Hardcover Books 129 Items

Longtime music icon John Mellencamp’s artistic expression has never been limited to song.

The acclaimed singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has been an accomplished painter for more than four decades. This definitive survey—curated by Mellencamp himself—of his large-scale oil portraits and mixed-media assemblages documents America’s heart and soul, revealing unsettling but beautiful truths with an antiestablishment frown and a rich sense of narrative. “Although we may primarily know Mellencamp as a rock star, one of the highest-selling of all time and a Hall of Famer, he is also a great painter, as this book shows. Not a musician who also paints... No, John legitimately belongs in the modern art pantheon,” says Bob Guccione Jr. in his essay that delineates the connection of Mellencamp’s music and art, both imbued with the earnest voice of America’s heartland.

A streetwear collab and sneaker legend, Jeff Staple is known the world over for his work with brands, including Nike, The Fader, and Hypebeast. This monograph documents the past twenty-five years of Staple’s most iconic work.

In 1997, Jeff Staple walked into a boutique in New York City wearing a shirt he printed in his silk-screen class at Parsons School of Design. What started as a small, handmade T-shirt line grew organically and began to garner a serious following in New York. In the process of building this burgeoning brand, Staple was asked by Nike in 2005 to create a special commemorative sneaker that would represent New York. The Staple Pigeon Dunk SB was conceived and led to much fanfare upon its release. It exposed Staple—as well as sneaker culture—to a mass audience. In Staple’s words, to understand is to see and to see is to have clarity of mind. That clarity has helped develop his iconic Pigeon logo (and brand) into a global force that has graced the heels of almost every major footwear brand imaginable.

This book offers readers a history lesson in his enormous contributions to streetwear and the sneaker industry while also uncovering design context to a series of Staple’s most crucial projects. A beautiful visual reference, this book invites the reader to travel down an intricate maze of streetwear history told through an insider’s point of view. Archival sketches, drawings, magazine covers, and contributions by Hiroshi Fujiwara and Futura make this an indispensable volume for lovers of streetwear and design.

A collection of Guided BY Voices frontman Robert POLLARD’s fantastic collage art in a perfect bound book. 235 pages. The man never stops creating.

In 2021, the „Week-End Fest“ looked back on 10 years of encounters between over 100 international musicians. Since its beginning in 2011, the curators‘ own fanhood has been a central element – thus the idea arose to have the artists tell stories about musicians, places or encounters that have shaped them. In ‚I feel everything you say, I feel everything you hear.‘ (the title is borrowed from the song „I’m so Green“ by Can) they tell of decisive moments and memories that still resonate today and have shaped their own artistic identity. As with the festival program, the book succeeds in highlighting diverse lines and connections among them. Dub producers Adrian Sherwood and Scientist talk about their deep admiration for the two inventors of dub Lee „Scratch“ Perry and King Tubby. Electronic pioneer Suzanne Ciani talks about her first steps as a musician and her encounter with Don Buchla, to whom she owes her first job and her first synthesizer. The British avant-garde guitarist Fred Frith describes his first bizarre encounter with the Sun Ra Arkestra in New York in 1979, of which Marshall Allen is a member. The latter tells how today, at the age of 97, he creatively carries on the musical legacy of his master Sun Ra with pride and reverence. By focusing on the fan perspective of the participating artists, the book connects to the curatorial concept of the festival itself. And through their stories and anecdotes, building blocks of a new or different oral history of recent music history emerge at the best moments.

Since their arrival online, the Palace product descriptions have built a cult following. Full of wit, pathos, social commentary, and unabashed opinion, the descriptions eschew practical details; instead, a hoodie is explained with ‘Eat some vegetables, your skin looks bare grey marl’; a T-shirt is ‘100% Boris you twat.’ At once jokey toilet book and earnest coffee-table opus, this funny and honest volume collects more than 3,000 of these reflections, together serving as an essential record of an online phenomenon. - Established in 2009, Palace Skateboards has grown from underground skate brand to global fashion label with its reputation for heavy-hitting collaborations and authentic, irreverent spirit. Palace has partnered with labels including Ralph Lauren, Stella Artois, Moschino, Arc’Teryx, Adidas, and Reebok, and has retail stores in LA, New York, London, and Tokyo. Co-founder, Lev Tanju, is a writer, filmmaker, and author of the Palace product descriptions, whose inimitable style essentially tore up the copywriting rulebook.

A fascinating oral history of one of American indie rock's most enduring and influential acts. Slow, deliberate and deceptively simple, the music of Boston-based band Galaxie 500 was wonderfully at odds with the prevailing underground sounds of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Formed in 1987, the band split up in 1991 after releasing three acclaimed albums—Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music—as well as a Peel Sessions recording. The primary contributors to this long unavailable history of the band are the three band members—bassist/vocalist Naomi Yang, drummer Damon Krukowski and guitarist/vocalist Dean WAREHAM—but dozens of people were interviewed in all, including fellow musicians, record business folks, music critics and scenesters. Galaxie 500: Temperature’s Rising provides a complex, sometimes contentious account of the band’s rise to indie stardom and their acrimonious breakup. It also includes dozens of rare and never-before-seen photographs, as well as posters and other ephemera from the personal collection of Naomi Yang, who provides a running commentary to the images. This is the definitive book about Galaxie 500, and a crucial chapter in the story of indie rock.

Envision the city as an infinite playground. Created in collaboration with Red Bull, Urban Playgrounds explores some of the world’s most thrilling places for urban sports. From Venice, Barcelona, and Los Angeles, to Brasilia, Istanbul, Cairo, Lagos, or Jarkarta, this book reveals an exhilarating marriage between space and sports in global cities. Born from a need to challenge boundaries and reclaim the right to the city, from a desire for self-expression and entertainment, urban sports reimagine the city as a playground. Be it freestyling on a skateboard, riding a BMX, or stretching the human body in parkour, urban athletes demonstrate the possibilities.

Art exists all around us: one just needs to know where to look. Escaping the conventional settings of the museum or gallery, a fascinating variety of art pieces exist everywhere from Ghanaian patios to the Las Vegas desert, from the forest in Scandinavia to the buzzing streets of Mexico City. Unconventional Art Places is a thoughtful journey through these little-known gems that become a destination in themselves, and should be part of every art-lover bucket list. Away from the queues, the crowds, and the constraints of the classic art spaces, these places invite you to discover creativity in a new light.

A meditation on faith, art, music, grief and much more - from cultural icon and bestselling author Nick Cave Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave's inner life. Created from over forty hours of intimate conversations with Sean O'Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave's own words, of what really drives his life and creativity. The book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave's life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years. From a place of considered reflection, Faith, Hope and Carnage offers ladders of hope and inspiration from a true creative visionary.

„Ikonographische Bilder aus Berlin kennt man zu Genüge und in verschiedenen Tonalitäten: Sarah Eick gelingt nun das große Kunststück, das auch Urberliner:innen, die sehr viele Fotografien über ihre Heimatstadt gesehen haben, noch Bewunderung abverlangt: ihre Fotos geben zweifellos Berliner Motive wieder, doch gleichzeitig sind es Werke von einer großen, translokalen, abstrakt-poetischen Qualität. Eigentümlich kontextlos, fast wie Ufos, wirken die bekannten Gebäude und Stadtansichten. Ohne jede Form von historisierendem oder nostalgischem Pathos lässt Eick ihnen eine große Würde zukommen. Selbst eine Imbiss-Bude sieht bei ihr erhaben aus.” – Tanja Dückers (Schriftstellerin, Publizistin, Kunsthistorikerin)

Kraftwerk's most concise and focused conceptual statement, Computer World, was also their most influential album, paving the way for a range of new musical styles and genres. This book explores the band's revolutionary sonic template, and their lyrical obsessions in detail.

An analysis of the bands work reveals a unifying theme, overlooked by other writers, of movement and transition. While many remarked on the prevalence of travel within Kraftwerk's art: Autobahn (1974) – cars, Trans-Europe Express (1977) – trains, The Man- Machine (1978) – space, and Tour De France (1982) – bicycles, Francis contends that this is a surface manifestation of a deeper theoretical subtext in their work. Movement is really a reflection of the concept of transition, through time and space, from one physical, emotional, or existential state of being to another. The book explores transition, as expressed on Computer World, via theories of post-humanism, cybernetics and the anthropology of transnationalism.

The next fooball season starts with this funny 56-page-letter-visualisation for old and young!

Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar's sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering plauditory albums reviews, many awards, and even a canonized place in Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois archive. Why did this strangely compelling and masterful record stimulate the emotions and imaginations of listeners?

This book takes a deep dive into the sounds, images, and lyrics of To Pimp a Butterfly to suggest that Kendrick appeals to the psyche of a nation in crisis and embraces the development of a radical political conscience. Kendrick breathes fresh life into the black musical protest tradition and cultivates a platform for loving resistance. Combining funk, jazz, and spoken word, To Pimp a Butterfly's expansive sonic and lyrical geography brings a level of innovation to a field dominated by the predictability of trap music. More importantly, Kendrick's introspective and philosophical songs compel us to believe in a future where we gon' be alright!

The first monograph on the Japanese streetwear brand Whiz Limited, this book showcases the last 20 years of the brand’s design and collaborations with streetwear’s most iconic players.

Whiz Limited is a Japanese streetwear brand estab-lished in 2000 by Hiroaki Shitano. With a following in Japan as well as Hong Kong and mainland China, Shitano has become something of a cult figure, as one of the new generation of streetwear designers influ-enced by Hiroshi Fujiwara. Consisting originally of handmade, printed tees, the label has since expanded to include a complete range of streetwear infused with an eccentric Japanese flair. Shitano was raised in the entertainment district of Shinjuku, and this is reflected in the clothing’s distinctly downtown urban vibe and predominantly dark color palette. Chronicling the history of the brand, alongside some of Whiz’s most prolific projects to date, this book features beautiful, newly shot photographs of a long list of collaborations with streetwear icons, including Hiroshi Fujiwara/Fragment, Mastermind, Stüssy, A Bathing Ape®, Bristol, Bountyhunter, M&M, Kappa, New Era, Disney, Hello Kitty, G-Shock, Peanuts, Porter, The North Face, Marmot, First Down, and the estate of Keith Haring. This book also features an impressive archive of the brand’s iconic sneaker designs, boasting collabora-tions with heavy hitters like mita sneakers, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, Puma, Reebok, Mizuno, Converse, and Ugg, making it a must-have for sneak-erheads and lovers of streetwear style alike.

This landmark volume tells the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat from the intimate perspective of his family, intertwining his artistic endeavors with his personal life, influences, and the times in which he lived, and features for the first time work from the Estate’s largely unseen and significant collection of paintings, drawings, sketches, and ephemera.

Organized by the family of Basquiat, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue feature over 200 never before and rarely seen paintings, drawings, ephemera, and artifacts. The artist’s contributions to the history of art and his exploration into our multi-faceted culture—incorporating music, the Black experience, pop culture, African American sports figures, literature, and other sources—are showcased alongside personal reminiscences and firsthand accounts providing unique insight into Basquiat’s creative life and his singular voice that propelled the social and cultural narrative that continues to this day. Structured around key periods in his life, from his childhood and formative years, his meteoric rise in the art world and beyond, to his untimely death, the book features in-depth interviews with his surviving family members.

Shoe design is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in both the real and virtual worlds through state-of-the-art technologies, ground-breaking materials, and new and innovative ways of thinking about what a shoe can be.

New modes of making and innovations in materials are inspiring shoe designers to challenge what shoes can look and feel like. This book explores today’s most futuristic footwear designs, from the use of new technologies such as 3-D printing and smart technology to the invention of sustainable materials, including “leather” made from mushrooms and soles made from reclaimed ocean plastics. It also examines footwear design in the virtual world where adherence to things like comfort and gravity are no longer part of the equation. The importance of sneakers in games such as Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite are explored as is the new enthusiasm for collectable non-fungible token (nft) sneakers that are being acquired for tens of thousands of dollars for a single pair. In-depth interviews with of-the-moment designers, including Iris van Herpen, the team at Rtfkt, Steven Smith, Eric Avar, Alexander Taylor, and more, all conducted by the author, dive deep into the creative process, influences, and the future of shoe design. The introduction offers an overview of great footwear innovations from the past that have kept us a step ahead.

The fun moves on … now put your boots on and jump into 56 Basketball-Alphabet-Cardboard-Pages. Enjoy and don't foget to bring your toddlers!

For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation. Life decisions have been based on it. Relationships have been created and dissolved by it. For the band that recorded it, Boxer symbolizes a do-or-die moment; a final, give-it-everything-you've-got effort to make it work.

Released in May 2007, The National's fourth full-length is the album that saved them. It's where the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to become one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time. Obsessively researched and featuring intimate interviews with the fighters who were there in the ring, Ryan Pinkard captures a transformative chapter in The National's story, revealing how their breakthrough album is deeply intertwined with their personal lives, the New York indie rock renaissance of the early aughts, and a generational experience in America.

George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began.

Embodying a chic casualness that is uniquely American, the Polo shirt is a cultural symbol, worn by everyone from movie stars and presidents to athletes and artists. The Polo shirt is to Ralph Lauren what Mickey Mouse is to Disney or the Empire State Building is to New York City. Whether worn with the collar popped up, open and untucked, or dressed up under a suit jacket, the Polo embodies the optimism of American style. In Lauren’s words, “It’s honest and from the heart and hopefully that is what touches the diversity of all who wear it. It was never about a shirt, but a way of living.” Featuring a gallery of stars from the worlds of sports, politics, film, and music—from Leonardo DiCaprio and Spike Lee, to Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, to Pharrell Williams and Venus Williams—as well as everyday people who make the Polo their canvas for self-expression, The Polo Shirt looks at the enduring cool of a wardrobe classic. Included are the full range of colors, styles, and fits the shirt has been produced in during its more than 50 year history. From the classic white to the weathered Polo, from the striped Polo to the US Olympic, US Open, and Wimbledon Championship collaborations, this catalogue celebrates the full spectrum of the Polo, making it a collector’s dream. Ralph Lauren began his career in 1967, designing neckties under the label Polo. He has received numerous awards for his work in fashion, philanthropy, and humanitarian causes and is the only designer to receive the CFDA’s four highest honors: Womenswear Designer of the Year; Menswear Designer of the Year; Retailer of the Year; and Lifetime Achievement. In 2019 he received an honorary KBE for Services to Fashion from the Prince of Wales. Ken Burns is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker. David Lauren is the Chief Innovation Officer of Ralph Lauren, Vice Chairman of the Board, and President of the Ralph Lauren Foundation.

The year 1972 brought together two legends of rock 'n' roll at the peaks of their careers: Jim Marshall and the Rolling Stones. Selected by Life magazine to photograph the Stones' Exile ON Main ST. tour, Marshall had a week of unlimited access. The results are his now-iconic images of the band, onstage in their full glory and backstage in moments of unguarded camaraderie. Marshall's ability to capture the essential spirit of an artist and the transformative power of music is matched only by the Stones' largerthan- life.

From a talented young journalist on the rise, a deeply reported, timely new biography of the Notorious B.I.G., publishing for what would have been his 50th birthdayThe Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most charismatic and talented artists of the 1990s. Born Christopher Wallace and raised in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie lived an almost archetypal rap life: young trouble, drug dealing, guns, prison, a giant hit record, the wealth and international superstardom that came with it, then an early violent death.

The birthplace of graffiti, New York City, has evolved into a global center for street art. Its public surfaces host a range of media from handmade stickers and wheatpastes to huge installations and murals. Artists from across the globe routinely travel to New York City to grace its walls as they refashion the city into one huge never-ending unofficial street art festival. Among these are such contemporary urban legends as Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Okuda, MaClaim, Faith Xlvii, Stik, Nick Walker, JR and Swoon. Street Art NYC showcases both sanctioned and unsanctioned works captured in the course of a transformative decade that saw the emergence of over a dozen distinctly engaging projects. The hugely popular Bushwick Collective, L.I.S.A Project NYC and Welling Court Mural Project are highlighted with introductory essays. Local community-based projects and festivals, as well as those responding to specific environmental and social issues, are also represented. Banksy’s one month 2013 residency, “Better Out than In” is documented with words and images. And homage is paid to the legendary 5 Pointz graffiti and street art mecca. Street Art NYC is is a beautifully designed hardcover book. The full color photographs by Lord K2 captures the art in the city, printed on thick coated paper, and Lois Stavsky’s text provides the context. This is the only book to spotlight the transformational decade that marked the shift from largely unsanctioned to widely curated street art throughout New York City’s five boroughs. This book is a collaboration between Lord K2, an award-winning photographer and curator of the online Museum of Urban Art and Lois Stavsky, a noted street art documentarian and editor of the popular blog, Street Art NYC.

Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience. Drawing from his own life, and those of his many creative collaborators past and present, Quincy Jones presents readers with lessons that are hardworking and accessible, yet speak to the passion of self-expression.

Happy, beautiful and full of fun - this book is an intimate portrait of the real Amy Winehouse. With over 50 photographs, many seen here for the first time, this is a celebration of a young artist on the cusp of fame. The photos were taken by Charles Moriarty just before Amy released her debut album. These beautiful images give an early glimpse of the girl who would captivate the world. With a foreword by Asif Kapadia, director of Academy Award-winning documentary Amy, and an introduction by Ashleigh Kane from Dazed, Before Frank is a tribute to the enduring spirit of a truly special artist.

Published by Moriarty Publishing

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn’t We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy’s exploration of the duality of Whitney’s life.

About: ‘where i am allowed to sit for one more day, and this is an endless wonder’... is something more logical in its unfurling of desire (if the weight of words hold more ‘meaning’), a transversal thing from object to image. The book inlcudes poetry, prose, drawings and contributions from Angelina Nonaj, Hanne Boulanger, Emily Yuting Chen, Sam Horman, Harriet Jones, Sami Domenico, Laila Sakini, & Sam M plus an interview with ‘J’ by Lauryn Groševs on the topics of “my seat and weep”, the book, care, desire and interpreting connection.

Excerpt: I can find it difficult to articulate things into words, it's as if I can't find the (right) words. Sometimes it's a gesture, a look or a glance, or a simple movement that seems to communicate, or embody, what I want to say or what I "mean". The next question, for me, is what changes, or rather who. The absurdity of closeness, of putting things together, building meaning.

If you're interested in the Microphones box set but maybe you don't actually enjoy music (or maybe you have the records, or maybe it's sold out), here you can buy just the book.

It's pretty fancy on its own. 12.5" x 12.5", 107 pages, perfect bound with huge french flaps, packed with beautiful photos and artwork, notebook spreads, studio track sheets, show posters, etc. These were made at the sustainability-award-winning Hemlock Printers in Burnaby, B.C., a splurge.

It works as either a semi-abstract aesthetic art thing or as an abundantly packed collection of background materials that should satisfy even the most curious Microphones music listener.