THIS SHITE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THIS SHITE

I've moved my rants and raves over to this joint. get into it.

NOW THATS WHAT I CALL POWERFUL MUSIC II

the past week in jams:

Kid Sister (ft. David Banner - Family Reunion

Sounds Like: Nu Shooz, Fun, Rollerskating, Summertime
Apparent, first single from the Kid Sister full length. I called Kid Sister as the truth a hot minute ago, and then homegirl kinda went M.I.A for a minute and word on the album was kinda non existent. Then this joint with the beat by Diplo drops and it is kinda an amazing summertime jam, which I totally co-sign especially as were firmly into jacket weather.


Go! With Fourteen O - Made A Gun With My Fingers And Shot At My Friends

Sounds Like: Someone having an epileptic seizure with Battletoads for NES on pause in the background, I Shot The Duck Hunt Dog, Horse The Band, IAMERROR.
NintendoCore as it's called is kinda a tough sell. It presupposes that you can tolerate high pitched yelling and that you have a more than passing fancy with 8-bit orchestration. Truthfully most of the genre is complete shit with the practitioners knowing little about electronic music or grind. But, Go! With Fourteen O somehow has managed to make an EP of really catchy lil' numbers that are easily hummable and work because of (or in spite of) its completely anachronistic formula.



MF DOOM (as Viktor Vaughn) - Vaudeville Villain

Sounds Like: MF DOOM, Madvillain, DangerDoom, King Gheedorah, the ramblings of a schizophrenic rap nerd hobo.
I went to the back catalog of MF DOOM after hearing that he has a new album coming out later this month, and if you enjoy nerdy comic books, b-movies, late night TV trivia and obscure reference making rap that somehow manages to avoid poindexter-ism check out the Metal Faced Villain.
Memorable Line: "burnt out, but gettin' every edgy penny/then he hit him straight to the head like Reggie Denny/call him back when you need some more yak, Horschach/...doing 80 down the Van Wyck on horseback"


Young Jeezy - Who Dat

Sounds Like: The scene in Transformers: The Movie when Starscream elects himself king of the Decepticons, only to have his coronation broken up by Megatron, whom has a new body with an even bigger gun for an arm. you know what scene I'm talking about.

...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

So, the other day I came across the trailer for the new Justice live DVD.
And as I watch this clip filled with crowd surfing, boobs, fights, guns, drinking, drunks, more boobs and homeless dudes rapping I couldn't help but think back to the OG rockstar stupidity caught on live video band; PANTERA.



While Pantera's home videos were decidedly more redneck, i still feel like they had some sort of influence on Justice's recent cinematic output. In fact, Justice have always come across to me as kids who wanted to be in a metal band but instead made synth music.

If you think about it, they dress like fucking Black Sabbath which is never ever a bad thing.

They have a rack of fucking Marshall stacks with a huge glowing cross on it like they were goddamn Cradle Of Filth or something.

They open their album with a Godzilla inspired doom riff.

These dudes are straight up an electronic metal band. Who are also in love with Michael Jackson. As we all know MJ is the farthest thing from metal, besides his weird forest creature ramblings on the beginning of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough ". I can totally dig that as someone with an affinity for Sepultura and New Edition. Im very interested to see the full length home video of their techno-tronik metal even though I'd have no interest in seeing these guys in a live situation because while watching them turn knobs to make D.A.N.C.E blast ouf stack is kinda boring too me, if we mix boobs and bum fights in im totally with it.

IS LIKE WHAT YOU MIGHT PUT ON MOVIE FOOD... UM WHAT IS JALAPENO? GET IT LIKE A WHOOPIN WHEN YOU HOLLER AT YOUR SENIORS

Over the years I've been aware of Greedy Genius as purveyor of kicks and frankly I've never really been too impressed. their stock isn't bad but just never quite reached the level or refined freshness that I'd spend my money on. But then this season they dropped the Avalanche Cool Breeze and I found myself smitten. The Cool Breeze is a sleek silhouette reminiscent of a Nike Blazer or Puma Sky II High but with enough extra flair so it doesn't feel as though its a straight up bite of the aforementioned shoes. The Avalanche though is really sold on its color combination. the white is powerful on such a minimalist pair of kicks and the black laces just jump out as a great accent.


At this point I'd totally be willing to part with cash for 'em but then you turn the shoe around and see the houndstooth pattern on the heel and realize the shoe just elevated like Vince Carter in the '00 olympics. Houndstooth was really done to death last winter/fall but this kinda subtle integration really makes me reevaluate its place in my rogues gallery of patterns.


Lastly, the joints are patent leather, it really demands a certain personal flair to rock 90% white patent leather kicks in the winter. In summer white kicks are the order of the day but in the winter when the sun goes down at 5 it takes a lil balls because we all known white kicks at night (especially patent leather ones) tend to glow a bit. And when you've got that glow the rest of your ensemble is totally under scrutiny, any questionable decisions will be grounds for people to bust on you [||].
However, on the up side with some Mr.Clean Magic Erasers and some Jason Markk Shoe Cleaner patent leather will stay fresh way longer than any other white material.
In any event if you can find these, and that's a HUGE if, you should definitely cop 'em if youre up for the scrutiny.

NEW FALL FRESHNESS

looking at my rollie its about that time.
and that time would be fall aka get right for the winter time.
so lots of new gear has hit stores by now, and alot of its real bugged out and dumb looking as usual. So I provide you with this small sampling of selected freshness to get your gear game straight.

First up CAKE, i told ya'll about these dudes a couple months ago and now theyre back with their fall/winter 08 collection and it looks straight bananas. they stay on course with using hot ladies as the basis of most of their shirts, but they seemed to have expanded their design influence a lil bit and have come up with some really cool looks. the copped and screwwed tee featuring the chick with the trails and the cough medicine is a really great design.







Next up, is Flying Coffin who every season bring the heat with vaguely metal inspired selection of shirts, that don't actually require you to actually like metal. they really offer a great alternative to the epileptic seizure inducing color pallete and styling of alot of streetwear companies that are big these days.







Rockwell is the clothing line of French artist Parra, whose well known for his hand drawn typography and simple yet subversive drawings. Parra's uses a great selection of colors in his work without getting day glow, and I really how kinda creepy and off his images are, but at the same time his character design and illustration style make em all kinda cute.







Last but not least in the "these are entirely too much fucking money, but damn. maybe if i sell some blood..." category, are the Y-3s. These are high fashion Japanese sneakers that are really slick and futuristic looking without getting into the costume-y arena. if these sneakers didn't cost $250 bucks, they'd definitely be number one on my fall playlist.

NOW THATS WHAT I CALL POWERFUL MUSIC

Here's whats been getting bumped hard the last week or so:


T.I, KANYE, WAYNE & JAY-Z - Swagger Like Us
Memorable Line: "You can learn how to dress by checkin' my fresh...you can pay for school but you can't buy class"




SIGUR ROS - Live at MOMA
Sounds Like: Small children falling into black holes; you were six and you ran so fast thought you might be able to fly.




OCEANO - Empathy For Leviathan
Sounds Like: Deathcore, heavy like a middle aged woman, basketball shorts and rabbinical beards

AND HERE WE GO!

so sorry to have gone M.I.A for a month but I was mad busy in a cornucopia of convergent business. Between launching and populating the site for Midnight Club LA¹, working on new soon to be released/discussed projects, moving all the shit I have in the world halfway across the great borough of Brooklyn, entertaining ma dukes for two weeks, and going to my high school reunion my blogging has been non existent. and for that i apologize.

but im right back like i left something! uurrrly!

expect a slight change in format for the blog in the near future, there'll be less random postings of random shit and more of the longer, extensive critical examinations of things (comics/music/movies/design/fashion), similar to my posts on Jake Bannon's work, Judd Appatow's Pineapple Express trailer/Freaks and Geeks or my discussion of Kanye's promo videos from Graduation. as i get deep into pumping out new work, I'll be digging into the things that are inspiring me which will hopefully be interesting to you as it puts you onto some ish you might not have known about, or flips some stuff you knew about in different directions on some ol' Dominique Dawes shit. also expect to see postings on works in progress as those new projects i mentioned earlier start to come into fruition, there won't be anything that fucks with my NDAs but there will be some shit for you to chew on (no two girls one cup-o).

be seeing you.

¹you should be checking for Midnight Club LA, if you're at all remotely into racing games. i don't even like racing games like that, but cruising around LA in a Lamborghini all Bruce Wayne-d out is whats up.

COOKIES AND CAKES, WE THE BRAND NEW ENTENMANNS

as Jim Jones would say "we gettin' cakey over here". check out the new(ish) line on the block CAKE. all of their shirts share a consistent line of using imagery of models with or without baked goods. but the thing about the line the separates them from every other brand that's put a half nekkid chick on a shirt and thought they were money is... but before i get to that, the other day i was on Broadway gettin' lunch and i saw a dude with a shirt on that had a nekkid chick in some dunks on the front and on the back it said "nice tits, nice kicks". really dude? i feel like the only people who rock that shirt have in fact never seen "nice tits" in real life without the ever present smell of stripper baby powder wafting the air.




anywho, cake does the half nekkid lady thing, but always has their designs surrounding the half nudity on point. when i saw the eyes wide shut joint i was like wow, black rob was like whoa




CAKE CLOTHING

I HAVE NO WORDS FOR THIS SHIT...

when the day comes that Madonna decides to come totally out of left field and drop a pantera riff at the end of her live set is the day when i officially no longer can think of anything clever to say. i mean really? A New Level? that shit isn't even a Pantera hit, i mean if she goes into Cemetery Gates or This Love or something, i cna maybe might understand it. but, A New Fucking Level, was she just rocking out to Vulgar Display Of Power after she got done boning ya boy A-Rod? all of this just boggles my mind and poses the question, WHERE'S MY KYLIE MINOGUE SLAYER COVER?

ME I'M IN MY SPACESHIP, YEAH I WORK FOR NASA

in continuing the "get your fresh right for the summer, ballin spectacular of haberdashery", i present to you the two newest acquisitions to my footwear collection. may i present to you the RED SUNs (aka Supra TUFs) on some straight up communist, power to to proletariat heat.




and the AIR STERANKOS, on some serious
Jim Steranko Op Art jumpoff:



get your mind right kids!