Culture Archives - Page 8 of 49

The Great Gatsby limited-edition vinyl set

Blingin’ vinyl: Third Man moves gold/platinum records from wall to turntable

Jack White’s Third Man Records is taking a cue from The Great Gatsby’s glittering scenery and releasing a fittingly extravagant collectable — a two-disc gold and platinum metallized record set.

Hammacher Schlemmer Portable Solar Speaker

Harness the sun’s rays to power this portable Bluetooth solar speaker

With spring weather finally hitting the Northern Hemisphere, it’s a good time to think about music accessories for the season’s barbeques, beach parties, picnics, and soirées. Enter the Hammacher Schlemmer portable solar-powered speaker.

Cider surge: Stella Artois finally shares hard apple brew with USA

Sometimes you just don’t want beer. Luckily, for fans of Stella Artois who are in a fruitier mood, the Belgian brewer is introducing a new hard cider into the US market.

Q&A: Massive Attack producer Neil Davidge scores the next chapter in Halo’s legacy

Massive Attack producer Neil Davidge was tapped to score the latest iteration of the Halo series, Halo 4. We talked to him about fandom, scale, and the challenges of working in interactive media.

Louder Than Hell: Heavy-metal history gets definitive tome

Louder than Hell tells a 700-page history of heavy metal, straight from the mouths of the shredders.

Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn release collaborative, limited-edition book for a Tin Pan retrospective

Tom Waits is an arresting personality. And looking back over his entire oeuvre, photographer/director Anton Corbijn has been there to capture him.

Witness the unsung art of Sign Painters in touring documentary

A book published last year and a film currently touring chronicle the fall and rise of Sign Painters, the artists behind the beautiful, hand painted work you ignore every day, as they struggle to affirm an art form threatened by the fast paced modern world.

Majestic unicorns, space whales, and power ballads: Robot Unicorn Attack 2 for iOS

In need of majestic unicorn accessories, space whales, and power ballads? Adult Swim Games has released Robot Unicorn Attack 2, and it’s an awesomely prog-tacular upgrade on its predecessor.

Fred Armisen’s five favorite Portland places

With a few seasons of Portlandia in the books, sketch master and former Trenchmouth drummer Fred Armisen has helped spawn a renewed interest in the The City of Roses (aided, of course, by the talents of ex-Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein).

Q&A: Aesthetic Apparatus distills beauty from poor choices

In a decade that will be characterized by staggering unemployment and one of the greatest recessions in recent history, it is refreshing to hear Aesthetic Apparatus’s story. Forging a partnership based on a shared love of music, art, and design, Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski left their jobs at a Madison, Wisconsin, graphic-design firm in 2002 to do things their way.

Their creation — Aesthetic Apparatus — is a Minneapolis-based commercial art and printmaking studio that has designed everything from gallery art to logos for local pizza shops to concert posters for bands such as Cake and The Black Keys. Leaving a successful graphic-design studio to start something for themselves didn’t promise Ibarra and Byzewski immediate success, but it did set the stage for Aesthetic Apparatus to become modern-day purveyors of pop-culture cool.

Ibarra recently took some time to talk about Aesthetic Apparatus’s unique vision.

Seven songs for a road trip to anywhere

Going somewhere? Anywhere? Put on these tunes during your aimless getaway.

Meet Jess Fink, time-traveling comic purveyor of erotica and bad advice

Jess Fink is awesome. What other word can be used to describe a woman who wrote a graphic novel about a clockwork Victorian sex robot and a time-traveling memoir where she goes back in time and gives herself bad advice?