Uses for community spaces are continually changing, along with the people and industries that inhabit them. As once quiet peripheral urban areas become revived and rapidly developed, certain opportunities arise for innovative use of space. One such area is the east London Borough…
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Opening just over a month ago, Clark Street Mercantile is a modest boutique in Montreal aimed at the discerning gentleman. Clothing, footwear, apothecary, pens and paper, magazines, accessories, artwork, bags, blankets, tonic and grenadine, razors—the inventory…
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London’s secret music venue and their livestream act
With an invite-only door policy and super secret location, Boiler Room is London’s most exclusive music venue. But elitism isn’t the premise for its clandestine nature—in fact, anyone with an Internet connection can easily join in the fun. Using a simple webcam, the crew behind Boiler Room livestreams each set for the world to see free of charge, and each month more than a million viewers tune in to see performances by artists like James Blake, The xx, Roots Manuva, Neon Indian, Juan Maclean and more.
We recently chilled out to the smooth sounds of Brooklyn’s How To Dress Well before rocking out to revered musician Matthew Dear, who brought down the house with an intense 40-minute DJ set. Keep an eye out for our interview with Dear, but for now you can get a little more insight into the underground music scene’s most talked about livestream show by checking out our interview with assistant musical programmer and Boiler Room host Nic Tasker.
That is quite an important aspect of it, purely because it means when you do shows you don’t get a lot of groupies, pretty much everyone in the room is either a friend of ours or one of the artist’s. It helps to create a more relaxed atmosphere for the artist and I think they feel less pressure. They’re also just able to chill out and be themselves more rather than having people in their face with iPhones. It’s about artists performing in a different environment to that of a commercial gig or anywhere else. If the artists are relaxed usually you get the best music.
It’s definitely a social place. All the people that come down, most of them we know and they’re all our friends. So they come down, hang, have a drink and just chill out, basically. From our very set-up, we do it with a webcam, we’re not a high production filming operation but I think that’s kind of the charm of it. The main thing is people come down with the right attitude.
I guess that depends on the artist. We never say anything. Literally, whatever they want to do—we’re kind of the platform for them to do whatever they want, so if Matthew Dear wants to come and play an hour of noise with no beats, he can do that. That’s fine with us, and I think that’s why artists like coming to play for us. We’re not like a club where you have to make people dance, we don’t give a shit if people dance. It’s nice if they do and it makes it more fun, but some nights you just get people appreciating the music, which is equally fun.
No, not particularly, it’s just whatever we’re feeling. Thristian [Boiler Room’s music director] has the main say on musical direction, but it’s a massive team effort. In London there’s six of us, New York there’s two, LA there’s one and Berlin there’s two.
It definitely depends on the act and what kind of music they do. With live bands we found what works nicely is having them opposite each other because it’s like they’re in rehearsal, like they’re just jamming. Which is again trying to give them that chilled out feel that they’re just at home jamming and there happens to be a camera there. For some of our shows we’ve had over 100,000 viewers. When you think of those numbers it’s quite scary, but when you’re in the room and it’s all friends it creates that vibe that people don’t mind. You can imagine if you had all those people in front of you it would be a very different situation.
It’s never crossed my mind like that, but I can see why you think that. I like to think of us as the new music broadcaster, kind of the new MTV, but obviously we operate in the underground scene mainly. But I like to think that what we do is as revolutionary as what they were doing. We’re always growing into something new.
We’re looking forward to doing more with the visuals and we’re starting to do breakfast shows with some high profile DJs, we’re going to be doing that regularly. Each will have an individual format. The next step is progressing the US shows, we’re alternating weekly between New York and LA, so the next step is to take Boiler Room to America.
Photos by BHP
Cuisine meets design in a Finnish concept restaurant during Stockholm Design Week
On 7th February Stockholm welcomes design lovers as the annual Stockholm Design Week kicks off again. Timed to run alongside the Furniture & Light Fair, Finnish concept restaurant Hel Yes! will set up a special space on Skeppsholmen Island in the center of Stockholm.
Hel Yes! first entered the design fray during the 2010 London Design Week, hailed as one of the highlights of the festival itself as it tied together the disciplines of food and design with a sophisticated site-specific installation.
With Helsinki having been named Design Capital of the World in 2011, Hel Yes! gets another chance to shine as creative founders, restauranter Antto Melasniemi, artist Klaus Haapaniemi and designer Mia Wallenius bring their diverse skills to the new location.
London’s Hel Yes! was focused mainly on food and design, but Stockholm’s concept looks more toward the social aspects of gathering to eat, played out against neo-paganistic iconography devised by Haapaniemi, whose graphic forms of fauna and far-off galaxies will fill the 100-square-meter space. “Everybody on the team is interested in mysticism and Finnish pagan aesthetics,” explains Wallenius. “The textiles create a vast architectonic element and are part of creating a unique cosmos.”
In the months leading up to the opening, the founders worked with Finnish choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström and his dancers at Helsinki Dance Company to incorporate key elements of interaction and movement to the latest iteration of Hel Yes! More than just dance, the heightened sensory experience builds sections of choreography into the cooking and preparation of the food. “There’s no distinction between the dancers and the waiters. We’re trying to create a logical entirety with the audience being a part of it—more of an event than a performance,” explains Melasniemi. According to the chef, it’s about more than just food. “I’m not so much of a technician but have found myself getting more and more into the whole experience and concept of the dining ritual,” he says, explaining that when he eats out, he spends more time looking at the movement of the waiters, the sommelier’s delivery or the angles of tables and chairs.
As with the last Hel Yes! close attention to detail guides every aspect of the experience, from the special waitstaff uniform to the beer and vodka selection. Even the tablewear is drawn together from swap meets, in which residents from the Mylittala community are asked to hand over their old pieces from legendary Finnish brand Iittala and share the memories attached to each piece, in exhange for a free dinner. More advanced choreography fills the venue throughout the evening, including the introduction of an orchestra with a section of instruments crafted from whale bone. As for the food itself it’s likely to be a true showcase of Finnish cuisine and ingredients by chef whose vision goes beyond the food itself and transcends into a spectacularly memorable dining experience.
Hel Yes!
7-11 February 2012
Eric Ericsonhallen, Kyrkslingan 2
111 49 Stockholm, SE
Nightmare and the Cat celebrate their EP release with a raucous NYC show
“Drink your shots, pick up your beer and come watch us perform,” Django Stewart commanded the crowd at Mercury Lounge last week. “We’re Nightmare and the Cat,” punctuated his brother and fellow frontman Sam Stewart, kicking off the show to launch their debut EP. Eight songs later, sweating and dazed, the packed house saw the band off the stage with rapturous applause. The music that came between varied from lofty, thoughtful rock to soulful, layered folk. Dramatic, story-driven, catchy and with swoon-inspiring potency that envelops the band itself (as well as their performance and the new album), Nightmare and the Cat exude nothing shy of magic.
The two frontmen, despite their youthful appearances, both were members of since dispersed, but seasoned musical acts before forming the band a little over a year ago in Los Angeles. Sam spent seven years with London band Blondelle, while Django helmed The Midnight Squires.
Together, with multi-instrumentalist and singer Claire Acey, drummer Spike Phillips and bassist Julie Mitchell, the five-piece has performed both coasts, a SXSW showcase with artist Gary Baseman and the United Kingdom. Circumnavigating the Edward Sharp and Local Natives aesthetic, the band’s harmonies, taut instrumentals and atmosphere build, first and foremost, an environment where their stories exist.
The self-titled EP, lush and melodic, feels more than anything like a thrilling teaser for things to come. A melodic through line weaves among the tracks “Sarah Beth,” “The Missing Year” and “Little Poet.” Orchestration and backing vocals play off Django’s dynamic voice—often in dialogue, sometimes in alignment.
Just when you feel the band settling in with a sound, the closing song, “Anybody’s Bride,” punctures it with punkish ferociousness. The whimsicality might feel extravagant, but never disposable, glazing the music with a limitless sense of wonder. There is sentimentality and delicacy to even the more raucous portions of the tracks, knitting everything together as sound storytelling should.
Famed photographer Mick Rock, a supporter of the band and attendee at the Mercury Lounge show, once snapped an iconic photograph of David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, arms draped across one another. There was startling breadth and depth to those three musicians’ work. As If schooled in the language of rock, Nightmare and the Cat draw on these influences, blend their lessons and strengths and craft something all their own.
Top image by Sterling Taylor, performance images by Eli Russell Linnetz.
Escape the Milan fair frenzy at designer Matteo Ragni’s Campari bottle-inspired bar
In the beautiful gardens of La Triennale Design Museum, Italy’s famed aperitivo Campari created a new look for the outdoor bar, a bright red vision designed by Matteo Ragni. Dubbed Camparitivo, Ragni tells us the spirit behind this Talent Capsule design “is continuing toward a ‘futuro meraviglioso’ (wonderful future), like in the previous seasons.” The Italian designer (known for his all-in-one spoon and fork called Moscardino) says of the bar originally created in 2010, “All the ideas around this project are in homage to the classic Campari bottle, designed in 1932 by the Futurist artist Fortunato Depero. But the new ideas aim to define a constant evolution.”
Ragni’s projects for Campari confirm such a conviction. The Clic glass is a glorification of the iconic bottle, the Meditation Telescopes are a variation on the signature conical shape, the Hourglass made with two bottles defines the perfect time lapse to enjoy your drink, and the new Talent Capsules are like rockets for collective creativity.
The Triennale gardens are now punctuated with several Talent Capsules, semi-closed spaces in an open natural space, quiet areas for discussing, concentrating, creating, having meetings or simply drinking an aperitivo.
The Capsule are free to use, but can also be booked on Campari’s website. See more images of the Campari bar in the gallery.
Portland’s influx of musicians is an adored attribute about the city. From the iconic house party to more traditional venues, Portland remains to keep their music scene fresh with an unconventional take on industry standards. Highlighted below are five interesting venues that host some of Portland’s best acts.
Portland’s newest venue is located in a classy up-and-coming southeast neighborhood known as Sellwood. The Woods intends to keep its line-up mostly acoustic and melodic, a suitable genre considering its decorous surroundings and the fact it was formerly a funeral home. Bands can play either in the main chapel area, which is where bodies were shown, or the basement, which was used for embalming and cold storage. While this knowledge could add a creepy air to the proceedings, The Woods is quickly becoming one of the hottest places to play in Portland.
The Artistery‘s all-ages shows are a great way to revisit those bittersweet teen years. Particularly since The Artistery is an actual basement, in an actual house, in southeast Portland. Don’t be fooled by the exterior, their line-up is as talented as any full-blown music hall, including performances by local favorites White Fang and Explode into Colors.
Surely one of the most spectacular venues in one of the most spectacular natural landscapes in the country, The Gorge Amphitheater seats over 25,000 people and overlooks the mighty Columbia River. Such a magnificent setting inspires truly magical performances. The Gorge has seen acts such as Neil Young, Van Halen, Phish and Ben Harper and Pearl Jam’s iconic box set Live at the Gorge was recorded there. Every year The Gorge hosts the Sasquatch Music Festival, which hosts established as well as emerging bands such as Vampire Weekend and Portland’s own Nurses.
The Old Church is a uniquely Portland venue. While it is an actual old church available for all the intended purposes, they also rent out the space for distinctly secular events. The building’s soaring ceilings and stained-glass windows offer a hushed and reverent air to everything from weekly Sunday jazz to local bands.
Portland now bears little resemblance to the rough and tough Wild West town that it used to be, but White Eagle Saloon, located in Portland’s grittier Northeast quadrant, is a great place to lift a pint in nostalgia for those days when drunken sailors were shanghaied onto waiting ships and rouged ladies of the night hollered from upstairs balconies. The saloon features nightly live music of the folk and fiddle variety, as well as a resident ghost that likes to lock unwitting female guests in the ladies restroom.
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