photos by Brook Bobbins

A-Trak @ Terminal 5 on April 30th

HARD Events, Cloud 9 Adventures, and Bowery Presents have announced the first Holy Ship! cruise (which is the new name for "HARD Cruise"). The cruise leaves Ft. Lauderdale on January 6 aboard the MSC Poesia with stops in Port Lucaya, Bahamas and a private island, returning to Ft. Lauderdale on January 9. The lineup includes Fatboy Slim, Diplo, Rusko, A-Trak, Steve Aoki, Skrillex, Destructo and others. Tickets go on sale June 15 via the Holy Ship! website. The full lineup is listed below.

A Pre-Cruise kickoff party will take place at Revolution Live in Florida on January 5. More details and lineup to be announced.

On January 8, 2012 the cruise stops at a private island where Fatboy Slim, Diplo, Buraka Som Sistema, and Dillon Francis play the first ever Holy Ship! Beach Boutique party.

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Fatboy Slim also plays the new Dance.Here.Now Festival which is taking place on the Beach at Governor's Island from July 1st-4th, 2011 (Paul Van Dyk, Benny Benassi, and Victor Calderone are also headliners at the Pacha-presented event). Early Bird tickets are on sale at their website.

A-Trak played a headlining show at Terminal 5 back on April 30th with Clipse and the Gaslamp Killer. More picutres from the show with the full Holy Ship! lineup and flyer, below...

Continue reading "Holy Ship! (not Hard Cruise) lineup ++ Fatboy Slim also playing 'Dance.Here.Now' on Governors Island ++++ live A-Trak pics"

Chemical Brothers are set to release their seventh studio album, Further, on June 8, 2010 on Freestyle Dust/Parlaphone/Astralwerks. This album is the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks. The films will be included on an iTunes LP and special edition DVD.

As well as an eight-track album, Further is the band's first proper partnership with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. Now a respected TV and film director, Adam - aka Flat Nose George - has been responsible for creating the visual backdrop for every Chemical Brothers gig since their live debut in 1994. Visuals for Further have been created to correspond with each track on the album and have been planned during the recording of the record.

The band will play four shows at London's Roundhouse in May. These will be the first opportunities for fans to see the band play the album with Smith and Lyall's new films in sequence and in their entirety. -PR

The band's upcoming shows include late summer gigs at Hollywood Bowl in LA and the Electric Zoo Festival on NYC's Randall's Island on September 4th. Headlining Electric Zoo's second night on September 5th will be Armin van Buuren. Tickets are on sale.

A song expected to be on Further called "Escape Velocity" was debuted last week on BBC. That song, all tour dates and the current Electric Zoo lineup are below...

Continue reading "Chemical Brothers releasing new album, playing shows including Electric Zoo on Randall's Island (dates)"

Wow...Public Image Ltd, The Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Grace Jones, Fever Ray, Devo, Hot Chip, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, Mew, Camera Obscura, Gil Scott-Heron, The xx, John Waters, Dillinger Escape Plan, Deer Tick, Gary Numan... Full Coachella 2010 lineup below....

Continue reading "2010 Coachella line up announced (Faith No More, Pavement, Muse, Gorillaz, Thom Yorke, Jay-Z, LCD Soundystem, ???)"

photos by Zach Dilgard

Frankie Knuckles / actual members of the crowd

"This past labor day weekend in NYC, thousands of dance and electronica music fans gathered together for the first, and hopefully annual Electric Zoo Festival on Randall's Island to celebrate Electronic Music. The festival lineup featured over 50 acts which included Steve Aoki, Busy P, Danny Tenaglia, Benny Benassi, Deadmau5, David Guetta, Markus Schulz, Tom Middleton, Kaskade, and Armin Van Burren over the course of two days....

...On the second day of the festival, house music icon DJ Frankie Knuckles alongside Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) blessed the turntables with a raw and authentic classic house music set that made you feel nothing short of spiritual...

..."Music belongs to everybody," Frankie says after stepping off stage from his Electric Zoo DJ set. "Believe me, If I had the ability I would really just make it possible so that any and everybody could just show up (on the dancefloor)...a lot of times that's all you got to hold onto." To that end, it seems rather fitting that his biggest commercial hit was the ethereal and optimistic Whistle Song, which just might make him the pied piper of dance music who tries to leads the masses to a state of bliss.

Dropping next month is Frankie's Motivation Too album, which is his first compilation in six years. When asked about his own personal tactics for motivation, Frankie notes: "I normally get up early in the morning, like seven or eight o'clock. Musically I'm listening to things that are very spiritual and classical while I'm moving through the morning and getting myself together. I pretty much block out a lot of things that could possibly feed me any kind of negative energy, because my day has to be right...I figure why not get up on the right side of the bed and focus and maybe I'll get through the day and it will be alright."" [MC2D Magazine]

You saw Ryan's pictures from Sunday. More of Zach's pictures from both days of the fest (where he unfortunately missed Lindstrom, James Murphy, Al Doyle, Pat Mahoney, Busy P, DJ Medhi, Junior Boys, Holy Ghost, JDH, Dave P, Andy Butler, and others) (but did capture lots of scariness), below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo Festival 2009 @ Randalls Island, NYC (more pics)"

DOWNLOAD: Lindstrøm - The Long Way Home (Prins Thomas edit) (MP3)

Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair @ Studio B (more by Ryan Muir)

Hercules and Love Affair (aka Andy Butler) is releasing a new DJ mix called Sidetracked... July 21st on Renaissance Recordings. Butler will be making DJ appearances throughout the summer, mainly in Europe. One U.S. gig will be at the July 3rd Firecracker party at the Hammerstein Ballroom (tonight). Also at the event, as mentioned by Showtrotta, will be Steve Lawler, Tiefschwarz, Victor Calderone, Damian Lazarus (live) and Audiofly. Tickets are still on sale.

Butler will be at Lollapalooza on August 8th, and he'll be making an appearance at NY's Electric Zoo Electronic Music Festival, taking place September 5th and 6th on Randall's Island. Other acts at the fest include Special Disco Version (featuring LCD Soundsystem/DFA's James Murphy & Pat Mahoney), Felix Martin & Al Doyle (of Hot Chip), Lindstrom, Frankie Knuckles, Prins Thomas, and many, many more. Above you can check out the Prins remix of Linstrom's "The Long Way Home" off the latter's Where You Go I Go Too. Tickets to the fest, including 2-day passes, are on sale now. Electric Zoo's current lineup is posted below.

Another electronic music suaree, the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, is on the way as well, happening August 8th at the Old American Can Factory. The fest's headliners will be Juan MacLean (live) and RJD2; full lineup is still on the way. Tickets are currently on sale.

Electric Zoo lineup with Hercules and Love Affair comp info and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Electric Zoo on Randall's Island, BK Electronic Music Fest, Hercules and Love Affair DJ sets & CD & more..."

DOWNLOAD: Dominique Keegan - All Dom Wrong DJ Mix (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Alexander Technique - DANR 001 (May 2009) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Hall and Oates - I Can't Go For That (Streetlab Mix) (MP3)

Sorry for the interruption in the Week In Dance...there were some foreign dancefloors I needed to explore. Hopefully you were able to get down without me. As much as I'm dying to tell you what I did...there's way too much happening this week (and I need to go through some photos).

Before we get to that, one quick heads up that Fatboy Slim (also more recently known as Brighton Port Authority) is DJing Terminal 5 on June 24th. Tickets are currently on American Express presale, with the regular sale starting Friday at noon.

Now here's to making up for lost time (Thursday & Friday night events & more):

Continue reading "the week in Dance (part 1) w/ Showtrotta (Black Strobe, Fatboy Slim & a Hall & Oates remix included)"

you don't have to dance @ The Yard on Sunday - May 25, 2008 (BettyMG)

Saturday (tonight) and Sunday offer way less than Friday did in terms of places I wanted to go this weekend. Nevertheless, here they are....

Continue reading "Showtrotta's weekend in Dance (Saturday & Sunday in NYC)"