4.10.2011

J. Shoes Andrew Brogue Boot

I need a pair of summer boots and these are looking like a winner.

Britney Spears - "Till The World Ends"

Hate all you want to, this is a banger.



In the words of Ms. Funai, a legend in her own right, "B has a house with 12 rooms in it, and 6 of them are full of wigs that she snatched off of haters.  Legend."

Love it.

4.07.2011

Death Cab For Cutie - "You Are A Tourist"



Death Cab For Cutie released their newest single, "You Are A Tourist", last month and told us to expect something different from them with this new album.  Keeping in that same vein, DCFC announced that the video for their newest video would be filmed in one take and it would be broadcast live while it was filmed.  Check the video below.



I'm not sure how to feel about this new album.  I'm a huge fan of Ben's writing, with his love of the extremes and upbeat sadness.  The uncertainty comes from the fact that BG isn't really sad anymore.  For those unaware, he's married my personal crush object Zooey Deschanel since the release of their last album (don't worry, I've already worked through the pain), so he has absolutely nothing to be depressed about.  Here's how Sad Ben felt about marital bliss before:




"You said your vows and you closed the door on so many men who would have loved you more"


Amen to that.

We won't know for sure if he can still muster those emotions until Codes And Keys is released on May 30, but here's to hoping for the best.
I know my posts have gotten very infrequent, but it's just because I'm trying to force myself to get a social life, so I don't have as much free time.  I haven't given up on the two of you who actually care a little (I'm an optimist), just bear with me.

3.27.2011

3.20.2011

Cole Haan Air Colton Saddle

This is what Spring is about, folks.




True beauty lies in the details.

3.15.2011

Katharine Ross

I just watched "The Graduate" recently and couldn't stop thinking about what a special look Katharine Ross had.  Something about her looks so...sweet.  Almost chaste.



And it's not just her.  If you watch a movie from the era, there were a lot of girls with that indescribable saccharin look.  I feel like you don't see that anymore.

Sean Connery

Classic Swag.

3.10.2011

Timberland Earthkeepers City Boot

As a rule, I typically try to avoid Timberland boots entirely because, growing up in the inner city, I've had my fill, but these are kinda fresh.



via Urban Outfitters

3.09.2011



Blogger Will Oliver of We All Want Someone To Shout For wrote this really short essay that picks at a thought that I as both a music lover and psuedo-blogger have been toying with for a while: when is too much music too much?  It's kind of an oddly disturbing thought to me.  At exactly what point is too much enough, especially when it's something you love?  And how much longer can we keep going before we hit that point?  Check it out.

Read here.

And for good measure, take this upbeat music video.  It'll make me feel better.


The New Pornographers: Crash Years from Rockonlelkek Staff on Vimeo.

New Childish Gambino EP



It's here and it's dope.  Stream all of Childish Gambino's new EP below.


Childish Gambino- Freaks and Geeks EP by blastyourmusic


I'm sorry, Drake who?


Download here.

3.03.2011

Cults - "Go Outside" (MTV Supervideo Version)



In an attempt to end over-told jokes about there no longer being a need for the M in MTV, they've created Supervideos.  SVs take songs by, at least so far, artists that MTV doesn't play and hires actors and directors to make music videos for them.

I suppose I appreciate the sentiment:  using the actor's star power to attract people to hear new music.  But there are a few problems.  First of all, the "stars" that they used for the video to Cult's fantastically dreamy-but-playful "Go Outside" are Emma Roberts (Julia Robert's neice of Disney channel "fame") and Dave Franco (James Franco's brother of Greek "fame" [seriously, no one watches that show] and also one of the new cast members who ruined "Scrubs").  The other problem is that the video kinda sucks.  Hard.  Watch below.



Favorite part: when they run because they see a Mexican.  Yea, that's what I do too.

Apparently the band agrees with me, because not only did they not promote the SV at all, but they went as far as to tweet that the real video is coming soon and that this is "just an MTV show", completely writing it off.  Burn.

**BONUS** - Also worth checking out, but this time because not only is the song dope but the SV features cutie Anna Kern: LCD Soundsystem's "Pow Pow".

Suede Raw Edge Biker Jacket by Alexander McQueen

Interesting.  Very interesting.




Look at that plaid detailing at the shoulder seams.


I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this just yet, but I'm leaning towards absolutely loving it.

via Mr. Porter

3.01.2011

I don't think I've ever seen a woman pull of a tux better than Kate Lanphear.  The secret?  Androgyny (which almost feels too obvious).  You go bitch.


via Stockholm Streetstyle

2.22.2011

Stream Lykke Li's "Wounded Rhymes"



Streaming full albums before they release seems to be all the rage these days.  Toro y Moi did it.  Radiohead did it.  Now it's Lykke Li's turn to give us the goods before Wounded Rhymes' March 1 release.

Stream here.

I've mentioned my love for Lykke Li before, and this album just piles it on.  My favorites so far?  "Sadness Is A Blessing".  Amen to that.

"I'm your prostitute.  You gon' get some."

2.18.2011

Stream Radiohead's "The King Of Limbs"


Radiohead is always full of surprises.  About a week ago, Yorke and company announced that not only was their new album completed, but they would be releasing a digital copy to anyone who pre-ordered the album on Saturday.  As in, tomorrow.  Awesome.

People buzzed about how cool it was that we would all experience a simultaneous eargasm (I'm paraphrasing) when everyone listened to the album at about the same time; something that is rare these days thanks to the inception of album leaks.

Then, just to prove they're no one's bitch (my words, not theirs), they sent out the digital copy a day early.  Needless to say, the album spread across the internet like wildfire.  And, quite conveniently, you can stream the whole album here.  Who loves ya, baby?

 Radiohead - The King of Limbs by ThePEAK

Bonus!  With the early release of the album, the ban also released a music video for the first single, "Lotus Flower".  It has Yorke doing awkward white boy dances.  You're welcome.



God bless you, Thom Yorke, you magnificent, wonky-eyed bastard.

Marilyn Monroe


Old school hotness.

Coldplay - "Strawberry Swing"

This video makes me very happy.  Go ahead and get all the inevitable "You know how I know you're gay" jokes (why is that still happening, anyway?) out of your system.  I fucking love Coldplay.


Coldplay - Strawberry Swing from Hatem Zekri on Vimeo.

2.14.2011

Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" Wins Album of the Year Grammy



In a rare moment of good judgment from National Academy of Recoding Arts and Sciences, Arcade Fire won the top honors, Album of the Year, at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

I'm pumped that my favorite album of the past year was recognized, but the thing that excites me the most about the win is the shear triumph.  Appreciate the weight of the situation.  AF beat out mainstream phenoms Lady GaGa and Katy Perry, rap icon Eminem, and the airwave-invading Lady Antebellum.  All of these artists were constantly played on TV and radio.  Persistent exposure.  I can almost guarantee you that you've never heard Arcade Fire on the radio or seen their videos on TV (even though they're amazing).  The indie voice was heard loud and clear tonight, and it was beautiful.

Another beautiful moment:  after hearing that they won, lead singer Win announced that they were gonna play another song on the spot in celebration (and "because [they] like playing music"), and immediately burst into "Ready To Start".  This is what musicians look like, folks.

Celebrate with me by listening to "Month Of May", the track they played just before their win, and the aforementioned "Ready To Start".

 Month Of May by axfight

 Arcade Fire - Ready To Start by Lucky_Vitoria

2.12.2011

Swaine Adeney Brigg Classic Kit Bag

I feel like this is the kind of bag Sherlock Holmes would carry.



$3500.  Damn you, J. Crew.

Childish Gambino - Freaks and Geeks



CG just released another track from his upcoming EP, entitled "Freaks and Geeks".  This is the hardest I think I've ever heard him go, but with lines like, "Are there Asian girls here?/Minority Report!" and a particularly hard punchline about waffles, it's still got that Childish charm.  I have no idea what it's going to be named yet, but the EP should be out in "about a month or so", and the anticipation is getting kinda heavy.  Listen.

 Freaks & Geeks - Childish Gambino by GBZGBZ

Sick.

I've never really been into fur.  I'm not really an animal rights activist or anything, it's just not me.  But, everytime I see this picture in my blog roll, I think about how hot I would look in this vest and it makes me a little light-headed.

-via The Sartorialist

2.11.2011

Erykah Badu - "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long"



Erykah Badu is an artist who has been praised the world over for her music, but because of her post-1994 Afrocentricity and penchant for weirdness, I feel like people overlook one other thing:  she's damn pretty.

General rule of thumb:  Never question Three Stack's judgment.

See her new video for "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" below.


Erykah Badu - Gone Baby, Don't be Long from beeple on Vimeo.


Badu's latest album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh is a phenomenal addition to her catalog.  For good measure, here's the controversial music video to my favorite song from the album, "Window Seat".


Erykah Badu "Window Seat" from triggerhappy on Vimeo.

Toro Y Moi - "New Beat"

If you troll the indie music blogs even casually, you've no doubt seen the unsettling (at least to me, it is) album cover for Toro Y Moi's Underneath The Pine.  Despite the barrage of hype, the album actually doesn't come out until the end of the month, which speaks to how good the tracks that have been released already actually are.  Here's the very recently released video for the newest track "New Beat".


Toro Y Moi - "New Beat" (Official Video) from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.


Does this remind anyone else of those pictures of STDs they showed us back in Health class?

Be sure to check out Underneath The Pine when it drops on 2/22.

**EDIT** - Thanks to Urban Outfitters, you can stream the album in it's entirety here.  Love it.

2.10.2011

GANT Spring/Summer 2011 Living Lookbook



Some of these styles are a little hit or miss (varsity jacket with giant baseball player graphic on the back is a no-no), and I swear that Bastian has been trying to sell that same pair of $2000 destructed khakis for the last 3 years or so.  I mainly just like the whole idea of the living lookbook.  Meh.

Chiddy Bang - Rebel



New track from Chiddy Bang's upcoming album The Swelly Life.  Check it.

Chiddy Bang - Rebel by Pretty Much Amazing

2.06.2011

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?


A couple of days ago, comedian Michael Ian Black tweeted that "Listening to 80s music is great for an hour or so.  Not sure how we did it for a decade."  He's got a point.  After a while, things you start to feel sick, like when you eat too much candy.  Too much of a good thing, I suppose.  That being said, I could listen to The Smiths for hours.  Morrisey's not-really-good-but-somehow-amazing vocals give me hope that one day I can be a frontman despite my voice, or lack thereof.  (I'd have dope stage presence.  You don't even know.)  I feel like if I was born a few years earlier on in the 80s, I would have needed The Smiths just to make everything else more palatable.  Here's one of my favorites by them.  You may recognize it as the theme song to the show "Charmed".

 How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths by ruinednation

...and here's Death Cab For Cutie covering another great Smiths song, This Charming Man:



Interesting fact:  Mexican gangs are really into The Smiths.  It makes me wonder if they're aware of the homosexual overtones.

1.28.2011

Minka Kelly


Why, hello there.


I don't do sports, but it would seem that when it comes to hot girlfriends, Derek Jeter is batting a thousand. (See what I did there?)

via GQ

1.27.2011

This picture fills me with pride.  I love seeing black guys with real style.  We're getting there.  Jay-Z put it pretty succinctly when he said, "...niggas acting way too tough.  Throw on a suit.  Get it tapered up."  Amen.


via The Sartorialist

1.26.2011

Make a difference. Sign the petition.

via Change.org

"Thousands of people across the country have asked (Ohio) Gov. Kasich to pardon Kelley Williams-Bolar, an Akron, Ohio woman sentenced for sending her daughters to school in a district where they did not have residency.

Williams-Bolar was jailed, given 80 hours of community service and slammed with three years of probation after she was convicted of falsifying residency records so that her two daughters could go to school in nearby Copley, Ohio, where her father lived. Williams-Bolar, an African-American single mother, lived in public housing in Akron.

Williams-Bolar maintains that she was worried about her children's safety and never meant to deceive school officials. Even if she did do something illegal, forcing jail time on a mom trying to give her children a better life is a senseless punishment. Even worse, her felony conviction could cripple her career as an educator is in danger. Currently just classes away from a teaching degree, she works as a special education assistant. As a convicted felon, she'd be barred from teaching in Ohio."



This is some baby back bullshit. My parents did the exact same thing for me and I would have been soooo much worse off if they hadn't. Sign the online petition below in hopes of getting her pardoned so that her life isn't ruined just so that some dickhead can make an example of her.

Lykke Li - "I Follow Rivers (Dave Sitek Remix)"


For the uninitiated, Lykke Li is an indie goddess.  Li's new single "I Follow Rivers" got the remix treatment from TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.  Listen/download below.

Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers (Dave Sitek Remix) by Pretty Much Amazing

Also check out a couple of older Lykke Li tracks that made her debut Youth Novels one of my favorites.  First, there's "Little Bit", a fantastic song about the vulnerability you feel when you realize that you just fell in love.  (Also great: the line "For you, I'd keep my legs apart".  Yes please.)

 Little Bit by LykkeLi

Second is "I'm Good, I'm Gone", which is her refusal to be set back by love.  I love the sentiment.  Watch the vid which has Lykke doing weird dances and female bodybuilders playing the drums for no discernible reason.


Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

And be sure to check out Lykke Li's sophomore album Wounded Rhymes on March 1.

Love this bitch.

1.20.2011

Girls In Men's Clothes

For those of you who were unaware, it's Men's Fashion Week in Milan and things are looking good.  That is, until Jean Paul Gaultier (the guy who's cologne has a bottle shaped like a sailor) showed his new line.  It's full of the weird, like wetsuits and jackets that very well may be made out of gold, but that's not all that shocking. It's the runway.  It's ok to be a little grandiose.  The thing that raised my eyebrow was JPG's need to blur gender lines by putting his male models in things like skirts and (gasp) fishnets.


Now don't get me wrong, I'm not totally against guys wearing certain women's pieces.  For instance, depending on your build, you have to get women's skinny jeans if you want them to actually be skinny.  But guys just can't pull off most of women's style, because it takes that feminine touch to make them work.  I mean come on, a pencil skirt is all but pointless on a guy.

Alternatively, that same delicate touch is exactly what makes it so endearing when the tables are turned.  And I don't just mean when a girl puts on your shirt the morning after (even though that's damn sexy), I'm talking layers, folks.

Granted: being cute from jump helps you pull off the look a bit better.



Ladies, take note.

Adele feat. Childish Gambino - "Rolling In The Deep (Jamie xx Remix)



One of my idols teams up with one of my favorite songstresses?  My God, life is awesome.

 Adele - Rolling in the Deep (Jamie xx remix) ft. Childish Gambino (wemakeitbetter) by JThunder


Fresh.

1.18.2011

Das Racist's Heems Remixes "Teenage Dream"

 VS. 


What a weird day for music.  First, there was that Kesha track that Three Stacks made worth listening to (almost), and now this.  Das Racist's Heems took Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream", slowed it down, and rapped over it in his too-cool-to-care monotone.  Listen/Download below.

Das Racist's Heems x Katy Perry - Teenage Dream by Pretty Much Amazing

She looks like a sluttier version of Zooey Deschanel, so of course, I dig.