Rotherham’s own hot boy trio The Heebie Jeebies release their debut single Misery Guts on September 6th. Indulging in “Fruity Beefheart beats, calypso rhythms and west coast noise flex, caressed with a poetic social panorama”, they embrace modern insecurities with an ‘end of the rainbow’ mentality.

A DIY aesthetic permeates everything they do - they made this video. A veritable madcap ride of Dadaist proportions, historical figures warp into ice cream cones and trombones emerge from pineapples. Talent spotted by Vogue (oh yes!) and championed amongst the Steel City glitterati - Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, Matt Helders and Toddla T - The Heebie Jeebies are currently taking their endearingly shambolic live show around the UK.

JULY
22 - MANCHESTER - Deaf Institute
23 - SHEFFIELD - Bowery w/ Darwin Deez
30 - CREWE - The Box

AUGUST
3 - LONDON - Buffalo Bar
30 - BIRMINGHAM - Of Step

SEPTEMBER
2 - INVERNESS - Mad Hatters
4 - DUNDEE - Duke’s Corner

The Heebie Jeebies - Misery Guts from owen adams on Vimeo.

Soap-Box is an artistic design house run by two guys, Daniel and Ben, based within the UK. They provide exclusively designed products, with runs as low as 25 pieces. Their brand uses an ‘eclectic combination of suburban, street culture and lifestyles’ to create refreshingly edgy tee and crew neck sweatshirts.

Who are you guys, where do you come from, what do you do?

We go by the very standard names of Daniel and Ben, we are both from planet Earth living in the UK and we design, create and everything in-between for Soap-Box. These can range from us doing just sketch work and illustration to 2d & 3d animated projects. We also do client based freelance work which include Graphic design, logos and album artwork.

Tell us more about Soapbox, what’s it all about?

The brand was developed in 2008 and is a design house, which is focused on delivering quality products and services, which include limited edition artwork, apparel & graphic novels. Soap-Box also stands for ‘freedom of speech’ which we put across with our clothing and designs.

How did it all start?

It all started with the idea of us using tees as another blank canvas for us to work with but to mix it with our love for oldskool video games, which is why we was working with the mantra of the Mode-7 name to begin with. This soon changed however, because we wanted a brand that would last and stand strong for years to come, so we developed the project more and kept reworking and tweaking until finally Soap-Box was born. We felt by calling the brand Soap-Box allowed us to express ourselves more within what we produced and left it open for us to experiment with many different concepts and art styles.

What’s been the highlight so far?

The highlight so far has got to be the journey itself and where we have come from to get to this point in time where we are now, meeting and working with new people as artists or client/customer is a really good feeling, may it long continue into the future.

What inspires the designs/designers Soapbox?

Inspiration comes from many sources, which include music, different cultures, comics, animation and the all-important one, life and the people around us.

Who are some of the other brands out there that you look up to, if any?

There are a lot of brands out there that are doing really good things, but to be honest we only really focus on what we our doing and how we can grow and develop our own brand and ideas.

What have you got going on at the moment, any interesting projects for 2010?

We have a few things in the pipeline including a couple of surprise collabs and extending our product range, but I would say the most interesting project we have is our graphic novel pack due for release later this year, really excited about this particular project.

If you were to do a collaboration with anyone, (celeb/artist/other designer) who would it be and why?

Hmm tough one this, as there is a lot of really good artists, think company wise it would have to be SEGA, they have such a huge back catalog of diverse and artistic characters, especially the classic works like Golden Axe, Space Harrier & Streets of Rage etc, so many things could be done with such a collab its unreal. Then as a musician it would have to be Madlib because of his unique sound and the concepts he creates within his work, which makes his distinct and abstract style stand out.

On the hunt for the UK’s top independent retail stores we stumbled across Wood, in the great city of Manchester. To find out just how they cracked in to the thriving retail vibe on Manchester’s city streets, I asked them a few questions. Tersam’s the man with the plan, take a look here to find out what his story is:

Whats your name and what do you do?

My name is Tersam Sangha from A Shop Called Wood in Manchester. We are a retail store, design team and recently launched our house clothing brand Cyrus Wood. The belief is that we can and ought to try and embrace diversity from all angles of life, fashion, music, art and general style can all be bought from all corners of the world but 99% is all the same, we are that 1% that actually want to build a community of like minded people from around the world.

Tell us the story of Wood, where did it all begin?

The store came about as a reaction to the mass of cheap, throw away fashion that was being poured down our throat on a 24/7 basis. I used to collect big E Levis and Adidas sneakers in the 80’s; the emphasis was always on quality and design. This was all lost in 2003 when the beginnings of the store came about. It was impossible to find any of the clothing that we wanted.

The brands that we first carried in the store when we opened on June 21st 2004 were all dear to our heart and we felt close to their ideals. Silas, Perks and Mini, Surface to Air, Birdie, YMC, Horace, Fred Perry, Call of the Wild, Maharishi, Henrik Vibskov and loads more. These brands have gone through allot of changes as has the store.

We were blessed to have worked with some of the best talent around, that included Kai and Sunny, one of the best design teams in the world. They designed our logo, artwork and the whole graphic feel of the store. The logo font for Wood came into one of the best font designs book shortly after. They then redesigned our website for us in 2008; we are obviously big fans of their work and will always work with them whilst on this journey.

Very early before the beginnings of the shop we met Russell Waterman from the Silas and Maria family Silas and Amos, these guys held that natural quality that a good brand should have that shines through, they worked as a family and treated us with the most genuine attitude that is very hard to find these days. This influence d us to work with genuine people (Gimme 5, Denim is everything, PAM etc.) that have the rare talent to see something special way before anyone else.

How did Manchester like the store? Did you find it hard to build up that faithful customer base?

The store was a tremendous success from the minute we opened our door, customers quickly became friends and that grew exponentially. The methods were to work with only the best people around at that time, be genuine and only do what you truly believe in.

What is it that you love about your area, are you proud of the area you’ve built Wood’s home in?

The Northern Quarter of Manchester has a family feel to the area, we love, there were 28 record shops in the area alone when we started. As teenagers we used to sit downstairs in the basement of Eastern Bloc, where only friends were allowed and pioneers of the music scene were allowed, we also used to frequent Dry Bar which was at one point the best bar in the world and possibly one of the first in the UK at the time of the Hacienda.

So yes, the area holds a special place in our heart.

What have you got going on at the moment, any interesting projects for 2010?

2010 has kind of reinvigorated my passion for the clothing industry, it became impossible to find a brand that was special, that wasn’t sold in every city around the country, and we decided to unleash Cyrus Wood.

Cyrus Wood is the name of the company that owns the 2 stores and website and now the brand, It was always part of the plan in 2003 when we began this journey, the reason it’s called Cyrus Wood is two part, firstly one of the best pieces of cinema very made The Warriors and the leader of all and secondly as part of a one of my favourite artists in the world Andy Goldsworthy and his book called Wood.

This is a combination of ideas that could not be further apart, but managed to capture my imagination and best exemplify how I felt about the arts as a discipline.

Born out of a dissatisfaction with an over saturated menswear market, Cyrus Wood aims to restore a sense of uniqueness to menswear, creating a brand that is limited in run and availability.

We dropped our second part of the first collection in January 2004 and it sold out within a few weeks, this was a collection of shirts in corduroy, gingham, and a beautiful cotton drill, Also shirt jackets in Wool. It uses only British fabrics and is Made in England; it is a paramount ideal of Cyrus Wood and we feel passionate about this fact. From the first moment that I used to visit the woollen mills that my family worked in and the shoe factory that my mum worked at, that I used to visit as a 12 year old, I fell in love with this industry. It pains me deeply that the government allowed the Capitalist executives to sell the soul of the clothing industry in this country to the Far East. Factories all in Manchester and Leicester, fabric mills in Yorkshire and Lancashire closed over night when the likes of Marks and Spencer’s moved production over to the Far east, and these companies even used the management teams from the UK to train the staff in China on the pretence that they will never produce outside of the UK and they then called them and cancelled their contracts and factories had to close overnight.
The Italians and French managed to protect their clothing industry unlike the crooks over here.

Without getting too political , we would like to stress that Cyrus Wood is about design and not just concepts like most others out there, it’s about special fabrics, a great fitting garment that our customers will grow to love and that will become a staple part of their wardrobe.

Made exclusively in England, the label is quality driven with quality fabrics manufactured in only the highest quality factories in the UK.
Cyrus Wood is not street style. Cyrus Wood is not disposable and it is especially not Fashion. Cyrus Wood is a faith, an idea, a belief, a Tribe.

Cyrus Wood is a utilitarian menswear label for the conscious man’s wardrobe.

For people interested in starting up an independent retail venue, what would you tell them that you wish you’d known back when you opened?

Fashion is inevitably one of the most immediate expressions of culture and the most pervasive one. You need to think about the clothes we wear, how they are made, where they are made and who made them, put the craft back into clothing. It is important to keep the workmanship high, our lives are so divorced from the source of things, we need to reinforce quality craftsmanship and engineered garments. This is what makes fashion exciting and gives its depth that we can use to mark our own achievements.

It will encompass your whole life, enjoy the ride.

What have been the absolute high points of the store?

When we started selling out own label in 2008, customers could not keep their hands off the garments, when they walk into the shop and tell you that one of your designed garments have become their favourite garment and they have to stop themselves from wearing it every day (…so buy another one)!

What are the future goals for Wood, what do you want to have accomplished by the end of this year?

We will be visiting our friends from around the world, building our tribe and having a good time.

Making music, art, love and clothes. Watch this space, Cyrus Wood will be entering phase 6 and be going into some of the best stores worldwide and be working with some Heritage British Brands, cannot say too much now, I will holla back when we are ready to let you guys know.

Bubbling on the underground for the last 6 years, 2010 see its foray into the public conscience.

So in other words, watch this space cats! This brand will be not only spreading the (retail) love all over Britain but conquering the world in on the menu too!

One of the funnest blogs I’ve seen in a long time has to be this post from The Sartorialist. On a regular basis this blog is packed full with top of the line undercover fashion icons.

But anything to do with moustaches is instantly shunted to the top of my list! I love this feed and if you have any taste you will too! Gosh darn it, I really hope my own birthday part is like this…

“I have always loved this picture of my mother and father (Ann and Herman) enjoying a night out at Grossinger’s Resort in the Catskill Mountains in New York. (It was the inspiration for Kellerman’s Mt. Resort in Dirty Dancing). This was taken sometime in the early 1950’s. My father, who is now 90 years old, told me this was some kind of mystery themed event. What I love so much about this photo, besides that it always makes me laugh, is that it shows what a cute couple they were and that they loved having a fun time together. They were happily married for 65 years and were madly in love.

Growing up poor in Philadelphia did not stop my mother from expressing herself through fashion. She had such a wonderful and carefree style - she loved wearing bright colors and patterns, and never left the house without looking perfectly put together. In this picture I love her plaid skirt and how it matches my dads plaid jacket. Also her lace up shoes are just fabulous.”

Today I came across a great video on Youtube called ‘How To Game Up a Girl At Church’. It’s a list of ways for a ‘player from the Himalaya’ to game up a girl from church, without even needing to be Christian. This may seem like a bit of a controversial way to preach, and that’s precisely what it is.

Pastor Justin Cox from the Passion For Christ Movement uses this list in a sarcastic way. The message is not to help brothers pick up girls at church, but to give a wake up call to girls in church.

I really respect the Passion For Christ Movement and I’d love to see more movements that fit in alongside these guys and Pastor Justin’s message. Step it up kiddies, lets get more bad-ass Pastors in our churches!

Know this guy?

Lets indulge if not!

Amar Dehal IS Electric-Press. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne (near my end of things) he supplies our UK needs by bringing across all those Limited Edish and exclusive brands you’ve seen and “wondered where is that from?”

Most of the items stocked on the site are not readily available in the UK, on the high street or online for that matter. Most of my brands originate from America with a few home grown British ones and a handful from across the Globe. It all started with a desire to see us kids wearing what were missing out on from across the globe. He’s not about the mass produced or plain tees or plain canvases and labels their wearers as vacant as their tees and so goes for the bricks and mortar approach stocking brands such as Terratag, CTRL and Kid Kandi.

We ALL HATE delivery charges don’t we? I see Electric Press as a solution.

We ALL know that “everybody wants what nobody has”

We ALL need to sketch over to Electric Press.

Believe.

…..and say “BRO, Where did you get that from?”

The usual answer is RISE! No lie. I don’t know how many times people have expressed their desire to get the RISE or DIE crew neck sweat but it seems the tradition has no passed over onto our newest selection of tees (if I may humbly say so).

After receiving my 3 personal favourite pre-releases I threw one on my back and the other in my Eastpak and trotted of back to Yorkshire collecting comments from train passengers, shop owners and a guy in the local Chinese. If this was a game, I’d be winning!

(photo courtesy of my twitter @AllThingsCommon …shame plug)

Turkish cotton, sick attention to detail, slim fitting extended length tees with a nice sleeve length….mmm.

I hear were near sold out too…..

SO CAN WE GET UP FOR THIS OR WHAT?

Believe.