Shilpa Ray on Stretching and Screaming
January 8, 2013
Most articles about musician and singer Shilpa Ray begin with her introduction to rock music. But there is more to Shilpa Ray than a cute coming-of-age story. A powerful vocalist and skilled lyricist, Ray’s last album with her band Her Happy Hookers, Teenage and Torture, is filled with belting anguish.
The New Jazz Man: José James
December 14, 2012
If you ask José James, hip-hop is an extension of jazz music. With his third album, and first with Blue Note Records, No Beginning and No End, James is trying to reconnect the two genres. If jazz music today is divided into “easy listening” and “esoteric,” James is neither. He is not a hip-hop artist, but unlike contemporaries, his songs such as “It’s All Over Your Body” and “Sword + Gun” do not need to be framed by rap verses to attract a younger crowd. “I want to be a contemporary artist,” James emphasizes. “I’m trying to find ways to mix in all kinds of music, and not be pigeonholed.”
13 Faces of 2013
December 9, 2012
In the place of end-of-year lists and resolutions, we’ve rounded up 13 acts worth getting to know for 2013. The athlete, the artist, the rapper, the soul-singer, the ingénue, the heartthrob—check in daily as we count down the talent of the twentyteens.
The Modern-Day Ingénue: Emily Meade
November 26, 2012
Beginning with 50 Cent in the film adaptation of Nick McDonell’s Twelve and Michael Pitt in Boardwalk Empire, Emily Meade has had her fair share of onscreen flings with older men. “I wonder what the universe is trying to tell me,” she laughs when we meet her at The Mercer Hotel.
Jules Kim Looks to the Future
August 23, 2012
Jules Kim, the New York-based designer behind Bijules, subverts expectations of what jewelry is, and what can become. Kim cleverly works around the architecture of the body, putting metal tips on fingernails, crafting engagement rings for the top knuckle, and rendering shoulder blades in gold.