DOWNLOAD: Jody Wisternoff - Way Out There, 1/20/09 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Jody Wisternoff - Way Out There, 12/16/08 (MP3)

Housemeister @ Bowery Ballroom - January 24, 2009

I thought the Valerie Collective at Webster Hall last Friday would be nearly impossible to top, but Saturday proved different. The typically rocking Bowery Ballroom had gone rave for the night. Bowery's usual head-nodding, foot tapping crowd was nowhere in sight and upon entering the front of the sparsely filled ballroom it was like seeing a mirage: a range of people from teens to late 30's, wearing everything from brightly colored shorts and tights, tie dyed capes, matching striped hoodies, and nylon LA Gear Jumpsuits...all getting down (on a much too well lit, and nowhere close to being crowded dancefloor) just minutes into the evening! In addition to the crowd seeming very rave-ready to begin with, Housemeister played an absolutely great opening set...very techy/techno-ey in the vein of Boys Noize and totally fresh. He included many of his own remixes, a lot of tracks I didn't know, and some great current stuff (aka Oizo's "Positif") that had everyone accordingly losing it: Vous êtes des animaux indeed.

You could tell the crowd was eagerly anticipating Modeselektor's set by their hysterical reaction to Gernot Bronsert & Sebastian Szary's brief visits to the stage to show support for Housemeister prior to their set. By the time Modeselektor finally did take the stage (just before midnight), the crowd went absolutely berserk as they opened with "The Dark Side Of The Sun". As the show progressed the pair's energy and antics only fueled the crowd further in much the same way as the past two times I saw them. Modeselektor's lip syncing to their remix of Bjork's "Dull Flame of Desire" garnered a great reaction from the crowd as did track after track which included one of my favorites, "2000007" (featuring French rap group TTC) among others.

Modeselektor @ Bowery Ballroom - January 24, 2009 (more by Zach Dilgard)

By the last 20 minutes of the set everyone was in an absolute frenzy that seemed to be at its peak, at which point Modeselektor voiced a robotic sounding request for champagne - the show was far from over. Moments later a very pleasant hell broke loose as the crowd shifted forward in the hopes of being sprayed. The music and dancing continued on as this happened not once, but twice! The inflation of a huge ape balloon followed, as did the sudden and very unexpected presence of a man in a chicken suit along with a butcher (complete with a real pig's head - ew!) who repeatedly showered the crowd and the stage with feathers. Modeselektor's excellent show ended infinitely more fun and bizzarely than it had started.

As much fun as I had, I didn't really get to bask in the Modeselektor afterglow as I was racing down to Santos in the hopes of catching Tortured Soul perform at Mister Saturday Night. Thankfully I managed to get there, check my coat, find my friends, and only miss the first two songs of their performance. After witnessing a great show from them last March, but being too exhausted to actually dance, it was awesome to finally see the three-piece, live Brooklyn house band again. They were in top form and had everyone in Santos' packed, main room was getting down from the second they dropped "Fall In Love" early in their set, right until the very end. The dancing didn't stop there as Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter seamlessly eased into their set with Metro Area's "Caught Up" just as Tortured Soul finished and proceeded to keep everyone moving with a great mix of melodic and danceable tunes. Both the upstairs & downstairs of Santos were as packed as ever with people who were there to dance...and Mister Saturday Night proved to be an excellent new way to do it.

Unfortunately this is the first weekend since it started that no Mr. Saturday Night party is happening, but there are many other excellent ways to get down this weekend & get started next week. Here's what's happening starting with Saturday (1/31)...

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta"

WhoMadeWho @ Webster Hall (more by Chona Kasinger)

Last Thursday night (10/23) I headed over to Webster Hall. Lymbyc System, a duo from Brooklyn and Texas, opened. When they initially emerged and positioned themselves opposite each other - one behind drums, the other behind keyboards and various electronics, I thought I was tripping. With similarly thin builds and curly brown hair glowing under Webster's green light it was almost like looking at 2 people mirroring each other. The next 40 minutes or so of atmospheric, shoegazey jams which at times reminded me vaguely of M83 (minus the full band) and sometimes even Radiohead, perfectly suited my initial hallucinogenic impression.

After Lymbyc System my new favorite band (there, I said it), Whomadewho, took the stage. As much as I enjoyed their set the night prior at Mercury Lounge, the sparsely filled room was not ideal for dancing. While many would argue that Webster Hall isn't either, the crowd enthusiastically danced along to the Danish trio's funk meets disco meets rock beats. Definite highlight of the show: the crowd suddenly going absolutely crazy - jumping up and down, and singing along when the band broke into "Satisfaction".

Fujiya & Miyagi followed and played an equally tight set as their one at Mercury Wednesday night. Unfortunately the crowd at Webster seemed a bit less appreciative as F&M's performance fell on a number of deaf ears, evidenced by the constant, faint murmur of people talking throughout the show...such a shame.

Unfortunately things spiraled down from there, at least for me. After hearing people near me going on and on (I don't remember how long set-up took between sets, but suffice to say it was too long) about how great Crystal Castles are, I was honestly hoping they were right and worth the wait. Unfortunately, my Webster Hall neighbors were only right about one thing - the hell that was going to break loose when Crystal Castles started. It was absolute mayhem that I could've handled had I not been running around all week for CMJ.

Crystal Castles @ Webster Hall (more by Chona Kasinger)

I quickly cut through the crowd until I was over near a much calmer section on the side and watched, baffled, as everyone went apeshit to Crystal Castles 8 bit beats which for me were rendered completely unenjoyable due to vocalist Alice Glass' screaming over them. I was hoping it would get better, but even when they played "Courtship Dating" (one of their tracks that I like) I couldn't get into it.

continued below....

Continue reading "the Thursday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"

Photos by Chona Kasinger

Continue reading "Crystal Castles, WhoMadeWho, Fujiya & Miyagi and Lymbyc System @ Webster Hall (CMJ), NYC - pics"

Fujiya & Miyagi @ @ Mercury Lounge, CMJ (more by Gabi Porter)

Last Wednesday (10/22) night I was initially drawn to the show happening at Mercury Lounge because of Fuijiya & Miyagi. The trio have never failed to flawlessly deliver their whisper-soft vocals, and laidback, funky instrumentals any of the previous times I've seen them. Wednesday's show was no exception. They played a pleasant mix of both old and new tracks (partial setlist below, the dashes are songs I couldn't identify, and I am pretty sure they played "Uh" but forget exactly when), some of which had a nice extra kick thanks to the addition of drummer Lee Adams, joining the performance a few tracks in.

Fujiya & Miyagi at Mercury Lounge - October 22, 2008 Partial Setlist

Sore Thumb
Ankle Injuries
Pterodactyls
-
Collarbone
Goosebumps
-
Knickerbocker
In One Ear & Out The Other
Electro Karaoke In the Negative Style

Prior to Fujiya & Miyagi I witnessed Tobacco which consisted of 2 people poring over a table of electronics on the left side of the stage while some truly wild retro video footage (that had been edited to sync up pretty well with the music) played against a screen set up on the right side. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, but I liked the visuals much more than I liked the music. While the sometimes trippy, electronic jams were very well suited to the far out visuals, I didn't really find anything about them too remarkable. The visuals captured my interest more from the get-go and nothing Tobacco were doing over on the left reeled me back in.

The most pleasant surprise of the line-up (and of my whole CMJ experience for that matter) was Whomadewho, who I have affectionately and with the utmost respect been referring to as "these crazy, weird, dudes from Denmark who rock". I knew I was in for something when, for starters they took the stage in those outfits, but also when guitarist/vocalist Jeppe Kjellberg announced "Yes, please come closer. We don't bite...even though we are VIKINGS!" after two girls scurried up to the front of the crowd at the end of their first song.

Whoemadewho played quite a number of songs from their self-titled debut album from '05 (which I can't wait to check out), which were funky, dancey, and rocking but not categorizable. Also be sure to look for their new album, The Plot on its way this coming February. While I really enjoyed their entire performance, as a huge fan of electronic/dance music, I could not help but freak out when they began playing a live version of Mr. Oizo's "Flat Beat". I was ready for Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction", but was totally unaware that they cover "Flat Beat" too. Unfortunately the maybe one quarter full Mercury Lounge was not the ideal setting to get down. Luckily I was able to catch them a couple of more times during CMJ, one of which was at Studio B Saturday night. Check out the video I took of them performing "Flat Beat" at Studio B:

Continue reading "the Tuesday & Wednesday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"

photos by Gabi Porter

WhoMadeWho

Denmark's crazy costume-wearing WhoMadeWho, the UK's Fujiya & Miyagi (who also played a CMJ show at Webster Hall with Crystal Castles), and Chicago's Walter Meego (who just got done playing some shows with Ra Ra Riot) helped represent the 'dance' portion of CMJ Wednesday night at Mercury Lounge (10/22). Tobacco was also on the bill. Sebastien Grainger played that night at the same venue too.

Showtrotta will have more to say about this show later. In the meantime, more pictures below...

Continue reading "WhoMadeWho, Fujiya & Miyagi, and Walter Meego @ Mercury Lounge (CMJ), NYC - pics"

by Showtrotta

DOWNLOAD: The Whip - Trash (South Central remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit - The Very Best Mixtape (ZIP)
DOWNLOAD: The Whip - Divebomb (FFS remix) (MP3)

Shout Out Out Out

It's CMJ time again. In a city where there are almost always some good acts passing through it's hard to understand what exactly the big deal is about the CMJ Music Marathon. Then you realize there will be "over 1,000 artists, in more than 65 venues in 5 days" and you have yet to even look at the schedule! Get crackin', run around, and get down! While last year's marathon (which featured Simian Mobile Disco, the Black Ghosts, MSTRKRFT, and Justice to name a few) will be hard to top in terms of dance music, this year's is by no means shabby.

What looks good to me on the official schedule is here (though note that the Little Boots Annex show is actually on Thursday). Explanations & more info is below. Also, be sure to read the official CMJ schedule carefully, as typically late night dj events will often be listed under the following day (ie: a Tuesday night dj set starting at 1am will actually be listed on CMJ's schedule under Wednesday)....

Continue reading "the CMJ week in Dance w/ Showtrotta "

DOWNLOAD: Crystal Castles - Air War (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Fujiya & Miyagi - In One Ear & Out The Other (MP3)

Fujiya & Miyagi

Fujiya & Miyagi and Crystal Castles each have upcoming U.S. shows scheduled, and although they're not actually touring together, they will intersect for one massive dance show with Denmark's Who Made Who at Webster Hall in NYC on October 23rd. Tickets for that show are on sale at noon. Fujiya & Miyagi are also playing a smaller show at Mercury Lounge one day earlier. Their new album "Lightbulbs" is out September 16th via Deaf, Dumb + Blind Recordings. All dates below...

Continue reading "Crystal Castles and Fujiya & Miyagi - 2008 Tour Dates"