Mr. Daniel Modell representing in Bangalore, India.

Everything's Gone Green at 33

One score and 13 years ago this week, New Order released “Everything’s Gone Green” as a single — a masterpiece that proved to be genius producer Martin Hannett’s final opus with the band and their first using computer-generated sounds. It hit me like a blue bolt the first time I heard it and it never left. Forgive the pun, N.O. fans, but I was hooked. Though fellow Mancunians The Smiths are my favorite, this song is in equal measure bright and dark, relentless and unapologetic, post-punk and dance. New Order heard the future long before everyone else and rendered it in a generous lead-in and lead-out as an offering to DJs for easier mixing, changing club culture forever (and a technique widely credited for the success of “Blue Monday,” the highest-selling 12” vinyl single in history). If I could represent my brain via music, these would be its sounds and sequences. 33 years of gratitude to New Order. Studio track here: http://bit.ly/13VFlng and live performance from 1981 (with Bernard playing Ian's old white Vox Phantom) here: http://bit.ly/1zOp8Le

Brand Spanking the Baltic States

Great friend, outstanding writer, and bona fide bad-a$$ Peter von Sass recently packed a BSNY shirt before leaving Calgary, Alberta for Latvia's capital, Riga. Above, visual evidence.

Brand Spanking New York at the Top of the World

Good friend and climber extraordinaire Doug Lonneker scaled to the top of the Grand Teton near Jackson Hole, Wyoming this summer in the greatest of t-shirts.

Want one? I have a limited supply left — so first come, first served. Email me your size at steve@brandspankingnewyork.com.