It’s Britney Bitch!

I noticed a few days ago that a Britney Spears calendar (official) had appeared on Zazzle. Britney Spears, for all her faults, is a huge star, a pop icon so I think Zazzle did well to get the opportunity to hock her official goods to her legions of fans. When I checked out Britney Spears’ Gallery at Zazzle though I found that there was only one item - the calendar. I guess it will sell well but t-shirts and other merchandise would have a more lasting appeal. Perhaps more merchandise will be added at a later date.

Anyway, finding Britney prompted me to get off my ass and tell people about the other music artists that have been selling their official merchandise on Zazzle. I think before that Zazzle spent a lot of resources trying to attract famous names and brands and as far as I can see they have been pretty successful in their endeavor.  You can click on the images below to be taken to the artist’s stores at Zazzle. I didn’t include all the artists and new artists are probably added to the line up on a regular basis so if you are very curious you can check out the music page at Zazzle. If you are a musician you should think about using Zazzle as a means to promote your band and make a little dosh too.

Jack Johnson T-Shirt Sale

Fans of Jack Johnson should know that he is holding a sale of his t-shirts at JackJohnsonMusic.com. Unfortunately for me though, the only tee that I would wear (large image on left) is not a sale item. Most of the sale t-shirts are $15.

I Love Waterloo Sale

I Love Waterloo is an Argentina-based (I believe) t-shirt store that sell some really great tees for a select number of movies. According to their About Us page they wanted to make the t-shirts that didn’t exist for their favorite bands and movies. I do wonder is they asked permission though. Anyway they are having a sale until October 24th with very few tees getting the 60% discount and a lot of tees with a smaller discount. Anyway, check it out and you might find something you like.

DBH Announce FTSK T-Shirt Design Winner

Design by Humans have finally announced the winner of their special t-shirt design competition. The task was to design a band t-shirt for Forever the Sickest Kid and the standard was extremely high. It must have been very difficult to choose the winning design but it was a well-deserved win. This was the fourth win for artist Incarnadine at Design by Humans.

Celebrities Love La Coka Nostra

Coming home from a baseball game yesterday in which the Yokohama Baystars kicked the Yakult Swallows behinds badly I noticed this pretty cool t-shirt. As you can see I just got a glimpse of it but luckily I was able to find it on teh internets. I hadn’t heard of La Coka Nostra but I am not into the hip-hop scene so much. It seems though that they have been a bit of a MySpace sensation and they will have an album released this year. I have included one of their videos at the end of this post but be warned: strong language is used.

More importantly though, the t-shirt designer is a graffiti artist called SLICK and they are printed on the DISSIZIT label. They have a great selection of t-shirts and you don’t have to be in to hip-hop to appreciate them. They are the ultimate urban cool and you will definitely stand out from the crowd wearing them. I imagine a good deal of people will find DISSIZIT t-shirts offensive though. Especially the Christian themed ones.

Actually the Paris Hilton and the Kate Moss t-shirts are from 2007 and they may be pretty hard to get your hands on at this stage although I have found a store in Japan that seems to have some of the Kate Moss t-shirts left in an XL. Costs ¥5,500 (about $60) though. I much prefer Kate Moss to Paris Hilton but I prefer the Paris Hilton t-shirt.

In this Japanese store you can see some of the 2008 releases from DISSIZIT and this time the La Coka Nostra features the delectable Angelina Jolie. I don’t think this tee is designed by SLICK though.

The three t-shirts have a definite theme though, with all the girls being famous bad girls. Tell us which is your favorite with the poll below.

Filth T-Shirt

There was some recent news in Australia about a boy who was arrested for wearing an offensive t-shirt. I admit being very curious about what kind of t-shirt could be so offensive as to warrant an arrest. I’m not easily offended and am all for free speech so it was hard to imagine. Well, the t-shirt was pretty offensive especially to Christians. But let’s forget about the offensiveness of the shirt for a second and just look at the content. The t-shirt states that Jesus is the 4 letter word beginning with c. I really don’t think this word should be seen as a bad word but in modern society it is seen as one of the worst. So even without reference to Jesus this t-shirt would anger a lot of people. The shirt also contains an image of a mostly nude woman touching herself suggestively. She is wearing the headgear of a nun.

This t-shirt is a band t-shirt for a metal band, called Cradle of Filth, and you can find  selection of their t-shirt at this store. If you are into that kind of thing. A quick google and you will find that this is not the first time that someone has been arrested for wearing this shirt. A few years ago in England a boy was fined and sentenced to community service. Cradle of Filth frontman was quoted as saying:

It is with some concern that poor Adam’s plight is acknowledged. Defaming organized religion openly in public is now a crime? What is wrong with England? Still, the litter problem on our city streets should improve dramatically if they keep handing out 80-odd hour community punishment orders willy-nilly. The country will be spotless in no time, a sure sign that God works in mysterious ways, even through us!

I think the main question here though is: did this boy deserve to get arrested? It is hard to say really. On the one hand he’s just a teenager trying to stand out from the crowd by doing something stupid. If that’s a crime we all would have been arrested at some point. I’d be doing life. On the other hand his stupid act angered and offended many people. If he had my friend or family’s name on his shirt I would have been pretty angry and it might have ended up with violence. Now some people love Jesus more than I love my family and may have less control over their temper (Christian though they may be) and the result could also have been violence.

For this reason, I think it was OK to ask the boy to stop wearing his t-shirt and to arrest him if he didn’t. It was a preventative measure. I don’t like the idea of losing my right to free speech but I do believe in compromise. Recently I was in Las Vegas with my brother. We are Irish. My brother was wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt and the hotel staff politely suggested that his t-shirt was not appropriate. To be honest, I was shocked when my brother told me. My brother on the other hand thought the fact that this would happen in America, the land of free speech, was very funny. He didn’t agree with them but he didn’targue either. He checked in and changed his t-shirt.

Band Shirt Competition at Design by Humans

Design by Humans are running a new competition where you have to design a t-shirt for the band Forever the Sickest Kids. The prize is $1000 cash, a $250 iTunes Gift Card, a signed FTSK poster, and some free t-shirts with your designs on them. It doesn’t mention it but you will also get quite a bit of glory for designing a band t-shirt. Submissions are accepted until midnight July 15th.

Rolling Stone Covers on T-Shirts

Some rock stars are getting their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone on a t-shirt. Rolling Stone has teamed up with Macy’s in an exclusive deal to sell t-shirts featuring select Rolling Stone covers. They will be available in stores and online at Macys.com for $36. Below are examples from the web site including a Kurt Kobain T-Shirt and a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt. At the moment I can only see five t-shirts for sale but they are pretty cool.

Free Coldplay Single

Coldplay are not going quite as far as Radiohead with this idea but free is free. For one week, you will be able to download the new Coldplay single from their web site. On their website it says:

from Tuesday, 12:15pm UK time
for one week only
you can come here to download
a free copy of a new song
called Violet Hill.

Below are some t-shirts from Allposters.

Radiohead Greatest Hits Album

I have to admit that I was a very big Radiohead fan. I had all their albums and several imports too. Some of their stuff was only released in Japan but I got my hands on them. When OK Computer came out it was not only a huge critical success but also a huge commercial success and everybody thought that it would keep getting better and better. I guess our expectations were too high. I know there are some people out there who think that Kid A, Amnesiac and the newer albums are great but I disagree. I think they are a mess. I honestly tried to give Kid A a chance but I just couldn’t get into it.

I remember reading an interview with one of the lead singers of the Dandy Warhols which said that their warm-ups sound better than Kid A. That’s not a direct quote but it was something like that. At the time I was annoyed by such a comment, thinking that Thom Yorke had more talent in his little finger than that entire band but that comment stuck with me.

I couldn’t get into Amnesiac or Hail to the Thief but when Radiohead came to Japan I really wanted to see them. My friends said that Radiohead’s concerts are amazing. I figured what the hell. Even if don’t really know the music from their latest three albums I can enjoy the old songs. What a mistake! They did not play one song from their old album and I remember at one point the band members spent about 20 minutes lying on the floor playing with the guitar pedals. I was extremely bored. It was the worst concert I have ever been to.

Today I came across an article that says that EMI will be a releasing a Radiohead greatest hits collection in several forms - double CD, single CD and quadruple vinyl formats. I won’t be buying it because I have the original albums and I don’t think there will be any new material I want to hear.

One thing that can be said about Radiohead though is that they have a unique vision and this can be seen not only in their music but also in the way they promote themselves. For example, they recently had a “pay as much as you like” pricing system for their new downloadable album. Their t-shirts are also not the usual band t-shirt fare and in many cases, if you are not a Radiohead fan you wouldn’t know that they are Radiohead T-Shirts. Below are some Radiohead Tee Shirts available at Jiggy.com.