Experiment | Raw Denim vs. 7 Week Tour

I had the bright idea of purchasing a cheap pair of raw jeans (Unbranded) and wearing them exclusively when I play shows.  I thought it’d be really interesting to see what kind of wear/fades wearing them in an isolated and specific environment would do.  Problem is…I didn’t think about the fact that they’d basically be getting a (salt) soak every single night.  Shows generally mean a lot of people packed in one room — people generate heat — lights on stage are always very hot — this last tour we did was a headline tour where we were playing 1:15 plus everynight, which all adds up to lots of sweat.  The jeans ended up losing a considerable amount of indigo before being able to establish good fades (the pictures give a little too much credit).  There’s definitely some fade happening though, the most notable fades (not surprisingly) happened on my upper right side, where my guitar rests.  Check the difference in the waistband between the right and left side.  The copper rivets and buttons seem to be doing some nice/quick aging though, probably expedited from the constant salty moisture looming.  I realize it’s only been a little over a month and a half, but considering how hard I wore these, I thought there’d be some more substantial fading.  Plus, they stink.  Really bad.  I’m retiring the experiment and am going to attempt to put these into everyday rotation, hoping that it’s not too late to wear these in right.

I really wasn’t expecting much out of these jeans, but they are actually pretty legit.  I was surprised at the amount of solid details — Chain stitching on hem and around the waistband, blue-line selvage, hidden selvage in coin pocket, hidden rivets in back pockets, and on top of that, a pretty solid cut.  I’m pretty sure I got the straight leg cut, which doesn’t really seem straight.  It’s definitely tapered, but is a good fit.  Also, another note if you’re planning on purchasing these, they run a bit small.  I usually size down one or two for raw denim, but I bought these true to size.  It’s almost like they sized them with the break-in in mind.  My only gripes are that the denim itself had a softer hand off the rack, unlike my previous raw denim buys which were stiff as a board.  The initial stiff, almost crunchiness of raw denim helps in creasing, good fades, and creating character which I was afraid I wouldn’t get the full effect of.  Nothing that a bit of spray starch didn’t help.  The oversized leather tab on the back is pretty unsightly (especially with sweat stains all over it), but is not really seen since I don’t really tuck my shirts in much.  I may just pull it off.

I picked mine up from American Rag, but you can also find them at Urban.  Overall, a really solid buy at $78.  Just don’t sweat profusely in them every night for 7 weeks.

Summer Soundtrack | A Tribe Called Quest + De La Soul

Not much better than chilling out to some classic Tribe or De La.  Love it.

Destination | USS Constitution/Louis Lunch

When we were in Boston several weeks ago, we had the opportunity to get a personal “behind the scenes” tour of the USS Constitution.  We were allowed to see parts of the ship that aren’t normally open to civilians, which needless to say, was a really cool experience.  Great to see a piece of history like that.  The USS Constitution, for those who don’t know, is the oldest fully commissioned naval ship in the world — launched in 1797, and being named by George Washington himself, it was one of the 6 ships authorized to be built by the Naval Act of 1794.  The ship has a perfect battle record, never being boarded or defeated and earning itself the nickname “Old Ironsides”.  Badass.

Second set of pictures are from Louis’ Lunch as well as some random Yale architecture in New Haven, CT.  Proclaimed to be the birthplace of the hamburger, Louis’ still serve their original burger on toasted white bread and no condiments whatsoever (and don’t ask, there’s even signs).  Coolest thing about the place was the fact that they still cook their burgers on the original cast iron, vertical loading grills that supposedly birthed the hamburger.  Neat.

Destination | Art In The Age, Philadelphia

A little late in posting this, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy on the road.  Anyhow, we were in Philadelphia a week or so ago and I stopped by Art In the Age‘s flagship store in the Old City neighborhood (116 North 3rd St) by recommendation of Bob from Corkgrips.

The store has an impressive and well chosen, almost general store-like array of handmade or small-scale production goods…aka stuff that keeps it real.  Billykirk and other leather goods, Yuketen (saw the Maine Guide Boots for the first time in real life…YIKES), soaps, screen printed T’s, aprons, felt planters, misc clothing, etc.  We were even allowed to try a sample shot of their ROOT liquor, which I read about some time ago and have been wanting to try.  It was really tasty…suprisingly smooth and quite like a really yummy and earthy root beer, only alcoholic…which makes perfect sense.  The store isn’t allowed to actually sell you the liquor since they don’t have a license, but we were sent a couple blocks down to a liquor store that carried them.  Check out the video below for the short run down of the ROOT story.

If you’re in Philly, go pay them a visit.  They’ve got a really neat thing going that is well worth supporting.