Factory People is one of the fashion gems of Austin, TX– that’s no mystery. Heck, it’s won enough accolades to be considered one of the nation-wide fashion gems. They have a huge selection of some great brands– in fact, Josh and I were gawking over these Pleasure Principle and Surface to Air t-shirts this morning. Another item I’m fond of, fresh to their inventory, is this Canvas Dustin Jacket from Loden Dager, a relatively new label with classic design attributes from three friends (two of which used to work at Marc Jacobs). And don’t forget, their female apparel line-up is equally, if not more, impressive. The 3,000 square foot Factory People store has come a long way since it was a massive gun store– a positive transformation for their eclectic space if you ask me. The best part of all of this? As a special hook-up for JoshSpear.com readers, Factory People is offering you 20% off on your online orders through the end of June! Just type in “joshspear” when your’re checking out. What a deal!

Set for a May 1st release, the newest from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Baby 81, is– as all their previous albums are– exceptional. There’s something about BRMC’s combo punch of smooth and swagger that has always drawn me to their music, and this time around they’ve changed their tone a bit by choosing to reflect their current mood in their lyrics. They’ll be touring throughout this coming summer in the U.S., after they finish up their U.K. arena tour with The Killers. Although I’ve been a satisfied listener of BRMC for some time now, I’ve never seen them live, so I’m hoping to catch them this time around. Don’t wait for their live show though– pre-order Baby 81 now, and you’ll get a free autographed booklet along with a disc. Some of my favorite tracks off of their freshest: “All You Do Is Talk”– part U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name,” and part rock lullaby all their own; “Weapon of Choice,” which is the first single off Baby 81 and is soaked with that pumped up, digestible quality that you look for in a rock album (and is streaming on their site right now); and “Need Some Room,” which has that sinister sound reminiscent of their old stuff.

I think by now everyone has probably noticed the incredible coverage coming out of Sao Paulo from our newest on-the-ground correspondent and site contributor, Phuong-Cac. Phuong-Cac Nguyen is a Los Angeles transplant currently calling dynamic Sao Paulo, Brazil, her new home. She began her writing career at the Los Angeles Times reporting on arts and leisure, and later moved on to a staff editorial position at URB magazine. Then, after a stint as managing editor and long-term gigs as writer and editor for marketing projects for Nokia and Pacific Sunwear, Phuong-Cac decided she needed to move not just out of publishing but out of the country to maintain her sanity. Now she spends her days writing for blogs such as JoshSpear.com, discovering the multitude of things the city has to offer, learning to be a pedestrian and launching her SISU line of jewelry. She misses Vietnamese food. Keep your eyes peeled for more posts from her every week– and a very warm welcome to the team Phuong-Cac!

While I’m sure most of our energy-savvy readers have already replaced their regular lightbulbs with the near-magical power of CFL’s (compact flourescent lightbulbs), research is currently showing that sales of these earth-savers are only timidly increasing. CFL’s use only one-third of the energy of a regular lightbulb, last for up to ten times as long, are safer than regular bulbs, and are only slightly more expensive, yet consumers have been slow to warm to their use. There are huge potential benefits of widespread use of CFL’s; for instance (according to research done by the environmental non-profit group 18Seconds), if every U.S. household were to replace just one regular bulb with a CFL, the effect on greenhouse gases would be equivalent to taking two million cars off of the road. My take on the situation is that consumers are underinformed, as well as turned off by the negative connotations of the word “flourescent.” Even though CFL’s mimic the glow of regular lightbulbs, it looks like people just aren’t getting that. So, brilliant readers, what do you think we can do to spread the word about CFL’s and their planet-saving prowess? We welcome all the comments you can throw at us. It is Talk Shop Friday after all!

We’re loving these stellar looking SAG vs. OGI Graphics messenger bags, goregous! Details are a little scarce, but here’s what we know: they’re hand painted, available in gold, neon pink, and neon green– all on white suede. The insides are illustrated by none other than OGI (check out many of our past posts on him here). The bags are all one-offs and will be shown at OGI’s up and coming solo show, “My Life is Your Problem” in June at Receiver Gallery in San Francisco. No word on how they’ll be priced, auction or otherwise– but these are hot! More shots after the jump.
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Let’s skip over the pond for a second, and give a nod to Danish band Death By Kite, who just released their debut album, Dragen Letter. Their “real” website is pretty new, so there isn’t much content on it yet, but their Myspace page has 4 tracks to stream and some good info. Their sound is, as they describe it, “a tight-rope walk between cold war punk, noiserock and indie”– a little bit Interpol (although more poppy), a lot of Placebo (especially the vocals), and a smidgen of Sonic Youth as well. You can access the video for their song ‘Bahnhof Asta’ here– do I here some NOFX-esque vocals in there? And can anyone help me with the Danish translation of ‘Bahnhof Asta?’ The new album was released on Danish label Quartermain Records, and you can buy it at “your local record dealer,” which to me means that those of us in the U.S. are pretty much s.o.l. when it comes to getting a copy– hopefully they’ll pop on iTunes in the not so distant future.

Via Life Is Carbon