It's On! | AM Only CMJ Party at the Annex: Crystal Castles, Shout Out Out Out Out
I'm going to do my best to bring you some clips of the bands this week. They aren't the best quality, but you can get the idea. Crystal Castles were as terrifying and exhilarating as I had hoped. Alice is batshit crazy. Totally awesome.
Shout Out Out Out Out totally blew me away. They play dance music with a full band and tore the place apart. They drove three days in a van to come to CMJ so do yourself a favor and catch one of their remaining shows:
SHOUT OUT OUT OUT OUT CMJ SCHEDULE
Nov 2 2006 3:00P
CMJ - Guero (Holy Roller / Oh My Rockness / Earfarm afternoon party)
Nov 3 2006 6:00P
CMJ - Fader Party
Nov 4 2006 11:00P
CMJ - Lit Lounge (Musebox showcase)
I'll post more about these guys after CMJ, I dig them.
I was about 20 minutes late for the early Knife show. That being said, I think saw everything I needed to see. As expected, the stage, visual, and sound setup was extremely elaborate. I've read elsewhere that Olof and Karin intend for the visuals to be focus number 1 of their show. They "perform" behind a scrim with visuals projected in front and behind them. I'm pretty sure Olof doesn't play anything live. I was close enough to observe that Karin is definitely singing. However, I'm not sure any of the amazing vocal manipulation that makes The Knife: The Knife was being affected in real time.
Being focused on dance/electronic music here, I think its appropriate to add a bit on performing electronic music live. I take the point of view that a little playback can allow the performer to add more to their physical performance (a la The Presets). However, relying on it 100% is a bit offputting. Even the Holy Robots Kraftwerk stand behind computers and twiddle. Just lookin for a bit of an effort.
I have to say Karin's vocals were the highlight of the show for me. The haunting, creepy androdgyny that sounds so cool and cold on the album doesn't lose any of its chill live. All in all, if you take it on its face, The Knife succeeded in putting on a fantastic musical art performance.
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After a bit of a beer break, we cruised down to Chinatown for the Club NME party that was to feature CSS, the Horrors, and Crystal Castles. We downed some Microsoft Zune sponsored free beers at a very cool Chinese banquet hall and were about to cruise. Then the Sounds came on. Surprise surprise. As discussed here previously, I've got a sweet spot for the Sounds' power pop rock. I had fun.
Holy shit. The boys are setting the standard for live electronic music.
Set list
Keep Fallin'/Shake a Fist/Hold On/Boy From School/Graceland/Just Like We Breakdown/Colours/Laws of Salvation/Out at the Pictures/Beach Party/No Fit State (included a bit of New Order's Temptation and I swear I heard some Orbital electronics in there too)//Careful//Over and Over
(I got some bad sushi before the show, no Modular party for me. I've got some KEXP Live In-Studio YouTubes coming up tomorrow).
Digitalism are the heavy hitters of the Kitsune stable. Even though they difine the sound of the Parisian label, Jens Moelle and Ismail Tuefekci (I would pronounce that Two-feekie, thoughts?) are from Hamburg. They have produced some of the biggest bangers of the past two years in Idealistic and Zdarlight. Their new track Jupiter Room is a staple in my sets. This will be a crazy set.
As well as being Ed Banger's golden children, Justice are the Slayer of dance music. This is truly crunchy, headbanging, air guitar, slam dancing, blood drinking techno. You've heard We Are Your Friends at every party you've ever been at, but it takes some intestinal fortitude to withstand a full set from Gaspard and Xavier. Take a listen. Bring ear plugs and have a light meal before getting served a hot plate of Justice.
Rory Phillips is from London and is Erol Alkan's homeboy in the longrunning Trash club. Trash is widely credited for kick starting the rock and roll dance culture that we (me) love around these parts. Rory also is also instrumental in the Our Disco (go there for their podcast) parties. Diversity is his middle name.
I snuck out of the office to catch a blistering 30 minute set from Forward, Russia! I missed probably 3 or 4 of their shows during the week so I had to make it. I'm really glad I did. Tom never fails to kill it.
Saturday
I woke up bright and early for Brooklyn Vegan's showcase at the Annex. Despite some early equipment issues, I had a really great time DJing between the bands. Big thanks to BV for having me on the bill. As for the bands, I enjoyed White Whale and Tokyo Police Club. Elvis Perkins really blew me away as well. He's on tour now. Catch him somewhere.
After a quick dinner, I jetted over to the Modular Showcase at Midway and saw Van She play a short, tight set. Looking forward to hearing how their sound evolves now that their "Van She Tech" remixes are in such high demand. Here they are rocking out on Kelly:
Fixed was out of control. Digitalism absolutely killed. They didn't just play the hits, they banged out a full hour long set. Amazing.
Zdarlight
Justice hit the decks shortly after the end of that video and the place was a sweaty, pogoing freakfest. I danced hard and hit the wall just after We are Your Friends.
Great way to end the week. Thanks to JDH and Dave P for putting together another awesome party. It was nice to see a bunch of friends out at the club, kind of like being in Europe.
New Young Pony Club is coming to NYC (I'll be selling bootleg "NYPC hearts NYC" tees outside of every show). These guys are going to be huge. "I can give you what you waaaant!"
Hot Chip put one of their new tracks up on the Hotspace. The Myspace player wasn't working for me last night. Let me know how it is.
The Picasso and American Art exhibit at the Whitney is really rad. Get a headset and spend the day there. Really got into the Jackson Pollock connection and the concept of continually reworking a piece. The original remixers. (Added bonus: Bauhaus exhibit on 2)
Bonobo's new album Days to Come on Ninja Tune is totally doing it for me. It's smooth and sexy. Totally recommended for soothing your soul on Sunday nights, or through the holidays. Buy it from Ninja Tune or Itunes.
Sitting on the deck in Arizona. Don't you worry, we are still here.
Moving over to SLAPYOUINPUBLIC.COM very, very soon. This site is a bit of a mess and the formatting is all over the place. Apologies.
Get your bookmarking, RSS'ing fingers ready to flip the switch.
I've been doing some serious housekeeping on the ole' Ipod and found these guys to be quite up our alley:
The Whip are from Manchester and sound as if they share a flat with Peter Hook, or at least a frontal lobe.
Their fantastic single Trash is on Kitsune Maison 3 and sits nicely next to the Klanguage's and Adam Kesher's of mainland Europe. Pick it up over the the Whipspace.
I love Adam Kesher. I want these guys to come play for us, so email them and Myspace them and tell them to come over here! If you are Europe, let us know how much fun they are live.
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Digitalism
