July 22, 2011 | New Music | 
by Ben Lee |
This is Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks backstage in the early 1980s sharing the demo of her new song with her backup singers and make up artist. The final argument for why demos should not be messed with.
February 26, 2009 | New Products | by Ben Lee 
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There’s a fascinating sub-culture springing up all over the world full of earnest psychic adventurers, working with this powerful medicine called Ayahuasca from the Amazon. It’s a plant that’s brewed into a syrupy liquid that takes its users on an eight hour journey into the depths of their insecurities, shadows and secret glory. Read more
January 20, 2009 | New Music | 
by Ben Lee |
Muscles is doing a remix of my single I Love Pop Music and I’m really excited to hear what he comes up with. He’s a new electronic artist from Australia and he’s full of piss and vinegar. He’s got that youthful Manchester-esque arrogance that makes rock n’ roll sound life-changing, all set to a surprisingly retro style. Check out his album Guns Babes Lemonade. It’s sort of like thug pop techno made for big teddy bears.
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January 16, 2009 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
The Los Angeles musician, Ariana Delawari — aka Lion of Panjshir — is half Afghan and half Sicilian and makes wonderfully enlightened weirdo folk rock. I hope she takes that as a compliment! Her music is delicate and powerful and she is a pure artist. Everything she does has that magic light in it. She made her new album partially in Afghanistan, and many of the lyrics deal with the continued oppression of people’s liberties by the Taliban.
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November 19, 2008 | Video | by Ben Lee |
This is Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks backstage in the early 1980s sharing the demo of her new song with her backup singers and make up artist. The final argument for why demos should not be messed with.
September 14, 2007 | New Products | by Ben Lee |
I recently bought a 1960 Oyster Perpetual Datejust and I love it. Read more
September 13, 2007 | New Fashion | by Ben Lee |
Scott Sternberg created the great Los Angeles label, Band of Outsiders, and it’s one of the few labels that fit a little guy like me perfectly. I live in BOO shirts. They are my second skin.
September 12, 2007 | New Trends | by Ben Lee |
I downloaded the second season of Weeds and watched it on a long plane ride recently. The show is very provocative. It pushes a lot of moral boundaries but does so with an absurd sense of humor. They used my song ‘Gamble Everything for Love’ in a scene where a 16-year-old boy is making a pin hole in his condom to try and get his 16-year-old deaf girlfriend pregnant so she won’t go away to college. Funny, that’s the exact scenario I pictured when I wrote it!
September 11, 2007 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
Rickie Lee Jones put out an album recently called The Sermon on Exposition Blvd. It’s a concept album — the story of Jesus told from his perspective. But it’s not Christian Rock, it’s sleazy, and real, and full of confusion. I hear she improvised a lot of it. It’s really spiritual. And her voice has never sounded better.
September 10, 2007 | New Music | by Ben Lee |
Against Me! put out an awesome album called New Wave last year. It was produced by Butch Vig, who did Nirvana’s Nevermind, and is just brilliant. I fell in love with it when it came out, and covered the whole album, beginning to end, putting it up for free on my website and Myspace page. It was a tribute. It’s so important for me to stay connected to the part of me that is just a music fan.
September 10, 2007 | New Art | by Ben Lee |
I got turned on to the artist Elizabeth Peyton last year. She does classic portraiture, but in a very pop way — often painting rock stars and capturing this great mix of the sacred and the profane. We emailed a little bit earlier this year. I was in awe. Every time I saw ‘Elizabeth Peyton’ appear in my inbox I would have a minor panic attack. Read more
Mexican artist Carolina Fontoura Alzaga makes beautiful Victorian-era chandelier sculptures from the beaten remains of old bike parts. Read more
The Obama campaign was one of the most visually effective in recent history, brilliantly tapping modern marketing concepts and design to get its message across. The deceptively simple logo they chose stemmed from an amalgamation of a lot of different concepts the Obama designers came up with. Logo Design Love just posted all the different looks that weren’t used.
The philosophy of a beginning is to me, a wonderful concept. I really enjoy flicking through the back catalogues of a musician and discovering their origin, then tracing their musical journey to the present. So for American-born, Paris-based sister duo CocoRosie, who released their third album The Adventure of Ghosthouse and Stillborn to much acclaim, making the trip to their beginnings is more than worth the journey: their debut album, Le Maison de Mon Reve (released back in 2004) was a gentle stroll through their pop and classical influences, which melt together seamlessly into a backdrop for their unique and enchanting voices.
You’ll notice a new addition on the site, a brand spanking new job board, packed to the brim with creative positions in New York City. So if you’re looking for a new challenge, a new city perhaps, and you’re in a creative industry, check in regularly to see the latest jobs going. [Illustration by Steve Wacksman]
Though most people in the West think of mahjong as a mysterious game old Chinese people play, it’s actually gets quite rowdy when people get together to play it. Rowdy is certainly a good adjective for Mahjongg, the exquisitely danceable electro-whatever outfit from Chicago who draw as much from Afrobeat as they do vocoder-laden sleaze rock from the 70s.
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Australian-born creative, Marc Newson, is considered to be one of the most influential designers of the past few decades. Having originally studied jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts, ‘he started experimenting with furniture design as a student and, after graduating in 1984, was awarded a grant from the Australian Crafts Council, and staged an exhibition — featuring the Lockheed Lounge — at the Roslyn Oxley Gallery in Sydney’. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Matthew Dear’s Black City album totem
Our friends at Ghostly International are releasing Matthew Dear’s Black City album as a limited edition ‘totem’. A what? A totem – a limited edition metal bar used to access a private music chamber. Cool! Read more
Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
This ‘communication prosthesis’ by designer Sascha Nordmeyer is hilarious and awesome. I want to wear one to a job interview.
Michelle Blade’s psychedelic artwork
Michelle Blade’s washed out paintings are deceptively simple, her washy acrylics creating psychedelic textures and conjuring ghostly figures from the past. Read more
Christoph Niemann illustrates a nightmare flight
New York Times illustrator Christoph Niemann has created a brilliant visual diary outlining the peril and pitfalls that beset the everyday passenger based on his recent experience flying from New York to his home town of Berlin. Read more
Mathematics? Leave me out. Fashematics? Now you’re talking! This gem of a site is a runway equation that adds up to a whole lot of wonderful.
Okayboss is an illustrator based in sunny Sydney who combines the powers of PB&J sandwiches, cats on the Internet, and a pocketful of edible crayons into a rainbow Voltron drawingbot. His shirts are anything from abstract space particles, to hands with expressions, while his music-inspired art prints are playful, witty, and gorgeous. Okayboss items are available for sale in the Lost At E Minor Store. Read more
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