IM // UR | romeuuu: Bright Young Thing

This is probably the most exciting album we've heard in a while. Can you imagine a metal band not made by (and for) teenagers who worship Iron Maiden like their sisters worship Miley Cyrus? Invasion's The Master Alchemist is a compilation of 12 songs created with noisy guitars and fearless female vocals that will teach future generations about the emerging punk attitude; all with a metal sound and new rave style that might actually be the future of hairy metal. And we all thought heavy metal had no future...

WE // R \\ WEARING

No matter what part of the world you live in, you really can't ever have enough tees. Specially white ones. And black ones. With cool graphic prints on them. Meanwhile, in hipster-dom, crystals are still an ever popular theme, but in this case, we prefer this one in particular from Canadian based operation Handsome Clothing, christened the 'Lunar Crystal' (//Christel) tee. 'Handsome', despite being a kind of old school, highly civilised type of word, does describe this tastefully hip label justly. They also have a darn good-looking blog too, so go check that out while you're at it.

WE // R \\ WATCHING

Burn Notice is a USA Network series about a spy who got burned - which they remind you of in every scene. Although following the
basic style of American television, the series will catch all you dudes out there (sorry, girls won't like this) who like watching things explode in the most diverse ways. And like any good spy show, it teaches you how to make homemade bombs with boring things (a modern version of MacGyver). Plus Bruce Campbell is a lead character. And he's looking all Morrissey like.

WE // R \\ GOING

Imagine a youth house transformed into a club. Now charge 4 reais for a (long neck) beer and from 10 to 15 reais to get in. If you did it all right this would be called Neu (read in German) and actually already exists in São Paulo. My favorite night there is Friday, when they host Explode, a party where they basically play third world inspired songs (from Vampire Weekend to the whole club rap scene from Baltimore). Some great underrated DJs play there from time to time, and when you least expect it, you might find yourself laying on the dancefloor busting out some drunky town moves.

WE // R \\ READING

So yes, we've been wayyyy slack in updating the We//R\\Stuffs, which is why I'm going to say now that we began and finished Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray well before we knew it was a film. This is a classic novel about art, vanity, beauty and the consequences of such. 'A Picture of Dorian Gray' is brilliant; exploring and exploiting the potentially corrosive characters of beauty and what beauty can do to a character. Navigating through the deeply dark and light sides of human nature, Wilde's novel is a wickedly good study of society, and echoes with a cackling delight (and despair) at humanity's foibles.

romeuuu: Bright Young Thing

Thursday // May 14, 2009 at 20:19 // filed under Fashion // Art

romeuuu is a 20 year old boy from Santa Catarina, Brazil, and I daresay he's one of the bright young stars of tomorrow. Not that he hasn't been found yet, as he's usually taking his arty collages to websites like São Paulo Fashion Week and magazines like Catarina, and of course they're in his spectacular monthly online magazine, U_MAG. It's just that this creative can (and will) make him go much further.

What he does basically, are high fashion collages, in mostly black and white. But as we learnt from the years that we've been following his work, it's always evolving. From his most experimental ideas, filled with a '90s anarchy essence, to his more commercial work - and even these are more daring than the tired and tiring fashion market in Brazil, his own style is always evident. Coming out of the countryside just makes himan even more interesting case than he is already.

U_MAG is one of the places he made to express his ideas and try new things. The online magazine was created by him in 2004, will be published from this month here at I M // U R. To welcome him, we asked him to design a new background and logo for us. The result is this solid urbanity that frames this very post that you are reading on the website. We also did a mini-interview with him that's illustrated by some of his work. Check below and show the boy some love.

Revista Catarina (cover)

How did you start?

I started to make the (handmade collage) collages a long time ago, but only after a while did I start to take it seriously. Then I started using the computer, instead and I tried a more personal style. Then, in 2004, I created the U_MAG so I could use all these collages.

The first issues featured much more collage than nowadays and were much more experimental. And now, as the magazine is changing - I'm focusing on more fashion editorials and etc - I'm staring a new project called From Brazil, With Love with daily work. It is still in beta, though.

Editoral with Rogerio Cavalcanti photo @ Casa de Criadores

What are your biggest influences?

I like a lot Peter Saville, Fabien Baron, '80s fanzines, I love '60s cinema, cubism, the first editions of The Face by Neville Brody, '90s video clips, albums cover (...) Anything can influence me. It's a huge list!