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Issue 6 of Art Nouveau entitled, Kind of Blue on sale November 18 via Magcloud and the new Art Nouveau shop. Click here for more details.

When I get back from outer space I might notice the little things. Time for instance. Whether good times are in abundance or not, the clock is still rolling. Or the unrelenting love from peers. And especially the unashamed smile in my mother’s voice when I tell her I’m moving home to Miami, and not New York. I call it trading hustles for muscles.

When you’re in the hustle, new art means nothing to the artist but new money. Removed from the hustle you create because you have to. Not because you also have to pay bills. These artists, musicians, writers and visionaries in this issue of are in the latter state of mind.

For Art Nouveau Magazine issue #5, the New Art, New Money cover artist Jeremy Fish turns the table on his storytelling subjects. We visit the dream world indie pop band Cults are living in. Elsewhere, we go off the map with Ted Coconis as the iconic artist and illustrator talks about the industry that made him who he is. Other artists included are George Morton-Clark, PaperFrank (our special subscriber cover artist) and Martin Lacko. And in between are photo essays on street brilliance by Swiper Bootz & Corinne Stevie, an editorial by Elvis Piedra, Lady Gaga, Casey Anthony and of course there’s more. Everything up until now has been fodder for the crowning glory. The best is yet to come.

Click here to get your copy of this issue and past issues.

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I walk into The Basement venue and instead of a yellow-brick road, I was confronted with assortment of colors on the floor paving a strategic path, streamers hanging from the ceiling and balloons swallowing the room, leading through the venue into a backroom filled with Fresh.i.Am merchandise. It felt like I was in East Atlanta’s answer to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I definitely wasn’t in Kansas, anymore.

Vacant of cowardly lions or mad-hatters, the artists lit up the stage and really set the high-intensity for the night. Premiere indie brands like Art Nouveau and Slumerican kept the night like something out of an underground fairytale. Al-King rocked the stage with his infectious sing-a-long raps accompanied with a violin player that intensified the performance. Micah Freeman got the crowd hype with crowd favorites like “The Elephant” and Ben Carson could have been mistaken for a black Kurt Cobain with his grunge-y ballads of love and loss. The host, Bosco, even felt compelled to perform some jazzy, soulful material with quite the rocker’s edge after Atlanta’s wheelchair-bound hero, Ethereal, took the stage with his special brand of hazy, psychedelic Hip-Hop that can more profoundly be found on Abstractica.

Despite the great performances that really can define Atlanta’s independent scene, the night really belonged to two people, the crowd and the DJ. Slumerican’s vixen of a DJ Speakerfoxxx, handled the ones and twos like a pro. Melting together dope boy hood classics with 60′s and 70′s standards all while scantily clad, legs bare, and wearing a blazer and tie like a lost member of the Soprano family, just more funky. The crowd filled The Basement with weed smoke, the unmistakable stench of spilled alcohol, sweat, and friendliness that is not often seen in Atlanta’s indie scene. For a few hours, Atlanta’s coolest elite came together sans ego or stiffness. Everyone was there for a common goal; to hear some good fucking music and get a bit sloshed.

A few PBRs, joint passes, and laughs and I finally find my ruby shoes. Greeting the attendees was a large ice-cream truck filled with frozen (legal) goods. There were shorts, meshed patterns, beautiful woman, charming men, laughs, and Djarums suffocating East Atlanta. There’s no place like home.

Photos by GREATeclectic

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I know you’ve heard from somebody–N*E*R*D will be in Atlanta May 25. As a part of Coors Light’s recent Search for the Coldest N*E*R*D along with Pac Div will play at an invitation-only concert. Good thing is we have 10 of those tickets and we want to give them to you!

The Coors Light “Search for the Coldest” Tour is the coolest thing to ever hit summer. But you can’t buy tickets: Coors Light is giving them away via radio stations, street teams, local hotspots and more. So keep your eyes and ears open, and be ready to snag these ice-cold tickets the second they’re available in your area.

Along with N.E.R.D., you’ll get to see some of the coldest up-and-comers around. And there’ll be plenty going on before, during, and after every show: scope out The Coldest Gallery, an iced-out photography exhibit that also features digital and interactive inspiration; join in the “Coldest MCs of All Time” Debate; and, get the chance to be a V.I.P. – the ultimate in access.

Here’s your chance to win tickets to the Atlanta show, May 25. We have five pairs, that’s 10 tickets. All you have to do is post the following “Art Nouveau Magazine, #ArtNouveau #SearchfortheColdest http://an-mag.com” to your Facebook or Twitter profiles. Then post the link as a comment here. You have until Sunday, May 22 at Midnight to enter. Winners will be announced on Monday, May 23. Get set. Go.

*Courtesy of The Garner Circle*

The force is strong with this one. On June 1, Artist/graphic designer PaperFrank will debut new works in an exhibition entitled “Afro Picks and Bunny Suits 2″ at Archive Gallery. All work and merchandise will be for sale. If you’re in Atlanta and want to know where the art scene is heading, you need to make it out to this show.

Sponsored by Art Nouveau, Rock Smith, City of Ink & Atlanta Got Sole.

About The Artist: 20 year old City Of Ink tattoo apprentice, PaperFrank is a self-taught artist, graphic designer based out of Atlanta who specializes in super flat acrylic paintings and digital work. His works usually revolve around his fascination with bunny rabbits and how they can represent many things. PaperFrank uses many bright colors and “child friendly” illustrations to display thoughts and emotions.

Click here for everything we’ve got on PaperFrank.

Click here to RSVP for the opening on Facebook.

It’s Sunday evening at the New Era store in Downtown, Atlanta. The hat store is buzzing with life as media and fans begin to pack in for the event that is set to take place: a free J*Davey performance. The crowd isn’t your typical, you’ve got the J*Davey fans mingling with the urban New Era crowd and usually it would be a recipe for disaster, but tonight everything is just fine. After all the promise of Starbucks party platters, wings and Jose Cuervo is enough to make anyone get along.

In the New Era break room, sitting on a half broken stool tapping away at her BlackBerry is Jack Davey. Her signature half mullet/ mohawk has grown out into long layers, she’s wearing glitter leggings, and an oversized white shirt, burgundy shades and Taylor Gang converse. Her other half Brook D’Leau is off to the corner dancing awkwardly to the beats that the DJ is spinning for the rap battle that is going on. There is an outer worldly bond that the two share. Maybe the result of touring together, or working together but nonetheless, I make a point to comment on it. “Have you two ever dated?” I asked all bright and doe eyed. I was expecting no, but the two give me something else to hold on to: “Maybe in the underworld…perhaps,” Jack tells me.

The two met in high school when Brook went to prom with a friend of Jack’s. “She went to an all girls school we met there and didn’t find out until a year later that we were into the same types of music. And we decided to record one song and now we’re here,” Brook adds.

Here as in the New Era store on a Sunday afternoon treating fans to a free performance the day after there packed out performance at the Masquerade. The duo is still high off of there performance from last night. “After all, we’re not on a label so everything is a bit more rewarding,” Brook tells me. Fans are mingling around, taking glimpses into the back room and asking for pictures. In a room full of snap backs, fitted hats, hat cleaner…hats galore, the duo stands out. But the band that originated in Los Angeles and is a compilation of rock, hip-hop, soul and R&B, is used to standing out. Recently released from their deal with Warner Brothers, the duo produced, arranged and organized their “The New World Culture Tour”.

“It’s really about reinvesting your money into your business,” Brook tells me.

Concerning their split from Warner, Brook D’Leau explains, “I think they saw something they liked but had their own ideas of what they ultimately wanted it to sound like and look like and that didn’t coincide with we wanted it to sound and look like. So, we just amicably parted ways. It’s that simple.”

Jacks jumps in, “95% of the artist that signs and the other 5% are willing to take the fall. They are fabricated to a small degree and there is a very small percentage who are actually doing what they want to do, how they want to do it on a label. Most of the time its because of the fact that they have invested in themselves and don’t really need a label…the labels need them.”

It isn’t J*Davey’s first time to Atlanta so they are not at all surprised at the Atlanta hipster crowd that has come out for them, “We’ve been here a few times. I think it may be our third or fourth time,” Jack tells me,“It’s different. I just don’t know how. It’s really flashy here I mean it’s flashy in Los Angeles too. A little bit of the same but with a slower vibe. A little more laid back.”

Tonight, the duo will be performing a couple of songs from their five song Evil Christian EP that was inspired by the simplest thing…life. “Life is always the biggest inspiration. I don’t think you need any other inspiration beyond that. The things that you see in passing. That was the biggest inspiration for us.”

Jack tells me that they were so inspired when they were recording the EP that it took no time at all. “When we’re feeling it, it takes us no time, and when we’re not feeling it, we work on other things. That came together really quickly, it was a no brainer. But we don’t like to rush our creative process. It takes us a while to get it out there, but it’s always worth the wait”

For a woman who was once wearing a half shaved mullet/mohawk and whose burgundy shades in a dimly lit room is the center of attention, I can’t help but wonder what Jack Davey’s definition of glamour is. “Glamour is all relative. To me my lifestyle is glamorous but to another person it might not be. It’s all relative. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter. If your project is shit and you’re living glamorously its a facade anyway so we live as real as we are. Its pretty glamourous to me,” she explains.

Concerning her styles she is cites vintage, thrifting and chucks as playing a huge part. “Style is my inspiration. Everyday that I wake up, I’m a different person and my style reflects that. I guess my clothes inspire me. Whatever I see is what gets thrown together. I like my stuff vintage, and I’m also a fan of the Chucks.”

I ask the duo if they are Taylor Ganged and a bit of laugher follows suit. “We’re representing a new division of Taylor Gang. We’re not so cool and swaggy though. We’re the awkward division.”

We begin to talk about some of the sounds that they have been listening to while on tour and Ariel Pink and a few others are mentioned.
“It takes me a while to figure out what’s new and current so I wait six months and if it’s still relevant then I’ll listen to it,” Jack explains.

While on the subject of popular music, Odd Future comes up. “Every journalist that we speak to asks us about them,” Brook tells me.

Jack adds, “They’re cute kids. We’ve know about them for a long time. It’s great to see them finally get what they’re getting. But, they’re cute kids.”

We switch the conversation from music to art and Jack gets a chance to tell me about some of her favorite artists.

“I like Gordon Parks, I love Hedi Sliman. He’s a french fashion photographer who was a designer for Dior. I love Toulouse Lautrec, a lot of old art. When I see it it strikes me. Art encompasses so many things, I can walk outside and see a bomb on a wall and thats great art for me. I enjoy it all for different reasons, what’s not to enjoy? It’s all a way of expression”

With such refined names being thrown around, I’m interested to see what other icons J*Davey hold in esteem.

If you could invite one person dead or alive for dinner, or tea, who would it be? I ask them.

Brook replies, “David Burn.”

Jack on the other hand says Jim Morrison. “We’re kindred spirits. Or maybe…Miles Davis. I’d just invite them all and see which one showed up”

And with that my persona time with J*Davey comes to a dawn. The venue has reached maximum capacity, the line outside is stretching way to long and the fans are getting restless because they want to hear J*Davey.

Spencer Greene aka Savvy Society is a New Jersey born, Atlanta based Producer/DJ who I’ve been familiar with for sometime now. In all actuality, he’s like my little brother from another mother. The self-described ‘anti-hipster’ grew up on house and club music, so it’s no wonder that his sound is sexy a mix of jazzy synths that would make Pharrell coo and banging beats that evoke the tribal thump of both Africa and the fidget bass of Baltimore club music.

The idea for Tribal Dance stemmed from a recent visit back to his hometown of Jersey, where the artist was reintroduced to the house and dance music he grew up on.

“I don’t go home too often,” Savvy tells me. “but when I do, I’m always introduced to new club music and reminded of old house music. The vibe just felt right. So I decided I wanted to work on some music that made me feel that vibe.”

“The first beat I made was a sample of “Swing That Shit” by Brick Bandits. I added chords and harmonies. Then I remade the drum part from this house song I grew up on, “Fired Up,” he later explains.

Save for the final track ‘The Lights Dim On Their Own” featuring Sharmelle, Tribal Dance is an all out party. The title came from a drunk text a friend sent Savvy around the end of last semester where he is studying English at Morehouse College.

“Everyone was parting nonstop,” he tells me. “I can’t remember what it exactly said, but it was something about night festivities consisting of Tribal Dances and Mating Calls. It just stuck with me.”

Tribal Dance opens with a sexy spoken word lyrical tour-de-force by poet Jasmine Mans. You may remember the beat as the original beat to RAHBI’s “Noise Porn” track from Art Nouveau’s 2010 Noise Porn music compilation. After we know why we’re here, we know what to do. And Savvy serves as the conductor for this joy ride we’re currently on.

What’s next for Savvy? If you ask him, he has “no idea.”  He’s living the musician life and that’s all right. He does have one gig he’s looking forward to.

“I’m going to take the summer to plot on how to stick up the world and split it 50/50, then execute it in Autumn,” he tells me.

Swag. Listen and download Tribal Dance for free below.

It’s officially spring. The birds are chirping. Pimps and players are flirting. And the girls? Well depending on who you ask, they run the world. It wouldn’t be spring without a tribute to the girls, girls, girls.

Art Nouveau’s Spring issue, entitled Girls, Girls, Girls is a tribute to the art of vintage pin-ups. You can see traces of the influence in just about every contemporary art form, in music they are barbies and Katy Perrys, in film there is always a new hot ‘it girl,’ in art, well you’ve seen pin-up tattoos on everyone from soccer moms to the typical biker guy.

For this issue, we’ve compiled pieces, artists and editorials that both evoke the art of the pin-up and push the art direction of the vintage style into new heights. On the cover Greg Gossel,  probably at the forefront of the surge in pin-up art talks about his upcoming show in San Francisco and more. Elsewhere, Lady Aiko, Marcelo Daldoce, J*DaVeY, Oscar Olima, Adrienne Raquel, Alice Vandy and more provide the visual and sonic soundtrack that is sure to keep you stimulated–no pun intended.

Click here to view the entire issue and purchase a copy or two.

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I’ve never met GreatEclectic, but I know him quite well. I’ve never felt more innately connected to someone with whom I’ve never shared conventional contact; but that is the beautiful mystery that is the Great Mister Daye. He conveys and connects with the world and the one individual alike, because he is his work; as with any masterpiece, that connection lives in the unconventional void – where authenticity cannot be barred by limitation, and catharsis cannot be marred by sterile sanity. He lives in his work – it is in that shared space where I feel, and it is in that shared experience where life is present.

As an anydenizen: Kendrick is a Southern boy, a neer-do-welLOL (<– ;o)), a halogenic hipster setting up art-camp in the Peachtree.

As an artist: GreatEclectic blends the most abstractly familiar elements of life – love, envy, wealth, wrath, perception, desire, greed, necessity, lust, identity, indulgence, ideals, ego, morals, said bankruptcy, and fears – with the rawest veneer of famous faces. His pieces are pastiches – whole in-and-of themselves but even more so in context of one another. Pop & Politics are alive and well-contented bedfellows in this world. The personal space stands as the pre-eminent public place of judgment. Shadows dance in rigid rhythmic formation with neon strobes. The entire world coalesces into a kaleidoscopic cultural landscape… where we are presented with our own selves from before the mass-mediated mirror of Pop life.

It is arduous. It is bright. It is delusional. It is hidden in prismatic view. It is seeing roses through Reagan-colored sunglasses. It is waking up to the first Pink Friday after Sunday mourning. It is the scene sweet-tooth before and beneath the staid urban decay. It is everything in one place, in distorted focus, for no other reason than for you to see it; because we’ve been blinded by the guided light, because we need to throw shade if only to stargaze again.

His art lives, loves, laughs, lauds, lambastes, legislates, and promulgates on behalf of true Pop. It unravels the American tapestry because we were wound too tightly; it dims the lights because they blind so brightly; it hearkens to the dawn though it heralds nightly; and all it takes is a liberated lid to refresh the mind and see what I see: if you want to see a sad boy shine – pay him; if you want to see a sad boy smile – pay attention.

‘Want To See A Sad Boy Smile? Pay Him’ opens April 14 from 8pm-12am at Studio 900 in Atlanta. Click here to purchase work from the show.

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It ain’t a drug making her do it. It ain’t her boyfriend making her do it. Maybe this video is making her do it. But it’s all in the music. These are words by singer/songwriter RAHBI that appear on “What’s That Sound.” You may remember this song as the infectious opening track for Art Nouveau & GreatEclectic’s music compilation Noise Porn. We’re back with more new music. The New Jersey born producer Savvy Society is preparing to release his latest project Tribal Dance presented by Art Nouveau & GreatEclectic.

Tribal Dance, features appearances by the aforementioned RAHBI, Sye Spence, Richelle L. Brown, Corinne Stevie, Jay Scott and more. It will be released May 3. Savvy will be releasing a new track every Monday, right here on Art Nouveau. Until then, listen and download “What’s That Sound (Remix)” below.

MP3: Savvy Society feat RAHBI – What’s That Sound (Remix)

The girl on the step in front of me is twerking so hard that every time she makes her butt clap, my face gets pimp slapped by a jiggling cheek. I’ve tried blaming it on the angle of the steps that are causing her derriere to be right in my eye line, but I’ve never been good at lying to myself. I’ve tried to put it all on her and tell myself that no human without a medical history of epilepsy should be shaking that hard, but considering that I’m a fan of discotechs I’m finding too much fault with that theory.

As invalid excuses flow through my head, I realize that I must take it for what it is: there is no reason for me to be this close to her. That is on a small scale, on a grander scale, there is no reason for me or the other sixty other girls that are elbowing, stepping and dry humping each other as we try to climb the grand steps that cascade from the stage to grab hold of Theophilus London to be doing so.

Of course it’s a fire hazard and Theophilus’s manager telling everyone to get off the stage certainly adds to the cause, but I’ve got my own personal reasons for being completely against what I’m doing. Primarily, because I’m ignorant of Theophilus London’s music. Before tonight, I had heard of it in bits and clips being played by my hipster friends, but it was a bit too nouveau for me to get into.

So, the questions begin with why? Why am pushing my way up a set of stairs that weren’t made with Jeffrey Campbell shoe owners in mind and completely putting my safety at risk? Why am I trying to be a recipient of a Theophilus London shirt that is ten times my size? Why am I yelling “swag, swag” and the horribly ordered “girls, girls, money” ? and last but not least: Why am I yelling “THEO I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES”? It seems as if tonight, I left my brain at the ticket sales booth that I’ve taken a break from, my heart at the bar and my soul is the only thing left and it’s having the time of it’s life mindlessly dancing off beat to songs that it doesn’t know the words to. I like to think of the night of Art Nouveau’s three year anniversary, the night I almost became a groupie.

There was a time when cheerleading wasn’t considered a sport, but after waves of girls trying out for squads across the nation sprained their vaginas attempting mid air splits, that was quickly changed. And if spreading your legs, cheering the men on and looking cute is considered a sport, then why can’t being a groupie be amended to be a sport too. From my three hour experience as an almost groupie, a lot of respect for the lifestyle grew within me. Let me tell you something: it takes dedication and a high level of self-manipulation to convince yourself that an artist is giving you the eye when they’re wearing thick, black ass ray bans. And it takes even more dedication and determination to convince yourself that the “You’re Amazing” that they just screeched into the mic was addressed to you when there are about a hundred sets of vaginas and peginas in the room.

But if I walked into the Art Nouveau three year anniversary party wondering what a groupie was, then I walked out with the perfect answer. They’re just girls that got too caught up in the music, lip syncing to songs that they didn’t know the words to and worshipping men that whose fame might soon pass away. They got too caught up in the moment. Groupies aren’t the trailer trash, absent father,  waitress mom having sixteen-year old’s that old school MTV movies portrayed them to be. They no longer wait outside of tour buses, with sweat out curly perms, wearing crucifix crosses jassembled with pearl as the finishing touches to outfits that would make Momma Madonna proud. Shame on old school MTV for making them look so weak.

These days, they’re birth control patch wearing, Snapped and Women Who Kill TiVo’ers, bra burning girls who have the audacity to stroll into packed stadiums and dance their ass off all off beat as if they’re the only girl in the room…hell in the world. Groupies are no longer girls who fill the fatherless void in their lives by becoming the prey of famous men. No, these days, they do the preying with jordan spizikes, gucci belts, snap backs and the over use of the word “shwag” being at the top of their checklist. Groupies are no longer the low-self esteem girls of the eighties wearing thick slabs of eyeliner paired with too big Wonder Bras. No, these days they’re over confident, so much that they’ve succeeded in convincing themselves they’re the only girls in the world. Cydni Lauper was on to something: girls just want to have fun.

Steven Van‘s mission is simple: transform mundane corporate and residential spaces into bold and most times provocative environments. With a contemporary flare that still screams to be seen in galleries, The Washington State based artist creates some pretty awesome Art Nouveau inspired work. This Art Nouveau, not this one. Steven Van is Art Novueau’s Artist of the Week.