June 28, 2011 | New Music | by Luke Rathborne |

Michael Hurley is one of my favorite musicians and I always try to mention him when I get the chance. His records are honest, funny, and heartbreaking (always simultaneously) and I feel like he fills in the gaps where the sadness pours out. My personal favorites are Hi-Fi Snock and Uptown and Armchair Boogie, as well as Be Kind To Me [above].

New Products / Search & Destroy: 1970s counter-culture zine

June 28, 2011 | New Products | by Luke Rathborne |

V. Vale is the man behind punk rock publishing staple, RE/SEARCH, whose zine, Search & Destroy (started with a $100 loan from Allen Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti) helped push counter-culture in 1970s San Francisco and the West Coast Scene. Vale and his publishing company helped to expose different sides of writers, like William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard and Brion Gysin.

June 28, 2011 | New Music | by Luke Rathborne |

Nico Muhly is a young classical composer and arranger based out of New York City. I first came across his work in relation to arrangements he composed for another artist, Sam Amidon’s record, All Is Well, and one day found myself riding an elevator with him. I was too shy to say hello.

New Photography / Will McBride

June 28, 2011 | New Photography | by Luke Rathborne |

Will McBride is responsible for some of the most beautiful and honest photographs I’ve had the chance of encountering. His work collected in, ‘I, Will McBride’ is really fascinating and spans his career from iconic shots of JFK to reprinted telegraph correspondences with legendary Indian filmmaker Satijit Ray. My favorite photographs of McBride’s seem to capture a rare and unadorned, if not very momentary, kind of beauty. Read more

June 28, 2011 | New Film | by Luke Rathborne |

Lukas Moodyson is one of my favorite Swedish directors. His film, Together [Tillsammans in Sweden] was one of the most beautiful films I’d seen growing up as a teenager in Maine. It’s a story about a mother and daughter escaping a troubled home to live in a commune in 1970′s Sweden, and the influence and change they bring about to the group as a result. Read more

New Art / Olaf Breuning

May 10, 2011 | New Art | by Luke Rathborne |

Olaf Breuning’s work is illusory, magic, and funny. He is a Swiss-born artist based out of New York whose explosion of influences (from Slasher B-movie kitch to satanic cults) always manages to create something engaging. Read more

May 10, 2011 | New Art | by Luke Rathborne |

Bas Jan Ader was one of those mysterious artists who wasn’t with us for very long. The visual work he left behind is very brief but is not easily processed or forgotten. His final work, In Search of the Miraculous, in which he attempted to set sail around the world in a tiny one-man schooner, would be his last. His sailboat washed ashore near the coast of Ireland ten months later, with no one inside it.

New Music / Chris Bell’s I Am The Cosmos

May 10, 2011 | New Music | by Luke Rathborne |

Chris Bell’s I Am the Cosmos was assembled posthumously by friends and family members and is a stunning record. I encourage everyone to seek it out. Chris Bell is usually associated as the other musical brother-half of 70s cult band, Big Star (Alex Chilton being the former). But he left some very beautiful music of his own in his wake. My favorite track on Bell’s record is Look Up [listen below], a starry-eyed heart song to a seeming lover, only until it’s revealed to be a thinly-guised ode to Jesus Christ.

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