Jazz singer José James caught the attention of influential DJ and A&R man Gilles Peterson with his smoky baritone and cool style before being signed to Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings. In the tradition of jazz vocalists like Billie Holiday, James is one of those rare and gifted singers who are deeply soulful as they are stylish. In this video, James performs in Belgium during his BlackMagic tour. →

Paris-based producer Onra first graced us with 2007′s Chinoiseries, his compilation of beats sampled from old Vietnamese and Chinese records he discovered on his tour of the motherland. In his forthcoming record Long Distance, Onra looks back to eighties funk and R&B →

For 24 years, a madman named Joseph Kony has been enlisting child soldiers for his Lord’s Resistance Army, a theocratic separatist group of Uganda that has abducted an estimated 30,000 children and displaced 1.6 million people since 1986. Even after they manage to escape military service, many child soldiers suffer severe psychological trauma and emotional shame over having been forced to commit brutal acts like the murders of their family and friends. →

Let’s be honest. While die-hard hipsters are spending their time lingering over lineups and studying set lists, for your retail-hippie self, the highlight of your three-day stay at the isle of Coachella is easily the T in GTL. Luckily KEVA J’s edgy swimsuits are singing in the same key of F (for Fah-shon!). This sexed up swimwear from designer Keva J will have you covered (well, partially) while you rock out (or languidly watch others do so). Our picks? Try Surface, a red-hot sculptural one-piece that is perfect to pair with your cut off Levis, or Blackout, an eighties-inspired bikini that looks uber chic beneath an oversized button-down. Whatever your veritable geometric selection, choosing a suit from a designer who just showed at Miami’s Rock Media Fashion Week promises to be a sweet, stylish song. Finally, a tune you can hum.

http://shop.kevabykevaj.com/

Slumberland Records co-founder Michael Schulman (left) and Matt Hartman of the How and Henry’s Dress

The Rickshaw Stop – San Francisco, CA
Live Review: 3/27/10

Local and international legends collided on a Saturday night at the Rickshaw Stop, though you might not know it from the billing or the venue, or from anyone who wasn’t in attendance. The people in attendance have different standards of success and different kinds of legends. →

Lazarides is delighted to announce its exhibition programme for an exclusive 4-month period in Los Angeles. Launching in April, Lazarides will host 4 unique exhibitions in a secret 8,000 square foot venue in Beverly Hills. With an already reputable relationship with the US, three sell-out exhibitions —Banksy’s Barely Legal (2006), Antony Micallef’s Impure Idols (2007) and Outsiders (2008)—Lazarides is returning stateside with an impressive line-up of solo and group exhibitions.

To kick it off, David Choe is returning to his hometown after a six-year absence with Nothing to Declare (23rd April-23rd May). Then →

Considering the amount of time I spend listening to my iPod, the Kitsune Noir is a healthy alternative to putting your playlist on repeat. Kitsune Noir Mixcast is here and ready to amp up your everyday playlist. This week’s Mixcast features electronic music influenced primarily by late 90’s electronica. There’s a variety of old school as well as brand new electronic so you can get a taste of both the old and the new. The upbeat sound offers a more enjoyable trip to work. I can almost guarantee (check out the tracklist for the mix!), it will help you power through that paper you’ve been avoiding all week. Download yours now. →

Frank Capra and Robert Riskin formed their own company and stand proud behind their first collaboration project together: the artistically ambitious and powerful movie, Meet John Doe. Capra is a master of the art of orchestrating audience emotions and delivers a case study of how easily the public can be manipulated and the emotional effects this power has on a man. With a plot line that seems to inevitably spiral into darkness, Capra had to shoot five different ways to find a way out of it. See for yourself and experience 122 minutes of one of Capra’s most mature masterpieces and open your mind to a taste of “Capra—esque” entertainment. →

Illustration by Ben Tour

Fellow writer and friend of Evil Monito, Matthew Newton, welcomes you to his personal journal Annals of Americus. As a journalist, Newton’s writing has been featured in Spin, XL8R, Swindle and others. He is also a contributing writer at True/Slant.com and a senior editor at Computerlove.

→

Parisian producer Onra may be known for stepping into the hip hop arena with commercial legends Dr. Dre and DJ Quick. But despite his mainstream affiliations, he is also recognized for his creative endeavors that lean more to the underground. He has shown a particular interest in salvaging obscure vinyl and merging hip hop beats with rare Vietnamese and Chinese music. →