Apart from all the blogging, we DJ quite a lot. We play the same sort of music that we post, so if you like the blog – you’re going to have a good time on our dancefloor as well. Also, the blog reaches out to a lot of people and attracts a crowd that likes what we’re about. That’s the sort of crowd you want as well, we promise.
We’ve shared the dj booth/stage with a wide assortment of artists/dj’s including the likes of Simian Mobile Disco, SebastiAn, Fluokids, Nadastrom, Tittsworth, Risky Bizniz, Thunderheist, Krazy Fiesta, Oxy Cottontail, The Glass, Dan M, DJ Suijinho, Audioporno, Kornel Kovacs, Fagget Fairys, DJ Dainja, Boody B, AC Slater, Sir Nenis, Sharkslayer, Pets On Prozac, Jamtech Foundation, Cousin Cole, Pocketknife, Casper C, Jess Jubilee, DJ Wool, Mumdance, Cobra Krames, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Ben Mono, Niyi, Renaissance Man, Sekta, Arveene, Solo, Spoek Mathambo, Bok Bok, WooBanger, Hot Pink Delorean, Femme En Fourrure, Solo, Tane Lee, Zebra & Snake etc.
Tanner Ross and Sergio Santos are the latest signing to Mothership. Tanner you may know from Voodeux or from early appearances on Dirtybird. Sergio you may know from Wolf+Lamb and Airdrop. They are roommates so they got the smelly socks 116 bpm funk goin on. Check their “G. Things EP” out next week, but for now here’s the free mix DL so u can hear what’s up. (yes, the new EP is in the mix)
Week 23??
U may have been wondering where I’ve been but you probably never missed me at all. I don’t really know what happened besides the fact that writing “I just played a great party” 20 weeks in a row can be quite boring to write AND to read. But some really standout gigs have happened since my last entry including one of the best DJ weekends of my life in Dublin, Leeds, and London. Basically my “bread and butter” as my agent would call them. I love these three towns. I connect with the people there in a way that makes me smile and love my job more than anything in the world. Big up to T-Bar, Back to Basics, Plan B, Osaka, Chibuku, Denver and all the good shows over the last few weeks.
One of my favorite nights in the world is called Back to Basics in Leeds. Check out this BBC video about it (the longest running club night in the UK – over 18 yrs!) with footage of yours truly and a clip of “Who’s Afraid of Detroit”?
Dirtybird B-Day
Also – our 5 year dirtybird B-Day party was in SF since my last blog entry and it was amazing. Everyone played great and we packed that place with over 1200 heads. There’s nothing like seeing something like this develop over 5 years and finally hit it’s stride. The hometown vibe was bouncin’ 100%. Here is a video one of our people made for us. It’s hard to see sometimes, but you get the picture. I can’t wait for this 5 year cd set to come out in April!
But no one really reads this to find out how much fun i’m having do they? It’s more about the mishaps and blunders on the road that make life interesting. So let’s revisit the second to last day of my 10 day trip to Asia. I have played Tokyo and about 5 other cities and I am burnt. It’s 7am on Saturday morning and I am sitting down next to a snack stand at the the Kuala Lampor airport throwing away all of the clothes I don’t absolutely “need.” I pick out my 8 favorite t-shirts and jam them into my DJ bag. All the rest like dirty underwear, socks, running shoes, jacket, shirts — will all be casualties of this purge.
What gives? Turns out the last day of my Asia tour had a little snag. I had to fly all the way from Kuala Lampor to Osaka Japan for the very last show of a 10 day trip. But in order to make it to Osaka i have to stop in “Guangzhou” China. And Guangzhou China is one of the only places on earth you cannot check your bag through. I have a 45 minute connection which would be difficult to make even if i didn’t have any luggage checked in. So the only way to make it to Osaka is to trash my “check in” luggage completely.
It might sound crazy but it is a very simple (and ridiculous) math equation.
Play the gig – Bag = get paid more than the price of the bag
OR
Keep Bag + miss the gig AND the flight home the next morning.
For me, it’s an easy choice. I ditch the dirty underwear in the garbage can and sacrifice the bag.
I go back upstairs and the Malaysian Air check-in guy recognizes me from my first encounter when he told me the crazy rules in China. He smiles and checks me into the flight. He’s kind of a goofy guy and I’ll never forget his last sentence to me..
“Your seat is 5C, the lounge is to the left after security, and thanks for the nice bag.” giggle…
Then he takes my $400 luggage as a gift because I can’t check it through!!
Wow, that is almost as funny as the night before when i walked on stage in front of 1500+ and the owner of the club came up to me and said…
“You can play a couple of your own things and then you need to play commercial.”
Followed by me saying…”Don’t stand anywhere near me. Don’t talk to me. You make me sick. I’m going to pretend you don’t exist.”
Followed by me Dj-ing with a forced grin and the promoters getting on the mic all throughout my set and shouting “Who’s Afraid of Detroit mothefuckers!! This is how we do it it the KL!!!” (that’s Kuala Lampor fyi)
Interesting night AND morning… can’t wait to go back and do it all again.
Tanner Ross & Sergio Santos – G.Things Ep Promo Mix
1. Martin Buttrich – L2 [ Desolate ]
2. Tanner Ross & Sergio Santos – Sedara [ Mothership ]
3. Seth Troxler – Love Never Sleeps ( Gadi Mizrahi Mix )
4. Franck Roger – The Wolfman [ Real Tone Records ]
5. Dachshund – V2e [ Sthlmaudio Recordings ]
6. Voodeux – Heebie Jeebiez ( Soul Clap mix ) CDR
7. Kenny Larkin – GLOB (Claude VonStroke 71 Remix) [Planet E]
8. Martyn – Seventy Four ( Redshape Remix ) [ 3024 ]
9. Tanner Ross & Sergio Santos – G.Things [ Mothership ]
10. Second-Hand Satellites – Orbit 1.4 [ Hallucination ]
11. Scuba – Flesh Is Weak [ Hot Flush ]
12. SECT – SECTsy [ Culprit ]
Week 10 (actually 13) of a tour is the week when you say, “Damn, how many weeks are left on this thing? Did i actually approve all these gigs?” Whah whah, play me a violin and cry me a river, VonStroke! Suck it up, put your balls back in your underoos and get on the airplane. Barcelona’s only 19 hrs travel from SFO. That’s like nothing to you dood. DJT is on like week 800 on his tour and you are complaining about 10.. What a pussy.. —- As you can see I’m talking to myself on my own blog. It’s mental.
Anyway, with just a few more weeks on the official album tour (and tour blog)…it’s time to get back on it. I got a couple new bits this week from my inner circle of producers…guys like Sascha Braemer and Hickup. When i see their emails with a DL link i get all excited. Some of these made last second additions to the 5 year project on dirtybird. More on that soon.
The newest dirtybird
Last week i interviewed over 40 people to be my personal assistant. I cannot actually believe it has come to this moment where i need an assistant just to survive. But with 2 labels, 2 kids, and gigs almost every weekend in Europe I can’t even get through 20% of my emails. —- OK so you say shut the fuck up, put a bra on your man-boobs and get it together CVS! Anyway, my new assistant’s name is Arlene and she will hopefully make it so i can actually spend some time in the music studio instead of the office so we welcome Arlene to the dirtybird family this week.
Barcelona
Gig was great. Full house. But one of those stages that makes me feel like I am Djing all alone while everyone is partying 50 yards away behind a giant fence. Clubs should not be set up this way, like rock venues. Even so the crowd was great and showing me some big Spanish love so i had a great time. My buddy Justin was there from LA taking pics.
Munich
Surprised to me Sebastian from Minilogue at dinner. We chatted it up for almost the entire meal. Great guy. Here is the record they did for us last year on mothership. suuuuper deeeeep.
I played the Harry Klein club in Munich and our designer Max (the guy who does ALL the art for our labels – including that Minilogue cover) was there with his visuals partner lighting up the entire room with crazy beamers full of dirtybird and mothership video art. The club was fantastic. I never know what to expect in Germany but this was definitely one of my best nights there. Crowd was super amped up all night and finally my dreams came true and my Kenny Larking remix for Planet E was the track of the night..
GLOB – Kenny Larkin – Claude VonStroke 71 remix – Planet E (clip)
To bad my flight home was an endless series of mega delays, otherwise it would have been a perfect weekend. Next week I’m coming for you, UK!
I’m out in Australia on a vacation/DJ trip for 10 days. A little R&R mixed with DJ-ing never hurt anyone. We had a great Xmas in San Francisco and i wish everyone a great 2010. As of Jan1, dirtybird is now 5 years old. Can u believe it? We’ve got a big 5 year birthday release planned so keep a lookout.
Sydney – New Years Eve @ Pacha
I don’t know if New Years is a tour date as much as it is a mandatory DJ affair. I think everyone with a bag of records gets at least one phone call for NYE whether it be your friend’s dorm room or a giant festival. This year I played at Pacha in Sydney. Out of courtesy to the label who licensed my album (and was doing the event) and the amount of amazing hospitality we received I will spare everyone the gory details.
Brisbane – New Years Day @ Monastery
Track of the night:
Deep Throat – Claude VonStroke – full Download + Music video
The room was bouncing off to everything but the very first original track I ever made as CVS was the one that got a special massive response. Check out my nephew Vincil in my very first music video all shot in San Fran, 2006. (i am the homeless guy in the laundromat)
Hoping to find some redemption on New Year’s Day, I flew to Brisbane (or Bris-vegas as the Aussie’s call it.) The promoters here immediately put me at ease because they were dirtybird fans so i knew they would be working hard on getting people out to the club. We have a similar party on New Years Day in San Fran put on by Stompy. It starts mid-day and is always a drunken fiesta by the end. This party was the same. A bit better than NYE after all the amateurs have returned to their caves.
I went on around midnight and had a super fun set. Great crowd. lots of shots, drinks and fun to be had. People were dancing on the bar, throwing their shirts on stage. At one point a few girls dancing on the bar put up a sign “Marry me, Claude!” Hilarious. Sorry ladies, I love the sentiment but it’s not meant to be.
I stayed a little while after my set cause the guy after me was playing some good tunes and I just felt like hanging out. Eventually i went back up and traded 1’s with him for the last 40 minutes of the night.
Top 10 Australian “works” Hamburger ingredients vs. America
I’ve had two burgers here so far on this trip with “the works.” They were both very good but also a bit different from American “works” burgers. Check out the ingredient list…
1. Burger itself (tastes a little different, are they using Wallabies?) Bonus America.
2. Beets or Beetroot as it’s called here. (WTF? But they taste great i must admit) Bonus Australia
3. Fried Egg (i’ve seen this before but it’s still strange) Bonus Australia?
4. Tomato Sauce (nope, no ketchup. sometimes they have BBQ sauce.) Bonus America
5. Lettuce – Whatever. Tie
6. Fried Onions – Bonus Australia (although fried is used loosely here)
7. Mayo – I hate Mayo. Tie.
8. Bacon (Bacon here is usually not crispy has loads of fat rind) Bonus America
9. Cheese – usually a sharp Cheddar instead of cheap American. Bonus Australia
10. Poundage – I don’t think i have ever been less hungry than after the Australian Burger. They are so heavy duty that you can eat one and you don’t have to eat another thing for the entire day. Bonus Australia?? I’m not sure because I didn’t want to leave my bed for the entire day either.
Winner - Although the addition of Beetroot, Fried Egg, Onions and Sharp Cheese makes for a pretty wild “works” recipe (and i’ve even heard of Pineapple rings and Chili mayo added) it only gets you to 2nd place in the World Burger rating…the lack of Ketchup, Beef taste, crispy bacon and severe overpricing make America still the home of the best Burgers. But they do know grilled meats out here. Those “barbie” jokes are for real! Good on ya.
Track of the night….
Once again it was Marc Houle’s Yonkers but this time with a Detroit special “let me bang” accapella i put over the top just for my D town people.
Marc Hole – Yonkers – CVS / Dj Deeon Edit (mp3 clip)
There’s no way to do this blog about Detroit without talking some history. Let’s just begin at my parent’s house for dinner. Dad made some amazing seafood pasta. It’s great to go back home to play a gig and sleep in a big comfy bed in my old house. My Mom and Dad still live in the suburbs of Detroit (called Grosse Pointe). They are really funny and great parents. My Mom even made my Dad come out to the show in the dingy basement of Oslo downtown at 1 in the morning – and dance!
My good friend Anthony soon showed up for dinner. He’s a film director. We met a long time ago in Detroit doing location management on a little movie called “Polish Wedding” filmed in Hamtramck. (a Polish suburb of Detroit with more bars than people.) I had come back to Detroit from a terrible Fran Dresher film called “the Beautician and the Beast” at Paramount I was working on in LA. I made the job change so i could upgrade from Production Assistant to Assistant Location Manager. Whoohoo. Anyway, Anthony was already working in Detroit as the location scout on Polish Wedding. We became friends pretty quickly. (Anthony kept working on films and commercials even after I moved on to music so now he directs car commercials and music videos for Eminem, White Stripes, Slum Village, Black Milk, etc.)
This is all relevant because when I moved back to Detroit from LA Anthony quickly corrupted me and had me going out to all the real Detroit warehouse parties and raves. I barely slept working on that movie and it didn’t take long for me to get my head totally back into music. In fact i never went back to LA, i moved in with Anthony in a building downtown which also was the home of players like DJ Bone. If you know Detroit it’s the building above Niki’s pizza in Greektown on Beaubien. From there i re-built my music rig and played at some Poorboy raves like a mini-Orbital with a flashlight on my head and everything.
On a weird side note, Anthony used to hook me up with car commercial work and on a few jobs i worked with Jack White back when he was just forming the White Stripes band. If you’re into indie rock and that stuff we also worked a lot with Dan Miller from Goober and the Peas and also the band Blanche. Those guys were always a riot. In fact i don’t really get Jack White’s somber persona, he was always the funniest, liveliest guy on set – and he never had a sour face. Even weirder is that later on Anthony directed a couple White Stripes music videos and I was a video editor by then in San Francisco so I actually edited the “Hotel Yorba” music video for them!
Well anyway…Detroit really IS a small town. So Monty Luke showed up for dinner after Anthony. He has a couple records out on mothership. We were friends in SF and he actually moved from San Fran to Detroit to help Carl Craig run Planet E. (insanity??) So of course after dinner we stopped by Carl Craig’s house. That was a bit surreal because Carl had moved only about 4 blocks away from my parents house. His daughter was attending my old high school! Carl and his family were really nice and we chatted about stuff like the book Middlesex (plot set in Grosse Pointe) and just general “how did you end up here?” stuff. It was kinda hard for me to believe I was sitting in Carl’s house just talking shit, but that’s Detroit for you. After that it was time to get downtown to the gig at Oslo. (And Carl came down to the show later. Cool!)
Monty Luke – Art Love & War out this week on Planet E with Carl Craig Remix
The actual show
I was somewhat fatigued from the previous night in SF when i played an all vinyl drum n bass set. So the first hour seemed a little uninspired and i was feeling tired. The mixes weren’t tight, the tracks were too housey, i was playing too soft. But at some point a switch went off in my head that said..”Hey fucko…you’re in Detroit. Are telling me you are going to have a bad show in Detroit?” Well of course that was not an option. So i stopped the music entirely. The crowd started yelling. I waited for a minute then began fresh. After that it was all mayhem, 100% siiick party. Sometimes it is best to just start over again and reset the room cause the party was amazing after that decision. Thanks to Chuck from Paxhau and the countless friends of mine that came out like Dat, Brian, Greg, Dave, Anthony, Monty, my parents, etc.
BIG TRAVEL PAINS
The next morning began one of the most convoluted and insane travel scenarios I have ever been on. Did anyone see planes trains and automobiles? I was the John Candy of Djs this weekend. It all started about 30 min before we were supposed to leave for the airport. All the sudden I realized…shit…I’m going to Canada this weekend. For some reason I forgot we were no longer all living in a happy world where going to Canada was just showing your drivers license and smiling as you crossed the border. AND I FORGOT MY PASSPORT…
Even funnier was that my Mom put all my clothes in the washing machine so even if i did have my passport i had nothing to wear to the airport. She kept apologizing and counting down the minutes until my pants would be dry enough to wear in 15 degree weather. It was pretty funny and sad at the same time.
Now I will do anything not to miss a gig. I’m not going to mention any names but i know some DJs who will cancel on a runny nose or because they feel tired or they partied too much or countless other pussy reasons. I would never do that. I have to be a Dead Man Walking to miss a gig.
Totally dismayed, I thought for a second the lack of passport was going to crush my weekend. But there are some advantages of being at home. One advantage is access to documents. Just when i thought my weekend was over my Mom comes up out of the basement with my original birth certificate. And apparently i COULD get into Canada with just the birth certificate and a kind border guard.
So 30 min later my Dad and i drive across the border to Windsor with the birth certificate. My Dad shows his passport and tells the guard a story about how I forgot my passport. There is that 30 seconds of really uncomfortable silence while the guy looks over the documents. tick tock tick tock. Then all the sudden we are inside Canada. Success. I’m going to make it to Toronto! My Dad drives me to the Windsor train station and drops me off to wait for the train. It looks like i’m going to work this out…easy.
OK, so of course 5 minutes after my Dad drops me off my agent calls me and tells me there is no Saturday delivery to Toronto. So now I am now trapped inside Canada with no chance of getting the passport delivered. the reason I am trapped is because you CANNOT get back into the USA with birth certificate. It has to be a passport for America. uggggg
Top ten scenarios for me getting back into the USA without my passport.
1. Fedex passport Saturday delivery to Toronto – Originally this was the best plan. Reason it didn’t work::: The fedex employee who answered the phone didn’t know what they were talking about. When Andrew (my agent) got to Fedex they said there is no Saturday delivery to Toronto on Fedex UPS or DHL.
2. Fly Boz (label manager) to Toronto with my passport and then he gets to party there as well. Reason it didn’t work::: He would have to take a redeye and miss the show anyway, plus there was no ticket without connections for less than $2,500.
3. Fedex passport to my parents in Detroit and have them drive it to Toronto. Reason it didn’t work:: My parents (bless them) would have to drive 5 hours to Toronto with a 1 hour time change after getting the package with my passport at noon. It was not enough time to make my flight to Chicago from Toronto. Then they would have to drive back home as well.
The winner…after over 30 scenarios considered…
1. Dad drives me over the Windsor / Canada border with birth certificate that my Mom found in the basement. They see his passport and my birth cert (on which he is the father.) They take pity on me and let us in.
2. Dad drops me at Windsor train station where i take a 4.5 hour train to Toronto.
3. Next morning I wake up and get right back on the train from Toronto back to Windsor. (train is delayed and takes 6 hours)
4. Fedex with my passport in it arrives at my Parents house
5. My Parents drive across the Windsor border and give me my passport. Then we drive back across into the USA with my passport.
6. I go to the airport and catch a flight to Chicago (of course delayed another 2 hours)
7. Arrive in Chicago. Play in Chicago!!!
8. Sunday morning book entirely new flight from Chicago to San Francisco using the refund minus change fee of the entire Toronto/Chicago/SF flights i missed the day before.
9. Arrive in SF beat to shit!!! Wow…that was hard core :)
Lessons learned – Aways bring our passport on every trip. AND, you are never too old to get help from your parents. :)
Toronto – Friday night
After the insane travel and a few hours of sleep I arrived at the Mod Club in Toronto. The club was pretty big and it was set up in a way where I was very far from the crowd. I’ll admit it was a little bit tough to fully connect with the stage set-up like this. The good thing was that I met Talal and Zoi who just signed the track “Silky King” to dirtybird. These guys were really nice and enthusiastic. They hung out on stage with me as well as the guy from the Nacho Lovers who just signed up on my same booking agency.
So the support was there and the set went well but i can’t truthfully say it was amazing for me. It was packed all night and I really did give my best effort but i should have been down on the floor with the people. Thanks to the few fans out in the crowd who made a point to come up on stage and say hi to me. There was also a nice girl at the end who told me she loved reading the blog!! It was the first time anyone had ever come up and talked to me about the blog so I really appreciated that.
Jeff, the driver/promoter was a cool guy and i went to grab a Falafel at the all night joint with him. The french fries that came with it were incredible. So good that i knew i shouldn’t be eating them. Next time we will put the booth down on the floor or play a more intimate space. I really love Toronto and all of Canada. I could even imagine living there if it wasn’t so cold.
Canadians –
I think most people would agree that Canadians are the nicest people on planet Earth. A rare fact about me is that my favorite movie of all time is a Canadian movie called “Strange Brew.” It is probably also one of the stupidest movies ever made but hey, it made me laugh when i was a kid.
One funny comment on the train back to Windsor came when we were de-boarding. It took a long time because everyone had all their Xmas luggage. A guy from the back of the line shouts “Hey, what’s the hold up, eh?!!” Then a guy from the front shouts “Take it easy, we’re all going to the same place!” And then the guy behind me sums it all up in one sentence… “If we were in the States there would have been a fistfight.” and both Canadian guys chuckle.
ha!! so true.
Chicago – Saturday night
Chicago at Smart Bar is always a good gig for me. There is a new guy, Nate booking the shows who is very enthusiastic. He picked my up from the airport and we shot the shit for a while about Miami and Detroit and how to best do parties in these towns. He was very knowledgeable and I hope to work with him further down the road.
This time in Chi town i was teaming up with Justin Long on a dotbleep vs. dirtybird night. Justin is an amazing DJ. he is one of those guys you love to watch. He jumps, growls, dances, everything. When i got there he was going strong, rocking the crowd and just raising the energy of the club in that crazy way that he does. I saw about 45 minutes of it before i went on. He definitely had it thumping in there.
As soon as i went on, Nate got on the mic and announced our new dirtybird residency. We are now going to be doing a quarterly party in Chicago. It is out first real label residency outside of SF and i’m really happy about it.
Chicago is always great and the crowd were fully down for the night. I played for ages. A guy Jon from Casual records came down and hung out for a while and told me Green Velvet would be interested in working on a track with me. Now this is some serious news for me because when i started out the only track that really influenced me was “the Percolator” by Cajmere (same guy as Green Velvet.) It was the only track i heard that sounded exactly how i wanted to sound. Funny but serious. Booty but still techno. I still think this track is probably the best dance music track I have ever heard. So I’ll definitely be calling Mr. Velvet back!
The Percolator – Cajmere – Cajual Records (mp3 clip)
In Smart Bar they close the bar at 4 instead of 2 so it’s all good in there even late night. I was feeling a little bit faded from the hardcore traveling but the crowd’s unfailing energy and enthusiasm kept me going. The people were really giving me back to love so I finished the set with the original “Aundy” mixed into the drum n bass remix by Marky & S.P.Y. It was a great end to a great night on a great weekend. Peace to Chicago. And see u soon!
track of the night….
Sometimes this one works and sometimes it doesn’t. in Portland it REALLY worked.
Get Low – Justin Martin – dirtybird (mp3 clip)
Portland Overview -
It was a weird tour week. Sometimes i do these gigs where i leave around 8pm to a West Coast city and am back in the morning almost like I never left. Portland was scheduled like this.
Lets start with the apartment where they put me up. I think it was probably the pimpest lodging I’ve ever stayed for a US DJ gig. Someone built this amazing modern building just before the housing bubble burst. Now they use them for anything and everything possible including DJ lodging. I felt bad for the owner but good for me!
I was booked for a 3 or 4 hr. set at most but i ended up playing the WHOLE night…almost 6 hours until my plane left the next morning. The crowd was very Northwest rave style and super enthusiastic.*** I maybe played a little long past 5 am but it was a scenario where i either get a 45 minute nap or I just played it out. Of course i decided to play it out so the people who stayed got to hear some funny weird stuff like Christian Martin’s Yo Gabba Gabba bootleg.
There’s a Party in My Tummy (Christian Martin bootleg) mp3 clip
Thanks so much to the very enthusiastic Portland crowd and also Jeff and Cynthia for putting together the event. Who would have guessed that and outdoor event in the middle of winter could be so awesome. I will definitely be going back (and wearing a warmer jacket) Of course staying up all night straight through seems like a great idea until you actually get home and your two little kids want to play games all day. I was a trooper but i got some serious sleep the next night…maybe made it to 8pm at most.
The Hippies
****Let’s take a second to talk about a current phenomenon going on in America. Back in the day the hippies would all follow the Grateful Dead. Then when Jerry Garcia died there was a giant void that was filled by jam bands like Phish. Never before in this evolution has electronic music been a part of the hippie equation. But recently somehow a new breed of hippie has risen up. The burning man folks have taken over the reigns and dubstep has emerged as the music of choice. This seems like a very unusual combination but take it from me, i have seen it with my own eyes. 4,000 hippies going insane to UK dubstep in Yosemite national park at a festival called “Symbiosis.” The even crazier part of this is that an American guy called Bassnectar is the Dj of choice for this sound. He draws the biggest crowds and is the most sought after and he never leaves the states. This is incredible to me that an American Dj is playing UK dance music and making 10’s of thousands every gig and never setting foot outside of the USA.
Portland on Friday had a little bit of that vibe going on which made me want to comment on this phenomenon. My sets at Symbiosis and at Rain dance on Halloween this year showed me the possibilities in America for my brand of tech house as well as Dubstep. The hippie’s are actually the most enthusiastic, creative crowds in the USA. I will be pursuing gigs to play at these shows because the crowds are crazy, fun, and there are always a lot of naked people running around. In Portland i felt like there would have been some nakeds if it hadn’t been for the freezing cold temperature in the outdoor tent. The lines between jam bands and electronic music are definitely getting blurrier because I was the last show as part of a 3 day Reggae festival! I may not look like or be an actual Hippie but i do get a free pass because my home address is on Haight St. San Francisco. (an automatic hippie club qualification.)
Week 6 – San Francisco – Wednesday night – surprise Drum n Bass vinyl set
Track of the night. Everything Drum n Bass
SF
This wasn’t really a tour date but I was booked to play an all vinyl set in San Francisco around the holidays. The guy who booked me owns Tweekin records down on Haight st. where I bought all my very first house records. dirtybird have been selling our records there since the start of the label. Back in the day this was the place where you would see every big SF and international DJ on any weekday. The current owner, Manny (M3) is a long time SF DJ who is part of one of SF’s longest running house crews called Green Gorilla.
My very first vinyl had about 10 test pressings total. i gave them away to people but maybe 3 of them were for sale in Tweekin. You can hear that my production wasn’t quite there yet, but this is the very first thing i ever had on wax as “Barclay Crenshaw.” (about 2 years before dirtybird 001. You can see that the original record label name was supposed to be Rook Records (Rook is now the name of my publishing company.) dirtybird was just a better name for a label so i changed it before the first record. If anyone could find a copy of that vinyl i would be really impressed.
Barclay Crenshaw – Banana Phone – Rook Records (full mp3)
Anyway, I have always been a huuuge drum n bass fan and I decided to do something special at this all vinyl show. I called up Justin Martin who has a nice collection of old “intelligent” Good Lookin’ style DnB vinyl. Then i went through my own harder collection. I even went to go buy some records from this new shop min SOMA run by John Holiday. He had some real hot shit there as well and between the three collections I managed to put together a very historical vinyl set, starting with the old ambient vibey 1995 stuff like on Good lookin and working my way up through Photek and Metalheadz all the way up to the slammin Krust and Dillinja material released around 2002.
It was really fun. People thought i was kidding at first. I could tell some were there for the house trax but I loved playing those basslines!!!! They were rolling around my head for the next two days straight. It was probably the most fun I’ve had Djing in a while. i definitely still love Drum n Bass. That is for sure.
I think its cool to pay tribute if a producer or DJ I like comes to the gig to show support. Sebastien Leger came out to Melkweg and i played his “Le Moutache” which also ended up being the biggest jam of the night!
“Le Moustique” Sebastien Leger – Mistakes Music (mp3 clip)
Amsterdam Overview
It started at my hotel while i was waiting to be picked up for dinner. A woman walks in the lobby of the hotel who doesn’t look anything like a promoter of a nightclub. But she starts walking straight towards me like she knows me. I go along with this cause i meet a lot of people and maybe she does know me. She gives me the ole Euro kiss kiss on the cheeks and a huge hug like we are great friends. I am thinking…OK…this has to be the promoter even though she looks like a lawyer. 2 seconds later she realizes that she is coming to see the guy who is sitting on the other couch. She bursts out laughing hysterically and goes over to the other guy. They are all speaking Dutch so i don’t know what they are saying but it was a very funny greeting to Holland.
I had an Ostrich steak with truffle sauce for dinner on recommendation from Roy, the promoter. It was actually very very good. It tasted like a very nice lean steak. Who knew a bird could taste like a steak. I was thinking to myself, is it cannibalism if i eat bird meat for dinner?
Melkweg is a big room that probably holds 1100 people. I think there were maybe 1000 there. The show was great but it could have used that extra 100 to set it over the top I think. I tried out a lot of ideas and most of them worked but sometimes I drew dead and this was the kind of crowd that was motivated by a track by track basis so it was tough to get a hot vibe going and keep it steady the whole time.
On rare occasion I get asked about my bear hair, meaning my very hairy body. I prefer this to be a woman asking but it is always funny to me when it happens and it happened in Holland this night. It makes me know the crowd is not taking the show too seriously and it always cracks me up.
David K followed me and i stayed for his set. He did not fair as well as me with the crowd but he stayed strong and I quite liked the music. It was one of those things where David was really good but the crowd didn’t get it all the way, so i blame them not him.
After we finished playing of course i was excited to hear that David K had some weed and we were going to light up. I was thinking we would get a fat Dutch style joint just like Cali. But then i realized David is French and not Dutch. So of course he rolled our joint with tons of tobacco. Uggg. Foiled again by Europeans. (****see below for further explanation) Either way I got super high and it was totally fun walking around with David in downtown Amsterdam at 6 am with our weed on. I think i ate like 3 plates at breakfast too.
London – Fabric – Saturday night
Track of the night.
I opened with this shit following Voodeux. The intro is insane!
There are 3 rooms in Fabric. The main room, room 2 which is also big, and room 3 which is very personal and smaller. It’s pretty rare that a label takes over room 1. They usually do that kind of thing in rooms 2 and 3. (in fact Wolf+Lamb had room 3 so it was a very American night in Fabric.) I was like a proud poppa bear all night because we took over the main room and did not disappoint.
J Phlip opened up at 11 and played a really thoughtful and awesome warm up set. I think it was her first DJ trip to Europe. Who gets to play Fabric room 1 on their first trip to Europe? Insane! Her set had everything from the deep stuff to booty bass and the room went from a few stragglers to totally full by the time she was off the decks. It also was awesome to see that her track of the night was her Bootsy Collins remix.
The Greasy Beat ft. Bootsy Collins (J Phlip Remix) – Claude VonStroke – dirtybird (mp3 clip)
Justin Martin followed her from 1:30 to 4 and he killed it! Last week he thought i was bagging on him when i said he destroyed the room but I meant it as i said it – he DESTROYED the room. Meaning he played incredible, lots of rolling jackin beats. At one point the energy was so amazing at Fabric all i saw was smiles and asses shaking all throughout the club and in the booth and even from the Fabric employees. The room had really caught fire.
Justin Martin – Robot Romance – dirtybird (mp3 clip)
Tanner (performing as Voodeux) was on next live. His gear was set up on the stage on the other side of the room and the sound of Voodeux is quite different than the Dirtybird sound of me and Justin. Voodeux is more techno and soundscapes and harder beats so i was a little scared for Tanner that the room might turn on him. Of course as soon as he started it was amazing. All fears washed away instantly and Tanner had an incredible hour performance. This was also his first DJ trip to Europe. At he’s standing there on stage in front of all of Fabric just killing it, jumping up and down, loving it. It made me so happy. I could see that Rose, his girlfriend was so proud and excited. It was a great moment.
After Tanner’s deeply dark vibe it was time to shake up this place. I opened at 5am with the absolutely killer “Yonkers” by Marc Houle. (see above) The intro is so sick, everyone freaked out. I played for what seemed like an hour and then it was already over. It was such an enjoyable night that my car to the airport showed up at 9am and i wasn’t even done DJing…ooops. I had to quickly wrap it up, grab my bags, and jump in the car. Thanks to everyone at Fabric, especially Judy and Julienne. Definitely the best Dirtybird night I’ve ever been to outside of SF!!
Now going from a rockin club straight to Heathrow airport then to San Francisco is pretty much as severe as it gets. Its like someone pouring a large bucket of ice into your hot steam bath or like having sex and stopping right before you jizz to go do a math equation in the living room. I didn’t make the upgrade so i stuffed my ass in the back of the plane and just sat there like a zombie for 10 hours. Some lady was complaining that i had too many carry-on items. I just stared at here with a blank face and watched her fat lips open and close. Sometimes it actually doesn’t pay to live in San Francisco.
***** Euro-weed
Like president Clinton, right up front I’m making the statement “I did not inhale,” but lets take a minute to talk about joints. Amsterdam is known of course for it’s famous coffee shops where you can smoke some of the best hash and marijuana in the world. I have been known to dabble but i’m not a stoner by any means. Maybe once every couple months or so i’ll partake in some extra fun. Before a DJ set is a no no for me because i am one of these people who gets really really hiiigh even on just a little.
For some reason back in history the Europeans decided that a “joint” must be rolled with tons of tobacco mixed in it, more like a rolled cigarette at its core. Now i absolutely hate tobacco. i don’t smoke and tobacco just makes me feel like shit except maybe the initial buzz. In California and some parts of Canada everybody knows that when we roll a “joint” that means all weed, no tobacco. This leads to getting way more stoned and in my opinion is way smoother and much much better with no nasty tobacco interfering.
The only exception to this crappy Euro practice of rolling in tobacco into a joint is in the city of Amsterdam. In Amsterdam they know about the California style and they don’t fuck around. A joint is a motherfuckin joint in Amsterdam. Like a Royale with cheese. All weed. Of course when you are in my situation on Friday night where i was hanging with French guy in Amsterdam it could go either way. Unfortunately for me it was a combo tobacco/weed joint.
A few quick differences between America and mainland Europe.
(there are a million but for the sake of time.)
1. In America a joint is a joint, no tobacco bullshit.
2. NO ONE like Sarah Palin in Europe. (or any of those losers)
3. In the US you can find a sandwich and a cup of coffee at any time of night. In Cali you can even go grocery shopping at 4am. In Europe you’d be lucky to get a dry roll in the middle of the night.
4. DJ is a legit occupation in Europe for an adult. You can be 43 and a DJ and it’s totally normal. Really, it’s true.
5. In Europe a lot of people want to travel and visit California
6. In America a lot of people want to travel and visit Hawaii (screw you Justin Martin).
Tons of people came out to dance off the stuffing and turkey fat they chowed down the previous day. Big credit to the Compression crew who were kind enough to host our labels on their 4th birthday party.
It was a mostly family based Thanksgiving trip instead of a huge DJ weekend. My brother Alex lives in LA with his whole family. My parents also flew in from Detroit and my sister from Denver. We even had plenty of cousins nephews and nieces to round out the full family experience. All the dirtybird and mothership crew came by the house we rented in Playa Del Rey and we had a huge American Thanksgiving day feast. Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy, Cranberry, Mashed Potatoes, green Beans, Pumpkin Pie, etc. etc. Yum.
The next night as we walked down the street to the club I saw the very first magazine I have ever been on the cover of. An english Dj mag called “International DJ” (IDJ). It was very surreal to see my face on the front of a mag and to buy it from the newsstand guy. And of course i bought 4 copies so my mom could be proud.
At the event, the line-up was all my labels with Voodeux (live) & Monty Luke rocking the mothership room and Christian Martin, Justin Martin and myself in the dirtybird room. Everyone played great and it was cool to see that there were some really dedicated Voodeux fans at the show geeking out in the front row while Tanner and James twiddled knobs and made creepy music for the crowd. I heard that Monty Luke had a good room going as well but i couldn’t see him as we were playing at the same time.
In our room Christian opened great, bassy, eclectic and cool. Then Justin Martin followed and went on a rampage – tearing down buildings, making funny faces and destroying the room…leaving me with nothing but rubble and dust to clean up. Even so, everyone stayed 2 hours past the bar closing which is unheard of in the US – so i was able to build a nice house back up from the wreckage. I ended with my new remix of Kenny Larkin on Planet E. The room was so loud the entire stage vibrated like a tuning fork when the bass dropped.
Kenny Larkin – GLOB – Claude VonStroke “71” mix – Planet E (mp3 clip)
Top 5 Hangover cures.
I was definitely hangin with Mr. Cooper the next morning which I am usually very good at avoiding. One of the keys to survival on the road is being able to get up the next morning and function (or just stay up.) Making your flight completely hung over or wasted is an art form all in its own. Her are some tips to stay alive.
1. Drink the same drink all night, preferably with no sugar in it. I drink Vodka Soda which is basically vodka and water. Almost foolproof but often screwed up with Jaeger shots or multiple Red Bulls.
2. Drop 3 Advil before bedtime with some vitamin B and a multivitamin. Even if it doesn’t work you will laugh at your neon yellow pee in the morning.
3. Drink tons of water – even while you are drinking booze and especially before bed. Force that water down!
4. Eat a giant sandwich or room service just before sleeping (not a very good way to stay trim though as i have learned the hard way.) But it taste so gooood.
5. Stay up all night so that by the time you go to breakfast you can just power through the hangover with some pancakes and coffee. Then stay up until you don’t feel drunk anymore.
6. Hair of the dog – the illogical drink to get rid of your hangover. Best drink would be a Bloody Mary with shrimp, celery, olives and a bacon slice. Basically, try to stay drunk. This plan always seems amazing until it ends that afternoon.
DJ Marky’s drum n’ bass remix of “Aundy” from the album. What a surprise to me that this would be the track in Berlin of all places. I would have expected this in Manchester or Bristol but not Berlin. Goes to show we had a great crowd that night.
Berlin track of the night “Aundy” DJ Marky & S.P.Y. remix (mp3 clip)
Berlin Overview –
There is something comforting to me about seeing the TV tower in Alexanderplatz and pulling into the East Berlin city center. Like many producers, I tested out the move to Berlin two summers ago and lived there for 3 months. Although i made many great friends and had an amazing time, San Francisco definitely called me back. West Coast for life!
When i got to the apartment where we were all staying, Maetrik, Tanner Ross and I discussed the value of living in Berlin. The guys seemed convinced (and quite annoyed with the idea) that US Djs have it much harder these days unless they move to Berlin. And that it was possible to make it in Berlin solely on DJing if you did drugs with all the right people and and acted cool. My answer to this was – yeah MAYBE, but there really is no easy way to make it. Those who do not earn it the right way will quickly be discovered and replaced with real talent. It is just as valuable to be from somewhere and represent something that isn’t like what everyone else is doing. Berlin for DJs is like Los Angeles for actors. It is hard to get any perspective when you are living inside the machine. I find it much easier to sit outside of the machine and press buttons.
Even so, Berlin has it’s many many charms as a city that never sleeps. Just to show how many dance music producers live in Berlin – the early stages of our party at Watergate looked more like a producers convention than a show for fans. Sebo K, Jesse Rose, Heidi, Seth Troxler, Jay Haze, Sascha Braemer, Dan Caster, plus all of our people playing, Maetrik, Catz n Dogz, P.toile, Justin Martin, Tim Green, Voodeux – it was like a world Summit of house DJs. And then just imagine all of these people have agents and managers and friends who are also in the business. It was insane. This was the second time we had done our event with mothership on the water floor and dirtybird on the main floor. But from 12:30 to 2 am i couldn’t move an inch because i was trapped in non-stop conversations.
Justin Martin graciously took the warm-up set before me but there was nothing gracious about the music. He had it slithering and shaking in there by 2. The crowd was super primed by the time i got on. A great set by Justin for sure. All his new bombs blew up in the right spots. Here’s one for example…
Justin Martin – Robot Romance – dirtybird (mp3 clip)
Wishing i had a chance to see more of everyone’s sets, I went on and started housey, quickly moving through the arsenal to panty dropping bass tracks. The best part of Berlin is that the crowd is usually highly educated and can handle it if you experiment a little bit. I played some things i wouldn’t dare bring out in a place like London. The room went off and everyone had a great time. It was like throwing a party with all your friends. How could it be bad?
RUNNING OUT ON THE PARTY
Justin and I had to run out of the club right at 5am, the minute my set finished in order to make our flights to the next gigs. I didn’t like the fact that i had to leave my own label event well before it was over and i somewhat sabotaged my own departure. My self fulfilling prophecy unfolded once I got to the airport and saw I was on Easy Jet. I never check my record bag but today i got a particularly bitchy check in attendant who wanted me to check my records AND my laptop and everything. She wanted to weigh it, measure it, and size it. Now i can usually pull some tricks and get around this but not if they are really on me about it. (see top 6 list below**) But my bags are just way to heavy if i get truly busted.
All i could think about was the main room at Watergate going insane to Maetrik while this old Easy Jet lady was telling me my DJ bag isn’t getting on the plane as a carry-on.
As she came from behind her desk to physically measure the dimensions of my hand luggage I totally cracked. Snatching up both my bags I very rudely said “fuck you, have fun with your ruler” and walked out of the airport. (maybe slightly drunk at this point and a little too rude.) I got straight back in a cab back to Watergate. I walked back into the main room as Maetrik finished and got back on the decks for another 2 hours. Worth it…yes!
Week 3 – Rome – Saturday @ Goa
Track of the night – Stop Lyin
A weird one for track of the night in my sets. A super housey record, rooted in hip hop. But it has a great, classy build up and this room was all about the build ups.
Luckily my agent was able to put together a connection filled flight out of Berlin to save my ass and I still made it to Rome. Needless to say i arrived in Italy dead tired. I went straight to sleep but was woken up by my phone blaring endlessly. I finally picked it up and on the other end was a National Dutch Radio live interview! Fuck! I forgot of course.
In 10 seconds I had to get my head into being cheerful and upbeat, but my voice just sounded like Froggy from the “little rascals.” Grasping for straws and knowing my interview sucked I told the deejay my music was going to make people in Holland want to have sex on the dance-floor. Then i cringed and realized what i just said. So lame! But the guy played along and actually made it funny by commenting, “the way you sound right now I really don’t want to have sex on the dance-floor.”
Oh mang…interviews.
I soon went to dinner with my driver/host, Simone. This guy was a real Italian, really funny and cool without even trying to be. He also just happened to love San Francisco so I instantly bonded with him. One of the best lines that actually left his lips during the night was… “When i was in San Francisco last summer I fucked about 20 girls. I’m not kidding.” This kind of thing would sound insane coming from most people but I actually believed him. He told me the amazing tale of traveling by himself to New York which was “much too fast for me..” and ending up in San Francisco where he rented a room in a building on Polk St. not far from my office. He said that he knew everyone in his building within 72 hours of arrival due to a half pound bag of weed he bought. He said, “my room was like a shop.” (Imagine the thick Italian accent and the story is better.)
Simone found it completely amazing that people in America would stop and give you directions and that some girls actually would talk to you before you talked to them. This is the kind of guy you wish you knew in high school.
The sound system in Rome was fantastic and my set really worked for the most part. I have to admit i drank a little too much vodka and smoked a little too much weed so it’s a little blury. (there’s goes my presidential campaign.) I ended up out on the dance-floor dancing to who knows what, so for sure i was loaded. Simone ended up dropping me at the airport at 9am. Somehow i boarded and woke up at my connection in Washington DC. All in all, too much fun for an old man like me.
TOP 7 ways for DJs to sneak extra luggage and overweight carry-ons on a plane. Airport restrictions have become the DJs biggest nightmare because if you ever check in your music there is always a chance you will not be working that night. I find this to be an unacceptable risk so i have a strong repertoire of sneaky ways to get heavy Dj bags on the plane. It’s all about preparation and knowing the rules before you get to the desk. if you are more prepared than them you can win this war 99% of the time.
Take all the records and cds out of the bag and hand them to the promoter or driver. Check into the flight with your bag weighing 3 pounds. Once you get the boarding pass, reload the bag with all the heavy stuff.
Do the same thing as step one but do not even show them the bag. (have the promoter hold it for you.)
Roll your bag as close to the counter while the person ahead of you is still checking in. This way, when it is your turn you only look like you have your laptop/backpack item. Since the counters are all very high at the airport the check-in people usually cannot see your bag, they can only see if you roll something up to the counter or not.
Always use your status. Even if you aren’t a “premiere exec” or whatever, always make an attempt to check in the business/first class line. Usually they don’t have time to relegate you to the back of the other line and the business/first check-in people are trained to be much more lenient with the carry-on bag situation.
This one requires dexterity and a cool head. Unzip the top of your Dj bag so that if they ask you to weigh it, you can lean down and quickly pull out the heaviest stack of vinyl or the huge cd wallet in one swift move. (and out of their line of sight.) Then put the bag on the scale with the one heavy bit hiding right in front of the desk. You have to be very quick and smooth but I have done this successfully.
Be extremely confident and happy when checking in. No frowns our bad attitudes. You are this person’s new best friend and you would never lie to them. You are just a wholesome boy or girl from the midwest. They get so many sour faces at their job that if you are a breath of fresh air you could probably carry on a 400 pound iron anvil.
It’s hard to pick a track of the night when the crowd was so incredibly up for it on almost every track. But this one had that extra little inch of airtime of feet off the floor. When the break hit ALL hands were in the air. It’s one from our Dirtybird 5 year birthday compilation out this March.
San Francisco Overview -
I only played one gig this weekend because it was a special weekend where I debuted the album at home in San Francisco. This is where i live. The city that influenced the music. I adore San Francisco with all my heart. So needless to say I was a bundle of nerves going into this party. Not because of what i would play but because i wanted to see if my home town would come out and support. And of course they did. Everyone came together. Big creds to Boz, our label manager who really turned the screws on this event – and Luke, our office assistant who hammered the internet as well. Thanks as well to Dax, Emma, Andrew, Mareissa, etc. So many people helped I can’t possibly list them all but when i saw over 500 people dancing before it was even 11pm I knew we were golden!
Let’s begin with the tequila. My wife’s friend Jen called me up the week before and told me she was working on marketing a new brand of Tequila. She asked me, “Do you need tequila for anything??” Ummm, yes please? So she sent us 3 huge cases for free and we staged a free tequila bar for an hour from 9-10! Tequila is a particularly frisky, sexual liquor. Perfect for dirtybird. A nice wild liquor to prep a huge wild crowd.
Christian Martin went on and had 500 dancing by 11pm. A new Dirtybird attendance record for sure. He played a crazy mix of dubstep and house, featuring some new tracks he did and also some by his brother Justin. I was going to play a clip of his new track Polar Bear but he wanted me to play his new remix of Monster Island which in my opinion sounds like Matthew Dear and Ectomorph met up with a Cali breaks crew. Sweet. Thanks to Chris for opening up. That’s one cool thing about the db crew. Everyone takes turns and has no problem supporting their friends. On rotation I open the party two or three times a year as well. It’s all in the family here in SF.
By 11, everyone was ready for Solar. We don’t usually have guys from outside dirtybird play our events but Solar is probably my favorite DJ in the city and i wanted someone who could build the room and not play every dirtybird track in my bag. Solar is from a crew called Sunset who were doing parties before we even had a label. Their crew still puts our park parties to shame and is the reason we even do park parties. Solar and Galen and J Bird and all those guys are the real SF party visionaries we looked up to when we were starting dirtybird. Anyway, Solar came on and really smashed it for 2 hours straight. He showed us why he has been one of the best DJs in San Francisco and the USA for many many years. He played the perfect lead in set of weird trippy tech house. Not too big, not to small, just solid solid oddball party music. It was a real treat to have him on the line-up. I wish i could post a clip but thanks to Solar’s genius I have no idea what any of the tracks he played were called!
By the time i went on the room was mayhem. There were 1000 people heaving inside Mezzanine. I was loving it. Half way through my set I dropped this gem from Heinrichs and Hirtenfeller which really made an impression.
There was a dood so fucked up in the front that he was crashing into the Dj setup. His girlfriend kept dragging him back out on to the dance-floor. I watched him flop about all over the place. The best part was that even though he was way past being able to function he was still trying to dance. It was kind of like watching the guy in Monty Python who gets all his limbs chopped off and keeps trying to fight saying “it’s merely a flesh wound!.” Funny.
After about 2 hours of hands in the air madness I dropped a drum n bass track and switched it up to some big nasty techno shit. The sound was really proper and I was really enjoying myself in there. During this whole thing Luke gave out about 500 cd albums as a gifts to the people. Overall, It was one of the best Dirtybird nights ever for sure. Thanks so much to all the people from SF who came out!!! I love you all.
TOP 7 SAN FRANCISCO
Places to find cool shit on Haight St. – I have lived in SF for 12 years and actually on Haight St. for 5. There are a million shop on the Haight, some trying to be cool and some legit. There is something for everyone but here’s where i shop.
Upper Playground which is technically on Fillmore but is like 3 doors off Haight. A staple of my wardrobe for the last 12 years. Local artists like Sam Flores and Jeremy Fish have made it big off the back of this T-shirt store. At one point in my career when i was working on film and i didn’t have any free time i was just buying t-shirts here instead of doing laundry.
Amoeba – Is this the last place on earth that feels as big as Best Buy but only sells music? including vinyl records, rare genres, used cds, collectors items, etc. This is the best music store in the USA and probably the world. It is a criminal offense to visit SF and not go here. Only gripe is that you can’t listen to vinyl before u buy it.
TRUE – As opposed to the way over-priced and “trendy” Villains shop on Haight (which is still worth a visit if you are rail skinny and like French house music) – for me the best shop on Upper Haight is True. They always play great mixtapes and have the big boy XXL sizes in the best brands. A nice T-shirt collection as well.
Ali Baba’s Cavern – People get really crazy about their favorite places to eat on the Haight. Some people would demand that the sausage place Rosamundi’s be in this spot or the breakfast joint, Pork Store – or even Citrus Club, the Tai Soup shop. But in my opinion there isn’t a better sandwich on Haight than Chicken Schwarma sandwich from Ali Babas. That shit is niiiice!
FTC – I don’t even skate anymore but i do know that this is the shop to go if you do skate. Rumored to be an anagram for “Fuck The Cops” this tiny shop has made a real name for itself across the country. I took my nephew in here one day to get a new deck and they didn’t give us an attitude – quite the opposite. Love the old collector’s decks up on the wall as well.
Kid Robot – The Always fascinating Japanese toy shop. Whether you buy something or not you need to stop in. Justin Martin wears Kid Robot Pajamas FYI. It’s not higher on the list because it has multiple locations. (not just SF)
Trimmers – totally ridiculous and non-deserving that this makes the list but I’ve been getting my hair cut here for 5 years and the guy who works here runs the Haight St. Fair – so he’s for real.
Today we introduce a guest blogger. He will be doing his tourblog for a while here on Discobelle. So let’s welcome Claude VonStroke / Discobelle
Claude VonStroke Bird Brain Album tour blog…
Blog Intro…
Thinking up a German porn star name and touring the world as a house DJ is probably my greatest hair-brained scheme to date. This tour blog is just another silly idea of mine, but maybe not so silly. I did invent the mountain bike when I was 8 years old. (of course someone else followed through and actually did it.) So, as you would figure, this blog is me talking shit. It’s also cheaper and less embarrassing than visiting a shrink.
Week 1 – Paris – Friday – Rex Club
Track of the Night -
First things first, before you get bored with endless dribble, I’ll always begin with the track of the night, that one special tune that gave the clubbers extra hard nipples. In Paris it was a worthy recipient. This track i’ve been sweating hard for months. Sascha Braemer is 1/2 of Heinrichs and Hirtenfeller who had a sick album out this year on Highgrade called Dark Orbit. The album was so sick i went and found this guy. He lives in Berlin and his debut on dirtybird begins with “Some Sweat.” Its all about the simple but twisted time changes in the breakdown for me.
Paris Overview -
Paris is a magic city for me. Where else on earth can you get a shower in your hotel room that has a mosaic tile image of two lesbians making out? That and the little silver rubber duck and we’re all good. Also the guys who book me are second to none as far a fun loving party people with a good sense of humor. I always have an incredible time there and usually at the end of the night some epic quest for a fresh pineapple occurs.
Oli (as in Olibusta from mothership Invasion v3) & Patrick (the guy who always has the after-party at his flat) picked me up from the airport and we immediately started chatting about their new label that will have the same name as their blog and his events crew called “Get The Curse.” Oli had already done some of the hardest work which is saving up the seed money and finding a distributor so I wasn’t as discouraging as I usually am to someone who tells me they are starting a label. This was the main theme of the night. And to the distress of Oli’s stunning and gracious girlfriend, we discussed the fine points of “label starting” over dinner. – see the top 5 below***
After dinner we met up with Jesse Rose who was booked to play across town at Social Club at Brodinski’s night. Over some martini’s at the Murano hotel even more label talk quickly ensued about shitty vinyl sales and how to release singles on Beatport, etc. The consensus being that vinyl is totally fucked but that we will both still be pressing it for some reason.
After this, it was straight on to the club where Olibusta was already on the decks. He slowly and deftly grew the crowd from a seedling to a full jungle plant. It’s always really great to play after someone who understands the natural flow of a night. Oli told me to tell the story about how we rode elephants through the streets of Paris but I’m going to stick to the simple fact that it was a great room and a great crowd.
I opened with Maetrik’s “Simplemen” on mothership. This guy is so badass.
My set progressed through some serious jackin shit but then around the halfway point it got a little too techno a little too early and i had to spend some time bringing the room back down to some more funk based house. This was probably just my personal opinion because no one cared and in fact it seemed as if they were almost egging me on to play harder and harder. So of course Monty Luke’s new track on Planet E “Art of War” did some serious damage.
I played about 4 hours and Jesse Rose showed up right at the end and we danced around the booth. After that I experienced a first. I actually went home after the set in Paris! It was already 7am and i thought about Manchester coming up the next night and it was one of those moments when going out further just isn’t going to do you any favors. I almost always like to party in Paris but this time i was too burnt for business. I’ll just have to go back soon. Love ya PAri!
Week 1 – Manchester – Saturday – Warehouse Project
Track of the night -
Lots of things were working on the 2000+ people in the giant car park warehouse but this one stuck out like a hot chilli. As I’ve said before, Maetrik is a beast of a producer and this is some of his best work ever.
Manchester Overview -
I don’t think there is a city i have visited more than Manchester. I seem to get booked here 3 or 4 times a year and i really appreciate a fan base that “gets” what i am doing. The place was full by 11 because it is like a festival gig indoors. The location is a massive car park under Picadilly station. A giant rave with 2000+ in the main room. I was kind of peeved that they put me on at 11:15 but to be fair the 2 guys playing after me were Dubfire and Adam Beyer so it would have been bad programming for me to follow either one. Even so, an hour and a half set at 11:15 ain’t exactly what i’m aiming for when flying all the way from San Fran to England.
The show was still great, and the crowd was well into it. Lots of tracks slayed in this big room like this one from our upcoming new dirtybird 5 year compilation.
The front row was especially enthusiastic and i expect there were some people tripping balls cause i watched them run their fingers down the front of their faces like some real drugs were hitting their systems. Here is a funny sign thrown up to me from the from the crowd…an unusual combo to say the least. Loving it in Mexico AND Poland – (and we are in the UK mind you.)
The highlight of the evening for me was actually after i finished. I went back to the other stage and Seth Troxler was on. Wow, what good luck! He was playing smoooth, sexy beats and it was working even on a northern UK crowd (who expect to hear banging stuff all night.) It was nice to see another Michigan boy tearing up the UK. He even got away with playing a Jodeci bootleg!
I didn’t really know Seth that well before other than he is from Michigan. So we had a fun chat for a while about moving from the living in Berlin. But the best part was that he gave me this little gift from his recent rip to Japan. Thanks Seth!
Gear Head Tech Addendum…
Before the gig i met up with two guys who always come out and support me. These two are real tech heads and they were explaining to me how they were setting up a huge wimax network in Manchester that was like 20 times faster than the fastest local internet. They were explaining how AT&T or some giant company was suing the government because they had put so much money behind 3G and now there was this new renegade system that was waaay faster. This was very interesting to me because I feel like this might have happened in San Francisco without anyone even knowing it. About 4 years ago Google announced that they would make the whole of San Fran a free wireless hotspot. There were some other companies as well like “Free the Net” doing this and i could fire up my notebook and get internet in about 60% of the city. Now, i turn on my notebook and none of these free spots are there. So what happened?? Did we just see a conspiracy unfold? I notice AT&T is doing a lot of local advertising and free wifi ain’t really available in San Fran like Google said it would be. Maybe I will investigate further.
****TOP 5 This week the top 5 ties in with my conversation in Paris about the best way to start and indy dance label. This is only a top 5 if you actually want your label to succeed as a business, not if you just want a hobby that sucks all your income and your free time.
Save a bunch of money..yes like more than $10,000. Preferably $20,000. you will need every penny. The rule of thumb is that you should have enough saved to release 4 records without ever getting paid, (because this is probably what will happen anyway.) Where does all this money go? Mastering, Artwork, Pressing, Postage, Promotion, Remix fees, etc.
Have 3 or 4 releases FINISHED before you start the label. You will quickly find that no distributors will even talk to u unless you have at least 2 or 3 releases ready for them to hear (along with your logo and all that.) This also means you should have your core group of producers all worked out, even if no one knows them. Make sure they are REALLY good.
Get a known remixer on your first few records. Aside from the fact that you will need some really kick ass tunes for anyone to notice you, it really helps if you can get a couple “name” producers involved from the start. they don’t have to be your core artists but they should be some of your personal favorites.
Press vinyl promos and send the records to all of your favorite DJs. You will be surprised how many addresses you can simply find on the web. This is huge because at this point no one does this and you HAVE to open and play a vinyl record if you get it in the post. A lot of people will tell you not to press vinyl but in the beginning you should. It still is the main barrier between being a “real” label and “digital only” label.
Develop your core – not not your abs – but your group or crew. No matter how cool u think u are you WILL need friends and like minded people to help you, to throw parties, to Dj your records, to develop your local scene, etc. Maybe you don’t have any friends like this so start going clubbing and make some if you don’t.
