Visuals: Caitlin Keogh’s Headless Portraits

Alaska native turned Brooklyn resident Caitlin Keogh likes her bodies cut-up and intestines on full view–in her paintings, that is.

The artist–who was featured in a group show at the Whitney Museum of American Art earlier this year–paints canvases with headless bodies, torsos split in half, and arms transforming into snakes.

Though her imagery sounds bloody painful on paper, it comes off completely clean and streamlined in her work. Solid, bold colors and crisp black outlines make up Keogh’s figures bearing tuxedos, bowties, and manicured nails. She also frequently includes flowers in her paintings, balancing out the mannequin-like appearance of her headless models.

Keogh’s work will be on display in an upcoming solo exhibition at Bortolami Gallery in Chelsea from September 8 to October 29.

Take a look at some more of her pieces below.

Just Announced: 8/18 – Haybaby, Dead Leaf Echo, Tender Age, Warcries @ Aviv

The second show hosted by Something Vicious is happening on Thursday, August 18 at Aviv. The bill includes Warcries, Tender Age, Dead Leaf Echo, and Haybaby.

Show starts at 8 PM and is open to all ages. $8 for entry. RSVP on Facebook here.

See you there!

Aviv
496 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, New York 11222

Poster by Dead Leaf Echo

New Tunes: Allah-Las’ “Could Be You”

I’ve only been to California once in my life, and it wasn’t in the 1960s, unfortunately. (I also wasn’t alive then, but anyway.) Luckily, bands like L.A.’s Allah-Las produce ’60s-inspired-psychedelic-surf-garage-rock-and-roll awesomeness that could make anyone feel like they grew up on the West Coast way before the Internet happened.

Allah-Las’ third full-length record, Calico Review, won’t be released until September, but they just dropped the album’s second single, “Could Be You.”A track that strongly encourages foot-tapping, “Could Be You” calls upon the sounds of The Velvet Underground–especially the guitars of “Run Run Run” and “Rock & Roll,” from 1967 and 1973, respectively. While the Velvets represented NYC through-and-through, Allah-Las take their own home’s turn on TVU’s influences. “Could Be You” essentially sounds like what Lou Reed could have written if he ever decided to pack up and move out West.

The single comes along with a video directed by Laura Lynn Petrick, which premiered via Interview Magazine last week. The clip features black-and-white, vintage-tinged film footage of the Allah-Las hanging around L.A. with interspersed shots of the city’s various food stands, highways, and palm trees.

Check out the song and video above. Calico Review is out via Mexican Summer on September 9, 2016.

Image courtesy of Tell All Your Friends PR

Rewind: Toni Basil – Breakaway (1966)

Within the new retrospective exhibit on Bruce Conner currently at the Museum of Modern Art, one can view a number of short films by the late experimental artist. One of these films is Breakaway from 1966, depicting a very young Toni Basil dancing happily around in her birthday suit to her own song as Conner’s camera moves quickly between zooms and viewpoints.

Though Basil is widely considered a one-hit-wonder for her 1982 song “Mickey,” for which she is most famous, she recorded “Breakaway” almost two full decades earlier for A&M Records. It’s a catchy, feel-good pop gem that deserves just as much attention as the former.

The song is pure ’60s pop goodness: upbeat piano and rolling drums serve as a perfect backdrop for Basil’s soulful vocals, which deliver freedom-yearning lines like “I got to break these chains before I go insane.”

Unfortunately, Basil did not release any other singles between “Breakaway” and “Mickey,” only performing live during the late ’60s and ’70s. (Though a B-side to “Breakaway,” called “I’m 28,” is also worth a listen.)

-KH

Visuals: Printed Matter from ’70s Pan Am

For nearly all of the 20th century, Pan American World Airways dominated the U.S. aviation industry. As the nation’s first international airline, Pan Am flew millions of well-to-do Americans and foreigners around the globe from 1927 until the company’s financial-based dissolve in 1991.

In its heyday, though, Pan Am not only changed the way people flew. It also put out some fascinating–and aesthetically-pleasing–advertisements, posters, brochures, and the like to promote the brand.

In the ’70s in particular, the creative directors at Pan Am switched gears and adopted a minimal logo that complemented their new visual approach, focusing more on images and art than on text. The resulting prints are striking mementos of both the brand and the period itself.

Take a look at some below, courtesy of this virtual Pan Am museum.

Rewind: Eddie Cochran – Summertime Blues (1958)

It’s July now and that means fireworks and sand and lemonade and sunshine and all that and yeah summer rocks, but what about when it sucks?

Eddie Cochran’s 1958 “Summertime Blues” turns the sad side of summer into a catchy rockabilly tune. Taken from the point of view of a low-luck American teenager, the song airs this kid’s grievances about being broke, working late, not being allowed to use his dad’s car, and just generally having a shitty summer.

After Cochran’s very early death in 1960, several musicians covered the track–from The Beach Boys on their first record, to The Who in 1970, to a charming version by T. Rex used as a B-side.

The relatability and staying power of “Summertime Blues” is obvious, but sadly, there ain’t no cure.

-KH

A Farewell to Other Music

This past Saturday, June 25, 2016, the doors of Other Music closed for good.

Other Music was a record store that lived for two decades on East 4th Street and Lafayette in Manhattan, just a stone’s throw away from the New York University campus on Washington Square. It’s at Other that, as a young college freshman excited yet terrified of everything all the time, I felt safe. I found comfort. And most of all, I found incredible music.

After bombing a presentation in my science class a few years ago and wanting to hide my face into my lap for hours, I walked a few minutes over to Other to get my mind away from the embarrassment. I ended up leaving with a bunch of new records under my arm, and the knowledge that this place would always be here, just down the street.

New Tunes: The Mystery Lights’ Self-Titled Debut

The debut full-length by New York garage-blues rockers The Mystery Lights is finally here.

After spending years bringing their high energy show to venues around the world (the group just returned from a European tour), their self-titled debut–out today on Daptone Records’ Wick imprint–rounds up all that The Mystery Lights do best. It’s loud, it’s gritty, it’s soulful…it’s just damn good.

Listen for yourself on Spotify, and catch the band here at the free Festival of Independence on July 4 before they head out on a nationwide tour with Night Beats.

Visuals: Psychedelic Carpets by Faig Ahmed

Azerbaijan-born artist Faig Ahmed’s handmade carpets are some of the most fascinating pieces of art out there right now.

Whether bleached-out and saturated or the basis of an optical illusion, these carpets are incredibly unique, blending traditional Middle Eastern styles with Ahmed’s mind-bending techniques. (And they’re definitely way too cool to sit under any old coffee table.)

Rewind: The Fingers – I’m In Love (1968)

The Fingers are a band that definitely existed, because they made this song around 1968, but I can’t find anything about them on the Internet. The Internet has failed me. Me, a millennial!! But not really, because if it weren’t for the Internet I wouldn’t have known about this song at all.

Maybe we can make up our own story about this band, like they were abducted by aliens who erased all trace of their existence and only left behind a couple of songs to be turned into YouTube videos for you and me to listen to now.

Anyway, I wish I could find out more about these guys, but at least we have the music to enjoy.

UPDATE! After some deep Googling I actually managed to find a website that tells the real story about The Fingers. No aliens involved, but still interesting:

“We made up stories for the press such as the fact that we allegedly stabbed a poor teddy bear to death on stage every night and that this wretched stuffed creature was full of lovely spurting tomato ketchup.”

Check it out here.

– KH