Daniel Steinberg – Hold You Tight (ge.tt)

Download: Tanner Ross and Sergio Santos G Things Promo 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 ]

Chilly Gonzales gives us a fresh new mixtape, “Pianist Envy” is made up of piano remixes of several hip hop and dance favorites, including tracks by Beyonce and Daft Punk! This first-ever “piano mixtape” offers a unique and masterful blend of Chilly’s piano and orchestral sounds with hip hop beats and electro. Among the artists featured on the mixtape we find 50 Cent, Daft Punk, Busta Rhymes, Claude Von Stroke, Clipse and Kelly Clarkson.

Chilly Gonzales – Pianist Envy Mixtape (sign up for download link)

Tracklist after the jump.

1. Tipsy
2. Many Men
3. Touch It
4. Vocal Chords (Claude Von Stroke)
5. A Milli
6. Grindin’
7. Rollin’ and Scratchin’
8. Single Ladies

Teki hit us up with a little something to make us smile but we’ll let him do the talking.

“Here’s a little gift from my friend Gonzales (who as some of you may know is currently wrapping up his next album produced by none other than Boys Noize). It’s some sort of piano remix of the old 50 cent hit “Many Men”. It’s taken from his piano mixtape “Pianist’s Envy” dropping soon on the interwebs, on which he plays piano over rap instrumentals, remixes rap acapellas with piano on top, and re-arranges house songs piano/orchestra style, it’s pretty unique and amazing. Here’s a word about it from the maestro himself

“Chilly Gonzales presents the first-ever piano mixtape “Pianist’s Envy”. You know those rap beats and electro songs with almost nothing in them? “Tipsy”, “Grindin’”, “A Milli”, “Rollin’ and Scratchin’”, “Single Ladies”? Chilly goes all Liberace on these beats with his piano and his orchestra. Claude Von Stroke, 50 Cent, Kelly Clarkson, Rocky Balboa and Gonzo himself all make cameos. Dropping mid-February 2010 via chillygonzales.com.”

50 Cent – Many Men (Gonzales piano version) (zShare)

Tracklist for the mixtape + tourdates for the piano talk show after the jump.

Tipsy
Many Men
Touch It
Vocal Chords (Claude Von Stroke)
A Milli
Grindin’
Rollin’ and Scratchin ‘
Single Ladies

Gonzales will be in doing his “piano talk show” in NYC at Joe’s Pub every thursday with a different guest:

Feb 4th (with Sia)
Feb 11th (with Andrew WK)
Feb 18th (with A-Trak)
Feb 25th (with Princess Superstar)

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.

— Minilogue – Arb Almub Almoh – full track free DL!…..

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.

.

Detroit – Thursday

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.

Silky King – Talal & Zoi (mp3 clip)

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!

Week 6 – Portland, Oregon

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.

A spattering of the records i played.

Amsterdam – Friday – Melkweg

Track of the Night

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!

Marc Houle – Yonkers – minus (mp3 clip)

FABRIC/dirtybird

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.

Voodeux – The Curse – mothership (full DL free!)

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).

My latest chart (klik)

Week 4 – Los Angeles

Track of the night – Los Angeles

A lot of big stuff was goin down in LA but this one had the room reachin for it.

Hickup Theme – Hickup – dirtybird (mp3 clip)

LA – Friday after Thanksgiving

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.

Voodeux – Just a Spoonful – mothership – full track free mp3 DL!

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.