I love seeing modern music videos that carry a retro twist. The artists always seem to have so much fun and introducing new audiences to retro fashion and culture is never a bad thing.Those of us interested in dressing up in retro fashions might find it too expensive or too difficult to locate the items to do so, but we can always live vicariously through the magic of the music video.
My first entry is thanks to UK girl group The Saturdays. These lovely ladies covered Depeche Mode’s 80′s hit “Just Can’t Get Enough” making this a Retro-Retro tribute video. Watch the girls prance around in pinup-style clothing as the infectious song plays in the background–it’s sure to become your earworm for the day.
All of the great pinup styles are represented in this video; from the boudoir babe to the armed forces cutie, making sure the male readers of Ultra Swank will enjoy the fashion post as much as the female readers will…but for different reasons of course. One thing though; as an 80′s baby should I be concerned the 80′s are now considered retro as well? Hmm. Enjoy the video, Ultra Swank readers! If you want more of The Saturdays, here they are covering the 60′s hit “Please Mr. Postman.”
By Guest
July 28th, 2010
Tonight at 10 PM/9C, anyone who lives in the US and have access to AMC can catch the season premiere for the award winning series Mad Men. What will happen with the newly founded agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Don Drapers domestic life? Find out tonight. I can’t wait!
By Chris
July 25th, 2010
Ultra Swank – Your one stop blog for retro living, style and design
Ultra Swank takes you back in time into the kitsch, chic and swank living of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. We mainly focus on the design, architecture and the lifestyle of the happy-go-lucky and space-age-living mentality of that era – but also on the music and movies that takes you back to happier times. Ultra Swank is run by Chris, a Swede born in the wrong decade that currently resides in Barcelona. Read more
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Lalo Schifrin is by far one of the most talented and sophisticated musical artists of our time. Not only is Schifrin well known for composing the theme to “Mission Impossible,” he is also a pianist, conductor and performer of jazz, bossa nova, and classical music. Schifrin began his musical journey in Argentina, his native country, while training and studying piano and classical music at an early age. While spending time in Europe as a professional jazz pianist, Schifrin returned to Buenos Aires and ran into the great Dizzy Gillespie. Gillespie enjoyed his performances so much that he asked Schifrin to join his group. How could you refuse Dizzy Gillespie?!
Lalo Schrifrin would be considered a renaissance man in the field of composing music because of his flexibility and creativity. Schrifrin has composed and performed with artists such as Cal Tjader, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Smith, Ella Fitzgerald and many more. He has written over 100 television and film scores which has won him four Grammys® and six Academy Nominations®.
By Steven Padal
July 20th, 2010
Loosely based on the series of Matt Helm novels by Donald Hamilton, “The Silencers” features Dean Martin as erstwhile counter agent Matt Helm. Not to be confused with the counter agent at Northwest who lost my luggage last week. Helm isn’t a secret agent who spies and stuff, he just causes problems for other spies. Which is good work if you can get it. Helm was formerly with the organization I.C.E. (Intelligence and Counter Espionage).
Released within months of the premiere of his popular long-running TV show, “The Dean Martin Comedy Hour” in 1966, “The Silencers” is the first of four films starring Dean Martin as Matt Helm. Highly successful when released, “The Silencers” was followed the same year by “Murderer’s Row,” in the next year by “The Ambushers,” and two years later in “The Wrecking Crew” from 1969.
July 16th, 2010
The Brick House have visited a couple who have done a fantastic job of redecorating and restoring their home back to its original style and feel. Located in the high desert of Southern California, they invites us to a house tour.
Jill and T.K. have been DIYing the crap out of their mid century pad for the past six years and while it’s still a work in progress (isn’t everything, always) this place takes getting crafty on a budget to a whole other level. I must say that I was floored by the care and craftsmanship (and maybe a little ashamed of our own little Brick House’s amateur status) that went into the many, many, MANY handmade touches throughout their home. Luckily for Jill, T.K. is good with his hands and spends his days fabricating a whole gamut of items ranging from cutting boards to credenzas to entire kitchens.
(Via)
By Chris
July 14th, 2010
Our journey through space travel science fiction has our coordinates locked onto the 1950′s The most Ultra of the Ultra-Swank decades. Receding in our aft view screen is the pulp pre-war period of the 1930′s and 1940′s – the times of cowboys in space. They rode rockets instead of horses and blasted bad guys with ray guns instead of six-shooters.
Our mid-century destination is where the science in science-fiction takes over the controls! We land squarely in the realm of motion pictures- mostly black and white and often projected on the mosquito obscured screens of drive-in theaters. The plots may still be thin, the dialog contrived and the budgets no bigger than a plutonium neutrino but it’s all arc-welded together by the blazing brilliance of the the god in the white lab coat- The Scientist! This is the height of the Cold War and the near vertical climb of American consumerism. Any moment science will end all life on the planet- but in the meantime let’s get that new Hydramatic Futurific Buick with the built-in color TV dishwasher!
July 8th, 2010
