For a while now, I have been hearing about the boys from Cobra Kai in Richmond, Virginia, but I never actually got around to checking them out. And Hoo-boy am I glad I did. Nick The Duke sent me this mix made by his better half, Krames that is truly out of this world, mashup madness. It’s eclectic with out being annoying and it is imminently danceable all the way through. The mixes are more than quick enough to hold my attention (which is saying a lot as I tend to lose interest at around the 3 minute mark most of the time) and the track selection could have been stolen directly from my playlists. I was so excited about this mix that I contacted the boys, did a little interview and weaseled a pair of exclusive tracks for your downloading pleasure. I am getting excited again just writing this.

For my Midwest readers, you’ll be able to catch these guys here in Chicago this Thursday at Funky Buddha for Dance Party Magic with one of my favorite DJs, Lee Foss, as well as E6 and Matt Roan and then on Friday at Ohm. Then up to Milwaukee for ‘Spaced Out,’ with The Glamour at MOCT on Saturday (where I was last Saturday, good times).

Enjoy:

Krames-Eurothrash

tracklisting:
Moby – Go
M.I.A. – XR2 (Krames Remix)
Black Ghosts – Face (Switch Remix)
Paul Nazca – Sleeping
TTC – Telephone (Krames Remix)
Speaker Junk – Foxxy
Crookers – Just Ghetto
Ciara – Promise
Lidel Townsell – Get in the Hole
Bloc Party – The Prayer (Para One Remix)
Trashtalk – Tank Girl
Clipse – Run This Shit (Krames Remix)
Kissy Sell Out – Keanu Reeves (Grunge Version)
Mica Swain – Tear It Up (Krames Remix)
Lovely Chords Of Age – We Push Up On Frenchies
The Presets – I Go Hard, I Go Home
Green Velvet – Shake and Pop feat. Walter Phillips
Pest – Pat Pong (Solid Groove Remix)
JayDee – Plastic Dreams
Detroit Grand Pubahs – Sandwiches (Krames Remix)
Shut Up & Dance – Green Man (Rum & Black Remix)
Grand & E 40 – Like Hmmm (Krames Remix)
Once Waz Nice – Messin Around (Wildboys Dub)
The Knish Hit Squad – U4EA (The Sanders-trumental)
Sky Balla – Big Boy Things (Krames Remix)
DJ Magic Mike – You Want Bass
Rod Lee – Got To Rock (Instrumental)
Master P – Make Em’ Say Uh (Krames Remix)
Blaq Starr – Slyde
KW Griff – In The Club
Say Wut – NFL Ho
Lil’ Jon – Bia Bia (Krames Remix)
Debonaire Samir – Horny Horns
DJ Slice – Never Scared
Felix Da Housecat – Silver Screen (Les Rhythmes Digitales Remix / Krames Re-Edit)
UGK – The Game Belongs To Me
Fabolous – Breathe (Krames Remix)
Dreaming Riddim – Version
Buju Banton – Champion (Krames Remix)
Movado – Weh Dem a Do
The Cure – The Walk (Razormaid Mix)
Mainline – Black Honey (Who Made Who Remix)
Yuksek – Sorry
All Saint – Rock Steady (Mstrkrft Remix)
Bob Dylan – Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues

And now the tracks. I’m not too huge of a mashup fan but Krames figured out how to push all my buttons at the same time and mash tracks together so coherently that it can barely be called mashup. This first one takes the drums from one of the greatest tunes by Thomas Bangalter ever and puts a great light vocal and funk guitar over the top to create a smooth roller that’ll keep your floor moving along.

Krames-Fuck Them Bitches

The second is a pretty straightforward krunk mash with a bassline that borders on the brown note and will surely send all the listeners into a collective screwface. I played it for a friend of mine who’s way into dubstep and he immediately wet his pants and started to cry.

Krames-Haters Everywhere

If you want to know more about Cobra Kai and their parties here’s a little interview:

Local Hero: Why Cobra kai? Those guys were jerks

Cobra Kai: It’s not that we are jerks; more that Cobra Kai was no bullshit. They knew what they were doing and they did it well. Instead of going with the classic good guy approach we chose to represent ourselves as a dominant force.

LH: What’s the scene like at your parties?

CK: Overall when we hold it down, it’s time to get sexy in the moshpit. There’s always dancing, that’s not an issue. We’re from the South where there’s a heavy influence of bass music & durty souf but we’re also from a town rooted in hardcore punk. Most of the people we party with are in tune with the experience that a dance party like this is providing. So people like to get dirty and wild and we try to take that wherever we go.

LH: How’d you guys get together?

CK: We’re from the same hometown area of Virginia Beach but we didn’t meet until we first moved to Richmond for college. We actually met because we used to smoke pot together in the dorms. When Krames started DJing, he needed flyers for random hip-hop shows. Since Nick was already designing flyers for the indie rock crowd, we started working together on a promotional level. Eventually, Nick started a magazine with a friend of ours whose release party became a monthly happening. Krames was always involved as the resident DJ and helped to organize and promote. Those events set the foundation for dance parties in Richmond and afterwards, we decided to work solely together to start Cobra Kai. At first, we were just a dance party but we’ve slowly evolved into something more than that.

LH: What’s your favorite party in NYC?

CK: We actually don’t throw any parties in NYC yet but we’re making plans. Nick lives there now and Krames is booked there every other weekend. In all honesty there are only a few parties that are really hype. NYC kids are pretty fickle and they seem more comfortable with their arms folded than having their ass in the air. Our boy Drop The Lime is always on point with the monthly Trouble & Bass party at Boogaloo. We’ve got mad respect for Alex English for being an OG in the game and pulling off some amazing shows. Studio B has also been keeping things steady with their FUN parties and a few one-offs here and there.

LH: What kinda style are you planning to bring to Chicago? How are you going to make the kids rock out?

CK: One of our first out-of-town shows was Chicago so it always holds a fond memory. We’re definitely going to bring a lot of new tracks to the parties. Krames’ set is usually pretty mixed but consists of a lot of his own remixes of house, club, and durty souf. There might be some juke and Chicago house mixed in for good measure. We always have a lot of energy and we’re pretty good at noticing what the crowd is into and feeding off of that. Depending on the setup we’ll be gettin on the mic, yellin’ and there will be a lot of dancing. For the people who’ve never seen us live, we guess the biggest surprise will be the fact that Nick isn’t a DJ.

LH: What’s the future hold for Cobra Kai?

CK: We’ve got some records in the works and there’s been talks with different labels about putting out Krames’ next album. We’ve been focusing a lot on promoting our current material like the Dishwasher Safe album and the new Euro Thrash mix. Some current projects that should be out soon are remixes for San Serac, The Freshest Kidz, Kocky, Thunderheist & a track that Krames is working on with Stimulus. Nick is doing his thing in New York on the graphic design tip and we’re looking to get things started for Cobra Kai up there in the near future. We’re also working on planning a European tour for the summer and we’ll be going back to the West Coast in the fall.

LH: If you guys really are Cobra Kai which is the sensei?

CK: In terms of comparing us to the actual Cobra Kai guys, we think the roles of Johnny Lawrence and John Kreese are interchangeable. We’re more of a duality in nature because we definitely balance each other out – different relative points of view, different perspectives, different spaces. If Nick gets a little too wild, Krames is there to keep him in check and vice versa. We work together in a complementary fashion where we value each other’s feedback in everything that we do. That’s why we say there isn’t a sensei.

LH: George Clinton or James Brown?

CK: We would have to say James Brown because you can’t be funky if you haven’t got a soul. He’s the godfather of soul and the hardest working man in show business. We saw him perform in 105-degree heat in Tennessee and he still had it.