For those of you consigned to the dysphoric fate of living in or near San Diego, tonight this week’s Practice Space guests Sian Alice Group are playing at the the Casbah. The rest of you will have to tide yourselves over with the band’s, keyboard/bass ringer Eben Bull’s, and guitar ringer Mike Bones’s overlapping tour blogs. So far Eben’s is the most comprehensive and Mike’s has the funniest pictures, but this could change at literally any minute. Oh, also a bunch of people from different bands remixed some of the songs from SAG’s most recent album for a limited edition tour EP that you can (and should) only get from the Social Registry’s store. Here’s a free taste of Brian Degraw’s one.
Vice Quebec is turning one and as an anniversary gift RVCA is sponsoring a party tonight and you are invited. Dark Meat, Quatro, Devil Eyes, and Amanita Bloom are going to be there. What an intoxicating line up! Plus, not only is our party free but there’s also going to be free stuff there. We can’t tell you what kind of free stuff is going to be there, but it’s the kind of free stuff that lubricates social situations and might make you late for work the next day.
Vice Quebec is turning one and as an anniversary gift RVCA is sponsoring a party tonight and you are invited. Dark Meat, Quatro, Devil Eyes, and Amanita Bloom are going to be there. What an intoxicating line up! Plus, not only is our party free but there’s also going to be free stuff there. We can’t tell you what kind of free stuff is going to be there, but it’s the kind of free stuff that lubricates social situations and might make you late for work the next day.
“Award winning Berlin based artist Natascha Stellmach has acquired the ashes of Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain.”
Three months ago Kurt Cobain’s ashes were stolen from Courtney Love’s place. At the time it seemed as though the urn in which they were contained had been mistaken for something valuable by crooks who, no doubt, disposed of it when they realised it was full of ashen smackhead. But apparently not! No, according to a press release which arrived in my mail box today, the theft of the ashes was actually a bespoke crime, carried out for the good of conceptual art. Who’d have thought that the arms of the Berlin art scene extended into the LA underworld? Well they must do because German based Aussie creative Natascha Stellmach claims to have them. In fact, she has rolled Cobain’s dust into a spliff and promises to smoke it at the culmination of her exhibition Set Me Free at the Gallerie Wagner + Partner in Berlin. Wow, what a derivative combination of death, drugs and rock music, she’s clearly been thumbing heavily through the Wanker’s Book of Cliché and Tedium. I wonder what her next piece will be? Maybe a portrait of Bush with red buttons for eyes, or a vagina made of rubbish? Or maybe she’ll just crack out that missing Ian Curtis headstone and do coke off it at the Venice Biennale…
"Blood" and "swords" might be most commonly uttered words in any conversations about Manowar. They’re also the basic cornerstones in a fantasy novel. But that’s not what we’re concerned with here.
“Blod & Svärd” is the completely new death/black/doom/proto metal club, that our friend and Vice contributor Daniel Söderberg is launching, together with his buddy Bonden. They’re telling us that, “it will lay all other so-called ‘metal bars’ to rest.” So, woohoo!
The premier is October 2, and then they’ll be going at it every first Thursday of the month at Bröderna Olsson in Stockholm.
Here’s a little manifesto that Daniel just sent us…
The Michael Jackson drawings that Claire posted yesterday got people misty-eyed about their childhood love for the King of Pop - to the point of trying to outdo each other. Conan said that he used to own this fully poseable Michael Jackson doll. But then Claire said that she had one too. But then Conan busted this disturbing memory and Claire tapped out…
I use to have this Michael Jackson Doll. You could get all his famous outfits for it, even a little miniature Thriller jacket. I use to make it fuck all of my sister’s Barbies whilst an Action Man stood over them with a machine gun for ‘protection’, just in case anyone tried to get in the way or interfere with the proceedings. My MJ doll was good but nowhere near as good as these creations…
Having previously hung out with Malaysian skins and Mexican skins, we went to meet some Mandarin skins in the form of Misandao, that Oi! band who recently appeared on the VBS Beijing Underground special. I met them at their tiny practice space in the old hutong bit of the city. They were dressed in full regalia - from the Fred Perry polo shirts and Doc Martin boots to the braces and bulldog tattoos - and were even drinking cans of imported British beers for added authenticity/novelty value. After watching them jam for a while, I talked to lead singer Leijun…
As well as playing bass in Misandao, Mark Oi (pictured) has been taking photographs of his friends in Beijing’s punk and skinhead scene for almost a decade. As you might be able to tell, he’s a huge fan of Skins photographer Gavin Watson. And to thank us for sending him a copy of Gavin’s new book, Mark sent us a selection of his favourite photos from over the years.
Today we meet Clancy Chassay, 28, multimedia journalist from London.
"I do a lot of work with Frontline and they
told me about Clancy’s work. He is definitely a one to watch. Frontline and the people they work with ‘champion independent journalism.’ This work takes
tremendous courage and dedication – and should be recognised.” - Charlotte Skene Catling, architect and writer.
Clancy is a
multimedia correspondent with an international remit. He has recently returned
from Beirut where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian since
2006…
On a typical day at Vice, I get anywhere between twenty to fourteen-hundred fan emails a day. I usually just carry on with my life while feeling spriteful but today was a different situation; I actually read one. I recieved an anonymous email from a T-Baby fan hipping me to this fly remix of the classic cut It’s So Cold In The D. As if this incendiary rap anthem wasn’t perfect enough, we now can wet our T-Baby dipsticks even more with a killer re-working of this masterpiece. Mr. Anonymous, I truly appreciate it.
JSIII
Pop Montreal’s starting
in a couple of days (not to mention our party at Club Lambi on Wednesday night). You probably already know what shows
you’re gonna get drunk at, but we still thought we’d point out a couple of acts
that you might have overlooked. It’ll be new and scary but also fun.
Like the first time you tried sushi or coke.
First off, this is Irma Thomas. Click this and listen to the song (don’t even bother watching the video because it’s just a picture of a ‘45). This
is why you want to hear her perform on Thursday. She’s one of the great
southern fried soul singers of her generation and her discography goes
back to ‘64. Here’s
one of her many under-appreciated hit ballads, "Anyone Who Knows What
Love Is (Will Understand)". Her whole family was kind of famous, by the
way. This link
will take you to her father, Rufus Thomas, performing at Wattstax in
‘72. You gotta get at least 48 seconds in to hear him yell "Ain’t I’m
clean?!"
Thursday, Oct 2 at the Ukrainian Federation. 5213 Hutchison
Our friend Veronica is a total fucking babe who does not have a bitchy bone in her body. She hand-made this piñata to celebrate her roommate’s birthday. Nice, right?
Not to overdo it with the Cromiana on here, but we just got word that the official Crom tour camera has been recovered along with several special memories heretofore believed lost to the ages. The first incident dredged from the sands of time is this interlude Fill took between falling flat on his back while playing guitar and throwing his equipment at the other guitarist with enough force to shatter his skull. We would just like to point out that in addition to making him look not unlike the Cookie Monster, these cables were still plugged into his amps, which were still plugged into the wall. More info as it comes to us and them.
We’ve given kids shit in the past for putting too much craft time into their look, but seeing a couple pull back the sheet on zebra punk is the kind of thing that makes you rethink your curmudgeonly ways. More
Heroin gives you a huge ego which is a real plus when trying out new looks but it also makes you really lazy. The end result is huge variety of accessories that all smell like shit. [Click for video]
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