May 24, 2012 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS
“Sound & Vision”
05/10/12
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Sound & Vision

Kempt Liner Notes: “Tomorrow Never Knows”

John Lennon recording “Tomorrow Never Knows” at Abbey Road, 1966

Donald Draper isn’t a Beatles fan, but his creator sure is. The New York Times reported yesterday that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner didn’t blink at the $250,000 price tag that came with concluding Sunday’s episode with “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the first song written and recorded by the Beatles to be licensed for use on a television series. Why this particular track, though? As Weiner explains, “That song to me is revolutionary. [The Beatles] were constantly pushing the envelope, and I really wanted to show how far ahead of the culture they were.” And how far behind Draper had become. Roger Sterling, on the other hand, having recently returned from his jaunt with Lucy in the sky with diamonds, was likely a much bigger fan of the song.

As are we, after discovering some fascinating facts about the psychedelic anthem that changed everything…»
 

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03/15/12
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An Interactive Guide to Funk

A good funk drumbeat is a thing of beauty. The thump of the kick, the shiver of the hi-hat—but without the right ears, you might never be able to figure out what the drummer’s actually doing back there.

That’s where the Funklet comes in. It’s an interactive guide to those mysterious beats, courtesy of a lifelong funk aficionado and some clever Web work. So if you want to break down a classic funk beat—say, the powerful break from Bill Withers’s “Use Me”—the Funklet can show you the exact notation along with an interactive play-through tool that lets you speed it up and isolate the channels, along with a few other toys.

For the rhythmically inclined, it’s a pretty cool way to while away a Thursday afternoon. And for everyone else…there’s still time to learn.

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02/27/12
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The Filthiest Song of 1937, by a Lot

While preparing last week’s report “In Defense of Cussing,” we stumbled upon a 1937 song by Lucille Bogan that contained the first swear word ever recorded. Judging from Ms. Bogan’s photo, we assumed her vernacular would have been similar to that used in, say, Gone with the Wind—which, in 1939, became the first major film to employ the word “damn.” We were fantastically wrong.

“I got nipples on my titties, big as the end of my thumb. I got somethin’ between my legs that’ll make a dead man come…”»
 

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02/03/12
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Extraordinary Moments in Soul Train History

Earlier this week, Don Cornelius, the beloved host and creator of Soul Train, chose the Gunter Sachs method of treating Alzheimer’s disease: he shot himself in the head. Though terribly sad, it’s not at all surprising that men like Cornelius and Sachs—both unceasingly proud and dignified individuals who lived fairy-tale lives—opted to stare down the barrel of a shotgun rather than the dim, tapering tunnel of dementia.

Many under the age of 30 had likely never heard of Mr. Cornelius before this week, since his 22-year tenure as tour guide on “The Hippest Trip in America” ended in 1993. But any fans of Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Gladys Knight, Run-DMC or countless other artists whose careers began on Soul Train owe a healthy bit of gratitude to Don Cornelius.

To that end, we present you with three of the most extraordinary moments in Soul Train history.»
 

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12/21/11
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The Golden (Brown) Age of Game Show Hosts

The game show era of the 1970s and 1980s. A strange time. Refined, black-tie shows like What’s My Line and Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life gave way to wide lapels, sexual innuendoes and long-stemmed microphones.

Helming these shows was an interchangeable fleet of charmingly fake-tanned, bleach-toothed, dyed-haired pseudo sex symbols, the majority of whom had begun their careers as small-market disc jockeys. They were likably sleazy. Used car salesmen with a heart of gold. And following Johnny Carson’s lead, they pushed/shredded the envelope when it came to loud sport coats.

That’s not to say they weren’t good guys—Richard Dawson often made on-air, tearful pleas to help save the lives of needy children. Bob Barker certainly helped control the pet population. And Peter Tomarken died trying to transport a cancer patient in his Beechcraft Bonanza prop plane.

Today, we salute them. Our seven favorite game show hosts of the ’70s and ’80s.

Come on down…»
 

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10/19/11
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The Return of the Stone Roses

Word came down the transom yesterday that Britpop legends and parka aficionados The Stone Roses are reuniting for two shows in Manchester—with more dates on the way soon. If you’re not sure why it’s good news, we’d direct you here. Here’s hoping there’s a U.S. leg before too long.

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10/11/11
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The Lennon Tapes

We’ve been on a John Lennon kick ever since his birthday this past weekend, and it’s led us to one of the better gems the Web has to offer.

Apparently Jann Wenner managed to sit down with Lennon for a three-hour interview in 1970, covering everything from the old Liverpool scene to the true definition of “a mood song.” And since the Web is generous, it’s all on iTunes for free.

It’s the kind of interview you don’t hear anymore—brutally honest and completely indifferent to how anyone else might feel about what he’s saying. If you don’t believe us, check six minutes into the second tape, when he gives an almost embarrassingly direct take on his own guitar playing, and a few hints as to the artistic and personal frustrations he was facing down in the Plastic Ono Band years.

And apparently “Daytripper” is actually about drugs.

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09/22/11
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Tales of the Drifter

It looks like we’re about to get one last Hank Williams album. The story starts with the Hillbilly Shakespeare’s legendary songwriting notebooks, which somehow found their way to Bob Dylan. Apparently Dylan’s spent the past few years rounding up fans like Jack White and Merle Haggard to set the lyrics to music, Mermaid Avenue-style. The resulting album arrives October 4th with the first new Williams songs in 50 years. If you’re not clear on why that’s a big deal, we’d direct you here. It’s everything that’s great about Americana: tragic, brilliant and scary as hell. Enjoy.

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09/16/11
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Our Emmy Premonitions

As you may know, the Emmys are this Sunday. And in the interest of getting a jump on the live-bloggers, we’ve developed something called a “pre-cap.” It combines an in-depth study of the nominees and presenters with a reckless disregard for accuracy—resulting in minutely detailed premonitions of what will happen at the ceremony, a mere 48 hours from now. Update your Emmy pools accordingly.

Join us, won’t you?»
 

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09/07/11
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Touching Me, Touching You

Ladies and gentlemen, Neil Diamond has arrived.

Word came down the transom today that Neil is receiving the Kennedy Center honors this year, alongside Meryl Streep, Sonny Rollins and Yo-Yo Ma. (We assume it’s in recognition of his powerful eyebrows and painfully sincere use of the word “cherry.”) The whole thing’s a bit stuffy, but we’re glad to see Neil get some critical acclaim for all that AM gold. And if you’re feeling as inspired as we are, we’ve arranged a proper congratulatory number…

Sing along with us, after the jump»
 

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08/23/11
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Doyle Mueser’s Self-Referential Tailoring

The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks

This snap comes from AMC’s first digital-only offering, The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks, which arrived online yesterday. The show follows Adam Goldberg as a meta-minded theater director who happens to be extremely well-dressed—the latter part coming courtesy of West Village tailor Doyle Mueser. We hadn’t thought of mod suits as a hallmark of existential confusion…but we could be convinced.

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08/02/11
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An In-Depth Investigation of Billy Reid’s Last.Fm Profile

Billy Reid

We’ve gushed quite a bit about Billy Reid’s taste in style, but he’s also the owner of a distinguished last.fm profile, which you may have seen linked from his online shop. So we thought we’d take a look at Mr. Reid’s fall/winter selection (arriving in stores this month), with an eye towards its musical inspirations. As it turns out, listening to that much Drive-By Truckers can have quite an effect…

A look-by-look breakdown of Mr. Reid’s musical tastes»

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03/16/11
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Kempt Endorses: Rappers Dressing Like This

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We aren’t entirely up on the new crop of acts emerging out of SXSW, but we know what we like. One thing we like: when rappers wear tie pins.

This is L.A.’s own Shawn Chrystopher, an unsigned, Fiasco-esque rapper who made an impression with an unusually well-dressed performance in Austin. If he keeps up this look, he’s well on his way to being the Thom Browne of hip-hop.

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12/14/10
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Gold Sounds

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Sometimes an artist reaches a point in his career when he needs a guitar entirely covered in gold. Apparently Prince has reached that point.

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12/13/10
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Konichiwa, Internet

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The pop star/elf queen known as Robyn has given us a lot this year—in particular, a great album and an excuse for hipsters to listen to pop music—but apparently she’s got a few more plans. Also, she may have a future as an interactive ad guru…

To promote one of the underheralded singles of her latest full-length, “We Dance to the Beat,” the canny Swede has put together a self-remixing microsite that lets you tweak the song into your own version, or just scan through the grid of videos like an aleatoric DJ in search of the perfect combination. The result is a mind-boggling number of variations of the same basic rhythm, paired with leftfield videos for an aesthetic somewhere between Brian Eno and Zoo TV.

Of course, it helps that the original song is awesome, and unusually tinkerable…but we’re pretty sure this is what the internet is for.

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12/08/10
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The Live Album

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For anyone you know well enough to talk music with, the right album can be a brilliant gift. The trick is finding one you know they’ll like, but they haven’t even heard of. Our solution, the live album.

In particular, we’re thinking of LCD Sounsystem’s London Sessions, a live tour of one of the more interesting discographies of the decade. If you’ve got anyone on your list who was gushing about This Is Happening when it came out in April, this Abbey Road session should be just about perfect. It’s not essential listening—if it were, they’d already own it—but as cake-icing goes, it’s pretty tasty.

The only downside is, it won’t be available in physical form until February. But that shouldn’t stop you from getting creative with a CD burner.

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11/30/10
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Fabricated

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You’re about to learn everything you ever wanted to know about French linen. This 15-minute film from Benoit Millot follows a single crop of flax from the fields of Normandy, through harvest, spinning, knitting and tailoring. The finished product is as good as the European luxury industry gets—and food for thought the next time you’re wondering where the fabric in your suit comes from.

Follow the linen here»

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11/03/10
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Let’s Go On With the Show

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Comedy nerds have had it pretty good the past few years, but it’s not like all the recent brilliance came out of nowhere. A lot of those dark comedies and unhinged workplace sitcoms can be traced back to a single glorious run in the early 90s—a run that’s making its way to DVD this week.

Ladies and gentlemen, The Larry Sanders Show.

But wait, there’s so much more…»

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10/13/10
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The Analog Crown Jewels

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Count on Tom Waits to dig up both an all-but disappeared species of creole jazz and an all-but-disappeared record player to play it on. Sometimes, you just have to go for the full anachronism.

As part of a benefit for Preservation Hall in New Orleans, Tom Waits teamed up with the house band for a recording of two classic Mardi Gras chants circa 1947, but they’re only being sold as limited edition 78-rpm records, just like back in the day. If you spring for the deluxe package, they’ll even throw in a custom-made 78-rpm phonograph to play it on. It might be the crown jewel of a vinyl culture based on tactile authenticity…or just a really cool party favor.

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09/29/10
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The Future of Comedy

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Through the right eyes, the comic regions of the internet can look a lot like a variety show—so a pair of Ed Sullivan vets should fit right in.

They might look familiar…»

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09/17/10
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A Stacked Deck

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There’s a lot of fun to be had in the gloriously splintered world of indie music blogs—but it helps if you’ve got a native guide. And since trusting an editorial organization with your musical education would be painfully old-fashioned, it’s probably best to turn to machines.

Shuffler.fm is our favorite flock, particularly after this week’s redesign. With the help of an iTunes-style toolbar, Shuffler will guide you through a curated list of thousands of under-the-radar music blogs—kind of like listening to the internet on shuffle. You’ll choose a genre, but after that you’re pretty much at the mercy of the blogs.

In other words, click “hardcore” at your own risk.

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09/16/10
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Dispatches from the Edge of Town

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Circa 1978, Bruce Springsteen was in a spectacularly tortured place. Fresh off Born to Run and overflowing with material, he had the chance to fully indulge his perfectionist streak. That made for a stew of ambition, insecurity and some spectacularly frustrated band members—and, as it turns out, some pretty good television.

A new Springsteen doc called The Promise is making the rounds at the Toronto Film Fest with archived footage, band interviews and a refreshingly geeky take on the whole affair. Clips are already leaking out at a thrilling pace, showing exactly how wrenching the sessions for Darkness on the Edge of Town really were, with upwards of 70 songs being whittled down to the darkest ten he could produce (at least until Nebraska). It’s a rare creative moment, the kind of thing that makes you glad someone brought a camera along. And if for some reason you don’t feel like trekking out to Toronto, it’ll be arriving on HBO on October 7.

See a clip from the movie here, including an impromptu rendition of “Sherry Darling”»

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09/09/10
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The Next Movement

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Daft Punk have been resting comfortably in the pop music pantheon for almost a decade now, descending only for 2007’s victory-lap stadium tour, but they haven’t given too many hints as to what the next step might be. At least until now.

The robot duo’s score for Tron: Legacy just got its own website bearing their first new work in five years…and it sounds pretty good. The four-on-the-floor kick drum’s missing, but you can find a few of the old tricks if you look for them. Some critics are even reading an Oscar push into it, but if nothing else it suggests they’re considering a Hollywood afterlife along the lines of Robbie Robertson, Mark Mothersbaugh or even Hans Zimmer if they’re lucky. Count us among the very excited.

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08/10/10
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The Return of the Beard

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Alan Moore is an interesting guy. With a few masterpiece-level comics already under his belt, the shaggy mastermind has spent the past decade or so flitting between increasingly ambitious passion projects, and these days it’s more or less impossible to tell what he’s going to do next. Also, according to the New York Times, he’s discovered the secret of immortality. So there’s that.

His latest project is…different»

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05/18/10
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Exile’s Return

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Today marks the street date for the new reissue of the Stones’ Exile on Main Street, for our money the best blues-rock has to offer. The original album comes bundled with a slew of dropped tracks and other completist candy, but the big news is a handful of unfinished songs that the Glimmer Twins went back in the studio to finish up.

More importantly, they’re keeping the gloriously muddy mix intact. If you don’t have a copy of your own, now’s your chance to catch up.

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