Threadless 12 Club

Threadless has started a cool new idea that they are calling theTwelve Club. It's basically a subscription based way of purchasing tees. 200 bucks a month ($250 for international) and you get twelve tees sent to you, one per month. The downsides being that you can't choose your design. It is chosen by the staff at Threadless, and no they do not let you exchange it for a different one if you don't like it. It's a good idea in theory, but i'm not sure that I am willing to blindly fork out 200 bones on some tees I haven't even seen yet. Perhaps that might be part of the excitement, but by looking at the majority of the designs being chosen lately, I would be better off picking the good ones when they happen to come along.

Next Big Thing Alert: Lady Sovereign

I don't know what it is, but there is something so hot about a female emcee that can rhyme with the best of the guys. Add a British accent, some fresh two-step beats, a big attitude from a small girl, and you have got Lady Sovereign. She is just one of the female artists making their mark in the UK Garage scene, and although she may be small in size, her lyrical style is anything but. For more reading on female emcees in the UK Garage scene check out this months new XLR8R.

New Local Magazine

There is a new local magazine published out of Kaysville called "Elevation 9350" that looks really cool. The magazine is mainly a Skate, Snowboard and Wakeboard magazine, but also includes some other random stuff. With SLC being one of the largest snowboarding hubs in the nation I am surprised something like this hasn't come out sooner. The magazine is similar to SLUG as far as print quality goes, but it's layout and photographs are better. Their first issue recently came out, I found it at Gandolfo's downtown but I am sure they have stocked up all the local skate and snowboard shops around so check it out.

Next Big Thing Alert: Bloc Party

By far the best rock album I have heard yet this year, Bloc Party's debut album "Silent Alarm" due out 03.22.05 in the states is a classic in the making. It takes a lot for me to be impressed by a strait-up rock album, as I am partial to more electronic acts, but this British band has such a fresh sound it has been on repeat for the past 48 hours on my iPod. My favorite tracks are "This Mordern Love," "So Here We are" and "Compliments."

Find out more about Bloc Party Here

Beatport: Still No iTunes.

BeatPort is an online music store that is dedicated entirely to electronic music. The site is great for finding harder to find artists and includes a good variety of genres including house, techno, DnB, breaks, chillout and hardcore. Overall I think this is a great little site, and just browsing through it for a few minutes I found many tracks I liked and wanted to download. The tracks are easily previewed and there is no additional software needed to download. However, I couldn't find anywhere to purchase full albums, which leads me to believe they are primarily catering to the "digital DJ" who is in search of single tracks. Another problem I had is the prices of their songs, still a little high at $1.50 per track. Beatport is making a valiant effort and is worth a look, but it's still no iTunes.

[via: Cool Hunting]

The london Police

The London Police is a group of street artists based in Amsterdam that I think is very cool. Their style is so simple, yet so original and can be recognized at a glance. They pride themselves in the line quility of their art, and they should, it's damn good. Check out the video section on the site and it demonstrates how steady they are with their main weapon of choice, the Sharpie.

If Ya Don't Know, Now Ya Know.

Aesop Rock has a limited edition EP due out 02.02.05 which includes an 88 page lyric book spanning Aesop's career.

Boom Bip has a new album out called "Blue Eyed In The Red Room." It is said to be mostly instrumental but has two songs with vocals from Nina Nastasia and Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals.

Amon Tobin was called upon to produce the soundtrack to Tom Clancey's Splinter Cell. Soundtrack came out 01.25.05, game due out in March.

Threadless goes to shit. Are people really voting on designs this bad? Cause I know people are submitting better designs than the ones being printed.

Unkle has an album out now by the name of "Never, Never, Land" featuring collaborations with Ian Brown, Josh Homme, and Brian Eno.

Dangermouse is said to be somewhere in the UK producing the highly anticipated Gorillaz album.

MF Doom is officially hip-hop's new wonderboy.

Hipsters everywhere to go crazy over Le Tigre's new album "This Island," be careful with this one kids.

Cool random tees and whatnot over at Preshrunk.

"It's official, kids: Indietronica is the new emo." - XLR8R

Sneakers still "so hot right now." With sites like Sneaker Freaker and Sneaker Pimps,shoes have never been such a vital accessory.

Music Blogs, a great way to share and discover new music. Here are some of my fav's: Royal Music, Scissorkick, and Antipopper.

Ready, Steady, Go! The W lounge is a super-fun place on a Wednesday night. If you haven't gone, DO!

"The Junk Show" snowboard contest at Brighton coming up on 02.28.05

Until next time...

Boomkat

Wow, Boomkat is a great site for indie music, they even have DVD's and some apparel too. Its only downfall being that you can't download mp3 versions of the songs, and it's based in Europe so if you want to make a purchase everything is listed in Pounds not dollars. It's still a very resourcefull site for finding new music of all different genres.

WANT FREE iTUNES MUSIC?

Well, kind of. Pepsi is giving away free iTunes songs, and with the help of Macmerc you can change your odds from 1 in 3, to every single one. I know, a single song isn't much, but if you are already drinking Pepsi, you may as well be getting an extra little bonus.