What the what? Way To War, that’s what! Kirin J. Callinan is hands down the best thing to hit my inbox this month. Coming to you from Australia via our friends Terrible Records in the U.S. (and Siberia Records in Australia), it’s great to know what really happened to Paul Pfeiffer from The Wonder Years (just kidding). Launching – and I do mean launching – with this video directed by Kris Moyes and a 7 inch featuring an extended version of the song, of  I personally am going to take the day off to publicly twitch like a gif in a speedo out of thanks. Someone loan me their kid? Watch for tour info and release dates on the Terrible website and hold your cats close.

Azealia Banks is everywhere. Did you see that shoot that’s in Dossier? Did you hear that new track, Jumanji? In the spirit of summer and excess and hype, here are some outtakes from our shoot with Michael Flores of the young Rapunzel taking off a pair of sunglasses. Don’t be a Kool Aid dude, one-two.

Shirt: Fred Perry
Skirt: Jac Langheim
Sunglasses: Jeremy Scott
Necklace: Bing Bang by Anna Sheffield
Lingerie: The Lake and Stars

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Born and raised in New York, Jeffrey Lewis leads a double-life, as both an illustrator and a singer songwriter. Both his music and comics are permeated by earnest storytelling and often self-depreciating confessions of his many adventures in the world, from heartbreaks to homeless nights on tour. In his self-published comic book series “Fuff” he constantly tries to fall backwards to see if the world will catch him. And so far it did. With a small but devoted audience, he’s been making a profitable career with his music and art by managing most of his business himself, from booking tours to making his own merchandise.

With a shy smile and a shaky voice, he welcomed me to his apartment in the East Village, a little palace of musical and literary treasures where you can glimpse the intriguing puzzle of his creative mind. His work is so self-explanatory that it seemed pointless to ask him about his songs or comics. So we talked about adventures, how art can change the world, the occupy movement and finally dug into some of his personal gems. Meet Jeffrey, the “cult boyfriend” – “lonely or worshipped for a lady in the know”.

Written, filmed. edited and sound by Barbara Anastacio

Watermelon Mouse was created by Oliver Clark and is a product of his complex, insightful, inspired brain. Tune in regularly for more installments.

It was the evening when Venus and Jupiter were perfectly aligned and reached its closest point to the human eye. I was getting ready for dinner with the “godfather” of American avant-garde cinema – Jonas Mekas. Filmmaker, poet and curator, Mekas is a living monument. He fled his native Lithuania at age 22, trying to avoid German arrest at home for anti-Nazi activities. During war, he spent time in various forced labor camps until immigrating to America in 1949. It was only in New York that he picked up his first camera, a Bolex, and ever since he’s been capturing “fragments of paradise” of the world around him. His diary films encompass a wide range of experiences and events, from his early experiences at the Warhol Factory to frenetic glimpses of a summer spent with Jackie Kennedy.  He also co-founded The Anthology Film Archives, a cathedral of independent cinema housing over 70,000 historic avant-garde films.

In his numerous interviews and appearances, Jonas answered pretty much any question one can think of so it seemed redundant to take a formal interview as an approach. Instead, I abandoned any mental script of this encounter and tipsy with awe and wine I just sat back, watching and listening to Jonas and his “holy madness” unravel before me to the cadence of a meal.

Written, filmed and edited by Barbara Anastacio
Sound by Marcelo Oliveira

When I heard that our friend Alex Niemetz’s band was scheduled to drop a video for their single, I was stoked. Just in time for summer and pizza, Grand Rapids are a young, downtown New York-based country-garage band, and watching this today reminded me that, “yes, I do like rock and roll.” The band formed in 2009 and is comprised of Dan Lardner (guitar and vocals), Alex Niemetz (bass, occasional guitar and vocals) ,Peter Baumann (lead guitar) and Clara Balzary (drums). Their first official music video, Feels Like a Lifetime, was directed by Adam Abada. The video is for their debut single, which comes out May 21 on the Beggars Groups singles label, Too Pure. The band will be  playing May 26 with their East Village neighbors The Virgins at the Mercury Lounge, but don’t bother trying to get tickets. It’s sold out. 

Photograph by Eric Baumann
Video by Adam Abada

New York-based photographer Weston Wells presents Outings, a seventeen-panel collage piece that examines the places and characters he has captured between his travels and day-to-day encounters. Shot entirely on film, each saturated plate delivers a tableau with loose narrative. The collages’ often bucolic and adventurous spirit reflect the photographer’s wanderings, both near and far.

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Ana Roman and  Barbara Anastacio Keep it Mellow with some behind the sceens from the Dossier In Conversation interview. With her album, Even Assassins Have Lovers And Romance out this summer, an EP out now, and numerous shows on the near horizon, we were lucky to catch up with her when we did.

Who is Eleanor Friedberger?  A musician, we think.

More importantly, who was Eleanor Friedberger’s miniature on-stage ingenue-companion during her March 24 performance at the Crowley Theater in Marfa, Texas? (Ballroom Marfa invited Eleanor to partake in a weeklong residency and recording session at the Marfa Recording Company which culminated in the performance at the Crowley).

Known formally as Ms. Olive Ingrid Leiss, this four-and-a-half-year-old O(racle) has shared deep wisdom and a conceptual sense of humor with her fellow townspeople since words first left her tiny voicebox. Olive speaks, dresses, moves and shakes her tiny fists with a perfectly balanced cocktail of compassionate and thoughtful ambition. She knows a lot of yoga and if she’s feeling up to it, she’ll demonstrate that knowledge on a whim – maybe it will be in her kitchen, or maybe it will be in the front yard of Marfa City Hall. When she looks at you, your heart and soul are simultaneously demolished and rebuilt, your lungs collapse and refill, you start thinking about Better Things, start remembering why you Like The World, start talking about Who Makes Magic, etc, etc…n Olive Ingrid Leiss is here to change her World, (obviously) starting with the town of Marfa.

Naturally, when Ms. Leiss agreed to take the stage with Ms. Friedberger, help her warm up the audience, shepherd Eleanor’s precarious path from the Outer depths to the Inner, we all breathed a deep sigh of relief. No better MC to guarantee a safe passing, Olive broke the ice for Eleanor with some perfectly selected knock-knock-based stand up comedy. Please review at your leisure and notice that although Eleanor flits in and out of a semi-assured stage persona, Olive stands still and strong throughout the length of her performance, delivering sharp wit and tender inflection with an unblinking calmness and sense of purpose.

Olive Ingrid Leiss, we are your biggest fans.

Text by Ryann Bosetti
Video by Alberto Halpern

It’s Friday the 13th. Why not celebrate by playing in traffic or painting something black? Or you can always get killed by this new video from our friend Tezo. Have a miserable day and see you in hell.