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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.

SF track of the night

Silky King, Tala & Zoi – dirtybird (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

Monster Island (Christian Martin Remix) – C VonStroke – dirtybird (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

Heinrichs & Hirtenfeller – Down – Dekadent Schallplatten (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!
5. 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.
6. 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)
7. 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 track of the night: “Some Sweat” – Sascha Braemer (Dirtybird) (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

Maetrik – Simplemen (Mothership) (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

Monty Luke  – Art of War (Planet) (mp3clip, direct link)

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.

Big ‘n Round (Maetrik Remix) – CVS (Mothership) (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

Edu K – Dos Gusanos – (Dirtybird) (mp3 clip, direct link)

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

UK genius L-Vis 1990 is definetely one of the most hyped up producers in 2009 going from strength to strength with his funky yet bass heavy releases; he started out with the massive “United Groove” single on Mad Decent, moved onto the recent smash “Night Slugs EP” together with fellow Londoner Bok Bok on Dress 2 Sweat and now he joins the ranks over at the new heavy hitters in Sound Pellegrino with his stunning “Compass/Zahonda EP”. Christian Martin (of Dirtybird fame) gives us his more evil electro/techno take on “Compass”.

L-Vis 1990 – Compass (Christian Martin remix) (YSI)

L-Vis 1990 – Compass (Christian Martin remix) (zShare)

Pic by Max Adolfsson from The Rumble

Fact Magazine are closing in on us here at Discobelle with their mix series, now reaching #73 and it’s a stellar mix from the one and only Christian Martin (out of San Francisco and closely associated with the Dirtybird fam) that made our sunday a whole lot better.

“His FACT Mix draws all kinds of unlikely but sonically successful links between minimal (Und, Italoboyz), 2-step (Floatingpoints, MJ Cole), electro (Radioactiveman, Roman Flugel), dubstep (Benga, Untold) and, er, Yo Gabba Gabba.”

Fact Mix #73: Christian Martin (direct link)

Tracklist after the jump.

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