62 year-old Charles Bradley has been through a lot. Having spent most of his life trying to make ends meet, he began working as a chef in kitchens from upstate New York to Alaska, while simultaneously moonlighting as a James Brown impersonator under the name Black Velvet. Bradley never quite got his due in the funk scene until he was recently discovered playing in a small bar in Brooklyn by Daptone Records’ Gabriel Roth. Roth introduced Bradley to Thomas Brenneck, and from there a musical collaboration began.
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It’s Nice That
It’s Nice That, one of our all time favorite publications/blogs from London town, covered The Bear Cave! We’ve been devoted followers of It’s Nice That, as they feature some of the most interesting things happening creatively around the world. Cheers, Will Hudson! It’s Nice That article.
Moonlight Mile
Having recently completed Keith Richard’s excellent autobiography Life, I’ve been revisiting a lot of Stones albums, particularly Sticky Fingers. One of my current favorite Stones tracks is an overlooked ballad off Sticky Fingers, “Moonlight Mile”, with Mick on acoustic guitar and vocals. Surprisingly, Keith didn’t have much to do with the track, as he mentions [...]
Nachume at the Guggenheim: 1978
As the story goes, Paul Waldman, then head of the Art department at the School of Visual Arts, was a huge fan of my father’s work. My father Nachume, then a 27 year-old student attending SVA, had been living in New York City for a mere two years, having escaped the Israeli army during a long and traumatizing war in which he was the navigator on a front-line battle tank, but that’s another story.
Runaway
An accompaniment to Kanye West’s new album, “Runaway” is more of an extended music video and to call it a short film would be generous. Nonetheless, it’s beautifully shot and choreographed with art direction by Vanessa Beecroft. Apparently, West created the video from the perspective of his five-year-old self, which attributes to the naive and simple spirit throughout the video’s plot. If you didn’t catch it in the first wave of it’s release, I recommend it. I’m an absolute fan of the new album and it’s definitely on loop here at the studio. A few stills and full version after the jump.
1972 Munich Olympics
Being a huge fan of vintage posters, when I came across this archive created for the the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich, I had to make a post about it. Many notable artists at the time such as Josef Albers and Otl Aicher were commisioned to create posters for the games, and the results still stand the test of time. I’ll let the pieces speak for themselves.
Wilfred Limonious
Wilfred Limonious was a very prolific Jamaican illustrator who created some of the most memorable and iconic album covers in Reggae and Dance Hall music history. Very little is known about Wilfred – the man doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page – but his colorful work is instantly recognizable and truly unique. Most of his work was designed during the 80’s for famous Dance Hall record labels such as Sonic Sounds, VP and Tuff Rank.
Mohawk Valley Trading Co.
As the story goes, Mindy arrived to the Bear Cave offices early one morning with a jar of honey (recently purchased from Soho’s Kiosk). The packaging on the jar was starkly minimal: simple black type on a white label identifying the company name (Mohawk Valley Trading Co.) and the flavor (Raw Orange Blossom Honey). Not being much of a honey aficianado, my palate for honey had been relatively limited, but I decided to sample a spoonful because, who doesn’t love honey right?