February | 2010 | ChinaShop

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Music You Say Party! We Say Die!

February 9, 2010 - 11:19 am

Got a feeling if I were to find out what YSP!WSD!‘s influences were, I’d probably say WTF… if anything, the music conjures up a plethora of somber visuals, both through the spectral wailings of Becky Ninkovic — songs like “Laura Palmer’s Prom” obviously denote the Angelo Badalamenti influence and images of the dead teenager’s body washed ashore in Twin Peaks. If that’s not obscure enough a reference, there’s also a Robert Smith-era Siouxsie and the Banshees sound here, both in the guitar and the vocals.

You Say Party! We Say Die! – Dark Days

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Art/Design Gallery A Night at the Peterson Automotive Museum

by Barbie Brady

February 8, 2010 - 3:10 pm

I generally have little interest in cars. My expertise in that matter stops after being able to distinguish between a SUV and hatchback, pick up truck and 4 door sedan. If given my powers of observation to rely on, after being asked what someone was driving I am apt to answer by color only, the “blue truck” or the “white car”. After that..I’m just not that connected to what one drives.

So it may shock you that I spend the day at the Peterson Automotive Museum and I fell in love with it. The museum, located on the Miracle Mile on Wilshire blvd in LA is a sweet reminder of days gone by. Being a big fan of the diorama, the Peterson really displays vehicles in settings that those cars would call home. It welcomes you to take a stroll down long gone roads in quaint towns near and far. Their collection encompasses examples of the wacky to the classic. From the outrageous to the undiscovered.

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Fashion Spring Flirt

by Gala Darling

February 8, 2010 - 11:43 am

For most of us, the day of the first Spring blossoms is one of the best days of the year. It signifies an end to the bone-chilling temperatures & incessant layering-up, & beckons with a finger full of promise. The end of dumpling-wear! Rejoice!  With this, of course, come the questions. What can we expect to see ourselves in this season? After all, no matter how little you like fashion, what is in style dictates what is available for purchase.  The recent Spring 2010 collections shown in Paris are the best indication of where the industry is at. So, where is it at?

Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld’s “neon baroque” collection for Chanel will surely be a huge influence. He has taken what was already mid-revival — say, studded footwear & oversized hair-bows — & simply done it better than everyone else. While most of us have just been wearing a big floppy bow on the side of our heads, he has made them ornate & frothy, & placed them smack in the middle of a heart-shaped bouffant. He has combined a high-heeled bootie with a studded platform (two huge trends in & of themselves), but made the shoe entirely silver with an extravagant heel & jewel-encrusted buckles. While Chanel’s immaculate & easily identifiable cuts are still there, they’re in frosting hues: pastel pink & sweet lavender, with glittery silver & shimmering grey-blue. Just like a couture cupcake.

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Music Hot Chip Off the New Block

by Shop Keeper

February 5, 2010 - 2:01 pm

While they’re dubbed as an ‘indie electronica’ outfit, Hot Chip is (also like so many others) a conglomeration of several different beats and styles and techniques. Perhaps what’s most unique about them is their focus — mainly — is the variety of percussive tones here, many of which at first sound like something on a xylophone or a Casio keyboard. But forget the strictly drum-obsessed patterns and rhythms which so many electronica musicians focus on these days. Hot Chip eschews the hard-hitting electro beats or folkiness that so many indie artists focus on in exchange for something even more toned-down, perhaps even danceable, and also kind of just nutty (they’ve been known to conclude a concert now and then with a cover of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”). Eclectic and exciting, it provides for a much more interesting, though subtle musical palette that is better heard for oneself that explained in a barrage of bad adjectives…see for yourself on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Fashion Featured Gallery Hotties Throughout History: 30 Years of Pin-Up Fashion Show

by Zoetica Ebb

February 5, 2010 - 1:57 pm

Last week, the folks at The Art Deco Society of Los Angeles and Grand Vision Foundation combined their powers to create a unique fashion show at the opulent Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Hosted by Annamarie Von Firley, 30 Years of Pinup showcased eighty outfits paying tribute to the glamorous years. It was a beautiful presentation that felt just a little bit like time travel, but I was curious about how it all comes together. Before the show began, I spent a few hours wandering, mesmerized, around the gorgeous empty theater, chatting with hair and make-up artists, learning more about pin curls than I ever dreamed and finding out about San Pedro’s bustling cultural revival.

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Featured Music The 9th Wonder of The World Wakes up Memphis

by Nyah Nile

February 4, 2010 - 11:40 am

Maybe you’ve heard of Patrick Douthit, also known in the Hip-Hop world as 9th Wonder. Maybe you’ve even met 9th Wonder, worked with 9th Wonder, or maybe you’re a long-time fan of 9th Wonder. If so, then you obviously know his catchphrase Oh the Pressure! whenever the heat is on again and it’s showtime.
Originally from North Carolina, 9th Wonder currently teaches a course called “Sampling Soul” at Duke University, which focuses specifically on music from the civil rights and black power movements. You might call him an enlightened social activist hip-hopper. He’s also one of those soulful cats who can come up with unique ways of intermingling his unique brand of music with a plethora of other genres. Also: He doesn’t consume beef or pork, but loves himself some turkey burgers.

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Music The Red Bull Music Academy Radio iPhone Application : Believe the Hype

by Shop Keeper

February 3, 2010 - 6:30 pm

The iPhone’s Red Bull Music Academy Radio application has turned into quite the event — iTunes App Store editors in Europe are already touting it as the next big thing to download, so add that to the already burgeoning list of Red Bull-related apps available online. What’s impressive about the application itself — and what’s pleasing so many of its newest fans — isn’t so much the sleek design or user-friendliness as its wide array of music: hundreds of genres are included here, from the latest in hip-hop, to indie, to old fashioned rock n’ roll.

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Fashion Street Style Round-Up

by Gala Darling

February 3, 2010 - 11:26 am

From New York City’s Upper East Side all the way to Helsinki & even New Zealand, street style photography is big business. With an internet culture fixated on immediate updates from the world of fashion, snapping pictures of well-dressed “real people” is one of the fastest ways for a photographer to create a name for themselves. The Sartorialist is an internet phenomenon, & he’s not the only one. Tommy Ton of JAK & JIL recently shot teen blogging sensation Tavi for Vogue Paris, while Craig of Altamira regularly shoots for the Vogue franchise. With books published, advertising campaigns secured & a rabid online fan-base, it seems like photography skills & an eye for style is a sure route to success.  But when it comes to really being inspired by street style, what are you most influenced by? The Sartorialist, Tommy Ton & Altamira all hang around outside fashion shows, shooting the cream of the crop — the men & women, editors & models who can afford (or are given) the very best in designer names. Most of us can’t afford that kind of luxury — so how much does what you see on those blogs really affect your day-to-day aesthetic?

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Music Amanda Blank: The Make It Take It Girl

by Shop Keeper

February 3, 2010 - 11:25 am

Amanda Blank is, in her own words, a “Make It Take It Girl”– an artist who’s built an impressive resume on blood, sweat, and tears and already at the tender age of 22 (or maybe 23 — no one’s really sure). Already renowned for her work with Ghostface Killa, M.I.A., and being featured (as a lot of ChinaShop’s acts seem to be as of late) on C.S.I., Amanda Blank’s name has clearly made the rounds with a fair share of hip-hop artists. Maybe it’s this sort of lumping-in that’s earned her the reputation as a rapper, about as appropriate a label as death metal! Sure there’s hip-hop (amongst other things) in there, but through listening to her music one gets an even greater sense of Amanda’s extensive palette of musical styles, ranging from not only R&B and hip-hop, but to 80′s new wave, bubblegum pop, catchy dance tunes and more. Red Bull Music Academy has more on her ever-expanding, multi-generic sense of style.

Music Hudson Mohawke…Stealing the gems of the Eighties

by Shop Keeper

February 2, 2010 - 1:01 pm

Hudson Mohawke is a series of wandering blips, beeps and noises coming from a collection of turntables and synthesizers from the days of yore — from Casio to Korg, from what sounds like theme to Airwolf to an almost stream-of-consciousness solo on an old-school synth. It honestly could remind you of anything from the soundtrack to any old NES game or like deluge from an old Phil Collins-era Genesis track. It’s no surprise then that “The Hawke” sports the 80s logos and wrestlers of the old WWF on his myspace page — and it’s apparent this is what the guy loves to do, imagine a world that was and shall forever be permanently 80s. Every soundtrack from every Jean Claude Van Damme movie of the time, every one-hit wonder that filled the radio and airwaves of MTV, re-imagined with a hipper sound. Check out Red Bull Music Academy Radio for more.

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