Check out Freerange Records’ new Dripping Cloud apparel. The tees and sweatshirts, printed, of course, with a dripping cloud and the Freerange bird logo, come in a selection of different colors in both men and women sizes. And they’re all printed on American Apparel merchandise produced, thankfully, sweatshop free!
The Herbaliser have had a lot going on of recent – their new album Same as it Never Was is out, vocalist Jessica Darling has joined the band’s spotlight, and the band has expanded its sound to something musically broader and creatively more collaborative than it once was.
But after spending months working non-stop with co-founder Jake Wherry, Jessica Darling, and Easy Access Orchestra collaborators Ralph Lamb and Andy Ross, DJ Ollie Teeba doesn’t have too much time to bask.
This summer, Ollie is leaving the continent to pay a short visit across the pond and starting July 28th, he is scheduled to hit New York, DC, Cali, Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia all in under two weeks.
On tour, Ollie is going to be playing tracks that largely influenced the making of the new record, which means that a lot of Soul and R&B is to be expected.
You can read more about the Herbaliser’s new record on our website or check out DJ Ollie’s full tour schedule on theirs. But before buying your tickets, make sure to check out this live interview with Ollie, Jessica, and several of the orchestra members in their recording studio:
Admit it or not, we all remember that hazy chapter between vinyl records and CDs, known as the audiocassette. Some even boast a leftover stack of mix tapes or even an impressive, growing collection. Not many rival the C-90 Project, though.
The project, which aims to document the history of the audiocassette, archives every type ever created since the founding father audiocassette made by Phillips in 1962.
The antiquated medium, whether a new collector’s item or just a nostalgic throwback, is apparently a diverse one. You really can’t grasp just how many have been made in the past forty-six years until browsing the project’s website archives.
Here are some of the wackier ones:
The recently updated website now also features organization by brand and format (compact cassette, standard size, microcassette, and minicassette) and has discussion boards for cassette enthusiasts in English and Russian. Chances are, you’ll find every cassette made up there but the project encourages user additions so if you don’t, you can take part yourself.
If you remember anything about the NRK’s Coast2Coast cover art, you’ll want to check out their matching T-shirt line.
The T-shirts are modeled after the Coast2Coast series album covers and each feature the city skylines of Berlin(Ame), Chicago(Ron Trent), London(X-Press 2), and New York(Quentin Harris).
The designs are printed on brightly colored Jerzees Ringspun tees, each with the NRK and Coast2Coast logos on the back, and can be viewed and purchased on the NRK website.
Clubbers and party-planners alike were hit with some less-than-thrilling news last weekend when the Gay Pride festivities, planned to culminate with a grand finale of revelry, ended in a series of club drug-busts instead.
Police officers have been building the cases for nearly a year, posing as undercover druggies and purchasing small amounts of marijuana, Ecstasy, and Special K inside the clubs, over a period of nearly twelve months.
Thursday, the NYPD legal department gathered enough evidence to sue the owners of Pacha and Marquee, and Friday, the two clubs were shut down. The police have affirmed that the timing was nothing more than coincidental but their sensitivity is nonetheless under attack by many a skeptic from the gay community.
The official parade after party was planned to take place at Pacha on Sunday and needed to be relocated at the last moment. Lucky for promoter Stephen Pevner, who had already spent $40,000 on the one party, Capitale on the Bowery graciously agreed to host it, impromptu.
As this election’s overwhelming political fervor seeps its way into every topic of conversation, social networking systems are urging the nation’s musicians to take a stand as well.
MySpace and Rock the Vote have launched a collaborative voter registration drive, DemROCKracy, in which bands can encourage their fans to register to vote in the 2008 elections using a simple Rock the Vote widget they can embed in their websites, MySpace pages, etc.
As though the gallant cause were not reason enough to participate, though, bands who recruit the most fans win a TouchTunes Rock the Vote play list spot, a Gibson SG Standard Guitar, an SG Reissue bass guitar, and ultimately, the opening performance at Rock the Vote’s Democratic National Convention “Ballot Bash” in Denver, CO.
The drive itself does not aim to promote any one presidential candidate but rather to inspire citizens, specifically America’s youth, to vote in the coming elections. Rock the Vote executive director, Heather Smith, realizes that fusing music with politics realm may be the strategy to do just that: “Now young musicians can play their role in ensuring young people are the political force to be reckoned with in this election and beyond,” she says.
You can create your own DemROCKracy widget to “further the democratization of music,” as MySpace political programmer Lee Brenner puts it, or just register through someone else’s. The drive begins today and ends August 15th. Find out more about the contest at www.myspace.com/rockthevote.
Just saw your co-worker come into work accompanied by a giant boom box? It may just be his new Paul Smith Briefcase. The boom box briefcase, aside from being ornamental, is a fully practical business briefcase complete with a slip, zip pockets, double leather handles, and an adjustable messenger strap.
If you like the briefcase, though, you’ll love the cool design of Smith’s mixer-print handbag.Music equipment and handbags aren’t two things we’d normally confuse but it’s becoming easier with Paul Smith’s line of realistic, musically themed bags!
If Wiijaying was a sore subject for fans of good old turntables, I wonder how they will react to this –
Omer Yosha, an Interface Design student at the FH Potsdam has designed a new polyphonic MIDI controlling device, he calls the “AirPiano,” that enables DJs to spin without touching a thing. The new technology uses infrared sensors that can be programmed to link to a variety of music applications.
Here’s how it works: the AirPiano is controlled through a virtual matrix in the air above it. Each key and fader in the virtual matrix is assigned a note or controller, channel, and velocity via the USB-connected AirPiano software. When a key or fader is triggered (by waving one’s hand over the infrared sensors), an LED beneath the AirPiano’s surface illuminates and the note is played.
Not only is the AirPiano impressively practical, though. Its sleek, narrow frame makes us think it may very well become an alternative to rolling around a closet-full of equipment.
And this technology may indeed have a promising future. “The AirPiano is . . . only one example of an application that could adopt this concept,” says Omer. That’s right, think AirOrchestra. Omer describes the AirPiano as “useful for DJ performance, as a music therapy instrument, or as a toy.”
The product definitely seems to be versatile but one thing is for sure – it seems like the most complicated toy we have ever seen.
Read more about the Airpiano at CreateDigitalMusic.com.
You might remember Water Taxi Beach’s hit Saturday night party, ReBound, from last year. Well this summer, they revamped their sound system with some help from Gary Stewart – Roxy, Vinyl, Palladium, and Sound Factory designer – and are ready for another summer of weekend partying.
The Beach Party, as the series is called this year, boasts a magnificent lineup that is sure to follow in ReBound’s footsteps, or maybe even outshine it. DJ Victor Franco will open each afternoon from 3pm – 8pm and then the Water Taxi Beach residents, DJs Justin Carter, Probus, and the Brothers’ Brothers, will each play a set. The night does not end there, though. Each Saturday party will host a guest artist to follow the regular show and wait till you hear what Beach Party has in store . . .
Moodyman, the Detroit Mahogany Music – will set the stage as the first guest star in the series on June 28th. The next few parties will showcase musicians including I:Cube (France, Versatile), Rich Medina (Philly, Kindred Spirits), and Omar S (Detroit, FXHE Records). July 12th’s performer is still only a hot whisper topic and August’s schedule will be announced in July. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
The parties, located at Hunter’s Point, Long Island City (2nd and Borden), will run every Saturday night 8pm – 3am from June 28th to August 30th. Admission is only $3 and there is a free shuttle to the 7 train from 10pm – 3am. Check back for lineup updates later on in the summer. For other inquiries go to the Water Taxi Beach website.
It can be a difficult thing to keep your tech skills on par with your creative vision. Without the luxury of a studio engineer to bail you out when the going gets technical, most producers can find themselves at one point or another in a stump.
Dan Giove, founder of music production school Dubspot knows that pain. A DJ himself, Giove sought an institution that could further his passion for electronic music with a comprehensive education in studio production. Left frustrated with the shortcomings of the market, Giove decided to take matters into his own hands and start a school of his own.
“I’ve always wanted to make music,” says Giove, “and I just couldn’t find anywhere to go. I stumbled upon an empty office on Fourteenth Street and thought I would build a studio and learn from just being there. The studio turned into classes and the classes turned into DJing and Production school. Before long, there was really nothing else like it in New York.”
Located in the Meatpacking District on the West Side of Manhattan, Dubspot has a mission of building a community of novices, experts, and everywhere in between who share a common love for music and a desire to further educate themselves in the processes of its production. Giove designs its programs to fit the needs of students with all kinds of musical backgrounds, ranging from experienced disc jockeys to those who have never touched a turntable. Classes offered include DJ tutorials, Electronic Music Production intensives, and weekend workshops that teach students how to get started with Ableton, Reason, Logic and more. In Dubspot’s summer youth programming, kids can also learn to mix and scratch and now, with Dubspot’s corporate team-building event service, you and your coworkers can even play DJ for the day. (Who knows, it may open up some new career paths.)
Despite its popularity with students, Dubspot still manages to provide personalized instruction to each and it’s no secret how. Giove works with his team to establish the ideal blend of hands-on experience and instructional supervision at every level. With its top-caliber facilities and diverse, knowledgeable staff, it has just the tools to do so. Instructors represent musical and educational talent across the board including professional DJs, studio engineers, product specialists, instrumentalists, software experts, and on occasion professional guest speakers, all passionate about the creation of music.
At Dubspot, students are the teachers as well, though. “In the classroom environment, students are constantly interacting,” Giove says, “which means they are constantly sharing ideas. There are students who come to learn hip-hop and then decide to go a completely different direction because of the guy behind them, who is working on techno.”
In addition to receiving expert coaching, students are given the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art music equipment as used today by the industry’s pros. The school boasts an impressive studio and mastering facility, DJ stations and student workstations, in which the latest of hardware and software is made available to all.
Although the school’s facilities are an imposing sight, though, its classes are not. Classes are capped at a maximum of six students to make certain each student receives the personal attention they necessitate.
Sound good? It is – we know because we went to the school to check out one of the classes ourselves. We sat in our the Ableton introductory class where instructor Heinrich Zwalen, a veteran of Live since its early versions, took the class through the software’s basic functionality, through to the more advanced topics, like various ways to go about tackling a remix, and the foundations of any production. The class is structured with 2-30 mins of instruction followed by 10 minutes of hands on, allowing the students to put into practice what they had just learned. Students are encouraged to ask any questions and also interact with each other through out the training. ? The students we spoke with at the end of the two day training class (6pm to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday evening) all spoke highly of the class and the education they had just received.
Dubspot has surely conquered some undiscovered territories, to say the least, but Giove sees the company as ever growing: “There’s still so much for us to do here in New York. People come to Dubspot from all around the world – it’s an international community for music-lovers. We just want to get more artists and keep building the community we started.”
With the varied assortment of classes, teachers, and students at Dubspot, everyone interested in music is sure to find their fit. Go experience Dubspot for yourself during their open house this Sunday from 12pm-2pm located at 348 West 14th Street, New York City.
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