I don’t like Muse. I mean, I don’t dislike them either. I just don’t particularly find that their music speaks to me. So when I saw them live at Voodoo Experience I sort of went into it with next to no expectations. Being the headliner there must be added pressure to end things on a high note, so to speak. And I have heard time and again that their live show is down right legendary. Well shut my mouth and paint me a unicorn…the tales were true.
Deadmau5 is the guy who wears the giant mouse head and produces a dynamic combo of new dance, techno, electro and house music. Deadmau5 is also known for collaborating with other popular artists in his genre like, for example, Kaskade and Rob Swire. Once you get passed the giant mouse head and into his music it’s not hard on the ears.
Drake doesn’t do it for me. To illustrate what I mean, if I saw Drake out chillin’, I wouldn’t be salivating at the mouth. There would be no hopes of him approaching me to discuss how one of his songs was written for me and how we were meant to be together. Nope. He and I do not need to ‘Find Our Love.’
The arousal and appeal of Drake sexually is something I will never quite understand. And that hand of his? Let’s not even get into his spastic hand…
Emily Haines is a rock star. The Canadian lead singer of Metric owned the stage at the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans this past weekend. Her dynamic vocals, delivered perfectly made me embarrassed for those auto-tuning wannabees. Its refreshing to see an age of strong woman rockers emerging after such a miserable lull.
Gale Parker has played quite an amazing role in the history of the fashion world. She was a muse to style gods Valentino and Yves St. Laurent, a contributing editor at Andy Warhol’s Interview, Design Director for Ralph Lauren’s Woman’s Collection, and the youngest Fashion Editor at Vogue. Her earliest memories consist of mingling with fashion designers on vacations in Paris and searching for second hand treasures in New York thrift stores. Gale’s latest endeavor is her eco-fashion line, Clothespin, which offers stylish and individually designed dresses, blouses, and skirts that cater to woman of all body types. Her pieces are constructed from never before worn 1940’s vintage fabrics that Gale acquires from all over the world, vintage buttons, and frilly lace, which she blends together with organic yarns. Clothespin also features jewelry, boots, leather belts, scarves, purses, and other accessories hand-picked from places like India, Morocco, Thailand, Czechoslovakia, and Paris. Gale takes custom dress orders from the vintage fabric of her customer’s choice at her Melrose Avenue shop.
Gale graciously took time out of her extremely busy schedule to share some tales of her fabulous past and to discuss her new green collection, Clothespin:
A month-long residency at the Echo and a headlining slot at the Key Club during the Sunset Strip Musical Festival confirmed for the LA masses what us at ChinaShop have known for quite some time. Vanaprasta—the sometimes proggy, sometimes psychedelic, always rocking band with the name that’s really hard to type out—has officially arrived, and with a full-length debut already recorded and due for release sometime in 2011, they’re poised to break out big time. The boys were kind enough to snap some pics of their recent sojourn to New York for CMJ, while Cameron Dmytryk (guitars) and Taylor Brown (bass) sorted us out with an interview and an MP3 of “Minnesota,” a track off their album.
Johnny Love is such a cheerful name. It sounds like a happy-go-lucky radio announcer on one of those oldies stations. Little do you know that when you meet Johnny Love, he has a dark and mystical infatuation with skeletons, black cats, graveyards, spider webs, bats, ghosts, and witches. His favorite holiday is Halloween and he has dedicated a large portion of his life towards bringing his beloved dark side to life. He’s spent an unfathomable amount of money on frightening décor, has storage units filled with Halloween decorations, and his birthday and Christmas lists consist of ‘presents’ including antique radios, skulls, and vintage chandeliers.
After stops in New York and San Francisco, the Ninja Tune express finally rolled into Hollywood on Saturday the 30th, and the freaks were out in full force to wish the UK label a happy 20th birthday. ChinaShop contest winner and ultra Ninja fan Damien Higdon showed up to collect his wares, then stayed through to the end of a long night that featured 10 artists spread across two stages.
Each year on Oct 31, the freaks take over the streets of West Hollywood and turn Santa Monica Blvd into what is quite possibly the King Kong of all costume parties. This year, ChinaShop was there to capture the Chaos. Take a peak (if you dare).
This week, some great new releases…dance-punk duo Matt and Kim release their long-awaited follow-up to Grand; Huey Lewis takes the Train to Soulville; speaking of Train — they’ve released their long-awaited new one, Save Me San Francisco; speaking of San Francisco, The Bay Area’s Big Four (Metallica/Megadeth/Anthrax-well, N.Y. too/Slayer) have a DVD out of their joint performance overseas. Weezer carries the tongue-in-cheek flag proudly by proclaiming Death to False Metal. Til next week then…
Elvis Costello - National Ransom
Matt And Kim -Sidewalks
Huey Lewis & The News - Soulville
7 Walkers (Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann & Papa Mali) – 7 Walkers
N.E.R.D. – Nothing
Neil Diamond – Dreams
Good Charlotte – Cardiology
Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas II You
Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party
Brad Paisley – Hits Alive
Black Dub – Black Dub
Train – Save Me, San Francisco
Weezer – Death to False Metal
NOTA – NOTA
