D.I.Y. or Die:
How to Survive as an Independent Artist
Documentary Now Showing!
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Posted In Art,DIY,Documentaries,Film,Music
D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist could have been made about our lives. Although this documentary,a “celebration of the underdog,” was released in 2002, Sean and I just watched it last night for the first time. I think a lot of people we cover, artists, musicians and labels, our fellow bloggers and a lot of our audience will really appreciate this documentary. The director, Michael W. Dean, interviews people who live and work DIY, including Ian MacKaye, J Mascis, Jim Rose, Lydia Lunch, Ron Asheton of The Stooges, Dave Brockie of Gwar and many more. The movie is a collection of stories about what defines DIY and what appeals to people who choose to create and work for themselves. This doc really hit home for us, because CVLT Nation is truly a labor of love, one that we created from scratch out of our passion for the music, art and culture we cover. Doing something DIY doesn’t mean you have to necessarily be broke, but you definitely have to be OK with being broke, and I think you have to adjust your own definition of wealth. Wealth is not something found in numbers, it’s something found in yourself. We figure we could work for someone else and make more money, have a “safety net” of sorts, but we would lose so much happiness and fulfillment by doing so. It’s amazing to hear that people we admire so much agree, and give insight into how being creative and doing it for themselves has enriched their lives. This is a must-watch for everyone who comes to our blog. Many of you keep DIY businesses like ours going, because the vinyl you buy is, a lot of the time, packed and mailed to you by the owner of the label you’re buying it from. I think it’s the wave of the future, a return to a barter system where all of us can have a good quality of life, not just those on top. So after the jump, get inspired and watch D.I.Y. or Die: How to Survive as an Independent Artist…
Lacquered is a new jewelry line by San Francisco-based artist Angela Casserly. Casserly turns her artists’ eye on to her jewelry, and creates stunning sculptural pieces to adorn the necks of gothic goddesses. Each piece is handmade and custom, so that no two are alike, and the result is that you wear a piece of her sculpture. Her pieces are dense, crawling with insects and writhing scaled creatures, but at the same time they exhibit a lightness, and look as if they could fly away at any moment. They are immortalized in lacquer, an entomological still-life that hangs from chain. She often uses bats as the body of the piece, coating their leathery wings with moths and beetles and winding lizards at their feet. One of my favorite of her pieces is a broach with a snake’s head peeking out between butterfly wings. If all this description sounds flowery to you, what brings her jewelry an element of dark, ominous beauty is it’s thick blackness, as well as the shapes she creates out of organic bodies. Lacquered can be bought from Casserly’s Etsy shop HERE. After the jump, take a look at a gallery infested with beauty…
Housing a Movement:
Adverse Possession in California
An interview with Steve DiCaprio of Embers//Lesser of Two
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Posted In DIY,Events,Features
By Chris Smith of California Northern
Text via UTNE Reader
One night a little more than a decade ago, Steve DeCaprio pulled his bike up to an abandoned house in Ghost Town, a poor neighborhood in West Oakland dotted with vacant lots. He cut through the rusty lock on the chain-link fence with bolt cutters, then pried open a plywood sheet that stood where the front door once had. Then he replaced the locks with his own. This is how DeCaprio, a longtime East Bay squatter and veteran of the punk and metal scenes, acquired his home.
He already knew that the previous owner of the house had died in the early 1980s and that no one had come forward to claim it. The turn-of-the-century bungalow had sat empty for many years. The kitchen floor was burned out, and the back of the house hung off the foundation. An acacia tree in the backyard had grown into the roof, leaving the interior open to the elements. The top floor was piled with the carcasses of dead raccoons and other small animals.
DeCaprio and a crew of friends got to work making the place habitable. “At first, it was basically just urban camping,” he remembers. It took eight months of on-and-off work to fix the roof. He got the water flowing, bought storm doors and painted the exterior, planted cacti in the front yard, and yanked out another backyard tree that had begun to menace the house next door. He named it Noodle House, and he currently shares it with three people plus the occasional touring underground band.
CVLT Nation FOUR
Fall 2012 Season
Now in the CVLT Store!
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Posted In Art,Collections,CVLT,Fashion,Illustration,Independent
CVLT Nation FOUR has launched in the CVLT Store and stores worldwide! This season features t-shirts, longsleeves, crews and hoodies, with hats coming soon. CVLT Nation FOUR is a curated collection of works by Natvres Mortes Illvstration, Rainbath Visual, Viral Graphics, C H van Eeckhout and Elias Tormentor, and our inspiration ranges from the esoteric to the antichrist. After the jump, check out a few images of our newest collection, and make sure to head to the CVLT store to pick some up!
Killuminati
Rawtee offering
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Posted In Fashion,Independent
We first discovered the Rawtee blog when he did a feature on our tees a while back, and since then it’s been a great source of inspiration for us. After promoting other indie labels and creators, now Rawtee, aka Frankie Doguet, has launched his own brand, starting with a really excellent tee he calls “Killuminati,” a collaboration with Death in Paris, with a striking Illuminati/occult themed graphic. The Killuminati tee is limited to 100 pieces, each of which is hand-screened and hand-finished by Rawtee himself. You can pick up this tee in white in the new Rawtee shop, as well as a pre-order for the black tee (my color! stoked!) shipping on Sept. 10th. You can check out photos from the lookbook after the jump, as well as a “trailer” showing the making of the tee which is very creatively shot and shows the thought and care that Rawtee is putting into his creations…
The High Priestess has done it again. Lavish leathers, authentic fur pelts, decadent silks, and warm wool cloaks that drape and adorn the body just as one can imagine darkness itself would. Staying true its name, Ovate‘s Fall/Winter 2012 collection ‘La Grande Noirceur‘ has gone above and beyond (or should I say deeper into the vast and enchanting depths) to manifest the captivating beauty of darkness.
Before the launch of this collection, I actually had an interesting dream where designer Audrey Cantwell herself took the form of a physical, dark, spiritual entity who went by the name Ovate. It was pretty epic, in all honesty, and looking at the new extended set of gowns, I could definitely say that this beautiful and mysterious entity is being manifested.
I’m also excited to say that with this new collection also comes new lamb-leather bags and a stunning jewelry collaboration with Joanna Szkiela, featuring woodsy silver rune rings and necklaces. Most of the new threads are currently up in the shop, but the jewelry collection won’t be added for another few weeks (so start saving!).
CVLT Store Exclusive
Samothrace X CVLT Nation
T-shirt Now on sale!
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Posted In Art,CVLT,Doom,Fashion,Illustration,Music
CVLT Nation is stoked to present our first band collaboration tee! CVLT Nation and Samothrace came together to create an epic tour tee for their recent Cali tour, and the final product is amazing! This tee, drawn by Cub of the Woods, was exclusively on sale during their tour and now in the CVLT Store, and was produced in a very limited run so it’s going to go fast! It’s produced on our standard CVLT Nation body to our exacting standards and made in the USA. Check out more photos of the tee below and head over HERE to pick yours up!
Samothrace X CVLT Nation
Announce California Tour
And Limited Edition T-shirt
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Posted In Art,Fashion,Features,Illustration,Tour Dates
The almighty SAMOTHRACE are about to head into town for a whirlwind tour of Oakland, L.A., San Diego and Fullerton from August 18th to the 21st. To celebrate these epic harbingers of doom entering CVLT Nation territory, we have done a limited edition tee with SAMOTHRACE, drawn by Cub of the Woods, which will be on sale at their shows. For those of you who can’t make it, we will have a very small quantity up in the CVLT Store after the tour, but if you can make it to one of the five shows you can pick it up ASAP and for a special price…check out pictures of this collabo below and all the tour poster and dates after the jump!
Crown of Eyes
By Halseycaust
Pre-order starts now!
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Posted In Art,Collections,CVLT,Fashion,Features,Independent
CVLT Nation is stoked to be re-printing one of our most in-demand styles – CROWN OF EYES by Halseycaust! This tee blew out of the webstore the first time, so make sure you pick yours up ASAP before they’re gone again. We are offering them in Small, Medium and Large, and for a very limited time during the pre-order we are offering XL and XXL, so if you want one of the bigger sizes get it now before it goes into print at Holy Mountain. Check out flicks of the design below and head over the the CVLT Store now…
WARTIME COLLECTIVE is a California punk/d-beat-inspired streetwear brand that is getting better with each season. I must say that I’m having a great time watching this brand grow and find it’s voice. What makes WARTIME COLLECTIVE different from many brands is it’s use of wit and humor with a healthy dose of reality! They are smart to not overextend themselves so that every tee is a banger! Everyone worldwide knows all cops are bastards! Peep WARTIME COLLECTIVE Spr/Sum 12 line after the jump…and make sure to check out their webstore.
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