The Prodigy are set to return with a brand new record in Feb 2009. Sources close to the band have mentioned that this album has taken years to perfect but Liam Howlett and co are ready to unleash the beast that they are now happy with. Watch the Girls video below and start dreaming of the return of Britain’s prize assets.
26.09.08
The first time I saw a print of the King was years ago when I first started to take notice of art. The print was a multi-coloured Andy Warhol piece, and that particular king was the one and only Elvis. Since then I’d never seen a single artist feature Elvis in their work, that was until one day I chanced across a print on an art forum from Paul Insect. This particular Elvis was lacking the enigmatic pose the Warhol print had, in-fact, it didn’t even have flesh!
Paul Insect’s talent is to see beyond the assumed views and rather than scratching the surface, he just rips it off. I’m sure he means to show us things for what they really are, or at least, how they are to him. Examples of this are rife throughout the recent Poison art show in London. Entering the former private shop in Kings cross, the first thing to notice are that the walls and ceiling are papered with images of his trademark plastic baby dolls heads. Mounted upon this backdrop are a series of framed prints of more heads with the forehead split wide open showing off eyes, circuit boards and mashed brains, they might be colourful and fun, but are also undoubtedly freaky.
In contrast, opposite the baby heads is a wall of ornate frames housing a series of fine art paintings of religious types on gold leaf style background. All of these paintings have a few things doctored, Bishops are clutching i-books or joints and some sporting clowns hair and mice noses, all effortlessly poking fun at the clergy while showing a more refined painting style and a lighter hearted outlook.
Playboys bunnies have had radical reworking too, there is one on display for every month of the year. The bunny ears are still there, but the pretty faces are stripped back to the bare bones. Although these bunnies are in skull form they aren’t devoid of expression. Some smiling, some angry, some blinged out with ruby encrusted teeth. The standout was the bunny with pink ears and matching pink braces clamped around the teeth. It would be obvious to assume that Insect was pointing at the cliché ‘Beauty is only skin deep‘ but to be honest, I think he just likes skulls with a bow tie and rabbit ears.
The main room of the gallery is where Insect gets to show off the main body of work. Centre stage is a glass table, held up by a full skeletal playboy bunny, eerily the feet have been transformed to high heels made solely of bone. The room is minimally furnished with a graff’d up old sofa and beat up TV to accompany the skeleton table. The walls have a more colourful blend of framed pieces of layered collage on wood and canvas. The standout piece however is a huge stencil, white on washed out black of a very Victorian looking angel, on her knees and true to “street art” style……..clutching a syringe.
The side walls in the main room are much more colourful mix of mediums. There are some very detailed sprayed pieces on wood, as well as equally striking, evolved pop-art styled canvases. Insect has a unique way of piling scores of shapes and colours in to a collage without them seeming too busy, even with Bootsy Collins style eye wear. These sprayed pieces might be out of sync with some of the other work on display, but serve to show Insect can’t be tagged in any one form of art, or certainly not in anyone one particular mindset. It’s clear Paul’s moods shift as often as his favoured medium, from sarcastic to desperate then playfully expressive, truly something for everyone.
As a solid member of Lazarides Galleries self styled Outsiders collective I’m sure Insect will be popping up soon in their galleries in Soho or even the gallery in Newcastle alongside the likes of Faile and Micallef. The next public outing for the group started on the 26th September in New York which is a full group show worth catching if you are in NYC, if you can’t make that keep your eyes open around the UK, freaky sci-fi dolls heads are popping up all over!
Philip Procter
If you like this, you’ll love our new art review section on Crossfire 3.0 launching soon. Contained within will be the usual interviews, press, exhibitions and events happening near you!
Due to be finished at the end of October 2009, Decoy Skatepark will be located next to the Decoy BMX trails off Wagon road in Newton Abbot, Devon. The Bowl is 5ft and 7ft deep and has been designed and built by Gravity with input from locals. Expect fast flowing bespoke bowls with infinite lines for longevity and challenging sections. Prepare to head West.
As a thank you to fans and followers for their on going support and patience Sway offers up The Signature LP Mixtape.
This riotous collection of exclusive tracks, radio clips, skits, freestyles and bootlegs once again demonstrates the North London rapper and producer’s razor-sharp skills and creativity.
The free download mixtape is available for a limited 2 week period from here.
Element skateboards designed by Steven Harrington and Element advocate Don Pendleton will be exhibited by Contemporanea in Cordoba, Spain during the Festival Eutopia.
The Endangered Art Series decks by Don Pendleton and the Our Mountain decks
by Steven Harrington will be exhibited from the 20th of September untilthe 30th of October as part of “USA Today – An Introduction to the North American Contemporary Art of the 21st Century”.
Pennsylvania’s Innerpartysystem have been crafting some rather shocking music videos and clips over the course of their last two singles ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever‘.
Playing with imagery and containing some rather intense sequences, the video for ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever’ is a must-see. What follows this video is the band’s top picks of some of the more ‘controversial’ videos out there.
Die Tonight, Live Forever – innerpartysystem
“Crossfire have asked us to make a list of our all time top 5 ‘controversial’ or ‘banned’ music videos. We’re huge fans of videos, film, etc. and very quickly realized we couldn’t cram it all in to 5. So, here’s a quick top 10 – Jared Piccone – drums, backing vocals.
1. Chris Cunningham- EVERYTHING – I think it’s no secret that we celebrate Chris Cunningham’s entire catalog of videos, commercials, and short films. From the grained out UFO footage in his Autechre video, to the Aphex Twin videos, the crazy Playstation ad with the alien, Rubber Johnny, through Sheena is a Parasite. His videos are all amazing, and stand as the video mark that we aspire to. Not that they’ve all been banned, but they’re all worth mentioning. If we’re talking about his videos that have been ‘banned’ or ‘censored’ Windowlicker would have to be our top pick. The dialogue in the beginning is brilliant.
2. Prodigy- Smack My Bitch Up (Director: Jonas Akerlund) – At the #1 on every list of Banned videos is always Smack My Bitch Up. It’s the ultimate in pushing a night out too far. Plus the track still slams. The twist at the end makes it a classic. It’s no secret that this was a huge influence on the ‘Die Tonight, Live Forever’ video.
3. NIN- Closer (Director: Mark Romanek) – CLASSIC AND AMAZING, enough said. – despite being ‘controversial’ it was still a massive hit. Again, these are the types videos that we look up to and aspire to create, we just hope by the time we get there, stations in America will still show music videos on television. It almost seems a shame to try and create something this beautiful only to have it live in a youtube box.
4. U.N.K.L.E. and Thom Yorke- Rabbit In Your Headlights (Director: Jonathan Glazer) – It’s impossible to watch this video and not get chills at the end. It’s brilliant. It got banned from stations but honestly there’s no reason why. It’s not nearly as well known, but for us this video is right up there with Smack My Bitch Up and Closer as one of the best ‘controversial’ videos, with amazing production and direction.
5. EBN – Emergency Broadcast Network (www.joshualpearson.com/) – EBN was an artist collective in the 90’s that made these amazing videos out of real TV footage. When we were brainstorming ideas for the “Don’t Stop” video, a good friend turned us on to EBN, and we became obsessed with their clips on youtube. It really became a huge influence on how the end product of ‘Don’t Stop’ turned out and the editing style of a lot of our video clips. Once Don’t Stop came out, we linked up with Greg Decampo, who used to be part of EBN. He’s working with a video DJ collective called Eclectic Method who created an amazing video remix of “Don’t Stop,” that mashes in real media clips, old and new, with the stems from the track. We’ve been slipping out a few bootleg DVD’s of it here and there at shows. They did an awesome job on it. I can’t imagine how many hours they spent manipulating the footage.
6. Madonna- Justify My Love – No list of controversial videos is complete without mentioning Justify my Love. In my mind I feel like it’s the first big ‘banned’ video I can recall, but I may have just watched one too many VH1 specials. I remember seeing it on VHS as a kid. I don’t think there’s been another video that became such a big deal that it got banned. The funny thing is, in hindsight, it’s really not as controversial as the media made it seem. Maybe that means that we as a society have made some progress…or maybe it just means that hip hop and pop videos have become so sexual that by today’s standards this seems edgy, but not totally shocking.
7. NIN- Early Videos: Help Me I Am In Hell, Happiness In Slavery, Pinion – We had no idea that Nine Inch Nails made these videos until the golden age of YouTube. I’m not even sure how they were originally released, but the fact that they put this kind of production video into videos that are completely fucked is awesome. Pinion is such a simple, pointed statement that you once you see it you will always remember it. Help Me I Am In Hell is just painfully unnerving, and if Happiness In Slavery doesn’t turn your stomach you’re definitely missing a few screws. We tried to stay away from “shock for shock’s sake” videos on this list (sorry Cradle of Filth and GG) but Happiness In Slavery will really mess your headspace up for the rest of the day.
8. Sigur Ros- Untitled #1 (Vaka)- While Glosoli might just be one of our favorite videos of all time, our ‘controversial’ video list would not be complete without Flora Sigismondi’s beautiful video for Untitled #1. It gives me massive goosebumps every time I see it; not just ‘woah that’s good’ goosebumps, but those fucking huge, all over your body crazy goosebumps. Not to mention, as studio rats, Sigur Ros is amazing. We’re huge fans. The imagery of the kids playing in the ash with gasmasks, and making the black snowman, always blows my mind.
9. Bonnie Prince Billy- I Gave You– This one might seem like a curveball for us as a band, but being a group that makes a lot of low/ no budget video content with big production aspirations, the simplicity of this one shot video, and the way it connects with the track emotionally always blows my mind. It’s beautiful. Ever since I saw it online it always stuck with me as one of my favorite, emotionally heavy, simple one shot videos.
10. Rammstein- Amerika – I’m not sure this video got ‘banned’ but I sure never saw it on American MTV. I think we as a group have always had this closet fascination with Rammstein. We aren’t huge fans of everything they’ve ever done, but ever since we were teenagers every couple of years they’ll come out with the craziest videos and we have a huge amount of respect for the scope of their live shows, if for nothing else then the amount of pyro they continue to use, despite a serious crackdown in pyrotechnic regulations over the past couple of years. This video isn’t really their most offensive, or even the biggest production value, but it was just really well done. A much needed statement delivered with poignant timing, if for no other reason than to get people talking and thinking.
And so there’s our top ten. Even as I’m writing this I’m thinking of other videos and other artists that should be on here. Fuck, I guess I’d make a terrible music journalist, I’d want to put everyone in the top 10. I’ll cut myself off here. If you haven’t seen these, We hope you enjoy them, and if you have seen them, we hope you enjoy them again”. – Innerpartysystem.
Innerpartsystem’s self-titled debut album is released via Island/Fallout Records on 29th September.
Carl Shipman has joined the UK’s Dekline shoe team this week following his recent pro model revision on Stereo Skateboards.
Word has it is that Carl has been shooting photos with Sidewalk, has undergone a Slap Magazine interrogation for a future feature and is generally rocking.
Chelsea Films
www.thenshefoundmefilm.com
Then She Found Me is the new flick from Helen Hunt, but it is not like her previous work. For one thing she has taken the role of director as well as the lead protagonist. This is the tale of a woman who goes through a series of heartbreaking changes in her life such as the lose of her husband, her adoptive mother and being found by her biological mother, all within 23 days!
This story was originally a novel written by Elinor Lipman, but the movie makes a few changes, the most important being the realization that April, Hunt’s character is desperate for a child. Oscar Winner Hunt has stared in amazing films such as Twister, and As Good As It Gets, but this is her feature film-directing debut and she has done a fine job. This film has a beginner sense about it, some common mistakes such as the boom popping up the top of a scene and a few jerky camera shots are made but all is forgive when such amazing actors help to hit home with this film.
This is a flick where family is the main reason behind all the events, and through this an audience experience laughter, the odd tear of emotion and some home truths. To get the best from her cast, Hunt supports each of the characters and together they work as a team amazingly.
Hunt herself is de-glamorized, becoming pale and lean, especially with the lack of make up. The way she portrays April is remarkable. After the loss of so many people in her life and finding those she never knew were there, she still has the strength to press on with the turmoil that is her life. Matthew Broderick plays April’s husband Ben, who is so child like and at time ignorant of what he has in his life, that you begin to wonder what the attraction to his character ever was; in the two subtle sex scenes with April, there is lack of love and emotion.Then there is the appearance of Bette Midler as Bernice Graves, April’s mother. There was no one better to play this character. Bernice is a talk show host; she is confidant, larger than life, the most energetic character on screen as well as being a drama queen but with a good heart and good intentions. Her downfall and part of the reason April has doubts over whether she wants to get to know her real mother is her incessant fib telling. The most abundant being that April was the result of a fling with Steve McQueen. Frank, the love interest played by Brit actor Colin Firth is a heartbroken man, left by his wife to look after two young children. His most prevailing aspect is his need to walk off his frustration, which is often, and his storming off can be quite humorous.
Then She Found Me may have a few mishaps with camera direction, but the interaction between characters and Hunt’s capable guidance makes this film an enjoyable film where an audience can relate to some aspects of the characters.
Michelle Moore
DJ AM and Travis Barker have released a video to advertise their Fix Your Face mixtape.
Though both were badly injured in the recent plane crash, they are expected to make full recoveries. Check the video and download the mix by clicking the link below:
After the initial worldwide hype and a video that delivered some greats you should now be ready for the Final Flare. Fans of Lakai will be delighted to know that a 3 disc boxset is about to hit the shops this November stuffed with extras.
Expect all the trimmings in the very best quality, extra footage, a photo booklet, and much more. Head over to the Lakai site for a new trailer and start getting hyped all over again.