Nicole Pajer | ChinaShop

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Art Featured Stay Hungry: Rankin Gallery

February 3, 2012 - 10:30 am

If Britain’s esteemed photographer, Rankin, had a mantra, it would be that art is more fun when it teeters on the scandalous side. The renowned portrait and fashion photographer is known for his sassy shots of celebs like Heidi Klum, Liv Tyler, Britney Spears, Kate Moss, David Bowie, and more. After years of turning heads in the UK, Rankin decided to grace the United States with a rotating collection of his last 20+ years of working behind a lens. Due to it’s progressive and continuously creative landscape, Rankin chose to launch his first stateside venture in Los Angeles.

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Featured Gallery Music Enter The Welcome Inn Time Machine… Now

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

February 2, 2012 - 10:00 am

Earlier this week, Eagle Rock’s modest little Welcome Inn transformed into a historic music fest. To celebrate experimental music that originated in Southern California between 1949 and 1977, The Society for the Activation of Social Space Through Art and Sound (SASSAS) booked mini concerts inside the rooms of the two-story motel. The idea was to give Los Angeles music fans the opportunity to enjoy a variety of musical styles simultaneously and sequentially in a single location across a 6-hour time span.

As guests arrived, they were greeted by a second story balcony performance of Free Jazz: Something Else! based on Something Else! The Calder Quartet was up next, playing the music of Arnold Schoenberg on violins, a viola, and cello.

The evening consisted of 8 motel rooms of various musical expression. Our favorites were as follows:

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Featured Gallery Music Wallpaper Gets You #STUPiDFACEDD

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

January 30, 2012 - 1:54 pm

If you haven’t yet heard of Wallpaper., it’s time to tune in. Since being selected as MTVs PUSH Artist of the week, the innovative quartet, fronted by vocalist Ricky Reed, has been skyrocketing in popularity. The band is known for their hit single, #STUPiDFACEDD, which catalyzed a Twitter hashtag sensation and landed the band on Top 40 radio stations across the country. Wallpaper. recently packed Los Angeles’s El Rey theatre and treated a captivated audience to their signature “booty-shaking-bass-dropping hits.”

ChinaShop caught up with Wallpaper. following their recent stop in LA. Check out the interview after the jump:

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Art Gallery Parking Lot Pieces / Sub-Standard Art

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

January 30, 2012 - 10:43 am

People flock to West Hollywood’s The Standard Hotel for it’s chic atmosphere, exclusive lounges, and A-list pool parties. Last Tuesday, however, the famed hotel’s parking lot was the place to be.

As part of the ongoing celebration of the birth of the L.A. art scene, LAXART transformed The Standard’s parking garage into a dynamic performance art gallery. The project was a collaborative effort by Warren Neidich and Elena Bajo and included a group of locally recognized artists who came together to create this “choreography on wheels.” To the artists, the parking garage represented a site of unlimited temporal potential “where multiple times and spaces collide.”

After entering The Standard, we were escorted to the back of the hotel and sent down an industrial flight of stairs. We walked through the door and into the parking garage to find over 20 artists in action. Every parking space had it’s own artistic twist. Here were some of our favorites:

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Music The Sound of Sisters: The Pierces

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

January 26, 2012 - 10:52 am

We recently had the opportunity to sit down and get to know the sisterly duo of Catherine and Allison Pierce. If there is an award to be given for musical perseverance, these two deserve it. After three records and 10 years of making music together, the Pierce sisters were ready to throw in the towel and attempt their own solo projects. In the final hour, Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman stepped up and expressed interest in hearing their new demos. Berryman took The Pierces under his wing and produced their groundbreaking forth album, “You & I.” The ladies recently signed with Polydor Records and finally feel at home with a label that believes in them.

In the lobby of West Hollywood’s Andaz Hotel, Allison joked about continuously breaking her Kindle as Catherine told her somber tale of someone beating her to the house she had planned on moving into. The girls explained that listening back to their earlier tunes makes them proud of how far they’ve come and that being role models to artists who haven’t made it yet has it’s pros and cons.

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Featured Gallery Music Keeping Rock Alive: Dead Sara

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

January 24, 2012 - 11:29 am

Dead Sara has been busy since we spoke with them last year. The female-fronted four piece has been packing in venues, exponentially growing their fanbase, and just finished recording their highly anticipated new album. Dead Sara was recently selected to be featured artist on this year’s Warped Tour and has been enjoying success on popular rock radio stations throughout the country.

We recently caught up with vocalist Emily Armstrong who explained that 2012 is shaping up to be the band’s best year yet.

Check out our conversation with Emily as she discusses being a female vocalist in a male dominated rock world, items in her tour survival kit, and the band almost being named Masturbation Salvation:

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Music Brother of the Jackal: You Can’t Tame Iran’s “The Yellow Dogs”

by Nicole Pajer

January 23, 2012 - 1:32 pm

Bands that perform in Iran must have permission from “The Ministry of Islamic Culture,” a task that is not easy to accomplish. After ruling this out as a possibility, The Yellow Dogs decided to risk imprisonment, fines, and lashes in order to perform their “Satanic” tunes. They began holding band practices on a rooftop which they sound proofed with garbage and started packing in the crowds at their “secret” underground basement shows.

After several years of gaining popularity as a rebellious Iranian band, The Yellow Dogs moved to New York and have been enjoying the freedom to perform without constantly looking over their shoulder. Lead singer/guitarist Obaash recently spoke with ChinaShop about “not giving a rat’s ass” about the laws in Iran, getting arrested for having long hair, and feeling at home in Brooklyn.

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Gallery Music Idle Warship Strikes Amoeba

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon

January 13, 2012 - 10:36 am

Anything Talib Kweli does deserves attention. When Jay-Z and 50 Cent deem you their “favorite rapper,” you know you’re doing something right. The hip-hopping all star’s latest endeavor, Idle Warship, is a collaboration with vocalist extraordinaire, Res. After working together on Talib’s extensive catalog of studio releases, the two got together to experiment with new sounds.

Talib and Res took the stage at Amoeba Music in Hollywood on Wednesday, verifying to the crowd that venturing past their musical comfort zones was a glorious decision on both of their parts. The duo, backed by a full live band, performed songs off their recent release, Habits of The Heart. Talib took a moment to thank the crowd for supporting both of their solo careers over the years and explained that his goal for Idle Warship is to “create something new and entertaining but to have fun at the same time.”

The duo entertained shoppers with compelling lyrics such as “Check 1, 2. We are live. Back it up like a hard drive.” In the midst of an energetic stage show, Res debuted her brand new flip cam. Talib playfully accused her of being “about 3 years behind the times” while she proudly aimed it at the audience and fellow on stage musicians throughout various points in the performance (we were standing in the front row and are totally ending up on You Tube).

Check out our interview with Idle Warship after the jump:

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Art Featured Gallery Broken Dreams and Fairy Wings

by Nicole Pajer and Dustin Downing

January 11, 2012 - 5:16 pm

The Hive Gallery recently launched a joint art show featuring the renowned Renee Lawter and her talented husband Jeff Lawter. The show, “Broken Dreams and Fairy Wings,” focuses on living in a world of environmental imbalances and man-made destruction. In addition to the gallery being the first major collaboration between the husband and wife duo, it features the couple’s first collaborative painting, “Broken.” Individual works include Renee’s vintage framed watercolors, which incorporate her trademark cuddly monsters, while Jeff’s ink and dyes on wood portray powerful messages and call out injustices.

ChinaShop recently sat down with the artistic couple to discuss the challenge of combining their very different styles and plans for future art shows together.

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Art It’s a Jungle Out There (Robots with Donuts)

by Nicole Pajer

January 6, 2012 - 8:31 am

Every artist has his calling card and for Eric Joyner, it’s robots… and donuts. Joyner’s pop-surrealism works featuring giant tin robots traveling through space, pastoral landscapes, and urban environments have caught the eye of many an art lover, and are a favorite of writer/director/producer extraordinaire, J.J. Abrams. A member of the San Francisco and New York Society of Illustrators, Joyner has created illustrations for the likes of Mattel, Microsoft, and Showtime. In addition, he’s displayed his signature robot and donut paintings at worldwide galleries and cultural institutions, including San Jose’s Museum of Art.

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