BlackBook Magazine

When Converse hooked up with Pharrell Williams, Santogold and Julian Casablancas on the song “My Drive Thru” to mark their 100th anniversary, we were all, OMG, music and clothes totally go together! That's why models date musicians! So to honor their perfect union, here are some clothes best worn while being serenaded. Whether it's Summerstage or Bonnaroo, be sure to check here first because, your de facto Ramones shirt is kind of meh (unless it's vintage). Whether you wear a denim mini (we’d rather you didn’t) or a pair of skinny jeans (better), we ask that in honor of its 100th b-day you scamper around in your favorite pair of Chuck Taylors. See more ideas after the jump!

It’s June, everyone (as if you’re a complete lunatic and needed reminding), so start your internships, season your skewers, and keep your ears open, because the search for the Song Of The Summer is on. Two potential candidates: head Stroke Julian Casablancas has teamed with head Neptune Pharell and head next-M.I.A. Santogold on the garage track "Drive Thru." It’s part of a Converse campaign called Three Artists, One Song, and the song is quite fine, notable for its tres-cool trio, but it begins to grate, especially when Casablancas wails. This would have worked better if Santi and Pharell had gone in on it alone.

The sweltering heat that comes from "summering" in New York—suck it, Easthampton—may be oppressive, but nobody does SummerStage the way we do. Well, nobody else does SummerStage at all. The free show showcases some of the best emerging local, national, and international artists. The 23rd season of the Central Park SummerStage concert series, which runs June 13 until August 17, seeks to offer music lovers a feral music experience. Yep, feral. This year’s line-up boasts local acts like Battles, Santogold, and Vampire Weekend. It also features out-of-towners, and an assortment of DJ acts like Diplo and A-Trak. Bottom line: Never Mind the Sunburn.

The release of Santogold’s justifiably-hyped album was like a starter’s pistol being shot off—and the race to become the next M.I.A. is on!

NYMag.com just named Santi, Robyn, Uffie, and Yelle as the top competitors for a throne we doubt Maya is even ready to relinquish. “The next M.I.A” is a compact (if somewhat lazy) way to describe fashion-forward, beat-driven, female solo artists who get heavy coverage by websites named after farming tools. But if we can all on agree what we’re talking about here—an “electro-pop hopeful vying to be Pitchfork's next favorite commercially disappointing MySpace phenomenon," as NY Mag puts it—then we’d like to enter our own racer as well, Lykke Li.

Watching this clip of Santogold performing her "L.E.S. Artistes" single on the soon-to-be Jimmy Fallon show, we’re baffled by all the M.I.A. comparisons she’s received in the press (granted her song "Creator" has tinges of Maya, but it ends there). You can’t read a record review or a breaking-artist profile about the Brooklyn singer without a mention of her similarities to the Sri Lankan rapper. We can’t help but wonder how apt the comparisons would be if Santi looked more like Taylor Swift.

The video for Santogold’s hit single “L.E.S. Artistes” is said to draw on the psychedelics of Alex Jodorowsky’s surrealist cine-masterpiece Holy Mountain. That’s cute. Check out the above Santogold video, followed by the first ten minutes of Holy Mountain after the jump—the latter making the former look like a cotton candy-fueled romp through Disneyland. Or a petting zoo.