IM // UR | New Young Pony Club in CTRL!

BEFORE TODAY by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

It doesn’t take much to make me feel stupid. Trying to find the words to describe the debut album of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti at 4AD is just one of many examples I could give you. To me, ‘Before Today’ sounds like an album that Kevin Barnes could be recording if he loved goth bands more than funk ones. Or like the cold wave genre entering a multicoloured psychedelic stage instead of glazing at it's own depression. Don’t mind my threadbare examples; this is the album that will make it onto every interesting top 10 of the year and you don’t wanna miss it.

WE // R \\ WEARING

I can't resist (probably overpriced) basics-with-a-twist. My wardrobe, full of T by Wang, Oak, Bassike and yes, American Apparel is proof of this; and since in Australia, a new favourite has emerged in the form of Nathan Smith. His selection of supersoft tees, tanks and dresses have sucked me into buying multiples of a number of styles in different colourways. You just can't go wrong with these though! Addictively and endlessly wearable - and not in actual fact, overpriced in the slightlest - Nathan Smith is the way forward for your wardrobe.

WE // R \\ WATCHING

I don’t think any series will treat teenagers the same way that Freaks and Geeks did almost 10 years ago. Although relying on every teen American cliché they could, this series was the closest thing to reality you could get whilst still being something fun and interesting to watch – cause, you know, life is boring. With bands like The Who, The Clash and XTC being either part of episodes or the soundtrack, this 80’s based cult show was short-lived (only 18 episodes), but long enough to enrich the careers of some young actors (i.e. James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps and, erm, Linda Cardellini) and is greatly missed. Can we have a movie about them meeting again in the 00’s?

WE // R \\ GOING

Once, a friend of mine wanted to take me to this 'cheap Chinese restaurant', situated in the heart of Liberdade, a Japanese neighborhood in São Paulo. When we got there the place was packed, but because it looked cheesy and kinda poor, I didn't want to wait it out. It took another friend for me to go back there and fall in love with it. Now, every time the mood for some freshly made noodles (you can watch the chief making the noodle dough through a window) framed in some horribly painted pink walls takes me, I go for Rong He. Did I mention the food is also incredibly generous and cheap?

WE // R \\ READING

The ultimate in peeping tom into other, cooler, more fashionable, richer, quirkier and more-hipster-than-thou lives is Todd Selby's The Selby. Having previously been an internet only voyeur's dream, Todd has just last month released The Selby Is In Your Place, a book the coffee table tome full of twee drawings, colourful interiors and people showering. Half of the images in the books are favourites from the website and the other is stuff he hasn't published online yet. So go check it out, maybe buy it if you can to make your crappy coffee table in your crappy apartment that little bit cooler with pictures of someone else's cool stuff.

New Young Pony Club in CTRL!

Tuesday // February 09, 2010 at 13:30 // filed under Music // Fashion // Etc // Lifestyle

NYPC

In the anticipation of New Young Pony Club's forthcoming album, Optimist, the kids over at Topman CTRL have roped in the band to take the reins for February's CTRL program!

This time, it's being held in Sheffield round at Bungalows & Bears on the 25^th February.

Y'all know the drill by now...CTRLers NYPC are pulling in Mercury Music Prize nominated (we still think they shoulda won...check this interview I did with them back in '08) trio The Invisible, art-rockers and responsible for invite only festival In The Woods, The Laurel Collective as well as sets from DJ duos Run Hide Survive and Children For Breakfast - as usual, a pretty impeccable line-up...!

...And YEAH the band designed a tee and YEAH we've got one of them to giveaway to our super ace readers. So YEAH. Here it is, the special limited edition tee specially made for Topman CTRL by New Young Pony Club:

THE TEEEEEEE

To be in the draw to win one of the tee that we got, what you gotta do is get your twitting gloves on and retweet the following:

IM//the Optimist and I'm going to win this New Young Pony Club designed Topman CTRL T that @imyouare is giving away http://bit.ly/9joQta

Now kids, you can re-tweet as much as you want, the more you twit, the more chance you have at winning, innit. Comp closes on the 12th of February where we'll gather up all the retweets and pick one at random.

And whilst you're all going forth and re-twitting that shit, here's the vid for their latest single, the wicked 'Chaos' for you to tweet along to:

Chaos by New Young Pony Club

POSTED BY I M // U R

TAGS: Topman, The Invisible, New Young Pony Club, The Laurel Collective // LINKS: New Young Pony Club, The Invisible, The Laurel Collective, Topman CTRL