Summer is coming to and end, its been a good one, kept me busy, got to do some traveling, made my way across the country and back a few times, ran into old friends, made some new ones, found myself at more day events and festivals than clubs, which was really great. Soon enough its going to be cold here in New York, and ill be taking shelter in a club and paying $8 for cocktails. Since i’ve been slacking in the post department, i’m going to try and make up for lost time with a “summery” of my 2008.

Santogold @ sound check for Radio 1 - Annie Mac show, WMC March 2008

Saw Santogold perform a few times, although unfortunately, I missed her dates with Coldplay. I did however see her just about everywhere else I went, on the side of buses, in the subway, in magazines, TV, on the wall of Terminal 5 when I went to see Brian Jonestown Massacre (Joel performed, it was great, nobody got in a fight, bummer.) Anyway, you get the idea, Santi is everywhere, repping in style for Converse Connectivity. I have to say, the campaign is pretty tight, they did good, no one is trying to shove blatant adverts your way, the micro site is crafty, there’s a lot going on, you can even design your own kicks, and sonically, the artists on board, I genuinely like and listen to. Someone in the marketing department did their homework.

Santogold - L.E.S Artistes - Switch Remix

Want more Santi? Here you go, Santogold - Creator - Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix And just about everyone I know won’t say no to more cookies - Danger “14H54″ Chewy Chocolate Cookies Remix, exclusively on @ Itunes - get it HERE

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Terminal 5, New York July 25 08

Crowd gathering for Radiohead - Lollapalooza Chicago, Aug 1 08

Lollapalooza in Chicago was definitely one of the highlight’s of my summer, I traveled from NY with Spank Rock and crew - Amanda Blank, Devlin & Darko, and Natalie. Their schedule was as full as it could for the weekend, press, after parties, and of course, their Saturday performance on the Citi Stage. Everyone rolled in Friday night, and headed over to the festival site for Radiohead.

I ran into the Foals, which was a super unexpected and pleasant surprise. I grabbed a piece of lawn and had a few drinks with Yannis and Jack, caught up, talked about the past year, how things have changed since we had last had seen each other in New York, when they were recording their album. They’ve got the typical touring band schedule, traveling constantly, playing tons of great festivals, waking up and not knowing where they are. Yannis and I tried to recall what it was that we were debating a few months back in regard to minimal techno (we are both fans - Minitek!!! ), never did figure it out. Soon more Foals came to graze, a grass fight ensued, and it was truly an “Electric Bloom” moment when they started shoving chunks of earth down each others shirts, it was my “Warning Call” to make an exit, so I galloped away to wait in the mile long line for a Vodka and Vitamin water.

Foals - Electric Bloom - Postmortem -arQon remix

While I was waiting in line, Radiohead took to the stage, all day everyone I ran into was gushing in anticipation of their performance, I was no different. It had been almost 2 years to the day that I had seen them last, also in Chicago, but in a theater setting, this time, it was outside to a sold out crowd of well over 70k, I love festivals. When Radiohead went on, the masses were well into it as expected, I had a side view, so I wasn’t able to see much of the production, that being the massive LCD’s and light show, or even much of the band for that matter, but hearing was good enough. What I was able to see was the woman at the front of the stage signing Radiohead’s lyrics, dancing, and clearly having the time of her life. (Note to self - learn sign language, what a great gig to have.) During their performance I was filled in on the fact that Thom Yorke is in fact a big fan of Spank Rock, and listed the album, Yo, Yo, Yo, Yo, Yo, as one of his top 10 albums of 2007, my eyes bugged out of my head a bit. Really?

Spank Rock is also a big fan of Radiohead and Thom Yorke. For a slight second I wondered if there was anyway for the two of them to meet, considering they had this mutual artist respect thing going on. But I also realized it was probably next to impossible, i’m sure everyone and their mother was probably trying to have a chat with the band that night, plus, it was a massive show. I put to rest the idea trying to make the introduction, got back to reality. The band did a few encore’s everyone was blissed out, it was a very memorable evening. We took off right as they were doing their last song to avoid getting caught up in the mass exodus. 70k people all leaving at once is a bit much. After parties were popping off all over the city, Foals were DJ’ing, Bloc Party, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, all kinds of madness, but I was exhausted, and Saturday was going to be crazy so I called it a night.

Saturday, well, I ended up not hitting after parties, but went to a local bar and tied one on with some old friends. We made a late night run to Rockstar Dog’s, ordered a couple of “Los Lobos”, and “tots” and yeah, we felt like what we ingested. When we woke up the next day we asked ourselves what the hell were we thinking? Oh! We were not thinking, we were drunk.

No time to be hungover, there was stuff to do, no rest for the wicked. I headed over to the Hard Rock Hotel, to meet up with the Spank Rock crew for Spin & Metromix’s gifting suite. They threw down, excellent grub, fancy juices, energy drinks, spa services, and sweet schwag. This was good, I was starting to feel better. Then it was interview time, Ms. Amanda Blank was losing her voice, and was under Dr.’s orders not make a peep until the Lolla performance later that afternoon. She made a clever name tag and attached it to her shirt letting everyone know, hey, I can’t talk, and worked some sign language of her own. The girl is amazing, she still managed to convey what she wanted to say, and charmed everyone.

Spank Rock & Amanda Blank Interview for Metromix @ Lollapalooza, Aug 2 08

Interviews were over, the crew split up, Spank Rock (Naeem, solo) and I jetted off (actually crawled through major traffic) as he was DJ’ing at the Diesel store. It was his first gig outside of Philly, he’s been dj’ing regularly every Monday night at a party he started called The Jang House, it all goes down at the Barbary. I’ve been told by many this night is hot, and hella fun, so it’s on my “to do” in the very near future list. I’ve never heard Naeem DJ before, he plays an eclectic mix of retro, disco, mash-up’s, heard some Prince, said ‘oh yes, I love this too!”, when he threw on a remix of MGMT’s, “Electric Feel”, we both agreed the video was sexy as hell and wish we could have been in it.

It was nearing Spank Rock’s 5:00pm stage time, we high tailed it outta the Diesel store, jumped in a car, and headed to the Lolla site. The first thing that reached our ears when we got on site, MGMT, of course, go figure. We sighed, got over the fact we were missing their performance, and jumped on a golf cart that delivered us to the Citi Stage. Booka Shade was just wrapping up their set. For me, seeing them provided some solace for the MGMT loss, hey were amazing as always. Spank Rock took to the stage and performed to a charged up crowd, Amanda’s voice was in top form, the crew brought the party, Plastic Little jumped on stage and did a guest spot, everyone was caught up in their energy, the stage and the audience may have well been one.

MGMT - Kids - Skyve Reuters Bunkalifony Edit

The Lolla performance was over, but the day was is not, one more interview with Fuse TV, then back over to the Hard Rock for an after party performance with Mark Ronson and Spank Rock. We were starting to feel like we might be hitting the wall, festivals are fun, but they are hot, and have the ability to suck the energy out of you. Besides being tired, everyone was hungry, we had dinner reservations at the China Grill, which thank god, we didn’t have to go far for, as it was adjacent to the hotel. Dinner was excellent, but now we were really tired, time to rest. We made our way out the door mumbling about various things in our food comas, then everyone got really quiet. After we walked outside the door, we looked at each other, and all at once started talking - “hey that guy looked really familiar?”,”do you know that guy?”, “who was that?”, “was that Thom Yorke?”, “That WAS Thom Yorke.” We snapped out of our comas. Damn, It’s Thom Yorke.

All things considered, Thom being a fan of Spank Rock, and vice versa, we should go over and say hello, right? It was kinda too ironic that we were having dinner in the same place at the same time. But everyone agreed, interrupting him, or anyone for that matter, during dinner, who probably already has a hard time in the “peace & quiet” department, we didn’t want to go there. So we continued on to our rooms where we twiddled our thumbs. It was definitely one of those “what would Jesus do?’ moments.

We discussed the irony at hand. I thought Thom & Naeem should meet, it was kind of a no brainer. And I admit, I had my own selfish reasons, I also really wanted to chat with Thom first hand about music industry politics. I think i’ve easily done 20 + posts about Radiohead and/or Thom. When the band released In Rainbows, it was kind of a big deal.

Everyone I know carefully watched how the band’s, name your own price, self release, limited edition box set concept was going to unfold. For weeks it was the hottest topic of conversation. So the release day came, people got online and placed their order, and continued to watch the concept unfold. In my opinion, it was a beautiful. No, Radiohead didn’t fix everything that was wrong with the industry, and what they did, most bands can’t really afford to do. (I discussed this with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, read it here). They did kick open the door of the major labels, and sent a very strong message. They gave their fans a choice, they made room for both artists and others in the industry, to do even more inspired and creative things, perhaps even take risks they might not have before. They let people know, that yes, you can release music in a non-traditional way and it can work. Not only that, you can do it on your own, they exact way YOU want to do it, real freedom of expression. And isn’t that what everyone wants? Not only in art, but in life.

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I live for these kinds of moments, i’m all for pushing the envelope, DIY, thinking outside of the box, stick it to “the man”, all those common cliches. I feel i’ve fallen off course at this point, so let me get back to the story and how it all ends.

I lived in Chicago for 16 years, it just so happens that I know the manager of the China Grill, I figure I might as well take advantage of that, so I head back to the restaurant, tell him the story. He tells me that Thom and his friends were almost done with their meal, and adds that they are really pleasant, he offered to ask them if they would be so inclined to meet us. I agreed this would be appropriate, and so it goes, “Thom would love to meet Spank Rock”.

I made my way back up to our floor, and my heart fluttered a bit when I told Naeem, come on, we’re going to go and say hello to Thom, and so we did. I hung back as they spoke about music, production, the writing process, how it can be difficult and unnerving process. As an artist, you second guess yourself, wonder if what your writing is good enough, you feel pressure to create something and your not always sure where you’re going with it, or what it is you want to create. Thom shared that he most certainly felt like that, and felt most everyone does, its part of the process of creating, and if those moments where you question yourself didn’t happen, that would seem to be a bit odd, and that perhaps was when an artist should worry. So as it turns out, Thom’s just like the rest of us, word. We spoke about their performance the day before, I told him I really only got to see the woman signing, he said she was great, stole the show. I got my politics on, we discussed the interview he and David Byrne did with Wired Magazine, on the real value of music.

Thom said it was an interesting interview, rather quiet, not as much talking between the two of them as one might think. Which kind of surprised me, I would assume they would carry on for hours. However, I’ve seen a few live interviews with Byrne, he’s incredibly intelligent, insightful, (I closely follow his industry politics as well), but I could see why a bit of silence between the two, might be the case. There is a particular interview Byrne did that stands out, with Daniel Levitin (author of This Is Your Brain On Music), you can check it out at Seed Mag online. We also discussed the In Rainbows release, Thom was very humble, when I expressed how I felt about the release, he said the release was just a minor start toward rebuilding an ailing music industry, and that there is still a lot of work to be done, particularly when it comes to radio. We had been carrying on for some time now, espressos were to be had, they were off to a show the next day, and exhausted from a day of boating on Lake Michigan, we had our own show, call time was just an hour away, we said our goodbye’s and floated away.

Radiohead - Ceremony - Thumbs Down - Webcast

Spank Rock hit the stage for the Spin & Metromix after party, the room was packed, but the crowd was a bit lethargic, however, when these guys hit the stage, it doesn’t take long to get a room going. Lindsay Lohan and Sam Ronson were in attendance with their posse, so in honor of the occasion, Spank Rock finished the set with Lindsay Lohan’s Revenge. I think the posse was caught off guard, as they exited the room before the song was over. Funny stuff.

Amanda Blank & Natalie - Hard Rock After Party, Aug 2

Naeem - Hard Rock After Party, Aug 2

I also hit a few Rock The Bells shows - saw Tribe Called Quest, Pharcyde, Mos Def, Nas, even a stellar, surprise performance in Denver from Black Star.

Nas - Rock The Bells, Columbia, MD July 27 08

Black Star - Rock The Bells, Denver, Co Aug 23

All in all, great summer, and as this post is quickly becoming a novella, I shall end it here, and leave you with this entertaining video of what I can only assume are cheerleaders learning new dance routines at summer camp to “Bump”. The dude the runs out to lead them rocks.

It is quite an honor for an artist to have their music played on BBC’s Radio 1. An achievement that would elate even the biggest fish in the vast music pond. So when a remix of The Death Set’s “Impossible” by Boston’s Etan was aired on U.K.’s Mary Anne Hobbs show in March and in June on Australia’s RTR ‘Out To Lunch Show‘ with Gemma Pike, feelings must have been high! Etan’s remix of “Morning Tide” by The Little Ones crashed the airwaves again on Colin Murray’s Radio 1 show in June. Indeed a start to a fine summer.

Prior to the radio hype, two of Etan’s remixes - The Death Set’s “Impossible (Etan’s Positive Outlook)” (on The Death Set’s ‘Around the World’ 7″) and Daedelus’s “Hrs:Mins:Secs (Etan’s Greenwich Mean Report)”, landed on long time favorite U.K. imprint Ninja Tune. But first came the Tronstep Remixes 12″ with bootleg dance treatment for Caribou, Crystal Castles, and Justice on Broader than Broadway Records – listen at Tronstep Remixes. With a full length in the works for Ninja Tune, out in 2009 - 2010, the future is looking day-glo bright for the young Bostonian.

Music has been running through the veins of 21 year old Etan (aka Nate Donmoyer), since he first heard the Amen breakbeat at age 13. Influenced by Grizzly Bear, Blonde Redhead, daft punk, Radiohead, and The Beatles, Etan describes his sound as “taking the colors I like from electronic music and using them in a song form that may not fit the genre from which they were stolen.”

Modest in stating that luck and a nice guy is what has brought him exposure, Etan has the talent and skill to back it all. “It’s all about being prepared for when luck chooses you,” he says “for me it completely began with two friends at a shop called Proletariat in Cambridge, MA who let me leave mixtapes on the checkout counter.” These mixtapes fell into the hands of a prolific Boston promoter/journalist named David Day who liked Etan’s sound and interviewed him. “He was the first guy to book me in clubs and invited me into the basstown crew. Everything has really been luck.”

Good fortune is on Etan’s side. Surrounded by a rising crew of talent, Basstown breed, consisting of Dj Die Young, Volvox, Red Foxx, Plus Move, Baltimoroder and several other talented folks, Etan continues to cultivate his craft and go beyond. He plays drums in a band called Passion Pit and has written music for “Lost Friend”, a short animation (see video below) by Susan Chien, which can be seen at the 2008 Boston Underground Film Festival.

With upcoming remixes for Radioclit, Micachu, Ghislain Poirier and his hands in a bit of everything, Etan is proving to be inspiring and unstoppable. If it all keeps up, I have a sneaking suspicion we’re all going to be pining for Etan in the coming year! Now check out the solid remixes kicking off with one of my favorite Death Set remixes!!

The Death Set - Impossible (Etan’s Impossible Outlook)

Daedelus - Hrs:Mins:Secs (Etan’s Greenwich Mean Report)

The Little Ones - Morning Tide (Etan’s Groundswell Take)

Jumping from Invasion’s soul-psych-metal to the emotional depths of South London songstress Adele, soul is alive in many forms. Adele has the kind of power in her voice that can part oceans and leave listeners in awe, just like the American artist Etta James, she so greatly admires.

With her debut album ‘19‘, making a huge splash, there is no denying that Adele is headed for even bigger things in 2008 and has already planned to record her 2nd album in New York City. The immense “Hometown Glory” was heard just last week (7/18) when Santogold performed a cover of it on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge - Maida Vale show, with Jo Whiley. D&B producer High Contrast has worked his magic on “Hometown Glory“, keepin it true to his trademark form. Pick up the 12” with an instrumental version out on Hospital Records. Swedish house mafia producer Axwell highlights “Hometown Glory” with a dubby, proggy remix that is brilliant! And although a version from Brooklyn’s Pocketknife won’t see an official release, it is another fine rework of Adele’s ode to her hometown.

Adele’s 12” remix off XL Recordings, features two outstanding remixes of “Cold Shoulder” by Brixton’s very own Basement Jaxx, and a 4/4 dubstep baseline standout from Rusko. Other remixes of “Cold Shoulder” by Out of Office and a remix radio edit from Basement Jaxx are available for purchase on itunes.

I have literally listened to the variations of “Hometown Glory” hundreds of times and I could continue listening to Adele’s phenomenal voice over and over. Surely you will too, so we’ve got a few tracks for you to love on your ipod and some that will leave you dashing for the nearest record shop or digital download – Phonica, hmv, itunes. These are new releases so please support your artists and buy those that you love! Kicking it off is a live version of “Hometown Glory” performed by Adele. Read more about her in an interview at Blogcritics and pretty much everywhere on the world wide web!

Adele - Hometown Glory Live

Santogold - BBC Radio 1, Live Lounge - Adele - Hometown Glory

Adele - Hometown Glory (Axwell Classic Mix)

Adele - Hometown Glory (Pocketknife’s Familiar Faces Remix - Ext. Ver.)

Adele - Cold Shoulder (Basement Jaxx Classic Remix Edit)

Adele - Cold Shoulder (Out of Office Remix)

Here’s a bit of Fear and Loathing footage with High Contrast’s remix of “Hometown Glory”

Fun in Central Park + an after party! Race over and listen to Santogold on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge this past Friday 18 July, where she has a chat with Jo Whiley and performs her latest track “Lights Out” as well as an excellent cover of Adele’s beautiful “Hometown Glory“.

There’s no denying that the latest MIXES have been keeping our ears extremely happy and have caused some serious dance fever action! Each mix is sure to bring out the inner wild side of you! If you’ve missed any of the recent 6 listed below, do yourself a favor and work your way up from the bottom to the top and have a listen. Before you know it, they’ll be over far too quickly and you’ll be begging for more! With the exception of the smooth, minimal Acid Girls mix, these are the bass heavy sounds of the summer season! Peep the MIXES section to the upper right for more JUNE MIXES and keep checking back for more!!

Drop The Lime at Fabric
Foamo’s Summer Mix
Crookers Radio 1 essential Mix
A1 Bassline
Acid Girls - NLLR Mix
Tomb Crew - NLLR Mix

Photo credit: Crookers

Saturday, June 21st saw the Big Apple debut of no less than three of 2008’s most blogged about and lauded upcoming European dance music talents, the mysterious masked Frenchman DANGER, fellow countrymen SPITZER and Italian wonk scallywags CROOKERS. This one night only event unfurled to a sold out crowd of fourteen-hundred excited individuals in the main room of the city’s venerable, Webster Hall.

The evening kicked-off in fine style around midnight with an appropriately hyper set of wobbly bassbin havoc courtesy of Trouble & Bass stalwart THE CAPTAIN. Any opening set that includes freshness like FOAMO’S “Rockerman” and the generally upfront sounds that the Trouble & Bass crew are known for purveying, is sure to get people moving.

Following the wobbly mayhem of THE CAPTAIN, Chicago’s Grey Goose guzzling godfather of Ghettotech DJ FUNK, took to the decks. FUNK’S two-hundred mile an hour blend of jackin’ Juke whipped the already excitable dance floor into an even sweatier pool of smiling faces.

Next, the pulsating sound of Electro-tinged Techy-Trance heralded the arrival of SPITZER, who drove head first into their smooth Trance-not-Trance set, an admittedly jarring change of pace from the three-hundred beats per minute, booty bass of DJ FUNK, but this duo from Lyon (sorry for misspelling - fixed!), France quickly had the happy sea of up-for-it punters eating out the palm of their hand. Indeed, anyone smitten by SPITZER’S handful of original productions like the excellent “Rainbow Warrior” or their quality remixes of KYLIE MINOGUE’S “In My Arms” and SALLY SHAPIRO’S “Time To Let Go,” would have been more than happy with the set they played this night.

By the time SPITZER’S set bubbled nicely to a close, it was 2am and finally time for the Phra and Bot (aka, CROOKERS) to take to the CDJ’s.

Photo credit: lastnightsparty.com

Despite the positive buzz generated by CROOKERS DJ stints elsewhere around the world — download their superb BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix and Gatecrasher Sound System mixes, from our MIXES section, for a taste of their established exploits elsewhere — expectations and excitement for their performance on this particular night was tangibly high. So did this much hyped Milanese production and remix team deliver the goods? Without hesitation I would have to say a hearty, yes! While not quite on par with their thoroughly brilliant, masterpiece of an Essential Mix, their Webster Hall set had the room in an utter frenzy, hundreds of people bouncing all around them on stage, feet stomping fists pumping until their last beat was dropped. Kudos to Webster Hall for allowing everyone to freely vibe and get up close and personal to the artist they’d waited so long to see perform in person. Finally CROOKERS had arrived stateside!

Photo credit: Phil Xander

Anyone left breathless by the finish of CROOKERS thunderous set around 3:30am, barely had time to recalibrate their eardrums before arguably the line-ups most exciting and certainly most fascinating artists appeared out of nowhere in his trademark “alien creature” mask. It was time to experience DANGER and what better time than 3:30am in the morning!

With DANGER’S appearance the lights in Webster Hall dimmed, about half of the fourteen-hundred strong crowd dissipated and a very low-end rumble started to throb from the sound system. Fluttering images of a jungle suddenly appeared on a massive screen behind the masked DJ, through the jungle a charatcter runs fantically from an unknown danger. For an hour DANGER won the hearts and minds of those who had committed to staying late to witness his unique brand of what can only be describe as cultish, Prog-Electro Soundtrack-Techno! Think VANGELIS meets THE PROXY meets secret society paranoia. DANGER left little doubt that much bigger things are in-store for his hypnotic, if still somewhat lo-fi stage show. The eye-popping, staccato VJ storytelling concept alone will capture the imagination of clubbers, artists and industry types alike and the mind simply boggles at how impressive it all might become with a real budget thrown at it. Time will hopefully tell.

So there we have it, three very different but equally spot-on debut performances that drew seemingly everyone involved with dance music in New York City to the same venue for one night. It was definitely one of the most interesting and eclectic nights of electronic music the city has seen in quite some time. There is little doubt that when DANGER, SPITZER and CROOKERS make their respective return journeys to spin in New York again, they will each have a swollen army of dedicated follows to call their own, in part thanks to this impressive showcase.

If you happen to be in New York this week you can catch DANGER and SPITZER again on Wednesday, June 25th at BODEGA, 1089 Broadway, Bushwick Brooklyn. Also, check out an interview with Vin of Midnight Juggernauts on music and NYC over at TheMusic.FM!!

Previous Spitzer on Trash Menagerie
Spitzer
Spitzer Is Blowing Up!
Spizter Gets Around
Spitzer Hits The Disco!

I’ve been enjoying listening to ‘Antidotes‘, the debut album from Oxford 5-piece, FOALS, which came out in March (available for purchase off Sub Pop). I’m very keen on “Olympic Airways” and the two bonus tracks, “Hummer” and “Mathletics“. Already featured on a Kitsuné Maison compilation, it’s understandable why the hugely bright young group have been hot on everyones tip!

Foals and last.fm have joined together (sometime in April) for a REMIX CONTEST in which they offer the chance to remix “Electric Bloom“, from their debut album, Antidotes. If you’re up for the challenge, you can grab the parts off last.fm and get to chopping and tweaking!

Here’s how they’re working it – The tracks will be narrowed down to the 10 most popular, then announced. From there, Foals will choose a winning track to be released along with a future single as a 7digital download bundle. There’s still time to get in on it, as the deadline isn’t til 25th May! I have to say though, it doesn’t seem entirely fair, as it’s hard to choose which to listen to. At the moment there are over 100 remixes that have been done.

Interesting Foals tid bits – Foals drummer Jack Bevan, posed for the iconic British fashion house, Burberry, for their spring/summer line. As did another favorite, Patrick Wolf, for the ‘07 autumn line, ‘British Medieval’. This is Burberry’s second ever full-color campaign. Pretty spectacular!

For those that live in the states and are fans of Foals and perhaps Barack Obama, you’ll be pleased to know that Foals have endorsed Obama (even though they won’t be voting). ‘Change’, is the motto from both camps. This is certainly a positive influence and possibly a good way to round up some of the younger generations to get in on the coming election! PLAN TO VOTE KIDS!!!!

Lastly, Foals are nearing the end of their U.S. tour, finishing off in Brooklyn, for a sold out show at Union Hall. They’ll hit Radio 1’s Big Weekend, head to Japan a few days, then they’re back in the states til May’s end, returning to the EU til mid July, then popping over to Chicago for Lollapalooza! After all of that, they’ll do a string of festivals, including Bestival, (the line-up is absolutely insane - sold out!!), then head right into their biggest tour to date in the U.K., culminating in mid-October at Brixton Academy!! Catch them along the way and be sure to check their MySpace for all event dates.

You know you’re making headway after your Late of the Pier bootleg is played by Kissy Sell Out on Radio 1 and you were asked to remix “Cosmic Love” for Love Motel a few months back. You’ve reworked Tronik Youth’s “LaughCryLiveDie” which is forthcoming on Backyard Records. You’ve done an NLLR mixtape (all cool Dj’s are doing it) and your remix of Revolte’s “Ironical Sexism” is moving faster than the speed of light across the blogosphere. Hype! Hype! Such is the case with 21 year old Graeme Shepherd, aka Grum, out of North England.

They just keep getting younger and younger these days, don’t they?! And the rest of us? We’re just wise. Originally from Scotland, Grum says he got into dance music about 8 years ago when it had a bit of a resurgence. He went straight into production and djing more for his own amusement than anything else, but became bored. Ah boredom, twiddling thumbs, chin scratching, what to do? He threw out the rule book and decided to start making music he thought was ‘cool’ rather than ‘genre obsessed’ music. Smart.

“Melodic, heavy electro trash, with a twist of 80’s disco funk thrown in for good measure!” is the way Grum describes his style. With influences streaming from old french house; Thomas Bangalter and the like, he references the aforementioned but updated for 2k8. He’s keen to 80’s funk/soul, S.O.S. band and currently loving The Twelves, Anoraak, Sidechains and listening to slightly deeper/Italo stuff such as Knightlife, Lifelike and Fred Falke.

In the very near future, Grum has an E.P. forthcoming on No Love Lost Records, that should be out sometime this summer. He is currently working on a remix of Anoraak’s “Nightdrive With You”, plus a load of original material which just need the final touches! Meantime check out these fantastic ear pleaser’s below and Grum’s NLLR mix to be found at our MIXES section or the NLLR My Space!

Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods (Grum Remix)

Revolte - Ironical Sexism (Grum Remix)

Love Motel - Cosmic Love (Grum Remix)

There is nothing more persuasive to me than nicely packaged goods and striking visuals. As a child of consumerism, image is so important in creating a look, brand or simply a way to define ones self. The music industry has always had a symbiotic relationship with artists and designers, influencing each other throughout time. When music and design are showcased together, the two combined, can cause quite an impact.

Enter the hell raising design/Dj duo, “Team Skull” and “Team Dead” of EatDisco and European Animal, whose roaring all out party fun and fantastic flyer designs are luring the kids in like Willy Wonka did with his chocolate factory. Although they may not have an ‘Inventing Room’, or special effect bubblegum like the kind Violet Beauregarde got her hands on, you are sure to find a plethora of reasons why you should attend one of their parties, OR art showings. Read on as they tell us a bit about their unique projects and what’s ahead!

After kick starting something pretty special in the summer of 2007, EatDisco continues to bring some of the most exciting DJ’s and producers to that little dot on the map, Newcastle upon Tyne UK. Working closely with the European Animal design team, EatDisco (also known as promoters and DJ’s Team Skull and Team Dead) have forged the perfect blend of cutting edge electronic music and high end illustration. This has resulted in a much needed injection of enthusiasm and originality into an almost static club scene.

“All in all we’re trying to bring not just our favourite DJ’s from around the world to Newcastle, but we’re still pushing to really open up the city’s weekend offerings. We’re trying to keep as many of our parties free or charging next to nothing to ensure maximum levels of fun and enjoyment.” Previous guests have included Hostage, Liars Club and Machine Drum. EatDisco have also just teamed up with friends, Paris Is Burning to raise the bar even higher, throwing even bigger parties which will feature Tronik Youth, Strip Steve, Kap10Kurt and some big surprises!

European Animal, outside of working on promotional material, have also been enjoying similar levels of success at a pretty speedy rate, having had two big shows in the last year. The first took place at Paris’s En-Marge gallery, the second as part of a paste up exhibition at Common in Manchester, UK. Photos of both shows, along with a selection of their other work, can be seen on the website. Next in line is a collaborative project working with the Stiff Couture clothing label, ran by Kitsune’s Punks Jump Up, launching later this year.

EatDisco have quite a lot lined up over the next few months both in their home town and further a field, seeing them at nights in Scotland, London, Berlin and New York!

“We hope things are going to continue to grow at the rate they have been recently. We want to attract more people and open up their eyes to the fact that things are finally changing in Newcastle.”

Check out EatDisco’s gig dates on their myspace calendar and be ready for some fine action as they take over Fake! Club in Edinburgh on the 12 of April along side Hostage – who graces our presence with some updates and a brand new track!

So what has Mr. Alan Parley, known to most as ‘Hostage’, been up to these days?? He is kinda like a machine, cranking out tune after tune, playing loads of gigs and rioting into the wee hours!! He’s been spotted in Sweden supporting Hijack at Drama, London and Preston alongside the ‘Ibiza Rocks’ GASH DJs and this month he’ll be supporting Duke Dumont for 2 nights on the 28th in Doncaster and the 29th in Glasgow. Rest assured, he has been doing lots of raving and because of it, he’s in bed sick as a dog. If you’re in his area, bring the man some hot soup!!!!

One of Hostage’s latest tunes, “Oh Snap!! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix)”, has been blowing up all over the land (here it is below in case you haven’t heard) and he says it all came about whilst chattin to a U.S. rapper out of Maryland called Oh Snap!! who sent over an accapella. He took that and created “this wonky hard fidget tune round the rap – rap-attack!!!” and says, “it has been goin down real nice”. He has a lot to grin about, with yet another of his tunes, “Stab Up” which has had proper plays off Radio 1!! My-oh-my and we’ve got yet another – “Big Wheeze”.

Mr. Hostage has lots in store for those that are lucky to catch him at various gigs (check his myspace for that), playing a roccodisco showcase in Rome come April and an Australian tour sometime in June. Rave on.

Oh Snap!! - Bill Cosby Sweater (Hostage Remix)

Hostage - Big Wheeze

Deep in the heart of the West Midlands in the UK there is a band by the name of Deluka tearing it up on the live scene. With their perfectly time electro blips, squeaks and erratic beats, intermixed with the seductive tones of lead singer Ellie Innocenti, they are sure to melt your soul.

Fresh from touring the breadth of the UK and stopping off in Romania, Paris and Berlin for one-off special gigs this foursome are hungry for more success. Praised by the UK press including NME, Radio 1, Fused Magazine and Dazed & Confused they are certainly on the right track.

With an album currently under construction as we speak and requests for gigs reaching an alarming rate you should hot foot it to itunes and purchase their singles ‘I’ll Wait’ and ‘Stop, Stop’ before they disappear.

To give you a taster of what this Birmingham based four piece are about we have ‘Sleep Is Impossible’ and ‘Flashbacks’ for you to have a listen to.

Deluka - Flashbacks

Deluka - Sleep Is Impossible

Photo Credit: Brooklyn VeganSimian Mobile Disco are back in NYC during CMJ to wow us yet again with a live performance at The Music Hall of Williamsburg. They were here last month and played to a sold out crowd at Gramercy, with a light show hot on the heels of rivaling Daft Punk. Right now, I can’t think of a stronger live electronic act than James and Jas, they are doing it up proper. With tracks like ‘Hustler” and “Its The Beat”, they are def set to reach legendary status amongst the dance music ranks. They already have in my book, and I’m pleased as punch they are returning to NYC to do it all over again on Oct 18th. If you missed them the first time around, don’t sleep in this, you’ve been given a second chance.

And yes, the rumors are true, James did in fact injure himself playing soccer with The Arctic Monkeys, (what a story, eh?) and had to cancel a few DJ gigs to recover. However, he’s a trooper and he will back in fine form, without skipping a beat.

And speaking of beats, SMD were kind enough to let us share with you a rare live Radio One tweaked out acid version of “Its The Beat”. So get out of your seat, and D/L the hotness!

Simian Mobile Disco - Its the Beat Live on Radio 1 Rare Edit

CMJ Music Marathon
Simian Mobile Disco
Invisible Conga People / James F!@#$%^ Friedman
Thursday 10/18
$18 advance / $20 day of show 18+Doors 9pm / Show 10pm
TICKETS

As someone who likes to think that he isn’t easily roped in by trends and fads, I’ve been very wary to not get too into the whole new rave thing. As an ex-raver and self-proclaimed proponent of rave music I am trying to avoid getting my hopes up about the true return of the rave. I do allow myself to get a little excited sometimes when I come upon something nu-rave that is so good that, even if nu-rave didn’t exist, every time you heard it, you’d catch a slight scent of Vick’s Vaporub and your fingers go all tingly.

If you haven’t come across TRASH FASHION out of London yet, they are truly the real deal. None of this Klaxons intelligent post-punk with sirens adopting rave style and covering Kicks Like a Mule. Trash Fashion is pure original energy. Integrating hectic elektro with thrash guitar and vocals and simple disco songwriting sensibility, this is what the nu-sound should be like. If you have heard their first big single Rave Dave, you’d know that they are capable of a self-effacing, tongue-in-cheek style but they do it without seeming shameful or negative about it, which is a really hard line to walk. It’s like they’re proud of the raveiness understand that is indeed something to laugh about. It’s certainly not like anything done before. I really hope these guys can escape being pigeon-holed into the fad because I sense that they are capable of becoming the future of high energy rock. Also, the other reason I love them is because they rock the short shorts and have inspired me to do the same (i’ve been looking for a reason to wear soccer shorts to clubs for eons). Be sure to break out the sunglasses when i’m around because these comely gams will be glowing at a party near you.

Trash Fashion are releasing their debut EP - ‘Mom & Daddy’ on 8 October although I believe there was short run of their previous collection of songs including their nu-classic, tongue-in-cheek hit, Rave Dave. Recently played on Kissy Sell Out’s Radio 1 show this track is the Jet Storm Ear Cleaner Mix of the title track off the EP. It has a bassline reminiscent of Tiga’s Louder Than A Bomb but with more a hectic, edgy feel and quickly builds into their trademark disco thrash sound closing with epic crowd cheering in the background a la Charley Lownoise and Mental Theo (haha). BOOOOOM.

Trash Fashion - Mom & Daddy (Jet Storm Ear Cleaner Mix)

Trash Fashion Merch!