This is a Thing: Fjallraven

Fjallraven Kanken is Swedish for "I'm an asshole."

This Is a Thing: Hipster Rockabilly

Get ready, because it's coming. Rockabilly is going to be the new thing. I'm kind of okay with it. In fact, I'd like for all this stylish rockabilly that's surfacing to take over. At least for the summer. It would be a nice diversion. The fashion victims in my neighborhood would dress up in gingham and hairnets, all acting like they invented them.

Hanni El Khatib

Three is a pattern and I count at least three of these guys so far, which almost guarantees that there are more on the way. My favorite is Hanni El Khatib. He's been up to this stuff for a little while, the album is coming out this summer, and I like how his songs are pretty spare. But they're overly streamlined. Like, he makes rock 'n' roll that Charles and Ray Eames would get down to. 

The song "Loved One" is okay and the video is cool, but kind of Vice-ey. "Dead Wrong" is another good track, but that one opens a can of worms for me that I'll deal with some other time.

Then there's Bosco Delrey. He's on Mad Decent and he has a lot of hair and a song called "Space Junky." His stuff is a little more interesting. It reminds me of early British rock 'n' roll novelty songs like "Rock with the Caveman" by Tommy Steele. But, again, it's a little too stylish and a little too emotionally distanced from its inspirations to really be enjoyable.

Bosco Delrey

This dude Devin Therriault is doing something closer to actual rock music, but still a little too precious. He's got hair like Stray Cats-era Brian Setzer and it's hard to look at it with a straight face. "New Horrors" is a pretty good song. He seems as though he's really into music but more like Lou Reed  music than Carl Perkins music. I'd go to see him on a bill with Xray Eyeballs or somebody after I'd had a few.

This stuff is not going to coexist well with the kind of garage rock I post about on here, because so far it seems to be a mainly aesthetic exercise. But, as an aesthetic exercise, it's awfully successful. I just doubt if it will go much further than a brief fashion trend. But, as a fashion trend, it makes me want this Betsey Johnson sweater that costs too much money. But, like, rockabilly style is amazing. And, hey, even Carl Perkins was pretty into his shoes.

Devin Therriault

And now listen, I love Gene Vincent as much as the next nerd, so I was kind of into the idea of young people outside of the old rockabilly cult getting into rockabilly and giving it a fresh coat of paint. It's always bummed me out that it was one of the few forms of music that the indie crowd considered beneath their notice. But now ... I don't know, I was hoping they'd show it a little more respect.

Maybe I'm just hating because I've always fetishized creepers and yet, having only gotten into The Misfits later in life, I feel forever debarred from wearing them. So now I'm pissed at these Eddie-Cochran-come-latelys for just waltzing in and appropriating all that shit.

So, take it with a grain of salt when I say the buzz around these bands is obviously a conspiracy to sell shoes. Unless it is a conspiracy to sell shoes. In which case, I told you so. 

But what's causing this now? It's a cool thing, what with Wanda Jackson getting some well deserved love and working with Jack White. But, why now? Are we done exhuming the '60s so now it's time to start rifling through the '50s again? If that's the case, I'd still rather listen to the more punk rock approach of Shannon and the Clams and other Oakland/San Francisco-based bands like Nobunny. Now that's how you rip off the '50s

It's interesting that this current crop is all dudes. A couple years ago I was getting memos about a woman named Kim Lenz and another woman from Ireland named Imelda May. They both do more traditional rockabilly revival, which is not that interesting, but I think they have their respective cult followings.

I am ultimately hopeful about this as a trend. See, I definitely think that one thing that's been missing from music scenes lately is subculture-based brawling. And since hipsters are basically mods -- confused middle class kids into clothes, drugs, and obscure music -- it's unfortunate that they don't have a real rocker counterpart that wants to fight them and who they want to fight in return like, in Quadrophenia. Maybe now there will be a new cult of fashion rockabillies and they can fight the synth heads! Either that or there will be a new race of super messed-up art school black metal kids and everyone will run. Either way, I'm dusting off my knuckle dusters.

I mean, just imagine how the real rockabilly fans are going to react. But, who knows, maybe they'll be stoked and have these young guys come and play their weekenders and car shows. I'd go.

But, knock on wood, I'll be getting my greaser fix from Guitar Wolf at the Knitting Factory next week.  Come find me. I'll even fight you if you want.

Vintage '80s Weird South Carolina Anti-Satanism T-Shirt

 

You find the most amazing things if you go on Etsy and search "satan." Try it. This shirt is totally real and seems to be a relic of a particularly frightening chapter in the 1980s. Obviously, I want it.

The description is as follows:

Vintage '80s t-shirt from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. Normal looking logo on the breast area, and on the back is a large image featuring black silhouettes with wolf heads dancing around a giant horned skull. Shirt is a 50/50 poly cotton blend. In very good condition other than a few small holes on the left side. Labeled size XL, closer to a modern large. Please see measurements below.
 

Bad!

You can't afford to buy this off me.

No One Told Me There Were Teddy Girls

So ... Teddy Girls. 

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Kinda makes you rethink blazers. This is all in the 40s and early 50s by the way. The Teddy boys and girls were one of those proto youth subcultures in post-war Britain. They had their look together before rock 'n' roll hit. No drinking. No rude behavior. Just dressing up.

And I just came across this modern lookbook deal that's inspired by Teddy girls. So, it's coming back? Or, rather, coming back again? I read that Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren brought the look back in the 1970s with a Day-Glo twist. It's interesting that the look would be brought back periodically and deliberately in different forms by designers because it was originally a revival of Edwardian fashions. It was the look that boutiques were pushing after the war. That's where the name comes from.

I got onto this subject doing searches for creepers. My shoe obsession has crossed a dangerous line.

See also: Karl Heinz Weinberger

Panache

When I say I'm getting really excited about Australian fashion, I'm really mostly just talking about Panache.

Wish list of one

I love Cat and Girl. It's one of a select group of web comics that makes this cycle of caffeine crashes I call a life bearable. I also love the Cat and Girl apparel sold on the site. I own just one web comic t-shirt, a Married to the Sea number. "Stop Believin'" might just be the second. I am likely to wear it much more. It really does set a new standard for negativity in web comic-related apparel.

Cupcake Cannon:

I can no longer restrain myself from posting this. I need to make sure you saw it. I was sent the link from Gizmodo. The canon launches the cupcakes at 120 psi. That seems to be a pretty safe and fun speed. I surely  would have signed up to be in this video.

 

 Seems it has to do with something called Johnny Cupcakes, which, disappointingly, has more to do with T-shirts than it does with baked goods.

Bonus Dude!

Frankly, I was shocked when fur came back this year. I mean, I noticed that the pose to perfect of this decade is uniformly not giving a shit. And I noticed that fashion had supplanted music as the obsession to claim. (Thank the guitar gods, more music for me.) But I was not prepared for those two memes to collide in a resurgence of socially acceptable pelt wearing.  (Liking Where the Wild Things Are is not an excuse.) Memo to L Train: Yes, the '90s are back. That means it's time to be socially aware and participate in a damn beach clean up. It's also time for rockers to be sensitive and wear their hearts on their sleeve tattoos (for PETA?):

Dave Navarro for PETA
Find out more at PETA.org.

He looks good. I have the sudden and very uncharacteristic desire to listen to Jane's Addiction.

Oh, and if you have to do the look (probably not in this weather I know, but some of you are batshit) we consider faux preferable to vintage. Consider Coquette Faux Furriers.

A Coney Island of my Mind

The sequined slippers from the dollar store are what it looks like I'll be kicking around in this summer. But Vegan Shoe Addict has brought these shoes from Everyday Apparel to my attention. They're like TOMS but they don't look the least bit like diapers for your feet. Fascinating. Also, recycled, vegan, fair trade. I would like them so that I can say that my shoes are a better person than I am.

But these geniuses have made an entire line of affordable, cool, and ethical clothes. Without creepy soft-core porn ads! Lookit!

I could be set for an endless summer with these guys. It seems like they are an aptly named label. The clothes seem so inviting, like you would more or less want to live in them.

It's getting easier to find ethical clothes that you would actually want to wear. But they tend toward the bohemian side. Now, where are my fair-trade, wool-free, organic Ann Taylor knock-offs for my next job interview? Sorry, but it's always on to the next challenge with me.

 

Blood and Gorey

I've wondered for awhile if public-television chic was even possible. I used to work for a book catalog that sold bookish accessories as well. Through them, I have a lovely silver bracelet cast with part of a sonnet on it and I used to have a necklace with a pen on it before I decided that was taking things too far. Geek chic and the whole rad librarian thing work great but that's more along the lines of the Reading is Sexy sticker on my fixed gear and not so much along the lines of the over-sized sweatshirts celebrating books, cats, and wine available through the Signals catalog. But that is exactly why I, in my uncontrollable perversity, want to find a way to bring Signals style into the world of street fashion. Because it probably can't be and you probably shouldn't try.

That is why I love the lit-goth accessories and apparel from the Edward Gorey House Store. They kind of straddle the line between cool and really pushing the limits. Some things you can't do ironically. But this outlet offers some of the best bat jewelery around. And there's stuff for dudes too. Bat cuff links for instance. And garments that say "Real Men Read." On the proper dude, such a t-shirt could definitely boost bangability. Maybe. We need to conduct more research.

Be a Punk in Bondage

Lorna Doom

This came via Julia via Metafilter:

How to Look Punk

It is filled with pinup boys and girls galore. And, apart from being an amazing artifact, necessarily free of any punk rock revisionist history, it also reveals the secret of how to do your eye makeup to look like The Go-Go's back in the day. Me, I'm still working on figuring out "smoky" eyes, but I've got this bookmarked now.

Does anyone remember in the '80s when kids used to dress up like punk rockers for Halloween? Little 11 year-old Wendy O. Williamses dousing themselves in glitter and spray-on hair color and running around demanding candy? I think kids still do that but now they dress up like the Hot Topic version. Anyway, it's become a cherished memory for me.

On a largely unrelated note, I heard that socks and platforms were going to be the rage. I've got these on hand. But nowhere to wear them. I'm afraid I have this obsession with dressing for the weather and the occasion and my next big night out centers on skee ball. It just isn't in the cards. Oh, well. They were a gift.

But enough about the challenges of my life. I came across this interesting post on The Gaurdian's website while cadging images for this post:

Punk's Not Dead - It Just Emigrated

It makes tantalizingly brief mention of different punk bands in politically and culturally repressive countries and I'd like to see it expanded. It's a bit of a stub. Maximum Rocknroll is a good source of information on this sort of thing but I still always want to hear more about music scenes in places where it is dangerous to be a band. I've touched on that in these posts:

Bleeding Ears, Heart

No One Knows About Persian Cats (Now playing. Get the soundtrack: No One Knows About Persian Cats: The Soundtrack That's an order.)

I do think the writer of The Gaurdian post is a little quick to dismiss the relevance of punk rock in countries that have democracy and capitalism. But it's a little embarrassing how easily talk like that can get me to wad my panties up. So, instead of opening that particular can of worms today, I'll leave you with the words of my wise friend Erik:

"Punk is dead. But sometimes it's fun to dress up and play dead."

And if you're feeling nostalgic for times you may or may not have even been alive for, this giant coffee table book is full of tasty nerd candy:

Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley

And Glen Thrasher has some interesting and recent thoughts on what it was like to be listening to cool records in the late '70s.

Search Terms of Endearment

So, after discovering the genuinely useful Australian style blog Super Kawaii Mama, I Googled "Kawaii". It means cute in Japanese, but more importantly it is apparently an esoteric Internet formula unlocking a strange and colorful world of objects I totally need.

 Asiajam.com

In this new world, skulls are new again, nails are three dimensional, and eggs are shaped like
cartoon characters. I even discovered a new web comic, Kawaii Not. Of course, it's adorable.

Sui Dreams

Now and again, especially when the weather is nice, I lose the fight and have to search Etsy for vintage Anna Sui. This search usually turns up a few things tagged with "Anna Sui" because they are "Anna Sui-like" along with a few genuine specimens. Here's today's catch. I just like to look at them.

Boonie Boutique

DisarmingDarling Vintage

Lenny and Me Vintage

Cloth Revival

Mother of the Mob

There, I feel better now.

Screw the boots

It's time for spring. I'm pretty sure these guys would transform my life if I wore them consistently.
I admit to stalking ModCloth.

Lacing up my smug shoes, or we are all gutter punks now

 

 

I never thought there would be a picture of Lindsay Lohan on this blog. But she is helping me illustrate my point that beat up black combat boots are all the rage at the moment. (Thank you, Lindsay.)Which brings me to the part where I get to be smug because I never got rid of mine. I never really warmed to the oughts, so I guess in that sense this '90s revival thing is working out well for me. Maybe no one really liked the last decade. Let us all piss on the grave of Hummer!

Now yr talkin

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