Monday, October 26th, 2009
BURNING FIGHT
BY ELANO PIZZICAROLA
The sun set and as it got darker and darker, more and more guests slowly sprinkled into Tradition. The event was a book release. The name of the book was Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound and the author was Brian Peterson. In the book, Peterson interviews a variety of hardcore musicians and scene members about the sound and the ideas contained in the music they loved, specifically in the 1990s. T-shirts bearing the book’s title were draped aback the store’s front window. The walls, paraded gritty black and white photos of hardcore musicians and the genre’s treasured memorabilia of flyers and posters alike.
The crowd was diverse and their ages varied greatly. Some were teens while others were in their thirties and forties. The crowed sprawled the well-lit room, and as fast-paced, intense hardcore, blasted out the JBL speakers at breakneck speed, filling the room with explosive energy, there was an evident commonality as these fans mingled.
Hardcore’s traits reached them personally. They identified with it.
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
Patrick Martinez was predestined to create art since he was a small child. From his early youth drawing comics, to his stint with graffiti in middle school and high school, to his time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, to his current career as a fine artist, Patrick has been determined to succeed as an artist.
Patrick focuses on the phenomenology of his surroundings, and his work is influenced by graffiti, hip-hop, and pop culture, as well as by everyday people that don’t usually appear in the limelight. We sat down with Patrick to talk about his creative process, fresh off the opening of his first solo show, “You Dont Have to Lie to Kick It,” at Upper Playground in Los Angeles
Interview by Andrew Kline
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Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Trevor Traynor was born in New York in May of 1979. He studied at the University of Colorado in Boulder and after graduating in 2002 he explored the globe with a Hasselblad. For the next four years Trevor continued to create projects through his travels while doing editorial work in New York and several Art Fairs with Rx gallery in San Francisco. He currently lives and works in San Francisco and New York.
Thursday, June 4th, 2009
Hardcore music reared it’s ugly head after punk rock hit in the late 1970’s. Hardcore had a new sound, a new look, and a new aggression that swept over the nation, with hundreds of bands emerging in cities all over the United States and beyond. Each city had their own crop of bands, their own ‘zines, their own labels, and most importantly their own scene.
Radio Silence is a visual history of American hardcore that documents the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. I sat down with one of the authors, Anthony Pappalardo.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Though it is common for artists with roots in graffiti to branch out to the apparel and streetwear world, no one has done it quite like The Seventh Letter. Casey “Eklips” Zoltan, rumored leader of the west coast graffiti crews AWR and MSK, founded The Seventh Letter in 2000. The Seventh Letter acts as a platform for the crew’s artists to showcase their work in the form of apparel, art exhibitions and other special projects. Over the last 8 years The Seventh Letter has evolved as an apparel brand as well as an international collective of artists from the graffiti, tattoo, fine art, and design disciplines. We sat down with Casey to ask him a few questions about The Seventh Letter.
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
I have known EYEONE for well over 15 years. Aside from being a talented artist (both graffiti and fine art), an amazing graphic artist, and a curator, Eyeone used to own and operate The Macondo, an all ages punk and hardcore venue (and cultural center), that lasted from the mid to late nineties. For a number of years The Macondo was the only home for punk and hardcore in Los Angeles. Eyeone currently works as an artist and recently published a book of Los Angeles graffiti called Lost.
Lost – Ten Years is a special edition book celebrating a decade of the publication of the L.A.-based ‘zine Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels. The book features highlights from the long out of print first 12 issues, as well as unpublished material from some of L.A.’s most influential graffiti writers, and the true pioneers that pushed the limits of this art form on the streets of Los Angeles. Lost | Graffiti in the City of Angels began in 1998 as a self published D.I.Y photocopied fanzine started by EYEONE of the Seeking Heaven Crew. Though Graffiti as we know originated on the East Coast, it was the L.A. based graffiti writers that set new standards, bombing freeway overpasses, heaven spots, and scaling huge buildings in the never-ending pursuit to push the limits of their art form. Just as graffiti has evolved over the years, so has LOST as a publication. We sat down with EYEONE to talk about his inspiration, the evolution of LOST, and his thoughts about Graffiti in Los Angeles.
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
Chase Tafoya is an up and coming artist based out of Southern California. His work mainly consists of very large scale portraits that focus on the subject’s face. Be sure to check out Chase’s upcoming show “Face 2 Face,” which opens February 7th at Tradition.
Interview by Alicia Galehdari
Monday, January 5th, 2009
Formed in 2002, LA’s Terror is the definition of hardcore. Combining a classic hardcore sound with heavy breakdowns, and just a touch of metal, Terror bridges the gap between these two genres, carrying the torch of old school hardcore ethics while winning over new generation of metal and hardcore fans. With an unrivaled live show, and a relentless touring schedule, Terror has cemented their status as “the hardest working band in hardcore,” gaining legions of diehard fans in their wake.
Their newest album, “The Damned, The Shamed” released over the summer to rave reviews, and Terror is ready to take their band to the next level. We sat down with their singer, Scott Vogel, to ask him a few questions about the band.