Photos: Russ Chimes at Le Poisson Rouge on November 14

After a quick last-minute venue change, the kids from Famous Friends and Finger On The Pulse joined forces last Saturday night to bring the London, UK member of the Valerie Collective, Russ Chimes, to NYC alongside a very rad live performance from our dear friend Kap10Kurt and DJ sets by the FF crew and the FOTP twins. Kurt's show, a two-piece set-up that featured a hit-responsive light-up snare (pretty much the coolest thing we've seen in a long time, gimmickry aside), was sidetracked in the middle due to tech problems, but he was taking it in stride and VDRK got an extra fifteen minutes of DJ time to cover the tracks. When Russ came on, he immediately slayed the crowd. From top to bottom, the dancefloor was filled to the brim for his dreamy set. More and more we hear people say that he's such a force as a producer and DJ and we've been one of those people since he destroyed that Brooklyn house party long ago. The night was full of fun and dancing/sweating and a ton of our friends were there, and what's really better than that? Nothing, that's right, nothing. Also, we played Super Mario Brothers (the original NES version homies) backstage with Chris from Zambri and a few girls from Holland of all places, which in and of itself was worth it's weight in gold bars. We mean the video game, not the Holland girls, duh.

(mp3)    Russ Chimes - Afterburner

Godspeed!

Photos: Girls & Boys on November 13

This past Friday night, Friday the 13th as it was, brought out an "interesting" crowd to Webster Hall for the weekly Girls & Boys party, packing the house, sure, but something was definitely amiss in the air--can't put our fingers on it, but we know we weren't the only ones thinking it. Aside from that, Chicago rappers The Cool Kids played a massive hour-long set with rad beats and breathless rhymes. Guest DJ XXXchange from Spank Rock bounced heavy funk shit off the walls before they came on, dropping huge blog house tunes and rarities too. It was a fun night yet the atmosphere was murky, but oh well. We still had fun and so did the kids.

(mp3)    The Cool Kids & Hey Champ - (We Are) Champions

Godspeed!

Photos: Girls & Boys on November 6

Seeing Philadelphia born legend DJ Jazzy Jeff is one of those things that doesn't happen often, should be embraced emphatically and should never, we mean never, missed. So we were more than thankful to find his name at the top of the marquee this week at Webster Hall for Girls & Boys, alongside RVA upstart Viking, another new favorite of ours from the last few years. We saw both acts previously (Viking a bunch of times and Jazzy at the Bacardi B-Live event a while ago) but this past Friday was an apex of sorts for us, as they both came out swinging hard and seriously just obliterated the crowd. Jazz spent his 60-plus-minute set playing cut-ups of pretty much every hip hop/pop/electro song that was of any notoriety whatsoever in the last few decades, leaving no rock unturned and no sample unearthed. No sleeping on Viking and you shouldn't have been sleeping on Jazz since the mid-80s if you've known what's good for you.

(mp3)   Terror Dactel - DTF (Viking remix)

Godspeed!

Photos: Dragonette played Santos Party House

After we left Sputnik in Brooklyn from the Zambri/Max Justus show this past Thursday, we took an adventure-like jaunt from there to Santos Party House (on the edge of Chinatown and Tribeca), meeting up with Cameron from 'Sup Magazine on the way there and waiting for what seemed like two days for the train to get from one borough to the other. All was paid off for though, as we arrived at Santos about halfway through Dragonette's amazing set of high energy electro pop led by the almost-too-good-looking-to-be-human Martina Sorbara and her unreal and easily identifiable voice. We caught the last six songs of the set--and only actually shot the last song--including two exits and returns for encores, something usually relegated to a band of much larger status (not a dig at Dragonette, but usually that's a U2 or the like move). It was super fun and definitely worth coming out for and this band is definitely in need of more hype behind them so--we're looking at you pop artists who'll take them out with you on tour--let's make that happen.

(mp3)    Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (Mr Vega remix)

Godspeed!

Photos: Max Justus and Zambri played Sputnik

As part of the eighth of its kind, Mushpot Records brought forth a rad line-up of the IDM wunderkind from Kansas City Max Justus and one of the most promising act of the last half of the aughts, Zambri, to Clinton Hill pub/performance space Sputnik this past Thursday night. It stood as the first NYC area performance for Justus and yet another stellar small room show for the Gotham City electronic pop outfit named after the Zambri sisters. Justus played a great, if not bewilderingly loud set of electric pulses and waves of noise and he moved more while playing than a lot of DJs/producers/performers spend moving pretty much ever. Both of the acts were supported throughout the night by the disco-as-fuck musings from Famous Friends young blood VDRK.

(mp3)    Sportsday Megaphone - Meet Me In The Middle (Max Justus remix)

Godspeed!

Photos: Germs at Europa on October 30

It may not well have no bearing on anything at all really, but we think it will be very hard to discern the true differences between former Denny Le Nimh pet project party here in New York City, the much-missed Ruff Club, and this, his newest one, dubbed "Germs". A lot of the DJs (24Court, Danzie, Abominatron, Denny himself) are the same, the hosts and photographers and the kids who call a Denny party home are the same and the idea of the party and intent may be the same. Sure, they've changed locations--now at Europa in Greenpoint Brooklyn and the production design is a different ideal of the same basic premise (visuals, hand-stamps, party favors, etc. all tie intensely to the branding of the event) but what lies beneath, the cause per se, the love--is still there. For their launch party, appropriately falling on Halloween weekend, they brought out the 18+ masses to the front door of Greenpoint for drinking, dancing, special guest DJs like Stephen Pandolfi from Girls & Boys, Alexander Technique and Skitsnygg, costume contests and an amazing amount of fun (we enjoyed most of that too) and they'll be doing it weekly there from November 13 on, redefining the party scene for Friday nights in New York City one late-night five-hour block at a time.

(mp3)    La Roux - Bulletproof (Blogula remix)

Godspeed!

Photos: Girls & Boys on October 30

For "devil's night" this year--the night before Halloween, naturally--the heads of state from Girls & Boys brought forth a live one-two punch of acts for the Webster Hall weekly. Kicking things off was the eight-piece Brooklyn collective The Phenomenal Handclap Band, whose acid-fused dance rock is as reminiscent of Santana and the post-Monterey Pop Festival world as it is to NYC of the last ten years (!!!, LCD Soundsystem). They poured through a 40-minute set of hooks, cowbells and tambourines aplenty, with the harmonies of the vocalists altogether up front and perfectly pitched. After they were done, it was time for Simian Mobile Disco, the UK dance-pop producer duo who are riding the wave currently of their Temporary Pleasure EP, a pretty stellar yet completely single-minded record. The boys got a stuttered start after [redacted] tripped the power but they bounced back for an hour-long set of complete and utter sonic obliteration. It was, honestly, one of the best live shows of the year that we've seen (we said at the time that it was better than Fever Ray, but we might be pulling the reins back on that one) and for everyone who came out and sweated off a few pounds with us on Friday night, we're pretty sure they feel the same way.

(mp3)    Simian Mobile Disco - I Believe

Godspeed!

Photos: Justice at Webster Hall on October 29

Justice--who honestly weren't promoting any new tracks, mixtapes, albums, etc. and were just sort of promoting, you know, being Justice--were joined at Webster Hall this past Thursday night by the debut of Alex English's new electro duo project Disko Dali and the electro beat-heavy producer Jackson alongside a sweaty, completely sold out crowd. The boys played the hits, played some rarities and played some tracks we wished more DJ's would put in their sets (cf. anything by Sebastian). It was fun, dark and completely thrilling. Disko Dali also ignited the crowd with their edits of Dragonette's "Pick Up The Phone" and "No One Sleeps While I'm Awake" from The Sounds, but they also DJ'ed their own selections and it was interesting to see the two of them, who come from different parts of the electro world altogether trying to juggle their three identities (Alex English, Dan Physics, and Disko Dali as a unit) into one hour-long set. Were you there? What'd you guys think?

(mp3)    Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends (reprise)

Godspeed!

Photos: CMJ 2009 with Topman and Subdrive on October 24

One final night of CMJ left, we rested up for a quick disco nap at the apartment after the Levi's/The Fader fort sweatfest and headed straight out to Root Studios in the still-warehouse-district portion of Williamsburg for the Topman-curated event, which hosted live performances from Neon Indian, Cale Parks and Almighty Defenders as well as DJ sets from NROTB, Designer Drugs and Finger On The Pulse. We stayed to say hey to FOTP and NROTB and then caught the set from Neon Indian--their lights and sound were leaps beyond that of the VEGA show earlier in the day before heading over to North 4th Bar for the Subdrive CMJ hangout, which featured Terror Dactel, VDRK & OCD Automatic, Dillinger, Gavin Royce and a bunch of our friends. We gathered a few troops late night and actually ended up going to the bottom of the Earth aka K&M for some hilarious "80s night" whooping it up.

(mp3)    Neon Indian - Terminally Chill

Godspeed!

Photos: CMJ 2009 at the Levi's/The Fader fort on October 24

For the final day of CMJ this year (which of course thankfully befell on a Saturday), we met up with homegirl Sheena Beaston and headed over to the Ace Hotel--which is the only time we've ever heard that hotel name uttered about, ever--for the Levi's/The Fader fort featuring a line-up that wouldn't leave anyone nonplussed to be there. Free drinks and free music usually equals fights and/or people not paying attention to the music, but that didn't happen Saturday. The audience was pretty much rapt (we were too, obviously) from start to finish, with performances that roused all from Restless People, MNDR, The Temper Trap, Jenny Wilson, Chauffeur (that mega-group of Mark Ronson, Theophilus London and Sam Sparro), VEGA, Midnight Juggernauts, Florence And The Machine, Pill and special guests Rain Machine. We skipped out after VEGA to rest up aka get doused in rain and charge batteries before that night's other goings-on. The whole day was sweat-filled, gleeful and reckless. Standard fare for one of the best day events of the festival.

(mp3)    NightWaves - She's Electric (VEGA Italo dub)

(mp3)    Jenny Wilson - Only Here For The Fight

Godspeed!