Last weekend Hong Kong Dong celebrated the release of their debut album with an excellent gig at the DOK arena in Ghent.

Their eclectic indie pop thrives the most in a live setting and most songs get a more rock oriented layer. The guitar injections of Geoffrey Burton give the songs a nice edge and his guitar solo in ‘Romance’ makes me which I could go and see them play on a daily basis. The band played a large selections of songs from the album but also threw in some golden oldies like ‘Lesbians Are A Boys Best Friends’ and ‘On a Sunny Day’. They finished the set with a steaming rendition of ZZ Top’s  ’Give me al your Loving’  that left the crowd ecstatic.
Go see them when you have the chance. They’re one of the most entertaining live bands I’ve seen in quite a while.
Video and photos right about here:

Photos by Dominique Dierick

Here’s a few likes: (click for larger images)

Michiels Ceulers ‘Sexuelle Selektion und elterliche Fürsorge’ (2009) at Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam
Ceulers seems to be doing really well. He’s now represented by galleries in Antwerp, Amsterdam, London, Zurich, New York and Los Angeles.

Benjamin Verdonck with a solo show at Galerie Folrent Tosin (Berlin)

…and also a similar Verdonck totem at Tim van Laere Gallery (Antwerp)

Kati Heck at Tim van Laere gallery

Bénédicte Henderick at Triangle Blue gallery (Stavelot) (the booth also had some nice Mil Ceulemans work)

a bit of fun by Micha Payer + Martin Gabriel at Christine König Galerie (Vienna)

Really liked Ivan Argote’s  ’All My Girlfriends’ (2007-2009) which shows him taking phonecam shots with random billboard girls as his girlfriend.

Folkert de Jong with his take on Mondriaan’s ‘Boogie Woogie’

I have a soft spot for Barry McGee.

Trend: a bunch of London galleries with very similar Damien Hirst produce. Which was very ‘yawn’. So NO pictures. You know them, you’ve seen them, you’ve said ‘Meh’.

Most annoying album:
Radiohead – King Of Limbs

Most silly new-age album that for some strange reason will end up in all the end of year lists 
Balam Acab – Wander / Wonder

Best gigs:
Mauro & The Grooms @ Kreun, Kortrijk 28/01/2011
Paramount Styles @ Botanique, Brussels 6/04/2011
Ash @ Mezz, Breda 12/06/2011
Morrissey @ Lokerse Feesten 4/08/2011
Sebadoh @ Effenaar, Eindhoven 19/08/2011
The Hickey Underworld @ Play festival, Hasselt 1/10/2011
Broken Glass Heroes @ Arenberg, Antwerp 13/10/2011
My Morning Jacket @ Trix, Antwerp 10/11/2011
Girls @ Trix, Antwerp 15/11/2011
dEUS @ Lotto Arena, Antwerp 16/12/2011

Best cover art:
Gold Panda – Companion

Broken Bells – Meyrin Fields

(design by Julia Pott)

It’s no secret that here at Weapon of Beauty HQ we’re big fans of noise rockers The Hickey Underworld.
So the announcement of their second full album is a perfectly valid reason to come out of our hibernation. In true Hickey style the album is mysteriously titled “I’m under the house, I’m dying” and will be released in the Benelux and France in February 2012. Production was once again done by the boys from Das Pop and none other than Dave Sardy (ex-Barkmarket and now  producer to the stars) did the mix.

For the past half year the Hickeys have done a series of small club gigs, road testing the new material. Having attended 5 of them the outlines of the new material became quite clear: there are no outlines. The tracks vary from heavy stomping old-school THU, via surprisingly poppy tracks to a 10 minute psychedelic behemoth. This last one is already a live favourite and reminds us of that other 10-minute live favourite and show closer ‘VRMNSMR’. They’re equally compelling and both are some of the most exciting stuff to have been released in the past decade.  Yes, it’s thàt good.
The gig at Hasselt’s PLAY festival in October proved that the band are now ready to take it to the next step. The gig was an exciting and intricate mix of new and old material and ranked up there with the best THU gigs I’ve seen (30 and counting).

Want a chance to see for yourself? Check the tour dates below:

The first time she photographed him was with Andy Warhol (pictured below).

The second time he was alone in his Lafayette Street studio. This particular shoot was for the cover of the New York Times Magazine. The year was 1985 and he was at the height of his career and unfortunately the height of his drug use.

There’s a very particular reason why he’s not wearing any shoes.  When Himmel arrived at his studio he was asleep in bed with his girlfriend. Having to also photograph Keith Haring that same day she had no time to waste. With the help of Basquiat’s assistant they got him up, but he was too stoned to function. He kept nodding off so they had no choice, but to dress him. After getting the suit on, Lizzie decided that she had enough of dressing him so she left the shoes off. Three years later he would be dead from a heroin overdose at the age of 27.  (story via brooklynmast.com)

And another great studio shot:

Ladytron: Gravity The Seducer

GOOSE: Synrise

While I had a further look at Krug’s work I even found a second Hipgnosis rip-off.
Neil Krug:

Led Zeppelin – Houses Of The Holy

Coincidence or not?
That said, I quite like Neil Krug’s work.
It’s heavily based on the whole Polaroid retro color scheme.
Check out his work here: http://www.neilkrug.com

All the people watching the Mona Lisa from many many meters away just make me shake my head.
It’s ridiculous. You can’t see anything. There’s no way you can enjoy an artwork this way.
And all the people taking photographs are even more hilarious.
Why on earth take yet another crappy photo of a painting when you can find way better shots online?
What’s the point? What are you trying to prove? That you were there? Congratulations, asswipe. Oh and nice camouflage shorts, dude. I really cannot see you.

And watching art from your pc just got even better as Google have launced their ‘Google Art Project‘. The project is actually a website – based on Google Street View software – that lets you stroll around in a selection of museums and look at ultra high resolution images of the artworks in them.
The quality of the photos is so high that, by using the zoom function, you can see the smallest cracks and paint smears. Pretty amazing stuff. To really appreciate a piece of art, it’s always best to see in the flesh, but you will never be able to study these kind of close-up details in a museum without getting in trouble with a museum guard.

Chris Ofili’s ‘No Woman No Cry’ at Tate Britain is one of my favourite pieces in the current selection.

You can almost smell the elephant dung.

They even have a ‘lights out’ photo of the work so you can see the phosphorescent paint (used on a second level) glowing in the dark.