by Nicole Powers

Morcheeba’s lush sound – which is topped off by singer Skye Edwards’ velvety soft, soothing and sensual voice – is like a warm bath. It’s something you should surrender and sink into.

Coming to the fore in the mid-nineties alongside such artists as Portishead, Tricky and Massive Attack, Morcheeba helped define the trip hop genre with the mellow vibes and downtempo grooves of their seminal 1996 debut, Who Can You Trust. They’ve always refused to be confined by the tenets of trip hop however, and in the intervening years the UK trio – which is comprised of Edwards and brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey – have transcended the genre they helped create.

Though Morcheeba’s music is often supremely relaxing, it’s never tired, and their forthcoming studio album, the band’s eigth, is no exception. While retaining their unique warm and mellow sound, and delving back into their hip hop roots, the new release, Head Up High, has a subtle yet invigorating upbeat kick – something the band refer to as “Morcheeba with a pulse.”

On the eve of a string of North American and European dates, we caught up with Edwards to talk about the new album, which hits stores on October 14th.

Read our exclusive interview with Skye Edwards of Morcheeba on SuicideGirls.com.

Morcheeba are playing the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA on Friday, September 20th and the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA on Saturday, September 21st. For more info visit Morcheeba.co.uk/.

by Laurelin

I’ve always been a hopeless romantic. As tough as I make myself out to be, when it comes down to it, I have always believed in the concept of love really being all you need in life. I have never been able to understand women who married for money or notoriety; how can you look yourself in the mirror every day? Growing up I loved fairy tales; I always listened, unable to sleep until happily ever after. I suppose I still believe that’s a thing, happily ever after. Or is it?

As my 31st birthday approaches I am acutely aware that I am not where I thought I would be by this age. I am not married, I don’t own a house, I don’t have kids, I don’t have money saved – hell, I don’t even have a boyfriend. Am I broken? Has believing in something perfect turned me off to something realistic?

As the minutes tick by and turn to hours that turn to weeks that turn to years, I’m wondering, does that fairy tale still exist? Is love all you really need, or is stability something that I should be looking for as well? I have always found comfort in looking back on my dating history. I have loved so many types of people: tall, short, fat, hairy, bald, muscular… Some have been drop dead gorgeous, other have left my friends wondering if I had gone temporarily blind. Either way, I have always loved every single one of those men. I don’t care one way or another what they looked like or what they had to offer besides their love – and I have never, ever been sorry.

Are things different now? Should I be worried if someone I care for isn’t perfect on paper? Is love really just… enough? My favorite love story of all time is Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. For those who haven’t read it, it’s about a boy who falls in love with a girl at a young age. She is everything to him, and she eventually breaks his heart, and he is ruined. The story takes you through his whole life with her, without her, his life thinking of her, getting over her, running into her years later (just like we all run into ex’s), and in the end, they somehow wind up together. Years pass, lives change, marriages happen and decay, children, jobs, family… Life happens. And in the end, they just knew it was love the whole time. It’s perfect. Is that the way it could all be? Or is it just that, a tale woven by an author in the 1860s?

It doesn’t matter either way. I find that no matter what I tell myself, no matter what I feel like I should do, my heart is always going to lead the way. I don’t care if you don’t have any money, I don’t care if you don’t have the perfect job. I don’t care if you’re a 30-year-old bartender, a broke ass writer, or a fancy pants pro-wrestler on TV. When it comes to matters of the heart, I will always be that hopeless romantic.

As black hearted as I feel sometimes there is always that hope, that faith that love is simply enough. I am lucky to have loved deeply in my life, and I know what it is, and what it’s capable of. As 31 approaches, I don’t feel lost in love at all. I feel in control, like I won’t settle for anything but head over heels, totally blind, never ever looking back love. And that is anything but hopeless.

[..]

by Blogbot

This Thursday, September 12th on SuicideGirls Radio, hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide will be discussing art and pornography – and the intersection of the two – with infamous artist-cum-x-rated-actor Zak Smith a.k.a. Zak Sabbath. Zak’s partner, the gorgeous Adria Suicide, will also be joining us, as will Sawa Suicide, who is the subject of a painting by Zak which was featured in the prestigious Whitney Biennial exhibition in 2004.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Zak Smith (@ZakSmithSabbath)
Zak Smith, also known as Zak Sabbath, is an American artist and alternative porn star. He was born in Syracuse, New York in 1976, and grew up in Washington, D.C. After receiving a BFA from Cooper Union in 1998, he studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and went on to receive an MFA from Yale University in 2001. He lived and worked in Brooklyn until October, 2007, when he moved to Los Angeles.

Zak made his pornographic debut in 2006 under the pseudonym Zak Sabbath, in the film Barbed Wire Kiss, by director Benny Profane. In the porn blog Fleshbot, Smith mentions working on a project to help fund a film student’s NYU thesis project entitled Freaky Kids I & II (although most of the money he makes in porn is actually donated to activist group Food Not Bombs). He followed this up with an appearance opposite Pixie Pearl in Eon McKai’s debut film for Vivid Entertainment, Girls Lie, and subsequently appeared in Bullets And Burlesque with Sasha Grey, Marie Luv, and Satine Phoenix, and Vivid’s Hospital with Coco Velvet and Mandy Morbid.

Often referred to as the king of the art punks, Zak is on his way to art world domination. Represented by Fredericks & Freiser, his paintings of girls have sold to some of the most prestigious art institutions in the US. His portrait of Sawa Suicide graced the walls of the Whitney Museum in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art now owns his portrait of Charlie Suicide. His books, Gravity’s Rainbow, We Did Porn and Pictures Of Girls are available in fine bookstores.

Related Posts
Zak Smith – Pictures of Girls
The Art of SuicideGirls feat. ZakSmith

**UPDATE**
ICYMI: Last week’s s0xy show feat. Adria, Albertine, Juturna, Sawa and Waikiki Suicide + honorary Suicide Boy Zak Smith:

Video streaming by Ustream

by Blogbot

This Thursday, September 5th on SuicideGirls Radio, hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide will be joined in-studio by post-apocalyptic percussion troupe Street Drum Crops. These boys can bang the shit out of anything, and have to be seen to be believed, so don’t miss this show!

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Street Drum Corp

DRUM! Magazine’s 2012 Drum Ensemble Of The Year, Street Drum Corps, present their high energy, over the top “Lost Vegas” show at Vinyl in Las Vegas (at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino) on September 28, October 19 and November 16, 2013.

Once your ticket is taken, you enter Street Drum Corps playground. With massive sound and epic visuals, the audience will experience Street Drum Corps as never before. The show features instrumental percussive numbers as well as epic songs with vocals. Musical selections will span SDC’s 9-year history, as well as new material.

The SDC “Lost Vegas” cast is made up of ten performers, decked out in custom costumes and makeup, with props crafted specifically for the show. The group pushes the boundaries of creativity, performing mainly on recyclable found instruments – everything from oil drums to washing machines.

Each performance is unique since you never know who’ll turn up to join in. Past celebrity guest performers include: Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), Adrian Young (No Doubt), Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), Jose Pasillas (Incubus), and Deryck Whibley (Sum 41).

In addition to the monthly Saturday night residency at Vinyl Las Vegas, SDC will also be embarking on a string of “Blood Drums” tour dates nationwide. Check their website, Facebook and Twitter for more info.

Related Posts
Quality Couch Time With Street Drum Corps
Street Drum Corps: Big Noise at The Roxy and on SG Radio (Nov 21)
Street Drum Corps: A Lesson in Misfit Drumming

**UPDATE**

ICYMI: Last night’s show feat. Street Drum Corps.

Video streaming by Ustream

by Blogbot

This Thursday, August 29th on SuicideGirls Radio hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide will be joined in-studio by Zak Waters for a spot of skinny dipping!

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

About Zak Waters

Los Angeles native Zak Waters has been shaking the dance floors across the country with his impressive and ambitious solo work since 2011. Now the singer, songwriter, producer and DJ is gearing up to release his highly-anticipated first full-length album Lip Service via Spotify on September 9. In conjunction with the album release, Zak will bring his full live band to The Satellite in Los Angeles for a month-long free residency every Monday night beginning September 2.

At theses shows, he will highlight material from album Lip Service including the album’s first single “Penelope,” a catchy pop track Zak penned about a young man’s longing for his former babysitter. There’s also soul meets dreamy indie pop tracks like “Dear John” and “Sleeping In My T-shirt.” Also included on the album are previously released cuts “Runnin Around” and “Skinny Dipping In The Deep End.” Look for “Penelope” to debut August 27.

After he emerged with his first solo EP New Normal two years ago, Zak collaborated with rising dance music prodigy Madeon on his dance single “The City” which peaked at #4 on dance charts. “Not Coming Down” with Candyland was also the #1 track on Beatport for two-and-a-half weeks. Besides his singing and songwriting, he has produced official remixes for major artists including Adam Lambert, All American Rejects and Foxy Shazam. Most recently, Zak has been in the studio and collaborating with some of the most highly acclaimed and well respected DJs and producers such as Flo Rida, David Guetta, Benny Benassi, Mak J, Alex Gaudino, Felix Cartal, Hot Mouth and DCUP.

For more on Zak follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

**UPDATE**
ICYMI: Here’s last week’s outrageously fun show with Zak Waters.

Video streaming by Ustream

by Laurelin

There are defining moments in everyone’s life, milestones that we’ll never forget: Births, deaths, epic parties, love or love lost. These are moments in time you’ll have imprinted in your memory forever. Whatever that moment was, it changed you as a person and it changed the path of your life. Sometimes the second it happens you know right away, and other times it takes a while. Sometimes it needs to soak until finally something clicks and you think, “Wow, that was really something.”

It all seems to fall into place when you look back on it; hours that turn to days that turns to months, and all the while you’re changing but you never know exactly how or when. We scoff at the years past, our clothing or our significant others, our fights and friendships. We know that where we are right now we are the most enlightened, we have learned from our prior mistakes and we feel invincible. And then suddenly, a year later everything has changed again. The time frame moves forward and still we are unsure of how exactly we got to this place.

I remember seeing him walk into the room almost a year ago. I remember the date, the event, what I was wearing, the way I wore my hair (the same way I wear it now). I remember what I was drinking (white wine) and that it went down like tacks because it was my 30th birthday and I was so hungover from my party the night before. I remember that I almost didn’t go. When he walked in the air rushed out of the room and out of my lungs, and as we shook hands and said hello I had no idea what I was getting myself into. If someone had flashed the next year of my life before my eyes at that moment, I would have believed it to be a dream, someone else’s life, certainly not mine.

Looking back, that handshake and smile was one of those defining moments, that one-second in time where unbeknownst to you, you have actually changed your future, altered your own fate. He still has no idea; the choices I’ve made since then, how right he was about some things and how wrong he was about others. He as a whole might have been all wrong for me, but one year later I look at who I am as I write this, and I know that my life was forever changed the second I laid eyes on him. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to say thank you, but I am grateful for the new path he has shown me.

[..]

by Blogbot

This Thursday, August 22nd on SuicideGirls Radio hosts Nicole Powers and Juturna Suicide will be joined in-studio by SG model and photographer Sawa Suicide and SG Political Correspondent David Seaman.

You can listen – and watch – the world’s leading naked radio show live on Thursday nights from 6 til 8 PM at our new state-of-the-art all digital home: TradioV.com/LA.

You’ll also be able to listen to our podcasts via Stitcher – download the app now!

If you have questions for the SG Radio crew or our guests, you can call in during the live broadcast at: 1-855-TRV-inLA (1-855-878-4652)

For updates on all things SG Radio-related, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Sawa SA INDIEGOGO V1 from Sawa on Vimeo.

About Sawa

Covered in tattoos with long flowing pink hair, Sawa has been a part of the SuicideGirls community for 10 years and is both a model and a photographer for the site. She is a well-known internet personality, with followers all over the world (some of whom even have her portrait tattooed on their body!). Sawa’s image has been used on playing cards and in a calendar, and her art has been internationally published in books and magazines. She has her own snowboard coming out with Arbor, and her own sock coming out with California Uber Alles.

Her latest project, The Sawa Travel Diary, is a video mission that is already in progress, and the message is simple: Get out there and do the things that you want to do, live your life the way you want to live it, instead of wasting and waiting to buy the freedom to be able to do so someday later.

In Sawa’s case, this meant living for art and adventure.

The Sawa Travel Diary is the chronicle of an artist and photographer going off of the grid, traveling through foreign countries to photograph alternative models and do street art, collaborate with other artists, and document the entire experience on video, through a point of view that is unique to Sawa (and never one of a traditional tourist).

Having put all of her belongings in a storage unit, Sawa traveled to Europe to do art all day everyday, and lay the foundations for this ongoing endeavor. Next, Sawa plans to travel to South America, through Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The expedition will navigate beaches, freaky clubs, marble caves submerged in water, villages, and a grand finale of a snowboard expedition in Chile!

Sawa lives and feels life to the max, and wears it on her sleeve. She is not only looking for adventure, but is on a spiritual journey too, and is not just making art, but using it as a vehicle to connect with other seekers, creators, healers, and rebels.

Support Sawa’s South American Travel Diary via Indiegogo and follow her adventures on Facebook and Twitter, and see more of her work on her website and on SuicideGirls.com.

About David Seaman

David Seaman (@d_seaman) is an independent journalist. He has been a lively guest on CNN Headline News, FOX News, ABC News Digital, among others, and on his humble YouTube channel, DavidSeamanOnline. Some say he was recently censored by a certain large media corporation for posting a little too much truth… Seaman’s brand new crowd-funded Rise Morning Show (@RiseMorningShow), will launch in two weeks. For more, find him on G+ and Twitter.

**UPDATE**

ICYMI: Last night’s show with guests Sawa Suicide and David Seaman.

Video streaming by Ustream