Urban Outfitters

From DC 05/09/08

Kim & Sara

Kim & Sara permalink

DJs Kim & Sara are best known around these parts as the Pow-Wow girls; their sets include everything from The Undertones and Small Faces to Black Lips and the Raveonettes. Stop by our Georgetown location (3111 M St. NW) from 2-4 this Saturday to catch them (and a healthy dose of power-pop) in-store.

From Boulder 05/08/08

Land Locked and Rocked - Part 1

Land Locked and Rocked - Part 1 permalink

Land Locked and Rocked is a quadruple the fun, quadruple the pleasure live music event happening this Saturday, May 10 at 4 of our non-coastal stores. For all of you that need to drive more than a day just to catch a glimpse of the ocean...never fear, the music is here. Our Boulder location (934 Pearl St.) will be working it out with The Chain Gang Of 1974 (above), who take the stage at 7pm. Up in the Gem State at our Boise, ID store (8th and Front St.), they won’t be humming a few bars of “Here We Have Idaho”. Rather, come 6:30 they’ll be stroking chins to the hush-and-blast of Mayerforceone then communing with the spacerock stylings of The Universal.

From Minneapolis 05/08/08

Land Locked and Rocked - Part 2

Land Locked and Rocked - Part 2 permalink

The power of quad city music continues to form like Voltron. Over in Minneapolis this Sat nite, our 3006 Hennepin Ave. South store plays host to the way-wiser-than-their-years Weaver At The Loom (above). Speed’s The Name opens and the whole shindig kicks off at 9pm. Capping off the 4 pack at our Salt Lake City, UT location (12 South 400 West St.) is the charming alt-country of Band Of Annuals. Doors at 7:30. Have a blast and let us know how it was!

From New York 05/07/08

The Virgins Like Ice Cream permalink

The Virgins are one of the bands playing the NYLON Summer Music Tour and Donald, their lead singer, reaaallllyyy loves ice cream.

From New York 05/02/08

NYLON Summer Music Tour

It’s All Happening permalink

Tracy isn’t here this week because she’s packing for a road trip - the NYLON Summer Music Tour.  She’ll be hitting 36 cities with four amazing bands (The Virgins, She Wants Revenge, Be Your Own Pet, and Switches) and sending you weekly updates about all the craziness.  We don’t think anyone’s gonna start singing Tiny Dancer on the tour bus, but hey, you never know.  To join in the fun, hop over to the NYLON Summer Music Tour site before the tickets sell out, and stay tuned next week, when Tracy tells us how many Urban tees she can shove in a duffle bag - she’ll need at least twenty to get from Anaheim to San Diego…

From Chicago 04/30/08

Looptopia In-Store

Looptopia In-Store permalink

Looptopia, Chicago’s all night arts and culture jump-off, is invading our 20 State St. store this Friday nite. The event runs 7pm to midnite but you can catch Company of Thieves (that’s them pictured above) at 7:30 and Raise High the Roof Beam at 8:30. Fix up, look sharp!

From Philadelphia 04/28/08

Summer Essentials Mix

Summer Essentials Mix permalink

No summer classes? Check. Shore rental with your peeps? Check. Beach chair? Check. Abs correct? Check. Stack of celebutrash magazines? Check. SmartWater? Check. Then you best have our Summer Essentials mix on your boombox and your nano when you hit the beach this June. Download it now.

From New York 04/21/08

Wahoo!

Wahoo! permalink

Yoooo guyz!  Last weekend all creative forces combined to make a great show in Brooklyn at the Galapagos space.  Musicians Darren Weiss and Loren Shane Humphrey (drummer from The Willowz) killed it on the drums.  They were the headliners of the show and did some improvisation with each other, drum to drum.  This was the first show I have seen in awhile where there were no vocals, and trust me, these two more than made up for it!  Darren Weiss blew my mind!  These guys were so inspiring that Nick Darmstaedter and Louis Eisner came up with a rad piece that they were painting on the stage while the show was going on.  More pix from the night are here. (Via Spacey Tracey.)

From Elsewhere 04/15/08

Cassette Badge Sets

Cassette Badge Sets permalink

Wear your extinct audio format loving heart on your sleeve (or hat or lapel) with these awesome, and painstakingly detailed, cassette badges. (Via Notcot.)

From Stockholm 04/15/08

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OWL permalink

OWL contain many trifectas of greatness. Three cute girls: Anna, Milou & Fan Fan. Three descriptions of what they sound like (taken from their MySpace): Heartache/Heart break/Frail hope. And three, well, five influences: The Jesus & Mary Chains/My Bloody Valentine/New Order/Suicide/Mazzy Star. It’s safe to say that they had us with their picture, but their shoegazey, vocals-buried-in-the-mix, sortakinda japanese pop is what sealed the deal.

From Seattle 04/10/08

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head permalink

We’re pretty much into any band that sings about fruit snacks and describes themselves as “a delicious explosion of freak-dance fruit pie”. Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head are on a mission to make the booty bounce and CSS asked them to open up for them on tour so you know they’ve got that magic stuff.

From Elsewhere 04/10/08

Cover Art By:

Cover Art By: permalink

Cover Art By: New Music Graphics is the perfect intersection of design and music nerdery. It’s packed with more than 400 examples of sleeve art and features bios of 30 of the most influential designers/labels around the globe.

From Elsewhere 04/08/08

ION LP Dock

ION LP Dock permalink

We don’t do gadgets quite enough here on the UO Blog so you might start to see a few more of these sort of posts...that and gaming...we know lots of you are on the up-all-night shift, even if it’s on your PSPs. Let us know what you think. Along those lines, this ION LP Dock is really next-level, especially where convenience and ease are concerned. We know some of you out there have your little stash of vinyl and this turntable will help you convert it straight to iTunes or your iPod with the push of a couple buttons. (Via Complex.)

From New York 04/07/08

Brendan Donnelly

Brendan Donnelly permalink

Taking the typical band tee and reworking it a bit, this latest collection of shirts from Brendan Donnelly have me seriously in love. Ramones, Black Flag & Motörhead? Yes please!

From Miami 03/28/08

Fixed NYC Party @ WMC

Fixed NYC Party @ WMC permalink

The crazy huge Fixed (NYC) Freakout at the 2008 Winter Music Conference is tomorrow nite at Studio A (60 NE 11th Street). Resident djs Dave P and JDH are your hosts and the rest of the line-up is nuts: Riton, Radioslave, Boys Noize and Erol Alkan, plus special live performances from Gui Barrato and Simian Mobile Disco. Get there.

From New York 03/28/08

Muxtape

Muxtape permalink

Within two days of launching, the guy who runs Muxtape had to upgrade his servers to handle the overwhelming response. Hardware-chat aside, it’s one of the simplest and best digital mixtape apps we’ve seen to date.

From Philadelphia 03/28/08

Philadelphia Record Fair

Philadelphia Record Fair permalink

Get ready to get your fingers dusty this Sunday as Vox Populi is hosting the Philadelphia Record Fair at the UPenn Rotunda. There will be up to 50 vendors there with special attention being paid to collectible vinyl (geek alert!). It’s located at 4014 Walnut, it’s free to the public from Noon-6pm and $10 early admission from 10am-12pm for all you obsessives. Happy hunting.

From Philadelphia 03/26/08

Foreign Service

Foreign Service permalink

Tomorrow night at the 700 Club, Eastern Europe will be on blast. Al and Laris are your selectors, and they’ll be running thru Gypsy, Slager, Balto, Slavic, Turbofolk, Eurowave, Panasian and more. Doors at 10. 

From Elsewhere 03/25/08

Conan the Raverian permalink

Kicking off a little beefcake trio of posts with Arnold’s glistening glowstick action.

From Los Angeles 03/19/08

Aaron Rose Interview

Aaron Rose Interview permalink

While you might not know who Aaron Rose is, a solid handful of the artists we’ve posted on this blog (Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Mike Mills, etc.) owe their some of their success to the visibility and promotion Aaron gave to them in the 90s. He’s probably most well known for curating the Beautiful Losers touring exhibit but he also has the following credits on his resume: writer, publisher, editor, musician and filmmaker. Flux spoke to Aaron about life and how he lives it.

From Austin 03/14/08

UO in Austin '08

UO in Austin ‘08 permalink

We’re all over Austin this week like BBQ sauce on ribs. We’ve got 3 days of bands playing behind our 2406 Guadalupe St. store, Beth from UO HQ is sending us her daily reports from the field and we’ve got a new playlist to stream and download for free. Click here to check out all our goings-on.

From New York 03/13/08

RockersNYC Spring/Summer 08

Rockers NYC S/S ‘08 permalink

Rockers NYC are back with a new collection known as the “Sound & Fury” that celebrates their love of killer music, some amazing bands, sick collab shirts (like the one by Shawn Mortensen above) and their sly use of politics. It really is one of the best collections yet but I’d expect nothing less from these hard hitters. What’s just as awesome is that they’ve released a huge “playlist” featuring 30 albums of the bands they are inspired by for you to download so act quick!

From Austin 03/13/08

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Fool’s Gold Jamboree at SXSW permalink

Fool’s Gold (for those of you who don’t know, it’s the label run by A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs) is throwing down extra serious in Austin this Saturday nite. They’re going to be showcasing their roster so expect to move your body to Chromeo, A-Trak, Kid Sister, Flosstradamus, Kid Cudi, Jokers of the Scene and Catchdubs himself. Party runs from 8pm til 2am at Volume (612 6th St.).

From Stockholm 03/11/08

Absolut Choir

Absolut Choir permalink

For the life of us we can’t figure out what the tie-in to Absolut is, but they sure are getting behind some amazing technology. The Absolut Choir allows you to interact with a 22 different characters, each having their own synthetic voice. You type in words or phrases and the “choir” will sing, depending on the sentiment of what you’ve typed. All of this is viewed live on the web via 4 webcams. Next level. (Via VLU.)

From San Francisco 03/07/08

All Known Metal Bands

All Known Metal Bands permalink

Dan Nelson is focused. We know this because he wrote the 250 page tome All Known Metal Bands, which lists every heavy metal band name that exists or has ever existed, to the tune of 51,000 bands.

From Paris 03/06/08

Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton

Keith Richards for LV permalink

The recent series of LV ads shot by Annie Leibovitz have been focused on journeymen icons. Now they are focused on...pirates!!

From Los Angeles 03/05/08

The Lana Show permalink

If I were Blonde Redhead, St. Vincent, Fatlip, or Ratatat I would definitely sign up to hang out in a closet with Lana, talk about life and music, and maybe get a tiny bit baked? You’ll be able to catch all the hi-jinx soon come on The Lana Show. (Via Fun Vamps.)

From New York 03/04/08

Viva Radio's Adolescent Sessions

Viva Radio’s Adolescent Sessions permalink

The Adolescent Sessions is a monthly event that stashes bands (like Sian Alice Group, pictured above) in the basement of UnionDocs in Brooklyn while the “audience” watches their performance upstairs on screen. Both voyeuristic and creepy, we’re intrigued by this experimental twist on the way we’re used to experiencing bands perform live.

From Elsewhere 03/03/08

She & Him

She & Him permalink

Timing is everything. The proof? After serving up the soundtrack to Erin Fetherston and Edun runway shows, plus performing with The Citizens Band and in If All the Stars Were Pretty Babies – it took a chance encounter with singer-songwriter M. Ward for Zooey Deschanel to finally record an album. The two met while working on a movie soundtrack and ended up making serious magic as She & Him on the album Volume 1, out this March. Complete with 11 nostalgia-rich tracks (think Dusty Springfield meets The Zombies) and Zooey’s unmistakable vocals, we’re going to go ahead and call this one way better late than never. 

From Elsewhere 02/29/08

Anarchy Cowbell

Anarchy Cowbell permalink

We do not, we repeat, do not, want to tangle with the drummer that plays this bad boy.