Mason Proper is a Michigan-based five piece band— comprised of Jonathan Visger, Zac Fineberg, Garrett Jones, Brian Konicek, and Matt Thompson— who make irresisible catchy experimental pop music. Despite having formed post-high-school days in the small Michigan town of Alpena, the boys really made a name for themselves after setting up shop in neighboring Ypsilanti, where they cut their first album There is A Moth in Your Chest on the NYC indie-label Dovecote Records.

Now joining forces with Chris Coady (famed producer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio) on their newest album Olly Oxen Free (September 23), the quintet recorded in a tiny wooden house outside Ann Arbor to create a cohesive, well-rounded second release, which includes playfully psychedelic tracks like “Friendship” and eerily atmospheric songs like “Safe for the Time Being.”

Before kicking off their extensive fall tour in New York with a CMJ showcase for Dovecote (October 21), psychoPEDIA joined MP’s lead singer Visger to find out more about their quirkily-named small Michigan hometown:

What inspired the album title, and the band's name?
The title is from the lyrics in the song, "In the Mirror." The term "olly olly oxen free" made everyone nostalgic and curious about its origins and thought that matched the feeling of the album. We’re also big fans of nonsense literature, like Edward Lear, Edward Gorey, and Lewis Carroll, and felt like it represented that influence well. The band is named for a very obscure phrase relating to Freemasonry. All that fun secret society stuff, you know?

Assuming that your town's name gets butchered often, what's the funniest pronunciation you've heard?
I've heard "Yip-soo-lan-tee" more than once. As if a tiny, overexcited dog were saying the name.

Is your sound influenced by the atmosphere of your hometown?
Michigan has a down-to-earth sound that manifests in different ways. For Detroit, that real grime that permeates through the city makes its way into garage rock. Everything's dirty there, and most of the music takes on that flavor. In a lot of other places, there's a warmth that binds it. The scenes of Michigan are usually bonded more by real community than by sound. It's pretty accepted that being from Michigan, you're not poising yourself to be the hot thing everyone knows about, so it's more about having fun with your friends. At best, you're poising yourself to be buried in snow. You can take that as a metaphor. There's probably one in there.

How is recording there a unique experience?
We've always basically recorded ourselves in basements we were renting at the time. We prefer taking time and doing things our way, even if it's the wrong way, than being under the gun and recorded through the same $10,000 preamp as everyone else. There's a lot of "do something, then meditate on it for a while, then come back to it fresh" that we could never afford to do anywhere else.

What is Ypsilanti's claim to fame?
Iggy Pop? Or this huge tower in the center of Eastern Michigan University that's a major navigational landmark, but unfortunately looks like a giant phallic symbol.

How would you describe the underground scene budding in the area?
I'll combine Ypsilanti with Ann Arbor, because they're very closely linked. With two universities in immediately juxtaposed towns, every year, there are new transient bands, performance art groups, coming and going all the time. You could find something interesting to see every day of the week and never see the same thing twice, if you're really tapped in.

Favorite galleries or concert venues to see up-and-coming artists or bands?
For Ann Arbor, the Blind Pig is pretty much the place, and in Ypsilanti the Elbow Room is a mainstay. The Dreamland Theater is the place to go for things more out of the ordinary than just a band playing—weird puppet shows and stuff.

Favorite places to eat between recording sessions?
This one's easy: Big Ten Burrito. The original one is basically a closet where a couple bucks gets you a huge, amazing burrito. They've since expanded to have other locations in the area, but you can't beat this place. When I first moved to Ann Arbor, Matt told me, "I know a secret. Do you want to know?" And I said, "Is it sick? Why are you acting so weird?" Then he took me to Big Ten, and I was a changed man.

Are you big pizza fans, as Domino's was founded there?
Humans are big pizza fans, and we're humans, so yes. There are so many places to get good pizza in town. Backroom for a big greasy wonderful slice for almost free. I just had Pizza Pino for the first time today and it was superb. Mr. Pizza for a super-late-night cheap large pie with 2-toppings. Pizza House if you've got a few extra bucks to spend. The list goes on and on. Domino's Farms is pretty creepy, though. It's this huge complex with buffalo roaming free outside, and eerie green lights all over the buildings. Someone told me there is a cult inside and they eat people? They also have a petting zoo there, and I don't think people with a petting zoo would eat people. Cannibalism and loving cutesy-wootsie baby animals don't usually go hand-in-hand.

What's one thing you can only get in Ypsilanti?
Potentially eaten by a petting zoo employee.

What's the first thing you'll do when you get home from the tour?
Fill the bathtub up with pennies and roll around in it. Probably more like fill a cereal bowl with pennies and put my face in it.

As smaller towns often do, does Ypsilanti have any crazy legends that get passed around the community?
There's a guy that has no face. I don't know if he's still here. Matt told me about him a long time ago, and saw him a bunch of times. I went out of my way to try to see him. I got obsessed. I was just so curious but never found him. Probably for the best.

What would you put in a time capsule for future Ypsilanti-ans?
One of those cans of nuts that a spring-coiled snake springs out of when you take the lid off.

~Leann Peterson

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While he’s now cut a career as a turntablist and music-industry extraordinaire, Tittsworth started out bouncing from country to country as an Air Force brat, eventually landing in the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C. “It’s the only city that I can actually call home,” he confesses. The young DJ initially began his professional career in music through the D.C. rave scene. Within that subculture, he DJ'ed and threw legendary parties at abandoned warehouses and scattered venues for over ten years. From there, he continued DJ'ing professionally, bleeding genres of music and trying new ways to form sounds.

Ultimately, inquiring ears caught up with him, and out of the blue three years ago, Plant Music approached Tittsworth to do an album. When Stretch Armstrong, partner in Plant Music and a legendary DJ himself, picked up the phone and contacted Tittsworth personally, it came as a complete surprise. “I almost didn’t even believe it was Stretch! I wasn’t putting two and two together. I really didn’t think that what I was doing in D.C. was actually good enough to be sought after,” he says.

At the time, Tittsworth was in the middle of creating a slew of bootleg remixes that captured the label’s attention. His original concept was to translate those bootlegs into an album. Plans changed and he ended up creating a more formal and original creation with vocalists--the outcome of which was his full-length, Twelve Steps. “Having been in D.C. at a very critical time, musically speaking, I was able to experience many historic happenings currently going on: the indie-rock and hardcore movement (references of Black Flag and Fugazi), which had a profound effect on how I look and think about music in a creative concept; the rave scene, of course; club music; the break-movement,” Tittsworth recalls. “I found myself oddly tying all these movements together while making the album. It’s getting to the point where there isn’t a ‘genre’ per se anymore.”

Through the years of Tittsworth creating music and throwing parties, he has a regular routine of city hotspots. After any show or DJ night, his favorite restaurant to grab a bite to eat is Florida Avenue Grill, a famous late-night soul food spot. Tittsworth unveils, “You can go there at 2 am and have waffles and chicken. Total comfort food. It’s close to the 9:30 Club, which is quite convenient.” And for a more formal night where he would take a date or just relax from a stressful day, Tittsworth drops by Makoto. “It’s a very formal Japanese restaurant, reservations-only. Makoto seats maybe 15 to 20. It does a regional tasting menu with a 10-course menu where in-season food selections are served.”

However, gentrification throughout the years has changed the atmosphere, not to mention Tittsworth’s own favorite hangouts. Many areas once known for cool clubs that he frequented are now parking lots. He recalls, “The one that comes to mind is right near the Capitol where I used to go to raves almost every week at this placed called Nation. It used to be known as The Capitol Ballroom Walking out of a rave at 6am, having been in such a loud environment and then seeing the Capitol and watching people going to work, it was a trip! That whole area was wiped out due to waterfront condominium development.”

However, D.C. does have its advantages, especially when “the suits” venture out of town for the weekend. “The thing about D.C. is that we’re a political town,” Tittsworth says. “Our hotels are more for the Congressmen tip. The good news is that you can stay in these ridiculously incredible hotels that are relatively cheap, because everyone leaves the city on the weekends. You can stay there for a couple hundred dollars. We don’t have many boutique hotels. We used to put DJs up at The Westin and The Fairmont all the time when I threw parties.”

In the midst of the upcoming Presidential election's tizzy, it's a wonder how the citizens of the U.S. capital escape daily political bombardment. While in most cities it’s more than often taboo to openly discuss opinions on religion or politics, in D.C., it’s the opposite. Especially when it’s an election year. According to Tittsworth, “Trash talk has gotten so bad that legislation passed a law for government employees, where they can no longer talk about politics within the office setting! Water-cooler discussions about the president are no longer legal!”

~Jessica McMenamin

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Photographer Sebastian Mlynarski’s favorite emotion is nostalgia. Maybe it’s because of his abrupt exit from his native Poland for New York at age of 14. Tricked by his parents, Mlynarski arrived in the streets of Jamaica, Queens anticipating a summer job at McDonald's only to find out his stay was permanent. Now, the artist has made his second life in New York City, as a successful photographer who regularly contributes to Vanity Fair and Vogue, and has shot the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Blonde Redhead, Elijah Wood, and P Diddy—in addition to his personal artistic pursuits.

Mlynarski’s nostalgic sensibilities are evident in his latest show, an evocative photo series titled Against Nature, after a novel by French author Joris-Karl Huysmans. Collected during Mlynarski’s international and local travels, these photos could be described as landscapes, although he refers to them otherwise: “They’re self portraits, in a way. Things that really exist, but shown the way I experienced them,” he states, describing the oeuvre as a re-visit of the romantic idea of nature-- albeit one which draws a different conclusion. The show includes photographs ranging from a Lynchian car burning on a desolate upstate highway to an oil-painting-esque white horse ambling through the Costa Rican jungle.

On a break from setting up for his Oct 3 opening at Live With Animals in Williamsburg for some borscht and dumplings at Bedford’s Polish diner, Mlynarski spoke to psychoPEDIA about his favorite places in Warsaw:

How do you describe your hometown?
What I love most about Warsaw is what’s not there-- the things it hints at. There are other more beautiful cities in Poland, with more historic buildings. But Warsaw was destroyed during WWII, and what’s there now is elusive. During the war, the ghetto was huge. Of that whole area, only one street remains, with two original buildings. The Old Town was razed, and the way they rebuilt it looks like paper-mache. But it’s endearing that they take pride in it. If you visit, people will take you there and say, “Look at our old town!” It’s bizarre, but amazing.

What's the art and culture scene like?
There’s a lot of strong video art in Poland these days. Katarzyna Kozyra did a piece called “Mens’ Bath House” where she disguised herself using prosthetics so she could sneak into a mens’ bath house, and filmed it.

Any galleries you frequent?
There are some great galleries, including older avant-garde ones that started in the ‘60s like Foksal. They’ve had shows by international artists like Matthew Barney and Joseph Beuys. It survived through communism and maneuvered so it was even funded by the communists. The founder was a multimedia artist named Kantor-- a painter who became a playwright and director. There are also small new galleries. Włodzimierz Zakrzewski, will be showing at Galerie Le Guern. The show is called Bang Bang and uses Polish maps of military conflict in history. Also, the Center for Contemporary Art-– now showing Yoko Ono’s video installation Fly. The space is amazing, like MoMa in a 17th century castle. The Center catered to art even during communism. The director would dress up as an aristocrat with a saber and have the staff refer to him as “Herr.” And Warsaw Rising Museum is an interactive museum that creates a sense of actually being in the WWII era during the uprising.

As you also DJ in NYC, playing Polish cold wave music, where would you pick up music in Warsaw?
Hey Joe, a hidden treasure of a record shop tucked behind a supermarket. The space used to be a janitor’s closet, and the people that work there are great. They both have a particular smell— Polish Patchouli. It smells like dirty hair. They sell all the Polish vinyl ever created. That’s where I get my cold wave records.

Other good places to shop?
Stadion Dziesieciolecia. Go early in the morning and buy stuff from the Vietnamese and Russians. You can get anything from tea kettles to machine guns, There’s illegal stuff too. And if they don’t have it, they can get it for you. Another flea market I like is in a parking lot, on a dodgy street called Brzeska, in a dangerous neighborhood called Praga North, the only neighborhood in Warsaw that was not razed. Literally, it’s like the scene in The Pianist where he comes out of the building and everything is destroyed. People sell screws, thermometers, hairdryers, someone’s used socks. Randomly you’ll find a beautiful statue or a phrenology head. It’s full of old-time thugs drinking and dealing. Old-world hooligans, but very elegant-- they’ll wear suit jackets, but nothing will match.

Where do you go for a good time?
There is a lot of great theater in the Palace of Culture. Praga North remains a must. And, a nice place to have coffee and enjoy a spring afternoon is Saska Kempa-- a neighborhood where the hip coffee shops are-- very green, fashionable. It’s away from the center and the hoi polloi.

What’s to eat in Warsaw?
In the recent past, there’s been a huge resurgence of ethnic cuisine. But what excites me most is milk bars.

Like in A Clockwork Orange?
They don’t actually drink milk in them. They’re cheap restaurants that cater to retired people, the working poor, and students. They’re known for their dairy-type dishes--pierogies and such-- but they have some meat too. You get a great cross-section of people in there—some who lived through WWII, communism, changes of government. And the food is really good. Polish food should not be fancy. When people try to get fancy with Polish food, it’s a mistake. They’re all more or less the same, but one I always go to is Spilka one of the only places open till midnight. Warsaw pretty much ends its existence at 10 pm. Mom and Pop food remains the best.

What traditional Polish dish should you order there?
Red borscht with mushroom dumplings, Christmas-style. And stuffed cabbage with rice and meat, things my mom would make.

~Christine Whitney

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Murielle Schelle is responsible for Belgium’s most feather-ruffling export since Guylian shaped chocolate into little shells. The glamorous madame is the creator of La Fille D'o, a lingerie line as refreshingly honest and open as its creator. With a regard for the all the various, wonderful shapes of the human body, La Fille D’o natutrally enhances the female figure by tickling the curiosity of the mind rather than the unnatural pushing up, pulling in, and pumping out lingerie more suited to the top-shelf glamour model than the everyday working girl.

Schelle’s home is the Belgian city of Ghent-- a medieval city noted for its busy port and fine architecture that plays host to Murielle’s industrious lifestyle, which has not just seen her command the rise of La Fille D’o, but also pen a couple of books [Lingerie and Lollipops and Cross Examination], co-ordinate a handful of successfully sensuous events, and gather a host of intrepid and creative like-minded females to create the ‘De Ville Harem girls’. And she's done this while still having time to fend off most of Ghent’s male population, and planning a forthcoming shoe collection.

Intrigued by Schelle, psychoPEDIA joined her on a tour of her hometown, to find out what tickles her fancy, where she goes when the passion takes hold, and whether liberalism has gone too far:

Ghent seems architecturally rooted in its history, but how would you describe it today?
We still have the castle in the city center, and De Boekentoren, a building by Henry Van de Velde; and we have cobblestone roads and one-way streets that are easy to get into but never to get out. I love Ghent’s social history, but I’m sad people have forgotten we were a working-class town. Bars tend to be posh, where they should [instead] be uniting our party creatures from the old days. We have this small community which contains super smart, creative cats, but no one seems to get along with all of them. Divided we fall, right?

Where would you take Betty Page if she were still alive today?
If she were here last year, I’d take her to a shop that’s sadly now closed called Bloch. It was a Jewish pastry place where all the decent old ladies went for afternoon tea. I loved it there! The walls were heavy with stories of whispering gossip and a past filled with rich cream and roasted almonds. She’d love it there! Then I’d take her shopping in my own store Bien Sur. She’d find her happiness there too, since most of my stuff was created with her body and attitude in mind!

Where are the most erotic spots in Ghent?
I have seen some of the more unexpected places in my town in a different light, but they could be utterly boring to someone else. To name but a few, the dead-end street towards the ice skating rink, the side of my car parked in front of my house, the little yacht harbor and then some…

What part of town you could wear your lingerie creations without encountering a raised brow?
That would be the Blaameersen! It’s a man-made pit filled with water. It’s like a poor man’s beach but it’s a super nice hang out in summer! Like the back yard of all this town’s kids, with a huge lake. And a shop that sells ice-cream! And since it carries a pretty high hippie factor, you can pretty much wear anything out there.

Most outrageous nightspots?
Vlasmarkt, Monday at 11am the last day of our famous Gentse Feesten. That is when you can meet the ghost of you and your friends. Happy ghosts, but still ghosts. It’s an event of ten days of partying, and on the last day, the drama begins. I have seen couples break up or get together or cheat or whatever and it’s all permitted. It’s the perfect excuse for a whole town or generation to come out and play-- hard.

On that note, do you think with our generation’s obsession with sex, have we forgotten about the simple pleasures in life, like a first kiss or romantic walk?
It’s no longer about the number of times you get laid. We know we are all doing it two or three times a week, but what about quality? A lot of women I know still aren’t really getting off at the sex available to them, which seems surreal considering we have all the toys and therapists we can imagine to come until we can't come anymore.

What’s your solution?
I think it should all get back to basics-- we should provide ourselves with a decent dose of serious kissing at least 3 times a day. I don’t mean Hollywood make-believe. And throwing out the toys and ghosts that haunt our heads and the how-to books on sex and just ask ourselves one question: what do I like? Forget about everything you learned that day straight after you learned it. And start anew the very next day. I just love that about sex with someone new: the discovery. Being pretentious or thinking you have seen it all is an attitude that should be banned from the bedroom. I prefer to be like a kid (again) in all this debauchery. I know nothing. I am curious. I am willing.

~Kevin Soar


First and second photos, courtesy of Murielle Schelle
Third photo by ikarus50
Fourth photo by Ange Soliel
Fifth photo by nomorecorsca
Sixth photo by patrickco
Eighth photo by redneck

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New York City clothing brand LOLA, despite having only made its appearance on the scene in 2004, has been over 15 years in the making, as a product of core members and designers Emmett Shine, James Cruickshank, and Alexander Young— childhood friends born and bred in Southampton, New York. Having started out as scraggly teenage skateboarders plagued by boredom, passing the time in makeshift skate parks (from which their moniker evolved), the current twenty-somethings now have a line of shirts and skate decks that sell at boutiques like Charlotte Ronson and Bodega, sported by the likes of celebs from Jay-Z to Lindsay Lohan.

The constantly-expanding lifestyle brand has since grown to a solid collective— including models Suzanne Diaz and Amanda Shine, musicians DJ Vibe and Max Barbaria, and a handful of other multi-genre artists— and even have a recently-established agency, Gin Lane Media, that offers creative consulting to clientele like Rocawear and SeamlessWeb.

While Southampton's notable for being a popular summer destination and celebrity hangout, it also has a down-to-earth side. With the summer residents quickly emptying out as fall descends, psychoPEDIA spoke with Shine— who recently completed a portraiture photography exhibition called Hamptons’ Youth held in neighboring Bridgehampton— to get a dose of the local scenery of his often misunderstood hometown:

How is Southampton unlike the image outsiders have?
It’s a small community comparable to Indiana– not what you’d think of as Long Island, removed from the reality of “normal” American life.

Who are the real local community?
There’s a native American reservation in the town–- like the Wild West, with 10-year-olds running around in stolen cars and living in dilapidated homes. There’s a huge migrant worker population, from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. There’s an area called North Sea and Springs with extremely dense woods, where all the kids have monster trucks with confederate flags and listen to Lynard Skynard. Then you have Puritan farmers who’ve been there since the 1600s—whose land is amongst the most valuable in the world. We also have a substantial ocean community—a ton of surfers. It’s a rag tag motley crew of races and nationalities. All the places are segregated, but when you grow up there, you’re in small classes where everyone’s friends with everyone.

What’s the most underrated aspect of the area?
The natural beauty— because these places have been stereotyped for the social aspects. There’s a reason Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock were out there painting. The pure white light that the East End gets in the winter months is bar none the best for that kind of painting. And Sag Harbor is where a whole population of influential thinkers and artists would write and hang out during the ‘70s.

How did the LOLA collective emerge out of this community?
While everyone was in organized sports, we were skateboarding all over the place when we were 10 years old– the equivalent of pink-haired punks in Stepford Wives Land. There were no movie centers, nothing to do, because it caters to an older, affluent summer community that wants peace and quiet in their secondary home. We organized, went to the mayor’s office, and brokered a deal to get a skating area on the outskirts of the village. The abandoned plot of land was called Lola Prentice Memorial Park. And in ’94, what just started reshaping the landscape, is that zoning laws opened up in Southampton, allowing a boom in construction. We went and stole wood from sites and built up a whole skate park from scratch.

Did the Hamptons environment foster your go-getter attitudes?
I think that DIY-mentality of LOLA, in the grander scheme, probably stems from our parents not forcing us to do anything— a laissez-faire type of upbringing. Growing up was like Lord of the Flies—10 guys who hung out every day and night and figured out things on our own.

What are the best skate parks now?
Out there, you find an abandoned house and it becomes the defacto skate spot. Everyone follows suit, and it gets quarantined off. There’s a skate park in Hampton Bay, a multi-million dollar rec center, in direct response to what we put forth. When they shut down Lola, it was a compromise that the town made.

How is the surf scene?
Usually summers aren’t that good for waves. In the wintertime, the waves are really big, so there’s a strong localized surf community. Everyone knows in Montauk, Turtle Cove and Ditch Planes are amongst the five best in the Eastern Coast. Also, The Bathing Corporation, W Scott Cameron Beach, Sag, and Flies—where nasty flies will eat the shit out of you.

Favorite feeding grounds?
When we were younger, we used to go to IGA and A&P and steal sodas and boxes of crackers and eat them for an entire day, or put our money together and get 20 cheeseburgers from McDonalds. Now, we’re a little more cultured, so it’s fun to explore the nice restaurants. The East End has amazing places to eat— especially Gosman's.

Stores where LOLA’s gang would shop?
We had a store there 2 summers ago, a partnership with Blue & Cream. This summer, these kids started up their own store, L.A.B.L.. And Flying Point is a cool surf shop that we’re doing some marketing stuff with.

Best place to chill during the day?
Southampton Cultural Center, out on the rooftop.

As a small community unto yourselves, do you feel LOLA has had its own impact on the town?
We started up with no seed money, and what I’m most proud of is that it’s given a voice to local kids in the Hamptons to pursue their dreams, other than working for dad’s construction company or marrying a high-school sweetheart. We’ve kind of bucked that trend and opened the gates. I go back now, and there are 10 crews with their own T-shirt or skateboard companies. Stuff you would see in London, Tokyo, and L.A. is in the Hamptons now.

Best thing about being able to go back home as a retreat from the city?
To be able to say, I live in the city and go out to the Hamptons, is a pretty desirable sentence. I know what’s good about it, and can keep myself protected from the craze it shouldn’t be. The sky is clean and quiet, and the birds are chirping.

~Leann Peterson

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Prepare for the invasion of the well-dressed, as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week descends upon New York City today-- making it the most high-density town of trendsetters in the world (if it wasn't already) for seven action-packed days of shows, parties, and flashing lights. With a flood of models, designers, editors, press, buyers, and party-crashing hopefuls, the question is, where will the out-of-towners stay?

Fashion's elite are not checking into the Holiday Inn, but at strategic swanky pinpoints around the city. Whether chosen for their amenities or atmosphere, industry insiders' hotels define their distinct personalities. psychoPEDIA explores where fashion’s most fabulous are crashing for a week when New York becomes home-away-from-home:

While the younger fashion generation will no doubt opt for their trendier options, the established industry insiders and European fashion heavy-hitters will most likely seek out a more elegant, old-world atmosphere. Home to more high-society folk than hipper-than-thou types, one particular staple of high-class for the past 70 years is the The Carlyle—an Upper East Side hotel nestled right on fashion retail central: Madison Avenue. Not only has it been the choice amongst countless American presidents and European royalty like the late Princess Diana, but figures like Carine Roitfeld also frequent the art-deco style establishment-- which includes 187 comfortably-sized rooms, views of Central Park, and the famed Bemelmans Bar. And for the others wishing to venture downtown, the Mercer Hotel—an Andre Balazs counterpart to LA’s popular Chateau Marmont, also hosts heavy-hitters right in the heart of SoHo. Despite having a reputation for providing celebrity lovenests celebrities (like for the now defunct Jessica Simpson and John Mayer) the guests still enjoy the Mercer for 75 cozy rooms and American Nouveau cuisine offered at its street-level eatery, Mercer Kitchen. Around for over 10 years now, it's become a modern classic, rather than an of-the-moment flash

Setting their sights more on the downtown landscape, the younger crowd of starlets and models flock to two locales: The Bowery Hotel in the East Village and the Chelsea-situated Maritime Hotel From supermodel Agyness Deyn, to actresses Lindsay Lohan and Gwyneth Paltrow, The Bowery brings in an A-list crowd that counts Anjelica Huston and Adrien Brody as regulars. Its patrons are no doubt attracted to its dynamic offerings, starting with a lobby that provides a cozy, private living room atmosphere, while the second floor buzzes with weekly parties and music events, including monthly residencies by various musicians. Similarly, the nautically-themed Maritime also has the best of both worlds. By day, residents can enjoy views of the Hudson River from their quiet rooms, then party by night at the hotel’s popular Japanese-themed nightclub, Hiro Ballroom, where indie bands and DJs abound.

No-fuss Fashion Editors are fans of the conveniently-located gothic-exteriored Bryant Park Hotel in midtown, directly across from the tents where most of the shows are held. Set in the center of all the action, and in close proximity to 5th Avenue Shopping, the 129-room hotel not only hosts many Fashion Week events, but has two bars-- the Cellar Bar and Lobby Bar— as well as five-star dining its in-house restaurant, Koi, where editors can review their notes from each collection. And down in Soho’s 60 Thompson hotel, they don’t just appreciate each room’s Dean & Deluca stocked minibars, but luxuries like the VIP rooftop lounge and Kittichai, where they can dine on authentic Thai cuisine. Also in time for this season’s Fashion Week, having just opened July 29, and sure to be a favorite post for particularly editors, is the more affordable 140-room Thompson LES.

For press and buyers, many start with one of the most affordable options, the Hudson Hotel in Hell’s Kitchen. This Philippe Starck-designed, 23-story building is set up capsule-style, packing in an almost inconceivable 1000 guest rooms. While rooms come more quaintly-sized than average, Hudson still provides the same comforts—and measures up in areas like their sky terrace on the 15th floor with views of the Hudson, and possibly most distinctive feature, a private indoor park. For those on a higher budget, writers and execs also book themselves into the Meatpacking District’s Hotel Gansevoort, to enjoy a heated rooftop pool, basement G Spa and Lounge, and Japanese restaurant, Ono. While the hotel plans to expand its name with future branches targeted in locations from Las Vegas to London, a sister site is slated to open on Park Avenue South as early as next year. And for final favorites, the sibling hotels of Soho Grand and Tribeca Grand, are two other choices. These two hotels provide ample amenities for the business-minded, and to boot, offer pet-friendly services.

If you’re looking to rub elbows with Hollywood’s movers and shakers, you’d be hard-pressed not to spot them at the Gramercy Park Hotel, or one of NYC’s newest hotspots, The Greenwich Hotel. A long-time favorite amongst Hollywood’s elite, Gramercy Park was not only the chosen site for J Lo and Marc Anthony’s rooftop baby shower, but is also a staple for actors such as Sienna Miller, Eva Longoria, and Kate Hudson. Since its renovation in 2003 by hotelier Ian Schrager in collaboration with artist/filmmakerJulian Scnabel, its warm Bohemian décor and cozy Rose and Jade Bars have attracted plenty of A-listers. And as for the buzzworthy new venture in Tribeca by one of Hollywood’s biggest names, Robert DeNiro, the Greenwich Hotel—having only opened in April—is already rumored to be booked solid for the next three years. In addition, the in-house restaurant, Ago, co-owned with film producer Harvey Weinstein, pulls in a crowd of its own to sample its Tuscan cuisine. And, including a drawing room, arcade, and two-century old Japanese farmhouse (delivered from Kyoto and reconstructed on site for the hotel’s pool area), the 88-room Greenwich hotel is especially unique for its usage of mostly reclaimed elements in its construction-- an aspect partially attributed to its architect David Rockwell-- and sure to be a hit with the eco-friendly celebrities.



Fashion Week Room Rates:
The Carlyle- Classic Suite, $1135; Deluxe Suite, $1900
Four Seasons- Standard, $1137
Mercer Hotel- Standard, $535
Bowery Hotel- King, $575; Suites, $725-$1200
Maritime Hotel- Standard, $435
Bryant Park Hotel- Standard, $672
60 Thompson- Standard, $699; Loft, $3500
Thompson LES- Standard, $339
Soho Grand- Standard, $582
Tribeca Grand- Standard, $556
Hudson Hotel- Standard, $469
Hotel Gansevoort- Standard, $601
Gramercy Park Hotel- Standard, $721
The Greenwich Hotel- Standard, $635; Suite, $1300

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One would think that The Faint, known for hypnotic and exceedingly progressive electronic music, would live in an energy-infused metropolitan hub where everything is in surround. But to the contrary, they are from the heart of middle America-- Omaha, Nebraska. This posse of five-– Todd Fink (lead vocals), Joel Petersen (bass), Jacob Thiele (synthesizers), Dapose (guitar) and Clark Baechle (drums)-– all grew up and still reside in the Omaha area.

Fresh off the chaos of the band's newest album release, Fascination, Petersen shared his view on Omaha’s idiosyncrasies while on a tour stop in NYC’s Terminal 5. After a tight sound check, he sat down with psychoPEDIA to discuss the city. Friends and family are primarily what keeps Petersen there, yet the band is further enabled by living in a fairy inexpensive setting “We couldn’t afford to be a band and own a building with a recording studio, not have day jobs and live in a cool city,” Petersen said. “Omaha allows us the ability to create music without worrying about overhead costs.”

Creatively, the band is on par with world-renowned remixers, producers, and bands like Jacques Lu Cont, Tommie Sunshine, Justice, and Daft Punk-– all of whom live in much bigger cities like London, New York and Paris. In Omaha, creativity sparks from the opposite spectrum-– a lack-of certain stimulants.

“I think it’s because of the opposite of living in a metropolitan area and having inclement weather. It’s either really cool or really hot! In Omaha, you don’t have museums to go to either, or that new kick ass bar to check out. You have nothing. It forces you to make your own fun. You stay in and just create,” Petersen states.

The Faint would probably want to stay inside and create rather than facing the absurdly obese population which Petersen describes as “the most indicative aspect of Omaha.” It’s a meat and potatoes world where the restaurant chain Omaha Steaks prevails. No one seems to walk in the city, either. Everyone drives, which in turn leaves a void in physical fitness. Unfortunately, if a pedestrian is spotted on the street, drivers will honk and laugh. Walking is equal to being poor in Omaha.

On a brighter side, Petersen does share a few spots where he frequents including his favorite Mexican restaurant in the world, La Mesa. “It’s the first and last place I eat before and after touring,” said Petersen. “Their salsa is just perfect for me!” There are also a few bars and music venues that cater to The Faint’s like-minded set:Brothers Lounge, a bar about 10 blocks from the band's studio, and a relatively new music venue called The Waiting Room: Promoters within the city who virtually brought in any great out-of-town band through the Saddle Creek Records community years, finally created their own spot.

If Petersen ever moved away from Omaha, his change in scenery would be quite drastic, namely, “nowhere in the United States! I’d stay away from Republicans, get the hell out of this country, and move somewhere in Europe!"

~Jessica McMenamin

Go There:
Omaha Steaks, 4400 South 96th Street. (800) 960-8400
La Mesa, 11002 Emmet St # 112. (402) 496-1101
The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St. (402) 884-5353
Saddle Creek Records, 725 N 14th St. (402) 558-8208
Downtown Hilton Hotel, 17879 Chicago St. (402) 289-9696

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For over a century, northern New Mexico has lent inspiration to countless artists. Creatives– both fledgling and seasoned (the most famous of which range from D.H. Lawrence and Georgia O’Keeffe being among the most famous) – have long found themselves seduced by the inimitably airy climate and breathtaking landscape. Combined with a laid-back lifestyle, the High Desert region, which includes Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque, proves a potent mix.

Thus, it’s no surprise Santa Fe-bred, NYC-based designer Anna Sheffield finds every excuse she can to return to her Southwestern roots. Unfortunately, opportunities are increasingly rare as Sheffield, who won the fashion world over with her jewelry line Bing Bang (which earned her collaborations with the likes of Marc Jacobs), has since expanded her empire to include a higher-end namesake jewelry line, as well as a more recently launched collection of handbags. She’s one busy brunette, but, fortunately, after we caught up with the designer to discuss High Desert, she booked a flight home in honor of her upcoming birthday. Here, she divulges the best of High Desert:

What’s your favorite thing about High Desert?
It's at a high altitude, so what you have is a very beautiful combination of desert-- big cacti, tumbleweeds and sagebrush-– and mountains. [The mountains] blend in with the desert, so you have these beautiful areas where you have mesas that feel like big flat-topped mountains. It’s like being on top of a tabletop. There are a lot of different geological volcanic formations; activity similar to what you see at Brice Canyon or the Grand Canyon.

Is it safe to assume New Mexico has lent inspiration to your jewelry lines?
I grew up there, so inadvertently, I’ve always been inspired by the Native American [influence]. When I was a child, we lived on the Navajo reservation. What’s prevalent in that community is that it’s a very jewelry and craft-driven culture. I was inspired more by the artisan influence and the techniques. To me, the inspiration has been more about the craftsmanship and less about the aesthetic. With Bing Bang, there is evidence of the maker. Every single piece feels a little different because it’s been assembled by hand.

What are some of the most picturesque places in High Desert?
One of the most beautiful things to look at is the Rio Grande Gorge in Taos. It’s one of the most spellbindingly beautiful places in the world. When you drive up into the mountains from Santa Fe, you start out in more flat land; as you drive north, you start to drive up in elevation and it feels a little bit more mountainous. There’s water there, and tall leafy trees. You can find rivers and creeks. As you inch your way towards Taos you start to see the mesa tops and mountains in the distance. You’ll come to this huge gorge, which the Rio Grande has carved out of this landscape. It’s epic. There’s a beautiful bridge like the bridge in Natural Born Killers where she throws off her veil. You can get out and hike down to these beautiful hot springs. It’s the most spectacular view.

What are some of your favorite places to shop?
In Taos there are two totally disparate but amazing places. El Rincon is one of the oldest trading posts in Taos. It’s been family-run since 1909, now run by the grandson of the woman that opened it. He’s goofy and so nice; you end up talking to him for hours. They have all of this beautiful Indian jewelry, rugs, and one-of-a-kind stuff. In the back of the shop, they have a museum of things their family has collected. They have relics from all different kinds of Indian tribes-- museum-quality stuff. Another place I love is, oddly enough, in the shopping plaza. The Maison Faurie is an antique shop owned by this French guy. He imports from France. It’s also kind of like a museum. He has beautiful jewelry; I’ve bought so many estate pieces. He also has a collection of oddities-- prosthetic arms from a WWI fighter pilot, chastity belts, and beautiful reliquaries that old Catholics collected. Those are two of my favorite places in the world to get inspiration.

You studied fine art before pursuing jewelry design. What galleries or museums are must-sees for you?
I think the most obvious places, like the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, are actually really spectacular. And Canyon Road - it’s sort of like Chelsea [in NYC]. It has a lot of contemporary art galleries - some of them have beautiful art, some are more derivative, but the walk is worthwhile. SITE Santa Fe has a contemporary art collection that rivals the Whitney. It’s just beautiful, and they do a lot of interesting shows and retrospectives, like one that I saw with South American art that related to the kidnappings in Latin America.

Is there anything you love getting in New Mexico that you can’t find anywhere else?
The real deal is New Mexican food-- it's a combination of what you think of as Mexican food, mixed with colonial Spanish, mixed with Native Indian cuisine. It’s really beautiful, flavorful, rich food - lots of blue corn. The flavor that’s in everything is chili. There’s a New Mexican chili that’s native - they harvest it every fall and everyone roasts them. The green chili is the absolute flavor. You can go to Burger King and order a Green Chili Burger. Everything is really spicy. There are some great places in Santa Fe - one of the most old-school and amazing New Mexican restaurants is Tomasitas. It’s kind of touristy. It used to be this little dive; it felt like it was in someone’s house. They serve amazing green chili chicken and Sopapilla, which is kind of like Navajo bread. Also, there’s a place called Café Pasqual’s. That food is just amazing - blue corn pancakes and everything that you can possibly think of including green chili hot chocolate.

How spicy do you typically go?
The spicier the better… until my ears ring and I can’t hear.

Is there much of a local music scene?
Actually the Taos Inn, which is one of the oldest inns, is right on the main drag. It’s a beautiful adobe and inside the foyer, which is beautiful New Mexican tile, they have open mic. There’s a Mountain Man thing going on, so there’s kind of an outlaw vibe with harmonica players, banjos, all sorts of random people will turn out and play. It’s a good place to stumble upon and drink margaritas.

Speaking of margaritas, what’s the best way to cool off during the summer?
I like to go to the hot springs, because, even in the summer when it’s hot, it gets cold at night. And when you get in during the day the air feels so much cooler on your skin. Ojo Caliente is an amazing natural hot spring that’s been turned into a spa; it’s spectacular. It’s not really advertised, but little by little all of the hot springs are getting developed. I’d say that or just drink lots of margaritas or Tecates with lime.

What is High Desert’s best-kept secret?
I think I just spilled a bunch of them.

- Alisa Gould-Simon


Go There:
Maison Faurie, 1 McCarthy Plaza, Taos, New Mexico 87571
Tesuque Flea Market in the Pueblo just outside of Santa Fe.
Chimaya, Santurio do Chimayo

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Though he'll be the first to tell you he's not a "real Argentine," London filmmaker-turned-Buenos Aires restaurateur Terry Walshe knows all about his accidentally-adopted city, which he's lived in for five years. Last year, Walshe launched 647 Dinner Club, a haute-cuisine establishment that hides in one of the last seedy corners of the quickly gentrifying San Telmo district. Around the corner there's a Bolivian squat, a handful of crackheads, and a hot dog stand where local taxi drivers hang. Terry has used his film director's sensibilities to create a glammed-up lounge and restaurant straight out of 1940s Shanghai, where he drops major tunes, and subsequently, Argentine celebs and international big spenders drop major pesos.

The restaurant has been featured in Argentine design magazine and Condé Nast Traveler's Hot List, as well as in D-Mode (the Argie equivalent to V) and it was voted "best place to have an affair" in readers' polls. To that end, the managers informed us that there have been more than a few risque escapades in the subterranean bathrooms. PsychoPEDIA spoke with Terry in his Las Cañitas lair and found out how he accidentally-on-purpose became the owner of one of Buenos Aires' most extravagant restaurants, where we should shop next time we come to town, and what's on his latest playlist:

How'd an English boy end up in Buenos Aires?
I came to write a film, and ended up opening a restaurant. Seriously, I wanted to get out of London for a year to write a film about distraction. Then I got distracted. I still haven't written that film.

How did 647 come about?
I got bored researching for the film. I had this friend, let's call him, "bankrupt Nick" who was sort of an alcoholic-on-the-run. He was bored, too. We decided to open an underground club– a place to drop good music. We bought a huge warehouse in a run-down area, intending to use just a small part of it. And then we ended up with 647, which is this huge luxury restaurant.

Is it true not even Madonna can get into 647?
When we first opened, the press portrayed it as a "super exclusive" place no one could enter, even big name stars. One magazine ran a big picture of my ex-partner and me with Madonna Photoshopped between us, with a quote, "Not even Madonna can get into 647."

So, Buenos Aires really isn't as hip as they say?
It’s actually a very conservative city that masquerades as ultra-hip. I like living here because it's a throwback. It's like living somewhere 30 years ago– there's a certain charm to it. You can get on the bus at 2 am, and it's full of kids just laughing, not looking for trouble. There's an openness and innocence to the people, especially the younger generation. The kids are very friendly and have got a good energy.

Where's good to eat other then 647?
Florencio for lunch— very cool, very chic, very tiny. I always recommend Restó in the Society of Architects. Also, in Palermo, Oui Oui for lunch. They've got good coffee, good everything. Another spot is the Hyatt— not hip at all, but the place is wicked. It's in an old mansion. You've got to sit outside in the gardens and have the lunch buffet.

Is there a variety of ethnic food available?
For Argentine food, there's El Pobre Luis which is a parilla in Belgrano—great for steak and chorizo, cosas así. It's actually Uruguayan. For sushi you go to Yuki, an old-school place in Congreso. It's the best. There's another one at the Japanese Association in San Telmo which Ana, my girlfriend, says is really cool. For cheap Chinese, the best bet is Lai Lai in Barrio Chino. Chinatown is worth checking out anyway; you can find shit like tofu that you can't get anywhere else in this city, plus loads of bizarre cheap tacky shit that's come over from China. For ice cream you've gotta be dropping Persicco. Definitely the number one ice cream place. Mint Chocolate with White Chocolate is the best.

Where are the cool kids partying these days?
It's still Compass Friday nights at Niceto for a decent dance party. 878 is a good bar in Villa Crespo, a hidden-door place where you ring a bell and they let you in. Cool restaurant, cool bar, good place for drinks. There's another place inside which you can only get in if they know you, on Thames 878. If you've got to see tango, go to a real Argentine Milonga. Salon Canning in Palermo has one. Never go to a tango show, they're brutal.

Where does your girlfriend shop?
For shoes, she likes Josefina Ferroni. For clothes, she says Kukla in Palermo, across the street from Mark's. Lupe is great too but she's gotten really expensive. This season Maria Cher has got some really good stuff, and there's a new place in Recoleta called Seco that has umbrellas and rainwear. Most of the men’s clothing here is really grasa. I suppose Felix is the best of the bunch. If I don't get to London this year, you could possibly find me in there. You know where I do buy stuff? That glasses shop in Quinta Avenida, the vintage gallery. I got some great big 80s Run-DMC-style glasses. There's another great glasses place in San Telmo, in a galleria next to the square. It's run by a couple of real old ladies, and you can get vintage Yves St. Laurent and vintage Dior.

What about for antiques?
The top place for well-priced antiques is still San Telmo, even though you'd expect it to be a tourist trap. The big warehouse off Bolivar has very cool pieces like gramophones; the lower level has got the really good shit. You can even buy fruits and veggies there. It's an asi-asi situation.

Any good exhibitions and galleries of late?
Centro Cultural Borges, I always recommend that. And Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo; they've got 120 Rodins right now. Ana and I just went to a great show called Peppermint Candy at Bellas Artes—it was a collection of work by Korean artists, all contemporary stuff. MALBA is usually worth checking out, but now they've got a retrospective on Latin American Art that doesn't really turn me on—Frida Kahlo and stuff. As far as galleries, Appetite is still the big "left of field" gallery. Ruth Benzácar and Braga Menéndez are good too.

What are your other favorite haunts?
I love the Recoleta Cemetery. It's a big tourist spot but still an essential thing to visit. The secret is to go around five in the afternoon on weekdays. At that hour, it's empty and full of shadows. TheJapanese Garden is in all the books, but no tourists go there. All the Argie couples go to take pictures of themselves making out.

~Christine Whitney


Go There:
Resto Montevideo 938 (Soc. Central de Arquitectos), Barrio Norte, Tel: 4816-6711
Oui Oui Nicaragua 6068, y Dorrego, Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: 4778-9614
El Pobre Luis 2393 Arribeño, Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: 54 11 4780 5847
Yuki Pasco 740 b/w Independencia & Chile, San Cristobal, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Tel: 11/4942-7510
Persicco 2591 Salguero, Palermo, Buenos Aires, Tel: 54 11 4808 0888
Bar Ocho7Ocho Thames 878, Between Loyola and Aguirre, Villa Crespo, Tel: 54 11 4773 1098
Salon Canning Scalabrini Ortiz 1331 Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: 4826-8351

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Situated on the Mediterranean coastline, Tel Aviv is a bustling beacon of cultural vibrancy. The city is full of awe-inspiring landmarks like White City (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), which houses the world’s largest concentration of Modernist-style buildings thanks to an influx of Bauhaus-trained architects that emigrated from Germany in the ‘30s. Neighboring Jaffa, which is predominantly Arab, is home to one of the world’s oldest ports. But that’s not to say this ancient city is without contemporary cultural merit: The New York Times recently termed Tel Aviv “the capital of Mediterranean cool,” while The Economist referred to it as a “miniature Los Angeles.”

Even Nobu is jumping in: the celeb-adored restaurant empire is opening a Nobu Hotel and Residences in Tel Aviv come 2010. So, it’s little surprise the likes of Moldovia-born fashion designer Ilana Bronstein have chosen to call the historic city home.

A visit to the website for Iluchka - Bronstein’s colorful, covetable line of women’s wear - reveals the designer’s whimsical leanings. Swirling stars and upside-down faces abound. Not to mention, her look books simultaneously call to mind Terry Richardson and Alice in Wonderland. While Bronstein is geographically far removed from the world’s fashion capitals, Iluchka could just as easily adorn a young Hollywood starlet as a hip chick living in the Montmartre.

Five months shy of Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday, we struck up an email exchange with Bronstein. Here, she touches on Tel Aviv’s best spots for Israeli cuisine, people-watching, and a particularly noteworthy Post Office:

How would you describe Tel Aviv to someone who has never been?
Cooler than you think: young-spirited, colorful, energetic, loud, creative, friendly, and easy to get by.

How has it changed in the last 5 years?
There are fewer parking spaces. Really, it's a problem to have a private car with the city constantly expanding.

Are locals at all concerned it’ll soon be overrun with tourists?
Not really. We would like to be concerned about it. But, unfortunately I don't think it's a popular destination. People are afraid because of the political problems and the conflicts they see on TV.

What are three landmark buildings that should be required viewing for any first-time visitor?
I would recommend the markets, not buildings necessarily. The Flea Market in the old city of Jaffa -- it’s big, cheap and very alive with great food, antiques, different kinds of people, and the sea is really nearby for when you want to chill from shopping. The Carmel Market: a long strip of the most beautiful vegetables, fruit and cheap T-shirts. Amidst the stalls, you can find great authentic restaurants, fresh-squeezed fruit juices and the best Burekas (Greek pastry with feta cheese). Dizengoff Square Market (on Tuesdays and Fridays) – weird stuff from Russia like porcelain, silver, babushkas, jewelry, dolls and more from the big Russian emigration of the ‘90s.

What is the best place to get a taste of Tel Aviv’s past?
Neve Tzedek – Tel Aviv's first neighborhood. It has 2-3-story, old, beautiful buildings. These days it is a very, very expensive area with sharp European style, many little boutiques, restaurants, bars, and art galleries. Tchernikhovsky Cemetery – where all the important people are buried. There, you can spend time with great poets, politicians, doctors and writers.

What is the best place to get a taste of Tel Aviv’s future?
The Gan Ha'hashmal area: Levontin Street (which is where my boutique is), Ha'hashmal Street, Barzilay Street, Mikve Israel Street, and Haracevet Street. This area used to be really neglected and poor, but in the last five years it has flourished thanks to fashion boutiques, a restored square, and young, creative spirits.

How would you describe Tel Aviv's collective fashion sense?
Very cosmopolitan-influenced, and growing all the time as Israel’s young generations learn to be more globally influenced

How has Tel Aviv informed your line?
Tel Aviv is very hot and humid during the summer, and the winter is comfortable and not very cold. This guides me in my design and my fabric choices: the fabrics that I use are light, mostly natural like cotton, viscose and silk.

What are some of your favorite shops in Tel Aviv?
Carusella – a design shop for children’s clothes, toys and furniture on Rothschild Avenue. Sketch Book– a cool bookstore on Tchernikhovsky Street.

What is your favorite place for an authentic Israeli meal, and what do you order there?
Sabich-Deluxe on Haracevet Street. Sabich is pita bread filled with eggplant, hard-boiled egg, potato, tahini, parsley, chili pepper and cumin. For 20 Shekels it fills you up for the whole day.

What are two of your favorite restaurants: one that’s a splurge, and one that’s inexpensive?
For a splurge, go to Orca on Nahalat Binyamin Street. It has a modern style cuisine with a sophisticated atmosphere - white linen tables and a rich bar. For a reasonably priced meal: Joz ve Loz on Yehuda Halevi Street. The hand-typed menu changes every day, the design is eclectic with vintage furniture and it’s an informal atmosphere. It’s very popular with young, cool people.

Best place for people-watching:
Rothschild Avenue: a central, long Avenue with green grass and trees. You can see young and old people sitting on the grass, drinking coffee, riding their bicycles, sitting on benches, talking, or taking out their dogs.

Best place to dance/drink/party the night away:
Levontin 7 – a bar with cool music shows in its basement.

What’s a good place to escape the heat during the summer?
Lev Cinema Theater: with the best movies in town and really good prices if you buy "Lev card" with a number of tickets.

At what hotel would you stay if you weren’t a local?
The Hilton for its old-school feeling and beach location.

How will you celebrate the city’s 100th birthday next year?
Dinner with friends on the roof of the building I live in. There’s a nice view of Tel Aviv and a cool breeze.

What is Tel Aviv's best-kept secret?
The Post Office inside the Court Building – nobody knows it exists.

~ Alisa Gould-Simon

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Montreal is the quintessential urban melting pot. For centuries the francophone Canadian capital city has attracted a diverse group of immigrants.
A bustling metropolis often criticized for its harsh winters, the city boasts numerous local delights:
a scenic, mountainous namesake park, historic Old Port, and poutine (a classic Quebecoise concoction of French fries, cheese curds, gravy and whatever else one’s heart desires). Thus, it’s no wonder the likes of Mexican-born fashion designer Renata Morales has chosen to call the captivating city home.

With local bands from Arcade Fire to Wolf Parade having won the collective heart of the music industry, Montreal’s burgeoning music scene has garnered international attention. But equally noteworthy is its fashion scene. Local lines like Morales’ eponymous label are fast sweeping the international fashion community, and for good reason: In Morales’ case, a uniquely vibrant palette combined with a delicate yet structurally adventurous silhouette make for covetable, wearable garments . And considering, in addition to making fantastic clothes, Morales happens to be an especially cool chick, we pegged her for the perfect Montreal tour guide. She happily obliged, treating psychoPEDIA to her secrets for vintage shopping, art browsing, and, of course, poutine:

What’s the best thing about living in Montreal?
There are too many things. It’s a cosmopolitan city that sometimes feels like a little town. It has the best of both worlds. It’s partly mountainous and partly on the water. It’s quite diverse, with many different cultures. There are fabulous shows, live music every night. Apart from winter… and it’s not really a bad city for winter.

Depending on who you ask…
What happens is, it’s horrible [laughs], but there are a lot of places where you can go underground. If you take public transportation, it connects to a lot of places underground. So, it’s not really a city that dies in the winter. It’s alive all year round. And in summer, everyone is naked in the park, going surfing, swimming. In the winter people are cross-country skiing.

How would you describe Montreal’s current fashion scene? Has it changed much in the last five or ten years?
For good or for bad?

Either …
It used to be more of a manufacturing city. With the market changing so much, the level of competition has changed. So a lot of people have gone to China and Asia. A lot of larger manufacturers have closed their doors. There have been younger people that want to keep producing here, and who are finding ways to produce here in Montreal. There has been a little bit of a rebel movement. There are seven fashion schools in Montreal; they keep popping out students. So, some are them are staying here and find new ways to compete.

What are some of your favorite places to shop?
There’s a store not too far from my studio called Reborn. They sell Opening Ceremony, Complex Geometries, Rick Owens. I really like U&I. on Saint-Laurent; they have Comme des Garcons mixed with different designers. The guy who runs it imports from all different places. I really like the aesthetic of the store. Holt Renfrew is comparable to Barneys. I like going there too. And there’s a great shoe shop called Mona Moore. They used to have all the crazy shoes. They’ve gotten a bit more tame, but their selection [which includes Balenciaga, Nina Ricci and Dries Von Noten] is still nice. There are some good consignment shops as well. There’s one on Saint Denis – Memento. They bought all the old costumes from the CBC [Canadian Broadcast Corporation]; they have great stuff.

Where’s best for people-watching?
People-watching is fun in Mont Royal park on Sundays. In the summer there’s this crazy medieval fighting. It’s just a melting pot of people. There are a lot of young people. You have people fighting each other with these crazy costumes, some people playing the drums…

Any other great places to camp out, and soak in the sun come the weekend?
In Saint Vitare they have this great coffee shop, Olympico . Olympico is my hangout. There’s a Polish food shop across the street that sells amazing pea soup and borscht. During the summer people sit outside having coffee for hours. It’s a melting pot of students, musicians, and older people, and the coffee is delicious. There are also two markets in Montreal – Marché Jean Talon and Marché Atwater. They’re food markets and they have flowers, and all kinds of different things. They have a lot of local produce - people that make cheese, people that make syrup and all kinds of jam. Talon is crazy for fish. It’s really worth going to the markets.

Do you have a favorite place for poutine?
I’m terrible. My favorite, and not everyone agrees with me, is Frite Dorée on St-Laurent. It’s kind of in the red light district, a very raunchy area. I like the Italian poutine. It’s got the meat sauce on it. If I’m out late, it’s gonna suction me in. It’s an institution. Or, try La Banquise on Rachel. It’s famous for its large selection of poutines and it’s open 24 hours a day.

Any other eateries that are especially good for indulging?
Club Chasse et Peche : that’s a more expensive restaurant that’s really worth going to. The food is spectacular; it’s made with local produce. The co-owner Hubert Marsolais is one of my best friends and I made a woven piece for the entrance that’s sort of like a drape. It also has art by Nicolas Baier, a great local photographer, and looks a bit like a grotto. And Cocoa Locale on Park Avenue right off the mountain – it’s run by this crazy chick Rima, who knows everybody in Montreal. She makes delicious chocolate and spiced cupcakes with flowers and it’s really a crazy little place. It’s a bit addictive.

What hotel would you recommend?
A lot of people love Le Germain. There’s also a newly renovated hotel that’s from a very famous architect here in Montreal called the Opus. It’s a boutique hotel that’s kind of modern but not minimalist. They have some really good restaurants. Personally, right now I’m more into old school hotels. I love theRitz Carlton, but they’re closing it for renovation.

What museums and/or galleries are a must-see? Definitely the MAC and the Musée des Beaux Arts [which is currently showing an Yves Saint Laurent exhibition]. If you want to go see galleries there’s the whole Belgo Building on Saint-Catherine Street. It’s filled with galleries;Rene Blouin is one of the most famous.

What are three tourist traps that a first-time visitor shouldn’t miss?
Well they have to come to the Old Port of Montreal. The Botanical Garden is quite amazing. And to go all the way to the top of Mont Royal to the lookout – it’s beautiful.

Go There:
Renata also recommends La Sala Rossa- a concert venue and restaurant; Pop Montreal- a famous festival and year-round organization; Blue Skies turn Black- great local concert promoters; and DHC ART Foundation- an art foundation that is always free, open late and currently showing “Take care of yourself,” by Sophie Calle (a piece that represented France at the 2007 Venice Biennial).

~ Alisa Gould-Simon

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Over the past decade, Mexico City’s reputation as a true tourist destination has continued to grow. No longer is the sprawling city plagued by taxi cab kidnappings or muggings, though that’s not to say the metropolis-- often referred to as Distrito Federale (or D.F.)-- which houses an awe-inspiring population of 19 million, is without crime. But garnering more international attention these days is Mexico City’s burgeoning cultural scene. In various pockets of the city, like up-and-coming neighborhood Condesa, fledgling designers and artists such as Ensanada-born Livia Corona are generating work that’s catching the eye of gallerists and collectors worldwide

In Corona’s case, it’s her recent photographic series, Enanitos Toreros, that’s making waves. These celebratory images capture various traveling troupes of little people performing as Mexican bullfighters-– a tradition as old in Mexico as Mezcal and Mariachi. The stunning series, the fruits of eight years of labor, is encapsulated in an eponymous tome on powerHouse Books (a launch party is slated to take place at powerHouse headquarters in DUMBO tonight). In the midst of preparing for her book launch, we caught up with the acclaimed photographer, who divides her time between Mexico City and NYC, to talk inspiration and the idiosyncrasies of her hometown:

What initially inspired your Enanitos Toreros project?
Enanitos Toreros started in a very casual way when a woman, who is a little person, invited me to tour with her team of dwarf bullfighters after I made her a headshot. Through her I met other little people who invited me to their shows and to their homes. With time I realized that there is not a great deal of common knowledge about dwarfism and, consequently, there are many false ideas and much discomfort about the subject. I was interested in the space between these two factions. Right when I started hanging out with the Enanitos Toreros, I saw Robert Frank’s “Cocksucker Blues,” a behind-the-scenes documentary of the Rolling Stones while touring. That was a point of departure for my touring with my friends.

What was the most surprising thing you learned while documenting these bullfighters?
I was, and am [still] struck by how dwarfism remains a sort of “last minority” which culture can discriminate [against] and stereotype. It seems that the blanket of political correctness skipped this part of our society altogether. The book is about a lot of things, but mainly an effort to get past the spectacle and re-portray dwarfism in a way that made sense to me, having people with dwarfism as friends.

What inspired you to move to Mexico City and keep a part-time residence there in addition to NYC?
For a photographer, New York is a top place to produce work. New York City figured out how to take care of itself years ago, and now it’s a model for efficiency. My antidote to the smoothness is Mexico City, where nothing really coincides and everything runs on a fluctuating pattern. It is vast in countless ways, so it has a lot of space where one can generate ideas for work.

How would you describe the city to someone who’s never been?
I would cut right to the sales pitch and tell this person to pack their bags and get to it.

If you were celebrating the launch of your new book in Mexico City-- where would go for a night on the town to celebrate?
El Covadonga, in Colonia Roma. It’s an old, enormous dinning and drinking hall with rows of tables to sit 40-50 of your closest friends. The waiters know many by name. You drink and eat until morning. When it closes, everyone moves to the next bar and knocks on the door until they open.

The city’s art scene is flourishing. What sets it apart from other cosmopolitan art communities?
I guess all the hanging out and talking leads to something. There is not a significant division between artists working in different mediums and people socialize a lot. It may also have something to do with there being very few “accredited” sources telling creative minds what is what. All the general urban senselessness probably keeps people inventing their own conclusions.

What are the names of a few local galleries and artists of note?
Go to Galeria GaGa in Colonia Condesa. Ask for Botas. He might tell you everything or nothing.

Best place to see live music?
El Pasaguero.

Where is the best to go for tacos?
Tacos are more of a Northern Mexican staple. There is one place not many foreigners go-- the food cart lady who parks at the entrance of Hotel Buenos Aires, on Motolinia and Cinco de Mayo. She makes everything you can possibly make out of blue corn. For breakfast - Chilaquiles en Salsa Verde-- I always go to Cafeteria La Blanca, on 5 de Mayo.

What’s your favorite shop to frequent?
Nacional Monte de Piedad-– a jewelry pawnshop administered by the government.

What’s a good hotel for out-of-towners?
A lot of foreigners stay at Hotel Condesa. My favorite hotel, for the interior décor, is Hotel Jena, a left over from early '70s décor. The '70s look is consistent to the last detail… furniture, rugs, bedspreads, dishware, etc. It’s a time warp. For '80s hotel décor intensity check out Hotel Casa Blanca.

Where offers the most authentic Mexico City experience?
You can go (pretty much anywhere) and get kidnapped.

What is the most visually inspiring spot in the city?
Centro Historico, northeast of the Zocalo-- the streets that haven’t been bought up by Carlos Slim.

What's Mexico City’s best-kept secret?
It’s really 30 million citizens but it doesn’t want to admit it.

~Alisa Gould-Simon

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Solid Gold is a Minneapolis-based collective of eccentric noisemakers, who, from show to show, can go from looking like polished mariachis to carefree surfer boys. And, like their chameleon attire, the group’s sound ranges widely too-- from throbbing electronic beats to smooth, psychedelic melodies. Comprised of core members Zack Coulter, Adam Hurlburt, and Matt Locker-- with Jonathan Airis and Sean Troth as additions-- the trio migrated from Madison, Wisconsin three years ago to set up shop in lead singer Coulter’s original hometown, though they’ve spent much of their recent days elsewhere thanks to their touring schedule. Garnering a steady following state side playing local to major festival showcases at SXSW, the group has also made a splash abroad, playing to rowdy crowds at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavik, and the Vice/WeSC Old Blue Last party in London.

Hailing from the place perhaps best known for being the stomping grounds of music icon Prince (and home to the Mall of America, and the Great Lakes), Coulter joined psychoPEDIA after a performance at NYC’s Pianos to take a tour of his Twin City:

Were you influenced highly by Prince and the “Minneapolis Sound” he created?
I was, but when he was huge, I was only 6 years old. We’ve recorded in some of the same studios he used before.

Where did you get the idea to incorporate a lap steel guitar in your music?
We used to go to a bar called The Bulldog where Sean worked, and we just started chatting with him and found out what he played. We were recording already and thought it would be cool to add, so then he just started playing shows with us about six months ago.

Since one of your tracks is called “Bible Thumper,” can it be assumed you are spiritual?
No, but Matt really likes crystals. He’s big into crystal magic.

What stands out about the music scene?
There’s a good public radio station, The Current, that plays a lot of local music and original commercials, and Radio K, which is student run. That’s a good asset, because we’ll get play quite a bit on these stations. Other than that, the music press is horseshit.

Do any of the band members have twins in the Twin Cities? Or, if you could have one, who would it be?
Sean and I get mistaken for each other all the time. I know Matt would want Patrick Swayze as a twin. For me, maybe Michael Jackson.

Since Pillsbury is based out of Minneapolis, have you ever had dough boy sightings?
I think he went into retirement.

With a name like Solid Gold, you must know where to pick up some good flashy accessories...
There’s one place that used to be an old White Castle on Lyndale [White Castle Building No. 8], and they sell jewelry inside.

As you make some bold fashion statements on and off-stage, where do you shop for your unique clothes?
We’re kind of shameless with wearing our own band T-shirts, and Matt makes most of them. I haven’t bought an article of clothing in a long time. But if we do any shopping, it’s thrift shopping. Everyday People, where our friend works, is probably the best.

Favorite spots to perform live?
The Kitty Cat Club and 7th Street Entry— the club connected to First Avenue.

Places where we'd find the band vegging out after a show?
Barbette, a French bistro bar with a good happy hour. And The Local downtown, where you just go to get a Guinness.

Where does Solid Gold get into the most trouble?
Probably the strip club called Seville. Matt and I have actually eaten there before. He had a buffalo chicken salad. He loves buffalo chicken. And I had a Caesar salad. Pretty weird.

Minneapolis is one of the most environmentally friendly and health-conscious US cities. What especially healthy spots do you like?
There’s a good amount of co-ops. Seward is one that’s really cool. The Greenway goes right through the middle of the city and has good biking trails. And Tao Natural-– they make really good healthy stuff.

And, for a city known as America's "Most Literate," what are the best places to pick up good reading material?
Magers & Quinn. And there’s some good comic book shops, one called Big Brain Comics. We have a really good library system, too. I haven’t been reading as much as I probably should these days.

Forbes ranked it the third best US city for couples. Are there nice places to take a date?
The strip club-– just kidding. I moved there with a girlfriend, then broke up. So it didn’t work out so well for me. Bryant Lake Bowl has a date night where you can go for dinner, cheap drinks, and bowling.

Is there a rivalry between Minnesotans and Canadians over who reigns higher in the mall kingdom?
I don’t trust Canadians.

What's the best place to crash if you're from out of town?
If you’re in a band, you can always stay with someone else in a band. The last place I stayed in town was The Depot, a hotel with a water slide, big pool, and ice rink inside.

Best-kept secret in Minneapolis?
Matt’s Bar, which has the best cheeseburger in the world. It’s called a “Jucy Lucy” and has cheese in the middle.

What’s next for Solid Gold?
We’re staying in New York for a while doing shows, then back to Minneapolis to record our album, which should come out in September.

~Leann Peterson

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The Presets (comprised of Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton) have been taking the dance world by storm for several years. Known for hypnotic electronic pop beats, the two boys from Down Under-- Sydney to be exact-- have moved many dance floors with their debut EP in 2003, Blowup, and LP, Beams in 2005, the latter of which attained international acclaim and DJ approval. Their self-produced sophomore album, Apocalypso, released on Modular Records in May of 2008, topped with singles “This Boy's in Love” and “My People.” Who’d guess that the duo originally met during school at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music, cracking the books and notes of Mozart?

Considering their current world tour and recent album release, dreaming of their balmy hometown must happen often. Before their performance at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, psychoPEDIA joined Moyes and Hamilton inside their tour bus, where they discussed all-things-Sydney:

What’s the current music scene like in Sydney?
JH: There have always been great DJs and parties. There are quite a few good indie nights where bands play, and a few great venues; the Oxford Art Factory, where there’s a club and a live venue where bands perform. Another spot that’s really dingy called Club 77.
KM: We’ve played there!
JH: There are a few bands like us in Sydney. Sydney is really known more for a club-place. The pub-rock rock n’ roll thing is pretty there, yet it’s more a suburban thing in the greater Sydney area. Sydney has a huge gay population so there’s a lot more of the club vibe.

Are there popular sex shops in Sydney?
JH: Well, we have Tool Shed!
KM: The sex shops here in New York are fun and cool. Australia is so oppressed, unfortunately. In Australia, there are awful scary places that you don’t want to go into, where it’s run by heroin.
JH: It’s the more dingy, Book Exchange-type places, where you go swap your pornos, are really dirty and seedy.

Is there a big heroin scene there right now?
KM: There was, then the war in Afghanistan killed it. From what I understand, there was a huge heroin problem, then it disappeared suddenly overnight. Ice now has become a problem. They call it crystal meth here in the States. You couldn’t get heroin in Sydney for a while because of the war in Afghanistan, since they produce most of the heroin for Australia. Ice now has slowed down and the overdoses have stopped, but mental illness has gone through the roof.

Any other major controversy?
KM: We have a new Prime Minster right now, Kevin Rudd, who we love to compare to John Howard, who was our last Prime Minster. Rudd is more left leaning and liberal. What happened recently was that an amazing photographer Bill Henson, who shoots a lot of teenage models in these stark, dark, ghostly images just released a photo of a naked 13-year-old girl. It’s beautiful, but the police raided the exhibition and took away all the photos. Kevin Rudd came out publicly and said it was disgusting and the work was horrible. He’s a left-leaning guy, but socially a Christian and a conservative. It’s funny, because the national art galleries in Sydney and Melbourne have had major retrospectives of Bill Henson’s work. In the art world, he’s quite respected.

On a lighter topic, where would you recommend staying in Sydney?
KM: Zerp Tree Hotel. It’s down near The Rocks, which is an area down underneath Sydney Harbor Bridge. The Park Hyatt is really lovely down there, because it has a great view of the Opera House and harbor. Also, Observatory Hotel.
JH: More boutique hotels, The Kirketon and the W. Most of the hotels on the harbor are great.

Best restaurants to check out?
JH: Bondi Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. It’s right on the south side of Bondi Beach, and it looks across Bondi and out to sea. It’s one of the most breathtaking places to have a meal.
KM: We’re so lucky because we’re really multicultural. We can get anything you want, except Mexican! All Mexican food in Australia is crap. We have great Thai, Pakistani and Chinese. There’s a spot called Golden Century, where we can go at 4am. It’s a little bit of a musician haunt too. Often, when bands finish shows, they head down to grab something to eat. During the Olympics in 2000, after a show we’d gone down to get some food and the Hungarian wrestling team was there!

Places to shop?
JH: There’s this great store called Assin and the clothes are stupidly expensive but really cool designer stuff. Ksubi is a clothing label with sort of street-beach vibe. That Beach Boys sort of culture and attitude mixed with street city vibe. Obviously, all the surfing labels are huge too.

What's the most special thing inherent to Sydney?
KM: I don’t think you could find a better beach anywhere in the world than Sydney. To be able to go to these world-class beaches that are so clean and beautiful is just amazing. It’s definitely its high point.
JH: And, of course, The Presets!

~Jessica McMenamin

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Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, Bowerbirds play a lush mix of folksy, Americana tunes filled with accordion, violin, and acoustic instrumentals that invoke the tranquility of their Appalachian setting. Consisting of native resident Beth Tacular, her partner Phil Moore, and Mark Paulson–- two more recent Iowa imports-– the band has a clear connection to nature, reflected in everything from their lyrics about sounds of the forest to their avian-inspired name, which Tacular adopted after reading about that breed in a children’s encyclopedia.

Having just released their latest album Hymns From A Dark Horse this week (June 17), and on the cusp of embarking on a hectic national tour supporting soul-folk singer friend Bon Iver, psychoPEDIA caught up with the music-making couple of Tacular and Moore, who currently reside in an Airstream trailer in the countryside outside of Raleigh, for a tour of their scenic hometown:

What are the hometown influences behind your newest album?
At the time the songs were written, we were living in the country. I think it has a lot of “space” because of that– a clarity.

Since your music is nature-inspired, what are your favorite outdoor sites?
Umstead Park has a great trail system to walk around, and Lake Johnson. The whole of North Carolina is just trees. Everything’s lush and green here.

Is there a good spot for bird-watching?
Out where we live is wonderful. We see so many different varieties. And the Hollow River is great— you see a lot of bald eagles.

As an earth-loving band, do you have favorite eco-friendly places in town? Piedmont Biofuels Co-op is a great place to get gasoline if you drive a diesel. With restaurants here, since there’s a big farming infrastructure, they get a lot of produce from local sources. At Enoteca Vin, where Mark works, they get a lot of their meat, greens, and other vegetables from local places. There are a few fair-trade, organic coffee places, too— Royal Bean, and Counter Culture. And a street market in Pittsboro called Chatam Marketplace, where 95% percent of the meat is organic and natural.

Best way to keep cool in the North Carolina heat?
Locopops, a new popsicle business started in Durham. It’s a little retail space, painted white with no decoration and a freezer against one wall. They have hundreds of varieties that they make them themselves. Cream-based and vegan ones, flavors like strawberry basil or rosemary chocolate. They also have dog popsicles!

Which shops are best for getting folk instruments like the ones you play? There’s a place called High Strung Music. Fat Sound has great amplifiers, guitars, and old acoustics. But we get our accordions from a guy in Wisconsin.

Favorite local clubs to play?
Bull City Headquarters— a little co-op space with a bicycle repair shop in it. Then there’s Local 506, which has the staple bands that come through, and Cat’s Cradle which houses larger bands.

Since aside from the music, you're also a visual artist, what are your favorite places to display or check out other work?
My favorite gallery is Lump. They bring the most avant-garde or cutting-edge emerging artists, established weird art, or locally progressive art to the Triangle. If I didn’t have it, my idea of art in the public world would’ve been limited to what I saw in magazines. Downtown Raleigh has an Art Walk on the first Friday of the month, where all galleries have an opening. I’ve also shown at Design Box. Wootini in Capitol Hill brings artists from around the country as well as local artists. They even have an area with Japanese toys. And Branch Gallery is fancier, but still has some aesthetically cutting-edge art.

Where do you go to get a dose of outside culture?
The Internationalist Bookstore and Community Center is great, because they have sections on ecology, gender studies, sexuality, and the best magazine selection. The Regulator Bookstore in Durham, and Quail Ridge, which has a classical music section. The Center for Documentary Studies has the International Documentary Film Festival every year-– put on by progressive-minded people to open eyes to an environmental issue or labor issue. And the American Dance Festival happens here.

Best places to get antiques or home furnishings for your nest?
Father & Son Antiques— it’s vintage mid-century stuff. We bought a lot of our furniture there. You can get second-hand things at the same price as a regular store. Beggars & Choosers has some furniture, cheaper than at other antique stores, but it’s good for vintage and antique clothes, neat old jewelry, and household things like pictures frames and fabrics. I get a lot of my clothes there, because they have dresses from the 1910s and 1930s. I just bought a couple of slips from the 1910 at 10 dollars each.

Young female bowerbirds are known for having a penchant for "fancy men." Where are the best places to pick up them up?
Mark in our band is “fancy.” He’s single and needs to be picked up. The Raleigh Times Bar is probably where you’d find them. It’s a cross-over place where hipsters and yuppies go. They seem to bathe. They’re the cleanest men, and put product in their hair. Clean-cut sort of dandies.

Where would you go to do a courtship dance after you’ve found your mate?
Hell has a dance night. And a bar called the Jackpot up the street from Mark’s house– the seedy, dirty, smoky hipster bar in town.

What about your own first date in town?
We went to Reservoir to see the band Caliphone. Afterwards, we went dumpster diving at the PTA Thrift Store. I used to do that because you could find the stuff people didn’t think was good enough to sell. We found My Little Pony figurines and 80s unicorn stickers. I was in the middle of doing a series of paintings about unicorns, so it was meant to be! Then we went to a bar called the Orange County Social Club, with a neat beer garden in the back. We had a couple drinks, then went to Forest Theater— an amphitheatre in Chapel Hill, near the UNC campus. There are hiking trails and woods on one side, and the university on the other. No one goes there at night, so it’s really quiet. We climbed on a big wall where we hung out until 5 in the morning.

Best place to spend an overnight romantic stay?
There’s a B&B that’s an organic goat farm, called Celebrity Dairy. And there’s a nice camping site on the Eno River in the state park, which has a beautiful river and trees.

Favorite thing about Raleigh?
You can walk to everything. And everywhere you go, you run into six people you know.


~Leann Peterson

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Modern music as we know it wouldn't be around without Cincinnati. From James Brown and the Isley Brothers to the Afgham Whigs, it has birthed a shockingly wide array of icons. Bad Veins-- comprised of Benjamin Davis and Sebastien Schultz-- also hail from this musically prolific city, and have popped up loud and clear on the international radar thanks to Alexandra Patsavas of Chop Shop Records and the Target Music Maker award. Capable of swelling orchestrations and ballads that are wise beyond their years, it's hard to comprehend there are only two members, accompanied merely by an antique movie projector on-stage.

While the two are currently in-studio working on their highly anticipated debut album, psychoPEDIA joined Schultz to chat about the city they call home:

Since Cincinnati has a Coney Island, is there a connection with Brooklyn?
It used to be called “Coney Island of the West,” then the name changed to just Coney Island. Sounds sort of shady, I know. Parenthetically, we do have a connection to Brooklyn. We have the Roebling Suspension Bridge that crosses from Cincinnati over to northern Kentucky. This bridge served as the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge— so you’re welcome, New York City. Theirs is bigger, but then, everything is bigger in NYC.

Could you explain the Cincinnati chili phenomenon?
To be fair, it’s not special unless it’s Skyline Chili. Seriously, that’s all you need to know. Fine— I’ll elaborate. Skyline Chili came to the city back in the 1940s. It was brought to us by a fine Greek gentleman who had the genius to add a little something to the chili— chocolate and cinnamon. You can choose to have coney’s or three-ways (spaghetti, chili, and cheese). There have been days where I’ve eaten at Skyline for lunch, dinner, and then post-bar. Yes, it’s that good.

Best restaurant when someone else is picking up the tab?
Hell— if I’m not paying, I would say The Precinct. However, I’ve heard some amazing things about Jean-Robert at Pigall’s. Ben and I have been to his bistro, and we were more than satisfied.

Good place for brunch?
Melt or Honey in Northside.

Best neighborhood to hang out, grab coffee, or shop?
Northside—they have the best record shop in town as well some of the best restaurants. Plenty of variety and the bars/venues have some of the best shows in Cincinnati.

What about places to catch a gig by an up-and-coming band?
I’ve seen amazing shows everywhere from the Comet all the way up to the Taft Theater. The Southgate House is our indie mainstay venue, whatever that means. Everyone from Stephen Malkmus to Arcade Fire has played there. I remember seeing The Shins play there years ago when Oh, Inverted World came out. There were around 30 to 50 people in a venue that holds over 600. The next time they came, it was sold out. Additionally, the inventor of the Thompson Submachine Gun was born there—so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Favorite place to play yourselves?
Probably The Northside Tavern. I grew up going to loads of punk shows—where you could stand about an inch from the entire band. Northside Tavern is similar—the crowd surrounds you and you can feel the energy in the room the minute you start playing. Larger venues are great, but nothing quite feels like those intimate shows where people are attentive and focused on every aspect of the songs and, ultimately, the performance.

Where do you pick up new music?
Shake It! Records in Northside and Everybody’s Records, just a bit north of the city. Both have amazing selections—you can find anything you want.

What’s your favorite of all the museums the city has to offer?
Undoubtedly, Union Terminal houses our Natural Science and History museums as well as our Omnimax. It used to be a train station back in the 1930s, but has since been converted into an amazing museum. Beyond that, we have the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center—both of which are worth a visit.

Any sights you'd recommend for people visiting the city?
The museums here are great, but we also have King’s Island and Beach Waterpark just north of the city, which appeals to mostly everyone.

Speaking of sights, ever run into Peter Frampton?
Actually, yes. We were backstage together at the Taft Theatre a few years ago for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Bootsy Collins was there as well.

What's a little-known fact about Cincinnati?
We have an entire subway system under the city that dates back to the 1920s. The catch, however— it has never been operational. They built a majority of it back before the Depression—even completing the stations. Unfortunately, the money ran out, so it has never run. From what I understand, though, a significant amount of tax money goes into maintaining the subway every year. I suppose this is prudent considering we have giant tunnels under our downtown streets, but it’d be nice to get to use it after 80 years.

~Abbey Braden

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Matt Allen is many things: an international adventurer, fundraiser, and avid concertgoer on a perpetual road trip. Matt’s also an Ice Cream Man, who has made it his mission to give it away for free, of which all he asks in exchange for a popsicle is a smile and a snapshot, which he posts on his website. Operating solely on sponsorship, he can often be found doling out frosty treats backstage at music festivals. As a result, he’s become a favorite with audiences and musicians alike– just ask Jack White, Perry Farrell, or Daft Punk. Three years into his goal of sharing half a million gratis frozen treats, Ice Cream Man now has 100 volunteers worldwide. Now into his third North American tour, he hops from one music festival to another, making time for stops at ice cream socials in children's hospitals along the way.

psychoPEDIA caught up with Ice Cream Man on the road, in the midst of a hail storm in Iowa, heading to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee. Taking place on a 700-acre farm outside Nashville, in the small town of Manchester, this annual summer fest is known for it's laid-back vibe and extensive lineup, not to mention being consistently voted 'Best Festival in North America' by music publications, critics, and audiences alike. With about 60,000 attendees, Bonnaroo becomes Tennessee's third largest city for four days in June. Encompassing all types of music, this year also promises on-site cinema, a comedy club, silent disco, and classic arcade. Here are the Bonnaroo veteran’s tips for surviving four days of camping, music, and dancing:

Which music festivals do you hit each year?
Pretty much all of them. There’s about a five month period where three quarters of the weekends, I’m at a musical festival. Right now I’m on my way to Wakarusa this weekend in Lawrence, Kansas.

Why is Bonnaroo considered the best and most "over-the-top" of them all?
You show up on Thursday, and until Monday morning, you’re in another world. With 60,000 people, it’s like a small town in itself. I consider it the grand-daddy of US festivals, because it’s its own entity. They get a great mix of music, and it’s not like anything else. Once you show up, you don’t have to go anywhere. All you have to do is make it back to your campsite. I love Bonnaroo, but it’s absolutely nuts. The festival doesn’t even close— it’s open 24 hours!

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you there?
I passed out in the dead center once. I was sitting watching the bands, and all of a sudden, everybody was gone. I was just sitting on a chair in the middle of nowhere, thinking “wow.”

Who are the most anticipated acts for this year?
Having Metallica and Pearl Jam headlining— that’s huge. Personally, I’m looking forward to Henry Butler. Ghostland Observatory is doing a late night set, and those guys are just a blast. I’m sure they’ll bring their laser show and smoke machines. And My Morning Jacket at Bonnaroo is a legendary experience– at no other festival would they play from 1 to 4 in the morning.

Where do people typically crash?
There are over 60,000 people camping within a two mile radius. A lot of them just drive in, pitch their tents, then walk to the festival each day. You can get them at Wal-Mart for pretty cheap, so everyone just picks up a tent or tarp.

The festival is going green this year. Do you know what eco-friendly things they'll be doing?
I know they’re going carbon neutral, which is impressive. Considering a lot of the greening efforts, it’s not just a fad for them. We give away ice cream and will see people go around doing the recycling. It’s the most active recycling I’ve seen at a festival. Bonnaroo has been working for that since day one.

What's your most popular treat among the crowd?
The majority of it goes to production people and stagehands, friends of the bands. This year our main sponsor is Blue Bunny ice cream. We’ll have Champ! cones, and those are always the most popular— everyone loves ice cream covered in chocolate and nuts. And ice cream sandwiches. I’m a big fan of the base items: Pink Panther and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pops. Bomb Pops are good, too, because they’re really refreshing. In hotter weather, you end up giving away more popsicles, and in cooler weather, you give away more ice cream.

Besides with your ice cream, how do festival-goers cure a heatstroke?
With some of the big tents, you can go hide under them. This year there’s going to be a movie tent and a cabaret tent which will be air-conditioned.

Do people check out the country music scene when passing through Nashville?
You have people that are road tripping there who will check out the Grand Ole Opry. I went to Dollywood afterwards in Pigeon Forge once. It’s not like a city festival, though, it’s all very self-contained. Bonnaroo is a yearly destination; there are a lot of people around the country who plan their vacation around it.

What are the best food options?
Once you’re there, you’re stuck with whatever festival food they’re serving. You have to bring your own or find way to weasel food backstage, which isn’t easy to do. Getting a meal ticket is tougher than getting a backstage pass. However, there are these guys that come up from New Orleans and do big cookouts for all the people that are working. They do it the night before the festival starts, and the last night, when everyone’s breaking down the stage. They’ll cook up massive dinners, just good, Creole cooking— crawfish and crab legs. There’s nothing better than stumbling back to your tent, eating crawfish at 4 in the morning.

What’s your advice or warning for first timers?
If there’s any rule of thumb for people going to festivals, don’t do all your drugs or drink all your beer the first day. You’ve got to pace yourself. First thing is water— make sure you drink enough. You spent a lot of money already on tickets, so don’t bitch about the 2 bucks for a bottle, and drink up. You’re camping, so you’re awake at 7 in the morning when the sun hits your tent and it’s a sauna. It’s hard to get rest unless you’ve got a shaded area, so you’ll probably only get 4 hours of sleep for 4 nights in a row.

Is there a last stop you make before packing up to head home?
We get out on Monday morning and clean everything up. Then we get crew to the airport at Nashville. There’s a Cracker Barrel 30 miles from the festival and we always stop there to get breakfast.

What’s the most rewarding aspect about giving out ice cream at Bonnaroo?
People instantly light up. It’s pure, innocent joy. “Did you say free ice cream? That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day!”

~Abbey Braden


First, seventh, & eighth photos, courtesy of Ice Cream Man
Third photo by Fen Branklin via Flickr
Fourth photo, courtesy of Bonnaroo
Fifth photo by Craigowaffles via Flickr
Sixth photo by Seeking Focus via Flickr
Tenth photo by teraleigh via Flickr
Eleventh photo by cutedar via Flickr

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Although the sunny sound of The Explorers Club seems to evoke spending lazy afternoons on the sandy beaches of Orange County, this septet was born and bred from the southern roots of Charleston, South Carolina. The group of well-mannered men who met in college— comprised of Jason, James, Dave, Neil, Stefan, Chris, and newest member Wally (the only anomaly from Florida)— play a blend of feel good, poppy tunes that recall the Beach Boys.

Hot off the release of their debut album, Freedom Wind (on indie-label Dead Oceans), coming just in time for the summer, psychoPEDIA joined singer and originator of the band, Jason, for a tour of the sights and sounds of the band’s hometown— one overflowing with rich southern heritage, including providing the backdrop for stories like Gone with the Wind and Porgy and Bess:

How did the sunny California sound evolve out of South Carolina?
When I was 10 years old, my mom bought me a Beach Boys 20 Greatest Hits cassette for my Walkman. Here in Charleston, we have beaches, and it’s always very hot. People attempt to surf, and we have a lot of really beautiful weather for that kind of activity. It’s not a hard thing to feel like that music is at home.

What’s the most charming quality about your hometown?
Charleston looks like an old European city, right on the water. Savannah [Georgia] is kind of like it, but it’s a rip-off. For modern art and culture, Charleston’s probably not on the cusp, but there’s some cutting-edge stuff going on here. There’s a history in Charleston— one of the first shots of the Revolutionary War was fired here. It’s not just a bunch of hillbillies and trucks!

Did you ever feel pressure to be well-behaved living in a city nicknamed the "Holy City"?
No, I work at a church. That’s the south for ya— the Bible Belt. We have churches everywhere. One reason they call it the “Holy City” is because there’s an ordinance that there are to be no buildings in Charleston higher than the highest church steeple. The original tenants of the city believed that God is bigger than any business.

Would you agree with an etiquette expert that cited Charleston as the "best-mannered" city in the US?
At restaurants, the waiters are always trying to impress you to get your tip. A lot of them get really personal. For a lot of the South, they want you to feel like you’re at home. Almost all of us [in the band] come from parents with really professional backgrounds— preachers, school administrators— so it’s kind of natural.

With such diversity in the population, what are some of the best cultural offerings?
We’ve got a festival going on right now called Piccolo Spilato— world-renowned, with people coming from all over the world to perform and get together. It has lots of opera, theater, live music, dance, and all kinds of art. There’s another one that’s more African, called the Moja Arts Festival.

What’s the most traditional local meal, and which places serve it best?
Shrimp and grits. And we have fried green tomatoes. There’s a place called Charleston’s Cafe, that’s actually catering my wedding coming up. They have really good breakfast. The best traditional place is Jestine's Kitchen— a really down-home, Southern place, and some of the best food you’ll ever have. If you want spend high dollar, there’s Slightly North of Broad (aka SNOB). My favorite local place that’s really good southern food is Cru Café— in an old house that’s been there 100 years or more. It’s a catering company that decided to open a restaurant around the food they were catering. You can sit either a couple of tables toward the back or watch the open kitchen and see how they’re cooking you’re food right in front of you. It’s a blend of newer cuisine with classic Southern stuff. It’s a little pricey, but man it’s good!

Which places transport you back in time for that true Southern experience?
You definitely have to go to Boone Hall Plantation. Downtown Charleston is a time warp– there’s still people taking horse-drawn carriages. Check out Charles Towne Landing, an early settlement of Charleston. You can take little boat tours around Fort Sumter, down to The Battery where they held off the British. It has these Tom Meadow trees everywhere, great colonial and Civil War-era buildings and houses. Even our visitor center is an old train station. Just take a trip out to Fort Sumter or walk around downtown, and you’ll feel the history.

Best places to score local crafts and antiques?
The Charleston City Market— an open-air market with lots of vendors with knicknacks all lined up.

Where does the band like to kick back and relax?
My favorite place for cheap food and good hanging out is this Mexican restaurant in Mount Pleasant called Uno Mas. If we go out to lunch on a Saturday after rehearsal, we go there. A lot of the guys in the band hang out at the Village Tavern where we’re playing our record release party. It’s small, but they have great bands come in all the time.

As a port town, what are the best waterfronts to spend an afternoon?
Waterfront Park is a little park they built right by the water, where you can walk all the way out on a long dock. It’s a great place to take a date. They have swings where you can sit and look out at the beginnings of the ocean. My favorite places to go and look at the ocean are Sullivan’s Island, and the Isle of Palms. Folly Beach is a touristy kind of place, but it’s so fun when there’s no one out there— just seeing the ocean in all its mighty power.

Any cozy inns you recommend to visitors?
There’s one downtown that’s supposed to be the nicest— Ansonborough Inn. If you’re going for more of a touristy flair, there’s a circular hotel, the Charleston-Riverview Holiday Inn that has a restaurant on top where you can look out over the whole city and see the boats in the harbor and the church steeples. I got eat brunch there sometimes after church.

What's the first thing you do when you get home after a tour around the country?
There’s a part of town called Shem creek that has a bunch of restaurants. I take my fiancé there, and we just go walk around. When you’re sitting on the dock, a lot of dolphins and porpoises will poke their heads through and play.

~Leann Peterson


Don't miss The Explorers Club when they hit New York, playing Bowery Ballroom June 7.

Go There:
Jestine's Kitchen, 251 Meeting Street, (843) 722-7224
Uno Mas, 880 Allbritton Blvd, (843) 856-4868


First photo, courtesy of The Explorers Club
Second photo via Panaramio.com
Third photo by oquendo via Flickr
Fourth photo by zoebug via Flickr
Fifth photo by ryanchristopher via Flickr
Sixth photo, courtesy of Cru Cafe
Seventh photo, via AllCharlestonTours.com
Eighth photo via jandb.net
Ninth photo by megnificence via Flickr
Tenth photo by cbrown117 via Flickr

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99 miles from London sits the history-ridden, tourst-laden Bath. Unrivaled in its beauty, the city is home to a Royal Theatre, centuries-old Roman Baths, and The Heavy. Having released their debut LP, Great Vengeance and Furious Fire, back in March, the funk and soul-infused punk rock act has since made a splash in the music industry thanks to a recent North American tour and support from Playboy.

In addition to designing a T-shirt for Playboy’s Rock the Rabbit series, which will be on sale at Colette come June (proceeds benefit Rock the Vote), the mag played host to a few of the band’s stateside shows.

psychoPEDIA spoke with guitarist Dan T. following The Heavy’s return to their hometown. We talked Sally Lunn buns, how to spot a Chav, and Bath’s best-kept secret:

What did you think of the States?
It was absolutely everything I expected and more. In a way it was really hard because it’s such a big place. Nobody told us how big it was. It was really good fun - the hardest thing we’ve done so far as a band purely in terms of crossing that much distance.

What’s Bath like?
A massive museum safari park. It’s a very old town– beautiful place, a Roman city. But there are lots of tourists here. Every summer, that’s the problem, because it’s purely focused on tourists. There’s not a lot career-wise or opportunity-wise, but it’s a beautiful place to die.

How is it to be a musician there?
We probably spend too much time in our bedrooms, because there’s nothing else to do. It’s actually great for us. Because there isn’t a lot to do, you can focus on what you do do. You may get to a certain age and want to move away from London, but being from a place like this allows you to focus on something. We focus on our music. You can move to any big city and get caught up in those things and get a little lost. It’s easy to be who you are in a place like this.

What's better, the Great Bath at the Roman Baths or Thermae Bath Spa?
Well, [Thermae] is a new spa thing that I’ve not visited but I’ve heard it’s very good. I’ve been to the Roman Baths and checked those out. It’s worth visiting. If you come here, you have to go to both, but maybe not in the same day. You’d get a little bathed out and start to wrinkle surely after a while.

Is Bath a big college town?
There’s a university right on the outskirts of Bath-- a lot of students stick to the campus there. It is a great place to come and study; it’s one of the most beautiful places in this part of England. And there’s definitely a slower pace-- that’s generally a Southwest thing. Southwest England is an easier place.

Are the locals pretty laid-back?
No, you’ve got a real mix of complete idiots… it’s a weird place. You’ve got the original Chavs-- the real idiots. There’s a lot of trouble here. A lot of hooliganism, and I’m not referring to football necessarily. But there’s a real drinking culture. There are a lot of old people. If you ever come, check out Oldfield Park. It’s like the Brooklyn of Bath. If you ever see it, you’ll laugh. It’s the combination of the elderly and the young. It’s a huge housing estate with simple red brick cottages.

What’s a Chav typically look like?
Check for the sportswear, and I’ll say no more.

Where do you go drinking in Bath?
Anywhere that’s pretty quiet. It’s nice to chill out a bit when you come back home. I feel like I spend a lot of my time in really loud, hectic environments. There’s a place called The Porter. It’s an English pub in the center of Bath, opposite a studio that we use. There’s a pub that we go to in Midford called The Hope and Anchor. It’s outside of Bath. Things are really expensive in Bath.

What about food?
There’s a chain all across England of noodle bars called Wagamama. It’s noodles and rice, a kind of Thai or Vietnamese; it’s just done really well.

What’s the most picturesque place in Bath?
There’s amazing architecture and astounding streets. The Circus is an incredible circular building. There are the most beautiful townhouses. Nicholas Cage bought a place on The Circus. There’s the Landsdown Crescent and Royal Crescent as well, which overlooks Royal Victoria Park and has stunning views. Nearby there’s also Glastonbury. One of the things I wanted to do when I got back was to get out to the countryside. Glastonbury is pretty incredible. It’s not just a [music] festival.

Have you been to the Theatre Royal?
My girlfriend worked there on the costumes for a bit. They say it’s haunted. There’s quite an angry ghost down there. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been there, but it’s probably worth a visit.

Are Sally Lunn’s buns really that good?
[Laughs] I worked there! Where did you get that? That was one of my first jobs. They serve these buns that are like a brioche. It’s pretty good. That’s one of the really touristy things to do. I ate my fair share. Eating it with jam and cream is just ridiculous. The Welsh rarebit, which is like a really beautiful cheese… you’ve got to eat one of those.

What is Bath's best-kept secret?
Blimey... The Heavy, probably.

~Alisa Gould-Simon


Go There:
The Porter, 2 Miless Buildings, +44 1225 424104
The Hope and Anchor, 38 Jacobs Wells Rd, +44 117 929 2987
Oldfields Hotel
Lansdown Grove Hotel


First & third photos courtesy of The Heavy
Second photo by canongirl1 via Flickr
Fourth photo by John~C via Flickr
Fifth photo by bekra via Flickr
Sixth photo by mjclarkesfvia Flickr
Eighth photo by Phil Romans via Flickr
Ninth photo by Sacred Destinations via Flickr

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The Midwestern metropolis of Detroit not only birthed Motown and Ford Motors; it has helped launch the careers of everyone from MC5, Marvin Gaye, Iggy and the Stooges, and Eminem to the The White Stripes. Music quite literally is in Motor City’s blood. And, while the city has suffered tremendously as a result of its automotive factories folding and widespread drug-related crimes, young creatives breathe new life into Michigan’s capital.

The Silent Years, a melodic indie rock quintet whose upcoming The Globe hits stores in August, is one such example. Considering the seasoned band has drawn comparisons to the likes of Elliott Smith and the Flaming Lips, and whose forthcoming LP boasts producer Chris Coady (of TV on the Radio and Blonde Redhead fame), these Detroit natives appear poised for big things. psychoPEDIA caught up with The Silent Years’ frontman Josh Epstein before the band’s NYC show tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg to talk soul food, haunted bookstores, and the Detroit scene:

Rumor has it you met bassist Pat Edwards at a Colorado mime school?
[Laughs] That’s one of those legends we like to perpetuate, so I don’t know if I can confirm or deny that.

Do you still mime?
Yeah, actually I do.

Have you incorporated it into The Silent Years’ live show?
No, but the next thing we will be incorporating onstage is tap-dancing. You know, I saw Stomp thought, “Someone tapping at a rock show would be amazing.” So I’ve been taking lessons. It’s just going to be me. I’m the zaniest of the bunch.

Did you grow up in Detroit?
We were all born and raised in Detroit. It’s much easier to live here when you’re a musician. The first few years you’re in a band, you have no money. Here, it’s much easier to be on tour and be able to afford to keep your house. The cost of living is so much lower than other major cities.

Are there downsides to having a band in Detroit?
It’s more difficult in the sense that in NYC and LA, you can go out to shows every night. There are way more bands, and more bands that you can hang out with. But, in Detroit, we lack a really strong music scene-– it’s very small and a lot of bands don’t tour through here, so it takes a long time to really build up a Detroit fan base.

Is Detroit’s musical legacy a lot to live up to?
I love the fact that Motown started here and MC5 and garage rock, but we’re not really a part of that. In a way, I feel like it’s a blessing that we’ve been able to develop our own thing. In Detroit there aren’t really trends, like, “This band is going to be big for 2 years, then this band is going to be big for 2 years.” People like what they like, and they go see them. We’ve never had to feel like we’re a part of a scene. It took us a long time to get people to pay attention to us here, but it’s been worth it.

How would you describe the local population as a whole?
The people in Detroit are the nicest people in the world. There are a lot of drugs, so there’s a lot of crime – someone breaking into your car or stealing your iPod and selling it for crack. But it’s not violent crime. There are a select few that are actually doing that, but a few bad apples have definitely spoiled the whole bunch. Detroit is at the heart of the recession in the U.S. because of its automotive industry. A lot of people have lost their jobs. There are definitely a lot of people here doing cool things, but whether we’re organized or not, I don’t think so. There’s a disconnect because everyone is so spread out.

What are some of the most culturally interesting areas right now?
Right around Wayne State there are some record shops and coffee shops. There’s also a town called Ferndale just north of Detroit with a very active scene. It used to be the gay part of town. I think it still is. But those areas of every town tend to be the most progressive.

Say you were taking Bishop Allen and The War on Drugs, who you’ll be playing with tonight, out for a nice meal and a night on the town. Where would you go?
Slows, without a question. It’s this BBQ place in Corktown, where the old Tiger Stadium is. Everyone should go there. It’s so good. I tend to get the BBQ brisket and macaroni and cheese, but they’re pretty famous for their ribs. Afterwards, I would say the Magic Stick. It’s this venue that’s always packed. Heading up to Ferndale, there are a lot of fun bars. The one where we hang out the most is called The Emory. On any given night you’ll find someone from the band there, because everyone lives right by it.

Do you frequent any other music venues?
There’s a new one that opened up called The Crofoot that has three different stages. It’s in a suburb called Pontiac. The Silent Years’ favorite place to play is St. Andrews Hall. Essentially, it’s like the Bowery Ballroom, except no tables on the balcony. It’s a really fun place to play.

Where do you go for stellar soul food?
There’s a place called the Turkey Grill and it’s all turkey stuff-- it’s crazy. There’s also a lot of places called Fresh Fish House a.k.a "You Buy It, We Fry It." You can actually use food stamps there – you can’t buy cooked food with food stamps, but you can buy raw food with them. If you can stand eating fish from a place like that it’s really good.

Do you have any daytime haunts?
There’s a bookstore in downtown Detroit called John KK. Some people say the building is haunted, which I would believe. They have these old, rare, crazy books; you can find anything. And there are a lot of coffee places. The one that everyone I know hangs out at is called Café De Marquis in a suburb called Royal Oak. Ferndale, Royal Oak, all the suburbs are really close. It’s this European place with really good coffee that’s always playing techno music, but you can sit outside and ignore the techno.

Where’s a good place for a first-time visitor to sleep?
On my floor.

And if your floor is taken?
In my bed.

~Alisa Gould-Simon

Go There:
Turkey Grill, 8290 Woodward Ave. (313) 872-4624
The Emory, 22700 Woodward Ave. (248) 546-8202

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Yvan Rodic has all the attributes of a budding documentarian. He knows exactly the right places and times to find potential subjects. And the reality he creates never fails to dazzle his dedicated followers. Coming from the beautiful town of Vevey, Switzerland, Ivan has followed in the footsteps of another famous former Vevey resident, Switzerland’s first astronaut Claude Nicollier – except the stars Ivan searches to document walk among us.

As “The Facehunter,” for the past few years, he has been snapping the world’s most beautiful, striking, stylistically appetizing young people and displaying them on his blog. Unsurprisingly, his camera’s prolific output has garnered him an obsessive following, so Yvan is wisely expanding his glamorous photography to the moving image: On May 28th, he brings us ‘The Facehunter Show’ to be aired on MySpaceTV. psychoPEDIA hunted Yvan down on the streets of East London and spoke to him about his worldwide style expeditions and favorite places to relax while not picking off his inspirationally confident young prey:

Having not been educated formally as a photographer, was there any particular documentarian or photographer you looked to for inspiration when you begun as the Facehunter?
Not directly, but I am influenced by a lot by Rineke Dijkstra. I like her style because her portraits are somewhere between the spontaneous snapshot and forced poses. She captures her subject’s expression very simply.

How do you keep ahead of your run-of-the-mill fashion/style bloggers?
I take pictures of interesting people who happen to express who they are through their clothes, but I don’t take pictures of just clothes. I try to create or set up a situation where the person is the star and the clothes are not. It’s about the charisma and character of the person– there lies the style. I could see someone in all designer clothes but they don’t look great. The person is the key, not just the pair of shoes.

If you take someone’s picture because of the character he or she displays, aren’t there times where you think, “I wish I had gotten to know that person more?”
Of course it happens, but every interaction has a different story. I don’t have time to get emotionally involved with every person I photograph. It would be silly. I get to know some people and keep in touch and see them again. There are people who have become my friends after I have photographed them. There is complete fusion between my social life and professional life, but I find it more interesting not to share the individual stories. It’s more radical to have the photographs without words.

Does your TV show fit in with this idea then?
Somehow that will bring a more three-dimensional image of my trips. The most interesting thing is not just the photo, but also the process behind it. Each city I go to, there are all kinds of interactions and meetings. And it will be about that, not just fashion people but also all kinds of people.

What’s your favorite city to find your stars in?
The most exciting is Reykjavik, Iceland. I live in London, and I like it a lot– it has very specific crowd who’s very cool, and then average people who are not so much. But there is almost no mainstream average in Reykjavik. Even a banker will have his own style and clothes. It’s like everyone is a bit creative, and there’s a wildness. It’s surreal because it’s near the Arctic Circle and middle of nowhere. It’s a small city that produces something very strong. I am always excited before I go there.

Is it the best place for parties as well?
No, that would be Moscow. There’s this place called Krysha– it’s on a rooftop. It’s like a billionaire’s underground party. Moscow is the only place I know where there’s an intersection of rich super cool people and underground fashion people, where everyone has good taste.

Where do you always go back to, to eat, hang out and shop?
Moscow, again, at the Denis Simachev Bar–- it’s a bar, a store and a club in one. It’s fantastic. Specifically, for shopping there’s a place in Stockholm, Sweden I like called Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair. It’s not just shoes but a clothing brand. It’s black, minimalist, but quite experimental– very conceptual, and very Swedish.

And to relax?
My best memory was in Reykjavik, going to this public pool in the middle of the morning after a party, where it’s still dark because of their sunlight hours. It has different pools and hot tubs. It’s a traditional place for old men to go and discuss issues and chat like a coffee house, but has something very cozy, healthy and relaxing about it.

Your pictures remind me of a bird spotter’s guide. Do you have any specific rules on how your pictures should be shot, or who you photograph on a particular day?
It’s not that organized. I don’t classify people. It’s a subjective selection. I transform the reality. If I go to the city, I will take a picture of ten people who are amazing. But the large percentage don’t look anything like these people. It’s the same for parties, I have been to some bad parties, taken pictures of four amazing people and then, everyone thinks the party was amazing! It’s deforming reality. I don’t have the potential to document real life-- I just want to share what is more inspiring. It’s the same when I find someone and I don’t just take their picture in that spot, but transport them somewhere to a different setting. I like to be on the edge of fiction and reality.

~Kevin Soar


First photo by Kevin Soar
Third, fourth, & fifth photos by Yvan Rodic
Seventh photo by uknyv via Flickr

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Göteborg, an idyllic port town on the west coast of Sweden, is the second biggest city in the country. At Göteborg's heart is the Gota River, which runs alongside the city's famous opera house and several museums. The current that flows through the city consists of a diverse musical legacy whose influence reaches around the world. The town is home to both death-metal band In Flames and avant-garde electro duo The Knife, and of course, the not-to-be-forgotten '90s pop group Ace of Base. With such a vast Göteborg spectrum of sound, there must be something in the water.

Göteborg is now pulsing loud and clear on the radar thanks to a new crop of talent. The locally-based label/conceptual art project, Sincerely Yours, has launched indulgent Swede-pop acts the The Tough Alliance and Jonas Game into the international stratosphere. And thanks in part to producer Johan Agebjörn and Sally Shapiro, the city recently witnessed the renaissance of Italo Disco. But perhaps the greatest crossover success, belongs to the tender acoustic folk embodied by José Gonzáles, Jens Lekman, and El Perro del Mar.

psychoPEDIA joined Sarah Assbring, of El Perro del Mar, on the eve of her US album release From the Valley to the Stars, to learn more about her hometown:

What is the correct spelling and pronunciation of the town?
Göteborg is the Swedish name and Gothenburg is the English, or international name. A good way to pronounce it the Swedish way would be to use the German author Goethe as guideline but with a j-sound instead of German “g.” And then pronounce borg as you would pronounce Björn Borg, with a “j” on the end and not a German “g.” So kind of like this: Joethe-borj.

While on the subject of names, would you please explain the story behind your project's name?
The story goes like this: just before I started making music on my own, I was in a time of personal crisis and trying to get to grip on myself. I eloped to a Spanish island, where I happened to meet this stray dog. The meeting and the impact of it became the expression “El Perro del Mar”– the dog from the sea– and I¹ve kept it close to my heart ever since, just like I do with my music.

What inspires you about the city’s surroundings?
Göteborg is known for its extreme climate–- wind, rain and fog–- and you tend to wish or dream for something else all the time. So maybe it’s the fantasy for something different than Göteborg that inspires me. A wish to leave or to be somewhere else can be just as strong or even stronger.

What is your favorite venue to play or see a show?
The Concert Hall is the most beautiful venue for sure, especially if you’re into classic or symphonic music.

What are your favorite stores to buy music?
Various second-hand stores such as the old jazz shop, Pennies from Heaven.

Are there any up-and-coming local bands you are excited about now?
There’s this band called Wildbirds and Peacedrums that are totally amazing. It’s a duo– a couple actually– and they’re mindblowing.

What is your favorite restaurant, especially if someone else is paying the bill?
I’m a vegan and it’s kind of difficult to find good vegan places in Göteborg, unfortunately. But there is one which is splendid. It's housed inside an old movie theater called Hagabion and it’s a must if you're into well-cooked vegan food. I'd definitely go there regardless of who's paying.

Favorite museum?
The Göteborg Museum of Art is a typical institute of good classic Nordic art, and it’s a beautiful building with great atmosphere, too.

Being a touring musician, you must have friends all over the world. Where do you take them for the real Göteborg experience when they visit?
I’d take them on a boat trip to see the pretty archipelago just outside the city.

What do you miss most when you are on the road?
My loved ones and my studio.

What is the first thing you do when you arrive home from touring?
Sleep a lot, and spend the afternoons in my kitchen drinking coffee and staring out the window.

What's a Göteborg secret that out-of-towners wouldn't know?
The typical Göteborg person is known to be loud and a bit brute and often, this is mistaken for some kind of rudeness. But they’re actually nice, shy people.

And what should you never do while in Göteborg?
Go to Backaplan, Hisingen. It’s probably one of the world's ugliest shopping areas–- it’s like a giant ugly parking lot.

~Abbey Braden

Catch El Perro Del Mar on tour this summer with fellow Swede, Lykke Li.


First photo, courtesy of El Perro Del Mar
Second photo by Lydia Lou via Flickr
Third photo by radiohuvud via Flickr
Fifth photo via Virtual Tourist
Fourth photo, courtesy of Goteborg Museum of Art
Sixth photo, courtesy of Hagabion
Seventh photo via matnils.blogspot.com
Eighth photo by peterlong via Flickr

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What happens when a trio of boys decide to transport themselves from squeaky Ann Arbor, Michigan to the rough-and-tumble streets of Brooklyn with intentions to just “play music, skateboard, party, and have fun,” is nothing short of awesome. Awesome Color, that is–- the psychedelic garage rock band they subsequently formed. Made up of neon-T-shirt-loving Derek Stanton, Michael Troutman, and Allison Busch, the now Bushwick-based band has toured with the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth, whose legendary member Thurston Moore even produced their upcoming second full-length release Electric Aborigines on his indie label Ecstatic Peace.

psychoPEDIA caught up with a slightly hungover Awesome Derek one weekend, hot on the trail of their new release, to find out more about how the boys play and pass the time in their hometown of Bushwick:

What's the most awesome thing about your 'hood?
I like to see a little chubby fat kid with his shirt off, hanging in front of a fire hydrant, getting totally sprayed.

Least awesome thing?
I think it’s too expensive, but it’s cheaper than Williamsburg. That’s why people live here. But you see a lot of fights, and the kids are out of control. There’s a lack of respect for life–- litter on the streets, people don’t clean up after their dogs. But I think the buildings are beautiful. You get on a roof, and it makes you feel like you’re in Babylon.

What’s the biggest difference between Michigan and Bushwick?
People speak Spanish in Bushwick–- in the stores, wherever you go. And where I’m from, they speak English. So you think, “I wish I spoke Spanish, that’d be cool.” It’s just really different. And of course, the dirt, graffiti, trash, dog shit.

With such a high concentration of immigrant communities, particularly Puerto Ricans, there must be good ethnic food?
It’s an international feeling, like being deep inside the melting pot. The restaurants are actually pretty bad, though. There’s a good Spanish restaurant on DeKalb and Wyckoff. I go to this place called Bill’s, half Spanish and half American food—they make a good egg and cheese sandwich.

There are so many bands are coming out of Brooklyn these days, but who are the all-stars from Bushwick particularly?
NYSE Hits and the Tall Firs, who bought a house really close to me. Usaisamonster is another one that kicks ass. I think it’s safe to assume most bands live in Bushwick, or Greenpoint, and Williamsburg, depending on how successful they are. That’s how I ended up there. You can easily get a place to practice. There are fewer bitchy, rich white neighbors. You can rent a place and get away with stuff.

Is there a Bushwick-Williamsburg rivalry?
It’s just white kids complaining about shit. A lot of people can’t afford to live in Williamsburg, so they move out to Bushwick. But I bet there’s some hipster kickball team from Bushwick that battles some hipster kickball team from Williamsburg.

Is there anything inspiring about making music where you are than any other part of the city?
I think it’s that the surroundings are a little bit dark and dim. There’s not much you want do outdoors. Once you get out, it’s all concrete. In the summer, it’s all sweating. Not to mention getting harassed. I can’t even say how many times I’ve been hit by eggs. So, you stay inside and focus on music. You’re pretty far away from everything, so it makes you turn inside and get into the practice space. If I lived in California on a nice ranch, I would probably not be making as much music. But it makes you feel like you’re on a mission. You’re living in this shithole for a reason.

What's the best place to kill some time?
There are a lot of good thrift stores that I like to go to, like Office Ops on Knickerbocker Avenue. There’s a really good one on Wyckoff and Myrtle. On the border of Bushwick, the Ridgewood Theater [recently closed] had cheap movies that I went to— it was one of the oldest in the country. Where we usually hang out is on the roof—it’s the Bushwick type of thing to do. In the summer, instead of just wandering around the street because there aren’t many parks—it’s a concrete jungle.

Where can you find Awesome Color hanging out on a Friday night?
Everybody goes to Williamsburg and the city. But if you’re going go out and see a show, there’s Market Hotel and Raven's Den/Silent Barn, which are both rad venues, and some of the best in NYC. They’re not run by assholes, and there’s a little more freedom. You can get away with a lot more in total underground venues. They have regular half-shells. It’s just much more conducive to creativity than some square venue where you have to buy two drinks with a 10 dollar cover. Silent Barn— no rules.

Are there spots to avoid?
It’s generally safe, but you’re just subject to being harassed. For most people, Bushwick would seem super un-safe, and statistically it is too. But you don’t really see what’s going on. And there’s a lot more people getting mugged in Williamsburg, because people have more money there. But avoid walking around at 3 in the morning drunk off your ass, or falling asleep on the train.

~Leann Peterson


Don't miss Awesome Color on May 2 for a CD release show at Glasslands, and May 3 at Market Hotel.
Electric Aborigines releases stateside on April 28.

First photo by Chad Karty
Second photo by mercurialn via Flickr
Third photo by Sagrado Corazon via Flickr
Fourth photo by nikki nicole via Flickr
Fifth photo by Bob Battams
Seventh photo by trisho via Flickr
Eighth photo courtesy of Market Hotel
Ninth photo via NorthJersey.com

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International pop-culture junkies are probably well-aware of the post-Franco cultural movement that swept through Madrid in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. La Movida represented an unusual period of cultural, social, and artistic freedom and experimentation in the city--a time that, for many of its current inhabitants, has long been forgotten.

Not so for promoters, DJs, and general creative collaborators–- Luli Perez, Patricia Matres and Ella Carrero. These three young, culturally-aware women came together to form The Junkettes-– a collective specifically designed to shake up the social shackles of Madrid. With a manifesto that begs for change and calls for “artists, obsessive minds, freaks, and up-all-night believers,” they scoured the globe in search of like-minded fellows and introduced Madrid to such acts as The Horrors and These New Puritans.

Having now relocated to London, their passionate the search lives on while DJing and putting on their own parties, whereby the beautiful trio tend to leave a gaggling posse of broken-hearted artists and musicians in their wake. psychoPEDIA met up with the girls in their Whitechapel abode to discuss the trouble with their city’s creative culture, and their favorite shops, eateries, museums, and hangouts:

Where did you put on your events in Madrid?
LP: We put them on as part of two nights, called “Astoria” and “Nasti Club” that both went on at Nasti. Its pink inside, but it’s a real rough venue– low ceilings, hot, sweating walls. It smells. It’s smoky, and you have to go outside to breathe. The good thing about the clubs, though, is they haven’t all been made over. It’s a very raucous environment.

Where else would you go to see bands?
LP: There isn’t such a culture for watching live music. You go out to dance and get drunk.

Did you succeed in changing this attitude with your events?
LP: I think we changed it a bit, in that people go out more to see small, independent bands, not just big name shows. MySpace helped too, but we definitely contributed.

How far has Madrid gone towards keeping the spirit of La Movida alive?
LP: The collective vision is that things are a bit weird at the moment. It’s not a good thing to be an artist in Madrid. You will be starving, not get a job. It’s not accepted by society, so it’s hard to get people together to do stuff on a creative level.

You want to revive the creative spirit of the city?
LP: Exactly. We wanted to rise up Madrid and make it fun as the capital of a country. Why can’t it be like Berlin or London, where there are a lot of young people doing really cool things? Just because the city has a real retro vision of how arts and music should be. They take their hats off to the foreign artists, but not for their own.

There must be something that inspires you in the city.
LP: There is a place called the Art Triangle that has the Prado Museum in its neo-classical building: the Reina Sofia for contemporary arts, and the Thyssen that is a private collection of art from the 10th century to now. The Triangle has you covered for an “art day,” and there are a lot of galleries around it too, if you still have strength.
PM: They just opened the Fundacion Caja in front of the Prado that has lots of free exhibitions and an amazing “standing garden.”
LP: La Casa Encendida is also a great place for young artists who submit their work and hold their own exhibitions. There are lots of great screenings on the terrace.

On the finest day in the city when the sun is out, what do you do?
PM: There’s a good culture of sitting outside, having tapas, drinking beer, and talk, talk, and talk, and drink, drink, and drink, everywhere in the city. It’s tradition.
LP: Pizzeria Maravillas, is good–- the best pizza in Malasana. Malasana is also great for going to coffee shops. You get there, you have an ice cream, you have a walk, go to the shops.

Your favorite shops there?
PM: Restaurarte is the best. It’s a huge junk shop where they sell everything. Old women go there and sell the owner things. But he told me most of the things he finds in trash cans– things people throw out. He finds really cool silverware, postcards, and pictures. What he normally does, though, is when people die, he’ll go and collect the things from the houses.

Is bringing acts over to perform at your nights an effort to jolt people into thinking they can do it too–- bringing back the DIY attitude in Madrid?
LP: We wanted to encourage those from the inside of our city. There are a couple of Madrid bands that we started working with and are now doing very well. It’s not something that happens in Madrid often. Music labels there are horrible and hard to break into.
PM: The thing about Madrid is that what everyone else gets, we get 5 years later. They are in a weird time capsule that gets inspired by London, especially. A lot of the Madrid bands get into what’s going on in New York and London, but it takes them too long to get their act together, and then its over. There are a lot of “The Strokes” and “Arctic Monkeys” bands around. It’s the same with fashion, as well–- 5 years retarded.
LP: People are tentative about wanting to be in the future, the avant-garde.

La Movida had amazing bands and amazing artists. What happened to them?
PM: They eventually died out. But some do come back and have gigs that sell out, so there is still a love for that culture. Madrid is still a very conservative city living in the shadow of Franco. People are still scared to come out of their TV screen or their gossip magazine.

You don’t want to give up on your manifesto though, surely?
PM: We do what we do. It’s good we are opening doors for recognition of people, and we're really proud of that. We gave the initiative start to this movement, and people will feed off us. That’s human nature. As long as they are advancing, we've created that start-off–- that kick to get out of the commercial world.

~Kevin Soar

Go There:
Pizzeria Maravillas, Plaza del 2 de Mayo 9, Madrid.
Restaurarte, San Vincente Ferrer 27, Madrid. +34 915 327 209


First & fourth photos, courtesy of The Junkettes
Second photo via Kompas
Third photo, courtesy of Nasti Club
Fifth photo by pe-ri-pa-tet-ik via Flickr
Sixth photo by thebluemoment via Flickr
Seventh photo by thebluemoment via Flickr
Eighth photo via Marvelous Architectures
Ninth photo via Inthesity
Tenth photo by pacamanca via Flickr
Eleventh photo by menemadrid via Flickr

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Michael Rovner, one of the founding members and publisher of Globorati.com, has been dispensing “jet set intelligence” to travelers looking for the utmost in luxury on the website since it first launched a year and a half ago. Designed by a team of travel experts-- some former (and current) editors at Conde Nast Traveler-- Globorati is a one-stop shop for luxury travel news, taking the hassle out of high-end. The recently re-launched site now makes it even easier for vacation-hunters to plan and book their upscale escapes. As Rovner explains, “We’re putting the same amount of rigor into this that goes into a magazine. We do breaking news, big panoramic photos, and easy bookings for Expedia. It’s now a full-service site with great contributors from around the world, letting us know things you can do today and that couldn’t do yesterday.”

With that much insight into the best offerings worldwide, who better to give the in’s and out’s of his own hometown of Philadelphia than the reluctantly nicknamed jet-setter himself. psychoPEDIA chatted with Rovner to find out more about the city known best for being home to the Liberty Bell, Fresh Prince, and famous heart-stopping cheesesteaks:

What is Philly known for, according to the locals?
I recently got into a fight with someone from Baltimore who said it’s "Murder City," because I’m certain Philly is. It’s been referred to a lot lately as "Killadelphia.” If you get killed there, you don’t even make the news.

Having grown up in Philly, what’s your take on the atmosphere?
Philly is a great food city and it’s a pretty easy place to get around. It also feels very non-cosmopolitan. You know you’re not in New York, because there’s a real sense of regionality. But I’ve heard a lot of people, because of the Pennsylvania elections coming up, talking about how close to the surface race is. It seems like it’s a subtext in most conversations.

Your work deals primarily with luxury, so what would you consider the utmost in luxury in Philly?
One of the best meals I’ve ever had was on Walnut Street at Le Bec-Fin. It’s long been Philly’s best French restaurant. You need to give yourself four hours to get through it– it’s course after course after course. I would highly recommend that, even if you can just go in for desert.

The city holds many of America's most historically important landmarks. What are some that you frequent regularly?
Having grown up there, it seemed everywhere you went on a field trip at school, George Washington had spent the night. But there are great places, if you can get a bit into Bucks County, like the Franklin Mint. And the Curtis Institute, a music school in Rittenhouse Square, is a place I go to just look around. It’s very inviting.

What are your favorite museums or galleries?
I’m a big fan of the Please Touch, because they want you to touch stuff– it’s for kids. And then there’s the Franklin Institute, which is fantastic. There’s a neighborhood called Fishtown that’s sort of the new Old City. It has a lot of galleries, furniture stores, and little bohemian restaurants. It was very working class-industrial and now has become more artistic and gentrified area.

The most relaxing place?
It’s great to walk down near the Delaware River— there’s tall ships, Old City, Society Hill– a lot of cobbled streets right off Washington Square. There’s a great coffee shop there called The Pink Rose. It’s very mom and pop, almost like Magnolia Bakery, but Philly’s version. That’s a good place to kill a Saturday morning.

Best spot for catching some entertainment?
I’m an arts-house movie guy, so The Ritz—where I saw Cinema Paradiso. What’s so wonderful about that place is, since Philly wasn’t New York, it didn’t have a ton of options for that kind of entertainment when I was in college. It became a real magnet hub for people were enthused about it being there.

Philly is famous for its cheese-steak sandwiches. Where's the best place to get one?
There’s Pat's and then there’s Geno's. They’re across the street from each other and have been there for about a hundred years. It’s a real source of contention. People are pretty die-hard about it. But I’m a Pat’s guy. It’s not something majorly off-the-radar, but for your money, it’s the best option.

Other places to get great cuisine?
I always go to Bookbinders for hard-shell crabs. There’s also an Italian restaurant in South Philly called Ralph's where a lot of regulars who just run a monthly tab, that I try to drop in on. And my favorite vegetarian is Govinda's. They do tofu like no one else. I tried to create it myself, and it’s just never worked out.

Favorite bar?
There’s a really fun place called The Continental on Market Street. It’s owned by the same guy who owns Morimoto— Stephen Star. Terrific cocktails and really fun crowd. I recently took my grandma there and got her drunk in the afternoon.

Most unique places to go shopping?
There are great boutiques up and down Walnut Street. The army-navy store called I. Goldberg is amazing because they have really interesting stuff you can’t find anywhere else– cool T-shirts and jackets. And there’s a couple fantastic used bookstores, like the Book Trader on South Street and another one on Market Street that has Vanity Fairs from the 1920s. It’s been there forever.

Other places not to be missed?
A lot of Philadelphia is fantastic corner bars and little places to stumble upon. Center City isn’t the most interesting part, so if you go to somewhere like South Philly or Fishtown, it’s a fantastic mix of old and new, with old-man bars right next to great new furniture shops.


Go There:
The Pink Rose Pastry Shop, 630 S 4th Street. (215) 592-0565
The Book Trader, 7 N 2nd Street. (215) 925-0511


First photo, courtesy of Globerati.com
Third photo by henk via Flickr
Fourth photo by sccfernandez via Flickr
Sixth photo, courtesy of Please Touch Museum
Eighth & ninth photos by c diddy via Flickr
Tenth photo by F.X. Enderby via Flickr

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What happens when a proper Englishman like seasoned musician Barry Adamson finds himself jumping back and forth across the pond? He inevitably falls in love with New York City-- and the love affair lasts for decades.

psychoPEDIA had the chance to meet with Adamson during his most recent visit, and what’s most apparent is that New York City was, and is still is, an inspiration and muse to producing new music.

“I’ve been coming to New York for 30 years. I was 18 the first time I came and it was the greatest thing ever!” says Adamson. Since the late ‘70s, he’s seen and done it all; from gritty rock bands to elegant compositions for movie soundtracks, Adamson’s scope is vast and deep. His start began with such acts as Magazine and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, with the former being a direct conduit: “I was in a band at the time, we came and played at Danceteria. It was amazing; the whole thing of getting on a plane and going. It really seemed like a big foreign place. At the time it was coming off the back end of '70s New York. It was really scary, hardcore and tough, with loads of crime.” He adds, “Andy Warhol came to Danceteria and saw us play too! I just about died and went to heaven.”

Brilliant minds blossom in New York City, and Adamson had the chance to meet some of the most interesting and perform with some the most talented, including, Talking Heads, Blondie, and Television. There were many a night where their shows segued into legendary parties where the guest-list read like a who’s-who. Of one particular evening, Adamson recalls, “One of the greatest moments in my life [was] when I was taking a piss and looking down and seeing a pair of Converse shoes. I looked at the Converse, then looked at the legs, then looked at the face, and it turned out to be Joey Ramone. He looked at me and said, ‘How you doin’ kid?’ and I said, ‘Great!’ with a big smile on my face, and then I just went back to taking a piss! It was really sweet and just surreal.”

Through his years, relationships with legendary filmmaker, David Lynch, led to Adamson’s contribution to scoring the soundtrack to Lynch’s Lost Highway and a handful of additional film and television credits. Of late, Adamson’s been locked away in yet another studio. But this time his focus is on his own solo efforts, with the release of Back to the Cat, a ten-track LP out on his own label, Central Control.

In his 30 years of travel, Adamson has seen plenty of changes in his home-away-from-home: “Every three to five years, everything changes! Still today, I was noticing it. It’s really weird that the Twin Towers are gone. It’s still such a shock. I remember the first time coming, a year after they went down, and flying in and being blown away. The scale of it was immense.” And he's tested out the city's hotel world: from his days of crashing at the Iroquois-- “a rock ‘n roll type hotel, [where] you’d see Iggy Pop at the bar and other rock notables wandering around,” to the Paramount, another favorite spot where he stays on his current visit to his beloved city.

Adamson never ceases to be inspired by Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where he remembers getting his hands on some stylish threads: “There is something about the tradition, like in rock and jazz, and you can get great suits. I think New Yorkers have this edge, where they say, ‘This is who I am, this is how I’m going to present myself, and even if I have no money, I’m going to put this together, and you’re going to notice me! That’s been a real influence on my life. New York is a particular thing and you have to stand out and find something that makes you special. The New York style is and always was amazing.” And as for his preferred band: “I do really like Secret Machines. I always love to throw on their album Now Here is Nowhere” Clearly, New York City has and always will be Adamson's loyal mistress.

~Jessica McMenamin

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Miami Beach is notorious for drawing in droves of sun-starved, horny spring breakers this time of year. But with an already magnetic pull to its sandy beaches and bikini-clad blondes, Miami makes the perfect site to host the yearly Winter Music Conference— where DJs, industry bigwigs, and dedicated electronic music fans from around the world flock to sweat through a week-long dance fest. Hailed as one of the most important music events of the year, the conference packs a tight schedule of countless industry parties and over 300 acts that range from staples like Sascha & Digweed or Tiesto, to more relative newcomers like Shy Child and Calvin Harris.

With such an overwhelming event to navigate, psychoPEDIA enlisted the help of an expert to show the ropes: Adrian Michna, more popularly known as DJ Egg Foo Young, of Turntable Lab (ultimate DJ supply store turned renowned DJ collective) is a true veteran of the WMC mayhem, both as a former resident of Miami and now in his twelfth year at the conference. Explaining just how to party, stay cool, and not go broke is Egg Foo himself:

Has the conference changed much since the first time you went?
In ‘97 it was absolutely nothing— it felt like it was 4 to 6 venues. The two acts I really remember were Rabbit in the Moon, a Florida collective, and then Goldie (from Metalheadz) that really stood out. Every year [after that] it got bigger and bigger, until around '03. At that point, it’s kind of stayed as huge as it is. Since then, you can see certain labels have the same line-up, same venues. Things got pretty established.

Is the vibe different at WMC as opposed to other music conferences?
Miami is a party city. Mainly because you have tons of New Yorkers and people from the UK and Europe coming— just the fact that most are coming from snow and cold— you come here and it’s like, “Damn!” even if the music is whatever. And since DJs are mostly guys, you’re just staring at girls. It’s definitely fun because everyone’s open to mingling and stuff. You just have to watch out for meatheads and spring breakers.

So the conference gets infiltrated with MTV-style “spring breakers"?
Yeah, it’s a little frustrating, but what can you do? You get the meathead factor. The funniest thing is that one year, it must’ve been some major university’s spring break, and then there was this big hip-hop festival, BET's Spring Bling. On top of jocks here to party, you had total hip-hop heads, and every hip-hop icon trying to do their party, too.

How do you avoid them?
South Beach is always going to be that random mix, but if you do a party downtown— like warehouse parties— the scene is all music people.

Who are some of the most highly-anticipated acts or parties this year?
Justice is doing something with ULTRA, but mostly the rest of the lineup is big household names like Carl Cox. WMC has accepted more European, electro-house stuff. I feel like there were better things in the past like The Orb and Kid Koala. Underworld is a crazy show. Other than that, it’s cool that you have people like Switch. Turntable Lab is still doing their small parties. None of the DJ’s are super-duper stars, but it’s like a network of East Coast and West Coast DJs.

Did anyone emerge out of nowhere and blow people away?
Justice were a really new act before ‘03— before that they never even made music. You had Scion do a party [where they DJ’ed], and now they’re probably the best example of coming from absolutely nothing to world-famous.

Is there a new style you see evolving out of this year’s conference?
“Niche”, or baseline music. It’s like house. Switch is one of the heads of that. He started it but now people are taking that wobbly base and pushing it forward. It’s very London-grime, but I think that American producers are making that more of a norm.

With over 150 different clubs and bars in South Beach, are there places to avoid?
Ugh, Automatic Slims, and sports bars. If you see the line on a Friday or Saturday outside of Mansion, you’re going to ask yourself, do I want to party with these people?

What are the most underrated places to get quality grub during the conference?
Downtown Miami. There’s a hot dog place near the American Airlines arena, Dogma Grill— it’s vegetarian. And there’s a secret diner— the place people take you at six in the morning and it’s all locals. The food’s not that bad actually. If you avoid the chains, you can find decent food.

Where do people go to cool off when it gets too hot?
Hotel pool sides. The Raleigh is nice— that pool is cool, the way it’s shaped. The best secret pool is The Standard. You can sneak in there late in the night after the club, if you’re with your female friend. All of a sudden you’re in this huge pool— just you and your date.

Surely you get loaded with free stuff from sponsors throughout the conference. What's actually worth pocketing?
You can always grab mix-tapes, but out of 10 CDs, 9 might suck. Sometimes you’ll have a kid from Japan who just hands you something. And you can always try to score free food and drinks, like if Scion has a party. And, a Red Bull or something.

Where do people stay when they're too drunk to make it home?
Sometimes they wake up in their cars, or they’ll stay on someone’s couch. It’s all about couch-crashing.

Partying in Miami Beach can get pretty expensive. What are your mainstays to avoid breaking the bank?
If your friend is DJ-ing, make sure you get free drinks. Go to more of the local stops to eat as opposed to a fancy restaurant. And if you can, sublet a place on Craigslist. Hotels are way too expensive. For food, Taco Rico and the Pizza Rustica.

What's the craziest thing you've seen happen in all the years you've been going?
Last year there was a shooting. I was basically a block away. It was just random people with road rage in Miami, but it was right near The Raleigh hotel party. Everyone who went in was totally bummed.

Will you miss anything about Miami once you make the trek back to NYC?
Just that people generally enjoy themselves a little more down here. You feel free to be on vacation, then you go and it's back to work. You miss the sun.

Is there something you want to see at next year's WMC?
A wider range of stuff. Now every place is playing house or trance. That’s the core of the festival, but the reason I keep coming back to WMC is because I usually hear new stuff. Even a conference in ‘99 or '00, had obscure, experimental, electronic stuff— so, I feel like there’s still room for so many other genres of music.

~Leann Peterson


Go There:
Taco Rico, 1608 Alton Road. (305) 535-5757

First photo by EddieBirk via Flickr
Second photo via The Bus Bank
Third photo courtesy of Egg Foo Young
Fourth photo by kioralle via Flickr
Fifth & fifteenth photos by betamaxxx via Flickr
Sixth photo by flannalette via Flickr
Seventh photo by sidemedia.nl via Flickr
Eighth photo courtesy of Flavorpill
Ninth photo by itspeterhill via Flickr
Tenth photo courtesy of The Raleigh
Eleventh photo by Anthony Altamore via Flickr
Twelfth photo by Dave Malkoff via Flickr
Thirteenth photo courtesy of Dogma Grill
Fourteenth photo by oraclejulio via Flickr

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24-year-old artist, performer, and visuals/video-maker Adham Faramawy comes from an intricately-laced cultural history. Coming from Egypt, born in Dubai, then brought up in London, Adham pours his contemporary interpretation of commonly misconstrued themes from the past, present, and future, and launches them at the common art viewer, audience, or innocent spectator with the alternating ease and aggression of a classical conductor.

Adham’s complex modes of thinking and well-thought-out influences could be mistaken as mere artist pretense, but Adham is a true softly-spoken gent; and intentions for his pieces such as the “the precursor and blessing for the evening ahead,” and the use of the Arabic language “to further mainstream it into the Western world” cements the man as a down-to-earth visionary rather than an untouchable one.

Despite a glittering list of contacts and previous collaborators including Carrie Mundane, Matthew Stone, and These New Puritans, Adham’s inclusive, inviting manner and personality is refreshing, and has led to plenty of exciting shows, many of which take place at the URA! Gallery in the city of Istanbul-- a city that has recently become close to Adham’s heart.

Has spending time in Istanbul influenced your work?
Yes and no. Everything I do is affected by my lineage, heritage, and culture that is constantly in transition. The interesting thing about showing in Istanbul is that it is also in constant transition– the same position as I am, on a fault line between Europe and Asia.

Is it almost more fitting to show in Istanbul than London?
Not really-- you always have to adjust, but it’s just an interesting parallel where my work, who I am, and how I function are constantly on this fault line of politics and terrorism and Islamaphobia. It becomes a worry, especially in a youth cultural context where I listen to the same music as everyone else. It’s funny when you look at the cultural situation of that city and my position– it’s very apt.

Was it singularly the URA! Gallery that brought you there?
The reason I first went there and continue to visit is for URA! It is in the center of town. There are a number of galleries around that area, but this one is really young and exciting, and does a lot with young artists and rock music. They have screenings and exhibitions. They also have a zine and are launching their own radio website open for submissions in conjunction with a local record shop called Deform Music.

What’s big musically in Istanbul right now?
They have a big metal scene. There’s a really fantastic band there called Necropsy who were big in the late '90s then stopped for ten years, but whilst I was there they did this art gig whereby each member of the band was on a different floor. You had to go up and down the stairs to hear it. The only way to hear it as a whole was by the park outside.

Is the contemporary’s art scene as big as the metal one there?
The contemporary art scene there is really vibrant. It’s the coolest thing about being there. Istanbul sometimes feels like an un-discovered city. It’s not like London or New York where everyone is aware that its cool. It’s all still really natural. It hasn’t been re-interpreted yet. But it is going through that right now.

Are there any other galleries you check out when you're there?
There’s a gallery called Gallerist, which is the first gallery there to open in the same area as URA! In fact they opened in the same building. Which are The Misa apartments that used to be the Egyptian ambassadors' residences. Which I love, obviously, due to my being Egyptian.

Where did you go of an evening to drink and relax?
The place I went to was called the Buyuk Londra, which is a bar in a hotel. ‘The London hotel,’ it translates to. The place hasn’t changed since 1930. Probably then it was disgusting, but now it's just fantastic oddity. They don’t get rid of anything. They have every kind of machine you can play music on and each one has broken down. [They have] a fantastic collection of art records, but you can’t play them because all they have is a really crappy CD players and the only CD is Cabaret. The only drink they serve is a really dirty martini. They have this parrot called Yakub, and if you have a Nokia ring tone, it answers the phone.

What happens once you got bored of the sounds of Cabaret and the annoying ring tone parrot?
Tekyon– it’s a Bear club. They wouldn’t let me in at first. They are very particular. I am very thin, but in the end I got in somehow, and it was full of truckers and arabesque techno music. The tranny scene is also incredible. There’s nowhere in particular to go– there’s way too many good places, but the neighborhood is called Beyoglu.

Where will your next show take place?
The next thing I'm doing is a solo show at a gallery at the The Black Mariah in Cork, Ireland. Its called “Time Wave Zero.” I will actually be screening the piece I showed at the !wowow! event at the Tate. The show expands on the ideas of a theorist called Terence McKenna who believed that time was speeding up towards a singularity that happens in 2012 when time stops. I work with ideas of non-linear time, and if time is non-linear and everything is happening at once, then, in a sense, everything is true. All possibilities have happened. That’s what I am interested in, in terms of multiplicity.

~Kevin Soar


First photo by Kevin Soar
Fourth photo by WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong? via Flickr
Fifth photo by Night Photographer via Flickr
Seventh & eighth photos by Fidel via Picasa Web Albums
Tenth photo by Annemiek de Gier via Flickr
Tenth photo by Che-burashka via Flickr

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In the last decade, the fashion industry has seen the conception of countless T-shirt-centric lines. But few, if any, have proven as adaptable and foresighted as Portland, Maine’s Rogues Gallery, which launched 5 years ago. From being the best-kept secret in menswear, to adding a women’s line, landing in Barneys New York and generating fans amongst the likes of U2's Bono, Rogues Gallery’s rise has been a rapid one.

But that doesn’t mean the brand, or its founders, has lost sight of its roots in the slightest. In fact, Rogues Gallery recently opened its first freestanding boutique in its Portland hometown, and head designer/co-founder Alex Carlton doesn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon. Having spent his childhood in the sleepy New England town of Cape Cod prior to spending time in NYC , Carlton is no stranger to the laid-back lifestyle. In fact he’s a bona fide expert on the city that everyone from John Ford and Stephen King, to Patrick Dempsey and Liv Tyler have called home. Here's the best of Portland, in his own words:

What first brought you to Maine
I moved to Maine 9 years ago, to Cape Elizabeth, which is right outside of Portland. What I loved about Portland was its proximity to outdoor space—fresh air, you’re right on the ocean. It’s great for sailing, it’s got woods that are good for tromping around outside. Coming from NYC, Portland was great because you’re more connected to the outdoors…and in 20 minutes you can be at the Jetport. It has all the amenities of a big city—a lot of culture. The art school has a lot to do with that. There are galleries, coffee shops and alternative movie theatres. It’s got a lot going on for a small town. And I’ve always been interested in coming back to New England. Massachusetts has become pretty developed; Maine isn’t overly developed. It’s the state that captures the most New England flavor. It’s the essence of New England.

How has Portland inspired the line?
We’ve used a lot of regional iconography to develop our graphic points of view. In the early stages of Rogues Gallery we wanted to create a brand that had a regional feeling, one that felt special and connected to an actual place. So we started looking in our own backyard. Maine has a dynamic history: its early colonial history, its ship building history. It also has an amazing agrarian culture. All of these things provided a lot of food for development. Living in Portland also made a lot of our creative development possible. It’s a very easy city to work in: rents are decent. It’s a lot more difficult trying to start a business in, say, NYC.

What is Portland’s creative community like?
The life of the city is a good template for new ideas. There’s always something new on the scene. There’s something in the air, something about the climate of Portland that really fosters creative-minded folks. It’s a very friendly town for people who are artistic. It’s not intimidating. If you look at more established cities, it’s competitive if you want to approach the arts and culture scene. Portland has a more relaxed, small town vibe. So, people are more willing to take risks; they’re less apprehensive.

What spots have you found particularly inspiring?
Definitely the Eastern Cemetery and the Observatory at Munjoy Hills. Movies on Exchange Street; SPACE Gallery on Congress Street is a phenomenal resource for Portland. They have events and concerts, plus they show art. Local 188 is a restaurant and gallery. They just have a great handle on original dishes and are always sponsoring something interesting in the way of visual arts. We get a lot of this sort of fusion, or crossover—an interesting juxtaposition of art and culture.

Portland has quite a foodie culture; what are some of your favorite spots?
Right next door to where our store is located, on Wharf Street, is a great, rustic seafood restaurant called DB Street & Co that’s owned by a guy named Dana Street. His other restaurant is Fore Street, which is on Fore Street. They have amazing free range and organic roasted meats and homemade pastas. There are great places for brick oven pizza. There’s a new place called Bonobo; they have a really creative approach and use a lot of organic ingredients. There’s another place called Aurora Provisions. They have an amazing cold food deli, daily homemade soups, and sandwiches. And Caiola's —they have the best hamburger I’ve had north of Boston. The Browne Trading Company is a world-class purveyor of caviar and has been a great food sponsor for us. I’d cut my tongue out if I didn’t mention them. They’re quintessential Portland.

What about bars?
Gritty's on 4th Street is a great place to get a draft beer. We really like a place called Bubbas; it’s crazy. The first thing that you’re struck with is just the space, the amazing collection of antiques, and the rustic country vibe. It’s filled with taxidermy. You feel like you’ve wandered into some sort of crazy lodge. It’s a great place to hang out. The Downtown Lounge is another one. And a great place for a cocktail is Norm’s. It’s been a regular stomping ground of mine since I got here.

Any great bed & breakfasts?
Bed & breakfasts are a little bit tough...as far as lodging is concerned I tend to put people out in Cape Elizabeth at the Inn By The Sea. It gives you a flavor of the area outside of Portland. 15 minutes outside of Portland you’re on the beach.

What is Portland’s best-kept secret?
I think some of the back streets that are not so assuming are interesting. Like Wharf Street, where our store is, you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. Just hopping on the ferry to Casco Bay, checking out the islands is cool. There are all of these quirky beaches and restaurants. And after a night of dining and drinking, calling a water taxi and taking a moonlit cruise. Nothing beats a midnight cruise on the water: you and your friends, and a boat and captain at your disposal. And, if you’re feeling indulgent, the hot stone spa treatment at Nine Stones.

~Alisa Gould-Simon

Go There:
DB Street & Co, 33 Wharf Street, (207) 775-0887
Fore Street, 288 Fore Street, (207) 775-2717
Bonobo, 200 Brackett Street, (207) 347-8267
Bubbas, 92 Portland Street, (207) 828-0549
Down Town Lounge, 606 Congress Street, (207) 773-1363
Norm’s Bar & Grill, 617 Congress Street, (207) 828-9944


Second photo by ginandtonic1978 via Flickr
Fourth photo via Spirits Alive
Fifth photo by Lall via Flickr
Sixth photo by Novo a go-go via Flickr
Seventh photo by Space538 via Flickr
Ninth photo by MS2171 via Flickr
Thirteenth photo by Eva8 via Flickr

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For one week every March, Austin floods with industry bigwigs and concertgoers alike to check out over 1,500 artists showcasing at the South by Southwest Music Festival. The conference draws over 10,000 international participants to generate the most revenue of any public event in the city, and as a result, creates the world's loudest downtown traffic jam. With hordes of out-of-towners flocking to the city, knowing how to navigate this Texas town is essential.

Who better than Colin from CubikMusik, the Austin-based music blogger, to give us the lowdown on the must-see, hear, and not-to-be-missed places during the festival? Colin, the force behind one of the mostly highly anticipated showcases this year, "Above the Radar," is a favorite in-town indie anomaly, as the respected music blogger surprisingly originates from Dublin, Ireland. However, several years as a Texas resident with a steady finger on the pulse of the local scene provides him with an invaluable insider's perspective on how to survive the week:

What was the biggest culture shock in your move, and what’s taken the longest to adjust to?
I've been in the USA for almost six years and Austin for four of those [years]. The biggest culture shock: the heat during the summer. 100 plus degrees and 100% humidity is something else. In saying that, I prefer it over being cold!

Austin is lauded for its incredible indie-music scene. How would you compare it to the one in Dublin?
Having lived in San Diego for a year and a half and then on to Austin, I really appreciate the Austin way of life. Population-wise, it is smaller than Dublin, but of course, it’s bigger in size. Texans remind me of the Irish sometimes: we stick to our guns (excuse the pun) and speak our minds. That can get you in trouble, but at least you know where you stand. Austin and Dublin are similar with regard to some of the indie/creative elements of life so that’s absolutely appealing. And needless to say, both cities have lots of great music also.

Where do you go when you're jonesing for some barbeque, and what's your preferred beverage to go with it?
I like the Salt Lick but it’s too far out of town if you don't have a car. Artz Rib House on South Lamar is great. Ironworks behind the Convention Center is pretty darn good. As for beverage, you know I'm not [from] Texas 'cuz I like my tea hot…not iced. Beer goes remarkably well with BBQ, though.

In a town notorious for barbeque, any suggestions for vegetarians?
Whole Foods on Lamar is great for veggies or meat lovers alike. VegSXSW might be useful also.

During SXSW, you're invaded by a million tourists. Any places you avoid during this week?
Taco Xpress on South Lamar is packed. And driving downtown, the furthest I'll go is to South Congress.

With hotel rooms and hostels packed, any suggestions on last-minute places to crash?
Craigslist is full of rooms, apartments, houses and even funky Airstream-type trailers to sleep in. And if you're in Austin and know who I am but don't realize I live here, hit me up for a room!

Best showcase to score food, drinks, and swag?
By the looks of things I'd say the iheartcomix vs Mad Decent party on Friday. Great tunes, booze, food, fun, and maybe even some swag! Of course, a lot of the time you find out about the best swag spots on the day.

What's the craziest method you've resorted to get into a show?
Not really about getting into a show but more so about getting to one. After a very heavy night out involving stuff I can't talk about, I got to bed around 5 am and was awoken by a mate at around 10 am telling me that we were going to hitchhike to Cork (Southern Ireland) to see Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds play that night. It was about 350 miles of a trip, but up I got and we hit the road. About 7 hours later, after we got separate rides, we got to Cork and spent about the equivalent of $25 on tickets. Got into the show about 30 minutes before they came on stage, delighted with ourselves. Then they only played one song! Needless to say we were pissed. I met one of the Bad Seeds about 7 years ago and told him the story. He thought it was brilliant.

Any suggestions for how to score last-minute tickets?
Did I mention Craigslist? Also, I guess there may be a good few competitions online that you can enter. At least with the day shows, you don't need wristbands or badges as much, so you can still get to see a lot of great stuff.

Any secret all-nighter food places to stave off the inevitable hangovers?
Kerby Lane, Katz's, Magnolia.

What would be the best way to spend an extra day, post-festival?
If it’s sunny you've got go to Barton Springs, a natural pool in the middle of a greenbelt close to downtown, Waterloo Records and then, Mean Eyed Cat, my favorite bar. I know I'll be hanging out in my backyard with some cold beers and BBQ. After four days of lot loud music, I know I'll be fine listening to the birds singing.

Got a secret about Austin that out-of-towners wouldn't know?
Apparently, it's legal to be topless downtown in Austin. I have no idea if that’s true and have never seen anyone doing it, but have heard it a few times from different people and always found it strange.

~Abbey Braden

First photo by KK via Flickr
Second photo by Thisfatguy via Flickr
Third photo by Ben and Becs BP's via Flickr
Fourth photo by kaanah via Flickr
Fifth photo by SFBart via Flickr
Sixth & seventh photos by Andrew Kendall via Flickr
Eighth photo, courtesy of Kerbey Lane Cafe
Ninth photo by Steve Hopson via Flickr
Tenth photo, courtesy of Austin Parks & Recreation Department
Eleventh photo by Evil Cabeza via Flickr
Twelfth photo, courtesy of Mean Eyed Cat
Thirteenth photo via The Think Blog

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At first glance, it’s easy to assume the boys behind Peachcake might have downed mushrooms one too many times. In interviews they’re prone to outlandish, nonsensical rants, and their onstage fashion typically includes neon ensembles and the occasional animal mask. But once familiar with their Arizona hometown— the ‘50s-born, master-planned community of Carefree— the power-pop band’s eclectic style makes perfect sense.

Home to both the Western Hemisphere’s third largest sundial, not to mention the motto “Home of Cowboys and Caviar, Where the Old Meets the New,” Carefree is not your average, sleepy suburban community. Even its street names—Tranquil Trail, Easy Street and Ho-and-Hum Roads— are hard to believe. psychoPEDIA caught up with Stefan Pruett, lead vocalist and one-half of Peachcake (the other being John O'Keefe), pre-album launch (the band’s What year will you have the world? is slated for release this spring) to ask about his Carefree (and adjacent— Phoenix) hangouts:

Are you from Carefree originally?
We’re actually from a place called Planet Awesome. We’re currently residing in Carefree, Arizona, which is a real place. A lot of people don’t believe we’re from there, but we are and it’s a really beautiful place. It’s in the middle of the desert. It’s really special because it has true natural organic surroundings—all those hallmark skylines. I highly recommend it.

Is the "cowboys and caviar" motto fitting?
Yeah, that totally makes sense because it’s a rich retirement community mixed with an old cowboy-esque town.

What are the residents like?
It’s a really sheltered town in comparison to a large city or metropolis. It’s really mellow; people are kind of quaint. It’s essentially a retirement town that has experienced a mass influx of multifarious people. It’s grown a lot over the last few years. It’s the most rapidly expanding metropolis in the United States. So now there’s a much larger population of youth—the schools have expanded.

It sounds like a pretty interesting dynamic—the young and the old…
It brings up a really interesting topic. Carefree is very mild-mannered, very heavily watched and guarded. We can’t practice past 8pm or the cops will show up. Imagine Pleasantville in the desert if it was full of run-of-the-mill upscale folk who have nothing to do but go to ACE Hardware and walk around the neighborhood and look confused about an abandoned trailer sitting in front of someone’s house.

Is the trailer in question yours?
Yes. We have it for touring.

Any restaurants you hit fresh off tour?
The Carefree restaurants are great, but they’re mostly upscale. For Mexican food I really like El Encanto in Carefree. It’s family-run; I just like the atmosphere a lot. I’m a vegetarian, so I’ll get their vegetarian tacos, which are really good.

Do you eat out mostly in Phoenix?
Yeah. There’s a great place in Phoenix—my ultimate favorite restaurant of all time—Fate. It’s Asian fusion; the best Asian cuisine anyone will ever have. They’re more focused on Thai food. The Pad Thai is really good; they have awesome fried tofu, and this rice dish that I think is called the Citron. I also really like this place called That's a Wrap in the heart of Phoenix, and there’s a great Mongolian stir-fry place in Tempe called YC's. That’s a wonderful place.

Where do you go to see live music?
A great place is Modified Arts. We’re playing there March 15th. It’s an art gallery and they just do a bunch of shows. They’ve become one of the more premier venues; they have no bar, it’s a straight art gallery. There are not a lot of great venues in Arizona to be honest. There’s a cool place called the The Trunk Space, where small, lesser known bands play. Their max capacity may be 70 people but they’ll sell it out to 125. But I like that place; it’s a really awesome atmosphere.

What about Phoenix nightlife?
As far as nightlife is concerned, it has a lot of potential to be awesome, but it’s so stuck in itself. It has everything to allow it to flourish, but for some reason they keep themselves confined. We have First Friday of the month art walks with lots of art galleries, lots of little cool things that are very non-mainstream. They’ll open their doors and showcase the art for the month and everybody conjures there. But the problem is that it ends at 11pm. It starts at 7pm and doesn’t even break into the midnight hour, which is outrageous. If something like that were to take place in San Francisco or NYC it would go on until 3am, ‘til the bars close.

What about bars?
I hate bars, but I have a lot of friends who like them…Tempe, that’s where the bar scene is and it’s where all the hipster bars are. There is a place called Graham, which a lot of people go to. There’s a great DJ there called William Fucking Read and Shake! is another night that seems to be pretty popular.

Who is your favorite Arizona-born or based celebrity?
David Spade, I like. I like how volatile his humor is, and it’s in such a subtle way. Wasn’t Jesus born in Arizona? Steve Nash, love him.

John McCain is Arizonan too. Do you have a pick for the presidential election?
I don’t like McCain. Anyone who’s been a POW should never be allowed to be president. When you’ve been a prisoner of war and have been involved in it so much, it’s engrained in your blood. The ones I like are the underdogs— Dennis Kucinich, and Ron Paul, who offers an interesting agenda. I’m not the biggest fan of any of them. If anything, I might just write Peachcake on the ballot. Hey, if you don’t like any of the candidates, if you don’t like the choices you’re given, write Peachcake on the ballot. Peachcake goes beyond a music entity. It’s a lifestyle entity; we try to encourage self-awareness and worldly awareness. We’re trying to unify people and bring people from all walks of life together.

Have you ever been to Jenna Jameson’s strip club, Babes Cabaret, in Scottsdale?
What? No! I haven’t and I don’t really like strip clubs, but hey, to each his own. I feel like it is very exploitative, but I’m all for checking things out. I had no idea that existed there, but now I might be interested in going…

~Alisa Gould-Simon

Go There:
Want to see Carefree for yourself? Pruett recommends lodging at the Carefree Inn: “That place is cool; it’s kind of like a maze and it’s got an old time-y feel.

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Triple-threat sirens, Au Revoir Simone, know Williamsburg, Brooklyn like they know their beloved keyboards. It’s not surprising these three ladies call one of New York City’s hippest neighborhoods home sweet home, considering its increasing allure of late as a hub to artists, musicians, writers and designers.

Forever fans of “the synth,” Ericka Foster, Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo could give any new wave band from the 80’s a run for their money. The girl’s onstage setup typically consists of their cornucopia of keyboards and drum machines, lined up like drill sergeants. But with their name even stemming from a quote in cult-classic Pee Wee's Big Adventure, the trio have an undeniably dynamic energy. They’ve been belting out whimsical and heart-driven songs since 2003 which in turn led to their freshman release, Versus of Comfort, Assurances, and Salvation (in 2005), and, more recently, The Bird of Music.

On a Saturday evening, a day after performing at Bowery Ballroom, D’Angelo spoke with psychoPEDIA about the band’s favorite spots in Williamsburg, and why they find it so inspiring:

What are some of your favorite Williamsburg record shops?
There’s Sound Fix – it’s a great CD shop. Another cool spot is Earwax. Yet for musical equipment there’s a store called Main Drag. It has a lot of vintage keyboards, guitar stuff and drum stuff and, well, I’m obviously there for their really great keyboards!

Among the three of you, how many keyboards do you actually own?
I actually don’t own that many because I’m more of the drummer in the band, but the girls own a lot keyboards, yet I don’t know the tally.

What about your favorite local eats….
There’s this Chinese food spot called M Shanghai. There’s also a great burger place called Dumont Burger on Bedford Street and I also really, really like a Mexican place called Bonita. I LOVE Bonita.

Au Revoir Simone has received quite a bit of attention thanks to your original style. Any great local designers?
We actually get sponsored clothing from a lot small Brooklyn and Williamsburg designers. I usually wear this designer called Samantha Pleet on stage, she's my favorite! We also wear Unis, who is actually on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Unis is a cool sponsor and I just love their clothes– they’re really for tour as well. I’ve been wearing this designer Mary Meyer lately. She’s been gifting us clothes. I really love love her clothes; they’re really comfortable. Samantha’s are really really dressed up, yet Mary Meyer’s very casual and cool. We also wear dresses by Miranda Bennett. And we also wear bracelets and jewelry by Elizabeth Yarborough.

What’s your apartment like?
I’ve only had one. I’ve lived Williamsburg for five years. Ericka actually lived above me. We had a big backyard, everyone in the whole building are friends. It’s a really big, communal, fun building to be in.

When you come back from being on tour, any specific spot you must go to immediately?
This place called Supercore. It’s a Japanese coffee shop on Bedford. It’s just really cozy and the people that work there and own it are incredibly nice. They have really good home cooked Japanese food as well as great chai and coffee of course.

What would you say is only specific to Williamsburg?
I think Williamsburg is all about the people. Williamsburg originally attracted artists and musicians who were looking for a sense of community. I used to really feel that way when I first got there, but now the artists and musicians are moving because they can’t afford to live there anymore. I think a lot of the community is really broken up and now a lot of people are moving for this idea of what maybe it once was. Also, it has strong Hasidic population too. The fashion here is extraordinary. One time I saw this guy with pink leggings, clogs, a fedora and I said, “What!” Very crazy and creative. A lot of painters live here still, the successful ones who can afford to live there or the ones who got in early and have a great deal on rent. If someone was to visit Williamsburg, I’d definitely look up some painters and go to open studio visits. It’s a great opportunity.

Of all Williamsburg’s distinctive cultures, do you have a favorite in terms of cuisine?
The Polish neighborhood, which is right next to and on the edge of Williamsburg. I’m a really big authentic Polish food fan and so I love getting borsch soup and perogies. I love that about Williamsburg.

~Jessica McMenamin

Go There:
Earwax, 218 Bedford Ave. (718) 486-3771

First photo by Nilina via Flickr
Second photo by Lazy Hour via Flickr
Third photo by Wally G via Flickr
Fourth photo, courtesy of ontheinside.info
Fifth photo, courtesy of Au Revoir Simone
Sixth photo, courtesy of M Shanghai Bistro
Seventh photo by Slice via Flickr
Eighth photo by Yun Cee Ng for New York Magazine
Ninth photo by Townbyrd via Flickr
Tenth photo by Alachance via Flickr

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Surpisingly enough, like other indie-music epicenters from Omaha (home to Conor Oberst's Team Love indie-folk outfit) to Toronto (where artists on the Arts&Crafts label abound), Champaign, Illinois has been known to sprout up its own crop of rock superstars, having birthed classic acts like REO Speedwagon and Poster Children. From its sprawling cornfields to the bustling university campus of Urbana-Champaign– the heart of the city– something in the Midwestern soil is fertilizing the musically-minded. Take Headlights for instance– possibly the most hard-working band anywhere, with an outrageously in-demand touring schedule, which had them in over 300 performances nationwide to promote their past albums.

For such a globetrotting band that crafts dreamy pop tunes about “Cherry Fields,” and how “Everybody Needs a Fence to Lean On,” it’s no wonder that their home is a smallish community squeezed in between the metropolitan hubs of Chicago and Indianapolis. Releasing their anticipated album Some Racing, Some Stopping next week (Feb 19), the band found themselves truly focusing on the latter part of that title, and more than ever on their hometown, when bringing their intense touring schedule to a halt to steal away in their farmhouse in woods– home to its three members Erin Fein, Tristan Wraight, and Brett Sanderson– to relax and record their second full-length record.

To find out just what a quiet farmhouse plus some good BBQ will do to foster songwriting, and why they will always find retreat back to their sleepy town, is The Headlights’ own Sanderson:

You have a song titled "The Midwest is the Best." You really believe this?
You have to find the charm of the place you live in. I think the laid-back Midwestern thing just feels like to home to us. And– you're almost never under-dressed.

Does the title of your last album, Kill Them With Kindness, reflect the attitudes of the Midwest?
No, we didn't really go that deep with the title. I guess we just thought that would be kind of a cool name for our first record.

What was the experience like recording your newest album in a farmhouse?
We recorded the Enemies EP here, as well. Tristan was living here at that time, and Erin and I moved in about a year and a half later. We recorded Some Racing, Some Stopping during the summer and fall of '07, so we made a point to do a lot of barbequing and looking out the window while we worked– not something you can normally do in a "pro" studio. It was also nice to kind of build this record like you would bake a cake– slow and easy, as opposed to rushing in and racing the clock like we did with our last record.

Since Champaign is primarily a college town, do the band members have any connections to the school?
Tristan and Erin both have family here. We all went to school here and played in bands during that time. I think I may have even met those guys at a house party!

Do you ever feel like you need to get away from the student population?
No. Downtown Urbana and downtown Champaign are completely separate from campus. You can avoid it altogether if you wanted to.

Where would you go to get away from it all?
On tour!

Where would you go if you really wanted to "do like the college kids do?"
I guess that depends on what kind of college kid you are. If you like going to rock shows, then I might see you at the Canopy Club. If you like drinking neon-colored booze and grinding on a stranger to the latest Top 40 hit, then I won't be seeing you at C.O.'s or Kams!

Do you think there's a rivalry between indie rockers/musicians and the frat kids? If so, whose side are you on?
[Laughs] No, everybody just kind of stays in their own territory.

Is there a certain music scene growing out of the area?
I'm not sure what it is about this town. There's always something going on– Hum, Braid, Poster Children, REO Speedwagon, the guy who sang "The Safety Dance," are all from here! The most recent bands who’ve toured here are The Beauty Shop, The Living Blue, and Shipwreck. There are so many, and all of them are doing really good things.

What are the main places to go to check out the up-and-coming artists?
Probably Canopy Club or the Independent Media Center.

What kinds of local musical influences did you grow up around?
I came to school here at the tail end of a pretty huge scene. There were bands playing at house parties all the time - Braid, Hum, and Poster Children were huge. That inspired me to want to be in a band even more.

Since it is a farming community, there must be some good food to be had. Where's the best fresh-from-the-farm cuisine?
Probably at the Farmer's Market in Urbana during the summer.

Any uniquely Champaign events or spots that aren't to be missed?
Pygmalion Music Festival is always great. Lil' Porgy's if you like BBQ.

Do you ever feel like rockers stuck in the middle of a cornfield?
We ARE rockers stuck in the middle of a cornfield!

Does that mean you go to Chicago to get your dose of cosmopolitan life?
We play in Chicago fairly often, but we toured [the whole country for] a total of six months last year. When we're home, we like to just enjoy being home.

With your hectic national touring schedule, what keeps you coming back to Champaign at the end of it all?
Cheap rent, family and friends– it's home!

~Leann Peterson

First photo by Megan Holmes
Third photo by Puneet Sharma via Flickr
Fifth photo by Meagan Perk via Flickr
Sixth photo by Kosheahan via Flickr

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Travis Rice knows a thing or two about mountain life. Not only did the 25-year-old grow up amidst Jackson, Wyoming’s unsurpassed beauty, he is recognized as one of the world’s best snowboarders. Considering Jackson Hole is a renowned ski/snowboard destination, it’s little surprise the native put his acclaim to use locally: recently Rice created The Natural Selection—a snowboarding contest focused on Jackson Hole’s primal terrain and picturesque backdrop (as opposed to X-Games-esque manmade half-pipes).

The contest, which took place this year from January 30th to February 6th, is essentially an extension of Rice’s love of organic snowboarding. And what better a place than Jackson Hole for top professional riders like Nicolas Muller, DCP and Mark Carter to flourish and dribble over gnarly cliffs and snow pillows?

On a recent trip to Rice’s beloved hometown, we enlisted his help as a guide. Over sake after a long day of snowboarding, Rice took the time to share with psychoPEDIA why his love of Jackson remains steadfast, and how The Natural Selection took shape. In his words:

When did you first conceptualize the idea for The Natural Selection?
The idea came around three years ago from frustrations of being in contests. I’d fly to Europe for a contest and only be there for a day with terrible weather. The contest side of it, it’s a great social thing. You get to see friends you haven’t seen all year, go to parties and hang with everyone. Snowboarding is a pretty tight community. But, I’ve been competing every year since I was 16. It had gotten repetitive after a while. The Arctic Challenge [professional snowboarder Terje Haakonsen’s event in Norway], however, is badass. That was my inspiration for The Natural Selection. The Arctic Challenge was based around creating the best environment for a rider to flourish…also, the fact that I’m from Jackson (this place just rips), and the fact that the resort has never really been willing to embrace the snowboarding community.

What do you hope this event do will do for Jackson and the mountain?
I want to the outside world to see a snowboarding event focused on the riding. What I’m sharing, through Jackson, is my love for organic snowboarding. I want people to know that there’s so much more to snowboarding.

What's the first place you'd recommend for people visiting Jackson?
Jackson’s a funny place, because there are equal ways to do it—whether you’re high budget or low budget. If you’re high budget then you can just go for it with everything, yet if you’re low budget then there are ways to poach the high budget! There’s this little place called Granite Hot Springs. It’s about 20 minutes south of Jackson and you have to snowmobile in ten miles; you snowmobile in for the day and soak in these hot springs. It is open seven days a week and run by these hippies. They live out there all winter. There are waterfalls surrounding the hot springs with big [snow] pillows all around as well. At five o’clock though, they drain the hot spring pool out to the river and then the next day fresh water gets poured in.

What about where to stay?
You have two options: you can stay directly in town where there’s more affordable lodging. Or, you can stay in the village, which is right next to the resort - it’s way more convenient to go snowboarding and get on the hill. In the village, my favorite place right now is the Hotel Terra, which is incredible. It’s just sick! There are so many places in Jackson that just throw up this rustic front and a lot of older people come to Jackson for that feel with animal carcasses over the fireplace and logs. I grew up here and I think just being in Jackson is raw and rustic enough. I want to stay in a place that has some current flavor and the Hotel Terra does such a great job. Also, they’re promoting a good cause considering they’re the first silver leaf hotel in Wyoming. Everything that they are about is eco-friendly. It’s the best location on hill as well. Walk in and walk out. Great service…everything.

What are some of Jackson's best restaurants?
In town, there’s a place called Teton Thai. Hands down everyone I take there says it’s the best Thai food they’ve ever had. Epic Thai! Another spot is called The Bunnery. If you wake up at noon and need an incredible meal, go to The Bunnery. Other dinner spots I enjoy are Rendezvous Bistro, which is great and Sweetwater is really good too. Jackson is kind of freakish because there are so many good restaurants. If you move out towards the Village, there’s Mizu Sushi, which means water in Japanese. I’ve eaten sushi on both coasts and in Japan as well and it’s the best sushi I’ve ever had! On hill, The Village Café is the jam for daily lunch and morning coffee. Another super secret spot is called Koshu—so good; that place rules.

Jackson has a lot of wealthy inhabitants. What was it like to grow up within that environment?
My parents and most of my parents’ friends came in and bought a lot of land really cheap and I grew up with their offspring here in Jackson. I lived in a solid middle class environment, yet at the same time the upper class got bigger with property and real estate and golf courses constantly coming in. Not to mention, our taxes are great. A lot of people own second homes here purely because of the taxes. That’s pretty much the biggest reason why. Come on, Dick Cheney lives here!

There’s always talk about how Jackson is known for its incredible meat. What’s the deal?
Jackson is definitely known for its meat. It’s Wyoming! Maybe because there’s wild game running around? Seriously, I have about a band of about 150 elk living in my backyard for a month every year. Elk, deer, bison, moose, whatever! They all live right here. Jackson is right next to Yellowstone National park. If you want to come here and eat meat there are a lot great places everywhere.

Any other spots a first-time visitor shouldn’t miss?
We have a core little snowboard shop called Ill 23. It’s really cool. The National Wildlife Art Museum is out here as well. My original plan with this event, I wanted to have a catered dinner at the museum. It’s basically a castle set in stone!

~Jessica McMenamin

Go There:
Mizu Sushi, 3465 North Pines Way (307) 734-5205
Koshu, 200 West Broadway (307) 733-5283

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Writer Porochista Khakpour's Victorian Flatbush, Brooklyn neighborhood starts to feel strangely suburban when you turn onto Beverly and walk towards the apartment in the white house where she lives. As you get closer, the houses become grander, often outfitted with front yards and screened-in porches. For the Iranian-born author, the “hidden gem” that is Victorian Flatbush (the neighborhood’s official name) reminds her of her childhood in Pasadena, California.

Khakpour published her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects last year; soon after, it was chosen by The New York Times as an "Editors’ Choice," while The Chicago Tribune boasted it as a "Fall’s Best." This past December, when the buzz surrounding her book was at an all-time high, Khakpour and her boyfriend, designer Brian Frank, moved into the ground floor of their current building. “All the places in Kensington [the couple’s particular pocket of Victorian Flatbush] that we looked at had chandeliers and moldings from the turn-of-the-century,” says Khakpour upon inviting us in for a tour. “Every space was Victorian and eccentric.” It was not only magical, but also affordable. “I was sick of all my money going to rent,” says Khakpour, pouring herself a mimosa. She shows us around the sparsely furnished apartment, with a chandelier in the living room and butter colored walls that turn pale green when the lights dim. The living-room mantle overflows with cards and pictures of Frank as a Hare Krishna (a decade ago he was also known as “Bhagavan Dasa,” while living in Krishna temples as a monk).

“The interesting thing about Kensington is that it’s extremely diverse with tons of families, but not downtrodden. Nobody really seems to be struggling. It’s very upbeat and safe,” says Khakpour. “We’re definitely dreamers, and our current life supplies us with endless materials,” she adds. “We’ve both grown into day people with slightly hermit-ish tendencies—and we require Manhattan less and less. So, central Brooklyn is perfect for us.” But where does the couple go in Victorian Flatbush? Khakpour’s favorite neighborhood haunts, in her own words:

Vox Pop: It’s a really good coffee house-slash-bookstore-slash-publishing house. The guy that runs it, Sander Hicks, used to be one of the heads of Soft Skull Press. He's notorious for his extreme left-wing tendencies. The whole place has a slightly anarchist vibe. You get those old men who are obsessed with conspiracy theories, mixed with cool punk rock lesbians. It totally feels like Berkeley. And the coffee’s not just any coffee. It's the strongest, most delicious... this coffee makes me think properly. It’s the best thing for a writing day. We're just chained to the place. And they have a great selection of independent books out, lots of events. I love that place. That's a daily staple.

The Farm on Adderley: I read an interview with the band, The National, and they're obsessed with this place. It's got the most dreamy menu—new American cuisine. It's a seasonal menu. They get their stuff from regional farms. It's beautiful… even the name The Farm on Adderley has that Victorian-thing that a lot of places in Brooklyn try, but it works here.

Picket Fence: That's less of a special occasion spot, more of a day brunch place. It's bright yellow, very cheerful with a really eclectic menu, lots of vegetarian options for us. Instead of bread they bring you a bowl of popcorn. Everything ends up being kind of cute in this way around here.

Prospect Park: We have a really great part of Prospect Park. We're really close to Wollman Rink… I love this Wollman Rink as opposed to the Trump one. The Zoo Park is near here too. And Kensington Stables is the best, most awesome thing here. It's amazing and affordable. I think it's the only remaining stable in the park. It's beautiful. Again, it works with the image of this neighborhood being charming and quaint.

The Knickerbocker Tennis Club: It’s a 130-year-old club. There’s a whole old tennis society that's out here too.

Vintage stores on Coney Island Avenue: On Coney Island Avenue there are amazing vintage stores that are totally not picked-over.

Trailer Park: Brian and I love Amish furniture. We don’t know why this place is called Trailer Park; it’s right on Cortelyou, which is the main street here.

Pakistani Corner Stores: There is a Pakistani/Bangladeshi place called Madina. We go there a lot. It’s open late. It's really clean. This place is beautiful. The guy is so nice. Because Brian is a former Hare Krishna monk, he loves to get food from the sub-continent. And he will go to every bodega. He's become best friends with them. They look at this white guy with tattoos and are like what?

~Sara Costello

Go There:
Knickerbocker Field Club, 114 E 18th St, (718) 856-5098

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From Ludacris and Babyface, to Outkast and T.I., Georgia’s capital city boasts a long list of hip-hop natives, both past and present. But recently, it’s Atlanta’s burgeoning rock scene that’s put the southern metropolis back on the map—with Deerhunter, Black Lips and Snowden leading the pack.

The latter (an Atlanta-based foursome that borrows their collective moniker from a character in Joseph Heller’s classic Catch 22) scored rave reviews for their punk-infused debut LP, Anti Anti, in 2006. But since achieving “most-blogged-about” band status, Snowden has spent less time in the spotlight and more time on stage or in their Atlanta stomping grounds working on their next album (tentatively slated for release later this summer or fall). We caught up with lead singer Jordan Jeffares to ask about his hometown haunts and why there are so many photos of Scientology centers on his MySpace page. In his words:

How would you describe Atlanta’s energy/vibe to someone who’s never been?
Tiny pockets of cool amidst suburban sprawl.

You mentioned disliking Atlanta’s sterility in a past interview. Are there any spots that offer relief?
The tiny pockets of cool keep me sane, but the sterility is as much in my head as it is on the ground I suppose. We've got a couple of great bars/clubs that are the places to be for a certain style.

Scientologists: friend or foe?
Cults are funny. I can always use more funny friends.

Have you seen the Tom Cruise video?
I have seen it, and he's right. We've got to get these 'spectators' into the playing field or out of the arena. Buahahahahaa!

What’s the first place you want to go whenever you make it back to Athens, Georgia?
There was this greasy spoon called "The Grit" that was an icon for UGA students. I remember being waited on by the girl from Jucifer when I would go up to visit my brother when I was 13. The food is unremarkable but the memories just flood over me when I go in there.

Favorite Atlanta-based celebrity?
Andre 3000.

What is Atlanta’s most important cultural institution?
I think the Martin Luther King Center is the most significant.

Any local culinary specialties you can’t find anywhere else?
My brother says there's some pretty rockin' BBQ.

Where does you spend the majority of your free time when in Atlanta?
Loca Luna, a restaurant. Other than that I'm really big on cafes: Carroll St, Inman Perk Coffee, Apres. Clubs/bars are MJQ/Drunken Unicorn, The Earl, Azul, The Local.

It’s Friday night and you’re out with a girl you’d like to impress. Where do you take her?
First, we go to Green's Package Store to pick up some Mr. Pibb and some Red Vines. Then it's dusk golf and consumption at Candler Park. We close off the night off getting matching lower-back tattoos.

Best place to catch up-and-coming bands?
Drunken Unicorn.

Best late night grease trap for after the show?
Unfortunately, there's only one to choose from…The Majestic.

Favorite bookstore?
Nah, public library on Ponce.

Favorite blog?
Kiss Atlanta.

Best thing about Atlanta in the winter?
It rarely gets below 55 degrees.

Do you still drive the ‘92 Honda motorcycle?
As long as it's above 45 degrees I'm on it.

~Alisa Gould-Simon

Go There:
Azul, 141 Sycamore St, Decatur. (404) 377-3311
The Local, 758 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta. (404) 873-5002
Green's Package Store, 737 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta. (404) 872 1109
The Majestic, 1031 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta. (404) 875-0276

First photo by Zack at Used Film
Second photo by Abbey Braden at Punk Photo
Fifth photo by Atari Charm via Flickr
Sixth photo by Senatoturer via Flickr
Seventh photo by Blake Israel via Flickr

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