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.

JUSTICE WEEKEND, PART I: JUSTICE

I am going to refer to last weekend [Thursday-Sunday] simply as Justice weekend. Really, the purpose of the weekend was to make up for the fact that I will not be seeing Daft Punk at their second North American appearance in 2006, this Saturday in Miami. With that in mind I tried to come up with a more clever name for the four day period of time, but all I could come up with was "Justice for not seeing Daft Punk weekend", "It's not the end of the world but it's the Rapture weekend", and "Daft Punk is not playing at my house weekend", none of which are very good. So anyways, Justice weekend.



PART I: JUSTICE

Justice weekend appropriately began with seeing Justice DJ at Smart Bar on Thursday night, courtesy of the fine heathens at Opaque. We got to meet up with my dudes in The Glamour to party (more on them in the future).



Some just-ok dude with a hat started the night off, but things really got going when Johnny Love got in the booth. I knew we had some overlapping tastes, but dude seriously fucked shit up with his set. It wasn't as much a blend of rock and dance songs as much as it was just dance songs that really rock. That sounds terrible. Whatever. It was a cohesive, abrasive mix of hot dance tracks. I'm really looking forward to the Guns'N'Bombs album that should be dropping soon on Kistuné. The preview we received was rockin.



Then someone introduced Justice and the French guys proceeded to blow the roof off. I can't remember all the details, but highlights included

• Daft Punk (doy)


• Digitalism's "Jupiter Room (Martian Assault Edit)" - It felt like I had forgotten this track had existed when it came on


• An excellent segue from the chorus of Simian's original "We Are Your Friends" into the Justice remix, during which I went psycho


• The creeping in and eventual closing track "Waters of Nazareth", during which I again went psycho

Anyways, I was at least a little bit surprised that a DJ set could be that much fun. And everything they played that I assume was from the forthcoming LP was great. I don't know how, but I had gotten it in my head that the new LP was supposedly "soft". That must have been a joke or something.



My one complaint is DJ Funk cutting in on the mic a little too often. I know he's important but I don't listen to or enjoy booty house, and in my opinion his quick raps over the DJ set were unnecessary. That said, the fact that DJ Funk was there is pretty cool in of itself.

Photos courtesy of Diamonds (hope that's cool Asher). More parts to come.

JUSTICE VS SIMIAN VS EVOL KANYEVEL

Being a very big fan of each of these artists, the singles, and the videos themselves, I feel the need to comment on the MTV whatever video awards conflict thing. To do this I will list everything that is awesome about each of the music videos in question.

JUSTICE VS. SIMIAN - "WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS" [FORMERLY "NEVER BE ALONE"]

1. The video is funny.
2. The way the video is tied to the lyrics is also funny. Repeating "we are your friends" over and over while pulling hellish pranks on your pals. Funny.

KANYE WEST AKA EVOL KANYEVEL - "TOUCH THE SKY"

1. Kanye gave himself another rad nickname... specifically for the video.
2. Pamela Anderson co-stars.
3. Kanye's limo's liscense plate says "STUNT'N".
4. I think a chick from MAD TV is in the video, which is funny to think about. Like, is Kanye a MAD TV fan? That's funny. Also, that same girl quotes a different Kanye song in this video.
5. This is a rap video with a big 70's vibe, which I'm pretty sure would be commercial suicide for most other rappers.
6. The song is about touching the sky and THE VIDEO IS ABOUT TOUCHING THE SKY.
7. There's a reference about Kanye's comments on Bush and Katrina except it's about NIXON and that's HILARIOUS.
8. There's a unique mix of the song that was done just to be used for five seconds, during the part where the screen flashes "technical difficulties." Lite rock Kanye, haaa. (Or maybe it's the original track that he sampled, but I think it's too fast for that.)
9. Lupe Fiasco works out the funk with a marching band, like a wedding-band James Brown.
10. Lupe Fiasco raps about Mum-Ra.
11. Kanye makes out with Pamela Anderson just because he CAN.
12. Kanye goes all Dr. Strangelove when he's on the rocket.
13. The scene where the rocket crashes is done with a obviously fake model, which, in the context of all these high-production values, is hilarious.
14. Kanye dies in his own video.
15. At the end of the video you realize Kanye isn't walking on the clouds because he's better than everyone else; he's walking on the clouds because HE BE DEAD.

What I'm trying to say here is that, while both of these are excellent videos, Kanye West really did get ripped off. He had the better video. Oh well.

As far as songs though, Justice and Simian win that contest by a million billion. I've heard "We Are Your Friends" while out partying twice in the last week and a half, and each time has been pure fucking dance-it-down pump-it-up ecstasy. Damn.

6606

People seem to be making a big deal out of this Tuesday, since the date has an inordinate number of sixes. Technically, it doesn't count. You don't call 2006 just 6, you call it 2006, or '06. Whatever. That devil baby movie certainly doesn't care. I even heard that a friend of a friend of a friend is getting a tattoo of the date on that date. That sucks.



The real cause for alarm is that this Tuesday the US version of Justice's "Waters of Nazareth" drops on Vice. It's one of those singles that I will legitimately buy and leave on repeat in my CD player. And there's only six tracks. Check it.

1. Waters of Nazareth
2. Let There Be Light
3. Carpates
4. Waters of Nazareth (Justice Remix)
5. Let The Be Light (DJ Funk Bounce Dat Ass Remix)
6. Waters of Nazareth (Erol Alkan's Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr Re-Edit)

Also regarding Justice: There is now a video for Justice vs. Simian's "Never Be Alone". God I love that track. It's like they really are my friends.