Go To Girlcore, Get Your Hair Did

Girlcore is the best night in East London, imagine 90's pop music mixed with some hot new ones and a completely unpretentious crowd. Tonight, Berlin's most hyped hairdresser Charlie Le Mindu will be cutting clubbers hair during the party at London's Catch Bar (Shoreditch High Street).

Any Sunday Times Style readers out there will have seen Fleur Britten's piece at the weekend on the man himself and the results of one of his legendary hair cuts. Ladies, just don't ask for a 'Plonkon' one of Mindu's specialities which is basically an inverse monk cut.

Dare you brave the Berlin barber?

Ebony Bones - your new fashion/music icon

If you have read any of the 'Ones To Watch for 2008' in various newspapers you are bound to have heard of Ebony Bones, with a dubious background as an actress on Family Affairs, EB has turned herself into one of 2008's most talked about pop icons - yes that is a Hussein Chalayan necklace around her neck. I have desperately tried to imitate this look with an American Apparel scarf and failed quite hideously.

With a song called Don't Fart On My Heart you may take instant offence to Ebony Bones, stick with her - We Know All About You is a storming track. Think Karen O if she was a bit more bonkers and had an even more filthy mouth - honest.

Londoners check her out at the Barfly on Friday - onstage at midnight at the Adventures Close To Home night alongside Those Dancing Days. For those none Londoners go to the epilepsy inspiring www.myspace.com/ebonybones

Can we talk about her fashion - home made attire and fantastic head pieces make EB a trend inspiring force to be reckoned with.

Londoners Unite

...For this fab gig tonight featuring some of London's hottest new talent including the simply ace Stricken City, the fantastic electronic bleepings of Sportsday Megaphone, Oxford's finest garage band chanteuse George Pringle and Glasgow's electronica gurus Errors.

Hmmm can i use more variations of electronic? Nope.

Organised by NLYM faves The Lipster and Drowned In Sound - see you there! I'm the one in the ill-thought out outfit

Barden's Boudoir, Dalston - £6

Gossip Girl

I don't think I have been this excited about a TV programme since, um, the OC. My friend and I watched the first episode of the new American series Gossip Girl yesterday - sent from the press office, not illegally downloaded I might add! It's pretty much amazing, The Guardian hate it, anyone who isn't a fan of slightly racey teen dramas should not even bother getting involved.

Me? Well I'm sold, so sold.

Based around a gossip blogger at a New York private school, Gossip Girl is regularly updated by spies on the inside and is essentially a rolling blog. Product endorsement? Check! T-Mobile's Sidekick is all over the show as the kids (yeah they all look about 25) check the blog on them.

Beautiful people? Yeah, in fact no-one is ugly, even the Dad is pretty arousing - I did just say that. Oh it's like Sandy Cohen all over again, just me??

Emma Cook for Fred Perry

For those who haven't seen the new Fred Perry womenswear shop in Covent Garden, I implore you to check out the website so you can devour the Emma Cook collection.

Fred Perry is a staple for the mod / ska types out there and the female advertising campaign features 60's inspired girls with lashings of eye liner and severe brunette bobs - which I love!

Having experienced why not to wash a Fred Perry t-shirt (if any children out there want some FP polos send them to me) I have to say that for what you get, it can be a tad over-priced and this is pretty off putting.

However, the Emma Cook for Fred Perry has lured me back into the shop, above is a montage of the outfits - the dresses are definitely the best - i just love the over-sized crests. Ranging from 80-120 quid the dresses are something to save up for just don't put them in the wash!

You've Got Stars In Your Eyes - Can I Be A Part Of It?

Kate Moss, always one to kick start a trend, was seen out in part of this outfit from Chanel (a mere snip at £5,490, wowser) As always the High Street is rapid to replicate the look and stars will be gracing the shops near you soon. Therapy has a great new layered star print skirt for £28 - two trends in one go!

Shoe lust

Sometimes a shoe is just too perfect to pass, they have been featured on Kingdom of Style and in Grazia already but hey!

From Nine West and a steal at £50

The Moross Collection

Today is the day folks, Kate Moross is in the window of Topshop - although not when I went as she was on lunch. Above is a jumper from her collection.

Go forth and spend!

Observer Music Monthly - spot on

It's taken me a while to blog about this but I cannot fail to let it get away unnoticed, Observer Music Monthly was fantastic this week (well, on Sunday). They pin-pointed a new musical revolution in the cover feature on 'New Eccentrics' featuring Foals, These New Puritans and Lightspeed Champion, Fred from Ox.Eagle Lion.Man was also quoted.

Fantastic coverage for both LC and TNP who's albums are either out now (LC) or next week. You can read the piece online for anyone who fancies taking a gander at the piece.

Here's a few people that I think should have been included:

Hatcham Social
Ipso Facto
Theoretical girl
XX Teens

I find it amazing that These New Puritans created a 17 minute score for Hedi Slimane's Dior Homme show, oh to have that much patience.

Indie Karaoke

Last night I was privileged enough to catch 'The Pun Loving Criminals' at White Heat - a band made up of Dev Lightspeed Champion, Fred Ox.Eagle/Lion/Man and Victoria from Ipso Facto - possibly the best drummer I have seen for a long time! Star guests included Ferry from Semifinalists and Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys.

So the concept then...a covers band made up of indie popstars, the set list was as follows (although I'm a bit fuzzy today):


C'mon C'mon (Von Bondies)- with Fred
Slow Hands (Interpol) with Fred
Get Free (The Vines) with Fred
The Rat (Walkman) with Fred
New York Hurts (Interpol) Lightspeed Only
Take It Or Leave It (The Strokes) with Alex Turner

I think there might have been more, i've not smiled so much in a long time. A great night had by all!

PPQ collaborate with Hannah Bays

In a very exciting collaboration, uber trendy Brit design house PPQ have commissioned illustrator Hannah Bays, to create a series of pen and ink drawings. The photos are being launched tonight (in about an hour) at a cocktail party in the London store on Conduit Street, W1. The illustratios will be printed on t-shirts and bags and available from the store.

Below is an example of some of Hannah's illustrations, fight you for a t-shirt:



For those who haven't heard much about PPQ, the label was created by Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker, who also run 1-2-3-4 Records with Sonic Mook renowned Sean McLusky - anyone who remembers the fantastic Return To New York party at the Great Easter Hotel a few years ago will know who I mean!

Known for their rocknroll chic cocktail dresses - as modeled by Peaches Geldof last fashion week and raved about in January's Vogie bu Agyness Deyn, PPQ also do a great range of drainpipe trousers, available from Selfridges and the likes.

If you love PPQ but can't quite afford the range from the store, you can check out their collection for Oli.co.uk, just search for it. A red cardigan is getting delivered to me in the morning and I cannot wait!

Theoretical Girl

I cannot believe I have left it for so long before writing about Theoretical Girl, for some reason after first hearing her name I expected her to be a rap artist, not true.

Hailing from Southend -On-Sea, same place as The Horrors but don't let that put you off. TG makes 60's style breathy pop songs. Recently on the cover of ace London fanzine The P.I.X as well as featured in Another Magazine, Theoretica Girl is one to look out for. Her single, The Hypocrite has been recieving plays on 6 Music and will be released through XL label Salvia on 4th February. Check out her seperate myspace dedicated to free downloads: www.myspace.com/theoreticalgirltunes

Buy the single too, she is well deserving of your pennies

Overheard Snippets

"I can hear him blink, I love him so much."

Probably the nicest thing I have heard all week

Best shops in London part 1

Being a naturally competitive person, i tend to like to keep amazing things to myself when I find them. However, as it's a Friday, I have decided to share some gems - mainly in the form of Best Shops in London, parts 1-?

The most deserving shop of this title is the fabulous Shop At Maison Bertaux, hidden beneath London's best cake shop - Maison Bertaux on Greek Street in Soho.

The blurb on the website says it all really:

Shop at Maison Bertaux is Soho's best kept secret...but word's spreading fast! We're now one year old and our regulars can't get enough of our APC, Sonia by Sonia Rykiel Eley Kishimoto and Obey with jewelry by Vivienne Westwood Yura and Princess Tina. You'll love our taste, you'll taste the cakes upstairs and then you'll be HOOKED!

The owner posts up video clips of the new collections as they come in on her blog: http://www.shopatmaisonb.com/blog/

My recent purchases from their include:
Sonia Rykiel 'Paris' top
A.P.C 60's style coat
A.P.C sailor smock
Sonia Rykiel woolly hat with bow detail.

Now promise me you won't buy all of the great stuff before I get there! Look out for the Spring Eley Kishimoto collection

Below is one of the vids from the blog - new Obey collection, posted Nov 07

Tatty Devine Rewind

Between 7th November and 13th January Tatty Devine were offering you the chance to drop off your old Eternal tapes that you were desperate to get rid of in case someone cool found them and ruined your credibility in one fell swoop. (No? Just me) Anyway, whether it was Eternal / MN8 or R Kelly (oh god, shut up, shut up) then Tatty Devine were offering to take your old tapes to be recycled - or more precisely, knitted into something snazzy.

Tomorrow night you can witness the unveiling of the fantastic offerings made from said tapes as the lovely ladies at Tatty Devine emerge with their offerings as well as some wine and fun stuff in the shape of competition prizes and knitted displays. You need to rsvp to bricklane@tattydevine.com if you want to go - don't say i didnt warn you!

YACHT

You should buy his album, 'I Believe In You, Your Magic Is Real' even though it goes a bit techno techno in the middle, check this performance out.

YACHT at Durrr.
Filmed by the beautiful Sam Crack

Lightspeed Champion 4eva

After getting quite accustomed to Durrr on a Monday night before Christmas (you can get away with most things in December, non?) I decided that I would brave the Tuesday morning hangover today. Turns out my head is a bit dead today, however, it was worth the pain and the twitchy eyes today as I go to see the fantastic Lightspeed Champion.

A bit late to jump on the bandwagon with this one - now I'm fully sold. Playing with a full band which included Cibelle the angelic female voice you hear on some of the records - i thought it was Emmy The Great and still think it sometimes is. Surprised at how many of the songs i recognised in the set I fell in love a bit, with some sonic magic and vocal wizardry.

Dev aka Lightspeed Champion, brought on stage his friend Fred from ace band Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man and proceeded to sing some covers, including The Strokes 12.51.

An amazing night, an amazing artist. See him live, buy his album, I think i will

Paranoid Park

Any fans of Gus Van Sant will have already heard of Paranoid Park, Van Sant's latest directorial venture.

Paranoid Park is atypical Van Sant - and I am not saying that in a disparaging way - he presents something horrific in a stunning way. Van Sant's cinematography and own inimitable style keeps you gripped.

With a back catalogue (do they call it that in the film world??) that includes Elephant, about a High School shooting and Last Days, which is loosely based on Kurt Kobain's suicide and of course Good Will Hunting. Van Sant also created a frame by frame remake of Psycho as well as directing the (pretty long and hard going) Gerry featuring the fantastic Casey Affleck.

An adaptation of Blake Nelson's novel of the same name, Paranoid Park follows a skater who makes one fateful excursion to Paranoid Park, a notoriously dangerous and crime - riddled skate park. Set in Portland, Oregon - the one place i REALLY want to go to in the world, PP does have it's lighter moments, including one hilarious section where the protagonist's brother recites the Chapstick phonecall in Napoleon Dynamite, word for word, accent for accent. The geeky boys I went to see the film with recognised the skatepark straight away, apparently Van Sant moves Paranoid Park to a different part of the city, i think we can credit him with some creative licence there.

The actors were all found on MySpace, he is quoted to have commented about this as follows:

"I think this is how all the casting agencies would go about casting high schoolers, especially now when MySpace is so prevalent. We were like the others, just trying to figure out ways to get the word out to non professional people to play in the film."

On limited release, I would recommend seeking it out - Curzon Shaftesbury Avenue is currently showing Paranoid Park


Here is the trailer:

Imitation - The loveliest version?

Probably one of the best versions of Belle & Sebastian's This Is Just A Modern Rock Song you will ever hear, will anyone ever be able to say Corduroy in the same way again?

Kate Moross for Topshop

Kate Moross is the creative pair of hands behind the East London scene's amazing flyers. Having designed flyers for the likes of People Are Germs, Sick of Nature and Troubled Minds - as well as creating the instantly recognisable Young Turks logo and those Chalk flyers with the girl drawing a stereo on the pavement (one of my personal favourites).

Now Miss Moross has a collection of vests, jumpers and t-shirts coming to Topshop and in celebration of this will be a live model in the window of Topshop on 25/26th January - drawing illustrations in the window of the shop. The best thing is that the first 25 people to come and see her will get a sharpie pen and piece of original artwork.

Kate Moross is a 21 year old graphic artist from London - you can see more of her designs on her website: www.katemoross.com

Brand New Burberry

The 2008 Burberry campaign has been written about in quite a few places, i'll grant you that, however, i'm going to jump on the bandwagon here and do something on it too.



Featuring the beautiful Agyness Deyn as well as some famous kids - Coco Summer (daughter of sting) as well as Merlin Ferry - daughter of Bryan, actors Alex Pettyfer and Eddie Redmayne.

Most importantly - Jack Bevan from Foals stars in the campaign and Will Cameron from Blondelle (Mr Daisy Lowe)

I do miss Ed Larrikin and Patrick Wolf from last year's black and white shots. Lets hope they crop up later on in the year

Friendly Fires Video

After first hearing Friendly Fires on the ShockRock Compilation from Wall of Sound (brilliant version of Your Love on there, the compilation is amazing!) I finally got round to seeing them at the Bloomsbury Ballrooms in December, this song is really catchy and the video is fantastic.

Shoe-boots

Winter 2007/2008 was all about the Shoe boot - or Shoot, what ever you want to describe it as. After wearing to death Miss Selfridge black patent ankle boots with the silver zip, I thought I would be over the trend - i'veliterally worn them to death, they are in their burial ground, which to others is known as Tower Hamlets tip - god rest your soles.

So what should I see when I pop into the Shellys sale on Oxford Street after work on Thursday but these little beauts.

I love them even though they look rancid in the photo and for £35 they are pretty much a buy I can kind of deal with. So i have them and they are ace.

Another Ukelele-ist

I know that's not even slightly a word that will ever be recognised by the Oxford Dictionary but what the hell.

As promised, here is my posting about another great Ukelele toting girl Lucy and the Caterpillar, which is the name for Manchester based Lucy Conroy's solo project.

An artist with many strings to her hyperthetical bow, Lucy Conroy not only charms the world with her romanticised tales of everyday life but also owns her own vintage store near Hebden Bridge (near where Sylvia Plath was buried fact fans).

I first saw Lucy play live at the Proud Galleries (RIP) in Camden's Stables Market, she took to the stage decked out in vintage from head to toe (from her outfit I can only imagine that she has a vintage collection to rival Beyond Retro) and singing songs about red wine, Kings Cross and toast in an arresting northern lilt. With only her Ukelele for support (alas, no actual caterpillars) Lucy captivated an audience of trendy gig goers who don't stop talking for anyone - apart for her it would seem.

Start with her track Kings Cross and slowly fall in love with Lucy and the Caterpillar from there onwards - check her out at www.myspace.com/lucyandthecaterpillar

With a little help from my cleanse

Perhaps the most perfect solution to post-Christmas wintery skin, the Eve Lom Travel Kit is a bit like a trip to rehab for your face. Best to apply after drinking 2 litres of water (after drinking 7 litres of vodka) and while watching all the episodes of 24 (just me?). It's even got TLC cream, what more could you need.

Anyway, Vogue recommended the travel kit as the best way to shrink you beauty package, Hello reckon it's pretty good too. I'm not arguing with them. Containing the Eve Lom cleanser and muslin cloth - the best way to clean your face but a tad too pricey to use everyday, Hand Cream with sun protection factor, Rescue mask and Eve's new moisturiser with sun protection.

It all comes in a nifty bag too - it may well be 50 pounds but how much is a week in the Priory? Exactly.

Best Christmas Present Ever?

By far my favourite Christmas present this year was this beautiful Comme Des Garcons t-shirt from the PLAY collection.

According to the blurb, the concept of the Comme des Garcons PLAY line is design by not designing. It is a collection of basic items based on original forms or prototypes and PLAY items are characterised by the iconic red heart logo designed by Filip Pagowski, a New York-based artist from Poland. CDG have brought out a perfume to accompany the range - a Unisex scent - I haven't sniffed it yet but it's only a matter of time.

The t-shirt is available from the CDG concept store Dover Street Market, well worth a visit!

Why I'm Here

It's the beginning of a new blog, which may last a while, it may die a horrible death, but while I'm here, let's celebrate some ace things, starting with the blog's namesake.

SOKO

I first heard of brand new Parisian artist Soko before Christmas through a music mailout. Her track 'I Will Never Love You More' is perhaps the most perfect pop song you will hear this year (even though it went up online last year and lord only knows when it was written). The track became a mild obsession, hence the name of the blog.

The track is a stripped down ukelele and folky vocal number, however, Soko does go on to experimenting with garage band with the rest of the tracks from the blog being from her garage band demo. I'm so excited by Soko, her cover of Grace/Klaxons 'Not Over Yet' can be streamed from Hype Machine.

Some of the amazing things Soko will never love you more than include:

'Dancing to Phil Spector'
'Daniel Johnston himself - for me he is more than God'
'God Only Knows'
'My Boyfriend When I Was 14'
'Meeting Paul MacCartney and asking him to play a song on my ukelele'
'Kisses all day, cuddles all night'

Alas, there are no releases to get your hands on as yet, but expect some soon as managers and the like are drumming up a buzz for this talented lady. Here next gigs are in Holland after playing a spate of UK gigs before Christmas, including the ace Blue Flowers night in Chiswick and a gig at Nambucca on the Holloway Road. I hope to catch Soko and her ukelele in town soon.

There has been a crop of bands with Ukelele's recently, including the rather fab Lucy and the Caterpillar' from Manchester, she deserves a blog in her own right. First drawn to my attention by an article in the Times back in June last year, it would seem that the love of the Ukelele is never ending - apparently it's much easier to play than a regular guitar, maybe i should take it up!
Down my way, there is a fantastic Ukelele shop that I am far too terrified to venture into, called Duke of Uke just near Spitalfields Market. Maybe Ed Larrikin buys his from there? Who knows....