Gallery interview Couture Cakes to Crave
August 17, 2010 - 9:45 am
“Everyone loves dessert. You could be the worst cook ever but if you pull through with dessert, you will always be popular,” states Claire Thomas, food stylist, personal chef, food photographer, blogger for The Kitchy Kitchen, and couture dolly cake baker. “I grew up always having these super wacky cakes around just because my mom is sort of an eccentric baker, as is my aunt – with both of them together, every birthday was crazy,” explains Claire Thomas as she escorts me into her kitchen at her family’s home in Brentwood. Once we arrive, sitting on the table is a China Shop inspired dolly cake – a blonde Barbie doll with frosted blue hair wearing a ball gown that is in the process of being decorated with pieces of broken white chocolate tiles in a blue and white broken china motif. Claire’s mother soon passed through the kitchen to which Claire affectionately exclaimed, “She’s the one who started this whole mess.”
interview Fitz (and The Tantrums) Talks About His Organ
June 28, 2010 - 3:38 pm
Fitz & The Tantrums have such an enchanting story…where ex-lovers become sources of inspiration, living rooms turn into cutting-edge recording studios, and tattoo artists become heroes. I got to hear it first-hand on Thursday as I sat in the hallway of the Dangerbird Records headquarters with Fitz himself for a quick interview before he had to run off to take the stage at Silver Lake’s “Hipster Haven” aka Spaceland. It was a delightful little interview. We were offered ice cream mid-conversation and at one point Fitz was even asked to serve as an interim security guard in the absence of the guest list girl.
interview Q and A With Manchester’s Delphic
June 24, 2010 - 10:42 am
Thursday night, Manchester’s own Delphic took the outdoor stage at Dangerbird Records to bestow the crowd below with the urge to dance. After a set perfectly infused with a wreath of synth, guitar, vocals, and drums, the boys headed backstage to relax, while coyly avoiding the crowd gathered around the television that was showing the last quarter of the Lakers game. It’s OK guys, we all know that “football” is the thing in the UK and doing an interview for China Shop over watching Kobe Bryant was a good enough excuse for me.
Featured Gallery interview Inside a Burlesque Queen’s Closet
June 16, 2010 - 12:13 pm
Amber Ray is one of the world’s top burlesque performers. She jets from Australia to Vienna’s Life Ball, leaving a trail of glitter in her wake. Amber’s a chameleon, known for her exquisitely surreal costumes. She’s been a lotus blossom and a danger-tape wrapped dominatrix, a peacock and the showgirl whose tassel twirling set off a raid of one of New York’s most infamous speakeasies.
For the first time ever, Amber lets fans peak inside her bulging closet. We dish on her art, her costumes, and her Swarovski crystal addiction.
interview Nerd Alert: Nar Williams… Too Tall To Fit in Your Local High School Locker
June 15, 2010 - 3:27 pm
Voted one of Wired.com’s “Top 150 Geeky Media People to Follow on Twitter,” Nar Williams has made quite the name for himself in the sci-fi and technology world. Although sci-fi and technology have a stigma of being… well… excruciatingly nerdy (insert pocket protectors here) – Nar’s new online series with Crave Online, Fanboy Funhouse, takes geek-chic to a whole new level. …Their set includes a giant blue playground SLIDE.
Described as “Pee-wee Herman meets Mystery Science Theater 3000,” Funhouse gives their audience the inside scoop on movies, games, comics, and all things that would make Patrick John Luc Picard do a cartwheel. Between waxing his blue playground slide for Funhouse guests to come flying down and sculpting his celebrated indie rock hair-do, Nar answered these questions for us…
interview General Elektriks Steps Out of the Background to Spread That Soul
March 24, 2010 - 12:23 am
Hervé “RV” Salters, the mastermind behind left-field soul project General Elektriks, never thought he would be more than a keyboardist and songwriter while living in his native Paris. All that changed when he made it to the States in 1999 and soon after began recording solo material (vocals included) under the GE alias on the renowned Quannum Projects. But while catching up with the humble Salters in Austin during the festival week, he recalls that the first time he grabbed the microphone to sing, it wasn’t pretty. “Brutal” are his exact words.
Music interview Dilla Director Discusses New Stussy Doc
March 3, 2010 - 11:26 am
In 2004, James Yancy (aka J Dilla) moved from Detroit, the city of his birth, to Los Angeles, the place he would call home until his death in 2006. Already a famed producer of chart topping hip-hop acts such as Common, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest, and The Pharcyde, Jay Dee reinvented himself and his sound in Los Angeles, striving for a rawer style that departed from his neo-soul roots.
Four years after his untimely passing, Dilla reputation has only grown. Last month, to commemorate what would have been his 36th birthday, legendary Los Angeles street wear company Stüssy held Dilla Day events across North America, celebrating the release of their limited edition tee shirt produced in collaboration with Stones Throw and the Dilla estate. The company also produced a mini-documentary focused on Dilla’s “second act” that took place in Los Angeles, and the connections he made with the city. Chinashop spoke with the creator of the three-part web series Adam Jay Weissman to learn more about this reverent project. Read Full Story
Gallery interview Tempo No Tempo : Redefining Noise Pop
March 2, 2010 - 11:52 am
Despite being unable to see every single band that played the Noise Pop Festival (which was pretty impossible), from what I witnessed, Tempo No Tempo seemed the best candidate for what Noise Pop represents: the perfect blend between the two words (and worlds). As a companion piece to the Dizzy Balloon interview — a band which represented a very different sound, more towards the pop end of the spectrum — I interviewed TNT outside Slim’s our first night there, just to get some insight to the songwriting of the band and the brains behind it.
Gallery interview Dizzy Balloon Makes Girls Go Wild
March 2, 2010 - 11:49 am
You’d think the guys in Dizzy Balloon were the latest incarnation of Paul, George, John and Ringo the way the girls were carrying on tonight! There was no fainting or ripping hair out of the head, though, which was kind of disappointing — just homemade sign-touting, hypnotized teenyboppers who stood as close as they could to oogle the band and sing along to every word. The perfect foil for Noise Pop’s Tempo No Tempo (see other interview), DB’s musicians looked to the classic rock bands of the 60s and 70s for inspiration, and whose proto-punk-pop sound had the crowd in a craze after a few short riffs.
Featured Music interview Kid Static: All Over the Place
February 11, 2010 - 11:11 am
Driving around Chicago with hip-hop eccentric Kid Static in his ‘95 Toyota Tercel (with a suped-up engine), there’s no mistaking how connected this adventurous MC/producer is to the people of his city. Going from a meeting at the headquarters of the new artist development resource site Veoba near Wicker Park to downtown and eventually back to his home studio in Humboldt Park, this towering dynamo doesn’t slack off. Admittedly, today is busier than average, but on this overcast afternoon he appreciates the opportunity to move his music forward and just talk with some of the many folks on the scene he has met over the past five years. During a brief stop at Kinko’s, Kid Static reveals that a trip he’s taking the following day to L.A. is actually a precursor for his move out West to expand his recording career. While surprising news, it also makes this day around his city all the more significant.
Yea Big and Kid Static – The Nameless
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