crooked tongues magazine News Features

Remember 'How To Make It In America'? It wasn't very good, was it? The only good things about that hipster half hour were Lake Bell, Luis Guzmán, Javier Nunez and that theme tune. Aloe Blacc might sound like a skincare product, but 'I Need a Dollar' was a big record and his work on Stones Throw is strong , plus he's a smart dresser and an excellent live performer too (some Stones Throw artists are less strong in a ...

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Most rap shows are the worst — there's a growing craze for bellowing over the instrumental and vocal (only Juicy J can get away with that behaviour), a "flash pit" of idiots with SLRs, smartphones and iPads where a mosh pit should be, blaming a soundman for unlistenable audio, leaving most of the guests who make a record even greater (because these are cameo-filled times) back in the USA and performing for 50 minutes or less. Whatever you think of ...

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The adidas Matchplay's resemblance to the mighty Arthur Ashe model, with some extra width over the Stan Smith but those minimal perforations in lieu of bolder 3-stripes to keep with court regulations of the time makes it a fine addition to the Consortium line. We'd seen it as a Tournament Pack piece and in whited-out (though it was hardly an OTT design to start) form as part of the revamped Consortium line, but these are especially good. We ...

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Because of the occasional bizarre licensing deal, Japan offers some of the last surprises in the worlds of clothing, music, apparel and sports footwear. Now, the internet is ablaze at the first mention of a collaborative Sharpie, yet some cool stuff still slips through the internet and catches you offguard during a Tokyo trip. DJ Muro was a good friend of our late, lamented sister site, Spine back in the day and is a good bloke, champion crate digger and ...

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Camo and a sneaker is a killer combination when it’s delivered correctly, but we’re seeing the same kind of executions delivered in the same colours again and again to the point when the camouflage is proving effective — they’re invisible on the shelves, merging into the rest. We couldn’t understand the fuss around the recent VT camo XXX edition of the Nike Air Force 1 either — it just felt like a less remarkable takedown of Mayor’s ...

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Nike’s been flirting with art for a long time and their work with ESPO and UNDFTD’s Billboard Project are pinnacle moments of corporate crossover with minimal compromise and plenty of that hard-to-buy credibility. Beyond graffiti, the appearance of Raymond Pettibon and Tom Sachs’ work at 2009’s swoosh-affiliated LIVESTRONG ‘Stages’ exhibition in Paris hinted at a crossover into more avant-garde territory and it's where the conversation commenced that led to this project. There’s something Nike-esque (we ...

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The Saucony GRID 9000 model seemed to get a reissue at the right time (did we dream it or was it available in running outlet spots in white-on-white in the early '00s?), with more and more inquiring minds taking an interest in the techier side of athletic shoes and brands beyond the obvious contenders. The reason for this shoe's success is Saucony doing this collaboration thing right — picking out partners from the same old role call isn't necessarily ...

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The whole adidas Consortium 'Your Story' project is pretty grand — we get lost if we see more than two colourways these days, but there's plenty of choice. One of the highlights of the first drop is Quote's take on the adidas ZX 500. You'd have to be odd to not have even the slightest affinity for this 1984 distance running masterpiece (which to our knowledge was designed by the man behind the adidas Forum — that's a ...

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Do we celebrate Vans Half Cabs enough on this site? We don't think we do and this is the greatest skate shoe ever. None of Steve Caballero's sequel shoes ever came close to this one (in fact, the majority just looked like dad barbecue shoes), but the shoe that's been homaged by Nike, visvim and plenty of others is 20 this year and it deserves the treatment it's getting. That slightly awkward shape, with its brief ...

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A whole brace of aesthetics seem to be converging in 2012. People are obsessing over crafted longevity and simplicity, but the byproduct of a load of people dressing like steam train drivers is a sudden surge into all things tech. The quest for less seems to be operating at the same time a surge in interest in leaf and camo prints is occurring — everything's going on at the same time. We think we're in the midst of a ...

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