Jack Deezl

MF Parm & EuniQ DJ

DirtyDave

Nomster

Night Kids

‘The End’ has always frightened me. It feels so definitive. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. A conclusion without the Q/A. So when Impose reported that These Are Powers had played their finale show with the series Death By Audio, a memorial for Ariel Panero, ending dramatically with flame and smoke as merchandise t-shirts caught a blaze, I naturally grew disheartened. After all, it felt as though These Are Powers had provided some kind of clarity in a genre often purposefully confusing. You encounter your art-school experimental acts all too often, those eagerly vague artists with little to no idea of the picture. Yet These Are Powers, or Powers as they were entitled in their final months, had actual direction in their music, a momentum of cross genres that weirdly seems inspired by Deerhoof and the very same sound that Deerhoof has lost and has tried to pursue now. The list of bands that have followed in These Are Powers‘ footsteps are numerous, with Ponytail, Crocodiles, and Black Dice ringing in my mind, yet for all the doom and gloom, we have to realize that this is hardly the end. After all, the group only started going by Powers when Bill Salas pursued an individual career as Brenmar. What I am trying to get at is that look out for these musicians in the coming months. They will come back with their own sounds, their own projects, and their own visions. Do you believe in resurrections?

Photography from Jeremy Liebman.

Equiptment: Horseman 4×5FA, Contax G2 & T3.

Brooklyn based artist Dave Rittinger has collaborated with some art world heavyweights throughout his career, such as Dennis Oppenheim and Alice Aycock. Rittinger has a very spatially aware practice dominated by a play on the function of objects. His quirky visual puns hark back to the surrealists and draw our attention to ideas of branding and the relationships of objects to their environment. Our human emotions and actions are mirrored in his sculptural work in a somewhat melancholic way: the hotplate that almost reaches the power outlet is a classic example.”Love Connections” (2010) makes me smile with it’s overt symbolism and arbitrary treatment of sexual preference – all are the displayed in the same manner, using the same type of chord and arrangement. I like Rittinger’s boldness and this is what makes his art so memorable.

Tomoo Gokita has one hell of an air of mystery surrounding his work. The Japanese painter recently showed new work at ATM Gallery in New York, the black & white wonders displayed under the title “Champion Carnival”. Borrowing from various art historical trends, most notably cubism, Gokita’s figures are abstracted in ways that directly reference the materiality of the medium: gouache is smeared and blended, lines are staggered and background non-descript. There is one female figure holding a gun that reminds me of Jessica Rabbit crossed with every blonde friend I’ve ever had. It is this eerie familiarity, the uncanny nature of Gokita’s subject matter that fuels curiosity, as we could be looking at altered film stills as well.

Change-Leopardon-A-Small-Bees-Nest

Within a minute of listening to the smoothly sultry “The Postcard” off of Bronx-based Pigeons tour single Visions of the Valley, I’m ready to pack my bags, catch the next flight to Paris, hunker down in a cafe and chain-smoke as I read Flaubert. The smoky, mature voice emanating from singer Wednesday Knudsen, layered alongside an impossibly sexy guitar riff and smooth back percussion brings to mind Air’s amazingly intimate “Playground Love”. My continual penchant to francocentric references made sense upon learning that the couple spent time in Paris before calling the Bronx home. The influence the city of lights had on them is underlying thread heard throughout their second record Si Faustine and forthcoming Liasons.

Adi-Digital is a new timepiece line by sportswear giant Adidas, featuring a gritty NYC-inpsired line of watches. These chunky plastic and rubber watches feature daring graphics, their signature logos, and available sets of matching hoodies, bags, and sweatpants. And for $65, these digital watches come with all the sporty gadgets you would ever need strapped to your wrist.

By: Katherine Gregory

The art work of New York based artist Nina Chanel Abney is at first quite startlingly beautiful. The images are striking as Abney utilizes bold and vibrant colour schemes, which becomes the initial impression. Within seconds of staring at each piece in her body of work, Abney’s political messages become quite clear. She cleverly captures common images of people we may know in our lives and subverts them to a baser form. By doing so, Abney’s images, which may appear crude at first, become expressive pictorial representations of the way in which our world is now. Her picture “Your Gig is Up” shows the simple yet effective image of rubber gloves as dirty work. Each piece is smart in its provocative design to illicit a some kind of internal political action, if not only a somewhat intelligent response, than just passively looking at another pretty picture.

These aren’t your normal, schoolyard Keds. These are flashy, fierce, and just so fantastic. Perfect for that guy ready to take on fall in the greatest way possible– putting his best shoes forward. Sold at Jeffrey’s New York boutique or their Atlanta boutique for $110.

By Genesis Nadal

Phantom Power-This Scene Blows

I am really diggin on N.Y’s Phantom Powers spacey lounge  music. He blends elements of chilled-out house with cosmic sounding synths and reverby jazz guitars. You can download a few of his albums along with a cover of a Daniel Johnston track via bandcamp below.

Download Phantom Powers HERE

The Black Saxons just sent in their track  “Disaster”.  Its raw, its abrasive, its real, just like garage rock should be. With vocals that cut deep through the skin and the simplicity of 3 chords repeated throughout the entire song The Black Saxons have taken this formula and their running with it. I have a feeling these guys dont sit around watching old sitcoms in the comfort of a cozy home in between performances. Judging by their sound I would image them binge drinking, parting, bar surfing and crashing on random peoples couches in their spare time.

Guards-dont wake the dead

Not much is know about this group, besides the fact that Cults mentioned them on their twitter regarding a collaboration on a song from the Guards new EP. Download their 7 track ep, and also the  Cults 7″  below.

Download Guards S/T ep HERE

Download Cults 7″ HERE