Video: Scott Campbell Prison Tattoo

Here is a sweet short directed by Casey Neistat of tattoo/contemporary artist Scott Campbell doing a tattoo on a friend with makeshift gun, aka prison style in Tompkins Square Park in NYC. Scott briefly discusses what tattooing means to him, his entry into fine art and the logistics of creating a prison style tattoo on the fly, it’s a fun video of the master at work.

Video: Bon Iver mini-documentary

In a new mini-documentary that clocks in just under seven minutes, you can find out a bit about the making of Bon Iver's self-titled 2nd studio album. The short film takes you inside Justin Vernon's home/recording studio, which he had totally revamped in-order to record the album. The piece comes courtesy of Spin.

If you are having trouble viewing the video in Internet Explorer try a different browser and it should work fine.

Go See This

After rave reviews at Sundance and Tribeca, Michael Rapaport’s Beats, Rhymes And Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest opens with lilimited release today July 8. Here’s the first official trailer. Good stuff.

Blu – “Megunica” documentary

Blu's infamous "Megunica" documentary finally made its way online in its complete entirety! The film first made rounds in 2009 or so and has won multiple awards at various film festivals. Wired Italy has now made the entire film, all 83 minutes of it, available.

For those unfamiliar, the footage follows Blu on a trip to South America through the countries of Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Argentina. The film follows the Italian artist And his crew as he paints and interacts with other people and artists. As a bonus, you should read Wired’s interview with the director – Lorenzo Fonda.

T-shirt Stories

Open my closet and you'll find hundreds of t-shirts, if that sounds familiar then this documentary is for you.

T-SHIRT STORIES TRAILER from Julien Potart on Vimeo.

BBC: Once Upon a Time in New York – The birth of hip hop, disco and punk

Here we have a BBC documentary entitled "Once Upon a Time in New York - The Birth of Hip Hop, Disco & Punk."

By the 1970s most pop music in the USA was dominated by West Coast artists and that NYC, despite being home many creative types, was experiencing a period of stunted growth - the video goes on to explain how three unique genres of music managed to rise from a gritty, decades-old New York. From the rise of punk in the Bowery's legendary CBGB to the glamorous all-night parties at Studio 54 and the rough beginnings of modern hip hop in the Bronx - "Once Upon a Time in New York" does an excellent job of chronicling how the city reclaimed musical relevance in the 1970s. Including interviews with the likes of Patti Smith, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck D, Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein, David Mancuso, Jayne County and more, the video is certainly worth a watch for anyone interested in the history of music.

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Justin Pearson has been busy

One of my absolute favorite people in music, Justin Pearson, has a lot of good stuff going on right now worth mentioning.

First up we have the season premiere Young, Broke & Beautiful on IFC premieres Friday, June 24th at 11PM. The episode features a live performance by Retox and an interview by Justin. Check out the IFC website for more info.

Justin is also going to be going on tour in Europe with Blue Note who are of course the reformed legendary band the Swing Kids. You can and SHOULD catch them at one of these dates...

Also worth mentioning is the documentary "Parallel Planes" Justin and many other notable musicians are featured in this monster. Details below...

“Parallel Planes” a documentary film which portrays different american musicians and the similarities between them. The subject matter focusses on DIY, Punk, Noise, Art and very prominently: the courage of progression. Starring: Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Embrace, Fugazi), Valentine Falcon (Get Hustle), Michael Gira (Swans, Young God Records), Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Ocrilim, Octis), Justin Pearson (The Locust, Swing Kids, All Leather, Retox, etc.), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), Eric Copeland (Black Dice, Terrestrial Tones, Solo etc.), Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, UGExplode etc), Zach Hill (Hella, Solo etc.), Jenny Hoyston (Erase Errata, lesbians, Solo etc), Alap Momin (Dälek, MRC Riddims), Greg Saunier (Deerhoof etc.), Otto von Schirach, and more.


CALL FOR DONATION: PARALLEL PLANES from pietsche on Vimeo.

Go see this

Feminist artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman-Leeson's documentary !Women Art Revolution made its theatrical debut at Manhattan's IFC Center on June 1. The film is still screening every day at 4:25 PM through June 16. The film features a score by Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag), Get your tickets for the remaining days.