On Sunday I had the pleasure of doing some great things at McCarren Pool in Brooklyn. As you may already know McCarren Pool, sponsored by JellyNYC, holds free pool parties each Sunday featuring a lineup of killer bands and local DJs. This last Sunday was the Ting Tings, some other dumb shit, and MGMT.
After parking around the corner, Bradley and I wandered over to the entrance where we saw a line on the far side wrap around the block. But on the near side we encountered the short line. We wandered over to the end of the shorty and looked around all confused like. Some of the volunteers came over and saw their shorty line had grown quite a bit, so they decided to cut if off and send anyone else trying to hop into the shorty off to the long line. So we basically got in the shorty just as it was closed and were ushered into the venue in no more than 15 minutes, I'm sure there were kids who waited 3 hours in line and never got in since the venue reached capacity before MGMT went on. Once we were in God started to piss on Brooklyn.
I took part in all kinds of pleasant activities while it rained, lady gazing, slip n' sliding, dodge-ball, 4-square, and beer. The warm up DJ played some blog-house classics like Justice, The Gossip, M.I.A, and Diplo. Thunder and rain poured in all through the Ting Tings set but eventually cleared up before MGMT.
I had heard of the Ting Tings before but never bothered to check out their music. Thus I was pleasantly surprised when they put on a nice bass heavy, dance-rock show. I dug the sound and got down pretty nice. But MGMT was stellar, possibly better than their Bonnaroo performance.
Global In The Dark
I was scratching myself about an hour ago when I realized that something really sweet should be happening pretty soon. Then it dawned on me, the best way to find out where the heavy clam bake is to roll over to Andrew WK's myspace page and find out what he is up to this weekend. Just as I had already assumed, Andrew WK is likely at his very trendy nightclub Santos' Party House but Moby, who is currently my favorite DJ with a mustache, is at Stratford Upon Avon for the annual Global Gathering music and rolls festival. I checked out the full lineup and features some awesome acts including AssGoblin.
After Kanye West failed at Bonnaroo, and blamed the festival organizers for his tardiness calling them "squid brains" or somethin, he more than likely hates festivals that aren't Lollapalooza. As such Kanye and the Global Gathering folk have decided that "due to the sheer scale of production specification needed for Kanye West's performance on this year's live stage he will be the sole artists appearing on the Friday." There you have it, AssGoblin will have all day to set up his video screens and spaceships or whatever. I wonder if Daft Punk claimed the main stage all day back in 06 or whatever.
I've voiced my opinions on AssGoblin on this blog as well as other forums ad nauseam. Let us speak of the dozens of other amazing acts appearing at GG this weekend. As mentioned above we have Moby who is sure to slay the myspace tent. Sasha, Digweed, Tiesto, Sander Van Doorn, Eric Prdyz, Deadmau5, and John Dahlback, will definitely light up the Global Arena. But we already know that all these DJs are super hot shit, isn't the festival experience more about discovering something new and different. If I were going to Global I would be way more psyched about live sets from Speakerjunk and Etienne de Crecy, Lisa Lashes at Polysexual, Yuksek at the Mixmag Terrace, the Shapeshifters at Nocturnal Grooves, local favorites Judge Jules and Micky Slim, and most all Herve. If you have been keeping up with my blog posts Herve has been all over these pages, as well as a shitload of other blogs, in some form or another. Herve also goes by Sinden, The Count of Monte Crystal, and has a side project with Trevor Loveys called Speakerjunk. All his productions are bomb-diggity, especially his remix of Licky which will make any dance-floor go bananas.
Larry Tee feat. Princess Superstar - Licky (Herve goes low remix)
To My Boy - Model (Sinden Remix)
Sinden & The Count of Monte Cristal - Everybody Rocking (Key of Bald Eagle Edit)
Get down in NYC parks.... for free
An amazing thing about New York city are the plethora of free events located all over. Many of which are totally worth attending, especially since they're free. Let us begin with Central Park's famous Summer Stage. A-Trak, Diplo, and Kid Cudi ripped it up real bad-like. We can expect more of the same from forthcoming performances by The National, Battles, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, and a very special fundraiser gala thing featuring Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Check out the full schedule here.
McCarren Pool also features some amazing free events. Personally I'm really stoked for the MGMT performance this sunday, as well as the the free plays throughout the summer. Check the full schedule that features free pool parties with bands every Sunday!
Be on the look out for the next Designer High mix, its in the works and really phat.
Etienne de Crazy
I've been for seriously all about Etienne de Crecy since...? Fuck. But he totally stole my idea for his live show. The thing with the boxes, yeah that was my idea for my light show. Fuckers!
Streetlife Remixes.
The Streelife DJs have been my steeez for quite a long time now. Ever since their essential mix, which you can download here, I've been furiously googling and hypeming these English cats. Their remixes are totally bomb. But don't take my word for it, listen for yourself.
Streetlife DJs - Gunn Crime
Alan Braxe - Addicted (Streetlife DJs Cut n Run Dub)
Don't Worry ....It's All Good
The annual hippie haven of All Good Music Festival kicks off this weekend. The affair will feature festival favorites Phil Lesh, Dark Star Orchestra, Franti and Spearhead, and a personal favorite the Brazilian Girls. Check out the schedule that rocks exactly zero overlapping sets.... what the fuck is a festival without overlaps? Make a decision hippies!!
Brazilian Girls - Jique (MSTRKRFFT Remix) (zshare)
CouchMix6
I was going back and forth on this new mix for a couple of days now. As a rule of thumb I try not to spend more than one extra day mulling over a new mix after its finished... it looses its panache if I over-revise the mix. I spent two days on this mix. I trashed the first version of it in favor of this one which I think is way more to the point.
This new edition of The Designer High is disco inspired. Disco will make a serious comeback kids, serious.
CouchFire! - The Designer High (6)
We're going to hold onto the track list for now, just to keep things interesting around here.
Party Review - Moby (DJ Set) @ Santos'
Couple weeks ago my brohim MP told me he had already hooked me up with a ticket to see Moby do a rare DJ set. Now I fucking love it when Moby does DJ sets; It is hard for me to say this but I think Moby's set at Miami's Ultra Festival was far superior to Carl Cox's 10 Year Classics Set, at least judging by their back to back Essential Mix. So I basically knew what to expect from Moby.
Allow me to backtrack for a moment. The venue Moby was set to destroy, Santo's Party House, is located on the Lower East Side. Santos' Party House, formerly Santas' Party House, is a converted museum/art venue turned discotheque with resident DJ The Juan Maclean (DFA). This whole shebang is made possible by likes of the DFA crew and venue owner Andrew WK. Thats right Andrew WK. It wasn't easy for me to wrap my head around this whole debacle, but atleast the real electro kids don't have to trek out to Studio B for a proper set.
I imagine at some point we may get to see James Murphy (DFA) of LCD Soundsystem play an equally rare DJ set. You may have noticed me name dropping DFA a few times in this post. DFA (Death From Above) is this production team / record label run by Juan Maclean and James Murphy. Andrew WK, Juan Maclean, James Murphy, and Moby... what a killer team.
Santos' was on point. Flanked by two bars, the dance-floor dominated the whole space. The sound system at was not fucking around either. The entire room was wrapped in speakers, in addition to the speaker stacks already in place on either side of the main stage. The dance-floor was quite spacious and the room never felt over crowded nor crowded with douche nozzles, with one or two exceptions as always. All in all I give Santos' party house a solid 9/10. The one point off because a very inconvenient entry route. They make one enter a hallway, then go downstairs to a basement party room, where the music is so tight one could easily mistake the basement DJ for the headliner, then walk around a corner and back upstairs for the real party. But maybe this is a good thing and the venue deserves an 11/10...
After listening to a few of Moby's DJ sets I was prepared for a great show but did not expect the bone-rattling experience I got. Anyway, I had arrived at the venue a little late so missed Moby's opening tracks, but when I finally entered the room Moby had already dug in. He played hard, fist tight, jaw clenched, electro type shit. He worked though crunchy track after crunchy track and pwned the us all. Highlights of the set for were rare remixes of Basement Jaxx's Where's Your Head At and a white label mix of Moby's Go. All in all it was a incendiary electro experience with little bullshit in between hands-in-the-air euphoria. The one thing that threw me off was that Moby seemed to play the same track twice but upon further investigation it was my mistake. It was two different tracks by the same producers who apparently love to use the same hook in two seemingly unrelated productions... you be the judge.
Moby - Disco Lies (Spencer and Hill Remix)
R.I.O - De Janeiro (S & H Project Remix)
(I actually purchased this track and couldn't find it on the hypem so this is a youtube link)
There were also a couple things I were delighted to see. Moby has finally switched from Turntables to CDJs. Rock on Moby, you don't need that added weight/stress of carrying around your record crates. Also, the mustache looks phenomenal, you don't even look like a child molester or state trooper or anything.
The Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing
Andrew WK - Mclaughlin's Groove
Miles Dyson - Anthem
Party Review - DJ Funk, Spitzer, Crookers @ Webster Hall
This party was off the fucking chains. New York city was not prepared for the likes of these European monster DJs. The line up features Spitzer, DJ Funk (not European), Danger, and The Crookers. Lets have a quick look at the talent.
Danger is part of a distinct new bread of masked DJ who plays the dirtiest electro imaginable. His identity remains as mysterious as the lyrics to his massive electro bomb 11h30 which I have blogged about, raved to, and would have married but my proposal went completely unacknowledged. Unfortunately, partly due to ambiguous billing on the flyer, I missed Danger's set, and believe me, I'm still pissed about this. How they could they bill DJ Funk or even Spitzer above Danger is beyond me. How can anyone follow a Danger set. I'm sure his set was filthy, but it probably wasn't that fun since I was there freaking out and sweating on anyone.
Danger - 11h30
Next up was DJ Funk, who I had the pleasure of dancing for. DJ Funk dominates the genre of booty-house like no other, especially since he is the only DJ really pushing that genre. His entire set was at around 135bpms and it all had the same booty kick. I'm proud of funk as he seemed to be using a Mac/Midi controller combo but still using the house mixer to equalize. He definitely has jog wheels too because he made a few really laughable cuts and scratches. His music all sounds about the same to me, but Funk classics like Ass n' Titties, Booty Dance, and Peculator, never cease to make me grin in amazement. While not the best, or even good for that matter, DJ funk has loads of charisma and he's one hell of a mic controller.
DJ Funk - Peculator (zshare link)
The Spitzers brothers hit the stage and set up a Novation SL as Funk ended his set with a rape remix of Daft Punk's One More Time, and confused the fuck out of me. Spitzer was billed below Danger, so when the Spitzer brothers, who look nothing alike, hit the stage I was convinced Danger was treating New York to a special unmasked performance with his buddy that would fuck around with a Kaoss Pad or something. Spitzer had the same kind of eerie, synth-driven, mystery vibe that Danger does which only added to my confusion. As the set wore on, I gave up on trying to understand these crazy Europeans and just enjoy the music. The Spitzer brothers got me in the right kind of mood, and by towards the end of their set shit went totally bananas. I'm going to scour the interweb this week and hopefully post a Spitzer Live Set.
Party Review - DJ Funk, Spitzer, Crookers @ Webster Hall
Kylie Minogue - In My Arms (Spitzer Remix)
There was no uncertainty about what happened next. Some hype dude hopped up on stage and introduced us to the Crookers. The Crookers pounded out straight up party music. No pretentious progressive, minimal, nonsense, just fatty bass. Their sound originated in their native country Italy, bloggers are calling it Italo-Disco, I'm calling it Freaknasty-Fiesta. They dropped bomb, after bomb, after bomb. It got so bad in there that half way through their set Webster Hall had been hit by more precision bombs than Fallujah.I've been playing one of said bombs on the regular, when the beat drops after the totaly-worth-the-ridiculous-wait-breakdown even a dancefloor packed with paraplegics would loose their shit. Here are two of Crookers said bombs and a Duke Dumont killer that slice n' dices all kinds of dance-floor 'tang.
Crookers - Love To Edit
Busy P - To Protect and Entertain (Crookers Remix) (zshare link)
Duke Dumont - Hoy (zshare link)
Tommorow we'll discuss Moby's DJ set at Santos' Party House.
BonnaReview pt. 4
Sunday 6/15
Saturday night went so well that I decided to get shit-faced on Sunday. We spent the morning at camp crushin'... you know beers n' shit. After that was all said and done with we took what was left of our Wild Turkey 101 (major thanks to those dudes from Kentucky who ball'd-outrage with their camping setup and gave us their bourbon, you cats were iiight) and made our way to The Other Tent, as it turns out we stayed there all afternoon.
Ladytron was first. Now I listened to their record and all but it was far to early in the day to properly enjoy a performance like this, they really could have done much much better under the a killer lightshow. Ladytron was a full band fronted by two strangely attractive English dames. Attractive in the same way a super sexy femme-bot would be. Anyway Ladytron's bass felt fantastic. Good stuff.
I napped during Aimee Mann. 10/10 for allowing me chill to the max.
I woke up at some point and drank some more before Broken Social Scene came on stage. I know Feist wasn't with them but that other woman was equally fantastic, though not as pretty. Broken Social Scene tore shit up playing hard, then slow, then fast, then soft, then back to a nice danceable pace. I saw their show when they came by my university about a year ago but the lineup seemed different. I know they tour with anywhere from six to six hundred members but I'm not up on BSS enough to know what the fuck is going on with those wacky Canadians.
We wound up wandering around before settling down somewhere outside That Tent to watch Susan Tedeschi's Soul Stew Revival with Derek Trucks. I had no idea who anyone else was on that stage except for guitar god Derek Trucks. The show was nice and mellow, but we only managed to catch the last 15 minutes or so. Nothing to exciting, just some lightly seasoned soul stew.
We argued about whether 5 bucks was worth a ride on the Ferris wheel. The 5 bucks won, I drank beer instead. We watched some of Widespread Panic but decided that seeing them close out Bonnaroo for like the billionth time was too much so we passed out back at camp.
Here are the top 10 songs I managed to catch at Bonnaroo 2008.
Ghostland Observatory - Dancing On My Grave
Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple
Metallica - Creeping Death (Youtube Link)
Ladytron - Seventeen (Soulwax Remix)
Rilo Kiley - Money Maker (Youtube Link)
My Morning Jacket - Dondante
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday (Live @ Bonnaroo w/ Kirk Hammet)
MGMT - Electric Feel
Sigur Ros - Sven-G-Englar
I've also been sitting on a couple of post because I didn't want to break up the BonnaReview
Be on the look out for two party reports and new Designer High.. Disco is back kids!
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