New Design / KAWS creme de corps

November 10, 2009 | New Design | by Michelle Wilding |

Random collaborations always come as a pleasant surprise. This time New York-based graffiti artist KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) has joined forces with lavish beauty product manufacturer, Kiehl’s, in a bid to raise money for non-profit art initiative RxArt. KAWS’ design adorns an exclusive line of Kiehl’s skin moisturizers, with all proceeds benefiting RxArt’s mission to install art pieces in US hospitals.

October 19, 2009 | New Film | by Andres Colmenares |

Cosmonaut is a feature film project by Riot Cinema Collective and the first participatory film in Spanish cinema to date. The project uses the Internet collaboratively under free Creative Commons licences and, with the help of viewers, aims to create alternative finance, creation and distribution platforms for independent films. By inviting viewers to be a part of the production process of the film and give them access to all content created, Cosmonaut intends to engage the audience and jointly develop a closer and more transparent relationship.

New Music / MC Wale Folarin

July 8, 2009 | New Music | by Michaella Solar-March |

More often than not, internet-only hip hop mix tapes are released by wannabe rappers whose lyrics and delivery are derivative and uninspired, and who’ll never get enough weight behind them for a full length release. 24 year-old Washington MC Wale Folarin is different. Mixed by one of New York’s best hip hop DJs, Nick Catchdubs, and produced by 9th Wonder and Mark Ronson (who signed Wale in 2007 to his Allido label), his latest offering Back To The Feature solidifies Wale as a confident, engaging lyricist with a true talent for cross-genre appropriations. Read more

New Music / The Almighty Defenders’ Bow Down and Die

July 8, 2009 | New Music | by Lost At E Minor |

This morning, Stereogum premiered the first slab of lo-fi gutter gospel from Vice Records super group The Almighty Defenders, a meeting of might between Atlanta garage goblins The Black Lips, Berlin-based soul punker King Khan, and Mr. BBQ himself, Mark Sultan. Conceived during the Lips’ Berlin exile (after their VBS documented ejection from India), the band’s self-titled debut is a madcap, liquor-drenched revival, a blissfully fucked up realization of one of garage rock’s most fitting collaborations. Bow Down And Die, the ‘booming, chivalrous third song’, is an off kilter, beer-swilling chant-along that borrows just as much from choral church music as it does from skuzzball rock n roll. We have the single available for free download via the Music Download section of the Lost At E Minor site [psst, it's in the third column]

New Fashion / Quiksilver’s Limited Collection

June 22, 2009 | New Fashion | by Casper Johansson |

Quiksilver’s Limited Collection, a premium extension of the main Quiksilver line featuring a collaboration with Disruptive Pattern Material and Hardy Blechman of Maharishi, debuted in Spring of 2007. The latest collection combines a sophisticated, minimalist aesthetic with nautical and military influences.

February 4, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |

77 BOADRUM, directed by Jun Kawaguchi, documents the now-legendary 7/7/07 performance in Brooklyn, New York, by the iconic Japanese band The Boredoms, along with … wait for it … 77 guest drummers. We spoke with Kawaguchi and asked him how difficult it was getting the audio sounding right with so much percussion going on: ‘It was just like doing 7777 pieces of a puzzle! It was the hardest, but also the happiest time ever. I wanted to show this “once in a lifetime” event to everyone who could not be there. And I wanted to show everyone how The Boredoms is the most special group in the world’. Read more

New Events / Suit Up at Melbourne’s QV

January 30, 2009 | New Events | by Zolton |

The Suit Up exhibition comprises a number of artworks from various Australian street, comic, and illustration artists, each of whom has applied their unique style to that ubiquitous — yet, rarely tapped — canvas, the playing card. The designs have been produced as giclee prints, signed and numbered by the artists, and are limited to 10 prints of each design. Real-size decks of cards have also been produced for sale. The Suit Up crew is a close-knit group of predominantly Melbourne-based artists who are passionate about Australia’s ‘low-brow’ art scene, which is more collaborative and less ego-driven than much of the the high-brow art world. The exhibition runs between February 13 and 25.

New Music / Luke Jackson’s debut album, And Then Some

January 27, 2009 | New Music | by Casper Johansson |

In the Spring of 2006, a seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Luke Jackson and Magnus Börjeson. Jackson had long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and the two songwriters finally met in Paris where Börjeson was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend, Jackson had accepted an invitation to record in Sweden, which he took up in January 2008. He set to work in the studio with Magnus on bass and Christoffer’s Brainpool bandmate Jens Jansson on drums. Upon his return to London, he sent the rough mixes of the songs to renowned London-based string arranger Robert Kirby (who has orchestrated works by Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, and Elton John). Kirby loved the songs and offered to write orchestrations for the album and accompany Jackson to Sweden to conduct the necessary recording sessions with nine players from Malmö’s Opera Orchestra. It is the collision of these two worlds which makes his album, And Then Some, so compelling. Densely layered guitars and vocal harmonies fuse with sweeping string lines, none of which ever draw the ear too far from what lies at the heart of Jackson’s music.

New Art / The Box Doodle Project

December 31, 2008 | New Art | by Gerry Mak |

When I was a kid, I used to make all kinds of things out of cardboard boxes – tanks, cars, houses, robots, etc. The Box Doodle Project invites people to do it all over again, recycling cigarette packs, tissue boxes, emptied care packages, and all manner of cardboard containers into works of art. Read more

Cool Websites / Uncyclopedia

December 22, 2008 | Cool Websites | by Francis Andrews |

Now, this is some funny stuff. Someone clearly found Wikipedia a little bit too tedious, a little bit humourless, and so created this breath of fresh air. It’s perhaps the most comprehensive database of bullshit available on the web; a valuable resource for vacuous conversation. Here’s a little excerpt of last week’s featured article, on the Golf War: ‘The Golf War is an ongoing military campaign which began on the 20 March 2003 with the multi-national coalition of the Allied nations who knew how to play golf (and therefore exempting Australia). Dwarfing most tours, the Golf War is the biggest and most controversial of golfing events. Prior to the war, Iraq’s alleged possesion of illegal clubs was claimed to pose a serious and imminent threat to Western national golfing laws.’ Oh, and apparently on this day in 1099, God passed the Enforced Hair Styling Act.

New Music / Dr John’s The City That Care Forgot

November 29, 2008 | New Music | by Francis Andrews |

Concept albums have always been a hit or miss affair, all too often to be taken with a pinch of salt. Some work brilliantly; many fall flat on their esoteric face. Dr John’s response to Hurricane Katrina is an intriguing album. Some is rousing, some depressing: it’s littered with political statements, perhaps too much at times but given it’s purpose the over-saturation isn’t surprising. Read more

New Events / Nobody Was Thirsty

November 17, 2008 | New Events | by Jenna Black |

The Nobody Was Thirsty project is a collaboration between Ivan Kane’s Café W as charity — water — and Australia’s own denim label, Nobody. The campaign aims to sell a signature, not-for-profit T-shirt, with all donations helping to fund the world’s water crisis. The sale of one T-shirt alone can provide two people in Africa with clean drinking water for twenty years, something the majority of us take for granted.

November 4, 2008 | Video | by Huna Amweero |

See, a video like this would confuse the Pussycat Dolls. It is a super hot-sexy video. But alas, no one is wearing skin-tight black latex pants, or skin-tight pink latex tops. I imagine them screaming at the television ‘where is all the skin! Skin!’ All five (or is it six?) Pussycat Dolls aside, this pairing is super cool. I love that Jack White finally got to do a Bond theme, and I think he’s done a great job on Another Way To Die. I also hear that he is going to work with Miss Keys on her next album. But for now we must be satisfied with watching this video over, and over, and over again.

New Trends / Raqs Media Collective

October 29, 2008 | New Trends | by Gerry Mak |

Multimedia art group Raqs Media Collective create striking installations dealing with their complex relationship to the changes happening in their home country of India. Their categorization based on national identity, however, would make them chafe, as they reject traditional notions of nation state. The main concept scrutinized by the group is modernity itself, and the so-called progress it embodies. Read more

New Trends / Collaborate with Spike Lee on a mobile film

October 11, 2008 | New Trends | by Casper Johansson |

I’ve just seen a fun Nokia clip about the making of a collaborative film to be directed by Spike Lee. The tagline is simple but direct: ‘For the people, by the people! No, we’re not establishing a democratic government, but talking about the latest Spike Lee film. Throw out the billion dollar Hollywood budget for production and do it all with your phone — special effects are definitely optional’. Intrigued? Check the site for details.