On the surface, Alabama music seems spare- a bunch of rednecks singing some poor rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama." However, if you actually try to delve into the local music scene you will find that it isn't so bad... It's a handful of solid artists that have been going at it for years. There are some pop success stories with The Pierces, Wild Sweet Orange and The Bridges but when it comes to authentic garage music, acts like The Dexateens, AA Bondy, Dan Sartain, 13Ghosts, Taylor Hollingsworth and All the Saints are worth noting.
While the ones that are even less well-known should usually stay that way, there is one group that has always stood out. One that brings something new, other than pounding drums and guitars, with beautiful harmonies and melodies that recall the days of The Velvet Underground's "I'll Be Your Mirror." That band is The Grenadines. Of course, they have yet to release an album in the four years they have been together but what they do have is a collection of great singles. "Look Around" is an underrated masterpiece and without question one of the best songs from the local scene.
Wouldn't it have been great if the Na'vi natives were wearing Alexander McQueen's latest collection? Not to debase the digital masterwork that James Cameron and co. created, in fact I find myself suddenly wanting blue zebra print and purple pants... But the color schemes, even the animal print, in both Avatar and Alexander McQueen's collection are practically one in the same.
I guess it isn't very realistic to be jumping limb to limb in those shoes... It certainly would've looked freaking awesome though.
The 1929 film Pandora's Box was a major stepping stone for cinema in its provacative screenplay and ahead-of-its-time direction by GW Pabst. Louise Brooks is perfectly cast as the iconic and enigmatic vixen Lulu in the film.
She embodies modern sexuality and Gottlieb Hesch's costume designs for Pandora's Box help give her this status. There was great movement and detail in each of the designs.
There is something suggestive in her plunging necklines and cut-outs, not to mention the way each piece falls on Brooks. Some draped off of her shoulder accidentally, but such accidents couldn't have been written any better as they helped lift this classic film to even sexier heights.
I don't even know where to begin with Christian Lacroix...He brought color, history, theater and art to his intricate and elaborate designs creating fashion fantasies that would become nothing less in reality. He has offered one of the most unique and important points of view in the fashion world and that is something desperately needed in a time when everyone else is "playing it safe."
Hopefully buyers will be approaching in time, but if not I'm sure Andreas Melbostad will be snatched up in the future and take over as creative director somewhere. Whereas, for Lacroix I have a more romantic idea: Perhaps the theater will make great use of him and before you know it he will be winning Tony's for designs in plays like let's say Alice in Wonderland...
My Bloody Valentine My Bloody Valentine represents the most beautiful and spiraling complexity between night and day, moon and sun, anger and love. Their music is unparalleled.
Loveless is without question the most perfect album (by definition) of all time. There isn’t one chord, one note, one song that should not exist as it already does. It’s literally impossible to imagine in any other way. Loveless transcended music to another planet that had never been explored. In fact, their sound is so unique that another subgenre was created: Shoegaze. The Verve, Ride, and Lush were all fans and followed this style. Quite simply, rock music would not be what it is today without My Bloody Valentine. Their list of disciples is neverending and it continues to grow in this comeback period of psychedelic music with bands like Times New Viking, Vivian Girls, No Age, M83, and The Horrors running rampant.
My Bloody Valentine reintroduced color to music and created a new level of noise. Like the Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth before them, My Bloody Valentine made noise hard and soft, loud and stunning. Kevin Shields perfected this sound with his excellent abuse of the tremolo. The tremolo creates the spiraling sensation in their music, but Shields mastered it best in "Slow" and "Only Shallow." However, the tremolo wasn’t the only instrument that influenced their manipulated sound, Belinda Butcher’s nearly silent vocals gave the band sensuality. She sings with an endearing and nearly haunting whisper that solidified this parallel of fantasy and horror.
They rode crashing waves of white noise to unpredictable conclusions, particularly since their noise wasn't paralyzing like the typical avant-garde noise rock band: it was translucent, glimmering, and beautiful. All Music
Daydreaming and nightmare became the same state of mind as guitars enveloped naive melodies and drums smashed vocal harmonies. Piero Scaruffi
Loveless fires a silver-coated bullet into the future, daring all-comers to try and recreate its mixture of moods, feelings, emotion, styles and, yes, innovations. Dele Fadele
Whenever anyone uses the phrase swirling guitars, this record is why. A testament to studio production and single-minded perfectionism, Loveless has a layered, inverted thickness that makes harsh sounds soft and fragile moments vast. SPIN
I've long dreamt of an album that was Like Loveless , but more , but I haven't found it. And so many hundreds of albums have tried...Perhaps this is the sound of a single idea perfected. We should move on and continue to explore the vast spectrum of sound and feeling music provides, but we'll always return to Loveless for what it alone can deliver. Pitchfork
Lanvin's Spring/Summer 2010 Ad Campaign is truly inspired. Stepping away from the boring "stop. strike a pose" commonality in print ads, the luxury brand is showing potential buyers that the clothes and accessories are actually functional pieces that can be integrated into any busy lifestyle.
American Vogue is usually known for its conservative classicism but the renowned publication has taken an alternative turn for the better. Vogue is featuring the Horrors (as mentioned in the previous post), MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Beirut, and many other indie rockers in the latest issue. Maybe American Vogue can actually compete with French and Italian Vogue in content- they certainly get my vote with this one!
The Horrors have been inspiring British youth for nearly three years now with their boisterous live performances and style a la British punk circa 1977; however, it is with their latest album Primary Colours that is causing most of the excitement. Being called the best album of the year by the NME and ranking on countless other end of the year lists, the album is full of punk psychedelia- think Johnny Rotten meets Kevin Shields. While that doesn't sound like a compatible pair due to traditional standards of sharp punk and dense psychedelic, the Horrors disprove the previous notion. Primary Colours is a fantastic journey that is worth revisiting over and over again.
The New York Dolls eponymous album released back in 1973 had a big hand in the culmination of punk. Sounding like a fast-paced Mick Jagger and T-Rex collaboration, the album was more than a group of rowdy and seriously confused men belting about their "Personality Crisis".
The New York Dolls along with similar acts like T-Rex, Roxy Music, and David Bowie represented a style that would be emulated for the rest of the decade. Of course, I am talking about Glam- Provocative, Raw, Street, Stacked and Trashy Glam. And glam has plenty of relevance this season with its flamboyant mentality; leopard print, straight legs, leather, some SERIOUSLY tall heels, sparkle and shine were all practically born from the genre.
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta." Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
There is something Lolita about Hannah Holman... Maybe it's that you can envision her wearing those precious red heart-shaped sunglasses that Sue Lyon wore in Stanley Kubrick's take on the classic novel or maybe it's that Holman is the 17-year old ideal image of blurred innocence and youth. Designers have started noticing the fresh-faced beauty, from Miu Miu's Fall ad campaign to Marc Jacobs Spring 2010 runway show, Holman is certainly on her way to being the next big thing in modeling.
