Romania has been one of those bands that I try to push on anyone who even remotely has similar music taste as myself. I discovered Romania in a used CD bin at some point in the mid to late 90s. At first glance I mistook it for an Associates, Tears for Fears or even Soft Cell type duo from the 80s. When I flipped the CD to the back I noticed that it was actually from 1995 and the familiar logo of Mark Robinson’s (of Unrest) TeenBeat Records. On that alone I decided to plunk down the $7.99 they were asking for the disc and couldn’t have been happier when I finally listened to it. Much like the cover suggested this was pure Synthpop/New Romantic goodness straight in the vein of O.M.D., Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Visage, Camouflage & Blancmange. While there were a handful of bands at the time that took their cues from Synthpop (The Magnetic Fields for example), none fully turned back the time a decade in doing so. Romania created an album that sounded exactly as if it was recorded in 1983 as the backdrop to some unseen John Hughes film. But not only did so in 1995, they made an album that could go toe to toe with so many those early 80s synthpop classics. Drop any track off of this album at an 80s dance party and I’m sure someone will ask “Which Tears for Fears album was this song on?” or something to that effect.
Info on Romania is pretty scarce, most of it centered to their small entry on the TeenBeat website. They were out of Washington D.C. via Hawaii but I have no clue how often they even played out or if they even did. Sadly Remodel was the only album they would ever record and release. They broke-up shortly there after (I only know this because I tried in vein to book a show with them way back when). I do know that James Noble hosts and DJs various parties in D.C. and I believe Jonathan Cook went on to work on a few soundtrack scores.
I normally wouldn’t do this but since this album is out of print and pretty difficult to track down even on file sharing programs, I thought I’d post a link to download it. Hopefully more people could unearth this little gem. Who knows, maybe this will spark some interest in re-releasing it along with maybe some B-sides and demos sitting around somewhere.
This Monday we’re proud to bring you a new bi-weekly party called Manic.This is the brainchild between Passions (T&B), Star Eyes (T&B) and myself. The three of us have had a longtime obsession with goth/industrial (and all of it’s sub sects) but couldn’t stand the costumed vinyl vampire fetish association it’s developed thanks to most parties catering to it. So we decided to create a relaxed night playing the music we grew up on and have slowly been championing it to anyone willing to look past the negative and corny connotations that have unfortunately been attached to it over the past decade or so. We’ll be playing everything from Post-Punk, Death Rock, Goth, EBM, Industrial, Darkwave, Coldwave, New Wave & any other wave you can slap an adjective in front of!
We’re also beyond happy to be bringing this night to the Trophy Bar, which sits on our little stretch of Broadway in Williamsburg which is slowly but surely turning into quite the little scene!
So if you’re around with nothing to do on a Monday night come by, have a drink and enjoy some good dancy albeit very melodramatic tunage!
Trophy Bar
351 Broadway
Williamsburg, Brooklyn J/M/Z to Marcy Ave.
L Train to Lorimer
G Train to Broadway
Each cap is limited to 30 total and only available between us and Cap City!
These go quick and we get emails each and every single week asking for some previous custom colorway that is now long sold out! If you’d like to stay on top of when we release these please sign up to our mailing list!
And remember you can use our May discount code MishkaMay to take 20% off select items* at checkout!
*Discount codes will not be valid for either of these three new styles of cap City New Eras, the Denim, Online Exclusives or Odds & Ends sections of the site, sorry!
Perfectbluesky has a nice lil gallery of what is commonly being referred to as Reflectoporn amongst the internet masses. As ebay.co.uk explains “the creators of reflectoporn are finding increasingly inventive ways to unleash their exhibitionist urges…”.
Since there’s typically an overdose of testosterone on the Bloglin, I wanted to shout out some female blogs, and spread some love to the female fans of Mishka or the Bloglin!
- IS MENTAL: Amanda along with a few other ladies talk about everything from clothes, to technology, photography and beyond.
- Stagg Party: (NSFW) My good friend and amazing photographer shows off her porn photography.
- Brooke Nipar: Another good friend, showing off her great photo work.
- Things We Heart: Store Owner Jill Bradshaw of I Heart (where I work) shows you what’s new and what’s going on in fashion, and merchandise for the store.
- Worship Worthy: This one’s been around for a bit, it’s pretty tip top.
- Ephemeroi (Windchill): Not really a girl’s blog, but it is run by an awesome girl; Trudi Chan. Site has amazing listings for NYC events and happenings.
*I’m sure I’m missing some great ones. Hit em up in the comments section
William Friedkin’s (The Exorcist) Cruising has been on my To Watch list for a really long time. When Greg saw it recently and described the above scenes to me I went “Holy Shit!”. I had been trying to figure out where that scene was from after seeing clips on TV Carnage! I guess it would have helped my search had I realized that Pacino was in those clips. Don’t watch TV Carnage too fucked up is the lesson I learned here, but I digress… Cruising is one fucking amazingly gritty, weird & totally open ended movie! Pacino plays a young cop who’s hungry to make detective. So when offered an assignment to go undercover within the NY gay S&M community to track down a serial killer he takes it. But tracking down The “Homo Killer” as dubbed by the Daily News within the film takes a serious toll on Pacino’s psyche and identity. This is totally up their in the annals of “Look at how scary NYC was in the late 70s” movies along with my slasher favorite, Maniac. Joe Spinell (The Maniac in Maniac) even happens to have a small supporting role in Cruising as a crooked beat cop on the DL.
I bet finally seeing this is a lot like what Ron was feeling after he finally discovered Built to Spill last year, Zing!
But I still have no clue who that Black Cowboy in the jockstrap is though. Watching the movie doesn’t really answer that question and neither do the people on IMDB either. Oh well, I’ll leave you with one more clip. Go Netflix this movie like right now!
Next we have two new Online Exclusives:
- The Seal of Solomon in Black & White -Death Note in Black & White
These are limited to just 20 pieces per color.
And finally we’d like to introduce a new section to you all… our Odds & Ends! This is where you can find all sorts of goodies that just aren’t clothing! Right now we have:
- Keep Watch Mousepads
- Pin Packs
- Water Guns
We will be adding to this section in the coming months as we launch more and more lifestyle products.
Also as a sign of appreciation to you guys, we’re offering up a discount code. Simply type MishkaMay when you check out to take 20% off your online purchase*
*Excluding items in the Denim, Online Exclusives and Odds & Ends sections of the site.
As I was walking back to the office from lunch, I spotted this next level masterpiece in the storefront window of TELCO, one of many local Broadway businesses. Is this a Baby Murko Mouse ready to chop up unsuspecting hypebeasts? I can’t wait to see what this place has in store for the future.
So Burd, over at Bootleg Sessions not only received a nice flow package from us, he also finished the ‘tenetive’ cover for the next Bootleg Sessions! The cover features rider Sam Miller doing a fucking curved-wall ride on a track bike!!!!!!
I’ve seen a few of the cuts and all I have to say is this next movie will spawn a new breed of fixed-gear freestylers, a TON of hate, a TON of love and some awesome new projects in the coming months. Mishka’s proud to sponsor such an awesome endeavor and we thank Burd for all he’s been doing!
Be sure to catch the WORLD premier of Bootleg Sessions 2 at the Bicycle Film Fest at the end of this month!
Now this is one Awesomely Awful Album that I not only love but feel bad even slapping this term on it. Despite the outcry’s from metal purists, there was nothing remotely awful about this album back then or now. But if you’ve read any of my past installments of Awesomely Awful Albums you know full well the title can be misleading.
So how do you compare this against the numerous classics in the Anthrax discography all of whom sound like they were made by a different band than who recorded this? Well you just don’t, because you just can’t. The Sound of White Noise needs to just sit alone as an anomaly outside the genre defining thrash Anthrax put forth before it and be judged on it’s own merits. So close off that sense of metal elitism and open up your ears instead.
3 years removed from their classic Persistence of Time a lot has changed. Metal’s taken a back seat to a Grunge/Alternative movement. Bands who haven’t gotten regular radio or MTV air-play suddenly are. And then there’s Joey Belladonna saying his goodbye to Anthrax. So what does Anthrax do in the face of all of this? They adapt motherfucker! In comes John Bush (Armored Saint) and they blow my teenage mind with Only! I remember habitually putting my headphones on and going totally ape shit to Only & Room For One More in my bedroom, air guitar and all! Like Pantera, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden & Helmet, Anthrax just knew how to make metal work within an Alternative radio-friendly world. But what’s most impressive is that they did so with so few fillers… Potter’s Field, Only, Room For One More, Hy Pro Glo, 1000 points of Hate & of course Black Lodge!
On an interesting side note, we at the office today were wondering if Black Lodge had been written about Twin Peaks. To our delight we found out that it not only was a reference to Twin Peaks but was co-written by Angelo Badalementi, who penned the theme for Twin Peaks! I fucking love Anthrax on so many more levels now.
I know is a legion of die-hard thrashers out there who cry sell-out to the mere mention of The Sound of White Noise, but whatevs! Listen to it for what it is and it’s pretty fucking awesome at that.
Before he was a rock star, Erik (Drummer extraordinaire for The Virgins) was an integral part of Mishka. To this day he remains the closest and dearest of family to us whose input we’re always grateful to receive. On June 3rd, after some incredible press and heavy anticipation (by seemingly everyone) the Virgins will release their debut album and take the pop charts by storm. In the meantime I just noticed that The Vigins were added to the Myspace featured artists list meaning you can get a free download of their first and soon to be hit single Rich Girls. I’m sure you’ve heard and/or read their name in passing now for well over a year now on blogs and magazines. Well here’s your opportunity to slip in a bit early, do an eye roll and say “Welcome to last month” to all of your friends who’ll all be like “Have you heard of The Virgins!?” a month from now. Their currently touring non-stop across the U.S. and cap it all off by playing the All Points West Festival in LIberty State Park, NJ along with Radiohead!
On a side not I just noticed a few comments by 15 year old girls directed at Erik under his picture on the Virgin’s Myspace profile, good stuff!
Our pal Lauren Flax had the priveledge to DJ a Madonna Special for FUSE. How crazy is that! She is also wearing a custom MISHKA piece by MANSLAUGHTER…you’ll see ;)
