Upper Playground Los Angeles & The Last Laugh Grand Opening
This weekend marked the collective grand opening of four new retail spaces on Los Angeles’ 6th St. as part of Upper Playground LA & The Last Laugh’s opening launch. The retailer spaces allows for the likes of Upper Playground, Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol to all maintain location for their creative energy and products. As well, the four stores offer an interesting foil as the decor and themes vary from space to space. The highlights of the weekend debut included an art gallery, Mister Cartoon’s candy paint jobs seen on various vehicles, Roland Sands custom motorcycle jobs and the stunning photographic and video work of Estevan Oriol.
Upper Playground & The Last Laugh
125 E. 6th Street (between S. Main St. and S. Los Angeles St.)
Downtown Los Angeles, California
Source: The Hundreds
This weekend marked the collective grand opening of four new retail spaces on Los Angeles’ 6th St. as part of Upper Playground LA & The Last Laugh’s opening launch. The retailer spaces allows for the likes of Upper Playground, Mister Cartoon and Estevan Oriol to all maintain location for their creative energy and products. As well, the four stores offer an interesting foil as the decor and themes vary from space to space. The highlights of the weekend debut included an art gallery, Mister Cartoon’s candy paint jobs seen on various vehicles, Roland Sands custom motorcycle jobs and the stunning photographic and video work of Estevan Oriol.
Upper Playground & The Last Laugh
125 E. 6th Street (between S. Main St. and S. Los Angeles St.)
Downtown Los Angeles, California
Levi’s exclusive Japanese Fenom collection has unveiled an all new style titled the Conb-Disco. Undergoing Fenom’s trademark “Crash” distressing, the jean’s details go beyond the rips to also include the inclusion of Swarovski crystals on the yoke, back pocket and zipper. A 505 cut and 207 cut are available. They are currently sold out at Levi’s E-Shop, however look for them to release at selected stockists.
Another batch of Puma Baskets have released that pay homage to championship teams of the NBA, this time focusing on the 1990s. Previous releases included the 1970s Championship Pack which featured the Seattle Supersonics and Boston Celtics. This round of Baskets include the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers. Each sneaker features a skyline of the city and replaces the “BASKET” logo with the respective city’s name. Available now at Mita.
The self proclaimed, Atlanta bred “flower punk” band The Black Lips are infamous for their live shows. Despite claims from the band that they have “matured a bit”, on any given night you may see the band performing in full frontal nudity, chasing a chicken on stage, full on make out session between band members, urination and other Iggy Pop inspired outrageous protopunk antics. Their energetic shows match perfectly with their brand of skuzzy guitar feedback induced garage punk rock with surprisingly catchy sing along choruses. Not content to simply ride out their bad boy images the band released their fourth album “Good Bad Not Evil” last year to reviews commenting on the bands advancement sonically and lyrically while staying true to their hardcore roots.
The most recent video and single “It Feels Alright” from last year’s album is an ode to the most famous strip club in Atlanta “Magic City”. Already immortalized in several hip hop songs, the band takes on the subject without any tongue in cheek sarcasm but rather a full on anthem to getting drunk and riding down Peachtree street for a night of debauchery. The video is a black and white tour guide to Atlanta and of course some well appreciated obligatory shots of the gyrating dancers from the club. Let’s just hope next time you’re at Magic City you hear this blasting through the speakers.
As the lone visual artist on Time Magazine’s 2008 list of Top 100 Influential People, Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has become a strong candidate of one contemporary art’s representatives. He has developed a huge following for his interesting take on the world of Japanese culture through his graphic depictions of manga and anime. However, in his most recent show which began in early May, Davy Jones Tear at Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, the artist changes gears with 8 paintings that deviate from his well known style to a more abstract direction. The paintings, include references to Murakami’s Daruma collection with portraits of Zen Buddhism as well as Japanese decorative art, Rimpa. The exhibition concludes on June 14th.
Blum & Poe
2754 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90034
p: 310.836.2062
Source: SuperTouch, Blum & Poe
Casio G-Shock’s 25th anniversary continues with another high powered collaboration with Stussy on the DW-5000. The simple design of the watch includes black construction with the Stussy Double S logo on the face and various typography on the band. Available June 14th with a suggested price tag of ¥24,990 JPY (approximately $236 USD).
On the heels of the inaugural Nevermind Smash Babylon t-shirt released just recently, the Adam Bryce (of Slam X Hype) and Fergadelic (of Tonite and Paul Smith fame) brand have put out another t-shirt. Arriving at some of the world’s premier stores, the logo tee features a stylized font with a brain incorporated into the M. Looking forward to seeing more from a brand that features an eclectic and proven designer as well as a fellow member of the media world. Available now at Haven.
Genre bending hip hop, funk, electro, experimental band N*E*R*D have their fans sitting on pins and needles waiting for the group to release their third album “Seeing Sounds” on June 10th. Early accounts of the album including a short clip sample floating around somewhere on the net suggest that the band is in rare form with their most head nodding, ear drum banging, mosh pit inducing effort yet. However, fans and critics have to wait until the actual album drops (or until the inevitable internet album leak) to completely pass judgment. Until then HYPEBEAST has the new album cover complete with a over sized psychedelic neon colored primate representing the monstrous sound the band members must see every time they lay down a track and all three N*E*R*D boys staring in amazement draped in Billionaire Boy Clothing.
Some of Amos Toys’ most popular and recognizable characters are captured in this latest collection of t-shirts from the popular vinyl toy makers. Featured characters include the lovable Yod, King Ken and the Bird God which include clever little messages. Made strictly in Japan, the tees will be available now at store.amostoys.com.
The functionality and aesthetic of Portland’s Pendleton Woolen Mills can be seen in a new series of products co-created with Nike ACG. The capsule features a jacket and footwear. With Nike’s outdoor sub-brand ACG on board, expect much technical innovation to compliment the already strong characteristics of Pendleton.
In Reebok’s attempt to bring awareness to what is increasingly becoming their lifestyle flagship line, the Reebok Pump features in a 4th generation Bring Back collection. Featuring the mid cuts of the Omni Lite and Court Victory Pump, the upper with its shades of elephant-esque later are quite clean with breathable mesh finding its way onto the toebox. Much of the spice for this pack is derived from the use of fluorescent pink and green highlights. Available now at Mita.
