DOWNLOAD: Hope Sandoval - Wild Roses (MP3)

1- THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS - Asleep from day
2- ALPHA - Elvis
3- *NOUVELLE VAGUE - Confusion
4- FINK - Trouble's what you are in
5- *HOPE SANDOVAL - Wild Roses
6- TUNNG - Bullets
7- TWO FOR THE ROAD - Road Trip
8- APPARAT - Hailin' from the edge
9- *TELEPOPMUSIK - Ghost Girl
10- FOUR TET - Everything is alright
11- *THE SHOES feat. KELLY DE MARTINO - 7 am
12- JOSÉ GONZALEZ - Down the line
13- KELLY DE MARTINO - Long, long, long
14- BOARDS OF CANADA - Dayvan Cowboy
15- ASWEFALL - Between the miles

"Air France's first ever album features symbolic tracks already used on board the aircraft, plus three exclusive pieces composed especially for the occasion (Hope Sandoval, Telepopmusik and The Shoes featuring Kelly De Martino). For this next musical step, it was logical that the compilation take its name from the on board Air France music channel itself - 'In The Air'."

Six of the songs are streaming at MySpace including all three news ones. Most importantly...NEW HOPE SANDOVAL (also available for download above)

Hope is also supposedly (hopefully) going to appear on the new Massive Attack album ("The Weather Underground") coming out some time in 2009.

In related news, Mazzy Star keyboardist Suki Ewers is still making music and playing shows.

Check out the classic Jesus & Mary Chain video for "Sometimes Always" (starring Hope) below...

Continue reading "HOPE SANDOVAL pens a NEW song for Air France (MP3), Chemical Brothers, Boards of Canada & others on CD too"

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..."

words by Showtrotta, photos by Ryan Muir

DOWNLOAD: Sebastien Tellier - Divine (Midnight Juggernauts remix) (Zshare MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Shoes - Knock Out (live @ Big in Japan) (Zshare MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Shoes - Baby I'm For Real (Zshare MP3)

I should have known that with so much on a Wednesday night, it would be another crazy weekend with (too?) much to do in New York. Tonight is the one calm night, but look out for a monster post of Friday dance events tomorrow.

Midnight Juggernauts @ Coachella

Australia's Midnight Juggernauts are in town this week finishing up the last few dates of their US tour with New York's own Shy Child. They will be playing at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday (May 9) along with one of my favorite disco-friendly, New York-based, deejays, Holy Ghost. Tickets are still on sale.

But prior to that, both bands will be deejaying at Hiro Ballroom tonight (Thursday, May 8) (free with RSVP). The Shoes will also be playing a live set (in case you missed them last night at Studio B - or if you saw them and could not get enough). I was at Studio B last night and thought the Shoes live set was pretty good. The duo's live show is created with a Mac, some other gear, and live vocals. The set was very energetic and got the crowd moving from the get-go. The live vocals gave their songs a sense of immediacy, and their original tracks were a pleasant change from all the deejay sets I've caught lately.

The Midnight Juggernauts photos in this post were taken by Ryan at Coachella. More of them, a video, and the flyer for tonight, below....

Continue reading "Midnight Juggernauts - tonight, Friday, Coachella, the Shoes"

by Showtrotta

Erol Alkan @ Studio B - May 3, 2008 (CRED)

Lots of good dance went down here last weekend, but I was out of town! Luckily one of my dance partners in crime, Paul (Thump Thump), made it out to Studio B on Saturday for Erol Alkan's set:

"Everything about Erol was great last Saturday. The crowd - packed but not that gross, disgusting, Studio B packed. Most everyone was into it, and then Erol crushed it, but not in a "hit you over the head with bangin' tracks" kind of crush. It was more of a complete set, not banger after banger. I liked it because he selected very good, obscure tracks (very few Ed Banger songs) and made them flow. He teased up tons of build-ups and blended them into other build-ups, and then released. It was really, really, one of the more seamless dj sets that I've heard in a while.

The dancing starts early this week with a couple of great events happening tonight (Wednesday, May 7, 2008).........

Continue reading "Erol Alkan played Studio B // the Wed night in Dance........... (events @ R Bar and/or Studio B TONIGHT)"