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Omar Almufti photographer

Tight Lips

When Black Lips passed through Webster Hall in Manhattan’s East Village last week to support their latest project, Arabia Mountain, out June 7th on Vice Records, it became clear from the outset that this it was going to be a wild fucking show. I had always heard these guys put it down, but hadn’t had a chance to catch them in the past. A few seconds into the first cut, the packed house was shaking, beer and all kinds of other shit was being tossed around… simply put, people were raging it. I hadn’t been to a proper rock ’n’ roll show for a minute and the set these guys played was definitely a reminder of all the best reasons that people are drawn to this music in the first place. Bassist Jared Swilley took some time to speak with me about the new record, some of the band’s travels over the years and their upcoming tour.

, 26 April 2011

3D Type

I’m happy to be part of the recently published 3D Type Book—the most comprehensive showcase of three-dimensional letterforms ever written—by Fl@33. Featuring over 1,300 images of more than 300 projects by more than 160 designers including Sagmeister, Vaughan Oliver, Milton Glaser, Italo Lupi, Hort and Non-Format. The variety of work is amazing, spanning decades and materials, from nails and balloons to human skin.

, 22 April 2011

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Joseph Del Duca photographer

Sunshine to moonshine?

Italian fashion shooters are like busses: even when you’re not waiting for one, two come along at once. Photographer Joseph Del Duca (call him Jos) is based in Florence, Italy and is into keepin’ it real. This time, I was sold by the natural sunlight and that good ol’ American dreamy summer look. (After this shoot, I reckon the girls finished off their latest batch of moonshine and went alligator rustling.)

, 22 April 2011

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Max Margheri photographer

Bring the smize

Max Margheri is an Milan-based fashion photographer who has seen pay-days from Italian Vogue and the like. The 31-year-old was born in Italy but grew up in the USA until he was 12.

He approached levelmag.com saying he loves to “collaborate w/ magazine no conventional” with an offer of doing a photo shoot, and being intrigued, I agreed. The results are linked below. It’s high fashion like Level has never seen before… but an agreement is an agreement… and I like a gorgeous model as much as the next chap.

, 19 April 2011

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Draplin’s Show and Tell

Aaron Draplin is an iconic fixture of Portland, Oregon’s busy graphic design scene. Having made a name for himself with stand-out work for snowboarding companies and their like, he’s now courting more mainstream clients.

Draplin has a fetish for the greater design decisions of thirty-odd-plus years ago, especially the sort of stuff that enclosed a wingnut for your whatnot. It’s an influence that constantly shows in his work, and we don’t think you should be expecting that to change with his new paymasters.

While on a mission to video-document the designer for snowboard website Yobeat, Jared Souney had a guided peak into the big man’s drawers of dirty delights for Level mag dot com.

, 07 April 2011

THE VIDEO IS RIGHT HERE (ON LEVELMAG.COM)

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goodstuff 035

Hot Salsa

Cult Cargo: Salsa Boricua De Chicago, the latest compilation released by Grammy-nominated archival record label Numero Group digs deep into the history of Chicago’s little-known salsa recording industry. Focusing on releases from Carlos Ruiz’s storied Ebirac imprint, accompanied by detailed liner notes and a lot of dope photos, the project maintains a composed sense of history that these guys have become best known for.

This is a really cool record, what was the inspiration for developing this compilation?

No one even knew there was a salsa recording industry in Chicago whatsoever. Discoveries are what drives a lot of our directions. I was calling extremely knowledgeable salsa collectors and stumping ’em with these releases. 

How did you first learn about Carlos …read on

, 06 April 2011

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HELLO PASTY

I’m from New England, and despite being the closest part of the American mainland to Great Britain, New England lost most of its Queen-inspired flair over the years. It took a bit of overseas traveling before I experienced any real English culture, but it took a trip to the American Southwest to experience the Cornish pasty.

What the hell is a Cornish pasty? To the uninitiated, a pasty could easily be mistaken for a calzone, an Italian-inspired treat us Americans have transitioned to high school cafeterias, pizza parlors and microwaves. Aside from its self-contained nature, a pasty has very little to do with its Italian second cousin. And you don’t say it like ‘pasty’ as in ‘pale’: this ‘pasty’ rhymes …read on

, 25 February 2011

“I’m such a tease and you’re such a flirt…” The most important band in the world has returned with another cure for the malaise of the age. Pick one: They’ve saved rock and roll, killed rock and roll, and still emerged from the muck of the music industry well ahead of the curve. Everyone in media keeps them under the microscope to see how they will win. Again. Lean in, here’s the secret:

Radiohead makes great records.

And they do it consistently. They’re also quite adept at parsing the patterns on the horizon of the mediascape, but that wouldn’t matter if …read on

, 22 February 2011

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The King of Limbs

goodstuff 033

Rebecca Steele photographer

Grails Tap

The sound cultivated by Portland, Oregon-based band Grails on their latest release, Deep Politics, is out of this world. Level had a chance to speak with founding member Emil Amos and get some insights on the project.

For those unfamiliar, tell me a bit about how you guys got together as Grails, and some of the projects you’ve worked on leading up to Deep Politics.

The band has been around since around late ’99/early ’00… it feels like it’s gone from being a typical ‘band’ that played weekend shows to some sort of art production warehouse at this point… there’s more of a back room/mad scientist element in revealing these experiments to the rest of the world than the usual …read on

, 21 February 2011

It’s so unfair to see a band like Deftones lumped in with bands they have next-to-nothing to do with (e.g., Limp Bizkit, Korn, Tool, et al). One listen to their latest, the delayed and embattled Diamond Eyes—the boys have been through a lot since 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist including an entire record shelved and a bass player in a coma—and you’ll hear the pedigree. Diamond Eyes proves as sophisticated as it is loud and as beautiful as it is aggressive, and Deftones as much like the Cure as they are Clutch.

, 09 February 2011

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