Dig!

Spent this weekend with a good dose of pychedelic rock music: I watched Dig! on video (and I saw the Black Angels play in Paradiso). Dig! is a documentary from 2004 made by Ondi Timoner, and it follows two bands over a a period of seven years: the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Both bands are befriended and are trying to make it in the music industry:  the DandyWarhols love becoming rockstars and make a stupid $40.000 music video with director David LaChapelle for “Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth”, the Brian Jonestown Massacre are fucking things up because of a mixture of stubbornness and not conforming themselves to the commerce. The initial friendship becomes rivalry, resulting in the hilarious BJM recording “Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth”.

Although the documentary isn’t very nuanced, it has a lot of brilliant scenes, like a vain Courtney Taylor complaining about his looks in the video for “Junkie”, BJM playing for ten hours for ten people and a very young Peter Hayes as a member of the BJM (now of BRMC). Anyway, definitely worth a watch.

But most of all, Dig! shows, to quote former Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann: ” as soon as a bloke gets a guitar in his hands, he’s unbearable”.

Movie trailer:

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – Going to Hell:

The Dandy Warhols – Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth (1997):

More stuff:

www.myspace.com/antonfjordson

www.myspace.com/thedandywarhols

www.thecommitteetokeepmusicevil.com

Lushious

Went to the hairdresser a couple of weeks ago. I have a really nice hairdresser, she doesn’t talk about the weather and  she doesn’t try to change my style. She’s the only person on this earth who has noticed I changed my hair colour from “Scandinavian” to “super light natural blond”. Anyway, we talked about different hair colours and the only colour I like, except blond, is red. Not “orange-copper-fall”-reddish, but bright, fire truck red. And immediately I thought about one of my favorite bands from the 90’s, Lush, and their red haired frontwoman Miki Berenyi.

  

Lush started in 1987 as a one of many shoegaze bands, but they stood out from the rest because Miki and guitarist Emma Anderson were not one of those “Oh look, a girl on guitar, how cute”-bands, but actually made amazing music and had a no-nonsense approach about it. And as a plus, Miki and Emma both looked gorgeous. 

  

After four brilliant albums (Scar, Spooky, Split and Lovelife), they split up in 1998. Since then Emma started a new Band (Sing-Sing),  but Miki quit the music business and became a magazine editor.

To bring back happy memories, watch this: 

Lush, De-Luxe (1991)

Lush, Ladykillers (1996)

The new face of fashion photography: Corinne Day

One of the photographers that changed fashion photography in the 90’s is Corinne Day. Before Corinne we had glossy, airbrushed images of supermodels (Cindy-Naomi-Linda-etc). But in 1990 some pictures of a 15 year old girl were publised in the third Summer of Love editorial for the FACE magazine. The girl was Kate Moss.

Corinne didn’t focus on the clothes,  but wanted the photo’s to look like a documentary and wanted to get the character of the model in the pictures. From then on, Kate and Corinne became an instant succes, resulting in working for all the large fashion magazines. The next picture is from 1993 and was published in British Vogue, Kate is photographed in her own flat by Corinne.

There was a lot of controversy about this shoot. Critics accused Corinne of being an anti-glamour snob and encouraging anorexia, drugs, even paedophilia, and promoting “heroin chic”.

Despite shooting covers for Vogue and influencing catwalk couture, Corinne grew disenchanted by commercial success. She said she “aspired to reportage” and started producing more intimate, sometimes brutal, portraits of her friends and the un-orchestrated stories of their everyday lives. The result was her first book, “Diary” (2000):

After Diary Corinne continued to work as a photographer for fashion magazines. Her work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery, just to name a few. Some of her more recent work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, ten years ago she also found out she had brain cancer and has been battling the disease ever since. She is currently in a clinic in Arizona undergoing expensive treatment that could save her life and her friends in the fashion industry have come up with a unique way to help her pay for it. In an effort to raise money for her fight against brain cancer, some of the photo’s of Kate will be sold. Prints will be limited edition and will be signed by Kate. The photo’s will cost circa 100 pounds and will be released in September, October and December. For more info about the pictures and how to order, check the blog of Premier Model Management: www.premiersandpremierettes.blogspot.com. Let’s hope the cash will flow in and Corinne gets better soon!

All pictures by Corinne Day: www.corinneday.co.uk.

No Doubt in our minds

Excitement is roaring as the legendary No Doubt’s big come-back from their 8 year long break is in the makes.

[clearspring_widget title=”No Doubt 2009 Tour Widget” wid=”499dfa6c478a1408″ pid=”49a7111c1a51323d” width=”400″ height=”333″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

This band is special to all three of us, in fact we would probably not know eachother had it not been for them putting out great music and launching Gwen Stefani’s carreer with which she was given the oppertunities to venture out into fashion and inspire young females all over the planet.

In 1997 right after my 13th birthday, almost exactly 12 years ago to the day, the first concert i ever went to was No Doubt, at the statenhal in the Hague. It made an unforgettable impression. I was obsessed with Gwen Stefani from that moment on. Her style; combining ultra feminine looks(blonde hair, red lipstick, black eyeliner) with tomboyish clothes(bondage pants, wife beaters), daring outfit choices(combining leopard prints, tartans, polka dots, sportswear, bright colors) it wasn’t like anything else i had ever seen before. She taught me not to be afraid of fashion and standing out, to wear what you think looks good no matter what people think, to be inspired by past and present and mix it up and most of all to dress for yourself not others. No Doubt were fun, different and they’re music never failed and never fails to make me happy. As they looked down on me from my teenage bedroom wall, from this poster that hung there for at least 10 years, i hoped they’d stay around forever..

It’s been 8 years since the release of their last album “rock steady”. Gwen Stefani has put out 2 solo albums during that period, but eventhough it kept our ears occupied with guilty pleasure music.. no doubt’s what we, the fans, want most! Unfortunately the tour will be continental US only, but we’re hoping they’ll get crazy inspired and put out and album fast, that they’ll promote in Europe and the rest of the world soon enough after.

Still to this day we’re all inspired by Gwen’s style. To me personally, the tragic kingdom era is special and this post serves as a tribute to the time i first got to hear this amazing band..

Also an excitement announcement was made today on the official site;

After you purchase your tickets through the fanclub, No Doubt will send you a digital download of their STUDIO VERSION of “Stand And Deliver”(originally by Adam And The Ants)!!

Mark your calendars to see No Doubt perform “Stand And Deliver” for the first time ever on Gossip Girl, May 11, 8/7c on The CW.

the AMAZING original..

I cannot wait to hear no doubt rocking this track, what a perfect fit!

sources: nodoubtweb.com, nodoubt.com, greenerpastures.us

If looks could kill: Wendy James

This post is dedicated to my first style icon: Wendy James. At the time (1988) she was in a pop-punk band called Transvision Vamp (actually more pop than punk) and I loved the way she looked: bleached blond hair, pink clothes and  pale pink lipstick.  I was 15 years old,  bought Smash Hits every week, cut out pictures of her and stuck them in my journal/diary. And started bleaching my hair for the first time.

Thank god she changed the pink lycra dresses a couple of years later for black leather jackets and vintage clothing from the fifties and sixties. 

In 1991 Transvision Vamp split up and Wendy released a solo album in 1993, “Now ain’t the time for your tears”, written by Elvis Costello. Her style changed to stylish black beatnik outfits (turtlenecks!) and Bardot hair.

After her relationship ended (with Mick Jones, ex-Clash member…..not bad) she decided to move to New York and learned how to play guitar and write songs. The result: a new band, Racine, influenced by: rap music (???). In interviews she’s said she’s done with the indie music scene (she has heard Franz Ferdinand but “doesn’t get it”). Her passions are hip-hop, early punk and Bob Dylan. “The idea of being a white, indie, navel-gazer is beyond me,” she says. “What the Ramones did was so great, why try and emulate it 30 years later? And so many lyrics I hear from indie rock bands are so introverted, so miserable. The last music revolution was rap music and it was just mind blowing.”

Well, she’s still cool and stylish! Hmm, I could wear a pussy bow blouse to work tomorrow…….

For more info on Wendy and Racine check: http://www.myspace.com/theracineworld