Cro Mags & Fucked Up – 7.29.11

If I were going to make a list of the top 25 bands I want to photograph both the Cro Mags and Fucked Up would be on it. Luckily I got a chance to cross them off on Friday when they both co-headlined the Vans House Party in Williamsburg. I kinda did a half assed job shooting them so hopefully one of these days I will get a second chance, but still the show was a lot of fucking fun. It was unreasonably hot though and I got so much sweat into my point and shoot camera that I think I broke it which is a total fucking bummer.

Anyway, I am just gonna make with the pictures so I can get back to not doing anything today….

Click here to see all the pictures of Fucked Up and The Cro Mags at The Vans House Party.

Cro Mags John Joseph

Fucked Up

Cro Mags & Fucked Up

Vans House Party

Fucked Up

Cro Mags

Cro Mags & Fucked Up

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Fucking Bullshit Debut

I recently started a punk rock cover band called Fucking Bullshit with a few friends. I have probably mentioned it on here and I know I have mentioned them on Twitter & Tumblr but I haven’t talked about the band too much because most of my readers do not give a fuck about my shitty punk band. That being said, it’s time for a Fucking Bullshit update.

When I turned 30 I realized I was really fucking old and I had never been in a band before. I was in this fake band in high school but we never actually played any shows which was probably for the best. I think we only had five songs anyway. But the reason I have never been in a band is because I have no musical talent. Not only can I not play an instrument but I am a uniquely terrible singer. I cannot hit notes and my timing is more than terrible. I figured the only way I could possibly be in a band would be to start a punk band.

I listened to exclusively punk from the day Kurt Cobain died until I was went to college that completely lacked a punk scene. Punk is pretty much made me the person I am today. I continued to listen to punk over the following decade but it wasn’t until the last couple years that I started really getting back into it.

Anyway it took me over a year to put a band together but I found my self a guitarist who is playing bass, a guitarist who is playing drums and another guitarist who is playing guitar. Our drummer played drums for a band on the record label that I started when I was 15 but he hasn’t played drums in 15 years. Our bassist is a guy I met online 10 years ago who is currently a voice over artist.  And our guitarist is a pretty legit punk dude who is an animator for Metalocolypse. He is also the youngest member of the band at 28.  We are a bunch of over the hill washed up punk rockers.

So we started a cover band.  No one over the age of 20 should be writing punk lyrics. We just don’t have that angst anymore.  I don’t think anyone wants to hear songs about freelance clients not paying on time or about lack of affordable health care. So we started pulling our favorite 80’s punk and hardcore tunes. We tossed in a few GG Alin tracks and suddenly we had a 14 song set set.

We played our first show at Hank’s Saloon in Park Slope on Thursday night.  The place was packed and I got drunk which I almost never do. The show went way better than I thought it would and everyone there had a pretty great time. All my friends seemed maybe a little too impressed that I could make for a decent front man. But hey, I knew I could fuck shit up… I just didn’t know if I could manage to sing at the right parts… Turns out I can’t really do that, but the fucking shit up makes up for it.

Anyway, thanks to a man named Jay Fingers we have actual video proof of the show and I figured I would post a few of my favorite videos. I hope you watch at least one of them, I think they are a lot of fun and at the very least the S.O.A video is hilariously sexist. We will be having more shows soon, you can like Fucking Bullshit on Facebook for details. I hop all the washed up 30 year old punk rockers like us come out for our next show…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P8X0LVDciI[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDiuI0yeItM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Do05jFIk8c[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzyKpi8DV8E[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POLVl3Ab1bM[/youtube]

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Orian Returns

I am still dealing with a lot of madness in my life right now but I think we have to get back to work. I still have three naked girl shoots from my LA trip and two other shoots I need to get up on top of those. So let’s start with a good one.  I shot Orian in January and she immediately became one of my favorite models ever.  She is so rad, super easy to shoot and she also happens to be retarded hot. So when I got to LA in June she was one of the first people I hit up.

In my search for locations I talked to my friend Nate Liquor who told me I could use his apartment/studio anytime. So when Orian got to my place we headed downtown to Nate’s place and got to work.  Nate has a tattoo of the Eames Lounge Chair on his arm. The Eames Lounge happens to be my favorite piece of furniture and he had a knock off in his apartment. In his defense the knock off is 50 years old and pretty fucking bad ass. I had to shoot Orian in it. When I posted a preview picture of the set on Twitter a DJ friend of mine tweeted back “I can’t tell which is faker, that Eames chair or her boobs.” That is fucking hilarious.

Anyway,  I love this set, I love Orian and I love Nate for letting me use his place.  I actually left my camera there for some fucking insane reason and had to come back an hour later and shoot another set there.  So thanks again Nate. But I am going to shut the fuck up now and get to the pictures.

Click here to see all the NSFW photos of the amazing Orian.

Orian

Orian

Orian

Orian

Orian

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Maluca Mala – 7.21.11

Today I just found out my grandmother’s kidneys have failed and she can no longer drink water. She is currently on an I.V. but tomorrow they are taking her off it and she will most likely be dead in a few days. She helped raise me and is by far the relative I am closest to outside of my immediate family. She is in her 90’s so it’s not exactly a suprise but it’s still messing me up a lot. I am going to go to DC tomorrow to hopefully get a chance to say goodbye.

Long story short is that I just don’t have it in me right now to do a write up of the Maluca Mala show at this pop up nightclub that Heineken has in Soho called “The Spot”. I will just say that Maluca is awesome and her opening acts Los Rakas and Zuzuka Poderosa put on pretty good shows themselves. I should also give Moodswing360 a plug for having me out. And I kinda want to pass on this funny moment from the night. I handed a girl my card after I took her photo and she looked at me and said “We have kissed before. It was 5 years ago. You were cuter then.” It was sort of hilarious, but she probably has a point.

Anyway, I was going to make this two separate posts so I could post one today and one tomorrow but I am not going to do that anymore. So click here to see the crowd shots and the opening bands and then after that click here to see all the shots of Maluca Mala performing at the spot. And I’ll see you guys in a couple days.

Maluca Mala At The Spot

Zuzuka Poderosa At The Spot

Maluca Mala At The Spot

Maluca Mala & Los Rakas

Maluca Mala At The Spot

Los Rakas @ The Spot

Maluca Mala At The Spot

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LA To NYC in 35 Millimeters

Welcome to my final post of 35mm photos from my month long trip away from NYC. After my two week trip to LA I had plans to fly back to NYC on the 29th of June but things did not go as planned. My friend Whitney decided she was going to drive to NYC from LA. She posted on Twitter that she was looking for a friend to come with her on the trip. Despite being little more than acquaintances with Whitney at the time I told her I was in. On June 30th we left LA for NYC.

Our first night we spent in Scottsdale, AZ.  I had a friend we were going to meet up with but she flaked on us so we broke into a pool party at the W Hotel instead.  The next day we just drove as far as we could and ended up crashing for a few hours in a Super 8 in Ft. Stockton in West Texas. From there we traveled to Austin and spent a few days there.  On the night of July 3rd we partied all night long and woke up with the realization that we should just move on to New Orleans instead of staying for the 4th in Austin. We went swimming in Barton Springs and then got a move on to the Big Easy.

We got to New Orleans in the middle of the night and crashed imediately.  The next day we had some epic gumbo and checked out some touristy VooDoo stores. Whitney stripped with my friend Chelsea at a club on Bourbon St. While I got some work done, went swimming and then wondered aimlessly around the French Quarter. They didn’t get out of work until nearly 5am so we just hung out at Chelsea’s place for a bit and then went back to the hotel for a 3 hour nap.

We made it all the way from New Orleans to Charlotte, NC in one day. When we got to Charlotte, NC it was after 2am and all the bars were closed. Luckily my Charlotte friends were up for some weirdness. The second we got there they handed Whitney two PBRs and handed me a shot gun.  My friend Christine came over and I took photos of her and Whitney topless with the guns and then we hung out on a boat in a driveway. It was pretty white trash in a really good way. Whitney and my friend Joe went back to his place to crash and Christine and I stayed up till dawn so we could take photos as the sun came up.

The next day we headed north to Richmond, VA where I lived for 5 years previous to moving to NYC. We had dinner with one of my best friends and then continued on to DC.  That’s where Whitney and I made our separate ways. She dropped me off at my parents house and she headed on to NYC. I hung out in DC for three days and hung out with my parents new puppy and a few of my DC friends… but mostly I just caught up on sleep before finally heading back to NYC.

I think this write up was pretty fucking boring, but I think the photos will show you that we had a pretty good time.  I think some of the best shots came from the weird places we stopped on the road. I think you will dig em. These pictures are NSFW and that doesn’t include the 56 other topless photos of Whitney that are over here.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at the last three updates of best of the 32 rolls of film that I shot over my month long adventure.

Click here to see all the 35mm pictures from my coast to coast road trip.

W Hotel Scottsdale

Rock Climbing With Whitney

Barton Spring

Pool Party On The Omni Rooftop In Austin

Once You Get Locked Into A Serious Drug Collection, The Tendency Is To Push It As Far As You Can

Austin, TX

Brushin' Teef At The Motel 8

Boy Scouts Of America

Road Trip Dog

Blood!

Ben's Chili Bowl

Do NOT Mess With Texas

Tine

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LA In 35 Millimeters

Continuing the trilogy of 35mm pictures from my month away from NYC today I bring you the 35mm snap shots I took while spending 16 days in LA.  My LA trip consisted of trying to relax, hanging out with old friends and of course shooting a lot of naked girls. This gallery is pretty representative of all that with a little bit of partying thrown in for good measure.

Let’s start with the part you probably care about most… The naked girls. I forget the total exactly but I shot more than a dozen girls while I was in LA including at least two full sets I haven’t even looked at yet and one I thought I already posted until just right now. So that means in this gallery you are going to get previews of the shoots I did with Miss Crash, Ashley Blue and Orian from Gods Girls. You are also going to get to see behind the scenes stuff and just shots of us hanging out. Some of these shots are just sort of fun snap shots, and some are photos I really love.  For example I didn’t love the set I shot digitally of Ashely Blue, but I love the 35mm stuff we did.  This shot of her holding Dave Naz’s revolver might be my favorite shot of my whole trip.

Now aside from girls you get to see a lot of the shots that I shoot every day that no one sees. For example I religiously take photos of everyone I eat with. It’s not exactly art or anything, but I have hundreds of these photos and I am going to do a zine of them one day. Plus how many people have seen a photo of Maddox where he’s not wearing a crown or an eye patch? Also there are a bunch of just pretty pictures of LA including this shot of the billboard my friend Robyn shot. There are several shots of cops since I saw 10 people get arrested in 4 incidents while I was in LA.

And then of course there are the parties.  I only shot one party for my website while I was in LA but I went to a bunch more. I did the regular LA club stuff of course but I also spent several nights hanging out in hotel rooms the Mondrian, at the Roosevelt for their weekly Night Swim and I had an extremely awkward morning spent at an after after party with hot tubbing Tunisians. Oh yeah, and I spent my last night partying with some New Yorkers

Anyway, I spent way too much time linking photos that you can just look through yourself by clicking below. And remember these photos are NSFW as per normal. I hope you like this film stuff because this work is way more what I am about than the parties and bullshit you normally see on here. Let me know what you think.

Click here to see all my 35mm shots from my most recent trip to LA.

Pool Party

Veronica Ricci

Jessie Andrews

Jolene Jolene

Tori Lux

LAPD

Ash Hollywood

Mondrian Hotel Party

California Girls

101 Diner

Mondrian

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Whit’s Tits Across America!

My dear friends. For weeks I have been talking on Twitter about the 31 rolls of film I shot on my great adventure to LA and back. Today you get to see some results. I broke my 31 rolls of film in to three very magical galleries which I will be posting over the next few days. This is pretty exciting because unless you are a close follower of my Tumblr you haven’t seen much of my 35mm work and you are about to see a lot of it.

My 35mm work is what I really think of as my artistic output and that’s part of the reason you haven’t seen it yet. One of these days I am going to do a book or a show and hopefully people will stop thinking of me as just a fucking party photographer. If you told me 10 years ago that I was going to end up shooting drunk 18 year old coke heads for a living I would have probably punched you in the neck because that is the type of guy I was back then. These days I am a bit more relaxed but still not really happy I spend most of my life documenting a subculture I have almost no respect for.  (Sorry kids! I still love you!)

Anyway, what you need to know about all of this 35mm work I am going to be posting is that it was shot with a Ricoh GR1 which is a point and shoot camera. It has more functionality than most film P&S cameras but the images tend to be flat and when using flash, very harshly lit. I love this raw look and it strips photography down to just the moment. Assuming they could compose for shit, which I no longer take for granted, anyone could shoot this stuff if you wanted to. So it all sort of comes down to vision and living life. And I would like to think that there aren’t many people who live life the way I do.

Now, all that artistic bullshit aside, this is one of the simplist and least artistic galleries I could possibly post.  A lot of these images are shit but they were a lot of fun to take. When you look at them all as a body of work I think they are kinda awesome and hilarious and probably pretty hot given the subject matter.

The first of my three 35mm galleries is nothing but photos of my friend and road trip companion Whitney flashing me in every place we could think of from LA to DC.  As you probably know by now we took this insane road trip and every time we stopped somewhere she got topless. It was sort of just like this running joke that turned into a gallery of 56 photos of Whit’s tits. (Which just happens to be her twitter name.)

Since these photos are all NSFW I can’t really post my favorite images below let me just quickly mention a few of my favorite flashing moments from our trip.  A drunken flash at Denny’s at 3:30 AM in Scottsdale, AZ might only have been out done by a flashing at 3:30 PM in the middle of a Cracker Barrel in rural Mississippi. Our stop at the “The Thing: Mystery of the Desert” was a highlight of the trip and some of the nicest topless shots.  In North Carolina she posed with guns, on boats and in an antiques barn. Our stops off the sides of the road made for some beautiful shots and hilarious shots. Let’s just say the cows in West Texas loved her boobs. Speaking of West Texas, we stopped in a small town and she flashed me in front of a taxidermy shop and a very strict constitutionalist run antique shop. She flashed me in pools, in trees and with friends… at gas stations, truck stops and creepy 24 hour adult book stores. And no flashing road trip could be complete without getting topless in the French Quarter in front of vomiting frat boys in New Orleans. It was a magical time.

Now before we finally get to the photos I just figured I should mention that there will be a lot more photos of Whitney in my road trip gallery (I even left in some nudes) but if you need more Whitney tomorrow on my Tumblr I am going to post a photo of her planking every hour on the hour starting at noon EST for 8 straight hours. You need to check that out and then come back here Tomorrow and Friday for the rest of the (slightly more “artistic”) 35mm shots from my epic photo adventure.

Now, finally, without (much) further ado, assuming you just didn’t skip all the madness up above…

Click here to see 56 life changing photos of Whit’s Tits Across America!!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

Whit's Tits Across America!

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Jenna Valentine

I feel like I have known Jenna Valentine from Gods Girls for a very long time on the internets. I talk to her on Twitter like we are old friends but during my last trip to LA I realized that I have never actually met her, or seen her human head sized boobs in real life. This seemed like something that needed to be fixed at once.

So while I was in LA I made a trip to the Gods Girls corporate headquarters where Jenna lives with an absurd amount of pets. When I first got there I shot fellow Gods Girl Tayte and then Jenna and I got down to the business of documenting her boobs which can only be described as “Christmas morningesque”.  Jenna is fucking awesome and I think the shoot went pretty well. When it was over Jenna had to run off to take of one of her many creatures to the vet and I left with a memory card full of NSFW radness.

Click here to see all the photos of Jenna Valentine’s boobs featuring Jenna Valentine.

Jenna Valentine

Jenna Valentine

Jenna Valentine

Jenna Valentine

Jenna Valentine

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Village Voice 4Knots Music Fest – 7.16.11

On Saturday the Village Voice threw their first summer music festival that wasn’t Siren Fest.  Siren was an annual NYC tradition held at Coney Island for 10 years until it was replaced this year by the 4Knots Music Festival. 4Knots was headlined by The Black Angels and Titus Andronicus and featured a handful of bands which originally seemed a little disappointing compared to the two stages of bands and some of the bigger headliners Siren had over the years. But 4Knots in my opinion ended up being a lot of fun and in a lot of ways it was better time than past Siren’s have been.

The first improvement is obviously the location. As much as I love Coney Island the hour train ride leaves a lot to be desired. Coney Island also tends to be pretty brutal weather wise. The South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan is in the city and quite actually right on the water giving you a nice breeze no matter how hot it is. As great as it was to have so many bands play at Siren I spent half the time running back and forth between the two stages.  At 4Knots you could just hang out in one location and have a good view of the bands from anywhere.

The biggest 4Knots improvement had to be the VIP area. I know it’s sort of unfair to talk about that considering most people at the fest didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it but at Siren the VIP area was a little tent with one open bar that people had to wait 30 minutes to get their drinks. At 4Knots the VIP area was an entire fucking pirate ship with a much bigger bar space and short lines all day. Plus you could actually see the bands instead of being behind the stage like at Siren.

Whatever the case I loved Siren Fest and I think if 4Knots becomes a yearly tradition I am going to enjoy it just as much and I am pretty sure NYC is going to feel the same way.

Anyway, before I get to the pictures I should point out that I was pretty sick on Saturday so I didn’t get to the South Street Seaport until about 5pm. I also was hired by the Voice just to shoot crowd shots so there aren’t really any photos of the bands. There are also shots in here at the beginning and the end of the gallery from the indoor lounge that featured DJ’s until midnight. I’ll stop talking now. Enjoy the pictures.

Click here to see all the shots from the Village Voice 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport.

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

4Knots Music Fest

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