Showing posts with label Disco. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disco. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Tejano Triangle

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Rarities:
I could be wrong on this one, but this month has been full of extremely rare performances which are usually not seen in Austin or Texas unless it's associated with South by Southwest. I'm not saying they where all epic, which they where not, but they where fun shows that will probably not happen again or for quite some time...

-04/16/2010 Erol Alkan at Republic in Austin TX
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-04/21/2010Yann Tiersen at Mohawk in Austin TX
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-04/23/2010 Moullinex and Xinobi at Mink in Houston TX
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Moullinex & Xinobi, and my weekend recap:
This last weekend gave way to the last of this month's rare performances which took place in Houston Texas. Both deejays, Moullinex( from Germany) and Xinobi( from Portugal), are briefly touring North America together...

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Both artist are on or are associated with the label based out of Portugal called DISCOTEXAS. The irony and unusual association of the label's name cracks me up. I don't think of Texas when I think of Disco, and vice versa. Europeans and their ideas about Texas. It's the funniest, case in point below...

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I discovered Moullinex and Xinobi via the Valerie and FRΞNCH ΞXPRΞSS( FΞ is partial based in Dallas Texas) blogs. I was so shocked and excited to find out about the Houston shindig. This whirlwind of emotions allowed me to justify a road-trip which it was truly worthy of. Xinobi was my favorite through out the night, and his track selections where more minimal sounding. The deejays did a tag team set for two hours from 12am to 2am in which they played a mixture of electro, house, disco, and minimal synthy pop stuff. I was pretty drenched in sweat, which is a positive sign that I was dancing and having a good time. Lots of others too where having fun, lots of smiling faces. I didn't see any standout dancers on the dance floor though. I remember just seeing a girl doing a really bad pop-&-lock robot seizure dance, kinda of interesting( in a "is she for real" kinda of way) to watch when your cooling off. The crowd fluctuated in size through out the night. On the club Mink where the event had taken place, I had been there before with a friend on her birthday. It seems Mink has carved out a little nitch in the dance music scene in Houston, kinda like Boondocks on Westheimer in Houston. I like the Mink. It's small( in a good way) and easy to find, but it needs more fans or ACs. I really think all dance clubs are poorly cooled or ventilated. I heard there was an after party at a place called Greenhouse( sounds interesting), but I had to meet up with my cousin and call it a night.

I figured since I was in the area that I should also visit la familia in both Houston and Victoria Texas. The drive from Austin to Houston, then from Houston to Victoria, and finally from Victoria back to Austin is what I refer to as my own personal Bermuda Triangle( The Tejano Triangle).

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I call it this because some how I have managed to live in Texas forever, and I can't seem to leave this place these days. I'm lost. My situation in Texas is like I'm underwater underneath the halo lit ice caps of Antarctica; my body is transfixed and suspended in the vastness of the muted blue, green, and white murky ocean. I'm conscious and able to dream and still breath underwater, but my limbs are unresponsive and numb, so I can't move and just sift through the Antarctic slushy. I think Texas has warped my senses long enough. I just continue chanting and praying "there's no place like home" and "the grass is greener on the flipside." It's time for a long overdue move out this state( of mind). I'll digress about my mid-life crisis or my over dramatic panic attack.

Roadkill and wildflowers hypnotized me while I was in pursuit of my mother's happiness; it was her birthday. When I arrived in the Victoria area with gifts, my mother told me stories that provided new insight into her and my own psyche. One was about how her father was a peeping tom( unconfirmed) and how he wanted my grandmother to participate. He also vandalized my grandmother's car and stalked her during their divorce. The other story was about how my mother went to see Star Wars in the theater in 1977 after it came out in May. I was born in October and probably conceived around February, so I technically experienced Star Wars when it first came out in the theater too. Anyways, for my mother's early bird bday bonanza, I bought her Starbucks treats and dinner at Red Lobster. My mum loves coconut shrimp and Frappachinos. I also bought her the movie Avatar as a birthday present because she never saw it when it was in the theater. Her current condition of being in a wheelchair prevented me from taking her. She was extremely excited about the movie, so I definitely was the favorite that day.

The weekend ended pretty well. It didn't go completely as planned but things panned out.

One more thing. I just have to say, look at these cool fliers for some of Moullinex and Xinobi other tour dates, there so cool...

NYC
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L.A.
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This above Ninja flier is the coolest. 80's Ninja movies will be discussed thoroughly in detail in the next blog post. Til then, tootles

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Death Disco

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Well well well...I have nothing but positive things to say about Ian Orth's(of Learning Secrets), Paul Mahoney's(of LCD Soundsysetem), and Andy Butler's(of Hercules and Love Affair) deejay sets this last Saturday. It was a such a cool party and great to see a huge turn out. Lots of happy people busted out their fancy dance shoes to dig on the Saturday Night Disco groove considering...

The 1979 Disco Demolition Night



So thirty years have passed since the mayham and disorder which occured at the Chicago White Sox's baseball park. Its crazy how much hate there was for the music and the culture of Disco here in the States, and how that negiative reaction aginst this gerne didn't even happen overseas. Although, Its awesome to see how Disco went underground and then "re-invented" its self through Chicago House and so forth. So you can't kill dance music, but dance music can kill you...

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(Just kidding)

So, here is a video made by uLOVEi and pictures by me of the Learning Secrets 5yr anniversary shindig:


Hercules & Love Affair Interview from uLOVEi on Vimeo.

Ian Orth:
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Paul Mahoney:
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Andy Butler:
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Thanks to Learning Secrets for the coolest party!!

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Ian Orth left, me center, Jeramy Neugent right


Parties this weekend
:

Freaky Friday
is brought to you by Treasure Fingers! Let me see you move it shake it +cross+ the D.A.N.C.E floor for free if you RSVP.

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Super Saturday
is brought to you by Richard.Gear, Joshua Distance, and Computer Club(LA):

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Change of Topic but keeping with Disco theme...

Neon Cool Kids Yo(NCKY)!! Shhheck out these sick Disco traxs by NCKY:

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BWH "STOP"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/54853157a2daf8e1/

Plastic Bertrand "Stop ou Encore"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485302308bf1613/

Pino D'angio "Ma Quale Idea"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/54852885ca301f35/

Ray Rogers "Ya Ya"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485294247f04b49/

Circlesquare "Dancers"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485279686323a3d/


I also came across this Paul McCartney video for "Silly Love Songs" and you can't deny the 70's Disco influence in this song because of the strings and the orchestra sounding back up band:



This song and others makes me sad I'm not able to make it to this years Coachella which always seems to impress me with their simply fantastic lineup year after year. One year I will make it out to this music festival. Check out some of the lineup on this flier...

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

One Day

Yes, one day, one way or another, I will see these bands this year; Glass Candy, Fan Death, and Polyamorous Affair. I discovered each of these bands online through Myspace or Blogs. Their music is oh so nice and dreamy because of the smooth Disco sound and lush female vocals that just scream cool! I've just been thinking here lately about these bands and wanted to write a little something something. Glass Candy is the only band out of the three that I've actually come the closest to seeing.

In September of 2008 I went to vist my brother who lives in Seattle Washington. Glass Candy is based in Portland Oregon, and before I left for Seattle, I found out about a show they where playing for free at an art gallery. It was too good to be true, so in a heart beat I RSVPD for the show, and I intended on renting or borrowing my brother's car to drive to Portland. The distance between Portland and Seattle is pretty much the same distance as a drive between Dallas and Austin, so it wasn't a big deal. Unfortunately plans where made on my behalf to be somewhere else that same day, and I had to cancel my Glass Candy wet dream. To say the least, I missed an awesome show as you can see in the Glass Candy/Nemo video. I love Ida No's dance moves, she is so solid gold ice cold.

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Fan Death is an up and coming act out of NYC. They are gaining a lot of hype in the blog world, and its probably because of Erol Alkan's promoting efforts and production of some of their material. Sometimes they are compared to Hercules and Love Affair and Glass Candy, and I can hear why, never the less, it is good music which warrents all the chatter. Keep an eye out for'em cause they're touring right now up North.

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Polyamorous Affair is a LA duo which doesn't tour much outside of Califorina or LA for that matter. I hope this changes because this is an interesting band which has an eccentric style and sound destin to move people.

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