Not like I need any more convincing on this subject, quite frankly, but I was reading the recent issue of Spin and smirked at this review of Billy Corgan’s December 3 LA Smashing Pumpkins show where he figuratively spits in the faces of fans. His response to fans screaming “Billy, I love you”? “Last time I checked, I was nobody’s bitch.” Way to mock your audience, Billy.
Artist: Leopold and His Fiction Album: Ain’t No Surprise File Under: Vintage Rock Recommended if You Like: The Doors, The Black Keys, White Stripes Featured Track: “Broke”
I could sit you down right now, play this entire album and tell you it was a long lost 70s re-issue from some obscure San Francisco rock band and I bet you wouldn’t bat an eye. The San Francisco trio’s sophomore release, Ain’t No Surprise, takes their love of classic rock and all things vintage and spins it into a thoroughly enjoyable album from start to finish. An amalgamation of 70s rock influences, the band concocts a stripped down, bluesy, southern-fried psych rock sound reminiscent of some of the great bands of that era – from The Doors to the Allman Brothers and Bob Dylan.
Listening to the album, it’s hard not to compare lead singer Daniel James’ gritty vocals to Jim Morrison. I swear he’s channeling Mr. Mojo Risin’ himself on “Hawk Eyes”. And with the carnival-like organ swirling through“Broke” it’s hard not to draw a comparison to The Doors. While the influences are everywhere, the band never imitates. Their sound is definitely that of a bygone era. But in this day and age of 80s synth pop revival, it’s a refreshing one.
Don’t miss Leopold and His Fiction play Bottom of the Hill March 10! To get a taste of what’s to come, check out this video of their recent performance at Sundance this year.
And so the age of imagination begins. While it may look like my boy is seriously lacking in table manners, he’s actually pretending to be a kitty-cat. Kitty-cat Judah to be exact. He mews, crawls around on all fours, likes to be petted and – most importantly – insists on being served a bowl of milk. Preferably, he’d be drinking from the bowl off the floor, but we had to draw the line somewhere. So here he is lapping up the leftover milk from his cereal bowl. I try not to get too disturbed by these episodes and instead focus on the positive aspects – like his creativity and commitment to character. Who knows, maybe he’ll be a respected character actor like Philip Seymour Hoffman one day.
In case you were wondering why San Francisco isn’t a beach town, you can add this to your list. A ruptured sewage pipe in Marin County has leaked more than 500,000 gallons of stinky, bacteria-laden raw sewage into the San Francisco Bay this week. Thanks to this brave soul, the leak has been fixed – temporarily. (Oh joy.) Apparently this isn’t the first time this has happened to Marin sewage plants either. While the news of this event is horrific and disturbing, I can’t help but muse over the fact that our Bay is being consistently contaminated with the shit of thousands of environmentally enlightened Marin County residents. Irony is not dead people.
…dance! And so we did at Flaunt Magazine’s private party at Ghostbar featuring Diplo. It’s not my typical genre of music but I do respect the influential and innovative DJs/producers on the scene taking music to new places. Diplo is certainly one of them and most notably accredited for bringing the Brazilian musical genre funk carioca to the United States. My friend Vichelle was putting the hard core press on him to spin at Burning Man next year and by the end of the evening was seemingly convinced. So if he shows up on the schedule, you can all thank her personally.
Welcome to MAGIC people. I’m here in Las Vegas for the mac daddy convention and marketplace for the fashion industry. It’s the show where buyers from around the country come to source fashions for their stores. I’m here as part of the inaugural eco-fashion initiative, which I can tell you is about the only enlightened entity of this show. Everything else is just plain schlock. Hideous to be more exact. The most pathetic display of fashion I’ve seen in a long time was the Men’s marketplace. How much longer do we have to endure the embellished, silk screened woven shirt, T-shirt and jeans? Perusing the industry’s bulk of designers in one fell swoop revealed it’s only become more gaudy and tasteless. Witness the representative buyers of said merchandise. America’s curators of fashion. Bringing the worst of fashion to a retail outlet near you.
Kudos to Stockholm Sweden’s Fever Ray for producing another extremely compelling video I can’t seem to take my eyes off of. Karin Dreijer Andersson is so Bjork. Their debut eponymous album is out now.
the OCMD 