THE SPRING ISSUE
The Golden Filter
Merely saying that 2009 has been quite a year for The Golden Filter would be a massive understatement. It’s rare, if not completely impossible, that an American-based duo with a desire to keep their anonymity, who write songs almost entirely with electronic sounds, and whose personal philosophies are the exact antithesis of the current generation […]
Mission Creek Music Festival
The Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival: Evolving and Explosive A once-navigable subterranean creek, originating from the foothills of San Francisco’s Twin Peaks region and curving east towards Mission Bay, quietly flows beneath San Francisco’s Mission District. Above ground, indie kids, yuppies, and bohemians party and promenade on the bustling city streets, having no idea […]
Classical Music Finds a Home
Love letters from a revolution Art school boho-chic: meet the original acoustic sensation. Before indie rock, before punk, before rock ‘n’ roll; before anything you love right now, there was classical. And let’s be honest – old school revivalism has gotten a lot of play lately. But this music is old old school, and it’s […]
Neon Nightlife
Three international clubs reinvent the party scene Le Baron de Paris / Tokyo Hidden on a quiet stretch in fashionable Aoyama, Tokyo’s Le Baron de Paris is where the highbrow, design obsessed go for a little late night fun. Outside, a glowing neon pink “B” lets you know you’ve found it. Run by a diverse […]
Nur Kahn
Gatekeeper of Cool: Nur Kahn There are those who know how to work a room, and those who make the room work. Nur Kahn has made a science of this practice. Over the last decade, Kahn’s vision and concepts have set new precedents on the nightlife scene. He’s been credited with creating some of NYC’s […]
Skid Row’s Facelift
The Rebirth of Downtown LA has people asking, “Who’s LA’s Publicist?” Downtown LA was once a city of grime and Skid Row, crack addicts and street walkers; not to mention, the best place to buy a knock-off Rolex. But now, the historically-noir town has become revamped, its image transformed by cleaning up the streets and […]
An Axe to Grind
Davis Guggenheim and Three Generations of Rock Documentarian Davis Guggenheim gives a brief history of the electric guitar, as explored through the eyes of three rock goliaths in his latest feature film. To the careless observer, It Might Get Loud bears some of the ostensible trappings of what we’ve come to know as the “rockumentary.” […]
Cocknbullkid
Could Anita Blay inherit the crown of U.K. pop? As is often the case with superheroes, there is a tendency to preface the hero’s birth by a natural occurrence, such as a bolt of lightning, earthquake, or, of course, a meteor. The scenario goes something like this: a meteor crashes to Earth; around the fiery […]
Akwaaba Music
Third World Sound to First World Ears Akwaaba Music founder Benjamin Lebrave doesn’t feel comfortable with the term “fair trade,” nor with the category known as “world music.” Yet for the uninitiated, it’s the easiest way to describe the fledgling, unorthodox music label that splits net profits 50/50 with its African music licensees and distributes […]
Street Pulse: Portland
They say that you can walk down any Portland street, on any given day, throw a rock, and hit a musician. Here at SOMA we don’t encourage throwing rocks at the rock stars, but we did send local resident and contributing photographer, Anthony Georgis, to toss a few questions to some of best and […]
Patrick Wolf
Patrick Wolf Bares His Teeth… and Feathers The music industry’s fashion atmosphere can be one of stark contrasts, for it is one of insufferably style-less, beardy bores like Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses on the one hand, and gloriously ostentatious types like The Dresden Dolls and The Horrors on the other. In the midst […]
Hannah Marshall
Queen of Darkness For the last few years, London fashion has been all about extreme creativity and innovation—the crazier the better. And while this helped shape the style of the city, making it the young fashion capital of the world, it left contemporary fashion aficionados pining for a more sophisticated and refined option. Luckily, the […]
Sophie Hulme: Utilitarian Chic
In times when the most sought after fashions seem vacuous and unnecessary, we start to feel the need for a revolution. Gone are the times of excess, glamour and stylistic indulgences—modern style should be all about authentic simplicity and clever minimalism. British rising star Sophie Hulme seems to have an answer for this. Having just […]
The Wild Bunch
Model on left: Shipley & Halmos leather jacket, LNA tank top, Levi’s shorts, Made Her Think studded cuff, Coach bangles, Chris Habana earrings and necklace, Celine shoes, Screaming Mimi’s belt, Gryson bag Model in center: Alexander Wang leather jacket, LNA t-shirt, Levi’s shorts, Made Her Think studded cuff, Ben-Amun bangles, Susanna Galanis necklace, Brian Atwood […]
Platinum Submarine Dreams
Guided by his own compass, Wyatt Cenac divines the humor in race, identity and ultra-wealthy jackasses There was a time when Wyatt Cenac worried that he might actually become a hobo. One might argue that he would have made a great (if not the greatest) hobo to walk the streets of Los Angeles. He’s gregarious, […]
