Portland-based Parenthetical Girls are about to release their fourth album, entitled Privilege, Pt. 1: On Death and Endearments. They started off with original members Zac Pennington and Jeremy Cooper under the name Swastika Girls, taken from a Brian Eno song, and released their debut EP Christmas With Swastika Girls in 2002 →

100 ft tall baby chicks, massive strawberries, and flying fish will be part of your trip with Jeff Jordan …

Great art always provokes more questions than answers. His art is a surrealist stab at the ‘how’ and ‘why’ beyond the psychic space that develops around an image, by jolting linear thought processes, and pushing the outer limits of creative evolution. Jeff Jordan’s hybrids and irrational relationships are birthed by his relentless attempt to broaden mental pliability, and expand our desire to inquire. →

Edan is one of those rare hip-hop heads who can hold their own on the mic as well as the turntable. His last record, Beauty and the Beat (2005), was a pure experiment in musical bricolage combining Moog synthesizers, rock samples and psychedelic riffs. If Jimi Hendrix were alive to have witnessed the birth of hip-hop, his creative forays may have resembled something like Edan’s acid-trip beats. There’s a fresh, uninhibited energy that pervades Edan’s music, a style that is equal parts reverent and subversive to tradition. →

Miles Tackett, or Music Man Miles as he’s colloquially called, is the lead man of Breakestra, the ten-piece funk orchestra from Los Angeles. He also heads the Funky Sole and The Root Down club events, where he spins classic funk, soul and jazz records to packed audiences. In the nineties, he formed a band called The Inclined with a couple of high school friends. The band got its start through Battle of the Band competitions and party gigs in the Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica area. Their progressive rock and melodic pop foundations bode well for the then-burgeoning grunge scene. →

For those who don’t already know, Junior Boys may have created a near-perfect dance album of 2009.  When I spoke with co-founding member, Jeremy Greenspan regarding some of their influences, he accredited their sound to “blue eyed soul” through the filter of such luminaries as Steely Dan and Carol King.  Taking their stylistic cues, they’ve blended proto-disco, early house and experimental electronica a la BBC Radiohonic and voila!  What comes together is a smooth, albeit long awaited, transition into their third release, Begone Dull Care. →

Aaron Britt, one of six editors at Dwell magazine, is a perfect example of the modern-day journalist, putting his hands in as many pots as possible in the hope that one heats up.  It’s the only way to survive in a market where immediacy has become paramount to all else.  Print is suffering across the nation, newspapers are on the endangered list, and more and more people like Aaron are out of work.  However, Aaron is one of a rare few who have carved out a niche for themselves by writing about what they love.  In addition to editing Dwell, he also pens a bi-weekly column on men’s style for the San Francisco Chronicle called The Pocket Square. →

Whoever thought chamber pop would go so well with hip hop had something special in mind.  Then again, when your concept of hip hop is as simple as Raj Haldar’s (aka Lushlife), the marriage couldn’t be any more obvious.  “Hip hop at its core can be anything” is the underlying principle behind Cassette City, Lushlife’s latest “experimental” album.  When you’re a classically trained musician with musical influences that span far and wide, everything you produce can qualify as an experiment.

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The Mulholland Way
Jay Holland isn’t the kind of guy most people would picture as a luggage and accessories designer. He’s confident, soft-spoken and unmistakably masculine. His clothes are stylish, but his appearance isn’t overly preened nor his shoes overly laced, or even laced at all on the day of our latest meeting. Yet, as the president of Mulholland, his family’s San Francisco-based business, Jay and his brother Guy, the company’s vice president, have their hands in every design decision, from the color of the zippers to the shape of the chairs. →

Slow Children Crossing is an African-American sketch comedy group consisting of three women and two men: Alem Sapp, Brett Butler, Destini Meshack (BET’s “Played by Fame”), Saudia Rashed (“The New Guy”), Tiffany Thomas (“The Boondocks”). Their electric energy has been compared to “Kids in the Hall” meets “In Living Color” and as vibrant individuals, they each possess a unique voice in world of comedy. Due to growing popularity, they have performed in front of sold-out audiences.

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