This Tuesday I saw Mykki Blanco live at Birthdays in Dalston. She was INCREDIBLE. We got front/centre and got fed grapes when she first came out before a killer set, and a few outfit changes. By outfit 'changes', I mean that items are clothes were steadily removed until it was just a pair of tight leggings and a SUSHI cap.
You can watch a couple of videos I've uploaded to YouTube after the jump. Apologies for the angle, but that's what happens when you're so close that you're being covered in sweat....
Today's the day that RuPaul's Drag Race Season V starts in the US and Canada. That means it's time for contestants, both old and new, to release their own music video.
Famous for their Chick-Fil-Avideo from last year, Willam, Vicky + Detox have released their follow-up - "Boy Is A Bottom" is a take on Alecia Keys' "Girl On Fire". I have to say, Detox fucking STEALS it with this. I think she'll be a stand-out contestant on Season V.
New musical project from Scissor Sister's member, Del Marquis and New York vocalist Xavier: Tickle Mixtape. You can listen to one of the tracks, 'Say Ooh Damn' over at Idolator.
We asked Del what his inspiration for “Say Ooh Damn” was, and, well, he didn’t really mince words: “Oh, lord, I won’t even skirt the issue — the song is about smoking weed and fucking from night till morning. The euphoria of sex.”
The EP contains 6 tracks and is available as a free download on Del's website: delmarquis.com/tickle/
Hot Natured, AKA Lee Foss, Jamies Jones, Luca C and Ali Love have released this house track as a free download via their website hotnatured.com while preparing to release their debut album.
Ms Blanco is coming for 2013. Transcending the 'queer-rap' genre, Mykki is a rapper, poet, artist, author and actor. It feels as though he's come from the same gang as Zebra Katz and LE1F, but his sound is totally it's own. With a debut EP due out this year and a free mixtape (Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss) already getting people talking, those other bitches need to watch their wigs, because Mykki's gonna take them.
CHAPMAN: Was that life something you discovered when you came to New York, or something you just could never be anywhere else?
BLANCO: Well, I considered myself gay for so long, and it really wasn't until I started dressing as the opposite sex pretty regularly that I began to see my gender identity shift. To be flat-out honest, it wasn't until I started sleeping with men as the opposite sex that things started to really change—when I found out men that I found attractive found me attractive as a woman! It literally is a mindfuck to go through life as a guy, and then to dress as a woman and get cat-called on the street, get men running up to you, asking for your phone number, your e-mail address; to meet men online and have them be smokin' hot. It's like a whole entire road opened up and in a lot of ways, it made my life so much better.
I'm so excited to see her this Tuesday. BIRTHDAYS in Dalston, London.
I just got back from a talk at UAL by Nick White, a London-based illustrator. He is regularly featured in LA Times, and has been commissioned for various projects such as Buisnessweek (above), as well as many bookcover/CD designs. You can see more of Nick's work at:
"Like thousands of other young tourists, Luis from Madrid arrives in Berlin to spend a carefree summer weekend. After a break-up, Berlin's infamous club scene seems the ideal place to fuck the pain away, make new friends, and fall in love again. However, Luis’ resemblance to a young Greek student who had gone missing a few weeks ago gets him involved in a series of mysterious events. What starts out like a romantic adventure turns into a desperate chase through the streets as Luis gets more and more lost between paranoia and reality."
"Lose Your Head features a collection of characters from all over the world who have been stranded in Berlin for various reasons: Luis, the attractive young clubber from Spain, Elena and Kostas from Greece, searching for their lost brother, Viktor, a seductive illegal immigrant from the Ukraine, Grit, a tough Berliner party girl, two homesick Japanese boys and others - searching, losing and finding each other in Lose Your Head."
Lose Your Head will play at Berlinale during February 2013. Visit the website for more information on where to catch it when it is (hopefully) released later in the year.
The Naked Sunday Project is by Mckenzie James, and is a collection of photographs taken by him of various men over a period of years.
"The project allows/forces me to slow down every so often and re-discover the simple beauty that can be found with just light, skin, subject, and photographer and allows me to experiment with new (or old) ways of shooting that I can later adapt in other works."
The outcome is honestly a collection of beautifully stunning images. There is full male nudity, so NSFW.
“Kastle pushes the kind of soulful, low-end-centered, forward-thinking dubstep tunes that could just as easily soundtrack a night out at the club as they could the lonely walk home afterwards.” – XLR8R
Kastle is a San Francisco based DJ. His sounds are bass and dub heavy with a twist of soul. There are influences of Hip-Hop, R&B, garage and dubstep. His recent Classic Garage & 2-Step mixtape is full of classic 90s garage sounds blended together with smooth dub tracks. Listen above and download for free through the Soundcloud link.
His remix of Brandy'sI Wanna Be Down also deserves a listen.
KIDULT is fast becoming infamous for his attacks on high profile, high fashion brands. Most recently his attack on Maison Martin Margiela after their H&M collab last year got people talking, but he is known for his graffiti on store fronts such as Celiné, KENZO and Supreme.
Kidult is the problem child who paints in a righteous, primary and no-limit way with the use of an extinguisher.
This video focuses on his 2012, and looks at the 'Kidult Army' in cities around the world.
"This is a movement. Love it or hate it. No order without chaos."
Antonio da Silva is an artist and filmaker. His queer-focused work is beautifully produced, from Julian, a 'poetic narrative with factual and personal elements', to Bankers, a sexually explicit film recorded using a hidden camera during a lunchtime break in public toilets.
All of Silva's work is self-funded, and he has already won awards at Berlin Porn Festival, Queer Lisboa, as well as having his films screened around the world at various festivals.
I've been watching Elliphant since early last year when she released 'In The Jungle'. Her tech/electronic inspired sound is fresh and innovate, falling out of place with the current dance music trend. There's influences from Diplo and MIA, and her Swedish heritage and a summer spent in London following the dubstep scene have helped Ellinor Olovsdotter create something special. Her vocals and visuals are distinctive, and each release seems to get better.
Watch the video for 'Down On Life' below and look out for this one in 2013:
Charli XCX has been making noise and getting noticed since 2008, but only in the past couple of years has she hit new heights. With the underground hit Nuclear Seasons in 2011, she was featured on many a 'Ones to Watch' list. Her nostalgic, space sounding tracks and visuals are right on point with her song writing skills remaining sharp with each new track.
She is now hitting 2013 hard, with new single You (Ha Ha Ha), sampling Gold Panda's You. (taken from his album Lucky Shiner.)
Keep you eye on Charli, as it's looking like 2013 may be her year.
Brussels-based duo Jetlag are high on my one-to-watch for 2013. From tracks like their Whitney Houston, Every Womanremix, to the free hour long mixtapes they release, they really can do no wrong at the minute.
Here's a mix they produced for Hard Candy, as part of the Hard Candy xseries, suitably named 'La Mixtape à Bonbons':
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, Interior. Leather Bar. is a beta-documentary/film imagining the rumoured 'lost 40-minutes' from 1980 thriller Cruising by William Friedkin. It was said that to make the final cut a non X-rated film, content had to cut and destroyed; many believing it was 40 minutes of gay S&M.
Inspired by this controversy, James Franco and Travis Mathews have collaborated to create something that is said to "blur the boundaries between the observer and observed, truth and fiction, pain and delight."
