Could your day use an extra dose of punk rock? (Note: The answer to this question is always “yes.”) If so, you’ll want to check out Teenage Wasteland, Berlin-based designer/illustrator Niklas Coskan’s fun collection of teen-outlaw character drawings. Each image features a cigarette-smoking, occasionally weapon-wielding juvenile delinquent uttering classic punk lyrics, from the Runaways fan singing, “Hey boy, you’re my good time” to the Bowie T-shirt-clad gent surrounded by Iggy Pop’s immortal words, “No fun.” Check out Teenage Wasteland after the jump, and then visit Coskan’s website to see more of his work.
With Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll’s birthday on the horizon, we wanted to follow a few films down the rabbit hole and explore some of the fantasy worlds portrayed in the Victorian-era novel. Ignoring the recent blockbuster monstrosity that is Tim Burton’s movie, we ventured into the pool of tears, got advice from a caterpillar, and attended a mad tea party to find out what movies explore the same kinds of themes that the English author made synonymous with phantasmagorical adventures and self-discovery. Check out our gallery of Alice-inspired cinema past the break, and tell us your picks in the comments below.
Los Angeles photographer Brad Elterman was “a teenage paparazzo.” A legend of sorts, he started out with a borrowed camera at 16 and quickly became a regular at lavish hotel parties, private rock star gatherings and… wherever David Bowie could be found trying to walk down the street without having his picture taken. It helps that he’d befriended the Runaways, Blondie and Joey Ramone and the captures themselves are instantly iconic. This Gene Simmons and Brook Shields moment? Priceless.
There’s an almost naivete in these glimpses of rock superstars of yesteryear, helped in part by Elterman’s own commentary. He eagerly recalls how a stranger at the Beverly Hills Hotel party suddenly breaks into a topless boogie. He remembers fondly how teen heartthrob Leif Garret asked him to come over to photograph that new “knockout” girlfriend he’s got. “Joan’s just being Joan,” he says, of a photograph of Joan Jett giving him the finger and snarling. Flipping through these captures makes us almost nostalgic for places we’ve never been, but it’s all in good fun. Check out more shots at Brad Elterman’s gallery, the photoblog American Suburb X and Elterman’s book Like It Was Yesterday.
Since the idea of an all-girl band first appeared in American popular culture back in the Jazz Age, with ladies-only orchestras (think Marilyn Monroe’s traveling band of misfits in Some Like It Hot), music historians have been putting them in the context of the more successful men around them — and often giving those men all the credit for their successes. The svengali mentality became especially prevalent during the days of ‘60s girl groups, when puppet master producer/manager/writers not only controlled the destiny of the girl groups in their stable, but owned the legal rights to them. While punk rock may have gender neutralized music, it didn’t stop us from contextualizing all-girl bands and their importance in terms of the men involved in creating them, writing their songs, or (re)discovering them. After the jump, we examine 10 girl bands and their relationship to the guys who were credited with their success.
Why do we fuss over 17-year-old Miley Cyrus’ sexy stage shows, same-sex kisses, and, um, underpants when 16-year-old Taylor Momsen is wearing ripped fishnets and smudged eyeliner, smoking cigarettes, writing songs called “Make Me Wanna Die,” and, well, also kissing ladies? That’s what Amber James at PopEater would like to know. And while we see her point and would love it if the girlhood police would mind their own damn business re: Miley, we also see some big differences between the two teens. Whereas Miley started her career as a pure, chaste Disney icon, Taylor’s first claim to fame was playing scheming little sister Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl — a show that’s never professed to have a moral center. Public transformations can mean public scrutiny, especially if you’re playing up that tiresome good-girl-gone-bad vibe.
As for Momsen, who writes her own songs and just generally seems more in control of her image, she is starting to remind us of our favorite teenage rocker girls of yore. After the jump, we revisit some famous musical bad girls who made their first splash before they were legal.
Those of us who favor the weird Rolling Stones albums over their more poptimistic fare are busy getting our hopes up, now that rumors are flying that the band is planning to perform the newly reissued Exile on Main Streetin full on tour. And the news made us realize that, just as albums from the ’00s may be too young to join the canon, too few records from the ’70s are turning up on the Don’t Look Back circuit.
Since that’s easily our favorite decade in music, we’ve picked out 10 Exile contemporaries we’d like to see performed live, in full. But we made ourselves a few rules: We could only choose albums by artists who are still alive (or, at least, by bands whose essential members haven’t kicked off). So that took care of Bitches Brew and London Calling and Third/Sister Lovers. And for obvious reasons, records that have already fulfilled our live-performance dreams (Suicide’s debut, Gang of Four’s Entertainment!) were out of the question. Still, we could have made a list 200 albums long… so if you don’t see your favorite here, don’t take it personally; just leave a suggestion in the comments.
1. Lady Gaga‘s ex-boyfriend, songwriter and music producer Ron Fusari, is suing her for $30.5 million, claiming that it was “his songs and productions and connections that got her her first deal.” He also helped name her. [via NYP]
2. An opera based on Ian McEwan‘s novel Atonement is set to premiere in 2013 at the Southbank Centre in London. [via BBC]
3. There’s a legal battle a brewin’ behind the scenes of The Runways biopic, which opens in theaters today. [via Reuters]
4. Jennifer Aniston plays a New York Daily News reporter in her new film, The Bounty Hunter. Read what they had to say about its total lack of authenticity. [via NYDN]
5. How not to handle a rape case: Roman Polanski‘s lawyers are alleging even more judicial misconduct in his 1977 trial than we previously knew about. [via Jezebel]
