Check out ‘Black & Gold’ by Sam Sparro (above, live), coming off Modus Vivendi.

He will be DJing at Found in July.  Info here.

Black & Gold

DJs Tarantino & Ts’s return this Thursday, May 3rd, with another installment of their bi-weekly dj night:

T H E E B U T T O N S
Thursday, May 3rd, 10 pm - 2 am
Free @ Broadway Bar
830 S. Broadway b/w 8th & 9th Sts.
Downtown Los Angeles, 90014
myspace.com/thebuttonsla

No Performance will be representing in full effect. Don’t punk.

In another fun effort (though much better than the disappointing Danger Doom album) by the Adult Swim people to gain indie cred, they released a free compilation with Def Jux artists a little while ago.

Download it here.

They did something with Stones Throw in the last year as well, and I think the Stones Throw aesthetic is more appropriate for the Adult Swim audiences and commercials (Speaking of Stones Throw, the 1st ever Percee P full length is due out sometime this year).  But, hey, it’s a new free Def Jux comp.  The only con is that the tracks are all clean.  I think.
Highlights: Camu Tao, Despot, and I’ve finally come around to Cool Calm Pete.

Their set was the best thing at Coachella last year.  I can’t wait to see the Hotstepper himself this year - Ini Kamoze!

Download the entire set (soundboard quality)
Link [Drum ‘n Bass Repository]

Photo courtesy of txjaxx

So, 2007-2008 is all about (at least in weird-ward thinking fuckheads wunderkind niches) two amazing (or potentially amazing) follow up albums. Great, because they at least appear not to give a fuck about anything. Cheers to that.

The first has been released, it’s by ex-Ultra-Magnetic MC krazee Dr. Octagon called ‘Return of Dr. Octagon,’ and while not featuring the production of Dan the Automator as in the original, this album is fucking ridiculous. And dense. And retarded. And colorful. The producing collective One Watt Sun recorded ‘The Return of Dr. Octagon’ in a 12th century turret in the old quarter of Prague, as well as Byron Bay and Melbourne in Australia, and also at their current studio space in Berlin.

I haven’t heard too many positive things about this record, because it was supposed to be released in 2012.

Two tracks here:

Don’t Worry Mz Pop Music

A Gorilla Driving a Pick-Up Truck

The second honor goes to El-P (founder of Definitive Jux Records, ex-home of RJD2 and currently home to Despot, Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, Cage, Mr. Lif, The Perceptionists, Cannibal Ox, etc. etc. etc.), whose follow up to ‘Fantastic Damage’ promises to be as retarded as the good doctor’s. I’ve been following the now dead blog ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’ (the title of the record, too) and couldn’t be more excited. You can hear a couple of the tracks on his Myspace page. Otherwise, it’s all speculation.

Dec. 9, 10pm-7am

Moved our party so we could go. Everyone else flaked cause it was $20, but it was worth every bit of it. If you ever get the chance…

Stay up to date at Harvey’s site. Listen to mystery tracks.

Listen to the rare Sonic Disco Mix #1 [192 Kbs]. You’re lucky little shits.

Tracklisting:
01. Beastie Boys - Open Letter To Nyc (Rub & Tug)
02. Chairmen Of The Board - Life And Death In G A
03. Violin - Interlude
04. Zazu - Captain Starlight
05. Violin - Interlude
06. Ganges Orchestra - Dream
07. Lcd Soundsystem - Disco Infiltrator (Fk Dub)
08. Thievery Corporation With David Byrne - Heart
09. Lindstrom & Prins Thomas - Ready For The Futu
10. Ike & Tina Turner - Whole Lotta Love
11. Emperor Machine - Vertical Tones & Horizontal
12. Dirty Minds - I’m For Pleasure
13. Martin Circus - Disco Circus (Hardrock Strike
14. J.E.N. - Afro Maniac - Freestyle
15. Prince - Sexy Dancer
16. Black Cook - Disco Adventure
17. Gang Do Tagarela - Melo Do Tagarela
18. Change - Hold Tight
19. Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein

“If you see him live, you’ll finding yourself dancing your ass off to a completely unfamiliar soundtrack, that paradoxically feels familiar.”

At the Crash night at the Stone Bar in Thai Town

Got to see the new addition to the roster in their U.S. debut last night. New Young Pony Club. From Bristol I think? Lead singer Tahita has energy like Ninja from the Go! Team, less than 5′ dancing and singing and pushing her way through the cramped stage. The audience didn’t move a whole lot, possibly because there was little room to move. Possibly because LA tends to play it careful and not lose their shit. She led the band through a blistering, short set - maybe less than 30 minutes - she said she was losing her voice. Before their last song she yelled to the crowd, “I’m giving it somewheres between 100 and 120 percent! Y’all are only giving me between 70 to 100! Now step it up, repeat after me…” It sounds cooler in her accent.

The stage was really small and dark. One of the guys in the band said it was too dark, couldn’t see shit. Tahita said, “It’s kind of like being a teenage boy in your bedroom, you know, with something you don’t want people to see under your covers. Being on stage is like that.” Again, it sounds cooler in her accent.

There was a stickyhot reggaeton song they played…other songs skipped next to garage-y stuff. What sets them apart from influences ESG is that these girls can actually sing. At the end of the song they played for an encore, the beat tapered off to silence and left Tahita and the other girl singing and holding harmony with no instruments. Just naked voices. I really want to have tracks, but they didn’t have anything for sale. She told me you can get it for free on eMusic. I saw you can buy it on iTunes. You can have a track here.

Never been to the Stone Bar before. Small, not much room to dance, cheap drinks. Like $5 Red Bull / Vodka if you can use that as a gauge. I don’t normally drink them you judgmental fuck. The bartender gave me a ripped $20 bill as part of my change and then wouldn’t accept it when I tried to buy another drink with it. When I asked whats up, she said she wouldn’t have given me that bill as change because she counts change 3 times. Count it - THREE times. I had to step down. No one who checks her change THREE times could be wrong. But what if I told her THREE times that she gave me the torn $20. She couldn’t say shit on that. The door girl was nice to me, but seemed to enjoy barking at people to move around and threatening to not let them in if they didn’t change their attitudes. I’d be a horrible doorman.

New Young Pony Club - Descend (Off the Ice Cream EP) [320Kbs]
DJ Sunderland - Ice Cream Hustler (Simian v. New Young Pony Club) [192Kbs]

Puma asked us to shoot a little something to celebrate the new line of Evisu Jeans they’re carrying in their stores. For their own private fête, they took over the Puma store in Santa Monica on the 15th and threw a party themed like a high school prom. Nostalgic mash-ups provided by Jason Stewart (ROCKS), Afrobots, and MSTRKRFT (Death From Above 1979’s side project).

We projected our piece on the wall above the cash register: high-school doodles, awkward touches, note passing, getting pretty for prom, and, er, obligatory high school prom.

We relived our own proms (Jonny never had one) by:

- Taking group photos at photobooth. DOUBLES!

- Getting tanked on the only drink available (which was like gin and grapefruit juice and red syrup)

- Not talking to the cool kids because we’re not cool enough

- Dancing as if we knew how to dance, in circles of course

Watch an excerpt from our Puma Prom projection

More pics from the par-tay

Musical accompaniment:
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division (I know, I know)
“The Comeback” by the Shout Out Louds (Big Slippa Mix by Ratatat)

MSTRKRFT on MySpace
Evisu Denim // Puma

We’ve got some tricks up our sleeves, just you wait. But in the meantime here are treats. These are excerpts of projections from a party we did in San Francisco, circa June 2005. It was called the “Fuck You Burning Man Festival” party and it was thrown by our babeacious friend Big M. Jefrodisiac and Ed from the Arrow Bar / Mister Loveless kept our asses waxed with the hits.

Jonny and I made friends with the neighbors standing outside the building, who were in a gang they said. They asked Jonny for money and he told them that Katrina destroyed his house so he was running a little low on cash. Crazy Pete then told Jonny that he “should have shot that motherfucker.” Shoot Katrina? “Yeah shoot that motherfucker!” Shoot a hurricane we asked in disbelief. “Yeah shoot that shit! BLAM!” If Crazy Pete had a gun, we’d surely soldier up and shoot hurricanes until the meth ran out. But, alas, we rejoined the party.

The next morning we woke up in a room that was all purple. Apparently we had crashed in Big M’s roommate’s room, who was actually in Black Rock City, Utah at the Burning Man Festival. His room was all hula hoops, plush purple pillows, and the softest bed I’ve ever vomited on. Pictures of John and his orange ambulance (called the Life Saver or something stupid like that) adorned his purple dresser. He and the Rhythm Society had all piled into the ambulance and driven to the playa to worship music and debate politics of body movement.

So he wasn’t there when Crazy Pete and his gang dropped their own names and got into the party. They ended up stealing John’s purple projector, Jeff’s vinyl records, and Big M’s cell phone. FUCK YOU BURNING MAN!

Projections:
Excerpt 1: Seniors teach us how to line dance to the smooth sounds of !!!.
Excerpt 2: Mashed-up scenes from a movie called United Trash. I hope to god no one has seen it. “Glass Danse” by The Faint.

Pics of me cleaning Big M’s toilet, arranged graciously by Big M
Burning Man

So we told you we’d post some of the treats we projected at the party in December. These should be silly fun. This little excerpt contains samples from a few films, footage we shot, and a very special interaction at Zankou Chicken in Hollywood.

Watch

Sounds provided by: “Hot” by Missy Elliott, remixed by Ratatat

Gotta have Quicktime 7 to see anything on this site.