DOWNLOAD: The Black Ghosts - Any Way (Fake Blood mix) (MP3)

Sebastien Tellier @ LPR - Dec 11, 2008 (natkg)

From Tuesday my week in dance hit a slight hiccup. Thursday night (12/11) it was pouring when I arrived at Le Poisson Rouge for Sebastien Tellier and despite not waiting outside long at all, I still entered the venue sogggy. Unfortunately I also arrived just in time to see Hearts Revolution. I've seen them once before. I'm fine with their beats and I like some remixes of their tracks, but I find their shows to be atrocious (ouch - ed). It's mainly due to Lo's singing which is shrill and unpleasant to begin with, but the lead vocalist's unnecessary commentary which included complaining about the bright stage lights this time around (and wanting to go home and go to bed the previous time I saw her) was not helping matters. Thankfully their show was pretty short and Sebastien Tellier was on not too long after.

While Sebastien Tellier had my Tellier fanatic-friends and I bugging out when we last saw him at Hiro, this time around the experience was much more subdued. The stage show was a little toned down - less pelvic thrusting and fun with the microphone. I brought a Tellier-virgin along and was concerned about what he was thinking of Frenchman... Though everyone seemed really into it, and it was still a decent show, my distance from the stage, and concern that my friend was/wasn't enjoying himself, and a slightly less outrageous performance, made his show at Le Poisson Rouge fall short of the madness I experienced at Hiro in July.

Luckily things picked right back up where they left off Friday night...

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (Sebastien Tellier, Fools Gold, Fake Blood, Lifelike, Trus'me & more...)"

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: Jusque le bout pour voir comme ca sent 1 mix - Dominique Keegan (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: AC Slater guest mix on Kiss 100 - May 1st, 2008 (divShare MP3 link)

The Black Ghosts @ Studio B - July 19, 2008 (CRED)

Despite the many dance possibilities this past weekend, I only ventured out to see the Black Ghosts at Studio B. Suprisingly, I arrived around 12:30 to an empty dancefloor - especially for that time on a Saturday night. As people slowly trickled down from the rooftop garden, it started to fill up though, and by the time the Ghosts went on at 1:30, the floor was healthily, but not overbearingly packed.

The duo opened with some slowly building electro goodness before Simon launched into Something New. For the following hour and half the crowd got down pretty fiercely to a mix of the Ghosts' own beats as well as some they had sampled. Tracks from the Black Ghosts self-titled debut album were dispersed throughout the set. Simon's energetic live vocals contributed invaluably to the performance, though more mellow than the last time I saw them at Glasslands. At Glasslands I danced for their entire performance. At Studio B there were a few lulls where I found myself wishing they would drop something a bit more upbeat. Overall it was still a great performance. A partial set list of their own songs they performed, as well as a few of the other songs they played/sampled, below.

This week the dancing is off to an early start. Wednesday night (tonight - July 23) there is a pretty massive party going on at the many roomed Rebel. I'm still not sure how I feel about that place. It's nice to be able to meander around if the deejay in one room isn't pushing your buttons, on the other hand, if there's someone deejaying that you specifically want to see you can have a hell of a time figuring out where they are. There are enough people on the bill that it should be a blast either way. I recommend checking out the following deejays if you decide to go to this party:

Continue reading "Black Ghosts played Studio B, dance @ TheJump! tonight"

DOWNLOAD: The Black Ghosts - Repetition (Diplo Remix) (MP3)

The Dodos @ Cake Shop, NYC - July 17, 2008 (forklift)

today in NYC
* FREE STUFF
* The Siren Festival
* Yaz @ Beacon Theater
* Matmos @ (le) poisson rouge
* USAISAMONSTER @ Silent Barn
* Rooftop Films w/ Pwrfl Power
* The Black Ghosts @ Studio B
* The Siren afterparty @ Music Hall of W
* Girls, Nite Jewel & Rings @ Glasslands
* Karsh Kale performing Enter the Dragon in Prospect Park
* Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson & Kyp Malone @ Cake Shop
* Calavera Conspiracy & Dillinger Escape Plan @ Irving Plaza
* Sic Alps, Meth Teeth, Religious Knives & caUSE co-MOTION! @ DBA

Meth Teeth, a good lo-fi band from "Kerby st./ Seattle/Goose Hollow, Oregon" is now on tour. Check them out tonight at Death By Audio (see great lineup above) and Sunday at Don Pedro's.

Tickets are still on sale for the Last Shadow Puppets show at Grand Ballroom.

"Dark Knight" breaks preview record

James Brown's children sorry to see memorabilia auctioned.

Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Steven Tyler, Roger Daltry of the Who, John Mellencamp, Don Henley, and Tony Bennett, and all made guest appearances at one of Billy Joel's two "last plays" at Shea Stadium.

What else?

DOWNLOAD: DirtyFinger and PorkChop on WNYU Rotations Radio 6-03-05 Part 2 (zSHARE MP3)

Fred Falke @ Tribeca Grand - July 12, 2008 (CRED).


I feel like so much has happened since my last post. Unfortunately before I left, packing and all that last minute, pre-travel running around caught up with me so I was only able to go out on the 3rd. I had my first Santos experience and it couldn't have been better. No hassle at the door, good opening set from Star Eyes, very impressive set from Chromeo's Dave-1 (tons of really good, underplayed electro remixes - including the Lifelike remix of Needy Girl that was on my Montreal Muxtape, and a lot of classic French house). Despite desperately looking forward to hearing Dominique Keegan's set, I was totally beat, not dancing anymore, and leaning against a big column when he went on at 2, so I called it an early night.

Friday night I really wanted to see Montrealers, NROTB at the Annex, but it just wasn't happening. Luckily I more than made up for it with all the music I experienced the following week while I was actually in Montreal. Each experience was serious fun in some way or another. Here's the quick version of what I managed to catch:

Saturday night - Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts

Sunday - the Tamtams at Parc Mont-Royal and Piknic Electronikwith Mossa, The Bulgarian, and Luke Solomon at Parc Jean-Drapeau.

Sunday night - Team Canada at Blue Dog Motel.

Tuesday night - the F-Yeah tour with Monotonix & Team Robespierre at La Sala Rossa and Teenwolf at Blizzarts.

Wednesday night - WhiteRoom at Casa del Popolo and DJ Vivie-Ann at Cherry.

I arrived back in New York around 8:30 on Friday and promptly passed out after being home a few hours. Saturday morning (July 12) I read Dave's lovely post to see what was up and nearly fell off my chair when I read that Fred Falke was going to be here! I got warmed up at PS1 early in the evening, waited in the longest beer line I've ever experienced there for most of Free Blood's set, hung around for about an hour of funky, disco-ey goodness from DJ Spun, and then after a few hours I headed down to the Tribeca Grand where Solid Goldberger and I witnessed a truly great, exciting set from Fred Falke. He did it up right using a variety of electronic elements coupled with some great live bass. It was easily one of the best shows I've been to this year.

Another excellent show (also in the live/electronic vein) I've been to in '08 was the Black Ghosts at Glasslands back in May. The Ghosts will be hitting Brooklyn again with their own live/electro take at Studio B on Saturday night. More on that later this week, but be sure to RSVP ($5) to weare138nyc@yahoo.com or get a ticket online or at Other Music in the meantime! If not it will cost you $10 at the door.

Before that show and the rest of the weekend is anywhere in sight there are already a ton of things lined up to get you moving on the floor. Most of them are happening on Thursday (tonight - July 17)....

Continue reading "Showtrotta is back from Montreal, -Thursday night in Dance"

Listen to both of the new albums @ Spinner.

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire (Midnight Juggernauts remix) (MP3)

Midnight Juggernauts @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - May 9, 2008 (CRED)

Last week in dance was pretty amazing. Wednesday night at Studio B the Shoes stole the show with their early live set - an energetic mix of lyrics and good dance beats. SebastiAn's set that followed was a bit on the weird side - it started off poppy, but quickly moved to the more electro/dance oriented. He didn't play anything super new (except his track "Motor" which is great for the floor), had a few good build-ups, but the set as a whole never really came together. After he was finished, Yuksek and Brodinski seemed to have something good going, but half of the half-full Studio B crowd left right after SebastiAn. You can only dance to Bucketheadz's "the Bomb" in the middle of an empty floor for so long before it gets awkward, so regrettably I never got to see where their set went either.

Friday night I enjoyed hearing all of the Midnight Juggernauts electronic undertones at Bowery Ballroom (which were previously drowned out when I saw them at the Terminal 5 with Justice). Despite having a much better time at this show and being able to hear more of the electronic elements of their music, the Midnight Juggernauts live show comes across much more like a rock (dare I say metal) performance than you would expect from hearing their album.

Luckily we decided to head to Le Royale afterwards where we were just in time to catch an hour of great, solidly dance-able tunes from D.I.M. He played many of his own tracks (such as "Is You" and his remix of My People by the Presets), a lot of recent releases, and quite a few remixes and original tracks by Boys Noize. Even though I found so much Boys Noize love a bit odd, it really made me think highly of D.I.M.'s set. I love Boys Noize, but have over done it with his music at this point. I've seen him deejay 5 times over the past year, and have played out Oi Oi Oi. Despite that, something about D.I.M.'s delivery of the tracks was able to make me excited to hear them again. Additionally D.I.M. has a great energy and personality that shines through while he's deejaying. He shouts along, gestures, and really gets the crowd into into it. It was a really refreshing dance experience.

The Black Ghosts @ Glasslands, Brooklyn, NYC - May 10, 2008 (CRED)

Saturday night, while I wouldn't call the steamy Glasslands Gallery refreshing, the Black Ghosts set was another breath of fresh air for dance music. Touché's UK-styled beats coupled with Simon Lord's fervent vocals reminded me of when I first started going out to see deejays. Everything sounded fresh and I would come home drenched in sweat with my feet aching, looking forward to doing it all again. That night at Glasslands I could tell I wasn't the only one who felt that way. The Ghosts had the crowd losing it on the dancefloor as they blazed through an hour and a half of great beats laced with live performances of their songs including "I Want Nothing, Any Way You Choose to Give It", "Some Way Through This", and others.

While those are some tough acts to follow, there is some great talent coming through New York this week:

Continue reading "Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy, Black Ghosts, The Shoes, D.I.M. & the Wednesday night in Dance..."

DOWNLOAD: The Bay Bridge podcast w/ The Dodos (MP3) (info)
DOWNLOAD: The Moldy Peaches speak & reunite on Spinner (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Black Ghosts vs Linstrom - I Feel Space vs Something New (MP3)

Super Furry Animals, Music Hall, Brooklyn - Jan 25, 2008 (Tom Vu)

Kria Brekken & Avey Tare @ Glasslands, Brooklyn - Jan 20, 2008 (Toshiko Ouchi)

Idiotarod, NYC - Jan 26, 2008 (Tod Seelie)

* Christian Brando, RIP
* Hugh Masekela is playing SOB's
* Laura Veirs is playing Union Hall
* DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist @ Irving Plaza
* Miracle Condition, David Yow & J Robinson @ Union Pool

That Spinner podcast MP3 up there is ANOTHER Adam Green and Kimya Dawson reunion. The other one was on The View. A video of the performance is below. Jesca Hoop's new video for "Money" is below too. What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Sunday?"