Swim

I went to the Caribou show in the Entry last June, and it was the first time I'd ever wanted to see a band in a bigger room larger than the one they were currently playing.  Thankfully the band played the mainroom last night.  The bigger room and soundsystem really did their show justice; packed with sub-bass and strobes, the effect was welcomingly overwhelming.  Any shortcomings from the Entry show (vocals) mostly disappeared, and their incredibly detailed and specific tonal palette shined. I also have to search my hard drive for that tour CD they put out recently, since I'm pretty sure the best songs were not from the record.  My buddy Ben attempted to photograph the band in-between strobe flashes - check his photos out over at City Pages.

Hot Chip - "Brothers (Caribou Remix)"

RELISH THE THOUGHT

As predicted, Too Much Love last Saturday was the biggest, and possibly best, ever. I can't remember the last time I heard that much great music in one place. Plus there were LASERS and FREE HOT DOGS. It's going to be hard to top. 1,000 thanks to James F!@.$%^ Friedman, My Cousin Roy, Max Pask, and The Wiz for coming out. And look for TML to get bigger and better as spring and summer start to show up. Here are some photos from the whirlwind night:
















Also check out photos from my partners in crime, the Moon Goons.

RAVE ON

Completely unrelated to St. Patrick's day, I went with friends to see the Raveonettes on Monday.



It was my third time catching them and I was definitely surprised by their new line-up. Previously they played with Sune Wagner on vocals/guitar, Sharin Foo on vocals/bass, this insane lead guitarist and a very bald drummer, plus lots of backing tracks. It always felt a little strange to have a full drummer playing along with so many backing tracks, and the Raveonettes fixed that by scaling back their line-up. Sune and Sharin both played guitar, accompanied only by a new girl on a very minimal drum kit of floor tom, snare, and ride cymbal.

Even if the drummer was a bit superfluous, it worked brilliantly. The songs came across as much more instinctive and visceral. And it was great to see/hear Sharin get into the feedback game with Sune on guitar. Nice to see that this band survived the garage-band craze of the early 00's intact and as virile as ever.



The only problem was NO "BEAT CITY"! That's the perfect set closer. Next time?

HERE WE ARE

Here are a couple photos from the show with We Are Wolves on Wednesday. Check the rest here.

THERE'S FUN TO BE HAD

Many thanks to Eamon Harkin for coming up and rocking faces at Too Much Love this past Saturday. This was one of my definite all-time-favorite TML sets, as he played a great, great mix of new disco - all on vinyl! - plus threw a few curveballs in there, including the original "Star Guitar" (still vinyl!), Moby (!), and this...

Sons & Daughters - "Dance Me In (JD Twitch And The Truffle Club Optimo Mix)"

#1. I haven't heard this song in years.
#2. I had no idea there was an Optimo mix.
#3. Fucken sweet.

Be sure to check out all the great stuff Eamon is doing and, of course, the FUN party at Studio B. Stay tuned for his mix to turn up on the podcast, which will officially relaunch after New Year's. Cheers!

IN REVIEW: TACTIC, CLAPPERCLAW, SHADOWSCENE

A rundown of some things I've been up to lately...

Last Saturday's Too Much Love was off the heezy thanks to an un-fuck-with-able set from our special guests Tactic. These dudes straight killed it with a house-y tracklist of new and old bangers. Hope to have them back soon and party with them more in the future.


Be sure to check out their new mix "We've Only Just Begun", and their remix of Blaqstarr, out on Mad Decent, which is available for download at Turntable Lab.

Clapperclaw was the Friday before, and was a pretty cool event. I bet if they had advertised the open bar they would've gotten some more customers, but that's how they usually do it at Sound Gallery so I should have seen it coming. I got to see a tight set by local band Mystery Palace, including a great cover of ZZ Top's classic "Legs" to soundtrack the fashion show that went down.





After Mystery Palace, myself and my dude DJ Talk Radio played a high energy set to those who stuck around. It's always fun to try out new DJ set ups, and we played really well off of each other. Thanks to all involved, and hopefully it'll return next year. Check out more photos here.

Then two Saturdays ago, Mike 2600 and I threw down at Too Much Love, and we were joined by the extremely lovely Shadowscene. Unfortunately we ran into technical problems with the club, and had to give up our usual DJ booth in the middle of the floor. It was still a fun time, and many thanks to the Shadowscene peeps for coming out.



Be sure to check out more of their photos from TML, except for the one of me since I look like complete shit after stressing over the set-up.

THINGS

Too Much Love this Saturday is basically me and all my friends DJing all night. Don't want to miss this one (and I'd recommend getting there a bit early).


Honeymoon III is tonight, and my good friend Bricks is debuting his new DJ set-up; should be a fun time.


My brother has some cool new stuff up on the interwebs. He recently did a photo essay for The Wake covering Minneapolis night life (mostly TML). Click here to read/see the whole thing.


Also he's starting to upload his photos from Justice on Tuesday, which was total madness... still haven't decided if it was the good kind or bad kind of madness.

BLASTED

Photos from last Saturday are up on L'Etoile, thanks to Digital Crush.







Podcast to come.

CELEBRATE CELEBRATE CELEBRATE (AND THEN TURN TO STONE)

Saturday was probably one of the best nights of my life. Will Eastman came into town to throw down at Too Much Love, and we were joined by lcd soundsystem and the Arcade Fire. Shit was nuts. James Murphy, Pat Mahoney (insane drummer, and fresh off mixing Fabriclive.36 with James) and Al Doyle (Hot Chipper currently touring with LCD) all spun the hottest disco I've ever heard, plus some techno and other jams for good measure. First Ave was packed to the brim, and I doubt anyone will forget it anytime soon.

Thanks to Will, everyone in LCD, and everyone else who made the night possible. Make sure to check back later for an update to the podcast featuring the LCD dudes. Here are some photos...

From Ben:




And 666 photos from Moon Goons... a few random pics:

Pat

James, Pat

Al

Will Eastman