Today Darren and I visited Horiyoshi III out at his original studio in Yokohama. Amazing experience with Sensei. Here’s a little teaser from that visit.

Much more to come from our visit (and our partnership) later.

Darren and I (Jeff) are in Tokyo this week for a few meetings, but primarily an inspiration trip. Wandered around Harajuku, met up with Taka from Nixon who showed us around Shibuya, and then met up with Steve from the Horiyoshi III clothing line to check out their offices and the new line. And a bunch of wondering, trains and wide-eyed staring in between. Come with us..

Darren is scared…

This is definitely the new fashion for 2010. Coming to a mall store near you.

Lost in translation… Harajuku.

WTF.

Taka took us to this great little shop in Shibuya called Phorgun, nestled under the train tracks just outside of Shibuya Station. Great setup, great style, and really down owner. You’d never know it was there, but worth the journey to find it.

And to end the night, Inakaya in Roppingi. The chefs sit on these wood blocks and cook the food in front of you on these charcoal grills. Then they serve it to you on the big sticks behind them. Crazy good, great vibe, and the Kobe Beef just melts. Big thanks to Steve Suk for taking us out, and big thanks to the chef’s for making Darren beat rice into Mochi. Classic.

Here’s an ecard we did based on our recent AP Magazine ad for Twin Atlantic. Head out to one of these shows if you’re in the neighborhood.

We have once again had the pleasure of working with our pals, Twin Atlantic, on artwork for their new single, “Lightspeed,” set to be released on March 1st. If you stare at this too long you will actually travel back in time so view with caution.

A few months back we launched the new site for Bodega. Bodega brings large scale, eco-friendly, indoor art by ground breaking artists to the masses. Yesterday, we got a visit from the Bodega crew bearing a sweet Cleon Peterson piece for our studio. We like… a lot…

We’re kicking it into high gear now with BRMC, building out their fancy new site. In the meantime we’ve just launched this spicy, jQuery-rich micro-site to bridge the gap between the old and the new. Enjoy the new track, and check back on Tuesday morning for iTunes pre-order info to appear…

UPDATE: it looks like the old server is having a little trouble keeping up so the site may be down.. new server on it’s way too.

Introducing the newest member of The Uprising, Mr. Chris Donohue. While Chris will be wearing multiple hats, his main focus will be Business Development and Client Services. Chris has been involved in the creative/music industry for over 12 years and comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and professional experience. We have been searching for the best way to get Chris involved for a while now and the day has finally come… Our own Darren Craig has personally known Chris for over 15 years so needless to say, there is a bit of history there.

Now, to answer the question you are all dying to ask. Yes, he is married! Sorry ladies.
Welcome to the carnival Chris.

Here’s an ad we just wrapped up for AP Magazine. Our friends, Twin Atlantic are hitting the road with The Fall Of Troy and Envy On The Coast. Should be a good time.

This year Neil Young was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year. Jason Mraz and Bill Silva Entertainment asked us to come up with an tribute piece which was to be included in the program for the MusiCares event, held 2 days before the Grammys. We were stoked. I mean, who doesn’t like Neil Young… Congrats to Mr. Young and keep up the good work.

Our man, and long time client, Jason Mraz, snagged TWO Grammy’s last night! One for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the song “Make It Mine”, and another for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “Lucky,” featuring Colby Caillat. Jason has been kicking ass and shows no signs of slowing down in 2010. Congratulations to the entire Mraz camp!

Photo Credit: Lester Cohen / WireImage.com

We have a shoot going on today for Mr. Charlie Bidwell and his sweet new greeting card line we worked on. Lots of cool things coming from Bidwell in the near future…

A few recent approvals for The Used.

For the last few months or so we have been diligently working on all things Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Here is a small peak into our world and a teaser for BRMC’s upcoming Beat The Devil’s Tattoo album package. The record is GREAT (no, we can’t send it to you but, go HERE to hear the first release), and a big thanks to Vagrant for letting us run with our non-standard packaging ideas.. we can’t share the rest with you yet, but we can say it’s not a jewel case or standard digipack. it’s… special. For now, this is all we can get away with showing…

We have discovered the illusive Waldo. Once thought to be hiding out somewhere in the Mid-West, we spotted him at our studio playing a game of Metallica’s Guitar Hero. He’s actually quite good. The seemingly docile creature can become skittish and even violent when spooked. Just after this photo was captured, he went on a rampage, smashing everything in his path. It took several men to subdue him. We now have him caged in the attic space and plan on releasing him back into the wild once we gain his trust. Until then, we will continue to study him and perform our experiments. We believe he holds many secrets.