I’ve admittedly slept on La Roux, the top-40, British Electro-Pop duo who’ve been dubbed the thinking man’s Lady Gaga.  Something about their hooky, synthy, anthemic tracks seem better suited to the fitting rooms at Topshop than my living room.

BUT, leave it to the good graces of my man Diplo, alongside his Major Lazer partner in crime, Switch, to put all things in their proper context with the latest Maddecent mixtape, Major Lazer and La Roux Present Lazerproof.

Throw in a little dubstep, a heaping helping of sick Switch remixes, a dash of Gucci Mane (“Lemons on my chain with the V cuts!”) et Voila! We’ve got ourselves another Diplo/ Mad Decent mixtape classic.  In the tradition of his tapes for M.I.A. and Santigold, Diplo creates a broad, genre-bending ecosystem where the original tracks are free to roam and take on whole new superior sound.  And oh yeah, homegirl’s got an AMAZING voice.

Click here to download. ]]> http://alex-barnes.com/major-lazer-and-la-roux-present-lazerproof/feed/ 0 http://alex-barnes.com/be-stupid-vs-be-yourself/ http://alex-barnes.com/be-stupid-vs-be-yourself/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 17:28:21 +0000 Alex http://alex-barnes.com/?p=499 The Italian anti-advertising group Be Yourself Movement has raised eyebrows across Europe in recent months with a series of public art works condemning the prevalence of advertising in the public domain.  The groups’ irreverent cut and paste tactics literally set out to beat advertisers at their own game, using existing advertisements as a canvas for their message.

Much in the style of the New York guerilla artist Poster Boy, the Be Yourself Movement’s work repurposes existing billboards and subway ads with messages that challenge the ubiquity of advertising in the public domain. In doing so, the group’s humorous and incendiary critiques of advertising’s role in our everyday lives reveal a deeper question in the perennial debate between art, branding and commerce: how capitalists and anti-capitalists, brands and artists must often use the same outlets and the same tactics to get their messages out to the wider public. The result is a a blurred line between the seemingly oppositional stance taken guerilla artists and corporate brands.

Watch:

With a series of videos on Youtube and a savvy online presence,  the Be Yourself Movement’s message has gone viral and has earned them an audience well beyond the confines of their local metro.  Followers can keep tabs of the group’s actions via Facebook, Youtube and a website where visitors can download and print their own BYM “ammo”– graphics and slogans supporting the group’s message that in turn can be plastered on the streets and subways of their own cities. Not a bad campaign strategy for an supposedly anti-marketing collective.

The interesting thing to me about all of this is how much BYM’s message and tactics mirror those employed by many creative agencies working in today’s ad industry.  Case and point:  Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign, which gets rebuffed in the video seen above.   Developed by the New York based boutique agency Anomaly, these billboards, as well as the campaign’s website and social media presence, encourage its audience break loose of convention, to pursue a lifestyle  of self-expression, liberation and other loosely defined social mores.  Much like the BYM message, “Be Stupid” is chock full of utopian ideals aimed at setting us free from an ever-present (but really hard to define) establishment.   It’s a call to arms for people to reclaim control over their minds, bodies and shared public spaces. To stop thinking and start doing.

These ideas are, of course, far from new. The debate over the limits (or lack thereof) of advertising in our public spaces is as old as the ad industry itself. It’s also a debate in which the line dividing each opposing side has never been as blurred as it is today. I’ve written business plans for ad agencies that read practically the same as the Be Yourself Movement’s anti-ad manifesto:

“We’re tired of feeling like numbers, of our generation being seen as a target and of our behaviour being measured as a market trend…

We believe in and promote the development of an individual and collective critical conscience and we aim for it to be respected.”

and so on and so forth.

This is the conundrum that arises when agitprop rebellion meets rebellious marketing tactics (Diesel’s got a long track record of this kind of work). For me, this tension drives some of the best creative thinking of our time.  At its best, the creative tension between those working in advertising and those working against it holds the potential to produce some of the most stirring work- be it an ad, a magazine, a street mural or a novel.  Unfortunately, there’s a lot of trickery that takes place in this debate, mostly on the side of advertisers. There’s a long history of Ad-execs and Creative Directors co-opting the tactics of graffiti writers and turning  what was once  criminalized behavior into their own corporate-sanctioned cash cow, while the original writers are left to starve. This is just one example.  The work of Shephard Fairey is another, perhaps more positive spin of this tale. The fact remains that the line between corporate imagery and street art has long been blurred under the conditions of 21st century capitalism and in many ways represents one of the definitive aspects of art of our time.  Some of our greatest rebels have benefited from this and become brands in and of themselves.  Many have fought to resist this commodification. Others still simply don’t give a fuck and have managed to use this capitalist/ anti-capitalist tension to their (and their audience’s benefit).   It’s this third category I’m most interested in at the moment.

Related Audio: “Subway Theme,” From the Wild Style motion picture soundtrack

Be Yourself Movement

Photographer Rian Dundon has spent much of the past 5 years documenting the lives of various 20-somethings living in and around the major cities of China’s Hunan Province.  Considered by many as China’s Lost Generation, these young men and women find themselves straddling a bridge between the values and aspirations of their parents’ generation and the realities of modern China.  Theirs is the struggle marked by a frustrating shrinking job market, the pressures of marriage (often arranged by their parents), sexual identity in a culture lacking any acknowledement of homosexuality.  All told, the struggle to find a niche in a society going through profound economic, sexual and cultural changes.  The result is a human drama that is played out in Dundon’s stunning black and white images.

Two exciting events happening tomorrow night I wanted to tell y’all about:

Bollywood Disco at the Vault at Element on Houston and Essex. I’ve always had a soft spot for my homegirl DJ Rekha’s retro filmi disco jumpoff. I’ll be working the door, having flashbacks to high school when Element was the Bank, where all the goth girls I had secret crushes on hung. Come stop by and say hi, I’ll be there 9-4am.

Across the river, one of my newfound favorite MC’s, Zuzuka Poderosa will be throwing down at the Jungle in Bushwick. Zuzuka spits that hot Baile Funk from Rio De Janeiro with a Brooklyn ZIP code and Brooklyn swagger. Her crew Vigarista Collective throw some of the best parties in town. Also performing will be killer dancehall punk artist 77 Klash. This one advertises Electro booty bangers, Bmore Bass, dubstepping jungle boogies, baile funk, dancehall, roots, samba, dirty house, fire perfomers, capoeira and free smoothies. What’s not to like?

The party goes down at 286 Meserole St in Bushwick. Click Here for full details

Here’s an impromptu mix to set the mood:

Bollywood Baile Klash

Sharevari is one the seminal tracks from the early days of Detroit techno. Released in 1981 by a pair of teens calling themselves A Number of Names, this track reflects the heavy influence of the angular sounds of Italo-Disco that were bouncing around Detroit’s teen party scene at the time.

Given the innumerable directions that techno music took in the decades that followed, this clip is a fun reminder of the music’s roots in the always-funky landscape of black Detroit.

Having missed out on all the fun and festivities over at the Bryant Park tents this week, we’re super excited to head over to Chelsea this weekend for Rendez-Vous NYC- the first New York edition of the cutting-edge contemporary fashion tradeshow held each season in Paris.

We’re particularly thrilled to support our boy Claude Grant, who will be exhibiting his latest menswear collection (including that sharp piece above) alongside some of today’s best designers and leading brands. We hear that DFA will be providing the DJs for the event, so there’s another added bonus for us.

The fun runs all day through Sunday at the Altman Building, 135 West 18th Street at 6th ave.

Check out more from the pervasively persuasive Mr. Grant over at http://claudegrant.com/

I was lucky enough to catch the lovely Shilpa Ray with her newish band Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers last night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Shilpa Ray is the kind of kick ass rock and roll singer whose voice can go from quietly introspective to destructively loud in the course of a few droning chord changes. That mix of punk rock and the blues has been done before, but Shilpa and her happy hookers strike just the right notes to make for some classic NYC good-time music.

I could go on for days about Shilpa’s voice, but suffice it to say that it’s all over the vocal map; she can strike a macabre tone one moment and fall into complete chaos the next. It’s a thing of beauty– beautiful in same way John Lennon’s voice is beautiful on “Well Well Well” when the bottom falls out into a complete panic attack only to come out the other end completely buttoned-up and whimsical.

Also great are her somber and wonderfully titled songs with lyrics that are fun to get drunk to and sing out loud to your friends. For example:

(in a waltz)

“I fell in love and forgot about the homeless,

the hunger in Africa, the women on welfare,

the strippers who need health care,

the friends, the beggars, the thieves.”

from the song “What the fuck was I thinking?” Of course none of that was happening on a cold Monday Night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but it’s still a fun thought.

Shilpa’s amazing voice aside, the Happy Hookers’ band are no slouches either: Jay Braun on bass, some incredible drums by Josh Fleischmann, guitar by Vin Cacchione and Ray’s hypnotic harmonium (every band should have one). Taken together, they create a densely layered sound that kinda has a Phil Spector effect. I had a weird fantasy about busting out a mosh pit, but again reality set in- ain’t happening on a Monday night in Williamsburg.

Anyhow, the band hit the stage promptly at 8:30 with no introduction as the opening  for the Brit-Pop band du jour, The Duke Spirit. A few people remembered to clap. Nervous awkward energy circled the half empty room. No one made any eye contact. The band agreed on a key, counted off the first song and BLAM! out comes Shilpa’s voice to shatter the icy curtain and turn otherwise uncomfortable situation into an amazing half-hour set.

I’m tempted to compare Shilpa to Alice Smith, another one of my favorite New York singers, but I won’t. I also won’t say that her sound is somehow indebted to drinking whiskey, which is often said about female singers who really cut it loose (my illusions of drunken sing-a-longs aside).

What I will say is that Shilpa Ray’s got my vote for the bandleader of year. She’s also a hysterical blogger and a valentine’s day baby who works a day job as a salesgirl at Henri Bendel. All very cool.

Check out the band’s myspace page or you can download their killer track “Coward Cracked the Dawn” from their RCRD LBL page.

Luckily for us all, Shilpa will be playing a ton of shows in the coming weeks, so go support this great band. A Fish Hook An Open Eye, the yet to be officially released debut album is also available at the merch table at their shows.

Random thought for a bleak and cold February Friday: why is it that most of Spike Lee’s best movies take place during heatwaves? Must be something about that sweltering heat that brings out the best and worst in humanity and makes for great storytelling.

In honor of turning up the heat for ol’ Spike, here are two videos from the Crooklyn Dodgers, a rotating supergroup of Brooklyn MC’s who released two tracks (to my knowledge) in support of Lee’s mid ’90s films, Clockers (1995) and Crooklyn (1994). The first track features Masta Ace, Special Ed and Buckshot; Chubb Rock, O.C. and Jeru the Damaja handle the follow-up

To me, the Crooklyn Dodgers represent the better end of original songs recorded for the Spike Lee discography after “Fight the Power.” (Anyone remember Prince’s Girl 6?).

Takin’ back Ebbetts Field in ‘95.

Crooklyn Dodgers 95 – Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers

Crooklyn Dodgers – Crooklyn (Baseball Original Version)

I’ve always loved these down-to-earth images of Bob from the “Is this Love” video, filmed in 1978 at the Keskidee Community Centre in London.