February 24, 2010 | Cool Travel | by Dave Mata |
Post 27 is a unique and beautiful space on Chicago Ave in the Ukrainian Village. I first stumbled upon this ‘all things interior’ boutique a few weeks back, helping a friend move a table. Their new website showcases much of their vintage furniture, jewelery, and art that is held within this stunning establishment.
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February 19, 2010 | New Events | 
by Dave Mata |
After several years of curating art work at events and bars around town, myself and a few friends decided to get a space of our own. Although our first opening isn’t until this coming weekend, we allowed Ben at RVCA to host an event in our gallery. This is a video from the night featuring the work of Charlie Megna, Jake Gillispie, and Matt Jorgenson. Also featured is local rock outfit The Infected.
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February 17, 2010 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
There’s an obvious play on the Spinners original here, but that doesn’t mean that these folks don’t create a serious stomper all their own. I first got hipped to Myron & E through Chris in my current DJ collective. Read more
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January 20, 2010 | New Music | 
by Dave Mata |
Joining the ranks of soul revivalist groups such as El Michels Affair and The Dap Kings are Chicago’s own The Uptown Sound. Fronted by the charismatic JC Brooks, this group channels equal parts grimy garage and butter drenched R&B. Spanish label Vampi Soul released this sharply packaged 45 just a few weeks ago, and neither side disappoints. The A side of this dancefloor gem sports an alternate version of Baltimore is the New Brooklyn, the fiery single from this year’s The Beat Of Our Own Drum.
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January 6, 2010 | New Products | by Dave Mata |
When I was first introduced to these home speakers, I couldn’t tell if they were sculptures or actually speakers. At three feet tall, the pair of octoganally fluted horns stand atop an eight inch baltic birch cube, which houses the driver. The opening of the horn is just over a foot wide and is designed to allow the sounds that are played through it to naturally separate, similar to the way you hear things when you see music live. Read more
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December 8, 2009 | Video | by Dave Mata 
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Raga is my new hangover cure. Ravi Shankar put me so at peace the other morning, I couldn’t believe it. I woke with a blistering whiskey headache and mouth that felt like Elmers glue. With no eggs in the fridge, and no bacon in sight, I sat down at my computer and put on this video. Whether it was the soothing drones or Shankar’s pensive expression, I was in an entirely different place by the end of this video. A much better place.
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December 3, 2009 | New Photography | by Dave Mata |
Blending macro-photography and digital mirroring, Chicago-based photographer Kristin Bruni composes images that are both peculiar and enchanting. The symmetrical abstractions range from intense angular splashes of color, to smooth and tranquil visual landscapes. Having only viewed her portfolio, I was stunned with the magnitude of size and emotional range of her gallery work. Suggestive and elusive is the best way to describe seeing her brilliant work in person. I’ll never look at cabbage, bubbles, or fishing rods the same way again. Read more
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November 27, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
Pilsen bred trio Meah! are Funkadelic meets Fugazi, chaotic and spazzy, coupled with really hooky-grooves. When I saw them play in Chicago recently, they were in rare form, wiith guitarist Pat Rios half sitting on a stool, half painfully hobble-rocking about the stage, claiming a football injury. Having only seen Meah! play at lofts and smaller venues, it was pretty nasty to hear the Somebody’s Killing A Choir Of Cats vocals as up front in the mix as they deserve.
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November 6, 2009 | New Trends | by Dave Mata |
I met one of the Chicago contributors of this New York, LA, Chicago collaboration site in front of a local bike shop this past summer. He was happily showing off his latest thrift store VHS scores to a mutual friend of ours. I slept on the “blog” he said he was collecting the tapes for for some time. Sometimes I make mistakes. Everything is Terrible is a brilliant library of all things unsettling. These are not posts of mindless YouTube anomalies. These are serious and hilarious documentations of what could be lost on most people were it not for these ironic excavators.
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November 4, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
From the surreal opening to the feverish end, Fate Unfolds captivates with a tonal palette that is both broad and gripping. Indie kings of the southwest, Tristeza, have been at it for slightly over a decade. Their latest full-length delivers without a drop of disappointment. Fate Unfolds is drenched with the seemingly long lost art of crafting an album that plays as one solid piece. I could pick several ’singles’ that I hear on this record, but to do anything but drop the needle and park it does a huge disservice to the artistry and arrangement of this record as a whole. Herein are huge washes of guitars and synths, layered with drums dubbing back and forth from programmed to acoustic with ease and a backbeat that is anything but ‘indie rock’. Read more
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November 2, 2009 | Video | by Dave Mata |
This band is one of the most promising acts to appear in Chicago in the past few years. Their live shows have set them apart from their stoner-spazz rock counterparts, with an elaborate light set up that they bring to each show. Yes, you see correctly, lead vocalist joe is ‘playing’ the lights. I can’t imagine these guys ever quit working being that they build their own amps, and drummer, Mizzola plays in like ten other great Chicago bands. Look out for Lasers and Fast and Shit’s new 7″, Introduction, out now.
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October 26, 2009 | New Products | by Dave Mata |
The Monome interfaces provide seemingly endless possibilities for combinations of aural and visual amazement. It’s a wonder to me that people are still using midi keyboards as trigger devices to elude the fact that they can’t play an actual instrument. With sleek design and eco-friendly packaging, its no wonder the first run in 2008 sold out in two minutes. Whether they decide to release one or two hundred devices, the Monome 64 is going to be available again in January 2010.
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October 21, 2009 | New Music | by Dave Mata |
To call Zombi a one trick pony would be unfair. They’re more like a one trick battle horse. They have a formula that works and they stick to it. The Pittsburgh duo channel original N.E.S, 80s horror films, and cinematic post-rock into a listening experience that kinda makes you wanna fight somebody. Their songs make me feel angsty in a way I wish more music did. Imagine writing a record with John Carpenter in the year 2012, then you are getting close to what’s really going on here.
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October 19, 2009 | New Art | by Dave Mata |
I had the pleasure of meeting painter Maria Calderon a few years back through some mutual friends. Even then her work was stunning. It seemed as though you could stand back and take in everything you thought you could, and if you moved up to a piece, you were pulled in to all the different stories, different landscapes, within a single painting. The vibrant colors and never ending spacial trickery really does it for me.
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October 15, 2009 | New Art | by Dave Mata |
Multi-faceted artist Tim Biedron is probably best known for his incredible tattoo work (which you have to book an appointment for about three months in advance). Although he’s very successful at inflicting pain in an incredibly beautiful way, he still finds time to paint and hash out the drawings that originally inspired his work on the human canvas. His drawings, in particular, have an off-kilter reminiscence of horror masked with simple images of animals, fish, and characters from his mind that at first appear harmless, until you realize there’s something just a bit off about them. Read more
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I’m a big fan of Fernanda Cohen’s work. The Brooklyn-based illustrator — and sometime Lost At E Minor contributor — has just completed a new series called War of Words which has received two silver medals from the Society of Illustrators of NY and LA, and will be featured in HOW International Design in March. Read more
Abstracted geometric forms, peculiar clockwork pieces, and a sense of childhood play; I can’t quite pinpoint why I love the jewellery designs of Sydney creative, Elke Kramer, but I do know that her jewellery is unique and off-beat, yet widely accessible and wearable. Read more
TIME magazine’s annual Person of the Year issue is coming out this week. I illustrated one of the runner-ups, but of course, I have to keep my mouth completely shut. I don’t know who is the winner though. On TIME’s website, you can see all the past covers of this most talked about issue of each year. It’s a good time to look back history and learn from it anyway, don’t you think?
I’m so digging the work of Santa Monica artist Andrew Hem. Painting seems to have become relegated in the illustration world these days, so I’m pleased to see Hem rocking it in a big way. His bold brushwork, lush colors, puppet-like figures and painted type make for a body of work that really hits the painted spot.
There was a time, many moons ago, when I would only listen to bands off New Zealand’s Flying Nun label. Yup, I would strap myself into a comfy chair, put my headphones on and, armed with a chunk of chocolate coated Peanut Slab and a can of L&P, soak up album after album of wonderfully self-indulgent low-fi melancholy. Read more
Mexican architecture firm Senosiain Arquitectos recently designed a shell-shaped dwelling for a Mexico City couple. The owners are already living in their new abode with their two very happy children. The structure is maintenance-free and earthquake proof, and is full of soothing greenery and smooth, rounded surfaces. Read more
UK-based one-man-band Sieben has a new album out: As They Should Sound. Frontman Matt Howden builds songs with a loop pedal and a violin, which he uses for rhythm and melody. His sound is wonderfully sophisticated and cabalistic, with a particularly British sense of lyricism.
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Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more
German painter Armin Rohr’s works look like stills from Stan Brakhage films, all acid-washed, scratched out, and ethereal like a sudden flood of memories. Read more
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
The new Runaways movie looks at the formation of the seminal girls’ group which spawned Joan Jett’s career. We have a Runaways prize pack to give away, including Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits CD, the film’s soundtrack, and Joan Jett’s photobook with Todd Oldham. To enter, just leave the name of the city you live in! Read more
Originating in Shanghai, the Feiyue sneaker first appeared in the 1920s. Made of light material, the shoe has crossed continents, arriving in Europe in 2006 where it was picked up by a team of French enthusiasts, fascinated by sneakers and urban culture. Read more
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