Standing at the back of the Supperclub dance floor the bass rattles my chest like an old truck washboarding down a Mexican dirt road. I like it. There are people everywhere, packed in and each more obnoxious than the next. As I stand there observing, a girl in 6 inch heels steps squarely on my big toe. I yelp out loud. Caravanning waitresses caring bottles of vodka stream through the crowd bottles held high adorned with mega sparkler flares burning bright as if to announce the coming of a new king. The crowd pulsates with excitement anticipating Dim Mak founder, DJ extraordinaire Steve Aoki’s “Wonderland” DJ set celebrating the release of his highly anticipated, heavily cameod album.
Author Archives: Mike Bucher
Art The Art of #OWS
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several months, you’ve heard of “Occupy Wall Street” and the subsequent “Occupy” movement.
The first campers at Zuccatti park sparked the involvement of many including serious graphic designers and artists who took to their medium of choice to powerfully express themes, ideas and statements.
The following are a handful of the most prominent pieces circumnavigating the interweb since September. The first image after the jump is by ChinaShop’s own Molly Crabapple who’s “Starve the Vampire Squid” piece was also recently featured in Rolling Stone.
Featured Oddity A Green Christmas: Tree Etiquette for the 21st Century
The holidays give us a great opportunity to flex our “sustainability muscles” like He-Man or Xena the Warrior Princess and we can start with doing right the predominant cultural centerpiece of the American living room, the Christmas tree.
My boss came to work Monday excited about her past weekend, having set up her synthetic tree. She has been using it for several seasons now, and she told me that if you use it 9 times or more, it’s impact on the world is less harsh than that of cutting down a real living tree each year. This got my mind wondering… Was this true? Is a re usable plastic tree more sustainable than a single use living tree? What is the best way to recycle both real and synthetic trees? I decided to do some research and report back. The following is what I discovered.
Music These Are The Breaks: How to Scratch a Record 101
Ever wonder how the heck certain DJ’s make scratching records sound so good? Want to learn how to make that record talk? Well, DJ Tina T and DJ Spider have united forces to teach you just this.
In their recently released YouTube video, hosted by DJ Cheapshot, the two world class DJs take turns sharing their secrets, the tricks of the trade if you will, with you… for free. So, without further ado, here is the video (after the jump). Enjoy.
Characters Gallery Hungry? Halloween Never Tasted so Good (HARD Characters Gallery)
Boo! Did I get you? Well, either way, we all know that “it,” Halloween, only happens once a year and I think we can all agree that it brings out the kid in us. There is something great about dressing up and slamming sugar that never gets old, no matter what your age… plus we only get so many chances to let the weird out nowadays…
While exploring this past weekend’s HARD Haunted Mansion festival, ChinaShop managed to capture some weirdness as well as some of the kids in costume to share with you hoping it will keep your sugar buzz rolling a few more minutes. Enjoy, tallyho and happy Halloween.
Featured Gallery Music An International Cornucopia of Sound: Culture Collide
It’s safe to say that one thing all cultures have in common is music. There is something intrinsic to the sonic vibrations of voice, instrument, and song that we as humans are universally drawn to. It is something that transcends culture or race. It is something we all share.
This October, Filter Magazine’s 2011 Culture Collide Festival lived up to it’s name, bringing together musicians from 23 countries to play on one stage right here in the heart of Los Angeles, and successfully creating an international cornucopia of sound.
We at ChinaShop can’t hardly wait until next year’s Culture Collide, adventure but in the meanwhile, we thought we would tie up this years event with a little bow by offering you some of our favorite photographs of the people that made this event so special.
Music Surfer Bro Vs. Bed Intruder
ChinaShop isn’t really an action sports blog… In fact, we don’t cover sports… but we do cover BRO’S and in light of the huge southwest swell that just lit up our California coast, and since this is technically “music,” We’ll let it slide. Enjoy!
Gallery Music Shredding the Gnar with Lil Wayne
Releasing albums from prison, changing genre gears and putting out rock albums, shredding the gnar at skate parts, Lil Wayne, it seems, is scared of nothing. You’ve got to respect a man who refuses to play it safe, a man who abhors following a formula, a man who will strap on a helmet and hit the coping.
Music Phew… Tokyo Police Club Finishes 10 Covers Songs in 10 Days (From the past 10 Years), Vacation Ensues
Tokyo Police Club have just finished a marathon. Well, not literally. They did not run 26.2 miles but what they did do was successfully record 10 covers songs in 10 days (from the past 10 years). Quite a project if you can imagine the amount of work that goes into learning each song, re-creating it in your own manner, getting stuff to sound good, getting good takes, mixing, mastering… To put it plainly, these guys have just completed “the impossible.” If you ask me, TPC, the engineers at Red Bull Studios and everyone involved with the project deserves a vacation, or at least a couple days to basque in the glory of their achievement.
If you’ve been following along here on ChinaShop, you know that we’ve been with them each step of the journey, sharing the fruits of their labor with you each day at 10 am. And now that the ride is over and the journey complete, you can sit back, relax, and enjoy all 10 songs in one place, along with some ChinaShop exclusive pix of the boys in and around the studio working hard, and blowing off some much needed steam.
Music When your G6 is down, What you Gon’ do? Hitchhike? FEM has a “Man Up Moment”
The Far East Movement could have used a G6 yesterday when their tour bus broke down in the middle of the New Mexico desert, leaving them to thumb a ride back to civilization (seriously, this just happened). A rep from the band told TMZ that “the guys were traveling from Missouri to Phoenix when their bus died … stranding them 50 miles away from the nearest taxi service … which refused to send a car that far.”












