Whether it’s thigh-high knitted socks, lacy knee highs, or last spring’s bike short under dresses/shorts/skirt trend, this new era of legwarmers are definitely making a comeback for Fall 2010.
As temperatures cools down, make that wardrobe evolution easy and effective. First get yourself some bike shorts, we said it, either lace ($40 by Only Hearts), mesh, or spandex, and pair them with denim cutoffs or a floral frock. For, a date night, rock some knee-high sheer socks ($14 at Urban Outfitters) with a pair of vintage boots and you’re good to go. Next, go for some thigh highs ($14 at Urban Outfitters, and no, not like a hooker) to jazz up that outfit and keep those stems warm for a night on the town. Coordinate with temperatures accordingly and you’re set for fall!
Next week’s Downtown Film Festival (launches September 8th) is shadowed by controversy with the screening of the much talked about art/sex film series called “Destricted.”
Destricted is the first short film collection of its kind, bringing together sex and art in a series of short films created by some of the world’s most visual and provocative artists and directors. Beyond explicit in content, these films (including Richard Prince’s House Call, Gaspar Noe’s We Fuck Alone and Hoist by Matthew Barney’s a.k.a. Bjork’s husband) reveal the diverse attitudes by which we represent ourselves sexually.
Formed in 2004, the Destricted brand is the first in a continuing series. The seven films highlight controversial issues about the representation of sexuality in art; opening up for debate the question of whether art can be disguised as pornography or whether pornography can be disguised as art or something else altogether. The result is a collection of sexy, stimulating, challenging, provocative, strange and sometimes humorous scenarios that leave it up to the viewer / voyeur to decide.
The 2010 Downtown Film Festival L.A. will be held Sept. 8-12 in venues throughout Los Angeles’ historic core. More than 100 feature-length and short films – narrative, documentary and experimental – will be presented along with filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, cocktail parties, live music events and receptions. More information can be found at www.dffla.com.
Presenting “Lady & Relic,” the newest affordable jewelry line brought to us Angeleno’s by the other coast. Melissa Limoncelli, Graduate of 2005 from New York’s esteemed Parsons, has managed to create a cohesive collection of effortlessly cool jewelry.
From the uber trendy three-finger rings, head-turning spiked bangles, mixed-metal necklaces, and glitzy stud earrings, “Lady & Relic” is the hottest (and most reasonable – prices range from $35 to $650) jewelry line to grab our attention since Nicole Richie’s “House of Harlow” first debuted. Every piece (delineated by each of the subcategories: Tribalista, Sugar & Spykes, Urban Warrior, Rebel Simple, and Mon Petit Charms), reflects that of a modern minx – timeless beauty with a whole lot of edge.
Our picks include: The Chain Gang Bangle ($150) is a more feminine piece that shimmers delicately on your wrist while the Call Me Petit Spyke Bangle ($180) gives a nod to punk rock. The Tangled In You Necklace ($595), with its tangled mess of metals and silver is just perfect – see for yourself.
Limoncelli says she “aimed to create modern relics — durable pieces that pay homage to ageless standards of quality while offering a current perspective for a new generation of women.” And she’s done just that. Get yourself a custom-designed geometric mixed-metal ring (via her website) and you’ll easily take that ensemble to a whole new level of cool.
If there’s one thing you can say about Arcade Fire, above all else, it’s that they know how to construct an album. The Suburbs, which entered the Billboard Top 200 albums chart at No. 1, is less an album and more a symphony, with interludes, songs divided into parts I and II, and repeating themes. Oh, and the music is damn good, too.
Given the band’s propensity for making statements with their music, the title “The Suburbs” should immediately give you an idea of what you’re in for. The message of husband-wife duo Win Butler and Régine Chassagne isn’t hidden in these lyrics; they’re sung out loud and unabashed, determined to warn us of the impending loss of our freedom as we resign ourselves to punching the clock and living behind our white picket fences.
In “Sprawl II” (one of a few multi-part songs on the album), Régine sings “They heard me singing and they told me to stop, quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock”, and repeats through the chorus, “Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains, and there’s no end in sight, I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.” These images of the wasteland of the suburbs, darkness and light, freedom and the search for the place where we belong are the spine of this album. But the message isn’t to avoid this next stage in life at all costs: in the title track, Butler asks “So can you understand/Why I want a daughter while I’m still young/I wanna hold her hand/And show her some beauty/Before this damage is done.”
The tension in the lyrics between having to grow up and “fit in” and trying to avoid becoming “wasted” come through in the music as well. As the first track (“The Suburbs”) begins, the swinging beat and piano sound almost jaunty, and even in the desolation of “Sprawl II”, the melody rises and falls, ending each line with a pleasant major resolve.
But at times throughout the album, the melody will fall to a cold minor tune…a mirror of the idea that no matter what suburban life might look like on the surface, there’s a different story going on underneath. These major and minor tensions keep you on edge for the entire album and kick you every time you start to get comfortable, until finally you reach the reprise of “The Suburbs” and hear a defeated echo of the opening melody.
So, it’s not exactly easy listening, but the intricacies of this album will draw you in and keep you playing it on a loop. It’s difficult to top the award-winning predecessors Funeral and Neon Bible, but The Suburbs does come close to doing so.
Make sure you check out Arcade Fire’s newly released ultra inventive viral video for The Suburbs single, “We Used To Wait.” (If you don’t have Google Chrome, take a minute of your time to download it and welcome to the future.) The band will be making a short trip down the west coast of the U.S. in October, so be sure to catch them at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Oct. 7th and 8th!
Last week, Natalie Portman stopped for lunch at Urth Cafe in West Hollywood in just about the nerdiest frock we’ve ever seen. Though, she made it up for it last night at the Venice Film Festival’s Style Star Lounge.
Portman looked ravishing in a deep purple Miu Miu dress and Charles David shoes while promoting her new flick, “Black Swan,” the opener for the festival. The thriller, directed by Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler), is set in the world of ballet rivalry (starring Portman, Mila Kunis, and Winona Ryder). “Black Swan” hits theaters December 1st, 2010, check out the trailer here:
With the balmy days dwindling, so are your chances to bare flesh publicly while bands play outdoors. For those not burnt out by the recent plague of local festivals, including Sunset Junction, Sunset Strip Festival, or Outside lands, get to Fuck Yeah Fest this weekend for another chance to don your denim cutoffs.
Nestled downtown just beside Chinatown, LA State Historic Park plays host to a plethora of indie outfits on Saturday, including UK dance hybrid scenesters The Rapture as well as !!!, New York’s Panda Bear of Animal Collective, L.A.’s very own overnight phenomenon Local Natives, actor Ryan Gosling’s band Dead Man’s Bones, and a huge collection of local groovers.
Others include Sleep, Unbroken, Man Man, 7Seconds, Thee Oh Sees, The Mountain Goats, Ted Leo + Pharmacists, Delorean, Cold Cave, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Washed Out, Wavves, School of Seven Bells, AA Bondy, The Blow, Best Coast, Davila 666, Titus Andronicus, The Soft Pack, Abe Vigoda, Warpaint, Off!, Vetiver, Ceremony, Big Freedia, Screaming Females, Magic Kids, The Growlers, Lower Dens, Let’s Wrestle, Cults and more.
Now in its seventh year, FYF 2010 will offer three stages to host the 30+ acts booked for the day. To top this big bash off, FYF will offer vegan food, DIY silk-screening, a record swap meet, local comics and ultimately provide the perfect venue to wear vintage wayfarers, stripe or plaid shirts, and various accoutrements of the hipster uniform (not?)
While Katy Perry purrs about suntans and popsicles, there’s one band delivering the grit, volume, and utter frivolity of a whole different teenage dream. Sleigh Bells, the barely two-year-old Brooklyn-based duo of vocalist Alexis Krauss and writer/guitarist/producer Derek Miller, soared from obscurity to become a new darling of the indie music scene with their hard-rocking, electric-jolted, genre-mashing first album, “Treats.”
Signed to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Recordings, (the electro-pop queen, herself, discovered the band while Miller was still waiting tables) the band nabbed coveted gigs at SXSW and Coachella where they generated major buzz for their massive sound and raw stage presence.
It’s no wonder Sleigh Bells has catapulted into the limelight; Krauss and Miller pull off a formidable feat with “Treats.” Their sound manages to be both identifiably their own and stylistically diverse; consistent while spanning a range of genres. Their inspiration? “Kids these days.”
“Tell ‘Em” rips open the album with classic metal guitar riffs and gun-like drum beats. Krauss’ voice floats in above the chaos, her featherweight vocals balancing out Miller’s hard-hitting masculine sound. Their juxtaposition is harmonious as it is irreverent. From there, the album turns funky with “Kids,” the cheeky remake of their earlier demo, “Beach Girls.” How can you not love a song that blends an emergency siren with inane, teen babble: “Wait. Did I forget my sunglasses? Nope. Got ‘em!” Their lyrics (when you can make them out) so authentically capture modern youth you feel like they were written in emoticons.
If you’re looking for riotous, mosh-worthy punk, Sleigh Bells brings it with “Straight-A’s.” The heavy-hitter stands opposite “Rill Rill.” The summery tune is the album’s most likely to rematerialize in the background of an Apple commercial. It’s through their intuitive musical finesse Sleigh Bells manages the series of hand-break turns from screamo to hip-hop to rock to pop within this one ambition debut album.
When you’re listening to “Treats,” do yourself a favor: turn the volume up– way up. Listening to it softly is an exercise in frustration and confusion. Sleigh Bells pushes past comfortable and into an ear-splitting, buzzing tangle of sound, and you can only throw your hands up and go along for the ride. Be sure to check out two of the album’s bests, “Crown on the Ground” and “A/B Machines.”
Jessica Alba edged out her super girly summer Marc Jacobs dress with a pair of velvet platform pumps by Opening Ceremony, when she made an appearance on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan, New York last night.
That’s right, the hippest, coolest cameras out there will be slashing prices in half this weekend at their Gallery store here in Los Angeles. Lomography’s coveted cameras are known for producing over-saturated, off-kilter exposure, blurring, happy-accident-type photography (think “Hipstamatic”). Get yourself a Fisheye, or a classic Holga this Saturday, August 28, and Sunday, August 29, from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Lomography Gallery Store, 7998 Santa Monica Boulevard (near North Laurel Avenue); 323-301-1414.
Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett has come a long way from the addictive—though dark and depressing—single “Novocaine For The Soul” off of 1996’s “Beautiful Freak”. Or has he? Fourteen years have passed, but the tone of the past two Eels albums have been almost as down and defeated as when Everett pleadingly sang “You’d better give me something to fill the hole, before I sputter out”.
Those two recent albums, “Hombre Lobo” and “End Times”, were the first two installments of a trilogy of concept albums that now ends with the release of “Tomorrow Morning”. After all the grief and lamenting retrospection of “End Times”, something truly strange happens in this new album: though his voice is older and weathered, Everett actually sounds happy.
As the title of the album might imply, “Tomorrow Morning” rounds out the trilogy by looking at the future as a new beginning, with the kind of desperate optimism that only someone like Everett—whose past is marred by losses in his family and (apparently) failed relationships—can have. Any album that starts with a song titled “In Gratitude for This Magnificent Day” is either going to be from someone who spent a long time in the dark, or from a band full of hippies.
The album certainly tries to counter the woe-is-me attitude that Everett usually owns, and sometimes playfully: he even has a song about how he’s “the man”, and how everyone else thinks so too. It’s a far cry from the self-loathing that we have come to expect…though you get the sense that there might be a touch of irony in it.
As usual, the true strengths of Everett’s music lie less in the songwriting and more in the mixing. There’s still a lot of interesting stuff going on, like the grainy crackling set up against the deep, driving beat of “There Is Where It Gets Good” (which, perhaps not ironically, is where the album really does start getting good). The lyrics remain simple, with the same simple (albeit sometimes forced) rhymes, and the melodies and progressions still hold some of the twists and resolves of past classics. Eels fans will be happy to hear that despite the difference in Everett’s demeanor, some things never change.
To promote the release of “Tomorrow Morning” and the end of the concept trilogy, Eels launched a worldwide tour, currently in progress. Be sure to catch them at The Music Box in LA on October 12th!
London’s esteemed beacon of all things lowbrow, Lazarides Gallery will conclude their four month run of shows this week at their temporary Beverly Hills pop up annex with a show by sculptor, painter Jay Jay Burridge.
Offering a twist on predictable images of dinosaurs roaming in classic settings Burridge instead portrays them dancing, skating and sipping tea, with a weighty series of technically dexterous paintings and humorous sculptures and installations.
Forget the artschool alumni, last week’s opening of this event was all about glam, with a gaggle of celebrities and LA artscene luminaries on hand to celebrate at the event, and its Soho House after party. TV types included a seemingly single and roaming Gavin Rossdale, and expletive (and wife) equipped cordon bleu Gordon Ramsay who hinted something about a forthcoming restaurant he and David Beckham will open in LA.
Gallerists hinted sales were healthy, with Ramsay apparently buying a sizeable painting worth over $5000. Other works will sustain in the memory purely as testament to the artists’ ingenuity, including full scale dinosaur sculptures masked with plastic tape baring his signature and others poised over musical instruments.
Jay Jay Burridge graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a degree in art. In addition, Burridge directed the music video for the song “Inspired By” by The Brightlights and was art director on Hot Chip’s “Boy from School” video, for which he won a Cads Music Vision Award. He also designed several large denim butterflies, which went on display on the streets of London, as part of an advertising campaign for Levi Strauss & Co.’s “Live Unbuttoned” 501 jeans.
Robert Rodriguez’s, “Machete,” premiered at the Orpheum Theatre in L.A. last night. The cast was out in full affect, arriving in lowriders on motorcycle while Jessica Alba shined in Balmain’s signature bold shoulder metallic mini. The frock was paired with sexy cut-out boots by none other then Christian Louboutin and Anndra Neen bangles. “Machete” hits theaters September 5, 2010. For more: head to www.vivamachete.com
Mollie King and Vanessa White of the UK band, The Saturdays, shopped at Lisa Kline on Robertson Boulevard today. Get Vanessa’s Louis Vuitton patent leather red handbag here.
Canada has a way of exporting music that feels familiar and accessible, yet somehow different, new, foreign. The Canadian band Stars is no exception: their sound is a clean, melodic electro-pop that’s easy on the ears, but orchestral layers and the occasional jarring synth makes you listen harder. And that’s a good thing.
Give a quick listen to Stars and you might hear echoes of another Canadian band, Broken Social Scene. You would be right…the members of Stars are all part of Broken Social Scene as well. Stars provides a softer sound, however, and tends to use vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan more often side-by-side. The two sound perfect together, and when they share a song it’s always more of a musical dialog than a duet. The result is music that tells a story from distinct points of view, like in “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”, off of their sophomore release “Set Yourself On Fire”.
Sure, they can seem overly romantic or a little too neatly packaged, as in the title track “Heart” off of the 2003 album in which Amy Millan calls through the chorus, “All right, I’ll make it all up to you, I’m still in love with you”. But when you hear the angst of the epically-titled “One More Night (Your Ex-Lover Remains Dead)” off of “Set Yourself On Fire”…well, it’s hard not to feel the pain as Campbell sings “You’ll never touch him again, so get what you can”, punctuated by a loud, jarring sting on the guitar, jumping in for just a second lest the lilting piano give you a false sense of security. After all, loveless “ex sex” is never easy, is it?
Stars has been around for nearly a decade now, but they have avoided staying static and unchanging from album to album. Listen to their first full release “Heart”, and you’ll hear lighter, almost romantic electro-pop. Move to “Set Yourself On Fire”, and you’ll notice a new orchestral sound fused in, providing depth and maturity. By the time you reach their most recent release, “The Five Ghosts”, all of their previous experimentations will have meshed into a perfect balance of instrumental rock, orchestral lamentation, and electronic lift. That’s the really great thing about Stars: they know how to combine elements in a way that remains clean and uncluttered, but still sounds new and interesting. How many other bands do you know that combine cello with harmonica?
The band is currently touring in Europe, but will be returning to the US for a number of dates beginning in late September. Don’t miss their show at The Wiltern, Friday. Nov 12th!
Up and coming designer Jessica Robinson’s new jewelry line is proof that all that glitters is gold. And that works out well for those looking for a fabulous piece of jewelry to bling up these last few weeks of summer.
Robinson’s pieces feature luminous pyramid studs, diamond embossed lines, and classically elegant stones set in 14k gold. If you’ve watched anyone walk the red carpet recently, chances are they were sporting one of her pieces. Celebrities like Fergie, Dakota Fanning, Taylor Swift, and Anne Hathaway have all been spotted with accents of Robinson.
Sienna Miller was photographed donning Robinson’s Palm Feather Earrings, set in 14k yellow gold and embellished with glittering diamonds. While Kristen Stewart sported the Double Infinity Ring in champagne to this year’s MTV Movie Awards. The ring is worn on all four fingers and is encrusted in diamonds; think of it as a sort of chic version of brass knuckles.
Our personal favorites extend to the brass and yellow gold Angel Wing Choker, which is ideal for a night out. And the Scarab Ring, which has a glimmering finish we can already imagine looking fantastic while poolside.
" />
