The Temperature’s Rising At Hotlife

admin    T-Shirt Reviews     Frankie Says, MikeC, band tees, emptees, funny t shirts, hotlife, illustration, livingthehotlife.com, punk, skater, skater tees, t-shirt design

Recently MikeC of www.LivingTheHotlife.com contacted me and demanded to send me a couple of sample tees, as you might or might know I am one of the few t-shirt reviewers who doesn’t require freebies, but he was pretty insistent, he wanted to make sure I knew first hand exactly how high the quality of his products stands up, and I’m telling you, it’s up there with the best. It’s not just the100% organic fair trade tees he prints on, which are incredibly soft by the way, but the designs themselves are incredibly well drawn and fantastically ‘clean’. Mike is obviously an old hand at illustration, I took a peek at his biography on his rather hilarious FAQ page and found a few gems to help warm you to this relatively underground label:-

So HOTLIFE is designed exclusively by MCHC Art/Designs? Absolutely, 100% hand drawn by MikeC himself.That way you know you’ve got an 100% original design. Lots of “designers” like to take clip art and add a photo shop filter and pass it off as a design…we would rather make something thats unique and rad.

I’m pretty sure 90% of my wardrobe is made up of designs by MCHC already, what bands and such has he worked with? Thousands of bands, too many to mention, but Thinkfast! Records, Victory Records, Acacia Strain, A Day to Remember, Hawthorne Heights, Madball, All Shall Perish, Mychildren Mybride, Between the Buried and Me, Salt The Wound, Bishop, Emmure, Catch 22, & Kill Your Idols, just to name a few.

Now that’s a lot of bands! Hotlife have a strong connection with the music scene, if you fancy upping the stakes and making your own band’s image a little more hardcore then you can commission Mike’s talent as a t-shirt designer via his Myspace page. He even helps promote the bands he works with by graciously featuring their latest gigs at Hotlife’s news page.

It’s difficult to categorize Mike’s style, his illustrative style is strong, very strong, and even though there are reminders for me of punk and thrash, biker and tattoo imagery, there are two distinct qualities to his work that makes it rise above the competition. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, his drawing technique is fabulously clean, he actually draws everything by hand as you can tell, his line is fluid and flowing, the compositions spot on, I’m sure this guy must have been doodling throughout every spare minute of his life. Apart from the trained eye and hand co-ordination, there’s the humour, his sense of fun is infectious, one of the first tees to jump out at me was his interpretation of Frankenstein’s Monster in Frankie Says Relax. Which for me is hilarious, as was the original band that came up with that tune, although the latter wasn’t entirely intentional.

I’ll start by reviewing the tees Mike sent me, I’d have got my cute GF to pose but she’s up to her neck in work today, so I’m afraid you get the ugly guy instead of the babe. Still the designs should more than compensate!

Countdown Tee

Now as soon as you’ve got over the shock of my ugly mug you should be able to appreciate just how cool Countdown is. This is a superbly drawn tee, illustrated with a killer design, there’s definitely plenty of humour in this one, and perhaps even a little cartoon trompe l’oeil. However, and this might just the beer talking (hell, it’s Friday), perhaps the army green colour of the tee, but there’s something rather subtle going on underneath the surface of this work. The idea of strapping a bomb to yourself might seem crazy to the vast majority of us, but there are people out there who’ll do anything in the name of their God, government, country, you name it. I don’t want to get all heavy on you people, but this is a fantastic example of subversion in the world of fashion, a political comment on the state of society these days. You know, Middle East, suicide bombers, ya de ya de ya. Still, what Mike manages to do is perform a very tricky balancing act, it means that his design exudes a hearty sense of humour first and foremost, and I admire that in an artist. You have to keep the audience on your side to some degree, and he does that, and then some. Explosive humour and social comment under the guise of punk skater fashion – cool! Get yours on sale now for just $20! This is the last print run so I’d hurry if you’re keen – sizes S to XL.

Owl In The Senate Tee

Now before you get too excited Hoot has sold out, but seeing as I was lucky enough to get a freebie, perhaps the very last in existence, I couldn’t let this one pass without letting you have a butchers. Essentially the Owl In The Senate Tee is what it is, it’s a beautiful piece of assymetrical design. According to Mike it was Hotlife’s first collaboration with one of the bands in their immediate family. It was released alongside The Senate’s “Transcend” EP was released with this design at the release party and both were a huge hit. Funnily enough I did hear a while back that an owl was found sleeping up in the rafters of the US Senate, not sure if there’s a connection there, but most likely I’m on the right track. There’s rather a nice play on words as far as Hotlife’s branding is concerned, it spells out ‘Hoot Life’ which gave me a chuckle or two. I really love the choice of colours in this tee, a nice range of muted greens and off-whites that complement the deep brown hue of the t-shirt perfectly. I’ve also included a photo of the label, I love printed labels and Hotlife have made sure that each t-shirt has the best of the best, this is a slick piece of branding, something I’ve noticed many of my favourite brands are turning towards. I hate those old nylon flaps that scratch your neck and slowly turn to tatters in the wash. Oh whilst I’m on the subject, all of Hotlife’s tees have to be washed cold and tumble dried only!

Crime Don’t Pay Tee

Love this one, Crime Don’t Pay, which judging by the design there’s something of a conflict in Mike’s mind going on here :p Actually I nabbed this pic (and the next) from Emptees.com because Hotlife’s own pics aren’t that big, and as any self-respecting GF will tell you the bigger the better. In Mike’s experience, just about everyone he knows has done a stint in the slammer, I can’t say the same applies to me, but I’ve had friends, especially from Manchester and Liverpool who can vouch for that. When you’re stuck in a dead end town with no prospects you’re more likely to take risks others wouldn’t. Besides, these days in Britain, you can’t drop a piece of litter without a CCTV clocking you, the Labour government have brought in more laws in the last decade than all the past governments put together. I’d say it was a police state, but the thing is the UK is cutting back on police numbers as it is, it’s definitely a downer though, an Orwellian downer. We have Community Officers now. They’re not police, they’re mainly on the dole and do a stint as a volunteer to improve their prospects or keep their benefits. The fact that a recent survey showed that most of Britains’ population would keep a bag of unmarked bills if they found it lying in the street is neither here nor there. With the recession biting and jobs being cut you can expect a lot more people out there taking risks, some get caught, some don’t. I’ve had one burglary so far, I thought it was the police, bailiffs, a drunk or a mental kicking down the door, I shouted at them, opened the door then ran after a kid who looked so scared he could’ve pooped his pants. Just another chancer. Anyway you won’t be able to nick this tee, you’ll have to buy it with your hard earned money (I’m assuming you’ve earned it) on sale now for just $20. The site says it’s sold out, don’t believe the hype lol.

Frankie Says Relax Tee

This has to be my fave, for obvious reasons, such as… I was around when the tune came out. I recently found myself creating a joke Frankenstein piece for an arts project here in the UK, and there’s a distinct feeling of Scooby Dooism going on here, I mean the original 70s fab and groovy toon, not the god awful remakes (that means you Scrappy Doo – no Scrappy don’t). Very cool colour combo, hilarious premise, and a very slick but sneaky inclusion of the logo in the parasol/umbrella. What’s more the Frankie Says Relax tee is a piddling $15, which wouldn’t even fill your icebox with beers. Great composition too! Get yours here.

Live the hot life with LivingTheHotlife.com, t-shirts are mandatory, as is a sense of humour and a love of punk and skater design!

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