If you’ve been in LA at any point during the last three years, chances are you’ve heard about HARDfest. The city’s premiere party for some of the nastiest electro acts around, HARDfest has staged haunted Halloween mansions with the likes of Deadmau5 and Justice and brought heat to sweaty summer afternoons with all-out assaults from MSTRKRFT, Crookers, and Rusko. It was NYC’s turn this past Saturday: HARDfest partnered with The Bowery Presents to bring its signature blend of bass and blitz to Manhattan’s cavernous Terminal 5 with a lineup that included Russian noisemaker Proxy, dancehall upstarts Major Lazer and electro wunderkind Boys Noize.
J. Crew Goes Darkly into Men’s F/W 2010
April 8th, 2010 by
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Photos Courtesy of JCREW 2010
For the past several years, two constant buzzwords in menswear have been “fit” and “heritage.” The current trajectory of J.Crew has embraced these concepts and led to the refinement of a brand known mostly for a distinctly preppy sensibility. On a recent gorgeous New York afternoon I was fortunate enough to be invited to Manhattan’s Milk Studios for a preview of the 2010 F/W men’s collection, which showcased head men’s designer Frank Muytjens marriage of these stylish elements into potential instant classics.
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Artifical Sweetness: Augmented Reality Is Coming To an IRL Near You
April 1st, 2010 by
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Madison Avenue has unleashed an onslaught of Augmented Reality products and services, notably Virtual Sean and Virtual Mirror. As with any new technology, it all comes down to execution, and so far almost all of my experiences have felt gimmicky. There are, however, some notable exceptions on which I’m keeping my eye: video gaming and mobile devices.
Nintendo’s Wii console proved to consumers that gaming can be experienced with natural gestures, escaping the shackles of traditional handheld controllers once and for all. Now, Sony’s Playstation Move and Microsoft’s Project Natal push the experience even farther with camera and motion-based systems that mimic a user’s every move. Stunning the game industry at the 2009 E3 conference, Microsoft’s Project Natal was demonstrated through games in which the user can interact with his environment using nothing more than natural body gestures. It uses an infrared sensor attached to the Xbox 360 console to track 48 skeletal points on a human body. This level of detail not only allows for tracking arm and leg motions, but even individual fingers and facial expressions, prospectively bringing to an end the era of stiff mugs that are part and parcel to ordinary gaming.
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Close Encounters with Tribal Aliens: Yeasayer in Sala Caracol
March 30th, 2010 by
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Though Yeasayer was far from their native Brooklyn last Wednesday night, the packed crowd at Madrid’s Sala Caracol was clearly happy to see them. With the turnout and spirits both running high, the energetic crowd began dancing well before the band stepped on stage. The evening’s concertgoers were distressingly good-looking, all oozing their own breed of cool; the women sported stylish little belts and wild, wavy hair while the pierced and thickly bespectacled gentlemen chose buttondowns whose shirtsleeves afforded glimpses of artsy tattoos. While the audience was made up of mostly American and UK transplants, there were enough Spaniards present to convince me that Yeasayer’s unique cocktail of spaceships, synths and African drums has taken root with an Iberian audience.
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We Are Wolves Not So Invisible Anymore
March 23rd, 2010 by
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Photo Credit: We Are Wolves
Is it time to declare a moratorium on bands with the word ‘wolf,’ or some other variant, in their name? Whether intentional or not, this hirsute animal has been at the forefront of everything from the Southern rock posturing of Wolfmother to the Furried electropunk of Fox’n’Wolf and even the abrasive noisescapes of the cringe-inducing AIDS Wolf. Hoping to separate themselves from the pack is the Montreal-based We Are Wolves, whose third album, Invisible Violence, is packed with just enough art-punk bravado, crystalline synthwork and buzzsaw guitar to make you forget their well-worn name.
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Wrapped up with a Bow
March 19th, 2010 by
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Photo Credit Style.com
From Marc Jacob’s infamous Louis Vuitton bunny ears to Blair Waldorf’s perfectly preppy headbands, hair accessories are one of the easiest and most on-trend ways to inject a bit of springtime fever to your look. And unlike spring makeup, which forces you to navigate through a haze of likely-to-be-unflattering colors that you’ll probably wear once before consigning to the back drawer of your bathroom cabinet, there’s instant gratification when trying on a peacock-feathered headband at Barneys or a Free People skinny-braided forehead tie.
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