ATO Records

Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero arrived here after a long journey. From initially connecting in their native Mexico City more than fifteen years ago and bonding over thrash metal to busking together in Dublin, Ireland, the two have stuck it out to become one of the preeminent guitar duos performing today. R&G return this month with 11:11, and the blueprint is still the same: two virtuosos transposing acoustic guitars with their love of metal and classic rock. Gabriela sustains driving rhythms while Rodrigo shreds the leads aggro-Flamenco style, like Ottmar Liebert became a hesher. This effort is less visceral than their live-sounding, self-titled debut from a few years back, trading up for some additional instruments and studio sophistication from their newly built outpost in Ixtapa. The highlight is the Arab-Spanish direction heard on “Atman”, which comes off like a slice of Andalusia. Refreshing, and a welcome change of pace from whatever you’ve been listening to.

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4AD

The Big Pink is love obsessed. The duo’s debut album, A Brief History Of Love, features three songs with “love” in the title. Whether spelled out or not, however, the sentiment appears on all the tracks. But the sonics behind the Big Pink’s love obsession are all harsh noise and fuzzy aggression. A bit Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, a bit Jesus and Mary Chain, a bit Atari Teenage Riot (with whom vocalist Robbie Furze played for a while), The Big Pink has a way with writing songs that are instantly familiar. You might think you have heard it before, but it just sounds like something you heard before. At the same time, A Brief History Of Love is all new, original post-shoegazing. “Dominos” has a strident pace that demands a sing-along. In contrast, Furze’s drones on “Frisk” are of a driving nature that pull up rather than drag down.

A Brief History Of Love will be released in the United States on September 22.

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The Big Pink – Frisk

Friendly Fire Recordings

The Phenomenal Handclap Band is a collective out of NYC that specializes in combining elements of every major musical genre of the last forty years — rock, soul, psychedelia, disco, prog-rock, funk, new wave, and probably a few others I’ve missed. It seems like an unruly soup, but somehow they make it work in a mostly seamless rollick through the decades. And not only that, they get you dancing. Members have been involved in numerous notable projects, from TV on the Radio to Calla to Mooney Suzuki and others. They also happen to be friends, so over the last few months I’ve sat by as everyone from Rolling Stone to NPR, Spin to Pitchfork have gushed over this band. Lately, I’ve been thinking of a way to get into the game — but haven’t been sure what other superlatives I could add. Alas, their first video provides an opportunity. All this time I’ve suspected they’ve been up to no good; now it’s confirmed.

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“Predictable” is hardly a word to ascribe to Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela, but if anyone was going to pull velvet-covered magenta trainers out of his stylish sleeves, it was him. Vetted sneaker aficionados of hip-hop culture and general shoe freaks the world over are guaranteed to scoop these up faster than you can say Colette exclusive — Kanye West already featured them as a must-have on his personal blog, “Kanye Universe-city”.
     Inspired by the 1970’s and specifically Bryan Singer’s film The Usual Suspects, the new kicks represent Margiela’s cheeky take on the classic American athletic shoe — chucks and Vans, in particular — and the bizarre status symbol it has become. Two unisex styles in bright cobalt blue and hot magenta are available in traditional high or low top versions, with upper, midsole, outer sole, and laces entirely cast in supple premium velvet. The irresistible gaudiness is sure to make them a street style favorite in spite of their considerable impracticality on the actual street.
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Photography by Sam Noonan

The Bridge House by architect Max Pritchard got a fair amount of press earlier this summer, so we’re a little late to the praise party. But in the interest of giving credit where credit is due, we’d like to gush over this ingenious living/working space that straddles a creek outside of Adelaide, South Australia. Let’s start with money. It only cost $177,000. That’s laughably lower than the average home being published today. Granted, with an area of 110 square meters, Bridge House is relatively small. But a price tag under $200k for such a thoughtfully designed home on a lot this challenging is inspiring: Hey, average non-millionaire, you too could have your house written about in fancy New York City magazines if you hire a clever architect like Mr. Pritchard. Oh, and if you’re ballsy enough to build over a creek’s deep waterhole.
     In Australia, they’d call that waterhole a billabong. The clients have a 10-acre site but they wanted their house to be on the bank overlooking the billabong. They didn’t want to significantly alter the gorgeous setting and destroy the billabong, so steel trusses were used to elevate the house. As a commenter on the Web site Archinet reminds us, it’s very reminiscent of an unbuilt project by Craig Ellwood, the influential, yet unlicensed, architect. The best artists always steal, right?

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We first wrote about Robert Geller Collection when it launched in fall 2007. Since then, Geller has gone on to become one of the most watched American Menswear designers. At the time that we about wrote him, he was drawing inspiration from the French New Wave, specifically Godard’s Breathless. As Geller explained to PLANET then, he wanted to portray a sense of masculinity that was free, playful, and hadn’t been hemmed in. Yet he also wanted to show a vulnerability, which, after all, exists in any real man at any age. In his clothes and in his models, Geller was unabashedly drawn to youth — proto-males that were still evolving, or, as I wrote then, “slightly unformed creatures who were not yet certain to turn out good or bad.”
     In his Spring/Summer 2010 collection, presented Saturday at Exit Art in New York City, Geller is still looking to the past for inspiration, but once again as a way of reconstructing the present. As we work through our own economic midnight, Geller says he focused on the German 1950s for his collection’s theme — not that men dressed like this then, but rather, he would have liked them to. It was a time when Germany was picking itself up after the devastation of the war and, through the economic miracle known as Wirtschaftswunder, began emerging from that haunted past. The bold use of color, more pronounced than in previous Geller collections, is a symbol of the renewal of spring and its potential for redemption.
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Photography by James D. Griffioen

Perhaps you grew up in a tree-lined, middle-class suburb outside of Cleveland, tiptoeing past a dilapidated Gothic Revival on the way to the bus stop. Perhaps you came of age near New York’s BQE, eyeing weathered, unoccupied row houses with suspicion. Wherever you were, there was a good chance that an abandoned, spooky old house — its lawn gone to seed, its windows boarded — waited for you around the corner or at the end of the lane. Maybe you had the nerve to sneak in or perhaps you just watched sentimentally as the elements turned its walls and wood into something more fascinating and feral. Now imagine that house not being the exception in your ‘hood, but a growing norm.
     In cities across the country, the diving housing market and industrial downturn have had families on the run and leaving properties behind. In Flint, Michigan, Oakland, California, and even Brooklyn, rows of houses that have remained vacant since the mid-90s have welcomed new occupants – ivy, trees, and ruin. As GM and the other manufacturing giants slashed workforces over the last 20 years, the communities around these industrial centers have become eerie memento mori to bygone times when work was plenty, mortgages were cheap, and blue-collar communities thrived. Now the thriving in areas of Detroit and other cities is done by nature.
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Photography courtesy of Esquivel Shoes

The story of Esquivel shoes is like the American Dream come true. George Esquivel pulled himself up from difficult circumstances and became a success thanks to his hard work, faith, and an independent spirit. Learning the trade from retired master cobbler Emigdio Canales, he went on to open his own workshop and store in Southern California and now makes both ready-to-wear and custom shoes and boots for men. Not an antiquated notion that died with the Industrial Revolution, shoes made by hand can be sculptures for the feet that age well, both in terms of style and materials. And they don’t need to cost $3,000 a pair. With prices comparable to other ready-to-wear designer brands, Esquivel’s designs are classic with creative details, such as hand-varnished brogues and work boots with avant-garde details.
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Stones Throw

For the last few years, artists like Jamie Lidell, Amy Winehouse, and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings hinted at a true throwback to the classic soul sounds of Motown, Atlantic, and Stax. Seemingly coming out of nowhere (Ann Arbor, Michigan to be exact), Mayer Hawthorne is another advancement of this sound and, quite simply, the real deal. You might be taken aback by how un-modern this debut album sounds. Down to the instrumentation and arrangements, Hawthorne does his best to pay homage to this timeless era albeit with new original compositions, both sung and played by him. Replete with backing vocals reminiscent of the Four Tops and the Spinners, songs like “Maybe So, Maybe No” and “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” are immediate classics, even if they are seemingly time warped to a new era. Ballads, almost a lost art in current music, are right at home alongside this mid-tempo soul. Barry Gordy would be proud, if not a little surprised, that there’s still a market for these sounds, and the fact that Stones Throw (venerable indie home to Madlib and Peanut Butter Wolf) discovered and released this album is a testament to how things go beyond full circle. A strange arrangement indeed, and a promising one.

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Mayer Hawthorne – Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’

Photography courtesy of Verve Forecast

Having recently topped iTunes’ singer-songwriter chart with their debut Taller Children, pianist Elizabeth Ziman and fellow Berklee alums drummer Danny Molad and guitarist Peter Lalish launched a nationwide tour last Thursday with a headlining set at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The set’s highlights included “Race You”, “Momma’s Boy”, and “Taller Children” (streamed below), all propelled by frenzied rhythms and jaunty pianos. At times, the trio was accompanied by accordion, violins, and synchronized handclaps (courtesy of an uproarious Brooklyn crowd). Released this summer, Taller Children was produced by Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis, who has also worked with Rilo Kiley. That’s a salient touchstone for the Catapult, as Ziman’s singing and songwriting often evoke the sweet swoon of Jenny Lewis — not to mention the jazzy warble of Feist and the caustic lyricism of Regina Spektor. On that account, it seems the aforementioned triumvirate of indie-pop chanteuses may soon have to make room for a new member to the club.

Elizabeth & the Catapult will be hitting a city near you through September and October.

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