathedral. Ghost has made quite the ripple in the sea of metal blogs. Even Darkthrone listed them as an influential band and well, if it’s good enough for them… But these guys are Swedish. What? Yeah. Think about Mercyful Fate, hailing from Copenhagen: stranger things have happened.

At first rotation, Opus Eponymous seemed like a friendly bunch of chaps. After a few minutes you quickly realize that these guys are Satanists. A trip to the band’s Myspace concludes just that, at least in presentation anyway. A lot of bands claim to be Satanists, so it sometimes comes across as cheesy, even when it’s used in satire. Coming from six-unnamed artists, it carries a little more clout. When you really get into Opus Eponymous you realize how chilling the lyrics are. In a world of over-the-top black metal performance where the band mates drench themselves in rotting blood and carcasses, Ghost actually gave me goosebumps. It’s like watching an old Christopher Lee horror movie from Hammer Films. Sometimes the presentation itself is more important than the message and that’s not the case here.

Intros are intros but when “Deus Culpa” played, I knew what I was in for and that was “Con Clavi Con Dio”, a hellish downward spiral into the musical intent of this band. The first line of the album starts off with: “Lucifer. We are here. For your grace. Evil one.” It’s a lot spookier when you can understand what they are saying! Add a chorus of chants and howls on top of a stellar example of musicianship and you’ve hooked your audience. Kids, this isn’t corpse paint or pentagrams. Ghost may be bluffing but this album is eerily-evil! In a turn of plot, “Ritual” starts off like mod-rock and ends like Sabbath but they paint a picture of rotting corpses left over from human sacrifices. The lyrics, riffs and background noise creates an environment that many bands attempt to achieve but fail. Ghost is anything but a failure.

The rest of the album is superb and should not be missed. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you guys. Just know that each track on Opus Eponymous is a step into the abyss. From a group of 6 unnamed and faceless musicians, we have no idea about their origins. For all we know it could be some ridiculous super group in disguise. From evoking the spirit of Satanic music, to bringing the NWOBHM to a new level, Opus Eponymous is a pristine example of how music can be Satanic without being goofy. Long live the Ghost!

1. Grave Wave |grāv-wāv| noun:
A term used to describe the recent musical upswing of all things dark and deathly. Encompasses witch house, post punk, neofolk, EBM, death rock, goth, electro, 80s revivalists, batcave purists, et al. Frequently accompanied by a strong graphic aesthetic: symbols, videos, visual and performance art. Sometimes creeps into the mainstream (see: Cold Cave, The Horrors). Sometimes remains purposefully under-underground (see: twYlY< ght >ZoNe).

Grave Wave is taking over—musically, duh, but look at fashion, television, movies; dark and deathly is obviously our cultural cup of tea. So how did we get here in the first place? Years of whistle-happy twee and candied pop stars, no doubt, plus the bleakest US economy—and most conflicted international agenda—loads of us have ever seen. Jobless and politically/musically disenfranchised does not a happy bunch of artists make.

And still, despite some solid reasons to be in a dark fucking place, misery isn’t grave wave’s only defining thing. If these circumstances were its sole founding factors—and darkness its only measure of ingenuity—we’d be looking at a landscape more similar to Reagen-era hardcore…except, you know, already done to death. What’s actually happening here is two-fold: a well-timed gust of goth nostalgia—kids raised on diets of Sisters of Mercy, Peter Murphy, Ministry and Wax Trax, back when these sorts of things were more likely to earn you a black eye than cool cred—repurposed by a generation openly using the internet not only to promote music, but create it as well. Samples, visual mash-ups, borrowed images, appropriation of other genres and artists; all perfected by the internet age, and thrust into critical mass via the onslaught of dark bedroom projects looking to make their output just a little more interesting. Videos are de rigeur. Remixes, digital books, zines, samples, self-released albums—all insanely easy to source and produce. If the grave wavers aren’t changing the world, they’re certainly helping redefine the way their music lives within it. And that music, by the way? Really fucking good. None of this would matter if it wasn’t. Meet the new cutting edge…

Continue reading The Guide to Grave Wave

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To accompany this article with the help of some of the bands and labels featured we have created and exhaustive 3-disc compilation showcasing this “Grave Wave.” These 3 discs feature new and exclusive music, remixes and fan favorites from some of the most interesting and exciting bands making music today. 35 tracks total at just over 2.5 hours!

Download Мишка Presents The Guide to Grave Wave [Disc 1]

Download Мишка Presents The Guide to Grave Wave [Disc 2]

Download Мишка Presents The Guide to Grave Wave [Disc 3]

If any of the links show as “temporarily unavailable” for you just try them again later. Megaupload is being weird

A PDF of the entire Guide to Grave Wave article is included along with each disc. For a complete tracklist to all 3 discs of The Guide to Grave Wave, please look after the jump.

(more…)

Ann Arbor gave us two good things: Andrew W.K. and Motivation, a store that sells fancy rags for fancy prices. What’s funny is that Andrew W.K. is known for his ability to motivate people. There must be a huge deposit of motivational ore buried under Ann Arbor or something. Мишка saw all the positive energy feeding off of Ann Arbor’s vibes. You know what else Tree Town gave us? Borders. Borders bookstores have motivational literature inside them if they still exist.

In celebration of Motivation’s 3 Year Anniversary, we have collaborated with them on a set of t-shirts and a snapback hat. Motivation is located on the University of Michigan’s campus, and the designs take influence from the rich college football tradition of the school — with a unique Мишка twist. The ‘Scum Bowl pits Motivation against our own Death Adders in a battle for “The Best of the Worst.”

We actually did a soft release of the Snapback a few weeks ago at our shop. We told absolutely no one about them and just put them out on the floor to see what they’d do. They sold out in an afternoon. However you can still get yours on Saturday November 27th over at Motivation.

Motivation
1203 South University Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 769-2260

About 25-30 seconds into that video, it was already my video of the year. It’s a rare occurrence that work as good as Rae’s on “Pyrex Vision” is easily overshadowed by a music video. But is it ever here. I know, it’s gratuitous drugs and nudity, we’ve all seen it in music videos before. But this stuff is different. I mean, what the hell is really going on in this video?  Who are these women? Why are they cooking so much crack? And why are they all doing it ass naked? So many questions, such a short video.

Anyway, right after I saw this video I told my friend and fellow rap video enthusiast Joe to watch it immediately. While he did, he told me to check out the video for Waka Flocka Flame’s “O Let’s Do It.” I did, and was also really impressed by it. It’s the first video I’ve seen that captures the raw dread-shakin’ energy of Wacka’s special brand of crazy. Little did we know that both of them were directed by one G. Visuals.

This guy is an up and coming director who should get way more work. His grimy-ass black and white style just fits a lot of the rap being made these days. Nowadays, rap video production is so damn big and opulent and difficult looking. You can just picture artists sitting around on massive sets, getting makeup reapplied in between takes and shit. That ain’t hood. It’s easy to see G. Visuals runs a much looser ship. All of his videos have this genuine “we’re just fucking around with a camera but it’s ill anyway” feeling. G. Visuals, wherever you are, I salute you.