It’s been about a year since I first heard the enchanting song “Starry Eyed,” written and performed by new UK sensation, Ellie Goulding. Back then, I wouldn’t have guessed that Goulding’s music would experience so swift a rise to the top, but that’s precisely what’s happening–and how! The song’s debuted at #4 in the UK Charts, and her freshman album, Lights, is poised to be her first #1 album come Sunday, too.

What is it about this 23-year-old singer/songwriter’s tunes that’s taken the charts by storm? It’s probably got something to do with a winning combination of catchy lyrical content and even catchier melodies. Every track feels like a peek into Goulding’s diary of diverse and complicated experiences, and with each new song comes a chorus you can’t help but get hooked on. And it makes sense: this British charmer’s had years of experience enthralling audiences with her tunes. She began playing guitar as a teenager, and her passion for music only grew while she attended the University of Kent. Before long, the pull she felt toward making it in the music industry was too strong, and she moved to London in lieu of finishing school. There, she teamed up with producer Starsmith to concoct her debut album, Lights, which brings together acoustic folk and electronic beats. For me, stand out songs are the buzz single “Under the Sheets,” and the romantic “The Writer.” DJs Jakwob and Russ Chimes have already produced remixes of her first two singles, the tracks finding a life of their very own and bringing Goulding’s music to new ears and environments.

Ellie placed first in the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll and was awarded the Critic’s Choice at The Brits last month. These kinds of pre-release accolades might intimidate most people, but Goulding is really pleased with the work she’s produced, as well she should be. I hold that Lights is one of the better albums to have appeared on the scene in 2010, and Goulding’s future is so bright I would definitely advise the use of shades.

A significant departure from previous Blackberry devices, the Bold 9000 proved that Research In Motion could make stylish smartphones on par with those of Apple or Nokia. After three years of committed iPhone use, I bought the Bold 9000 in December 2009 and spent a month learning the intricacies, strengths and weaknesses of the Blackberry OS. After using the 9000 for a month I upgraded to the Bold 9700, a newer model designed to address lingering consumer complaints of earlier phones and become the flagship Blackberry model. While there are definitely scads of advantages to this new iteration of Blackberry device, a long run at the front of the pack is probably not in its future.

The 9700’s slimmed down physique puts it close to the 8900 in terms of size and weight. The condensed keyboard of raised keys and lots of travel space should appeal to Curve and Pearl users, but Bold fans like myself will miss the Cadillac spaciousness of previous models. The physically smaller screen features increased resolution that delivers sharper images and clearer text than other Blackberry phones. Another significant design alteration is the removal of the trackball in favor of an optical pad, which may take some longtime users a little getting used to. And with double the internal memory of other Blackberry models and a 1500mAh battery, the 9700 withstood two days of constant emailing, internet surfing, messaging and voice calling before dipping down to 20%, my threshold for charging.

Photo Courtsey of RIM

One of the most overlooked aspects of a smartphone is its telephone capabilities. In this capacity the 9700’s sound quality was much better than the mushy audio of the iPhone 3GS and favorably comparable to the Nokia E71, my AT&T voice quality champion. The 3G signal has been consistent throughout the New York City metro area. However, with an overall sluggish internet experience, I’d recommend using the Opera Mini or Bolt web browsers for faster surfing. Configuring gMail, POP3 work emails and Google apps was impressively easy and required no server maintenance, with the phone delivering emails faster than any other service.

As a microcosm of the Blackberry platform, the 9700 offers a thoroughly dependable yet rapidly aging smartphone OS, coasting on the momentum of its popularity. Over all, Research In Motion makes superbly crafted devices that incrementally improve upon themselves, but which fail to provide true innovation. Longtime Blackberry users will find a lot to love with the 9700, but to happy Bold 9000 owners I’d recommend finding one of the many leaked OS 5.0 firmware updates and avoid purchasing what I call the “Blackberry Bold Mini.”

Check out the official Bold 9700 website for more specs and information.

Black Scale is quickly becoming the unsung hero of street wear culture. Commanding absolute respect on both the ground level and throughout the international fashion market, it’s gone from good idea to San Francisco flagship in only a little over a year. But unconditional admiration and global acclaim is never a simple coincidence: behind every great empire is a leader with vision, and in the case of Black Scale, there’s MEGA.

In a world where balance is everything, MEGA effortlessly walks the edge as if it were the norm, striking the balance of opposites with every stride. This first-hand story takes you beyond the label to hear MEGA’s brilliant perspective, inducting you into the society of secrets known as Black Scale.

Executive Producer: Theretrospective.com
Director: Matt Carvalho
Producer: Gitamba Saila-Ngita
Camera: Brian & Austin Chu
Editing: Brian Chu
Photographer: Steven Simonetti
Original Music: Michael Musumeci
Post Production: thewerehaus.com

Sponsors: black-scale.com & Hip-Hop.com
Photos from the shoot

“If you haven’t really struggled in life, you haven’t really lived. If you do not give up everything to do this, you will not make it in this industry.” -Brandon Scott

Though he may be the grandson of a Bauhaus educated architect, LA designer Brandon Scott is making a name for himself on his own terms. From winning awards at San Francisco State University to design collaborations with Nice Collective and B.Son/Rebecca Beeson, Scott has spent the past nine years hustling, networking and gathering as much intel as possible in hopes of one day setting out on his own. Lucky for us, that day has finally arrived. Fusing German and Japanese aesthetics with West Coast flavor, Scott has recently dropped his drool-worthy S/S 2010 collection under his own label, B:SCOTT, a collection that includes his takes on such staple garments as the cardigan and the hoodie. In an effort to distill West Coast styling, leaving it in its purest form, Scott has stripped-down streetwear and meticulously refined it to appeal to and attract men of all ages. I recently had the opportunity to browse through the S/S 2010 collection as well as listen in on a phone interview with the designer himself. After hearing his perspective on design and witnessing his drive and dedication to the industry, I believe Scott has positioned himself to take the reins of West Coast menswear.

Photo Courtesy of B:Scott

Drawing inspiration from architecture, the collection has a sharp and minimalist look that still manages to express the most laid-back facets of West Coast style. Arguably, the best architecture and design focuses on the details and reveals its complexity over time, a lot like the B:SCOTT pieces. It’s clear that Scott has pushed his designs to their logical limit; there’s a subtlety to his apparel that allows it to stand out without being loud. Through this nuanced approach to staple items, Scott has orchestrated a composition of layers and lines that pushes the envelope of contemporary menswear. In 2009, men’s fashion was all about tailoring and fit, and I think Scott has hit that sweet spot, designing beautifully finished garments that still leave room to breathe. His decision to include heavier items like hoodies and jackets and his use of materials like fleece and denim reflect his awareness of market forces as well as his goal of creating year-round wearable threads.

Photo Courtesy of B:Scott

One of my favorite pieces from the new collection is the Fleece Kimono Hooded Wrap, a sweater that fuses the elegance and functionality of the traditional Japanese garment with a casual everyday item. Rather than pulling the hoodie over your body, you wrap this sweater like a real kimono, creating a sense of relaxed sophistication. One feature I noticed in almost all of the pieces was a focus on different styles and proportions of the collar. On several cardigans, the use of a shawl collar provided both definition and structure that made the sweaters almost blazer-like. A few of the outerwear pieces featured collars that were high and functional, great for protecting the face from the lingering wind of an early spring day. I’m looking forward to grabbing a few of these jackets, because we all know this winter isn’t going to end any time soon.

Photo Courtesy of B:Scott

Now that the B:SCOTT S/S 2010 collection is hitting local boutiques you’re asking yourself, what’s next for Brandon? Of course he’s already designing a collection for Fall 2010, but in the meantime there are a few things to keep an eye out for. This February Scott is planning to open a butcher-shop-themed pop up shop in Seattle, to be accompanied by a fashion show. Meanwhile, Context Clothing is planning a March release of Scott’s exclusive three-piece capsule collection. There are lots of plans in the works for Brandon Scott right now, all proof that hard work and determination are just as important as talent and vision.

Nobody does self-flagellation quite like Spencer Krug. Come to think of it, the same can be said of everything Krug does. Depending on whom you talk to, Krug is either the most ambitious, daring songwriter in contemporary indie rock or a self-obsessed drama queen, regurgitating the same faux-poetic images from album to album. I for one fall in the former camp. As the mastermind of Sunset Rubdown, co-captain of Wolf Parade, and a contributor to the Swan Lake triumvirate, Krug has seized a reputation as a wildly prolific workaholic. Over the past half-decade, he’s managed to record over a dozen major releases, each one weird and rewarding in its own way.

His most recent release, Dreamland EP: Marimba and Shit-Drums, is his second record under the Moonface moniker. Perhaps record is the wrong term though, as Dreamland consists of a single twenty-minute track. Though marathon song lengths are not new for Krug, most of his compositions are schizophrenically dynamic, lurching from one musical idea to the next without pause. Consequently, the first thing that will strike longtime Krug listeners about Dreamland is its insistent monotony. A typical Sunset Rubdown or Wolf Parade song is stuffed to the gills with piano, synthesizer, guitar, bass, drums, and contrapuntal voices, but on Dreamland Krug strips the musical carnival down to a marimba, a lo-fi drum machine, and his ever-haunting voice. On paper, it should result in a spare, low-key affair, but Krug still manages to squeeze drama out of these limited resources.

If the lyrics of Dreamland strike you as abstruse or nonsensical, you’re not alone. As a lyricist, Krug often paints whimsical, dreamlike images, but on Dreamland he indulges this tendency by pulling the lyrics directly out of the dream journal he kept from January through April of 2009. Needless to say, Krug’s unconscious features many of the same tropes that have come to dominate his conscious output. References to Greek mythology? Check (“Sister, show me Cassiopeia”). Magical realist corporeality? Check (“By pushing all his fingers through her skin / He’s just reading her mind…”). Self-loathing? Check (“I hear a voice say that it hates my heart”). Krug’s lyrics often asymptotically approach cringe-worthiness, but the earnestness and expressiveness of his delivery save the day. His songs have always been both intensely personal and indecipherably abstract, so it’s fitting that he turn his lens towards dreams, the one place where abstraction and particularity best collide.

Photo Credit Fricka M

Though Krug receives ample credit for his distinctive narrative voice and colorful arrangements, it’s often overlooked that he has an expert’s ear for melody. Though I wouldn’t expect Dreamland to threaten Taylor Swift spot on the Billboard Top 100, it’s nevertheless beautiful and catchy in its own demented way. The marimba is a perfect companion for Krug’s dream-collage. Even when he’s restricted to a single instrument, he manages to cram in interwoven hooks and harmonies. iPhone users may find the twinkling repetitiveness of the marimba reminiscent of Brian Eno’s Bloom application at times. A word of warning though: if you’re as enthralled by the marimba as I was after listening to Dreamland, you’ll be disappointed to discover that the cheapest model on amazon.com runs at about $3,600, so don’t expect legions of Moonface imitators to pop up anytime soon.

While Dreamland is a rich listening experience on its own, it’s enhanced by an interactive website featuring both the lyrics and the excerpts from his dream journal that inspired the song. It should come as no surprise that the dreams themselves are often even stranger than the phrases he lifts from them.

Whatever you think of Krug, there’s no question that his mind is a strange and captivating place to spend a few minutes. If you’re new to Krug’s music, you’re better off beginning with Sunset Rubdown’s most recent effort, Dragonslayer. If you’re already a fan, however, do yourself a favor and download Dreamland (it’s available for download in mp3 or FLAC through the Radiohead “name your own price” model), slap on some headphones, and spend 20 minutes exploring the deep recesses of his brain.

After a thorough exploration of Apple’s controversial new darling, the iPad, I started imagining a list of applications that would be a perfect fit for the device. At the head of the pack was Evernote, my go-to application for securely storing important thoughts, documents and web pages. Evernote is a freemium (free with a paid option) service that bridges the online/offline divide; the offline services let you create and save notes, while the online features sync your notes and changes back to Evernote. And unlike other note applications, your files can include text, images, audio, web page clippings and even PDF files. A premium account, which runs just $44 a year, allows you to sync and remotely store files, eliminating the need to email yourself works-in-progress.

Evernote harnesses the Internet’s powers for more than just syncing data; it also indexes your documents by turning the embedded text of photographs and handwriting into searchable content, a great design feature that allows others to find your notes. Befitting its Web 2.0 roots, each Evernote note or notebook can be publicly shared or made private, viewable only to those Evernote users you specify. Collaborators on a free account notebook receive an email invitation and a link that allows read-only access, while premium users can set their shared notes to receive edits and updated information for a Wiki-like collaborative work experience.

Evernote is easy to use and completely customizable. Notes can be directly typed into the program, inserted via copy and paste, or imported through browser plug-ins for Safari and Firefox. These browser extensions allow you to save entire webpages with images and HTML formatting intact, making it a great way to read content from paid-subscription sites. With so many ways of creating content it’d be easy to get overwhelmed by hundreds of notes, so Evernote helps you sort through everything with robust search tools, tagging support, and various options for viewing notes.

Photo Courtsey of Evernote Corp

With apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian and now Maemo, Evernote goes beyond website and desktop syncing by letting you access all your favorite website logins, magazine articles, recipes, documents, and invoices wherever you go. Compared to the other mobile clients, the Evernote iPhone app has the most features (most likely because Evernote was first ported to that phone). The app lets you view notes by location, create voice notes (but not transcribe them), even allows you to back up your information for offline storage, a feature which comes in handy when you lose a 3G or WiFi signal. Even though the iPhone app has a head start, other mobile client programs are steadily improving and should soon reach parity with Apple’s devices.

Evernote is perfect for anyone who needs to both archive and retrieve information from various locations and devices. As mobile hardware and broadband servers increase their capabilities, look for Evernote to expand their services to include video notation and video indexing. When that day comes, it will be possible to create a rich media archive of your life.

Fetishists, consider yourselves officially on watch: hosiery just got even hotter (and a little quirkier, too).

Les Queues de Sardines, a registered trademark of French clothier, m + o studio, adds panache to your closet with a line of punchy, unconventional stockings. Equal parts elegant and amusing, these tights are screen-printed by hand in limited quantities, transforming obligatory childhood dress-up apparel into personalized luxury.

Photo Courtesy of Les Queue de Sardines

Snag a pair of these nylon beauts in hazy gray with a subtle botanical motif, or jazz up your gams with arty graphic patterns befitting noir comic heroines. If you’re one for taking risks (or are curious as to what the stars of your childhood nightmares might look like, made fashionable and classy), the brand’s latest limited edition, Monster Legs, evinces a definite Where The Wild Things Are-tinged whimsy balanced with sophisticated design. Whatever style you choose, these tights are sure to add a touch of French couture cool to your humdrum minis and standard shorts.

Guillermo Scott Herren has a lock on the rolling beats and sinewy electronic grooves he’s perfected through a career that spans more albums and side projects than there are backpacks at one of his shows. He’s one of the best known names of the glitch-hop movement, which encompasses everyone from Ghostly International’s scratchy rootmaster, Dabrye, to Herren’s own Eastern Developments protege, Elliot Lipp. On January 20 Herren rolled into the Middle East downstairs under his most famous (and my personal favorite) moniker, Prefuse73.

Photo Credit Krob

Aiding him in his quest to shake up a town notorious for its stiff-armed crowds was the Gaslamp Killer, a wild-eyed, mop-topped dervish DJ from Los Angeles that I was first clued into by a friend who saw him perform a mindmelting daytime set at Seattle’s Decibel festival. At first glance the Gaslamp Killer (so named for his total disgust with the people who populated the San Diego Gaslamp District bar scene) looked like a mad beat scientist. With shoulder-length curly hair and a penchant for headbanging during a set that veered from the squealing guitars of Jimi Hendrix to the genre-bending sounds of dubstep mastermind Zomby, GLK refused to buy into the image of the lazy DJ hanging behind the decks. Even when his track selection veered a little off course, his infectious energy and obvious love of the game won the crowd (and me) over.

Photo Credit Krob

After a set that included Black Sabbath and frenzied ponytail shaking, Herren’s onstage persona was as low-key as Gaslamp Killer’s was riot-inducing. With a setup consisting of himself (decked out in trademark beanie and thick black glasses) and two band members to help out on drums and various electronic devices, Herren didn’t have the luck of the sound system on his side. Though the sound was often fuzzy and distorted and it was sometimes hard to make out Herren’s rambling vocals, the music itself was warm and inviting, kind’ve like slipping on a well-worn and comforting sweater.

While some bands may bring out the latent trackspotter in all of us, causing gasps of joy at the first chords of a rare B-side or some other little-played track, Herren’s laidback style is meant to be savored and appreciated for the sum of its parts, the sonic backdrop to a moment of quiet introspection. The only time I snapped out of my reverie was to break out into a smile at the strains of the dreamily syncopated “Eve of Dextruction,” and to wonder when I’ll see him next.

Prefuse73 Myspace
The Gaslamp Killer