W♥M (Archive)

Hot Chip, w/ Slow Magic at First Avenue, Minneapolis (30 May 2015)

poster Hot Chip Setlist Huarache Lights One Life Stand Night & Day Easy to Get Started Right Flutes Over and Over Alley Cats Cry for You Need You Now Ready for the Floor I Feel Better -- Encore -- Made in the Dark Let Me Be Him Why Make Sense? Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover) Tour Dates 05/31 Milwaukee, WI, Turner Hall Ballroom 06/02 Detroit, MI, Majestic Theatre 06/03 Toronto, ON, Danforth Music Hall 06/04 Boston, MA, House of Blues 06/05 Washington, DC, Echostage 06/07 New York, NY, Governors Ball 07/31 Chicago, IL, Lollapalooza 08/02 Quebec, Osheaga Festival 08/07 BC, Squamish Valley Music Festival 08/09 San Francisco, CA, Outside Land 08/11 Los Angeles, CA, Greek Theatre Read More Hot Chip Hot Chip is back with a new album called Why Make Sense? featuring acclaimed singles "Huarache Lights" and "Need You Now". ... Slow Magic The first time I saw Slow Magic, they were second of three bands/DJs over at the Triple Rock Social Club, last year. I wrote that the DJ had a custom fox mask ...

London's Hot Chip is currently touring the US in support of their latest Why Make Sense?, stopping by First Avenue in Minneapolis last night. The show was sold out, despite the fact that many fans were over at the Alabama Shakes and Father John Misty show at Hall's Island.

Chatham Rise

Opening up the show was Slow Magic. After randomly catching this electronic / tribal / dance / DJ act in 2013, I was excited to see them on the bill. Of course, I knew what to expect: pulse-pounding double floor tom drums and that distinctive color-changing custom fox mask he wears. Like Daft Punk, Slow Magic does not want you to know what he looks like without his mask.

Slow Magic played a lot of songs from his latest How to Run Away, including "Waited 4 U". Midway into his set, he took one of the tom into the crowd, which despite an incredibly packed dancefloor, the audience made room.

Although the mask is visually really cool, I'm sure he has some regrets about it. First of all, it probably gets hot under the mask (which covers his entire head) and especially because he's constantly dancing and moving and sweating. Midway in his set, he stepped back, turned his back from the audience and drank a full bottle of water. Secondly, he has trouble seeing objects, and often stares intently at his Apple Mac Book to queue up the next song, etc. It may be worth it all in the end to produce a very memorable impression on the audience.

Hot Chip

What can I say about Hot Chip? They continue to amaze me with their music. Their sixth album Why Make Sense? (which came out May 18th via Domino Recording) is probably their best album to date. We got to hear it live on their hour plus set, included "Huarache Lights", "Easy To Get", "Started Right", "Cry For You", "Need You Now", and "Why Make Sense?"

Singer Alexis Taylor came on stage with a polka dotted lab coat. Looking over various photos, Taylor is always wearing crazy outfits, he must really love expressing minimalistic art designs through his fashion.

Setlist

Normally when I see bands playing new material, the majority of the fans aren't familiar or had a chance to listen to them ... so they were experiencing the songs for the first time. Sometime it doesn't go over well, however judging from the positive loud responses to new songs like "Need You Now", I can tell the fans have gotten a hold of the new record and craving to hear it live.

The encore was a four song epic encore, starting with "Made in the Dark" (according to their grainy setlist photo, the alternate song "Boy From School") and ending with their Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark".

Hot Chip's Why Make Sense? is out now on Domino. The band is on tour now.

Hot Chip at First Avenue, Minneapolis (30 May 2015)

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

Little Dragon, w/ Sango at First Avenue, Minneapolis (28 May 2015)

poster Little Dragon Setlist Killing Me Little Man Pretty Girls Cat Rider Summertearz Constant / Brush / Wink My Step Shuffle A Dream Blinking Pigs Only One Klapp Klapp -- Encore -- Nightlight / Turn Left Ritual Union Twice Tour Dates 5/29/15 - Concord Music Hall - Chicago, IL 5/30/15 - The Crofoot - Pontiac, MI 5/31/15 - Danforth Music Hall - Toronto, ON 6/01/15 - Virgin Mobile Corona - Montreal, QC 6/03/15 - House of Blues - Boston, MA* 6/06/15 - Governor's Ball - New York, NY *Co-headling with ODESZA Read More Little Dragon Swedish band Little Dragon's fourth album Nabuma Rubberband (Loma Vista Recordings) album has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Dance / Electronic Album category for 2015. ...

Sweden's Little Dragon is currently on tour in support of Nabuma Rubberband, stopping by First Avenue in Minneapolis last night, May 28th.

Sango

Warming up the show was Sango, from Los Angeles' Soulection records. When he mentioned it was his first time in Minneapolis, the audience gave him a loud welcome of howls and claps.

His hour-long DJ set consisted of warping music sounds with breaks and beats, mashing up with underground and popular hip hop songs. Some of the mashups included snippets of Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" and Nas' "You Owe Me".

Before Sango left the stage, he decided to do his so-called "Have you heard this lately?" section: playing Lauryn Hill's vocals to Kanye West's "All Falls Down", but cutting the chorus off and letting the audience sing the missing portion.

Finally, he decided to let the audience choose red or blue pills. When blue was shouted back from the front, he started playing his "Blue" song... but then cutting it off with "Nah!" and playing "Red" instead (which had more of a disco beat).

Ten minutes before Little Dragon taking the stage, two full songs were played before their arrival. Slowly the band entered the stage, one by one, with singer Yukimi Nagano coming on last - wearing an over-the-top furry dress and ballet outfit. After the initial shock, the fans quickly forgot the fancy dress and just danced away to all the songs.

I'm happy to report that Little Dragon is all grown up. Since we last saw the Swedish band in November 2009 (six years ago), the band has grown in terms of sound, stage, and fanbase.

With the larger stage of First Avenue's mainroom, the band had custom diamond light setup with a massive backdrop image. Musically, the band is doing more dance club, even tribal, sound. This music appeal to a new larger legion of club music ... only a little more diverse with various ethnic groups.

This newfound fanbase may have been steadily building throughout the years, but it probably didn't hurt that Little Dragon's Nabuma Rubberband got nominated for a Grammy for best Dance/Electronic album of the year (2014).

As you can see from their setlist, the first section featured a chunk of their latest Nabuma Rubberband ("Killing Me", "Pretty Girls", "Cat Rider" and set closer "Klapp Klapp"), while the latter half of their set featured a good mix of their three previous records Little Dragon (2007), Machine Dreams (2009), and Ritual Union (2011)

Nagano spent most of the time in front dancing and singing with her tambourine, however near the end of their set, she spent it pounding on the drums in the back for "Only One" and "Klapp Klapp".

The three song encore included a medley of "Nightlight" + "Turn Left", with "Ritual Union" and closing song "Twice".

Seeing big smiles on the band's faces, I am pretty confident that they will be returning back to Minneapolis... hopefully soon (and not in the winter).

Little Dragon's Nabuma Rubberband is out now on Because Records.

Little Dragon at First Avenue, Minneapolis (28 May 2015)

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic

The Noise Some People Make

Madison: Lights Low

I have a friend called Madison, I don't think she was born in Wisconsin, but I did think of Maddy when I saw this musician called Madison. She has an EP named The Noise Some People Make out today (Tuesday, January 11^th, on G Records).

It's only a short four-track EP, so I decided to give it a spin ... and I love it.

The first thing you should know that, after listening to "#1" and "Lights Low", she sounds like Norwegian's Annie (another artist that also really love).

I liked her enough to look for her other releases, although I was under the impression that this was her first EP because the information I got said that this was the first of a series of pop/art releases. It looks like Madison's been releasing music since 2004 with The Rest of Our Lives Is Tonight (under Race the Sun), and, more recently an all-remix album in 2010, Follow Me.

Basically, if you like pop dance diva music, you'll absolutely fall in love with Madison. I can see why she's getting heavy rotations on iTunes' Indie Spotlight and Dance categories.

vu () ♥ noiseofmadison.com ♥ myspace.com/noiseofmadison

Dance To The Best Of ESG

ESG: Dance to the Beat of My Moody

I remember the first time I heard "Dance" by ESG, I had to stop and ask "who is that?" I just loved it, the drums, the beats, the lyrics of "yew yeww ooh ohh" said it all.

For those that aren't familiar with ESG, they're initials for Emerald, Sapphire and Gold. The band, minus the guitars and bass, are a bit of a Scroggins family affairs. You can tell their influence span generations, especially with 70s disco.

Their first album came out in 1983, called Come Away with ESG, this is where I've heard "Dance" (the song would later resurfaced on a compilation, A South Bronx Story).

Anyway, I just found out that Fire Records released Dance To The Best Of ESG a few days ago (January 4^th).

I have not had a chance to listen to the greatest hits Dance To The Best Of ESG album, but it's probably safe to say that it'll contain a lot of fat bass and funky beats. I did preview their free track, "Dance to the Beat of My Moody", it's pretty catchy with the repetitive "the beat!" lyrics.

Full track listing below.

CD1: 01 You're No Good 02 Tiny Sticks 03 Moody 04 Come Away 05 U.F.O. 06 Dance 07 Parking Lot Blues 08 Chistelle 09 Talk It 10 Erase You 11 Hold Me Right 12 It's Alright 13 Get Funky 14 My Love for You 15 About You 16 Insane (Tambourine Mix) 17 Keep on Moving 18 I Can't Tell You What to Do 19 Moody (Spaced Out)		CD2: 01 Dance to the Beat of Moody 02 Bam Bam Jam 03 A New Day 04 In the Streets 05 Erase You (Puppy to Your Side) 06 You're No Good (Alternate Version) 07 Standing in Line 08 I Wanna Dance 09 Six Pack (Original Version) 10 Moody (A New Mood) 11 There Was a Time 12 Earn It 13 Like This

vu () ♥ myspace.com/esgtheband

Ladyhawke

Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning Ladyhawke Tour Dates Feb 2 Brussels …  Feb 4 Belfast … Feb 25 Glasgow … Feb 26 Manchester … Mar 1 leeds … Mar 2 Wolverhampton … Mar 3 Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2 Mar 5 Swindon, Wiltshire … Mar 6 Brighton … … Read More Ladyhawke http://weheartmus... Named after an 80s movie of the same name, Ladyhawke is Pip Brown, a young woman from New Zealand...

Ladyhawke, a.k.a. Pip Brown, is a electropop musician from New Zealand.  Her self-titled album was released in September of 2008 and one of the tracks, "From Dusk Till Dawn", was featured in Vu's Top Songs for 2008.  After listening to this track repeatedly and getting my family to dance, I decided I needed to get my hands on the full album, especially after previewing videos featured on her own channel at YouTube.  I haven't gone out and bought a tangible CD in a long time, so that's really saying something.

Ladyhawke - Dusk Till Dawn (Pascal Gabriel Radio Mix)

Incidentally, both "Ladyhawke" and "From Dusk Till Dawn" are movie titles.  The first, her stage name, is a 1985 fantasy film that featured Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfiffer, which is fitting enough, since she is noted (and has said so herself) to be influenced by a number of '80s music genres.  The second is a 1996 Quentin Tarantino horror flick, which explains the theme of the official video for the corresponding song.

Speaking of "From Dusk Till Dawn", and her YouTube videos, she created a quirky alternative video to the song, which featured DJ/electroshock musician Peaches, which I referenced in a Monday Monster Mashup post ("Wild Lies", which featured Peaches' remix of the Tone Loc rap "Wild Thing").  Peaches remixed her track "Paris Is Burning" and has appeared with her onstage for DJ duties.

Ladyhawke [and friends] - Dusk Till Dawn

Another video that most definitely fits with the 1980's New Wave flavor is the one for 'Delirium': Ladyhawke - My Delirium Ahhh... Ray-Ban Wayfarer shades.

The channel to subscribe to is ladyhawkeforyou, which has more music videos, video diaries, holiday greetings, etc.  Although I'm a great fan of well-done music videos and documentaries, I would recommend just watching the diaries and homemade stuff, just to get a feel for her delightfully goofy, whimsical personality.  As a self-proclaimed geek, it's quite refreshing to see an artist that is unabashedly so-- a far cry from the New Wave fashion that seemed just a slight more pretentious and fussy at times.

She explains in interviews that she comes from a very musically-oriented family, and that she fell into making music quite naturally, and it wasn't anything that was forced or imposed.  That's hopeful, because many fans (like myself) are hoping that there is more good things to come.

Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van (KiD COLA Remix)

Just another quick note:

There have been a number of remixes of songs from the album-- not a surprise, either, since most of them have very catchy hooks and were quite designed to be radio-friendly.  One of the ones we got was from a DJ by the name of KiD Cola.

 01/21/2009 09:56:30 ♥ jaklumen ( / jaklumen.vox.com) ♥ ladyhawkemusic.com ♥ myspace.com 

House-Trained: Denise Lopez and DJ Disciple

Denise Lopez - Don't You Wanna Be Mine (Radio Edit) Denise Lopez Discography [1988] Truth In Disguise [1990] Every Dog Has Her Day!!! See Also iio http://weheartmus... Let's face it: if you ever liked "Rapture", this is the collection for you. It collects all the ...

Break out your Martika, Menudo, Selena, and Cover Girls records because Denise Lopez is back with the Don't You Wanna Be Mine dance single. As far as I know, I don't think she's actively in the music biz anymore, but a record company called House-Trained is licensing it with brand new remixes, mostly targeted for the DJ and dance clubs crowd. This trend seems more common these days, with the semi-recent dance release of Laura Branigan's Shine Forever: The Ultimate Remix Collection, which collects extended club mixes, etc.

Anyway, Lopez first appeared in the late eighties, signed to A&M Records in the eighties, releasing two albums: Truth In Disguise and Every Dog Has Her Day!!!. The later includes the single "Don't You Wanna Be Mine", with the b-side featuring remixes by Robert Clivillés and David Cole (otherwise known to everyone as C&C Music Factory).

I was kind of disappointed to not see the C&C remix on this new release, but I can understand if getting the license agreement didn't fall through or House Trained wanted more contemporary mixes on their new release.

The new 2008 single is basically 7 different version of "Don't You Wanna Be Mine", featuring a Dennis Christopher dub mix and an instrumental version (these are very useful for DJs for mixing). The Soul Avengerz, Marmot & Fly, and Bimbo Jones are pretty standard dance mix, making excellent usage of the previously unreleased Lopez acapella.

I thought Bimbo Jones Extended Club Remix did the best job in keeping bodies moving and never slowed down in contrast to Marmot & Fly's mix which slowed down towards the end, but keep in mind that their song is a remix, not necessary a house/club mix that requires the song to keep the beat going.

A little trivia about this song, apparently the song was never officially released in the UK, so the 12" had to be imported. You have to remember that this was in the 90s and often competing DJs would tear off the record label's sticker (aka 'white labels') to prevent other DJs from knowing their secret weapon... which apparently for a pretty well-known DJ named Sasha was "Don't You Wanna Be Me".

 

DJ Disciple Ft. Dawn Tallman - Gilbert Le Funk (Radio Edit)

DJ Disciple Ft. Dawn Tallman

Since we're on the subject of House-Trained, they also released another single called Work It Out from DJ Disciple, featuring the soulful R&B vocals of Dawn Tallman.

This is a 9 track EP, with various mixes, again for the dance/house music fans. What's nice is it does contain two radio edits (Gilbert Le Funk and Ruff & Tor Meets DJ Disciple), which I think is great for radio and for people to get a taste of the song.... which is exactly why I am using one of the radio edits.

If you're in a dancing mood, I would have to recommend the extended club mixes because they really stretch out the beats for at least nine minutes to give you a good workout. All the mixes are pretty similar, but I would have to admit that the Klaas Mix is the best one with its usage of a male vocal of "(insert city) work it out" and Dawn Tallman's two or three chorus lines.

As many of these dance releases, they are often best appreciated on the dance floor with live mixing by the DJs, but if you can't see them live, dancing alone with these songs blasting on the ghetto blaster is just fine.

Work it Out is available now, while Don't You Wanna Be Mine will be available on June 16^th, from House-Trained. Since the record company are based in the UK - the irony for Denis Lopez fans is that you will have to import the single.

Links: www.house-trained.com myspace.com/wwwdjdisciplecom