Last night, eight freestyle MCs from around Detroit competed in Red Bull EmSee, a freestyle battle of sight and sound that took place at St. Andrews Hall. After a night filled with piercing punch lines and lyrical acrobatics, it was Hostyle who dominated the stage and was crowned the Detroit champion. Later this year, he will advance to the Red Bull EmSee National Championships in Atlanta, GA.
If there wasn’t an age stipulation for going trick-or-treating, HARD Haunted Mansion might not have made it past the four-year mark. Having just completed a successful fourth installment to its steadily growing Halloween party, Los Angeles’ Shrine Exposition Hall played host to all the adults who want to satisfy their Halloween desires without risking the door-to-door candy gathering which would land them in jail. Look at it like this; HARD Haunted Mansion is like the house you always went to on Halloween who gave you full-sized candy bars from the big brands you actually liked.
If dance music lovers had a zodiac calendar, 2011 would be the year of the Fatboy. At the end of 2008, Brighton-based DJ and producer, Norman Cook, decided that he was potentially going to discontinue performing under his pseudonym, Fatboy Slim. After partnering with ex-Talking Heads member, David Byrne, they set out to record and eventually release an album under the name, The Brighton Port Authority. Lucky for us and bad for the music industry, music downloads surged and it had become increasingly difficult to survive as a successful studio musician. (Not to mention it isn’t anywhere near as fun as playing live in front of 250,000 of your closest friends, like he did in 2002.)
After the release of the BPA’s album, I Think We’re Going To Need A Bigger Boat in 2009, the Fatboy Slim moniker was revived to a ready and willing Australia. Touring sporadically around the world through 2010, including a two year run at Glastonbury, Norman Cook began picking up speed as a force to (still) be reckoned with. With over 70 shows slated for 2011 alone, this year is the most demanding touring schedule he has ever seen.
After kicking his drinking habit over two years ago, Fatboy Slim appears to be having the most fun of his career. Although his productions have slowed, his headlining slots have not. After returning to the United States earlier this year for the first time since 2008, Fatboy Slim headlined the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and this past weekend’s HARD Haunted Mansion. With the end of the year nearing, Norman Cook has achieved what very few could do. He came, he conquered, and he reignited a sense of nostalgia in hundreds of thousands of his loyal fans. Fatboy Slim reminds me a simpler time in dance music, a time where you could watch a music video of Christopher Walken defying gravity and walking on walls, and not have to worry about the media asking you how much drugs you’d have to take to enjoy it.
I was able to speak with Norman before his headlining slot over the weekend at the Los Angeles based, HARD Haunted Mansion and quickly learned that although he might take a break every now and then to satisfy other musical urges, he will always have an insatiable thirst for being Fatboy Slim.
Gang Gang Dance didn’t so much play individual songs for their set closing down Filter’s Culture Collide festival… They just sort of started with a breathy rolling feedback infused with lead singer Liz Bougatsos tubthumping a Native American hand drum intro to “Glass Jar.” Which is not only the opening track from their most recent pop/world album, Eye Contact, but a tribute to their late vocalist who was struck and killed by lightning a few years back. Liz then began to fill that void with an airy but piercing voice that sounded as if it were being piped in from a hash shop easily within range of a NATO drone strike. Synth after layer of ghostly white synth soon began to pile on top of an ever funkier pulsating drum beat. A drum whose passport sounded like it must have stamps from far away destinations the likes of Ivory Coast, Bangalore and Japan, via connecting flights from DUMBO. This melodic Tower of Babel built until the very last crash of a triumphant high hat scattered it abroad upon the face of the parking lot confounding the wrap-up Tweets of all in attendance. Yo tambien.
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I once read a book (Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee And How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast), which suggested our world would be drastically different if during the Industrial Revolution, philosophers/politicians/professors (and other “important P” people) had held up in pubs rather than cafes. “Why,” you ask? Oh, because if they were hopped up on, say, beer and spirits rather than caffeine it’s likely that technological development would have puttered along rather than galloped.
Two electronica shows this past Monday helped illuminate for me what inspiration looks like—whether or not the caffeine/alcohol induced sort. Electronica giant DJ Shadow held a free in-store performance at Hollywood’s Amoeba Records and later that day, the Echoplex headlined with Gold Panda. Even if you’re not a fan of this music genre, you should be a fan of these guys. They literally drip with inspiration.
Comin’ in hot, LA based rapper/producer, Alexander Spit, releases his latest project, These Long Strange Nights, and shares it with you for $Free.99 plus tax! The mixtape, Produced entirely by Alexander himself, features guest appearances from Bago CBG, Gilbere Forte, and White Girl Mob’s Lil Debbie among others. Download your copy after the jump.
You may have seen it driving around L.A. A looming skull with hollow eyes holding up a cellphone to its’ ear. An iconic x-ray likeness of ourselves; simple, cool, and poignant. Painted on walls, billboards, posters and forged into neon signs. It peeks out at passersby in Silver Lake and flashes between electronic billboard advertisements. It shares the same name as the artist: Skullphone. Skullphone has managed to create a memorable and compelling icon in a town that’s lousy with lousy icons.
On Saturday, November 5, eight of the globe’s top snowmobilers will take over the Windy City’s evening sky for Red Bull Fuel + Fury. The freestyle snowmobiling competition will take place on Clark Street between Addison and Waveland in a lot outside of Wrigley Field. Gates will open at 5 PM and the competition will begin at 6 PM. Tickets will be required for entry but will be available for FREE at www.redbullusa.com/fuelandfury.com.
The inaugural Red Bull Fuel + Fury took place in Jackson, WY in 2003, but this year marks the first time ever for any extreme freestyle snowmobiling to touch grounds in the heart of Chicago.
Playing a show or two in a city and them moving on to the next? Peter Bjorn and John have been there done that. When planning the “All You Can Eat” leg of the Gimme Some tour, the Swedish trio was looking for something more exciting to bring to their fans. Their solution? A stop in each city featuring a PBJ Gimme Some gallery exhibition, multiple performance dates, and food truck catered events where the band can hang with fans while they munch on a variety of dishes from mobile eateries. “Food trucks are the indie rock of food so having those on site was only fitting,” explains Björn Yttling.
Red Bull Big Tune winner 14KT and rapper Bun B flesh out the hotness in front of your eyes.