Starpoint - Object of My Desire

Wavves at the Mohawk

Here's another SXSW video I never got around to posting until now. We were mainly at the Mohawk to see Kool Keith, but I gotta say, Wavves killed it. The kids loved it. It also helped that we had one of the best places to stand in the venue.

Update: I won a Midi Fighter 3D!!!!

Wow, I'm blown away! For the second time, I won a free Midi Fighter! Only this time, it's the crazy awesome Midi Fighter 3D. It's a brand new arcade button-based, motion-sensitive midi controller from DJTechTools.com.  I came in second place, but in a last minute move of generosity, DJTT decided to award four Midi Fighters in the contest. FUCK YES!!!!!

They launched this contest to win one of the first Midi Fighter 3Ds. I had to use their set of sounds in the form of an Ableton Live Pack and create a controllerism routine under two minutes in length. Their sounds were mostly oriented towards hip hop, dubstep and drum and bass.

Here's my cue point juggling routine from 2010 that won me my first Midi Fighter.

Mistah F.A.B. and SBTRKT live at SXSW 2012

I shot a bunch of video during SXSW 2012, but these two are my favorite of the bunch. Number one is an amazing freestyle by Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B. He said his computer was stolen so he had no choice but to lay down some improvisational raps over a beat to entertain the crowd at the Thrasher Magazine party. Pretty crazy freestyling and the crowd was fucking loving it.

This one is SBTRKT playing Wildfire at the Fader Fort. This video had pretty decent sound considering the tiny little mic in my camera. Loved seeing an APC40 on the stage.  I have other videos of varying quality from Blouse, Trae, Kreayshawn, Crystal Method and Z-Trip on my YouTube channel. Check it out if you're interested.

Miami Nights 1984 - Ocean Drive

 I love the Dreamwave genre and how those artists create their own music videos by setting songs to the same 80s films and anime that inspire the retrofuturistic style of music.

Miami Nights 1984 -- a band from Victoria, BC -- released their second album "Turbulence" on Saturday and posted this video just a few days ago. It's their song Ocean Drive set to the 1983 anime film Golgo 13 The Professional. Here's how their label describes the album:

Spanning 12 tracks, Turbulence builds upon the synth-pop charms and synthesizer solos from Miami’s first album with more character: orchestra stabs, percussive rushes, slow motion bends and epic interludes distinguish the album. So does the album’s more intense moments which promote the Outrun electro sound we have championed for many years.

Sounds pretty awesome to me! If you like it, the album's available on their Bandcamp site, iTunes and Amazon (coming soon).

Treasure Fingers - Rooftop Revival

Really love this Treasure Fingers song, but annoyed that the mp3 hasn't been released yet! Maybe I can ask him about it when we go see him with Theophilus London next Friday at Austin's newest venue, the Beauty Ballroom.

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2011 Recap

We went to Fun Fun Fun Fest in 2010, but this year we had to take in most of the festival through TV, thanks to the multiple live video streams generously provided by Pitchfork.

It was awesome to avoid the dust kicked up by 25,000 people dancing in a drought-stricken park. But as high quality as the video streams were (when they were working), you don't experience the same energy as being there.

Nevertheless, now you can take in the entire weekend in a mere four minutes, thanks to the recap above provided by Austin-based creative company Guerilla Suit.

Penguin Prison - Don't Fuck With My Money (Music Video)

I have really enjoyed this song ever since it came out, which is strange because I dislike almost all the other songs on Penguin Prison's new self-titled album. I just find them too poppy or something. But this one is different.

Well, now there is a new video for it. I think it might be the first music video to air on MTV that was filmed at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Lower Manhattan. To be honest, I never got the broader political implications of his lyrics, "Don't fuck with my money." I just thought he was singing to his landlord about rent or something.

Am I being cynical if I find irony in the use of Occupy Wall Street as a backdrop for a music marketing effort waged on a TV channel owned by Viacom, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world?

Then again, who cares, the video is entertaining. A nice distraction from the real world.

80s Moments: Transformers in Time

Here's a blast of feelgood 80s nostalgia!

It all started when Futurecop! took their song Transformers and mashed it with Robbi Robb's In Time, the song that plays when Bill and Ted visit the future during their Excellent Adventure. A fantastic retrofuturistic synth pop song was born: Transformers In Time.

Then this DJ from Kazakhstan took a bunch of memorable moments from the awesomest 80s teen movies and synced it to Transformers in Time, creating a warm trip down memory lane. Thanks DJ Artem Narcisse! I hope the weather is nice in Almaty today.

Bonus videos:

If Michael Jackson's 90 second Pepsi commercial from 1988 doesn't warm your heart, then you weren't there when it happened.
This is just awesome 1987ness: Miami Vice night drive sequences edited to one-hit wonders The Ward Brothers' Madness of It All.

Death Grips at Empire Automotive

One of the Fun Fun Fun Fest aftershows last week featured an experimental hip hop group from Sacremento, California called Death Grips. The intensity of their live show isn't really captured in this shaky iPhone video. But their music and performance is exhilarating and terrifying. Best of all, their dark off-tempo music actually sounds like something new and original.

The venue was cool too. Empire Automotive really is an auto repair shop during the day. I guess they started renting it out for the occasional live show at night. Definitely has an underground warehouse feel to it, even though it's just a block off Red River street, one of the major live music centers of Austin.

You can download Death Grips' mix tape "Exmilitary" for free on their website.  Or stream it here.

Happy Halloween!

Super cheesy song but amazing disco light display!

Magic Machines - Hey Mister

Who doesn't love a good animated gif? This music video, created to promote Los Angeles-based Magic Machines new song Hey Mister, is made entirely from animated gifs! It's pretty rad.

Why I love and hate ACL Fest

Austin City Limits Festival is a big deal in the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, and this is the outdoor music festival's tenth year. We went one year and I hated it: paying $90 a day to be locked in Zilker Park in sweltering heat with 75,000 other people, paying $7 for a can of beer, standing in line for 20 minutes to buy overpriced food. Fuck that noise!

But I also love ACL Fest because it brings tons of awesome artists to our fine city. When they shut down the concert at 10 pm every night and the sun-baked families head home to bed, the musicians are just getting started!  They go downtown and play shows in bars and venues. Drinks are cheaper and the weather is cooler and the crowds are smaller and you can get a lot closer to the artist.

The video above is the perfect example of that. I took it last night at Emo's Austin where we got to see Theophilus London up close and personal. To have had that close a perspective at ACL, we would have had to fight through this huge crowd of people, and even then we would still be 10 feet from the stage. Did I mention his ACL set was at 12:30 in the freaking afternoon?

I look forward to ACL Fest every year. I just hope I never have to attend it again.

Rusko at Stubb's BBQ

We saw Rusko at Stubb's BBQ last night. He had crazy stage energy, getting all Richard Simmons and shit. He put on a pretty good show considering he was just DJing his own music. The kids seemed to like it.

Boss Hogg Outlawz - Ride Wit No Ceiling

Texas!

Ruby Baby Dion

Happy Friday!

The System - You Are In My System [VIDEO]

This electro funk duo's song has been stuck in my head since I found the video on 4 Hours of Funk a couple weeks ago. If you were partying at the clubs in 1983, this would be old news, but it was a new discovery for me. Just an awesome dance party song.



(Download the mp3)

Shit is 80s as fuck! I love how the white dude in The System, David Frank, is jamming on an old computer keyboard with a monochrome monitor displaying a waveform. I have no idea if that machine is actually doing anything, but it looks cool/nerdy enough that I don't care. The retro futuristic music technology fits with the lyrics, which I presume are using the metaphor of a computer system to explain a love obsession.

You are in my system
I just want you to know that, oh
You're in my system
Got me burnin', burnin', baby, oh
You're in my system

I guess The System are a pretty important electro funk band. They composed the title track on the Coming to America soundtrack for one thing. Singer Mic Murphy went on to write a bunch of hits, like Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle". And they were once covered by fucking Robert Palmer.

Grum - Through The Night [VIDEO]

Happy fucking Friday friends!

I gotta hand it to Grum. He releases entertaining music videos, even if they are sometimes mildly disturbing. He played a couple blocks from our home in May, but we had to miss it because it was super late on a Sunday night and we had to get up early the next day to like, you know, work?

Anyway, here's a touching cop buddy themed video for his song Through The Night. Not exactly what I pictured when I first heard the song, but it totally works. (I've already got cop buddies on the mind in anticipation of Will Ferrell's new movie.) [UPDATE: Will Farrell's movie sucked.]

Check it out!



Here's a mashup I made in May of Grum + Durrough I called Wired To This Feeling.