New Illustration / Mel Kadel

October 31, 2006 | New Illustration | by Zolton |

Mel Kadel creates offbeat artworks that appear on t-shirts and in group shows. She’s in one now at Austin’s Okay Mountain gallery along with Evah Fan and Maya Hayuk amongst others. [see also Stephen Molloy]

New Art / Roy Tomlinson

October 31, 2006 | New Art | by Zolton |

Californian artist, Roy Tomlinson, on his distinctive artwork: ‘I begin with imagery from my own photographs and videos, as well as appropriated images, both historic and banal, from books, magazines and film. Combining media in an overlay, juxtaposition and reprocessing of visual information, I encourage images and working processes to interact with, contradict, and at times obscure one another. This has the effect of destabilizing the once familiar both visually and conceptually. In looking for a formal language to bridge divergent sources, I aim to cause a disruption of habitual preconceptions. Installation is integral to this process of investigation. Through the installation of the work I intentionally establish relationships between pieces and create the potential for additional layers of connection and disorientation. The finished work takes on a variety of forms including series of paintings, digital prints and drawings, as well as video and sculpture’.

New Music / Dappled Cities Fly dig the Bee Gees

October 30, 2006 | New Music | by Zolton |

Tim Derricourt from Australian band Dappled Cities Fly tips the Bee Gees’ album, Saturday Night Fever, as being essential to any decent CD collection: ‘There’s no doubt that this album is absolutely superb, inspiring and above all, entirely wholesome. The songs have an intricate and intelligent strain, yet retain their pump ’n’ swagger, and from the pure white get-up that we see on cover to the sheen of those hunky string parts, this collection only emulates positive thoughts all suitable for a general exhibition. And that’s essentially why it (eventually) changed my life. At first listen, after pulling it out of my father’s vinyl collection, I was scoffingly shocked at its saggy dagginess; afterall this was the mid-nineties and I was a solid victim of my early-teens. At the time the genius of songs like More than a Woman and You Should be Dancing were completely foreign and inconceivable. But then I was forced to eat my Hot Tuna hat, as it wasn’t long before my face was a’ smiling, my hips were a’ swinging and my voicebox was a’ humming as I tumbled down the dark and sinister path of the disco-freaked metrosexual’. [photos by Esther Blake and Daniel Boud]

New Fashion / Ogi

October 30, 2006 | New Fashion | by Andy |

Born and raised in Tokyo, Ogi studied illustration at the California College of the Arts and now moves between Oakland and Tokyo. He exhibits internationally and recently produced a line of playful tees and limited edition wallets. [see also Jessica Ji Williams]

New Music / Little Barrie digs The Stone Roses

October 29, 2006 | New Music | by Zolton |

Barrie Cadogan, guitarist and vocalist with UK group Little Barrie, talks exclusively about just how much the Stone Roses’ self-titled album means to him: ‘My sister got me into this album. She was at college and discovering cool bands and bringing records home. I was a bored fourteen year old coming to terms with being crap at football and looking for something to do. The album never left the turntable and gradually all the songs were rattling through my head. I realised I’d been listening to the Stone Roses debut LP! It was 1989 and suddenly life wasn’t so dull in Beeston, UK. I was really struck by the whole sound, especially John Squire’s guitar playing complimenting Law’s vocal perfection. Reni and Mani seemed more like a funky soul rhythm section than an English band. I loved the photos, the look, John’s artwork, everything. The imagery of the band looked so exciting, so much cooler than the crap shell suits and cheap hair gel that had ruled the school for so long. I was so inspired that two months later I got my first guitar. The rest, as they say, is history!’ [see also Ben Kweller; Broken Social Scene]

New Photography / Ye Rin Mok

October 29, 2006 | New Photography | by Zolton |

Korean born, Los Angeles-based photographer, Ye Rin Mok, has shot for Tokion and Soma amongst many other magazines. Her photos also appeared in the movie Hard Candy. [see also Matthew Sleeth]

New Art / Jennifer Merrill

October 29, 2006 | New Art | by Zolton |

San Francisco-based artist, Jennifer Merrill, suggests that her work offers ’subtle inquiries into the nature of scientific visual language, and quirky, funny diagrams, imbued with the deceptive promise of imparting factual information. The pared-down imagery evokes the objective authority of scientific illustration. Yet each painting delivers only enough information to vaguely illustrate concepts of instinct, unseen mental and emotional processes, and overt and veiled communication between people. The imagery negotiates a space between the rational and irrational, between the humorous and the serious, and between science and emotion’. [see also Jonah Cacioppe]

New Art / Jeana Sohn

October 28, 2006 | New Art | by Zolton |

Korean artist, Jeana Sohn, studied character animation at Cal Arts. She now lives in Los Angeles where her work has been featured as part of numerous group and solo exhibitions. One of her paintings appeared the cover of Giant Robot magazine while another was used on a Death Cab For Cutie t-shirt. [see also Lang Leav; Anthony Lister]

New Music / Broken Social Scene digs Slayer

October 28, 2006 | New Music | by Zolton |

Brendan Canning from Canadian band Broken Social Scene tells us exclusively about an album that changed his life: ‘To this day few will dispute the impact that Slayer’s Reign in Blood made upon its release in 1986 and in the years to follow. As a teenager I loved heavy metal and all its sub-genres – speed metal, death metal, and thrash metal. The only problem for me was that the production of most metal records fell short, including Slayer’s previous effort, Hell Awaits. But when Reign in Blood was released on Rick Rubin’s Def Jam label, which at the time was known for acts like the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J, Rick Rubin and his discovery started a revolution. From beginning to end, less than twenty-nine minutes in total, the most ferocious music had been captured in such a way that there was no denying this record was the shit. In one fell swoop Dave Lombardo as a drummer could not be touched, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s guitar work was like no one else’s – absolutely deadly – and Tom Araya’s vocals were delivered with such intensity and conviction there was no denying this band had created a masterpiece. What more can be said? I’m certainly not the only one who holds Slayer’s Reign in Blood in such high regard. For those who never joined our cult, you will never know what you missed out on’. [live photo by Evan Sung]

New Photography / Tamara Skudies

October 27, 2006 | New Photography | by Zolton |

Primarily using her trusty Pentacon six, German photographer Tamara Skudies uses a lot of colour reversal to capture the subtle shapes and imagery of her work. [see also Heidi Yount]

New Art / Jocelyn Warner

October 27, 2006 | New Art | by Andy |

London-based wallpaper consultant and designer Jocelyn Warner loved textiles from an early age, ‘growing up in a 1960’s house designed by her architect farther and filled with fabrics and furniture by John Piper, Lucienne and Robin Day’. Lifelong schooling. It shows. [see also Anna Giertz]

New Products / Harvey and Jubs

October 26, 2006 | New Products | by Zolton |

Vinyl toy collectors take note. That creative wunderkid James Jarvis is back with a new comic novel featuring the exploits of Harvey and Jubs, who have also been transformed into soft vinyl figures as part of Vortigern’s Machine range. ‘Standing approximately 30cm tall in their straight-brimmed baseball caps, Harvey and Jubs are large youths who loiter aimlessly on the street corners of Dullwich City‘. According to the DPMHI website, ‘they enjoy harassing the local youngsters and speak an unintelligible form of yoot-speak. Despite this they are really from good families, well brought-up with a decent education’. [see also Dalek; Tristan Eaton; Michael Lau]

New Products / Anna Giertz

October 26, 2006 | New Products | by Zolton |

For this series of wallpaper prints, Swedish designer Anna Giertz took inspiration from the controversial Oscar Wilde novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. [see also Simone Jessup]

New Art / Furry Friends

October 26, 2006 | New Art | by Zolton |

Pets. We all love em’. But unfortunately many end up as sad and lonely figures at the RSPCA shelters around Australia, especially after Christmas when all the cute puppies grow up. Artist and Canvas Gallery owner, Zoe Sernack [whose artwork is featured above], has initiated the Furry Friends exhibition as a way to help raise funds for the good battle that the RSPC wages on behalf of all the little animals in Australia. The show, which opens at the Canvas Gallery in Sydney on November 1st and runs for three weeks, features twenty-one artists who work across a variety of mediums including ‘kooky art, soft toys, photographs, paintings, and sculptures’. Each artist will display of few works on their take of what a Furry Friend is ‘for the love of all creatures great and small’. Truly an exhibition that Noah would be proud of.

New Music / Ben Kweller digs Nils Lofgren

October 26, 2006 | New Music | by Zolton |

Former Radish frontman now solo singer/songwriter, Ben Kweller writes exclusively about his infatuation with the music of Nils Lofgren: ‘As far back as I can remember I have listened to the music of Nils Lofgren. Not too many people have heard of him. I know his music because he and my father grew up together in Bethesda, Maryland in the early 1960s. Before Nils dropped out of high school to pursue music professionally, they had a band called The Radical Five. They have remained friends through the years and my dad has collected everything Nils has released in his 35-year career. Because of all this, Nils’ music was playing all the time during my childhood – in the car, the house and in the living room where we used to jam his songs – me on drums, dad on guitar. Although his guitar playing is in the same realm as Hendrix, it’s his piano playing that has always killed me. His syncopated left-hand octave-bass-bouncing was a huge influence on me as a pianist. You can hear what I’m talking about on my favourite cut The Sun Hasn’t Set on This Boy Yet [off his self-titled album of 1975]. The most famous song from the album is Keith Don’t Go, a dedication to Keith Richards. The album ends with a cover of Carole King’s Going Back. Like Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower, Nils’ Going Back is better than the creator’s version. The more you listen to Nils Lofgren, the more you realise how classic it is. Although it’s a tough album to get a hold of, it’s well worth the search. Listening to it today makes you wonder how such an amazing album got lost in rock ‘n’ roll’s past and reconfirms that good music is out there. You just have to find it’.