Twin Haus bring their duplex tax break like a baus for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover shoot this week.
We also do a bit of running around and catch both Salmonella Dub at the Hifi and Xzibit at Chalk hotel, a couple highlight shots from those below and more to come.
Read about them all in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #036.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
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Salmonella Dub @ The Hifi
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Xzibit @ Chalk Hotel
The lads from Melbourne based but world renowned sneaker institution Sneaker Freaker brought their swap meet show to Brisbane for the first time a couple weeks back. Sneakers of all kinds of vintage and variety were on show, sale and available for trade. We even go in on the action with a stall of our own reluctantly parting ways with parts of our collections.
If you’re looking for more of this action, check out The Exchange on May 24th at Southbank. We’ll be back with a stall and will be rustling up extra goodies in the meantime (:
Pharaoh’s Playground walk like Eygptians into our shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover this week.
Read about them in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #035.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
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Kichijoji
In true Japanese fashion of revamping and renewing just about everything every couple years, Kichijoji had copped a bit of a touch up in parts and is in the process in others. Our main reason for coming out this way last time, Skit, had also changed or more precisely, moved a couple blocks away – actually not too long after we were there. Their new store now sports a street shop front and actually looks more like a store than a hoarder’s cluttered apartment! But never fear, Its still wall to wall, floor to ceiling of shrink wrapped sneakers of all kinds from super rare to garden variety and brand new to turning-to-dust just minus the creepy slum factor.
I struck it lucky last time with a pair of Baltimore AF1’s in mint condition and as it turns out, that same strike of lightning struck again years later for the same pair but $20 cheaper! Perfect timing since the previous pair are on their way out.
Shopping tip: The website is still the best place to start with a mostly up to date inventory of stock and prices for a pre-visit recon mission. You can also check out stock in their other stores to see if its worth the trip out to them.
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LA Avenue aka Napsize was another great place for us to stop last time but it too had moved, all the way to Harajuku! So the only other place left that sparked our interest was one that was missed the first time round, PX Megastore. There’s a few reviews online that speak rather highly of the place but unfortunately, to us it seemed a bit junky, kind of like rocking up to a garage sale a day later, its all been picked through, the half decent stuff is gone and you’re left with stuff you could easily do without. Its not a complete loss though, there is a large range of new and (mostly) used brand name street wear including sneakers, G Shocks, endless amounts of Supreme branded items and a huge selection of clothing, a lot of which can be viewed on their website. There’s also racks of clothing and sneaker basket bins at clearance prices at the front.
Prices were very hit and miss, more along the lines of miss which didn’t help, but if you like a rummage sale in a bad-part-of-town discount store feel and are in the market for some vintage street wear then its worth the several blocks walk from the station. You may however have better luck at one of their other stores.
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Nakano
From a tourist’s point of view, Nakano for all points and purposes is just Nakano Broadway mall, which is pretty much all there is at this small station but if you want a toy, electronics, games and anime mecca outside of Aki’ba then this is the perfect stop. In fact, you wouldn’t feel too bad if you had to miss out on the latter after spending a fair portion of the day here.
Travel tip: take the north exit from the station and its just across the awning covered street.
The first section of the mall is actually Nakano Sun mall, over 200m of branded shops and restaurants in a similar vein to the B grade retailers from your regular Westfield. Uniqlo is there for some well priced basic clothing along with a range of mobile phone and small electronic shops. Continue along till you reach the escalators, this will take you up to level 3 and is where the fun begins!
So in the vein of Aki’ba its an anime and toy heaven and judging from the number of Mandarake stores it really should’ve just been called the Manadarake centre, seriously there’s more than 12! Some aren’t branded or are focused on only one type of product but the price tags all have the name. So basically if you want any kind of model kit, anime figure, manga book, RC toy or general electronics, you’ll be hard pressed to not find it here. The catch slight however is a fair portion of the items are used or of vintage status which is a blessing and a curse for some (actually if you’re looking for latest and greatest this is probably not the best place to start). There are also a large number of gashapon hoarding stores (basically they collect (possibly by buy, sell, trade) pretty much every gashapon “prize” new and old and individually package them) so if you’re after that chaser you’ve spent forever looking for, more than likely they’ll have it here, usually at a premium. Its better than having to pour money into a machine on a prayer but granted its not nearly as much fun.
The stores themselves are reminiscent of the multi level bargain market style buildings in China, no real décor or order other than shelves to hold stock, usually floor to ceiling. It took me hours to get to the point but eventually they did start to all blend together, only the odd few with something different to sell (or a big strip of mech-waste bolted to the store front) stood out. But again, if you have the time and love the hunt there’s plenty of treasures to be found.
Stairs take you to adjacent levels with more of the same with a change in ratio of cutesy clothing shops to toys and vice versa.
There are also little electronic stores that sell bits and pieces of computers and radios etc. and vintage consoles and games. I’m not too sure on how they go with haggling but a couple stores automatically gave discounts for multi buys, one even slipped in an extra game cartridge with a wink and a “shhh”! Nice one! 😀 FYI, Fonzy’s “eeyyy” finger guns have the same “you’re awesome!” translation in Japanese as well 😉
Travel Tip: stores open till around 7 but many begin closing from 5 or 6.
The supermarket on the lower level is a good spot to grab some supplies of fresh fruit and veg and snacks before heading back to the station.
Part of the haul 😉
If you have any questions on our travels, where to buy, what to do, hit us up on the Soulbridge media facebook page.
Japan 2013 part #1 – Arrival
Japan 2013 part #2 – Tokyo International Toy Expo
Japan 2013 part #3 – Gotemba – Premium Outlets mall
Japan 2013 part #4 – Tokyo – Studio Ghibli Museum
Japan 2013 part #5 – Tokyo – Kichijoji and Nakano
Japan 2013 part #6 – Tokyo – Akihabara
Japan 2013 part #7 – Tokyo – Tamiya HQ, Diver City
Japan 2013 part #8 – Yokohama – Zoorasia
Japan 2013 part #9 – Yokohama – Ramen Museum
Japan 2013 part #10 – Nissan HQ and Yokohama
Japan 2013 part #11 – Osaka – Nanba Shopping
Japan 2013 part #12 – Kyoto
Japan 2013 part #13 – Tokyo – Harajuku, Shibuya
Japan 2013 part #14 – Osaka castle, Umeda Sky building
Japan 2013 part #15 – Osaka Aquarium and Tempozan wheel
Japan 2013 part #16 – Osaka Universal Studios
Josh Rennie-Hynes is in the hot seat for our shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover this week.
We also catch Sally Saltmann hushing the chatterers at the back of the Black Bear Lodge’s bar. Highlights below…
Read about them both in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #034.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
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Sally Saltmann @ Black Bear Lodge
Cured Pink are tickled pink to be in for our shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover.
We also catch Monster Magnet doing their thing at the Hi-Fi bar. Highlights below…
Read about them both in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #033.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
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Monster Magnet @ The Hi-fi Bar Brisbane
Rise and shine campers! Morning Harvey are up with a sparrows fart for our shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover.
Read about them in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #032.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
Sophomore rockers Set The Record are putting themselves on the Brisbane pop punk map and jump straight into our shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section cover.
Read about them in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #031.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
More smoking than the entrance of a public service building, Smoking Martha bring all manner of sass with minimal carcinogens for this week’s cover shoot for The Music Magazine’s (Brisbane) – “The Guide” section.
Read about them in week’s issue of The Music (Brisbane) #030.
Get it FREE from all the usual street press outlets or read current and back issues online @ The Music magazine – Brisbane
Public Enemy brought the noise and an energetic show to the Hifi bar that would put most of today’s acts to shame!
Photo gallery below and full review here
