New Music Videos

New music videos from some heady hitters on DJ MAGs top 100 Dj  list were released in the last few days. Steve Aoki's punky "The Kids Will Have Their Say" from his Wonderland cd, and Deadmau5's "Professional Griefers" feat Gerard Way from his upcoming album ">album title goes here<".

Enjoy

My Top 10 for Dj Mag’s Top 100 Djs

Over the last few weeks I’ve notice a large increase in tweets about peoples top 5 DJ selection for Djmag.com’s top 100 DJ list.  Given that voting ends at midnight on August 30th I thought I’d share with you my top 10. Now I know there will be disagreements and I know some of peoples favorites are not on this list. I ranked the DJS not only based on who I actually saw perform live at festivals, concerts and clubs in the last year but also who I know a little bit about and how they contributed to the industry as a whole. This is a very subjective post, so if you disagree I encourage you to leave a comment down below.

10 Fatboy Slim – The last time I remember listening to Fatboy Slim was in the late 90’s. That all changed in the last 12 months as Ultra and Tommorowland both streamed his sets on Youtube.  Which might I add he totally killed. It’s good to see that he’s still got its (he’s 49). He sticks to mainly his own stuff and plays an older style of house and EDM but he is mixing in some new things to produce some fun mash ups.

9 Deadmau5 – Though he hasn’t been active much lately, at least not anywhere near Chicago. Deadmau5 has always been a great producer. He also collaborated with DJS in my top 10 before I had an idea who they were. With the upcoming release (September 2012) of his 6^th studio album “>Album title Goes Here<” and the absolute greatness that is “Professional Griefers”(featuring Gerard Way) I’m pretty sure he’ll have a huge impact in the upcoming year.

8 Chuckie- Unfortunately I’ve only seen Chuckie perform live once at the MiD but that was one the best EDM concert I’ve been to in Chicago. It’s probably hard to believe especially with the amount of artists that have visited Chicago in the last year but he just wrecked the place.  It’s good to hear some Dirty Dutch house in a market flooded with dubstep.

7  Nervo / Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike -  Yes it’s a tie. I saw both duos perform live in Chicago in the past 8 months and they each worked the crowd very well. This was emphasized for both when they played at Tomorrowland 2012. Dimitri Vegas and Like Mikes set stood out in particular but both groups have a bit ways to go in order to make the top 5 in my opinion.

6 David Guetta – Like Fatboy Slim and Tiesto, David Guetta has been in the game for years. Some say he’s “sold out” especially in his last album “Nothing But The Beat” for making songs with the likes of Nicki Minaj, Usher, Will I Am and others. But I’ll play devil’s advocate and say that if anything that shows you how much other artists in other genres not only respect the fact that EDM is on the rise but also HIS quality of work.

Time for the Top 5, You ready?

5 Wolfgang Gartner- I don’t know how he can’t be in the top 5 on this list. Almost every single song of his is a hit and you can’t go wrong with that. He is releasing a CD in 2012 by releasing a few songs at a time and thus far it’s all good, “flux” is nuts and “redline” is great as well. Collaborating with other artists like Tiesto reinforces his standing in my top 5.

4 Skrillex - I cannot skip the king of Dubstep on my top 5. Thought I absolutely love other Dubstep artists(Zeds dead, Doctor p, Excision , Borgore, Flux Pavilion just to name a few) as they bring different flavor to the genre.  Skrillex is the face of it and he is paving the way for everyone else with his cult like following of fans. It helps that many of his songs are catchy and well produced, plus almost all remixes he puts out are great as well. He’s come a long way from opening up for Deadmau5 a few years ago at congress to selling out his own shows or headlining festivals.

3 Tiesto – I almost totally excluded Tiesto from my list entirely for 2 reasons. 1) “Elelments of Life” and then later “Kaleidoscope” which had a few hits each (in my opinion), never lived up to his earlier “Just Be” album which was a complete album of hits it will never get old. The later albums also showed he was moving away from trance and moved into more vocal almost pop like sounding songs (which I didn’t like a few years ago). If you are too young to know about “Just Be” release in 2001 look it up if you like trance you’ll like it a lot.

2) The last time I saw him was almost 5 years ago till randomly (split second decision to go to Milwaukee’s Summer Fest 2012) and he was absolutely nuts.  I didn’t know he started playing such hard music, like his collaboration with Steve Aoki “Tornado” or “We Own the Night” with Wolfgang Gartner. I can’t wait to see him when he visits Chicago in October part of his college invasion tour, he’ll be playing at the UIC pavilion.

2 Swedish House Mafia –Yes I know it’s not one Dj. But it’s 3 really good DJs. All of which I’ve seen individually at 3 separate venues and 2 countries. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to see them 3 together before they break up the group, we’ll see. Getting back on track what can I say they are great and produce a great amount of good tracks that don’t really get old. Being that they’re in a group it allows them to share each other’s music during individual sets so you’ll never know what kind of mix you will get even though you know what songs to expect.

   

1 Steve Aoki – Asian Jesus himself is my number one. I’ve had the privilege to see him 3 times in the last year in 3 different venues in 3 different states. All 3 shows he absolutely killed. He uses almost all his own produced tracks which only adds to the reason why he’s my number 1. He’s known to toss in some Tommy Trash or Knife Party mixes for harder versions of songs. You know what to expect when he performs: someone will get caked and he will stage dive.  He also likes to bring his friends from Dim Mak’s record label which always guarantees a good time.

Leave some comments down below feedback is always appreciated. If you like what you see share it wherever your <3 desires. If you can’t get enough there are links down below to other social media pages related to this blog.

Wavefront Music Festival After Movie

Follow this link to see the official after movie. Wavefront Music Festival After Movie

Here's a link to the official website for more info if you are like me and didn't get a chance to go. Wavefront Home Page

Congress Theater praised by locals for improvements

On August 16 over 60 people including Congress Theater owner Eddie Carranza gathered with his legal team gathered for the third Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance Hearing.  This was the third of three scheduled meetings.  In a nut shell a few local residence gave praise to Carranza for his efforts in improve security (now congress events are run by a professional security company who are more visible than previous security guards) and the less obvious noise  that is generated during music events at congress (it’s still getting work done to be more sound proof). Residence also mentioned that post venue clean up is getting better in the surrounding neighborhoods. The progress should overshadow the fact that  these meetings have generated 9 main points Congress Theater and Mr. Carraza should focus on if they don’t want to lose their liquor license , ranging having a zero tolerance policy for underage drinking (happens all the time at Congress) to keeping a log of all 911 calls and keeping resident informed about upcoming events. One interesting thing to mention is that it seems like people are pushing to possibly make congress events 21+ to eliminate a few of the points (underage drinking and then some).

“I don’t think this progress would have been made if this [putting Congress into the Deleterious Impact/PN hearing process] had not been done” -Assistant City Commissioner Barbara Gressel.

I would have to agree with the above statement. I've been going to Congress for shows for years and I have been able to buy drinks without being 21 in the past. In the past few years tings got better as staff check ID's and give 21+ party goers wristbands to show bartenders who is 21 and who isn't. Security is almost entirely not present or visible after the pat down (to my experience) and we all know what goes on at Congress so I don’t have to say it. If you don’t know, well keep it that way.

Link to entire article HERE

A fourth meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday October 31^st and if things improve this could be the last one.

Leave some comments down below feedback is always appreciated. If you like what you see share it wherever your <3 desires. If you can’t get enough there are links down below to other social media pages related to this blog.