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Williamsburg Fashion Weekend is now in its eleventh season, and its our most ambitious yet. WFW has always focused on innovative design, innovative presentation and conscientious production, and this season presents fifteen designers who are doing just that with their own unique voice. Re-cycling, up-cycling, usage of fair trade fabrics, transparent business practices, artisan techniques and local production are some of the ways these designers are shaping the future of the fashion industry for the better. These fifteen designers are as different as apples and oranges, yet each one is unified in showing that aesthetics do not have to suffer in order to create conscientious fashion. Curated to show the staggeringdiversity of styles for whichWilliamsburg has come to beknown, there will be somethingfor every taste and style. Designer Melissa Lockwood up-cycles scraps from the Garment Districts cutting rooms into unique, funky pieces, while Juanita Cardenas, RHLS and Marco Santaniello create vibrantly-colored designs for active and bold consumers. ShockVintage, Mark Tauriello, Uta Brauser, Geary Marcello, Bibiana and Black Cabinet Accessories make pieces for the wild child, and Desira Pesta, Nathalie Kraynina, Brittany Erb, SDN and Stephanie Hinson all design with sophisticated fashionistas in mind. Uta Bekaia will show over-the-top creations that channel Leigh Bowery and the Victorian epoch.

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Founder & PublisherArthur Arbit

Editor In ChiefGina Tron

Project ManagerSarah Lowndes

Managing Editor Nathalie Kraynina

Advertising DirectorCheyenne Bosco

Production ManagerAlicia Osborne

Copy EditorsHannah Palmer EganMikalena Kenyon

Contributing Editorial WriterEdward Moran

Contributing Feature WritersTamara LaineTatiana JohnsonMissy WigginsZoe WilderMike Mikas

Photo EditorsCora FoxxDavid LopezBill Thompson

InternsKary GutierrezMarika Fraser

Design Y.A.T.E.

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Arthur Arbit, the founder, producer and creator of Williamsburg Fashion Weekend is a Brooklyn staple. He moved to the borough from Ukraine back in 1979 and unleashed all sorts of creativity upon New York. Hes dabbled in art from a young age, never confining himself to any one medium or genre, to avoid painting himself into a box. His favorite medium right now is acrylic as it forces him to paint fast and furious. He is a fashion designer as well, and is the mastermind behind the label King Gurvy, a line for cult leaders and uber divas. That nick-name, Gurvy, was given to me in elementary school when I was the geekiest geek in the world. I figured Id take it and turn it around. Arbit opened The State of Art, a gallery in Greenpoint in the late nineties that showcased very raw, almost naive artists. Arthur stated that he wanted to start a move-ment, by showing artists that were of a similar vein. The Twisted Ones was his next venture, and with his friends Erik Z and Fitz, they helped put the Brooklyn music scene on the map.

Williamsburg Fashion Weekend was started after Fitz moved to Europe and Erik Z opened Secret Project Robot, one of the most important art galleries in Brooklyn. Arbit not only curates and produces WFW, he also designs theposters for the event. He loves featuring girls with guns on his posters for the event because he loves strong, independent, self- sufficient women. Grace Jones, the current poster girl for WFW, has been selected this season because shes a personal hero, and is the most badass woman on the planet! Asked about the curatorial process for WFW, he states, The artists that take risks...those are the only ones I like. On top of pushing the boundaries of fashion design, it is very important to him that the manufacturing is conscientious and the presentations are out there. The idea is to have designers that adhere to these principles move into the big leagues and change the industry from the inside.

Founder & PublisherArthur Arbit

Editor In ChiefGina Tron

Project ManagerSarah Lowndes

Managing Editor Nathalie Kraynina

Advertising DirectorCheyenne Bosco

Production ManagerAlicia Osborne

Copy EditorsHannah Palmer EganMikalena Kenyon

Contributing Editorial WriterEdward Moran

Contributing Feature WritersTamara LaineTatiana JohnsonMissy WigginsZoe WilderMike Mikas

Photo EditorsCora FoxxDavid LopezBill Thompson

InternsKary GutierrezMarika Fraser

Design Y.A.T.E.

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photographer: nick childershair and make up: lorena & magaly cochachistylist: gina tronproducer: koko ntuen jacket by nathalie krayninadress by brittany erb

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5robe by nathalie krayninabathing suit by RHLS

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photographer: gina tronstylists: nathalie kraynina and gina trondress by mark taurielloleggings by melissa lockwood

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tshirt by RHLS

9Thats how Andrew W.K and his wife Cherie Lily of Houserobics described Ruffeo Hearts style. Who on earth would want to halt something as cute as that? Its like childrens wear for grownups

Its just tank tops and leggings! Jones exclaimed in her own defense. She believes that people react so strongly because ...people are really afraid to be different, and they are afraid to be noticed or something. I dont get it. How is this so crazy? What kind of sheltered life is that? Although it would appear that Jones and Sherman may watch lots of cartoons, that is not exactly the case. We dont really ingest that much media, Jones admits. And I feel that Mackswell kind of lives in a bubble. I dont know what he looks at or listens to. I mostly read the news and watch documentaries. There is some media influence in the Mario Brothers-esque backdrops featured on their website, however Probably because their graphic designer, Eli Heuer, used to work on games for Nintendos GameBoy. He worked for a videogame company called Amaze in the late 2000s, which was perfect as that was the sort of look that Sherman and Jones wanted in their look-book. Weird ultimate dimensions to life, Jones said. We worked with Eli, taking Mackswells art direction and making it his own and just illustrating what it would look like in art world. Heuer gave them some creative additions for the lookbook but they mainly rely on their own minds for inspiration.Everything just comes from the history of RHLS. Its kind of like writing a novel. It just kind of evolves and grows. I feel like we are inspired by ourselves. It sounds really self absorbed but its true. And they will continue to write the novel that is their clothing line. MOVES has been open since November, and sells only clothing made in NYC. It is located right across the street from Treehouse, another shop which is home to unique designs by fantastic local designers. RHLS recently outfitted the band Guardian Alien for an upcoming music video, and they will be happy to outfit anyone who enjoys pushing the boundaries of fashion with some colorful stretchy badassity.

www.rhls.comRU

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MOVES concept store is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Graham L stop in East Williamsburg. I popped by one day and spoke with Sarah Jones, who makes up half of the team that is Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty. I asked about how she and her creative partner, Mackswell Sherman met; given the nature of their designs, I was not surprised by their colorful backstory. Jones and Sherman discovered each other at a show in Washington back in 2005. Mackswell was wearing a Bob Marley sweatshirt with a Bob Marley T-shirt underneath. He had a pink and purple mullet and a neck beard, she saidadding she was instantly intrigued.

I was like, who is this guy!?!? I saw him perform and he almost blew a firecracker up in my face during his performance. Later that night, he bummed a beer from me and then he bought me a ciga-rette. That was the magical beginning! Now, they create a skew of cartoonish creations in mostly stretch fabrics. Tricolor spandex suits reign king and the designs on their stretch fabric seem surely the result of stretched imaginations. All the designs are refreshingly fun, loaded with happy faces and bright colors. Which is why its such a shock to hear about some of the reactions of passer-bys at their shop. Some people love it, Jones gushed. However, she said, some people are confused by it and some people completely hate it. When I sit here I can hear what people say when they walk by and sometimes they have these violent reactions to it. Some of the violent reactions include people saying shit like

I dont know what the fuck theyre doing in there but they need to stop. This is surprising because although the clothing is weird, no doubt, its fucking friendly shit, all cupcakes and happy faces. Think, Yo Gabba Gabba mixed with aerobic wear.

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WHEN BREAD HAS TURNED TO STONE AND ROSES TO THORN

A word isthreadtill it is said, Emily might have written, wielding a fur-fury of dashes like darning needlesever the seamstress, ever bearing the stress of seamsof Seemingshe the fascicle-knitter, sewing together her verses into little purses for her linguistic coinage, she poised at the cleavage.

Poised at the cleavage, the primal ur-clothing cat-runway walk east of Eden, the eye-of-needle opening in the hiss of the days glare, fig leaves hastily stitched together in the face of aleph and omega, as when a man and wife shall cleave, then find in love a hammered clove, then find themselves soon cleft.

First the word, then the image, first the text then the textile, but now is not the time for the putting off of clothes, deep in the world of shame, till this and hiss shall be no more.

Yea, though I walk with the poet who proclaims the fashionista facile fascicle fascism of fabrication, fabricolage, fabulous all fags in training fit fitting room fab and glam-glory, per omnia saecula saeculorum. . . Do the words clothe our pure platonic souls, protecting us from the barbaric yawp warp and woof of the post-edenic times when or do they are they the themselves the barbaric yawp warp and woof of the breeches and chicness with which we deck our flesh?

We do not mute the muse of fashion when we invoke the poets: we laud and louden her by turning from textile to text, from thread to threnody, swatch to schwa. . .proclaiming the labor of the daughters of toil who stitch and spin by the sweat of their shops. . .

Another poet, all hooded, sees the masses all huddled, sewing at once, with a double thread, a Shroud as well as a Shirt. Who are these faceless women at their fascicles, with guns unshod and needles drawn? These terrorists of stitch and knit, inscribing the names of the guilty in silk and serge. From the Triangle toggers of 1911 to the maquiladora maidens of 2012, from the Song of the Shirt in the 1800s to the Sumangali Schemesters of our own day. The currency of fashion weighs heavy upon the shoulders and worn-to- the-bone fingers of the least of these, our sistern. If the putting on of clothes tears like a hairshirt into their bosoms, then let us all for Gods sake walk naked again among the

cisterns of our conscience, for shame, truly shame.

In this year of grace 2012, a hundred years after the calvary of Triangle and the rising of the women of Lawrence, the voice of poetry sounds its clarion call across the runways and assembly lines of the planet:

Our lives shall not be sweated frombirth until life closes; Hearts starveas well as bodies; bread and roses,bread and roses.

BY EDWARD MORAN

Hearken us now in this year of grace 2012, for still bread doth turn to stone and roses to thorn, yea, even a full century since Triangle Shirtwaist and the old mill scream of Lawrence.

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Secret Project Robot: institute for the living arts (formerly Mighty Robot 1999-04) was founded in 2004 by a group of friends who produce, observe and interact with art as a way of life. It is a beautiful gallery, a garden project, an experiment in community, an installation, print, and performance focused experimental space gravitating around the idea that art should be experienced and lived daily. Secret Project Robot has numerous studio spaces which house the talents of various local artists and musicians from Raul De Nieves and Chris Uphues to Oneida, Guardian Alien, K Holes and Dave Kaden & company.

Secret Project Robot was granted 501c3 Not for Profit status by the IRS as an arts and educational charitable institution in May of 2008. Secret Project Robot offers dynamic and challenging programming while supporting the efforts of those interested in exploring art in a broader social context. The openings and events at Secret Project Robot are inclusive and overlap various media practices. Exhibitions will often include a musical counterpart, a performance or other elements that add to a more diverse appreciation of the arts.

Secret Project Robot stresses the importance of the art-party as a way to create an inclusive and tangible environment. They push every event beyond proscribed norms, and compel visitors to explore art while also creating a space for them to interact and have a conversationthe idea is that art should be a platform for a continuos dialogue and a gallery should be a place that promotes this in a fun, new and interesting way.

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WFW last saw Desira with her Fall/ Winter collection back in 2010. Shes had a bit of a sabbatical from fashion since then, keeping herself busy with some costume design, writing a play and acting (i.e. playing a prostitute in Al Capones brothel for Boardwalk Empire). The dichotomous structures and color mixtures of her costuming often seem other-worldly, particularly in her music video costumes. Im very theatrical, so I really like the freedom of music videos, and theres nothing that has to stay together after the day; you can be really crazy if you want. She loves ready-to-wear clothing but she also really likes the ability to go completely out of the box and express yourself in a way you cant usually do on the streets. Im extending the fine art part of myself as far as it can go and I really appreciate that, and a lot of musicians allow you to do that. Theyll get really dressed up and dont care what they look like, and they have a story to tell and an image to make and its really cool to be part of that. For this season of WFW, Desira is concentrating on the year 1965. Its conservative looks of 1965 or the 60s in general. Ya know, like fitted waists and long dresses; coupling that with the rock and roll of the 60s.

www.desirapesta.com

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When Im making clothes, the primary thing that motivates me, my whole philosophy behind design is to make well-made clothes that are timeless and that last. From Erbs perspective, society is going through a disposable phase and fashion has followed: its become cheap and lacks value. Erb wants to offer something extra special, something you cant find in mainstream, generic clothing stores.I like vintage a lot, too, she said, the idea of reusing instead of buying more, she asserted.Although shes never been to Japan, Erbs line is heavily influenced by the culture there. She calls it Atarashii, which is Japanese for new. When asked to explain her inspiration she said, Ive been studying [Japanese] pattern making techniques, reading Japanese authors and have become enamored by the simplicity, yet complexity of their art, so it made sense to me to pay homage to the culture with that. Brittany told me that her most recent collection is about settling into my own skin as a designer and the result is going to be completely organic and cross unchartered waters. One of the dresses has been designed using a method of pattern cutting that explores the use of negative space, rather than building a pattern for the garment.

www.brittanyerb.com

DESIRA PESTA

BY MISSY WIGGINS

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Geary Marcello was always into fashion, and was also into going against the grain. I grew up knowing that [fashion was] what I wanted to do. Even though little boys were not supposed to design clothes, he added. That didnt stop him from outfitting his G.I. Joe figurines with clothing he creating using old pillowcases! He later worked as a costume designer in Las Vegas, which is not surprising given the extravagant elements in his designs. He later attended fashion school and did an internship under designer Zandra Rhodes. He currently has his fashionable fingers in all sorts of impressive pies, working with a diverse list of celebrities that include Bill Cosby, Lindsay Lohan, and Nina Hagen. He also is a stylist for Miss Ghana, and he styles her for a low fee. Being a poor country, I do it for a whole lot less money because its a way to give something back. For his current collection, entitled Foxxxy Face, he is working with a good girl bad boy...new money type of clothing for new money type of girls, and is drawing inspiration from 1970s New York.

www.marcellogeary.yolasite.com

Originally from Colombia, Juanita started off creating clothing for various circus performers. Showing pieces in the Cromatico show directed by Gustavo Silva Aires, she succeeded in creating depth while using only a few colors. Soon proving that she was not just a designer for circus performers, she began her path towards becoming a costume designer. Working on various theatre works such as Taranto, written and directed by Fernando Ferrer, she showcased ready-to-wear pieces. Five years ago she decided to expand her brand with the ready-to-wear line, Polychromatico. Using natural fabrics, Cardenas took what she learned from making attire for trapeze performers and kept the same functionality in her ready-to-wear line. The clothing had to be flexible; the performers are bending, flipping and using so much of their body that the clothing has to work, says Cardenas.Polychromatico opens your mind to color schemes that you may never have thought ofand yet still provides you with styles that are wearable and chic. As Cardenas and I talk present and future, we get a hint of what to expect for Williamsburg Fashion Weekend.

A huge spectacle, a moon landing on Candyland, says Cardenas. It already sounds like it will definitely be something to see, both for the show and the clothing itself.

www.juanitacardenas.com

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BY GINA TRON

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I like designing for the pole and the hole, declared Marcus Hicks, of Sarah Dixons Nova (SDN), referring obviously to both the male and female sexes. He says fashion makes him sick and he believes trends are dumb, but that doesnt seem to stop him from expressing his sense of style. Hicks likes to work with sustainable fabrics and uses local production to make unique pieces like his pant shoes. He explained, I wanted an outdoor version of PJs with footies, so I made a pair of boots that continued into pants...Not the most practical thing to sell. Luckily, clothing need not be practical. When asked about his muse, he told me it was Marqua Marqois. Although, I dont know who this is, he assured me that Marqois will make an appearance at the show. Be sure to keep an eye out. His favorite designers are Bernhard Willhelm, Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens, and Vivienne Westwood. For Hicks, a big fashion NO is a pair of undercover cop jeans. A fashion YES is a smile. Duly noted.

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The far-out statements adorning Santaniellos shirts and skirts summon memories of the Frankie Says Relax shirts of the 80s with their oversized block lettering and vague messages, but often with a more perverseand seemingly drug-addledperspective behind the wording. Girls and boys trot down a runway in strictly androgynous knitwear proclaiming Nice to Eat You, Fancy a Fuck, and Fool of Ideas. His T-Shirts have been seen in magazines like Cosmopolitan and Glamour Italy. Though, before his T-Shirts, he made a T-skirt collection with words. The words were practically taken from MySpace statuses: smart, moody, horny, etc. Wherever he gets them from, they certainly make a statement, and so does he. My fashion aim is sending messages to people and changing their view of the world. Wake up; its all a big fake world, its designed to make a fool of you every day. Asked if there was anything he wanted in this article, Marco said, I will never stop fighting the lobbies and the little circles of powerful people that handle the wires of our lives. Ill do my best to make the Freedom Utopia not a Utopia anymore. They have to kill me if they want to stop me, just like they did with John Lennon, Tupac, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, etc. etc. Surely we can only anticipate more exciting things from this self-proclaimed superstar, who is already starting to set up his first solo pop art exhibition in Manhattan, slated for December.

www.marcosantaniello.com

MARCUS HICKSBY ZOE WILDER

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Mark Tauriellos last collection at WFW, which was inspired by 1980s horror VHS cover art, was the perfect attire for the apocalypse, Jason Voorhees printed fabrics and dream warrior dresses. I basically grew up on Nightmare on Elm Street and Metropolis, the designer said. I wanted to fuse this avant-garde fashion with horror movies. His collection for this seasons WFW is heavily influenced by the art direction of H.R. Giger [for the Aliens trilogy]. He has also been photographing high tension radio towers and industrial landscapes and plans to turn them into kaleidoscopic collage prints which he will then blow up on fabric. It will create this melancholic futuristic atmosphere. A lot of the clothing will have this futuristic armor feel. Tauriello said he listened to a lot of Darkwave and Zola Jesus for inspiration and that hes taken a step away from the bright colors, this one is more shape oriented, and dark. Mark very much enjoys the idea of women as scary monsters, and often styles his models as such, because he finds it empowering. Im a feminist at heart. I hate fashion because it victimizes women and makes them look like dumb sexual objects. I grew up on horror and in horror movies the women are always the victims. So I like to turn the tables a little bit. Youll never see me do a photoshoot where the female model is distressed and relying on a man.

www.marktauriello.com

MARK TAURIELLO BY GINA TRON

Uta Brauser is responsible for a massiveand I mean massivetrend. Remember those animal hats that were insanely popular a few years back? You know, the ones that got so huge that they were being sold by vendors on Canal Street? Well, the pink-dreaded genius that is Uta started that trend.

I am honored to have created a worldwide trend. I was the originator. Unfortunately, like many style origina-tors, she did not receive proper credit for her work. But lately this Munich-born designer has been receiving a lot of credit for her creations. Her forty-minute-long performance at last seasons WFW certainly got people talking, as the show basically took the audience on a magical journey full of abstract shapes and animal accessories.Shes planning just as epic an event this season, only this time she is zoning in on birds and triangles as her main focus. It will be a triangle woman theme. I had one triangular woman in the last show. Now Im going to do a whole series of women in triangle outfits. I plan on the models to come in like birds fly, similar to the shape of a triangle. She juggles her complicated creative projects with motherhood, and on top of that is also an accomplished Pop Artist and flexible doll-maker.

fishwithbraids.blogspot.com

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BY GINA TRON

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Nathalie Kraynina started designing at the early age of six years old with her infamous doodles that would go on to become the basis for her collection, French Rags. She later was inspired by the likes of Dior, Chanel and Michael Kors. She ended up working under Michael Kors in addition to being trained by Badgley Mischka. The contemporary line of Nathalie Kraynina stands in its own lane: edgy, yet suitable for the young professional who has a career, likes to go out for brunch on the weekend and a few drinks after work. At first glance, the pieces from the Fall/Winter 2011 line give off an air of mystery, with polished looks and great uses of greys and blacks that not only compliment the woman wearing them, but also the setting. Her Spring/Summer 2011 collection really took center stage with pastels and blacks, high-waist trousers, and a lot of flowy pieces. For this season at Williamsburg Fashion Weekend, she is taking it to the next level. She is reinventing black with immense detailing, sheer fabrics, brocades, beading and a play on cuts. Im looking forward to the show, more people wearing [my collection] and having it sold in more places. I love seeing my clothing on women, says Kraynina. Already sold at online boutique LeChicUSA (lechicusa.com) and boutiques like Eidolon, the new collection is bound to be on the hips of young ladies worldwide very soon.

www.nathaliekraynina.com

Stephanie Hinson was born to be a fashion designer. She began tearing at the threads of her career as a wee four-year-old growing up in North Carolina. Her mother made her clothes by hand, and gave the budding designer leftover fabric to play with. I would lay their bodies down and trace clothing on the fabric. When she was just eight, she began to draw clothing. For her current collection she is, as usual, working with all natural fabrics.

Im just not down with synthetics, she told me. She is working a lot with chambray, and is actually dying that material herself. Im thinking about the future and Im thinking about being resourceful. Shes working with bamboo, rayon and a fabric that resembles cotton organdy, made of pineapple. She is hand-sewing the majority of her garments. Stephanie is a big lover of fashion magazines, in my bedroom at home theres every Vogue from the 90s. She refers to it as her archival resource. Currently, she tries to consume less paper by buying magazines on her iPad but notes, they are just not the same.

Im still a total magazine whore, she tells me, That magazine smell, its just so much more romantic and I tend to remember things better.

www.stephaniehinson.com

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Uta Bekaia sports bright colors and is extremely charming and friendly. Its hard to believe his collection is comprised of abstraction that could totally walk out of the antichrists nightmare. His business card features the illustration of a creature that is half man, half deer, a human form with multiple antlers. He incorporates this animalisitc death into his work for a purpose, to show that we are one, that everything including animals, trees, us, we are one organism. Thats my concept and why I fuse the antlers. Bekaias pieces are very cerebral and otherworldly. But his inspiration comes from the real world. Its the forms of things I see around. I get inspiration from peoples characters when I talk to them, from their faces, their expression in their eyes, and even from trees. My vision is dark but Im not a dark dude. Im like a mediator. This mediator has been a designer since he was a teenager, when he was knee deep in candy-raver land in the country of Georgia. Not the state, the country. At 17, he orchestrated his very first fashion show that was all about androgyny, angels, and colorful ravers. In contrast to his candy-raver days his new line shall be not very colorful. Rather, it will be dark glamour and bling bling. Best of all, everything he will be using for the collection is recycled. When it comes to Bekaias design process, he often starts with a skeleton, but it usually ends up transforming into something else. Structurally, I just go with the flow. I dont push it. I let my hands do the work without thinking about it. I dont conceptualize too much. Easygoing manner utilized to created complicate looking pieces of art. A mediator of dark that is full of light.

www.utapbekaia.com

UTA BEKAIA

BY GINA TRON

Melissa Lockwood, the designer behind IQTEST, sells some of her dresses in Tokyo, Japan in a shop called H.P.FRANCE/HaNNa, and each one of them are created from salvaged fabrics. The purpose of this is to illustrate how mass producing designers are throwing away unseen garments. Melissa doesnt work exclusively with salvaged fabrics, but she does always try to keep the state of the environment in mind while designing. I can work with polyester too because if I can stop it from going to the landfill, then I am happy. That stuff lasts like 1,000 years! Keeping it out of the dump, and on the bodies of forward-thinking fashionistas! Smart cookie. And speaking of intelligence, she came up with the name IQTEST after she noticed one lying around a friends house. Inspired, she incorporated this into her clothing making, which at the time, was strictly done for fun. I started drawing IQ test patterns on my clothing and my friend joked that I could make a whole line out of it. And then she did. She now offers a range of styles: unique knit dresses, fun leggings, and Fred Flintstone-esque sports jackets.

www.iqtest-nyc.com

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Altered states of lucidity bring together the requiem sounds of Brooklyns home-town band The K-Holes. Their sound, a harsh and moody insubordination to fash-ionable pop rock, comes from the undaunted life of the unattained. Similar to their sound, the band possesses a unique fashion consciousness they refer to as fashion rewind, against the current of the posh fashion forward trends found by those who never struggled for their livelihood. Members Cameron Michel, Sara Villard, Jack Hines, Julie Hines, and Vashti Windishs vintage bravura is so inherent to the soul of the band that the classic 80s looks are more than revived, they are as refreshing as their unique sound. Opaque, transient, and truthful notes submerge from their newest album, Dismania. Songs like Window in the Wall and Child exhibit their animalistic style, in both instinct and attire. It is their thematic urge to escape from the vulgar materialism sung from the metropolitan mouth, which reverberates into a melody that sets The K-Holes into a realm of artistic distinction above the rest.

For a little over a year now the Brooklyn rock scene illuminati have been well aware of the audacious live threat delivered by the screaming metal chords and amphetamine-driven rhythms of Call of the Wild. Unleashed upon a growing army of manic word-of-mouth fans, the band quickly reinvigorated a music scene grown dense and ponderous with the gravity of unmet expectations. It was time to cut the crap. So heavy was the untamed cry of this nascent 21st century power trio that after fewer than five or so appearances at basement shows and out of the way dive bars that Kemado Records committed to putting out a debut album for these rabble rousing miscreants so that the sounds which have made a certain set of venues feel alive again can be heard by the rest of the world outside the smoldering burnt-out core of hipster ground zero. Leave Your Leather On is serious rock and roll played by three serious musicians who damn sure dont take themselves too seriously. Theres more pure metal en-ergy and beer-can-chucking sing-along anthems than seems possible to fit on a record whose only fault may be that it ends too quickly! So heres what to do: Buy a case of beer, a bottle of whiskey, invite some friends over and play the shit out of this record with the stereo cranked to elev-en. Then maybe after three or four listens you can wind back down with some Thin Lizzy, Motrhead, and Rose Tattoo. You may no longer be a wound-up teenage hesher with a belly full of Robitussin and a bottle of poppers, but you can still feel like one.

CALL OF THE WILD BY MATT MIKAS

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For a little over a year now the Brooklyn rock scene illuminati have been well aware of the audacious live threat delivered by the screaming metal chords and amphetamine-driven rhythms of Call of the Wild. Unleashed upon a growing army of manic word-of-mouth fans, the band quickly reinvigorated a music scene grown dense and ponderous with the gravity of unmet expectations. It was time to cut the crap. So heavy was the untamed cry of this nascent 21st century power trio that after fewer than five or so appearances at basement shows and out of the way dive bars that Kemado Records committed to putting out a debut album for these rabble rousing miscreants so that the sounds which have made a certain set of venues feel alive again can be heard by the rest of the world outside the smoldering burnt-out core of hipster ground zero. Leave Your Leather On is serious rock and roll played by three serious musicians who damn sure dont take themselves too seriously. Theres more pure metal en-ergy and beer-can-chucking sing-along anthems than seems possible to fit on a record whose only fault may be that it ends too quickly! So heres what to do: Buy a case of beer, a bottle of whiskey, invite some friends over and play the shit out of this record with the stereo cranked to elev-en. Then maybe after three or four listens you can wind back down with some Thin Lizzy, Motrhead, and Rose Tattoo. You may no longer be a wound-up teenage hesher with a belly full of Robitussin and a bottle of poppers, but you can still feel like one.

349 Leonard StreetBrooklyn, NY 11211