Williamsburg is getting a big, fancy new dance club very soon. Located at 74 Wythe (at N. 12th St.) right by Brooklyn Bowl and Wythe Hotel, Output is a 452-person-capacity club that is planning on opening in the next few weeks, with additional plans for a rooftop bar and restaurant. The club will focus on techno, house and other EDM styles. While the exact opening date has not been set, February 22 will be the first edition of Bunker to happen there, with DJ sets from Speedy J, Peter Van Hoesen, and Mike Servito.... and the fact that Bunker is doing a party there actually gives us hope that this place is not just going to end up catering to a Pacha-Jersey-Shore-like crowd. That said, Bunker will continue to host parties at Public Assembly just a few blocks away after February, for now anyway.

The new club "will be the new North American showcase room for Funktion One, featuring some next generation equipment you wont find anywhere else." I'm sure it's going to sound amazing in there.

Flyer for the Bunker party at Output is below.

Continue reading "Williamsburg dance club Output opening soon"

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)"