Posts Tagged ‘mickey finn’

Hey Lippy lovers!

Missed ya last week, when I was on the road all through the Bay area hitting Santa Cruz, SF, Oakland, Berkeley, and Sacramento meetin’ and greetin’ fashion freaks and selling the goods we all know and love! Sure I know what you’re sayin’, “What a great job I have,” and that’s true. But on the reality side I lug around four 50lb. garment bags and a rolling rack, thru airports, down busy city sidewalks, in and out of hotels and, let me tell you, after a week of hauling everything around I’m not feeling glamorous, I need a massage and a trip to the chiropractor! Oh well I guess that’s why they call it work!

Anyway, trip highlights included visiting Mr.S/Madam S Leather in SF, amazing high end Fetish store with a great staff and selection, seriously top notch for all your sinful pleasures! And of course Haight St is always fun, although not as good as 10-15 years ago! Daljeets and punk institution for over 30 years has just closed its doors, a sad reflection of the economy. A couple rehearsals with my band mates from Jetboy who reside in the city and back home for a day before heading out to the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly weekender!

Viva Las Vegas was great fun, with vendors selling all the best new and vintage fashion styles, Hot Rod show, and great bands. I did tons of Promoting for our “Service” mens wear line and my band “Cold Blue Rebels” played the famous and grungy Double Down Saloon and Diablo’s Cantina w/ Guana Bats. Great shows and an all around great weekend.

This week I had my friends Todd Kerns from the Sin City Sinners and now Slash’s new band in the LS warehouse with Bobby the second guitar player. We hooked them up with a bunch of LS clothes to play on the Jay Leno show tonight and later In the week the Craig Ferguson show, and the George Lopez show!

This weekend, it’s back to Vegas for a show at the Dive Bar with my band CBR, and then the International Lingerie Show, where we will debut our brand new Lip Service Lingerie line!! And word is … Hosiery is on the way next!! I should hve some great photos when next we meet of hot lingerie, so stay tuned for the edition of Mickey’s Corner!
Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Hey Gang,

Lots of fun stuff this past week! Rocked the house with TSOL at the Roxy for St Patty’s day! Hung out with Jess the singer from Agression, talked studios and, much to Angelic CBR’s Zombie dancer’s delight, Jack from TSOL wore her green feather boa after she tossed it to him onstage!!

Drove out to Pioneer Town CA out by Palm Springs for a gig at Pappy n Harriett’s, a fun kinda country rock bar great barbeque!! Had a blast playing The Dome in Bakersfield with my band Cold Blue Rebels. Hotrod Hillbillies were great, Voodoo glow Skulls put on a great Ska/Punk show, and the kids up there rocked out and reminded me what it was like to be a young punk looking to get rowdy!! We busted our coffin out from the stage to the merch area and let kids come take pictures in it with turned the whole area into a bit of a madhouse!! Also had a fun photo shoot with the CBR Zombie dancers in the backstage bathroom. And we debuted our new CBR t-shirts!! Then spent Sunday recuperating form Rockin’ and Drivin’!!

Yesterday hooked up with the Plastic Hassle team and headed out for a location shoot for the new Service menswear line. It was a blast – hotrods, tools, and hunks!! (ladies watch out)!! Look out for Scotty, a new to LS model who played hooky from high school to come model the shoot! We all predict he’ll be the new girls’ wet dream! The idea was a kinda gearhead, working guy, lifestyle and we shot in a working backyard garage with hydraulic lift and a badass 1928 Model A Ford truck that has been featured in a few magazines and won many trophies at car shows.

The 6 new graphics for this year’s season entitled  “Riot Life” include Service of Hell, Valor, Vice, Pain, Ink, and Speed, and al the designs are sick!! Some of the spring Service styles are in stock and the rest are in soon, so look for them to be available on the retail site and get your order in to be the first on the block!!!

I am heading up to San Francisco on Friday for a week long sales trip through the Bay area. And after I return next Thursday I will head out to Vegas on Friday for 2 gigs with CBR for the Viva Las Vegas weekender (more on that next week). Always on the run.
Havin’ a ball and that ain’t all!!
Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Cold Blue Rebels shows

Service Fall photo shoot

Hey Rockers,

I hope you all had a great weekend if any of you made it out to the Viper room to catch Michael Monroe’s band on Friday I’m sure you will agree that they tore the roof off that place!! Easily one of the best rock n roll show’s to ever hit that place! After a trip to the LS warehouse the band hit the stage looking good, and immediately began to destroy with songs from Demolition 23, Johnny Thunders, and of course Hanoi Rocks! Michael is a madman on stage and at points was begging the doorman to open the door to let some cool air into the sweltering oversold hotspot. Once he did Michael took the opportunity to talk to some passers by walking down the Sunset strip from the stage apologizing for the noise but explaining their was a rock n roll show going on, and inviting them to come in! The night did resemble a slight version of the glory days from the 80’s with lots of fabulous glammed out dudes and chicks, the kind of night where ya cant tell the band from the crowd!

Also this weekend I meet and had a rehearsal with the new bass Player and Drummer for my band Jetboy! Solid guys and amazing players if it all works out they will be the guys for this summers touring. Our new record just came out world wide on Itunes, Amazon, and all the best download sites. If you go to the Rock category on ITunes we are listed in the “New and Noteworthy” section, and we are climbing the most popular download charts fast! If ya like good raw rock give it a listen and buy it!

Today I will be putting on my green Junkie fit pants and heading down to the Roxy for the Shamrock Tattoo party my band Cold Blue Rebels will play at 8:15, its $15 18 and up welcome and TSOL, and DI’s will play with Aggression and The Stains also on the bill! Then on Saturday we head to Bakersfield for a gig at the Dome with a bunch of bands 2 stages and the Mentors, and Voodoo Glow Skulls headlining!

I’ve been planning my next sales trip up to Northern California with stops in San Jose, Santa Cruz, SF, Oakland, Berkeley, and Sacramento, whew, I get tired just thinking about it. But as we say around Lippy land, its not just a job it’s an adventure!!!

Well gotta run, hope to see ya tonight, if not drink lots of green beer, and piss on a Leprechaun!!
Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Hey gang,

This week started out awesome with a visit on Monday from legendary glam rocker Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks! He has returned to LA for some shows with his new band Featuring Sami Yaffa (Hanoi) and Ginger (Wildhearts). I have not seen him in around 20 years and he looks great!!

We hooked him and the band up with some new LS clothes, and I hand picked a few styles for him; he loved the “Ghost Town” rocker pants so much, he decided to wear them when he left! They all picked our classic black rocker fit jeans, leaving with big boxes of clothes and big smiles on their faces! Drew gave Michael a personal tour of Lippy Land, and we all posed for some great photos!

I can’t wait for their show at the Viper Room on Friday (already sold out, I think, so if ya cant make it I will have a complete report next week). They also play out at the Brixton on Sunday night.

Most of the LS Spring line is now in the warehouse and the QC team is working feverishly to get everything checked in and inventoried so we can get shipping and get everything online.

Next week my band, Cold Blue Rebels, will start the night rockin’ at Mark Mahoney’s Shamrock Tattoo St Patty’s Day celebration at the Roxy with TSOL, DI’s, Aggression, and The Stains! For $15.00 this party is gonna ROCK!!!!

Well sorry to be brief but I’m off to the Finnish Consulate Mansion for a special event to welcome Michael Monroe to the US, in which they will play a few songs for a lucky select few! More on this next week!

Fashion+Music=Life

Mickey Finn

Hey party people, hope you’re all enjoying a fabulous week!

Things for me have switched from high gear to warp drive this week! But, as they say, I guess I’ll rest when I’m 6 ft deep! My schedule for March and April is starting to look ridiculous, with Lip Service sales trips 2-3 days a week throughout Southern California, then heading up to Northern Cali, and out of state to Arizona, Washington, and Oregon … all by the first week of May.

Add in shows with my band, Cold Blue Rebels, every weekend including St. Patrick’s day @ the Roxy with TSOL/DI/DR Know, Bakersfield with the Mentors/Voodoo Glow Skulls, 3 dates in Vegas, and a bunch more, plus a showcase with my other band Jetboy @ the Viper room to kick off the release of our new EP that came out on March 2nd and as I said … no rest for Mickey!! AND THIS JUST MIGHT KILL ME!! Hahaha!!

At the same time, I do love it!! I have an appointment with one of my favorite LA stores tomorrow, Forgotten Saints on Melrose. If you have not checked this store out, please do. I could spend a fortune in there and they carry a great selection of Lip Service styles!

I am super-excited to say that next week we will get a visit from Michael Monroe and Sami Yaffa of Hanoi Rocks!!! They have a new band together and are playing a couple dates in LA. Old friends of mine and Drew’s (Sami played bass in my band Jetboy), we will hook them up with new LS duds for their tour and take some photos for press.

Today I had a visit from Todd Youth (Danzig, Motorhead, etc.), who was scheduled to be in Michael Monroe’s band but, as I learned today, it didn’t work out and he is instead heading out on tour in Ace Frehely’s (Kiss) band! He hooked up some LS clothes for the tour and brightened up the girls’ day at the warehouse!

In LS news, if I have not mentioned it, we will debut a brand new lingerie line at the ILS show in Vegas in April. The group will consist of 10-15 pieces and first glimpses are Hot Hot Hot!!! Also we are happy to welcome back to the sales staff Bryn Thomas, who left us a few years back and has returned to take over the east coast and mid west territory. We worked the Vegas show with him and he is fun to work with and an asset to our team.

Big thanks again to Jim and Mich at Plastic Hassle for the great job they did producing the video for my band Cold Blue Rebels, which is now on Youtube and will be posted on the LS site as well!!! I should have some great photos next week from my band’s gig this weekend @ Universal Bar and Grill and the Mike Monroe shoot but, untill then, here’s a few fun ones from home with my girl (and LS model) Angelic and our pet Dragon Malakai, who is getting soooo big at 2 years old that she can barely hold him any more!

Till next week work hard play hard!!
FASHION+MUSIC=LIFE
Mickey Finn

Hey Fashion Freaks,

It’s been a CRAZY few weeks for us here at the Lippy camp, with 3 back to back trade shows and lots of travel time, but I have survived and am back to report some of the highlights to you.

After The Halloween & Party Expo in Houston, I headed off to London for The Edge trade show with fellow sales Rep Anjuli, and former sales rep now customer service agent Joana. This show is always fun and fills 2 floors of the convention center with the world’s best in alternative fashion. Add in roaming performers and stage shows for entertainment and the air is filled with creativity!! As always, we were slammed all day long on day 1 with the 3 of us writing none stop orders for the current LS line as well as the upcoming Summer and Fall 2010 lines. As expected our Steam Punk lines were a crowd favorite with the new men’s shirt, vest, Jacket and trousers being a big hit! (see photo of me with mannequin).

We did get 1 free day to cruise around and, of course, we headed straight for Camden town and the best shopping in London! My personal highlights include a visit to the new Cyberdog store insane with giant chrome robots on either side of the entrance, and my visit to the British Boot Company which has been there for 130 years and is the official George Cox Creeper distributor! For those in the know, George Cox invented “Creepers” in 1949, and later made them for the “Robot” company, if you are truly “Old School” you know the difference between the real “Gummy sole” creeps and new plastic cheap crap that’s around today! As far as I know my customer and long time Lip Service buyer Poser on Melrose in Hollywood is the only one left in LA maybe California who sells them. I got to meet one of the family at the store who helped my with my Purchase and told me the history of the Cox family and creepers! This was an unexpected pleasure and made for an enriching experience. My choice was the black shiny leather pointed toe lace ups which I think I got the last pair in the store! The store also features the biggest best selection of Doc Martins in London!

Another highlight was searching for an authentic London Biker store to find a home for the new Service menswear line in Camden town. We found Victory Bikes who have a vintage euro moto shop and also sell clothes. This place was RAD, and I got to see some of the most awesome and rare vintage Triumph, Moto Guzzi and BMW’s I’ve ever seen! They loved our Service line and agreed to carry it at their shop and online store. All in all the day was a blast and I want to give a shout out to my homies Matt from Rock Rebel and Adam from Steady clothes for being my Partners in crime and tearing up the town on more than one occasion!!

The Edge throws a party on the first day of the show that is always fun and this time was no different, with all the coolest people you could get in one place from all the clothing companies from Europe letting it all hang out with free booze all night!! And CHARGE!!! Became the word of the night!!

Back home for only 3 days and we loaded up the truck and crew to make the trek to Vegas for the M.A.G.I.C trade show and, after a long drive and set up, we were ready to sell, sell, sell!! This show the Street section was moved to the Mandalay Bay convention center and, although closer to Project, it was separated from Pool at the LV convention center and some people complained about having to drive from place to place. It was a great show for us and an increase in sales from the last couple of shows, which has us hopeful that the economy is slowly improving.

Some of our new groups which sold well and the ones you should keep your eyes out for are, of course, the Steam Punk styles. The Spats for shoes are dope! And with a few accessories like a messenger style bag and purse the group is sure to please! Our new HR Geiger influenced printed mesh/cotton group is awesome, and our 25 year anniversary classic LS style group is great with dagger print leggings, some commemorative t-shirts, and a real silver dagger necklace that is such a cool collectable every true Lippy Addict will have to get one! I Love the new Wool/Fur coats for Fall with the guy’s coat looking something like a circus ring leader meets dandy Goth Tim Burton style! Of course the new Service designs are great we have now added Service of Hell, Pain, Vice, Valor, Ink, and Speed!

Well I gonna wrap it up for this week but I’ll have some more show stories and news on Summer and Fall LS styles next week! Hope your winter is wrapping up nicely and you’re ready for Spring! We are and we’ve got the new clothes to help you do it with style!!

Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Greetings from Lippy Land,

Sorry I missed you last week but I was in Houston for the Halloween & Party Expo. The show was great and our new packaged costume line “Costume Vault” was a huge success!! We made our mark standing out with our 15 unique designs in true LS style! The line consists of Sassy Sailor, Maid of Lace, Troop 666, Gangster Vixen, Roaring Flapper, Major Mayhem, Teachers Pet, Molten Metal Devil, Night Nurse, Officer Vice, Wonderful Alice, Queen of Hearts, Black Panther, Midnight Vamp, and Captain Blackheart. Much of the Halloween industry, surprisingly, were exposed to Lip service for the first time, and it became clear that our company has a bright future in the costume world.

I mean, who knows better then the fashion freaks at LS about playing dress up in sexy style!!!

I had the chance to walk the show a bit and made many new friends, one of which was David Running from Scarecrow Vampire Fangs. They really have the best Vamp Fangs in the world and he hooked me up with a pair of killer real silver fangs that I absolutely love! (hehe). I visited tons of booths with great props, giant fury spiders, wiggling life size zombies, special effects make up and the overall atmosphere for a Halloween baby like me was nothing short of amazing!!

I made it back home in time to head out to see DJ Sisen’s from Japan’s new project Seileen with GPKism at the Bootleg theater. The show was great with both bands decked to the T’s in elaborate wardrobes. Sisen’s vocalist with a flowing white gown, white feather plume headdress and an operatic voice that was hypnotic set the stage for the night with GPKism’s slightly heavier goth sound and vocalist dressed in black gown with a deeper voice rounded things out nicely. My only complaint about the club was the lack of club lighting with only white overhead lights that really didn’t set the vibe properly. The crowd were was good looking and myself, Angelic, and Kynt and Vyxsin, handed out Lip Service goodie bags to the best dressed of the night which included, crazy Cyber Ravers, Victorian Goths, and some kids in fuzzy animal costumes! I presented both bands with gifts from Lip Service and everyone headed down to Das Bunker to continue the party after the show.

My Sunday was spent with Jim and Mich from Plastic Hassle Productions filming a video for my band, Cold Blue Rebels, on location at the Comedy Store, who have a great stage and generously let us come in to film. We then headed out to an industrial area to film more scenes with our Hearse and a couple bad ass hot rods with the lovely Angelic starring as our goulish hottie for the song “Cold Blue and Beautiful” her body was airbrushed blue and, with hairstylist Anita’s help, she was transformed into the psychobilly dead girl of every boy’s dreams!! Decked in Lip Service midnight blue vinyl from head to toe, we filmed all of her scenes including being laid to rest in a coffin finishing up at sunset. The video is being edited as I write and I’ll keep you posted as to when it’s online. Big thanks to all who worked a full day on Sunday to make this possible.

This week finds us scrambling to get ready for the London Edge trade show, where we will debut our Summer and Fall 2010 lines. We leave for London on Thursday and return the following week. It’s cold and rainy there but, still, it should be a fun trip. What can I say … it’s a rough job but someone’s gotta do it!!

Have a great week and remember life is short so go shopping!!!
Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Halloween & Party Expo and DJ Sisen show:

The Cold Blue Rebels’ video shoot of “Cold Blue and Beautiful”:

Wow what a weekend!!

Another chapter in the “I love my life, you should too” story! After wrapping up another long week, I decided to get out of town and get some fresh mountain air! So I packed up the snowboards and my snow bunny, Angelic, and at the crack of dawn Saturday morning I headed up to Snow Summit at Big Bear. I know, I know, I hate getting up early on the weekends but for certain things it’s well worth it, and what can I say I’m a speed junkie!! Great fun, great day, back home for great food and great … yeah, well. you fill in the blank!

Sunday after pleasantly sleeping in I got a visit from my bro Voodoo from FastLane Tattoo in Corona (1426 W.6th st. #208 92882) who drew up a sick design for me and we got to putting that sucker on my leg in the comfort of my own house! Few hours and a couple 12 packs later the Rebels came by and we headed up to Newhall for our C.B.R. Gig at the VU Bar, which I’m told was an old trading post and holds the oldest liquor license in LA. Good vibe and cozy club with a fireplace and smoking patio. It was a rockabilly night and we were the only Psycho band that played but everyone was cool and we made some new friends and played a great show. Hard to go back to work on Monday………..unless you work at Lip Service!!

This week we welcome our new team member Maria Santilena, who comes to us from mega company “Leg Avenue” to help us lunch our new packaged costume line and manage the sales department. I enjoyed my first day with her, she has a great vibe and I feel will bring a lot of good experience to our family! Maria will accompany us to the Halloween & Party Expo in Houston this weekend. Our packaging with the hottest models and sexy as hell costumes is sure to blow people away at this trade show!! We also began assembling/building, the trade show booth for Magic in Vegas which we update and customize to have a unique and different booth for every show. The other sales reps are currently in Hong Kong for our first trade show there, and word is so far its going great!

Crazy weather this stormy week! Hail in Hollywood, Tornado warning in Long Beach??!?! WTF?!? I love the rain and storms though. Its a nice break from our otherwise consistently mild LA weather. It’s a good week to hit the movies, or just stay home and cozy up with your favorite kitty. And don’t worry we’ll be back to sunshine and non-stop parties soon enough. And as soon as I get back from Houston in a week I’ll be back up to Big Bear for some of that fresh snow that’s piling up all week!! Yehaw!!!! Life is good in LA!! Gotta love it!

‘Til next week

Peace Love and Freaky Fashion !!!

Fashion+Music=Life

Mickey Finn

The year is 2010 and a group of cyber circuit renegades have taken over the internet……….

Ok, maybe not, but can you believe it’s 2010!! Did anyone else think there would be flying cars by now?!?

Well, not yet, but we do have a whole slew of futuristic gadgetry that we sometimes take for granted! My new DJ Hero for Xbox 360 being one of them!!! (thanks sweetie luv ya)!! Even after Dj-ing in the DnB club scene for 10 years and being capable of scratching and beat juggling for real this game is still fun as hell and extremely challenging!!

Oh well bottom line is another year is gone, and a fresh new start for all of us just beginning, my mind reels with all the promise this year holds and the goals I have ahead of me. Anyone make a resolution this year?!? I did not as they don’t seem to work for me. I think setting realistic goals is a better way to approach it.

So I hope you all had an amazing NYE and managed to stay out of trouble, DUI’s jail, ect.

I definitely did with my bands show at Bar Sin on Saturday being the crescendo of my week vacation from Lip Service! Big thanks to Tricia, and Vicky for making it possible and thank you also to everyone who came to check out the Cold Blue Rebels!! It seemed like we won a lot of new fans and we put on a hell of a show with our zombie dancers, on stage coffin antics and make up to accent our Blood, Guts and Rock n Roll approach to Spookabilly!! Our sexy ass zombie rebel dancers handed out Lip Service goodies and C.B.R. cd’s which disappeared into the crowd in seconds! Also big thanks to Jim and Michele from Plastic Hassle who came out to photograph and video our show. Some of the photos are up already (see gallery links below!) with more coming soon, and the video is being edited now and will probably be up on Youtube by the time this week’s column is listed so be sure to check it out!! (webmistress note: Here it is, straight from the Cold Blue Rebels’ You Tube channel!)

We have been asked to submit a song for and upcoming Socal Psycho/Punk compilation album, more on that later!!!!

Sunday was not enough time to recuperate from days of partying and so as of today I am still hurting and struggling to make it thru the day. But the show must go on with the most hectic 2 months of the year happening in January and February. My coworkers, the other 2 sales reps, will be leaving for a fashion trade show in Hong Kong a week from Wednesday, and I will join one of them in Houston for the Halloween and Party Expo the following week so its crunch time getting all of our samples in order.

I just came out of a meeting in which I saw samples for our first latex group which will be 7 styles total, very unique and not your typical latex designs. Also the new fishnet (which will come in white) and new matte veggie vinyl designed by one of our new assistant designers Michelle Uberreste way to go Michelle! and a group tentatively called “Cyber Sniper” designed by our newest assistant designer who has just been officially added to our team after an impressive trial run as an intern. Congratulations to Michelle Moon, who will also accompany myself and sales rep Wendi McDowell to the Halloween show to debut our new packaged costume line which she was involved in designing. This first round of 10 costume styles will be sure to impress and give retail stores another option to dress up there boring “Leg Avenue” filled walls!! You know Lippy will do it better with more and more styles added each season.

That’s all for this week fashion freaks, Drew just cracked the whip and I must now JUMP!!!
Fashion+Music=Life
Mickey Finn

Check out the stage photo galleries from the Cold Blue Rebels show!

Check out the Lip Service event photos:

More Cold Blue Rebels show photos!

We just can’t enough of checking out photos from the Cold Blue Rebels show at Bar Sinister this weekend! If you’re itching for more shots of Mickey, Danny, Joe, Spazz, and the zombie coffin dancers in action, here’s just the thing for you … more fucking pictures!

You’re welcome.

Here is the original MASSIVE stage photos gallery!

Check out the Lip Service event photos, too!