The Art Of Elysium 13th Annual Heaven Gala At The Hollywood Palladium

The Art of Elysium’s annual HEAVEN is an artistic installation curated by some of the world’s leading and most renowned luminaries. Each year, The Art of Elysium celebrates a chosen visionary who creates their idea of “Heaven on Earth” as it relates to the charities four main disciplines: fashion & design, fine arts, music & movement, and theatre & film. The Art of Elysium was founded in 1997 to support artists working for the benefit of others. For over twenty years, they’ve paired volunteer artists with communities in Los Angeles to support individuals in the midst of difficult emotional life challenges like illness, hospitalization, displacement, confinement, and/or crisis. They also serve medically fragile children, teens, adults, seniors, those dealing with social, emotional and mental health issues, and the homeless. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Read Our Interview Of French 'Gaule Wave' Band Faire & See Them Play Live Tonight @ Madame Siam In Hollywood →

FAIRE are very serious about not taking themselves seriously. Their shows are infused with a raw improvisation that makes every performance a completely unique experience. They just play with the vibe given by the audience and then do their best to push the limits of that relationship. Read more here.

Jim Jocoy 'Order of Appearance' Opens @ These Days LA

Almost 20 years after the release of his first monograph, We’re Desperate, produced with the help of Sonic Youth front man Thurston Moore and fashion designer Marc Jacobs and widely regarded as the definitive catalogue of early West Coast punk fashion, Jim Jocoy’s archive of previously unseen photographs has been re-examined and re-considered to compose Order of Appearance, a new body of work that humanizes his young subjects as they go through their daily lives sharing the tender moments of love and loss that came to encapsulate the late 70s and early 80s as the Summer of Love slowly eroded and gave way to punks’ disaffected view of the world. 

Unknowingly foreshadowing the AIDS epidemic that would grip underground communities throughout the country, Jocoy’s poignant photos share an intimacy not unlike that found in the work of Nan Goldin, combined with the underground compulsion and clout that permeates the photos of Katsumi Watanabe, and Karlheinz Weinberger.  Spanning three short years from 1977 to 1980, the collection of images expose vignettes from a one night affair where emotions range from delight to despair, sober to wasted, clear to blurry to half-way-clear-again by morning.  Jocoy’s ability to reveal these touching moments of restless youth allows us to feel empathetic towards a girl with bruised knees and then laugh at the comical horror of a sunburst-yellow clownish car turned violently upside down from an accident. As a photographer, Jocoy has an uncanny capacity to make even a car wreck look like the best time ever. Order of Appearance is on view through August 19th at These Days, 118 Winston Street, 2nd FL Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Ed Templeton's "Hairdos of Defiance" opens at Roberts Projects in L.A.

Resembling a bedroom, Ed Templeton's new photo installation Hairdos of Defiance explores historical context and social moment of the mohawk. The images shown come from twenty years of chance-encounters with people who have mohawks in the U.S. and Europe. Hairdos of Defiance is on view until April 21st at Roberts Projects (formerly known as Roberts & Tilton) 5801 Washington Blvd, Culver City. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Read Our Interview of The Legendary Lydia Lunch and Weasel Walter →

Of all the great unions of underground music, rock and otherwise; Bowie and Eno, Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld, Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin, John Cale and Terry Riley, Sonny Sharrock and Peter Brotzzman, and so on; the union between No Wave icon, transgressive artist, and spoken word warrior Lydia Lunch and free jazz, noise, and no wave musician Weasel Walter is perhaps the most harmonious and unquestionably the unholiest. When considering their respective biographies, both full of moments of sticking the middle finger in the faces of conventional standards of taste and decency, it’s difficult to believe that these revolutionaries didn’t find each other sooner. Click here to read more. 

Punk in Britain Opens This Weekend At Galleria Carla Sozzani in Milan

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of punk, the Galleria Carla Sozzani presents “Punk in Britain”. More than 90 photos documenting the key players in British punk who, since the mid 70s, have changed the language of fashion and music in London and around the world will be shown. The exhibition incorporates two parts: the photographs of Simon Barker (Six), Dennis Morris, Sheila Rock, Ray Stevenson, Karen Knorr, Olivier Richon, and drawings, collages and graphics of Jamie Reid with a special section highlighting the videos and photos of John Tiberi. In 1976, the Sex Pistols were shouting "I wanna be Anarchy, in the City" while wearing torn shirts, and dresses with studs purchased at Malcom McLaren and his partner Vivienne Westwood's Chelsea store SEX. McLaren had been instrumental in bringing the Sex Pistols into being and, among the Sex Pistols fans, Siouxsie Sioux, Jordan, Debbie, Billy Idol, Soo Catwoman, Adam Ant became known as the "Bromley Contingent", the group associated with them throughout this period. Together they represented a sort of reaction to the years of English austerity and a new response, young and spontaneous, to the rigid formalism of that time. Punk In Britain opens July 11 and runs until August 28, 2016 at Galleria Carla Sozzani, 

Read Our Interview With Fashion Designer Claire Barrow On The London Fashion Scene and Her All Encompassing Eponymous Label →

UK-based fashion designer Claire Barrow has always married art and fashion in a way that feels proper. While most fashion labels re-interpret graphics by their favorite artists, Barrow has used her garments as a vehicle for her own images. Born in Stockton-On-Tees, UK, Barrow found herself seduced by the sounds and imagery emanating from her local record shop as a teenager. While her classmates listened to Top 40 and wore their school uniforms, Barrow listened to bands on the atonal side of the rock spectrum (from Slayer to Sonic Youth) and found her own style by deconstructing and adding flair to her own school uniform. “I would wear all these ‘80s earrings. I would put patches on. I cut my tie,” says Barrow. “Getting into music, I just preferred metal and punk. I was finding my own records and being fully immersed in it. Music became my entire life.” Click here to read more. 

Get Your Strength Through Oi: Read Our Fascinating Conversation with Punktrepreneur Toby Mott On Skinheads and What It Means To Be Punk In The Digital Age →

Toby Mott owns one of the largest collections of skinhead and punk ephemera from the halcyon days of anarchy in the UK. A punk himself, Mott has turned his youth in revolt into an enterprise with the Mott Collection, which recently was released in the street edition of Skinhead: An Archive. Punk historian or punktrepreneur, Mott is intent of preserving the legacy of one of the most misunderstood subcultures. Skinheads, although some had nationalist or Nazi leanings, were not all rabid and racist xenophobes. Some, in fact, were gay. Some were Jewish. Some were jocks. Some were women. In fact, the skinheads were the working class alternative to a posh Swinging 60s London, with Cockney and Jamaican roots. Mott acquired much of his archive in real time, collecting posters, patches, posters, zines and more. In the 70s, he was the founder of the Anarchist Street Army, which tried to toss over the establishment in the Pimlico area of London. Click here to read more. 

X: Sex And Dying In High Society @ These Days LA Gallery in Los Angeles

This exhibition is a celebration of the seminal and quintessential Los Angeles punk band X. Formed in 1977 at the dawn of the DIY punk movement in Los Angeles, X was a definitive sound in the first wave of the Los Angeles punk scene. Playing relentlessly, they graced the stages of all the legendary clubs of the times—The Masque, The Hong Kong Café, Cathay de Grande, The Whiskey a Go Go, Club 88, The Starwood, and Madame Wong’s. In 1979 their song Los Angeles was released on the Dangerhouse compilation YES LA and immediately became a city-defining anthem. Thirty-seven years and countless classic songs later, X continues to play shows to devoted fans around the world. X: Sex And Dying In High Society will be on view until March 26 at These Days LA Gallery, 118 Winston Street, 2nd FL Los Angeles, CA

Punk and Hardcore Fliers, Zines and Ephemera @ Printed Matter In New York

Punk and Hardcore Fliers, Zines and Ephemera is a dynamic representation of a period when music subcultures adopted methods used by earlier culture-jamming groups such as the DaDaists and Situationists to creatively promote their own movement. The materials span from the early 1970s covering the glam rock and punk scenes of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as the garage rock and power pop revivals, American hardcore, English peace-punk, and industrial music scenes to form an overview of underground music culture of the last forty years. Punk and Hardcore Fliers, Zines and Ephemera will be on view until February 13, 2016 at Printed Matter, 231 Eleventh Avenue New York, NY. Photographs by Scout MacEachron

Punk In Translation Private View @ The Horse Hospital in London

Japanese leather initiative Leather Japan has collaborated with avant-garde brand Blackmeans to create the exhibition Punk in Translation. Produced by Harris Elliott – co-creator of the widely acclaimed Return of the Rudeboy, Punk in Translation features work from Japanese documentary photographers Yusuke Yamatani, Tatsuo Suzuki and Naoya Matsumoto. Their images document the raw community of Japanese punks, following the underground music scene;; diversified sounds, ‘live houses’, discreet characterless buildings, and Tokyo’s loyal punk youth. Punk in Translation showcases the scene’s style and attitude in its rebellious form unique to Tokyo’s surroundings, highlighting the radical Japanese interpretation of punk. The unmistakable style has been integrated with traditional Japanese festival culture, incorporating sensitivity towards detail, a natural characteristic of the Japanese. Held at The Horse Hospital, the exhibition highlights the lifestyle and culture of how the UK punk fashion and music scene has influenced, and informed a new breed of subculture. Punk In Translation will be on view until January 11, 2016 at The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London. photographs by Flo Kohl

Friday Playlist: An Ode to Southern Lord Records in Celebration of the Announcement of the new Sunn O))) Record →

Despite decades of evidence to the contrary, music snobs still have a hard time viewing heavy metal as a musical form worthy of the label, "art." Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley have fought that notion throughout their careers. With the announcement of the duo's main band Sunn O))) releasing its first new record since 2008's 'Monoliths and Demensions (except for the 2014 'Soused' that saw the band collaborate with legendary UK singer Scott Walker), I have decided to use this Autre Playlist to pay homage to the duo's work as well as their record label, Southern Lord. Click here to listen to the full playlist.

The Year of The Zine: Read Our Picks For Some Of The Most Exciting and Scintillating Zines Of 2015 →

2015 is when the zine went mainstream. Some of our fave artists dabbled in the fine craftsmanship of the stapled chapbook that many people think dates back to the early days of punk, but it actually can be dated all the way back to 1776 when Thomas Paine published his famous pamphlet, Common Sense, which rifled enough feathers for thirteen colonies to declare war and independence from the British. Fancy that. However, the modern zine, which is shorthand for fanzine – not magazine as many believe – was a photocopied, hastily stapled together collection of appropriated imagery and art school angst. In 2015, the zine has held true to its DIY Xerox aesthetic, with a few surprising contributions – and of course some obvious contributors from the likes of one of our favorite photographers working today, Sandy Kim, and from one of our favorite new Los Angeles queer-cult collective, Gurt. Click here to check out ten of our favorite zines that came out in 2015, so far.

When Savage Culture Was The Norm: Smiler Captures The Wayward Visages Of London's Squatters

An exhibition of unseen photographs by Smiler (aka Mark Cawson) of London squats from the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s is currently on view at the ICA in London. The content of the exhibition focuses on a body of work that Smiler mainly shot between West London and Kings Cross. The exhibition consists of black and white images taken on an analogue camera. “I used the camera like a storm anchor helping me to navigate and freeze a spinning world of change and flux.” Smiler Against the backdrop of social and political upheaval, young people across the city were drawn to squats by the prospect of a place to live, but also by an identity and a sense of community. Smiler’s photographs document the people who lived in squats across the city, at a time when salvage culture was the norm. Smiler: Photographs of London by Mark Cawson will be on view at the ICA until November 29, 2015, 12 Carlton House Terrace London

A Supermasochistic Love Story: Read Our Intimate, Touching and Fascinating Convo With The Grande Dame of Domination Sheree Rose →

Sheree Rose is the kinky grandmother I never had but always wanted. Featured in the seminal and groundbreaking 1997 documentary SICK alongside her late partner, supermasochist Bob Flanagan, Sheree was the woman behind the curtain acting as Bob’s Domme and a massive force in helping him achieve greatness through performance, poetry, and promiscuity. All smiles and as candid as it gets, she gleefully divulged the breadth of her sexual awakening and the hardships in getting there. She is a punk, a pervert, and a pioneer — a true libertine — warm hearted yet strict and opinionated, which is why I was initially drawn to her. She is most written about in the context of Bob (“an exotic endangered species,” as she calls him), and while that relationship was undoubtedly important to her and performance history, Sheree stands alone as a remarkable and fascinating woman who waxes poetic on the state of femdom, feminist practice, and sex in the contemporary time — “out of the bedroom and into real life — explicit not just implicit.” On September 11th, we met at the ONE Archives at USC to discuss her role in the BDSM and D/s scene in Los Angeles during the 70s and 80s, the importance of choice, questions about male sexuality, and our shared love for guiding slave boys into the matriarchy. Click here to read the full interview. 

The Queen Of Punk Has Died: Read Our In-Depth Exploration of The Incendiary Life and Times Of Edwige Belmore →

Edwige Belmore, “the queen of punk” has died at the age of 58 in Miami. A great many things can be said of Belmore and yet it seems that the complexity of her journey through life remains all too mysterious. What we do know is that she personally touched the lives of some of the greatest cultural influencers of the 20th century, from Helmut Newton to Andy Warhol. Her life was a beautiful rags-to-riches-to-rags tale of heartbreak and obscurity. From her early years estranged from family to being discovery by the world of high fashion and art, to the end of her life as the resident artist and landscaper at the Vagabond Hotel in Miami. Her LinkedIn account lists “landscaping hobo” and “palm tree studies” as her duties. There is certainly no way to encapsulate all of the moments of her life in a meager list of 10, but since we’ve attempted to all the same since everyone loves a listicle. Click here to read 10 things you need to know about Edwige Belmore.