- Getting your customised T-Shirt

Nothing in this world changes faster as the fashion. What constitutes today’s styles and fashion may become totally obsolete by this time next week. For a lot of people, meeting one’s own clothing needs means turning to customised clothing. This basically means getting garments personally made according to one’s needs.

So, how can you get customized clothing that suits your style? The traditional way was to buy a piece of cloth and pay a visit to your local tailor’s shop and then get the item of clothing that suited your desire. Fortunately, we now live in the twenty-first century and this, even though the results may be stunning, is no longer necessary (check out Billy's Savings Club for ideas).

Getting a Customized Clothing is not a new trend but it’s prevalent ever since the man has started using clothes. CafePress custom t-shirts is now recognised as being the world's favorite place to find or make unique T-shirts and gifts. Tailors have been serving people since the beginning of time, but the advent of the internet has made this practice much more widespread. CafePress truly offers the best assortment of personalised gifts as well as unique t-shirts, clothing, mugs, art and even posters and Christmas ornaments. CafePress has millions of designs from around the world that range from funny to cool to designs for promotional use.

- The Chico School of Rock!

So, you think you'd like your kids to be able to learn to play a musical instrument with competent music instruction? Remember that there are many benefits to learning to play a musical instrument. For example, music lessons help children in subjects such as maths and languages. What’s more, learning anything new is always a good way to build new neurological pathways. Additionally, because not all of us can play a musical instrument, this is a great hobby for future resumes. Keeping those benefits in mind will help you through those early, noisy and very, very bad practice sessions.

If, like me, you’re a parent who wants to get his young ones started in music, finding a fun music instructor seems like a sensible place to begin. It's really imperative that the person teaching your kids to play a musical instrument keeps the sessions appealing and pleasurable, especially in the beginning. Remember: it doesn't cost you any more to find an instructor who actually likes to teach! The Chico School of Rock in Chico, California, aims to fulfill such a role. The school was the brainchild of local musician and mentor Sid Lewis way back at the turn of the century, and has since given more than fifteen thousand music lessons, guitar lessons, children’s concerts, and has enabled many, many kids to grasp their musical dreams.

The syllabus at the Chico School of Rock is based around the three tenets of creativity, pleasure and hands-on experiences in making music. The Chico School Of Rock enables children of every age to focus with a positive attitude and buid team spirit as well as their confidence. Among the successful bands who’ve made their start at the school are the teen band Jet Fuel Only who were recently featured in People Magazine and received coverage on the Rachael Ray Show, Many other of their students are also now performing and recording their own music.

- Introducing... The Green Police

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., who blended satire, black comedy, and science fiction, was well known for his humanist beliefs and was the honorary president of the American Humanist Association. Indeed, in Vonnegut's final work, the short story, ‘Armageddon in Retrospect’, the Oklahoma town of Verdigris is featured as the headquarters of the United Nations Demonological Investigating Committee, or UNDICO. The town is named after the Verdigris River; the name being derived from the French words for ‘green’ and ‘gray’. Nearby Claremore, in contrast, takes the name from an Osage chief called ‘Gra-moi’. French traders in the area pronounced the town’s name ‘Clairmont’, which means ‘mountain with a clear view’. OK, geography lesson over.

From these origins come The Green Police, a four piece garage rock band composed of Duss Rosencutter on vocals and guitar, Drew ‘the Screw’ Wilson on guitar, Chris Pixley on bass and Evan Campbell on drums. Although you can hear the influences of archetypal punk bands like the Buzzcocks, their style also pays homage to the classic garage and surf music of the 1960s. Go a little beyond this and you even hear the spirit of Johnny Cash in their fast paced songs. They not be, as their name suggests, the environmentalists of the future, but their music is energetic and a lot of fun. Learn more about the Green Police.

- I really have moved

Thank you to those of you who keep commenting on posts here, but I'm not reading them because I've moved the blog here. Please drop by and say hello.

- I've moved!

Hi everyone. Thanks for dropping by in your many numbers over the past couple of years. FiS has now moved to a real proper site: fadesinslowly.com and all future activity will take place over there. Come and join me.

- 2nd September, 1986

Here be the link. Only 30 minutes of the show and and seven and a bit tracks.

Were you watching this in September, 1986?

- The Vivian Girls

Imagine, if you will, that it is March, 2007 in Brooklyn, New York, and the trio of Cassie Ramone, Kickball Katy and Frankie Rose have become The Vivian Girls. Ramone and bassist Kickball Katy form after first coming together in high school, meeting at a Weezer concert. After only having been a band for a matter of weeks, they have recorded their first a demo which includes five original songs and a one cover (the band cites the Wipers as their one big influence, other than Burt Bacharach), and have begun to play the local Brooklyn scene as well as around the state of New Jersey.

Within weeks they have developed a strong following, supporting acts as renowned as Sonic Youth, as well as finding camaraderie among other local bands like Cause Co-Motion!, Crystal Stilts, and Woods, with whom they share many bills, thus helping to build up a local music scene to which the band is still very much connected.

Fast forward to March of 2008, they have released ‘Wild Eyes’ as a single on the ‘Plays With Dolls’ label. Despite low key promotion and little in the way of distribution, the single has become an indie hit, appearing on many college radio play lists and acquiring many a positive internet review.

Their eponymously-titled debut album is recorded during the same session and released on the ‘Mauled by Tigers’ label. The initial pressing of the album sells out in a mere ten days, during which time the group sign with ‘In The Red’ Records. The album is subsequently re-released in October of that year, although the band had undergone a minor lineup change, with new drummer Ali Koehler replacing Frankie Rose in July.

Move on to October, 2009 and their second album, ‘Everything Goes Wrong’ has just been released. Song titles include the likes of the majestically titled ‘I Have No Fun’ and ‘I'm Not Asleep’, and the ladies have doubled their studio recording time for this album; they have spent a long, grueling six days recording this time round, instead of the three that it took to deliver their debut.

So, would you call them cute? Do so at your own peril, although possibly their utmost claim to fame is that they were part of a recent Jeopardy question about really cute Brooklyn bands. The band's name actually comes from an epic work by outsider artist Henry Darger, called ‘The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion’ (a 15,000-page epic the band admit to not having read). Darger, whose work ranks among the most celebrated examples of outsider art, created in his Vivian girls some of the most slick and yet disquieting figures in contemporary culture, making the band's appropriation of the monicker all the more apposite.

Listen to the Vivian Girls here.