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Altamont x Pushead

Brian Schroeder, a.k.a. Pushead, is not just another artist to us at The Blogs. Pushead is THE artist.

Our love affair with Pushead started in the fifth grade as just another skate brat elbowing for room at the local park with our Zorlac x Pushead Pirate One signature deck. Thanks in part to an unhealthy obsession with thrash metal and hardcore punk – namely Metallica and The Misfits, both of which frequently collaborated with Schroeder for album and tee shirt art – Pushead’s art and music with his own band, Septic Death, was all we needed to properly piss off parents, teachers, police and all else who dared to diss us.

Quick fact: We started wearing all of our tees inside-out following a nasty confrontation with a math teacher who got us suspended for wearing a “grossly offensive” Pushead-designed tee (still have the school letter sent home with us, high comedy). Rather than trash it, we wore the tee (and just about every other since) inside-out until it was left in stained, smelly tatters.

Needless to say, we’re fuckin’ stoked to see the great tradition of corrupting young, impressionable minds continue with The Specimen Tee (below). The Altamont collaboration with Pushead features one of dude’s signature skull n’ bones designs, this time trapped for an eternity within the confines of a laboratory jar. Check it out below, and definitely stay on the look-out for more from Pushead and Altamont!

The Specimen Tee

Posted 1 week, 3 days ago.

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Stick ‘em Up! [Contest Winners]

Congratulations to Patrick of Rochester, New York – Karmaloop’s 2010 Sticker Contest grand prize winner as voted by YOU, the customers!

Much respect to the runners-up, and to those who entered and came away with nada… we’re very disappointed in you.

Sike, better luck next year! To check out the winners, click

Grand Prize Winner ($1,000 Gift Code):

Patrick, Rochester

Runners Up ($250 Gift Code):

Theo, Alexandria

Jayson, St. Catherines

Brooks, Charlotte

Kayleigh, London

Victor A., Los Angeles

Travis, Orange County

Posted 4 weeks, 1 day ago.

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Hourglass Tattoo presents: STRANGE WORLD

Teaming with Shaya Yasuhara, a.k.a. “Shayna Shenanigans,” founder of Boston’s award winning female art collective Paint Pens in PursesHourglass Tattoo (1680 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, MA) is hosting STRANGE WORLD this Saturday, July 31st, at the shop’s Pabst Blue Ribbon Gallery.

STRANGE WORLD is “a showcase of dark, lovely and intriguing works from six emerging and established low-brow and non-traditional artists,” including  3-D wood pieces screen printed by Luke O’Sullivan, the intricate collage work of Inas Al-Soqi, photography by Carly LaChant, illustrations by Fionn McCabe, co-founder and director of the Oh Nancy Project… and a special screening of Donnie Darko to coincide with the “Strange World” theme.

Doors open at 8:00 p.m. with a PBR reception running until 9:00 p.m., so RSVP to hourglasstattoo@gmail.com and get there early!

Posted 1 month, 1 week ago.

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Complex Magazine x KAWS x … Lindsay Lohan..?

Frequent BAPE, Vans, Nike and Burton collaborator, and arguably the freshest limited-edition toy producer to ever live, our dude KAWS laced the latest edition of Complex Magazine with some dope imagery surrounding our favorite jezebel/junkie/jailed-bird, Miss Lindsay Lohan.

We’re guessing that these flicks are already taped to the walls of the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, but here they are for you to enjoy in the comfort of your own freedom. Featuring KAWS’ trademark toys and illustrations that destroy the line between fine art and mass production (if that’s not a metaphor for Lohan, then we don’t know what is), hit the jump to get a look at the photos courtesy of our pals at Complex.

Click to enlarge:

In all seriousness, we have to hand it to Lindsay – if it were us in her scuffed and coke-stuffed Christian Louboutin pumps, we’d be dead or jailed a long, long time ago. As much as we love to see celebrities livin’ it up, partying hard and basically saying “fuck you” to the law and the fans, here’s to hoping the girl gets the help she needs and succesfully completes one of those comebacks that America loves so much. Until then, we can’t fuckin’ wait to see her in Machete.

Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago.

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Yonehara x RockSmith = Unfuckwithable Lookbook

The properly-titled “Explicit Content” Summer 2010 campaign from our RockSmith ninjas features a lookbook shot by iconic Japanese photographer Yasumasa Yonehara. Be sure to check out the Explicit Tank Top now available here at Karmaloop, and go to the jump to get a closer look at some of the Yone lookbook flicks.

Click to enlarge:

The Explicit Tank

Click the banner below to get a closer look at The Explicit Tank as well as the rest of RockSmith’s Explicit Content Summer 2010 collection.

Posted 2 months ago.

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HUF SF x Dennis McGrath Peepshow [NSFW]

Dennis McGrath is the shit.

For those of you familiar with the man’s work, you already knew that. Dude has been shooting iconic skateboarding flicks for almost as long as he’s been attached to his deck throughout a New Jersey-bred childhood, and starting in the mid-1990′s after deciding to take a more serious approach to the art of photography, McGrath has been not only featured in just about every major, minor and in-between skateboard rag from Boston to Beijing, but has found himself in our personal pantheon of  photographic greats in the company of Terry Richardson and Glen E. Friedman.

McGrath began to focus on a much more personal and documentary style of photography back in 2005 with a signature story-telling style that is at times beautiful, terrifying, fearless and so pornographic that it makes homeless, junked-out prostitutes blush. Not so much the case with the latest HUF SF collaboration, but we did manage to attract a parade of perverts during our commute through the city rocking The Sasha Gray Tee this morning.

Working out of San Francisco and Los Angeles these days, it was only a matter of time before McGrath’s work would be sought out by West Coast brands, and the Sucka Free City’s own HUF found him at the top of his game with this hookup. Featuring all of your favorite laying-on-the-job luminaries from the adult film industry, McGrath brought humanity, emotion, character and class out of his subjects, including Ryan Keely, Mandy Morbid, April Flores, Belladonna, Kimberly Kane, Charlotte Stokely and the aforementioned Sasha Gray.

Get a closer look at some hi-res shots and the tees now available at Karmaloop.com after the jump.

(Click to enlarge)

The Dennis McGrath for HUF Sasha Gray Tee

The Dennis McGrath for HUF Ryan Keely Tee

The Dennis McGrath for HUF Mandy Morbid Tee

The Dennis McGrath for HUF Kimberly Kane and Charlotte Stokely Tee

Coming soon:

April Flores

Belladonna

… and some extras for your masturbat- viewing pleasure:

Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago.

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Lot F Presents: PIECE

Definitely looking forward to this one!

The latest Lot F gallery opening showcases a heavy street art influence that’s tagged, bombed and stickered right up our alley. Featuring work by Avone, Destroy and Rebuild, AUKS One, Will Long, Percy Fortini-Wright and Lot F staple Todd Robertson, the opening of PIECE runs from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., followed by an after jam at GoodlifeBar… this has “shitshow” written all over it and we’re fuckin’ stoked.

Visit Lot F Gallery for directions and details – hope to see you there!

Posted 3 months ago.

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Karmaloop x Evoker x Fish McGill – Boston Tomorrow!

We’re kicking off the long weekend right with an in- er… outside-of-the-store (301 Newbury Street, Boston, MA) event featuring artists Fish McGill of Upper Playground‘s superFishal and graffiti artist Evoker. It goes down from 1:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. with a live art exhibition and music from local cat DJ John Barera, and as any Memorial Weekend jam should, there will be drinks a-plenty for the older folks. Come through and check it out!

Posted 3 months, 1 week ago.

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May Day Re-cap

It’s been a minute since the Big Apple has been blessed with our presence, so we figured the perfect opportunity to make our valiant return was to catch the opening of May Day at Deitch Project, featuring entirely new and original works from Obey‘s Shepard Fairey.

We caught the early trip to Gotham, and after a couple hours of skating, raging and getting our lungs properly blunted, the buzz filling Soho was tantamount to a storm cloud of locusts sweeping through Manhattan. One could literally feel the electricity in the air as the hype surrounding the exhibition brought heads from throughout the world (five city blocks worth of a line for general admission) and we knew that our dude would not disappoint.

It was great catching up with old friends, making some new ones and checking out some killer Shepard Fairey originals. We can’t recommend highly enough that you make the trip yourself to check it out (runs through May 29th), but in the meantime,

Click each image to enlarge in a separate window.

Disclaimer: We are not professional photographers (doye)… and, uh… we hope that our shitty camera skills give you that much more incentive to see the exhibition for yourself… because the pre-show blunts and Boddingtons pints had nothing to do with our aim and technical abilities, swear.

An absolute mob scene outside of Deitch… but nothing compared to the madness inside the gallery.

First Shepard sighting – dude was absolutely swamped throughout the night. We felt just a teeeeeeny bit bad for him until we started hearing bids each original…

Russel showing his hustle. Entrepreneur-extraordinaire he is, Sir Simmons is easily one of the most gracious, genuine folks we’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

We should have commissioned him to take photos for us… Glen E. Friedman, showing some Black Flag hate above, is an absolute legend, and his is probably the only life we would ever trade for. Glen captured the late-1970′s hardcore punk and skateboarding movements in Southern California (and produced the first Suicidal Tendencies album), as well as the burgeoning hip hop scene in 1980′s New York – and that’s not even the tip of the iceberg accounting for his massive, unfuckwithable volume of work.

Lee Quiñones, another hero to The Blogs whom you might recognize as Raymond Zoro in Wild Style, the cult-classic flick that brought graffiti culture to worldwide attention. Along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, Lee is one of the true originators, and it was a trip to see him in the same building as Shepard and a gang of new-jack writers – three generations of street art representing.

The shots above showcase the centerpiece to the collection (and one of the most epic full-walls we’ve ever seen), the May Day mural, incorporating several themes found in much of Shepard’s most recent fine art and street works. Fairey tackles “the reclamation of the American flag as a multi-dimensional symbol, global warming, health care, free speech, activism and the dysfunction of the two-party system in Washington” with this effort (thanks, press release). Click here to watch Shepard and company recreate the mural at the corners of Houston and Bowery Streets in Manhattan, captured at the bottom of this post.

James Newell Osterberg, Jr., better known to the world as Iggy Pop. The Iggster fronted one of our all-time favorite bands, The Stooges, and set the precedent for “punk rock.” The 63 year-old Godfather of Punk is still performing to this day, and dude has shown no indication of slowing down in the least… we nearly stripped down to smear ourselves in peanut butter after seeing this gem.

Blondie‘s Debbie Harry at the peak of her supreme babeness… *hng!*


Another one of our musical icons, Joe Strummer. With The Clash, Joe helped bring political awareness and social activism along with reggae riddims and rhythm and blues to the typical three chord chug-a-lug of punk rock, effectively changing the way rock & roll would be listened to and played forever. Yes, punks, it is okay to expand your horizons – the future is unwritten

John Lennon and Yoko Ono – we’re not fans of the Beatles. But hey, dope piece.

Singer-songwriter/political activist Jackson Browne. We actually heard someone exclaim, “oooh, look, Joey Ramone!”

*sigh*


Jackson Browne’s predecessor, Woody Guthrie. That machine he is holding kills fascists.

One of our favorite portrait pieces, the god Jimi Hendrix. Jimi forever changed the way guitar is played by-

You know what? If you don’t know about Jimi Hendrix by now, stop reading this blog, go outside and kiss the sky (or a passing 18-wheeler).

“Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind, bring me my boots and shoes / You can hang back or fight your best on the front line, sing a little bit of these workingman’s blues.” - Bob Dylan.

We never got a chance to ask, but we can’t help but think that Workingman’s Blues #2 was an inspiration for the exhibition.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso – possibly featured after promising full-consciousness to Carl Spackler on his deathbed.

Philosopher, activist, author and Princeton University professor Cornell West – by far one of the most intense portraits featured in the exhibition.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, street art originator, innovator and never-even-try-to-duplicate… or. While he is best known for his neo-expressionist phase, Basquiat started (with friends) as New York City graffiti writer SAMO before turning the square art world upside-down.

Pop artist Jasper Johns, who, along with Andy Warhol, greatly influenced Shepard Fairey’s May Day exhibition pieces. The May Day Flag series below is inspired by Johns’ own work titled Flag, seen here.

A look at some of our favorites throughout the gallery (remember – click to enlarge):

Who framed Shepard Fairey?

As you could imagine, Deitch Projects was sardine-packed from wall-to-wall – we’re definitely going to make another trip to The City before the month is over to (hopefully) get a closer look at Shepard’s work. The Keith Haring piece (below, with gas mask) is definitely worthy of a second, more intimate viewing, as well as the Grandmaster Flash and Patty Smith joints.

Despite all of the attention and autograph-seeking (all requests were happily accommodated), this picture says it all – Shepard was absolutely stoked with the turnout.

Banksy was here (..?)

One hell of a night for us, and that was just the beginning. Six bars, four friends, two blunts, and approximately $250 later (uuuggghhh…), we stumbled upon the Houston/Bowery mural on our way home – great to see in it’s natural element.

Posted 4 months ago.

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OBEY MAY DAY

One hell of a way to go out – Deitch Projects will host MAY DAY within it’s hallowed walls as the gallery’s final project, featuring entirely new work from Obey‘s Shepard Fairey.

Referencing the familiar distress call used by police and firefighters in emergency situations, May 1st – May Day – is furthermore observed throughout the world as International Worker’s Day and Labor Day here in United States, where unions and socialist groups unite to celebrate the achievements of the international labor movement and demonstrate against the continued slight of the working man and woman. You know by now that both meanings resonate throughout Fairey’s body of work and contributions to the cause, so you can expect the debut of more uplifting images to be presented throughout this month at Deitch Projects.

The official MAY DAY opening is this Saturday, May 1st from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Deitch Projects (18 Wooster Street, New York, New York). The exhibition runs through the 29th, but we would recommend going early as to not miss out on this once in a lifetime show… did we mention that the first 300 people to attend the opening receive a limited-edition MAY DAY flag poster?

Check out some images and video below featuring the makings-of Fairey’s latest exhibition, not to mention some action shot by legendary photographer Glen E. Friedman (one of The Blogs’ favorites) of the new mural at the cross of Houston and Bowery streets in New York’s Lower East Side.

Hope to see you all at the opening!

Click to enlarge; photos courtesy of Shepard Fairey.

MAY DAY video preview

Video and stills courtesy of Glen E. Friedman (Burning Flags Press)

“Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind, bring me my boots and shoes / You can hang back or fight your best on the front line, sing a little bit of these workingman’s blues.”

- Bob Dylan

Posted 4 months, 1 week ago.

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