If you are a regular at Amoeba Music you may have already seen the silk screened poster art of Forest Stearns, who has done several pieces specifically for Amoeba events. Or maybe you've been lucky enough to catch Forest doing his art live at one of the interactive music-and-art Amoeba instores he has been a part of over the past year.

Instores Forest has been involved with include one with DJ Shadow (San Francisco Ameoba instore) and two with Cut Chemist (San Francisco and Hollywood Amoebas). He has also done live interactive art with hip-hoppers such as Z-Man and at other events such as Reggae On The River.

Additionally, the NorCal artist designed the poster for the Noisettes instore at Amoeba San Francisco, which reportedly everyone loved, including Universal. Forest says the label wants to take the poster and flesh it out to make an animated versions of the band based on the illustration for clothing and more. I recently caught up with the artist to chop it up about life and art, and art and life. For more information visit his website: draweverywheredotcom.

AMOEBLOG: What inspires you to make art?

Fifteen years ago SoCal hip-hop group the Pharcyde dropped their debut album, Bizzare Ride II, which has long been one of my favorite albums, not just from hip-hop, but of any genre. But as you know, sometimes our minds and our memories play tricks on us and what we remember from our past as being great doesn't always stand the test of time. And since I hadn't actually listened to this J-Swift produced album in a long while, last week I went digging in the crates to locate the Pharcyde debut, which was originally released in late November 1992 by Delicious Vinyl, and I played it from start to finish -- twice. And you know what? To me, it is still as amazing an album as that day all those years ago when I first heard it.

With the exception of the overplayed and admittedly gimmicky "Ya Mama" track (the hit single that dropped the year before the album did), I can listen to the musically diverse album repeatedly and never tire of it. Another album single ("Passin Me By") is one of those songs that I will probably never get tired of hearing for the rest of my life. It is one of those perfect songs! Other standout tracks on this consistently fun and upbeat album include "Officer" (about not outsmarting the po-pos), "Otha Fish" (another single), the no-holds-barred "I'm That Type of Nigga," "Pack the Pipe" (a hip-hop dank anthem), and the bouncy ol skool flavored "Return of the B-Boy." Below (after you hit "continue reading") is the video for "Passin Me By." Do me a favor, and in the COMMENTS box below list your favorite one, two, or three albums of all time -- whether they are hip-hop or another genre. Thanks!

Talk about hitting two senses at once! That's exactly what the new line of graffiti themed, rich chocolate bars do. And nothing could be more tempting to this graffiti fan with a sweet tooth than the colorfully eye-catching, decadently yummy tasting new line of "graffiti" chocolate candy bars unveiled recently by downtown New York City's Chocolate Bar company -- the award-winning chocolate maker with an eye for style and originality.

The ten individually flavored chocolate bars are each beautifully presented in graffiti-tagged wrappers, each specially designed by such legendary graffiti artists as Crash, Dondi, Blade, Crime 79, Lady Pink, Dr. Revolt, Iz the Wiz, Voice of the Ghetto, and Spar One. The confection creation, with proceeds benefitting the NYC children's arts' All Stars Project (which benefits New York City high school kids' arts programs) was the idea of Chocolate Bar's Alison Nelson, who said that the reaction from the longtime graf artists was "positive, if not a little suspicious" when first approached to be a part of the candy-wrapper project. But, she said, once the graffiti artists got involved, they had fun with the unique collaboration, even getting to "choose the flavor they wanted to design."

Lady Pink chose Banana Milk, which is described as Milk chocolate filled with banana cream ganache, while Crash chose Dark Rum (dark chocolate with rum infused ganache). Blade's flavor/design is Milk Caffeto, milk chocolate with ground espresso, and Dondi White's is S'mores (milk chocolate with marshmallow and graham bits). The gourmet chocolate bars weigh 2.25 ounces each and are priced at $4 per chocolate bar or $40 for the nicely boxed "graffiti bar set" of all ten, which, while pricey for chocolate, is cheap for art -- provided, unlike this weak AMOEBLOGGER, you can resist eating the art!

Slade -- the great UK rock group performing "Look Wot You Done" from 1971 when they were more rock than glam, since glam rock didn't fully kick in til 1972/73. In 1972 they released the hard rock album Slayed, featuring such timeless chant-alongs as "Gudbuy T-Jane" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now." Then there was the song "Cum On Feel The Noize," which years later was popularized in the US by Quiet Riot. Formed in 1966, Slade's lineup was Noddy Holder (vocals/guitars /bass), Dave Hill (guitars/vocals/bass), Jim Lea (bass/guitar/vocals/keyboards/violin), and Don Powell (drums/percussion). Their most successful years were 1971 to 1974, during which time they made some truly classic hard rock and glam songs -- scoring over a dozen UK Top of the Pops hits.

 
The folks who throw the fun themed All Tomorrow's Parties/Don't Look Back series, in which they invite chosen acts to recreate an album live from their back-catalog, have convinced the seminal D.C.-born, NYC based Girls Against Boys to perform their classic early nineties post-hardcore album Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby. And this weekend, the band, which began as a side project of Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and whose lineup then became Janney plus Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple, and Alexis Fleisig, will perform the entire album from start to finish in exact sequence for two performances only -- one in NYC and one in LA.

The first concert is tonight, Friday (7/20) at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City and the second is scheduled for Sunday night (7/22) in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre. This will be the first time the band has performed in LA or New York in five years (they performed in Europe this year -- most recently in Spain last month). I recently caught up with Johnny Temple, one of the band's two bassists, to ask him about this unique, two-gig, bi-coastal event and the idea of a dual bass rock band.

AMOEBLOG: How did the two bass players idea come about and how does it affect the band's sound?

JOHNNY TEMPLE: A lot of the rock bands of our era, well, really the rock bands of any era, tend to be more melody driven, while we tend to be more rhythm driven. Basically, we all grew up in Washington, DC, which is very funk music oriented. We grew up listening to a lot of soul and funk and Go-Go music which, as you know, is native to DC. And a lot of bands from DC have a greater emphasis on rhythm and groove than a lot of other (non DC) rock bands do. So by having two bass players it kind of pronounces the bottom end, the sort of rhythmic feature of the songs, more so than the melody.