2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SALE

It's that time of year again. Hope to see you all again this year!


SATURDAY AUGUST 15TH
LOUD& OBNOXIOUS 2 Year Anniversary!
GLAD RAGS INK New Warehouse Grand Opening!

All T-Shirts @ $12.00 (Wholesale Price!)
New Product Release (STAY TUNED!)
Exclusive Release Accessories & Goodies
Exclusive 2 Year Anniversary T-Shirt
FREE FOOD!
Lots of DEALS, CONTESTS, and GIVEAWAYS
MUSIC and KARAOKE!

More information coming soon! It's going to be a fun day so come hang and bring your friends, we'd love to meet all of you! Bring your bikes, boards, scooters, or Heelys haha and get ready to shop, eat, sing, and chill!

Keep checking back for more details! We're excited for this one.

- Vince

Growing Pains

Today is officially our last day in our 14799 Clark Ave. office and warehouse space in City of Industry. Starting tomorrow we will be moving everything out and over to our new location down the street. We may just be moving down the street, but to us it's a big deal. At this time one year ago, we were still printing out of our garage at our home preparing to move into our current warehouse. I can still remember how nervous I was to be taking such a giant leap, and here we are now re-investing all of our money into a newer, even bigger office. Going for broke on a brand new 8 color 10 station automatic screen printing press and a warehouse/office space that is more than two times what we had this past year.

After careful planning, we're more broke than we've ever been, and I'm not worried at all. It's a trip. It truly boggles my mind that I'm not even scared of what's on the line. Don't get me wrong, we're completely stressing out on all the work that needs to get done to get where we want to be, but we're not scared. After doing this for so long, we've grown so confident in our own abilities. To be honest, that's how we like it. We like the pressure. No, we LOVE the pressure. If you've been following the life of L&O and GRink, you know that we've always been ones to try and out-do ourselves and go the extra mile. To set goals that we aren't even sure we'll reach, and work ourselves to death to make it happen. Ambition is a hell of a drug and we're addicted to the D.I.Y. ethic. L&O is NEVER DEAD.

I know this is cliche and you hear it from every other brand and company out there, but it's true. "If we can do this, so can you." I can confidently say that LOUD& OBNOXIOUS and our screen printing company Glad Rags Ink can stand as true testaments of the belief that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. And when I say "set your mind to it" I really mean that, because that is the most important thing to a successful career, whether it be starting a clothing line, barber shop, taco truck, or working in an office all day. You may have loads of talent and tons of contacts and know a million people, but it's the passion that will keep you grinding day after day. Finding purpose and meaning is the name of the game. If you talk about your career or your college major and you've got a twinkle in your eye and an excitement in your voice, then you know you've struck gold.

Sure, the road has been long and hard (that's what she said) to get to the point where we're at. And yes, we're not exactly making an incredible income like all the big dudes in this industry. But we're still on that road, and we know we're on our way. If you work hard enough and keep doing what you're doing, regardless of profession, it's only a matter of time before you get where you want to be. The last 3 years of my life have been difficult, emotional, stressful, and most importantly: rewarding. Until I buy my own home, get married, have children, and travel the world, there has been no greater joy in my life than to see all of our hard work come to fruition.

It's true. If we can do this, anyone can. Find your purpose. Find your meaning. Find your passion.

- Vince

Keep Cool

Stay tuned. We've got tons of fun stuff planned for our 2 Year Anniversary. All stock will be at wholesale price, new and exclusive goodies (like this awesome L&O koozie to keep your beer soda cold!), giveaways, free food, and if all goes well, we'll be releasing the newest addition to our wardrobe. If you've been paying attention, you probably already know what that is.

We're going to start moving into the new location at the end of this week so our 2 Year Anniversary will also be the grand opening of new Glad Rags Ink / LOUD& OBNOXIOUS warehouse/office.

Saturday August 15th. MARK YOUR CALENDARS.

- Vince

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUICY JUSTIN! Hit up his Twitter and let him know you love him!

Passed Time

Earlier this Summer, our friends from Orange County had the great idea to start playing pickup baseball games on Monday nights. It started off small with barely enough people to split into two teams, but fast forward two weeks and now we have more than enough for three teams! So much so that we decided to start playing on Sunday afternoons too!

No better way to spend your Summer than at the sandlot with your best friends and our nation's pastime.




























(photos by @shaneilMJ)
- Vince

Bad People

Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Yesterday, those good people were Matt, our band mates Mike and Daniel, and I. Our band (Dear Life) had our trailer stolen yesterday right in front of our home. Here's the official statement:

"After reading about these incidents throughout the years, I never imagined this happening to our band. Our trailer was stolen from in front of our home in Hacienda Heights, CA at some point between 4AM-6AM on the morning of Monday July 20th. Nearly all of our equipment was inside and worth thousands of dollars. It is a 6x10 white cargo trailer with a bent right wheel well, a small hole in the side door, foil tape on the front bumper, and some band stickers on the back. Among the stolen equipment is a custom DW mahogany drumset and snare, Peavey 5150 II amp in a green Dear Life roadcase, Ampeg 8x10 cabinet, and many more valuable instruments. We will be posting a more comprehensive list on our page. If you have any information on the incident, or come across any of it at a local pawn/music shop, or hear about some dude who came up on some dope shit, please get in touch with us. You can reach us at our MySpace (www.myspace.com/dearlife) or send an email to vince@dearxlife.com. We haven't been an active band in the last few months but we're still musicians and it definitely hurts to be violated like this. We realize that this is a long shot, but it's the only shot we've got. Thank you for your time.

"UPDATE: Crazy turn of events! It is now 1AM late Monday/early Tuesday and we found the trailer, but of course it's empty. These idiots left the empty trailer down the street from our good friend Alex Estrada in Hacienda Heights. With the help of local businesses and police enforcement, we might be able to find these idiots. Once again, if you think you've come across any instruments from our equipment list, please contact us! Local pawn shops, music stores, and Craigslist are the first places to look as they are the quickest scores. Thanks everyone for the kind words and donation offers! We appreciate the love."

These people are pathetic. They go out of their way to take from hard-working people instead of getting a real job. I don't care if they're struggling to support a family or something like that, you don't steal from another family. There is never a reason to look towards crime for the answer. You man up and get a job. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Karma is a bitch, and you're gonna get yours.

- Vince

Forget Swine Flu

Because it's Monday, and you know what we got.


I wanted to do this a while ago, and I'm not sure why I didn't start. I probably just forgot, but here goes. Since we always talk about how each of our t-shirts has a deeper meaning than you might perceive, I wanted to do a little write-up on each piece from each line. Better late than never, I guess.


The Sink or Swim t-shirt.


The reason why this one is important is not only because of the image itself, but because of the process that it took to create it. As you know, up until now each one of our t-shirts that we've ever released (except for Spring 08 - fun fact!) has been printed by hand. This shirt is no exception. This was the first full-color shirt design that we've ever printed using the 4-Color CMYK Process and I think Matt did a pretty stellar job doing it by hand. Even the message on the t-shirt was fitting for the new process to print it. Sometimes that's how it feels whenever we are faced with a difficult decision with our businesses. It's either all or nothing. SINK OR SWIM. And what better way to show our dedication to our beliefs - using ink, both on t-shirts and skin.

And thanks to Tyler's friend Tom from Australia for letting us use his awesome tattoo and fists for this t-shirt!

- Vince

So Close

Last one, I swear!


Think of it like when your girlfriend tells you that she wants to wait until the right time to do it. Just one big cock TEASE.

- Vince

Family First

I know this is nearly a week late, but I figured I'd post about Matt's birthday dinner last week and use it to explain how awesome it is to have a solid family foundation in your life. We have always felt so fortunate to have the love and support of our friends and family, whether it was for L&O, our screen printing company, or even our band back in the day. It's their undying inspiration that has taken a small-time hobby and turned it into a real business endeavor. As we've mentioned many times before, the reason why we named our company the way we did was because not only do we take influence from the streetwear culture, but we take influence from our friends. When we are with them, nothing can shake us. When we are together, WE are the party.

Anyway, here's some photos of our little get-together at Banana Bay last week. Welcome to the family!
































The most beautiful thing about our group of friends and the reason why we were so inspired to do what we do is that we are always growing and always accepting to anyone who is down to be as chill/ridiculous as we are. On August 15th, we invite you to celebrate our 2 Year Anniversary and grand opening of our new office, once again. We invite you to join the family and be as ridiculous as we are. After all, we are LOUD& OBNOXIOUS.

More details coming soon.

- Vince

August 15th

We're turning two years old. You know what that means.








Stay tuned next week.

- Vince

Keep Grinding

- Vince

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!

If you've ever owned an L&O shirt, or bought a Dear Life shirt at a show, or had shirts printed by Glad Rags Ink, there is a very good chance that my little brother, Matthew Apostol, printed your shirt by hand.


It still boggles my mind that he has been printing shirts by hand for the past three and a half years. He has honed his craft so meticulously that sometimes it's hard for people to tell if it was done by machine or by hand. He and that 4-color press have become one and together they've probably pumped out tens of thousands of t-shirts. Most people would have given up by then or got bored or lazy and found some other hobby to mindlessly attach themselves to. Not my brother. Together, we were able to turn a small spare-time hobby into a potentially life-long career base. Not very many people can say something like that, let alone say that they had two registered businesses under their name at the age of 19. This boy man works harder than anyone I know and I'm thankful to have such a gifted younger brother.

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY MATT! May all of your wildest dreams come true before you can even legally drink alcohol. I can't wait to see what kind of work we start pumping out when we move into the new warehouse and get that brand new auto screen printing press. You are unstoppable!

Your older brother,

- Vince

San Diego Fair

This past holiday weekend, I spent the first half raging with all the friends and family. For the second half, Jaimee and I decided to take it a little easier and spend Sunday down at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for the last day of this year's San Diego County Fair.

We met up with Jaimee's cousin and also met their awesome dog. His name is JJ and he's very shy. He was so afraid of my camera that every time I tried to take a photo of him, he'd run away and the shot would be blurry. Luckily this shot came out nice enough to actually have some photographic merit. Look at him quiver!


On our way to the fair, I noticed some of Shepard Fairey's handiwork on a passing double decker bus. Giant, indeed.


Finally made it to the fair!




And then it was time for the food! Started off with some Australian battered potatoes.


Then a falafel burger!


The most delicious vegetarian burger I've ever had, hands down.


Philly cheesesteak. Not sure why I took a photo with such a crappy angle. It looked and tasted a lot better than this shitty shot.


Garlic battered mushrooms!


Drum art. I think Matt, Art, and every other drummer I know is thinking about the wasted brass.


Groovy, man.


And now the animals. I really thought this guy was going to spit on my camera.


Chocolate milk?!


I also found Filbert's evil twin. Seriously. He looks exactly like Filbert, but pissed. You remember Filbert, right? See?!


This was Jaimee's favorite.


Spotlights and adoring fans at such a young age.


Be vewy, vewy quiet.


Found some space rocks, too.


Kryptonite!


By mid-day, the place was completely packed. At this point, the food comas began taking over so we decided to call it a day.


Jaimee and I each went home with a bonsai tree to decorate our respective office spaces. I need to learn how to trim this sucker. Or I could just let it grow out like my ridiculous hair.



- Vince

p.s. Are you paying attention to Brian's Twitter? I hope so because he's telling secrets. If you missed it, you may want to check our official Twitter.