Chicago rain came pouring down in the night, so the pristine grounds of Lollapalooza 2011 have turned into a mixture of mud, hay and grass on Saturday, August 6. It now smells like the true heartland of America that it is. Yet nothing will deter the up-for-it music fans coming to Day 2 of the sold out event.
Feel the love of this shiny, happy festival.
Walking over the 11th Street Bridge towards Grant Park, the immaculate city center grounds of Lollapalooza, a pulse emerges in the hot, moist air. Chicago’s grand architectural beauties loom all around with the anticipation and calm that something significant is about to happen.
If you are not yet aware The Ting Tings are Jules de Martino and Katie White. As self confessed fans of American iconic bands such as Talking Heads and Velvet Underground, the British Art Punk Pop duo briefly visited the West Coast for their Red Bull Soundclash vs Cee Lo Green in Las Vegas last week.
ChinaShop was able to grab a few precious minutes with the band to shoot some exclusive photos before their stunning performance in front of 6,000 plus expectant fans. So where else do you put an Art Punk duo from Britain, who have been recording in Berlin and are mixing the new album in Spain? Why in front of a giant black pyramid with lights shooting out of the top of course…
Upon being whisked into the MGM Resort and Hotel on this past Saturday imagine being confronted with a large boxing ring in the center of the hotel lobby. “What has the world of music come to?” “This can’t be for a music event could it?” With closer examination the ring was promotion for the upcoming Miguel Cotto vs Ricardo Mayorga WBA Junior Middleweight fight – so just a little sigh of relief on my part as I, as probably you, are a little new to this Soundclash idea.
6,000 plus spring breakers packed into the MGM Resorts International lot across from the Luxor to experience this Red Bull Soundclash. The event featured Grammy Award winner Cee Lo Green and British based art punk duo The Ting Tings on opposing stages with an audience sandwiched in-between.
Imagine a live version of Rock Band but with real stars playing, with real instruments and you may get a little closer to the concept. Based on five rounds Warm Up, Cover, Takeover, Clash and Wildcard two artists go toe to toe with an MC positioned in the middle.
Apart from needing a double foot transplant, a deep tissue massage, a wheatgrass IV drip, and to never be around cigarette smokers again, I feel amazingly good after this year’s Winter Music Conference. What started off slow gained a tremendous amount of momentum in a very short period of time, and reports from my colleagues at other events around the city were favorable. If you’ve been following our WMC coverage, you know that the divorce with the Ultra Music Festival (happening 3/25-3/27) was the big news. Would it be favorable for the conference? What sort of effect would it have on South Beach? With all the marquee names playing Ultra weekend, would you still get enough quality DJs to support the fans?
Tuesday was mild, Wednesday was warm, and Thursday was poppin’, but by the time Friday rolled around, the spring break crowd was in full effect and the WMC’ers were ready to go hard into the weekend. We wanted to experience a little local flavor, so our friends over at Nervous Records told us to come by their big “Made In Miami” party, featuring an exclusive cast of homegrown deck masters like Behrouz, Rony Seikaly, Lazaro Casanova, Ralph Falcon, Jon Cowan, Stryke, DMS12, Edgar V, Danny Daze, Patrick M, and of course the one and only Oscar G. When we set foot in the building, it became abundantly clear that this was the place to be. We caught three sets worth of tunes, then had to give our ears and dancing feet a rest. Here’s what it looked like.
She’s been called Om Record’s First Lady of House, helped form the genre’s only female supergroup (SuperJane), and released some of last decade’s most infectious 12-inch singles in “Feelin’ Hypnotized,” “What Will She Do For Love,” and a sultry version of Robert Palmer’s “Didn’t Mean To Turn You On.” Indeed, Chicago’s DJ Colette is one of house music’s most well-respected performers and producers, and a 16-year veteran of the Winter Music Conference. You know, back when people traded vinyl by the pool and the only things that tweeted were the endemic Florida Scrub-Jays that hung out in the palm trees. We met up with Colette at a South Beach cafe to get her take on this year’s conference and the inside scoop on her next artist release for Om Records.
You’d be hard pressed to find a dance music artist that reps Miami harder than Oscar G. A true house music don, Oscar has had a long and healthy career on New York’s own Nervous Records, releasing a crate of singles and his first (and only) full-length, Innov8, back in 2008. Now with a new label in the works, appropriately titled Made In Miami, Oscar is looking to give shine back to his fellow South Florida musicians and possibly drop another full-length, sooner rather than later, we hope. Before he blazed through a sunset performance at the Nervous Records pool party, we got a hold of him for some questions.
Two words: Paul Oakenfold. Two more words: Florida Room. Four more words: No Ugly People Allowed. At least that’s what the sign said. I’m sure it didn’t reflect the opinions and feelings of the Delano administration, but it was an ironic reminder of just how exclusive and intimate some of Miami’s parties can be during Winter Music Conference. Tonight we were in for a special treat. One of the biggest names in dance music—a man famous for playing arenas all across the globe—was going to treat this hotel crowd to a small-scale performance with big room sound. No flip-flops and bikini bottoms allowed, and one gentleman was turned away at the door for wearing cut-off jean shorts. Go home and get your big boy pants, homeboy. This ain’t no beach party.
Here’s what I love about Miami. At approximately 11:30am on Wednesday, I was walking along the rooftop deck of my hotel admiring the amazing view, taking in some sunshine, and cursing the fact that I had to quickly go back inside and get writing done. At 12:30pm, deck chairs were flying into the pool and the rain was coming down sideways against the glass of the café I was working in. It was a rainstorm of biblical proportions, and the beautiful people of South Beach were undoubtedly cursing the fact that they now had to go inside and do something not so fun. One glance at the weather report told me that that any outdoor parties scheduled for today were sure to be a bust, which included the annual mega-bash on Nikki Beach, one of WMC’s most tried and true venues. This was to be our big destination for the day. Electric Beach, a 12pm to 5am marathon of banging house music put forth by names like Donald Glaude, Harry “Choo Choo” Romero, Behrouz and Junior Sanchez. Gone with the wind, we thought—washed away by the elements. But we decided to go anyway, and of course, it was rammed.