Was down in SF for gramma’s big 80th birthday fest, so Cryptic, Matthew and I hit up the Green Velvet / Designer Drugs show at Mezzanine. Overcame a Dutch Goose double cheeseburger and arriving to a still pretty sparse dancefloor, and by the end of the night I was fist-pumping and singing along to the GV classics. Very fun show.

I was curious to see Designer Drugs given their blogosphere success over the past few years, not exactly sure if it would be live or a DJ set that consisted of a lot of their productions. It was latter, not superbly mixed (only quick cuts) but he did the job. Got a meandering audience pumped and primed for the headliner, and was fun to hear the electro bangers from my iTunes actually getting played out. Riverside is blowing up!!

To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Green Velvet. I knew I had maximum respect since he was listed in Daft Punk’s Teachers, and I have liked all his hits. And his set turned out to be just as I had been imagining — very funky tech house, bordering on techno but I definitely felt it in my hips. And when he flipped his headphones around and started singing, that was epic. Extra points: rocking the sunglasses the entire set in a dark club!

The evening was a fun juxtaposition of old and new for me. Designer Drugs are very much what’s current; Green Velvet has been rocking his sound for a long time. It was refreshing to set aside the latest-and-greatest pursuit for the night, as well as remember back to the 227 glory days when sets like that were standard issue. I feel like expectations have been hard to meet lately, but this show danced around that. Just a fun-ass time, no more no less.

Haven’t had time or, frankly, been motivated to write about recent shows, but let me start by saying, DAMN that was fun. All the fun of a live band, and that band is playing house music. Plus, Nectar is very small — this meant I had more hipster B.O. to deal with, but it reminded me of seeing Calvin Harris at the little Echo a few years ago.

The energy was amazing — drummer wailing away, Juan (is his name actually Juan?) banging on different percussion implements and even some sort of pitchfork thing that I couldn’t even figure out. All I know, he would wave one hand over it like a band leader while the other vibrato’d like a cellist. It was hot. The annoying asian chick from the Soulwax documentary even got less annoying. Every song was good fun, and they finished up the set with Happy House, naturally. Except it was an epic 20-minute hyperdrive version of it that just wouldn’t end. This also came just after the hipster in front of me left, whose only dance move the entire set had been to elbow my drink like Don Flamenco from Tyson’s Punch-Out, so needless to say I was very excited.

Another thought I had been stewing on since we saw The Twelves back in March was the “live” versus “DJ set” comparison. Everything is steering more toward production, but I have to say, I was underwhelmed by The Twelves’ performance. I love all their tracks, but two dudes sitting behind a laptop for an hour just didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. With a DJ set, I don’t know what’s going to come next. A master could throw anything at me. Now, after seeing Prodigy and TJM, it was interesting to observe the differences between a live act and an “Ableton Live” act. (You’re not as cool as you think you are, Deadmau5).

I still think a DJ can generate just as much an energy as a band; to a certain extent, just rocking out on stage gets the ball rolling. Personally, I want to work Ableton into the DJ arsenal to expand beyond playing one track after the next, no matter how seamless the transitions are. But dude behind a laptop undertaking minimal cueing on a pre-planned Ableton set is hardly a “live” show just because one is not using decks.

And with that, OoC got out his little rant AND a concert review in one post. Do yourself a favor and listen to Happy House again. So good.

Image from underwoodpix.com

We hit up Day 2 of the 22nd annual UCLA JazzReggae Fest over the holiday weekend to chill and listen to some fresh riddims. Despite very atypical Memorial Day weather, it was very good times. It’s always interesting to return to the little part of this giant city that used to be pretty much my entire world, too.

I had been starting to distinguish between reggae and dancehall since hanging out with Wonderboy, and it was cool to hear the two back to back to really juxtapose the genres. Reggae has been what I put on to chill when not dancing to EDM, so I couldn’t see how it could be dance music in itself. Well, the dancehall guys, Mr. Vegas and Cableton, really got the crowd going! Stephen Marley busted out all his dad’s classics (which was perfect), and Alaine added an R&B element to the reggae sound–I really liked both.

Ultimately, I don’t think dancehall is for me, but it was very cool to experience since it’s outside my largely electronic scope. Was an incredible live performance, but the cultural differences about the function of the DJ threw me off a bit. Spin-backs two minutes into each track, bouncing from classic to classic with lots of breaks to toast–it was 100% track selection and 0% mixing. I understand that it is the style for the genre, but it just runs so contrary to my understanding of a DJ’s abilities as being measured just as much or even more by how well tracks are mixed than simply what is played.

In addition to the good music and people watching, I scored some delicious banana bread pudding and it was sweet to kick it with the homies. On the way out I also got a flier for another HARD party in July featuring my boys MSTRKRFT. Hell yeah!

Last weekend was meant to be. After the SFAI gig, we went over to MIGHTY to see Z-Trip. The venue was small without feeling too crowded, and DAMN was it loud. I fully got down, too. I mean my hips were going and I think I even had the index fingers extended for a bit, too. His sets are hard to define since they are all over the place–in a good way. Rock, hip hop and even more electronic stuff than I remembered him playing in the past.

On a technical note, he must have a master tempo set in Serato. I know he’s a wizard and all, but I didn’t see him really adjusting the pitch at all on the decks and he mixed everything so quickly and flawlessly. Maybe I’m trying to reduce his skill down to something on my level, but that was my observation… His mixing and scratching were still as perfect as ever with or without digital aids, but maybe I can add that to my own bag of vinyl emulation tricks…

His opening DJ played a very eclectic mix of funk, reggae and some hip hop. It would have been a groovy mixtape for in the car, but the whole place was overflowing with excitement, and it didn’t feel like the tunes were keeping up. We also bumped into Mike Relm in the back and said hello, rapped about prior gigs that we had been to. Not that he knows who the hell we are, but we are practically BFFs.

Good times in the city. Even better once we made it over to Sparky’s for late night delectables, though I learned my lesson about ordering non-peanut butter & chocolate milkshakes to accompany my 3:00 am breakfast special. Good but not as good.

Well, Georgie and I figured, what the hell, I’m leaving LA soon, so let’s go for the three-day pass. Grueling as it is out there in the desert–I’m so glad we did. No surprise there, of course, as Coachella always pulls in a jaw-dropping lineup. While I did meet up with some homies out there, this year was a little different–the farthest we strayed from the electronic tent was the beer garden, and then right back. Was a little disappointed to have missed Mark Ronson, Cut Copy, Portishead, most of Calvin Harris and others; but it was great to have also missed the circle-jerk sessions where the group tries to decide where to go every half hour. Wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob…

In trying to reflect on everything that we saw, my brain has been jumping around between what left the biggest impact, positive or negative. So without further ado, here are the 2008 Out of Coacheller awards!

Most Debate-Ending Performance

Let’s just get this out of the way now. I knew I had to maintain all the way until Sunday night for the grand finale that is Justice. They have been number one on my list since crossing off MSTRKRFT, and damn did they deliver. There has been a lot of comparisons between Justice and Daft Punk–who is better, who is harder, who is…faster. (sorry) Daft will always be on their own special level for me, but Justice really is the real deal. Their show was so hard, so intense. Comparisons between the two cast Justice in Daft’s shadow somewhat, and these two other Frenchmen are driving the hard electro sound right now.

Most Impressive Performance

With all the great DJs tearing the roof off the Sahara tent, I was most impressed by Booka Shade’s live act. “Live” DJ sets can mean different things nowadays, but these guys were up on stage playing their music. Was so cool and different to see an act make EDM with actual electronic drums, keyboards and vocoders rather than strictly knob-twiddling and sampling like Simian Mobile Disco et al.

Most Banging Non-Justice Set

This is tough since everyone was so good, but I’m going to call it a tie between Boys Noize and DeadMau5, with Erol Alkan running a very close second. These two sets were perfect for the festival setting–big, big, big. Both producers, they were using a lot of cool effects to make builds-ups come crashing down on the crowd even harder. We had seen Boys Noize before when he played at the Echoplex with SMD, but he had laid down more of a house classics set. Both sets were very hard and techy, and didn’t let up for a second. Each new track kept the energy level peaking–pretty good for 2:00 in the afternoon!

Best Stage Setup

Finally seeing all the Marshall amps stacked up on top of each other was fucking awesome. But Fatboy Slim’s towering platform in front of a huuuuuge display on Friday night was the best. The elevated DJ booth has always been part of my Superstar DJ fantasies, and he was prancing around at least 30-40 feet above us. And the visuals going on behind/around him were sweet–huge swirls, EQ levels, clocks. It was quite a long wait before they finally drew the curtains, but opening up to that and his Willy Wonka track was worth it!

Best Stage Personality

Again, big props to DeadMau5 for really bouncing around and grooving up there… But award goes to Danny Tenaglia. He’s just such a goofball, and he really does embody his whole “Be Yourself” moto. He was wearing a shirt with a big E on it…he caught some of the beachballs flying around and played with them…he came around in front of the decks and started dancing…he even turned the stage monitors to face more out toward the crowd. He also yelled out at the crowd on the mic far more than anyone else. His marathon 14-hour sets aren’t as big a mystery to me anymore because dude really is at home on stage.

Most Disappointing Performance

Has to go to Aphex Twin. His music and even music videos are so crazy, and I had heard stories about him bringing out trippy shit like guys on stilts at prior shows. I figured he would shock the crowd with some really gnarly techno shit since he hadn’t been up to much lately. But no. He sat down behind his table of gear and proceeded to play really slow and boring stuff, never once looking up to the crowd. Was almost like he was being made to do this gig and this was his big middle finger in exchange…

Worst Act That Finally Made Up My Mind

MIA! Everyone loves her. I have listened to her cds and not really gotten into them. Everyone loves her more. Ok, I figured maybe her live show is really killer. Negative. I kept thinking I was supposed to like her, and I would come around eventually; but now it’s official that MIA is not for me. Her beats are like slowed-down hard house/epileptic seizure shit. Yelle and some others can pull off the screechy voice thing well, but MIA’s whole show just gave me a headache. Thumbs down and reassuringly so–no more questioning my OoC instincts.

Easter Eggs and Honorable Mentions

So many peeps rocked that I couldn’t just leave them out entirely; so here goes: Freeland’s mix of breaks, rock and politics was as on-point as ever. Erol Alkan wins the ribbon for coolest t-shirt with his “L.O.V.E. to keep kids dancing” DARE spoof. All the Ed Banger peeps dropped the gnarliest, nails-on-the-chalkboard beats–very cool to hear that kinda stuff at that volume. I thought Hot Chip would be mellow, but they were booming out of the tent! SMD, with their lazy susan of gear, rocked as hard as ever–I was screaming “I’m a hustler, baby!!” probably louder than anything I’ve ever sung along to. Since their set felt a little routine after seeing them at El Rey, my personal Chromeo highlight was P-Thugg doing California Love on the vocoder……..

I’m sure I’m leaving some other great Coachella memories out, but that’s probably more than anyone wants to read anyway. Lastly, when am I going to get my hands on a damned Ed Banger t-shirt already, dammit? Why is that so damned hard?!?

Let me begin by saying that the accordion is my new favorite instrument…

I hadn’t been back to the Mayan in ages after going there what seemed like every other week to see DJs in college. Good to be back. We got there, thankfully, just before Kinky went on–figured they would be starting later. Money Mark of the Beastie Boys was opening up, and I’m actually glad we missed that. Sorry, but they are just a tired act now.

Kinky, on the other hand, was anything but. Since I go to so many electronic shows, it was awesome to see all five of them running around on stage. Most of the show was in Spanish, so I had no idea what he was yelling at the crowd to get them cheering and yelling back, but that didn’t even matter. Their music is electronica-infused dance rock, so it was so fun to bounce around to my favorites from their albums.

I was also very impressed by all the gear on stage. The singer shed the mic for a CDJ and mixer for some scratching on one song; the wailing guitarist was hopping onto some sort of synth or MIDI controller from time to time; the stand-up drummer had the biggest percussion array of symbols, toms and bongos (yes, there was also cowbell involved). My interest was unsurprisingly drawn to the Basement Jaxx-esque dude in the back surrounded by synths and digital what-have-you, especially when he strapped on his accordion and sauntered out to the front of the stage…

In a nutshell, the show was the perfect blend of digital enhancements and live performances. Very fun. Their encore choice of Mexican Radio was funny at first, but I was ready for something else as soon as I got beyond the “hey, I recognize that” point. Such a great show that I only bought one drink when we first arrived and stayed on the dancefloor the rest of the time. The post-concert day at work was far less painful than usual!

Sweet Jesus, that was a rocking good time. We got there before 10:00, and LA Riots already had the dancefloor filled and moving with his gnarly electro set. I had heard a couple good remixes by LA Riots, and his set was more of the same. It was an 18+ night, so all the kids must have taken drugs right after their moms dropped them off or something… Nevertheless, I was frankly a little amazed to see all the indie types embracing the EDM.

Z-Trip came on next, and I was curious about how smooth a transition it would be to go from banging electro to hip hop mashups and then back. But he pulled it off. Even though I admire such a vinyl purist, Z-Trip had a laptop off to the side! Digital is taking over… He had a little of the DJ/drummer combo going, which I am honestly not down for because it feels very practiced. But his beats were as varied and old school as ever. Mashup tracks may a little tired by now, but when he’s mixing the tracks live on stage, it is pure wizardry.

All the prior acts were further back on the stage, but then the lights came on, the crazy Canadians were right down in front of us. [Snapped some pics from the fray.] I have to say that that was the most energetic show I’ve been to in a long time. The whole place was jumping around and going nuts. Fucking mind blowing. Usually I like to have my space carved out so I can boogey, but being part of the sweaty, packed mosh pit was awesome.

I’ve never had a club experience feel so much like a rock concert before, and the tunes just kept getting harder and harder. Drenched in sweat, calves burning from jumping, biceps burning from pumping, ears crackling–my idea of a good time.

MSTRKRFT has been number one on my list of peeps to see, so I had very, very high expectations for the show. Said expectations were promptly met and exceeded. All my concert write-ups are positive because I only go to shows that I really want to see. But that. Was. Amazing.

For those that can’t get enough, here is a bonus set from their NYE gig:

MSTRKRFT - NYE 2008 on Triple J Radio

Went to the sold-out Chromeo show last night with George, Christian and Bonny. I was unsure of what the crowd would be like, but it turned out to be a total hipster-fest. Tight jeans and neckties everywhere. I hadn’t been to the El Rey since we saw Z-Trip and DJ P there a few years back, and I like the venue.  Don’t like that the dance area is effectively roped off with limited access points, but the place is very pimp.

While it was annoying to have to deal with some of the entitled, 19 year-old hipsters, it was reassuring to see how embraced Chromeo’s electro pop is by the hipsterati, since my beats have a similar vibe and I mostly play to my hipster buddies. When I’m drunkenly dancing in the fray at shows, I become 6′5″ 250 lbs and enjoy a little jockeying for position. An incensed hipster girl behind me demanded that I move forward a little, and I naturally found myself inching backwards whilst getting my groove on. Oh pardon me, did you need a little more space? Fuck you.

Peanut Butter Wolf opened up with a lot of old school jams like Kriss Kross and Grandmaster Flash, and also had his gear synced up to a VJ setup that was controlling music videos on a huge screen. Unlike Relm though, the VJ element seemed better suited to the venue. Much larger, and the DJ was set up off to the side rather than in front of the jumbotron. Some timely wind-downs and scratching over funny parts of the videos was cool. He got the party started for sure. So did the Patron shots. In between acts, the sound system was on a 100% Daft Punk shuffle. Holler.

Chromeo came out to a huge ovation and proceeded to rock the house. I had seen pictures of their live shows before, but was curious to see how their very produced tracks would translate into a live performance. Dave 1 was on the bass guitar and P-Thugg on the synth; and I noticed a Macbook open off to the side, so I imagine they have all the rest of the musical elements all synced up in Ableton.

Their stuff is so, for lack of a better word, shallow. Which I love because it’s just pure fun rather than something to dwell on or think about. Singing along to Tenderoni was gloriously goofy, and it was also very refreshing to hear original Chromeo tracks after wading through all the remixes thereof throughout the blogosphere for so long. Proliferation of remixes as a gauge of success is very apropos for the Chromeo boys, ala D.A.N.C.E….

A lot, lot, lot of fun. Took some shaky concert pics which I may post–gotta develop a steadier iphone hand. Big ups to G-Unit for jumping on the tix months ago right before they sold out!

Mikey, Jesse and I went to see Relm a few years ago in SF at 111 Minna when I was up visiting and had a crazy time. Almost got into a fight with the opening DJ and had late night diner delectables. Really enjoyed Relm, too.

Fast forward to now–Jesse was back in town, I was up here for the Bomb Shelter Session and Relm was playing again. The venue was kinda weird since it was cash only and 18+. Bad timing to be around young kids since I had just shaved my beard and left a moustache for laughs at the gallery. Felt extra old. I digress.

Relm was fun and did a good job of playing to the audience. His scratching and genre-blending were good, and he has added a VJ element with some video scratching to his gig since we saw him last. From what I could see, looked like he had two decks, two mixers, a CDJ and Serato running. Gotta love the signature glasses and dorky suit, too.

The set was impressive, and I couldn’t help but smile when he started scratching over Linus and Lucy again. But it reminded me of a quote I read a little while ago by Krafty Kuts about DJing to make people dance rather than all stand there and stare at the DJ’s amazing skills. I feel more like former, probably because I do not have skills to stare at! The set kinda felt rehearsed (he didn’t wear headphones at all), and the big VJ screen behind him was a bit distracting. People were cheering but not really dancing that much. I guess this was really more of a turntablist/VJ performance than a club night, so maximum respect for a unique performance.

A good show and a good night. Probably could have done without the peanut butter milkshake at 3:00 am, but it seemed like a great idea at the time.

Triumphantly re-united with G-Unit et al to see David Guetta at Giant on Saturday. Started off the evening at The Well for some dancing fuel, which was great because I hadn’t been back there in ages. Love that spot–always reminds me of the glory days of the DLP. (R.I.P., DLP).

The current Giant venue is The Vanguard, which I had been to years ago to see Gilles Peterson and really liked. Great sound system and huge outdoor patio area in the back. Georgie hooked up the VIP shit, so we didn’t have to wait in the main line and paid half price. We’ve been seeing people at the Echoplex lately, and The Vanguard is much bigger. But if felt much bigger, too–shouldering through people everywhere you go, high priced drinks and even higher credit card minimums. Wasn’t able to meet up with another friend because it was too crowded and I just couldn’t find her. Standard sunk costs for a crazy clubbing night, I guess.

The opening DJs were laying down some funky house. I’ve been so focused on trolling the blogs for electro tracks and the latest/greatest producers, that I really just wanted to “nod my head to some good music”, per the classic Peace Division track. That said, the patio DJ’s beats were more akin to mine, and it was awesome to see some of the tracks that I like rocking a crowd.

I was disappointed to see a Perfecto logo in the corner of one of Guetta’s posters on the wall, as it has kind of represented the death nell for some DJs that I’ve liked in the past. A little too mainstream, in my music snob opinion. Mr. Guetta was definitely the “Superstar DJ” though. Really got the crowd going and threw in plenty of classic crowd pleasers. It was fun to see an entire club singing along to songs.

So probably not my ideal music for the night, but lots of fun. Always have a good time with George and Shaner and crew.