By Eric Waroll
Because she is back with her brand new and innovative multimedia project, called Biophilia, I had to write something about her: Björk. Despite a brief appearance in the film Prêt-à-porter, the appearance of the Icelandic singer evokes the opposite of ready-to-wear. With her videos, books, photographs and album covers, she fully deploys her fairy sense of wandering.
Photograph by © Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin - Source: ERICDAILY.COM
By Marcia Howard
Even if you don’t believe in reincarnation, Penguin Prison’s Chris Glover will make a believer out of you. His endeavors include faux boy band pop, a Q-Tip-produced hip hop album, and the synth-pop, happy dance music that he makes today under the Penguin Prison moniker – and all this from a singer who got his start in a choir with a young Alicia Keys. In short, Glover has been musically reborn over and over again.
When he’s not writing songs and touring, he’s picking up DJ acts and remixing popular artists such as Marina and The Diamonds, Kylie Minogue, and Passion Pit. How did he evolve into his current genre? Like any artist with a sense of play, he fell into it while messing around with a Mattel beat machine, creating a song that eventually became “Golden Train.” It’s a beat-heavy song that sounds like the love child of the Knight Rider theme song and Prince falsetto. With all his changing and adapting, he’s tapped into something both nostalgic and modern.
Photography BJORN IOOSS
By Alixandra Lycette Weintraub
“I’ll battle till this bitter finale just me, my dignity & this guitar case.” –Amy Winehouse
Countless people knew Amy Jade Winehouse as the publicly intoxicated, rehab ridden, modern day jazz musician from London; but to her millions of fans, she was a talented, unique and intriguing woman who changed music forever. On Saturday, the five-time Grammy Award winning musician joined ‘Club 27’ – a group of famous musicians, each of which died at age 27, including Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain.
By Mikael Larsson and Laurent Altier
A chilly March afternoon in Williamsburg, we had the fortune to sit down with the New York-native band The Postelles in our studio for an interview.
The four friends – Daniel Balk (vocals), David Dargahi (guitar), John Speyer (bass), and Billy Cadden (drums) – have been together since high school. For the past two years, they have played all over the United States and England, alongside powerhouse musicians including Interpol, Kings of Leon, and Chuck Berry. Co-produced by Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, their upcoming debut album, “The Postelles,” touts what could be called a “stylish freshrock” style. The band’s classic Nuevo Rock music and their fun “house party” stage presence have been key to their success.
By Daniel Kent
” I love clothes more than I love money, cars, sex or food.” - Ida No
Ida No and Johnny Jewel have successfully managed to kidnap both Debbie and Dirty Harry, transport them blindfolded in the back of a 1970 Buick Skylark, and dropped them off at a rustbelt roller rink in a forgotten lot off the New Jersey Turnpike where a dim and dusty disco ball spins in the center of the ceiling. It feels like Farah Fawcett fronting Siouxsie and the Banshees in a boiler room afterparty at the MGM Grand. Spooky. Late as hell. Best night of your life.
By Alixandra Lycette Weintraub
“I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” -David Bowie
So much can be said of the 70s – from Cher to KISS, the decade ushered so much in the way of glamour and provocation. And while disco in its purest sense may have come and gone, the 70s undoubtedly introduced at least one lasting flavor of music culture: Glam Rock. The movement emerged as a post-hippie phenomenon and an antidote to all the solemn seriousness of that era. The tradition of Glam Rock has entertained quite the oeuvre of artists since its introduction, and there is very little argument surrounding the origins of the rock-faction. It was most profoundly brought to the limelight by none other than the king of feathery boas and glittery eye-makeup, David Bowie. The movement – characterized by dazzling flamboyance and androgynous performance – practically steam-rolled the rock scene, leaving behind a smear of teenage transvestite revolution mixed with a healthy dose of science-fiction escapism.
Bowie challenged the conventions of traditional rock and roll with hits like Starman and Ziggy Stardust. His musical timbre and bold theatrics were new-fangled and unprecedented. “I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human. I felt very puny as a human. I thought, ‘Fuck that. I want to be a superhuman.’” Bowie’s glitzy appearance and arousing lyrics gave light to an utterly new brand of rock culture; and moreover, he paved the way for the making of a colossal fusion of music, fashion and art.
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By Daniel Kent
POLYESTER ABSORBS ME
As Maximilian Hecker’s synthetic croon permeates the room, feathered piano and velvet strings pulsing below his skyward voice, one can hardly help but feel their otherwise prosaic surroundings cinematically transform into a scene from a romantic melodrama that could transcend even the most sentimental of daytime television. This is not to say that German-born Hecker’s starry-eyed balladry is a construction quite as simple as that of the troubadours who have come before him.
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