The fact that my last 4 posts have been about partying and music is a testament that I have been enjoying myself a lot lately:) Much respect to San Francisco for embracing this ridiculous event. The quality of music at the Lovefest was excellent, crews really stepped up their game and came through with great floats. Much respect to Kontrol, Listed, and Stompy for having great music at their floats. Enjoy the slide show:
The night ended for me at Club Oasis in Oakland. We were enjoying Dj Harvey as he was dropping serious beats for serious disco music lovers. It was a lovely event filled with smiles and groovy music. It was a great way to comedown from the madhouse which was Lovefest. I met great Bay Area heads who all crew up and caravan for Sarcastic Disco parties in Los Angeles. Love is the key, remember this.
The last and only time I hung out at Club Oasis, I experienced my first full Dj Harvey disco odyssey and I have not been the same since. Read about it here. Lucky for us, the disco shaman himself, Dj Harvey, is back in the Bay to flex his groove muscles for ya at the lovely, intimate, and non-pretentious Club Oasis. The great thing about this club is the retractable roof. Yes ladies and gentlemen, an open rooftop. This is technically an outdoor party!
I expect mostly hardcore disco lovers in the area who love Harvey for what he does will definitely represent that night. I also think you haven’t seen Dj Harvey before, this would be the time to do it. It brings together good people. The crowd last time was diverse and flat out cool, everybody was smiling and dancing. It is a nice relief from the bridge and tunnel weekend warrior crowds who flood San Francisco on any given Saturday night.
This event lands on the evening of the Lovefest weekend which will draw crowds from around the country. It gets ridiculous in front of City Hall. No other city in America has an event like this in front of their public service offices. Come nighttime, there will be plenty of cheesy afterhours parties in San Francisco but none will be as crucial as this Dj Harvey show at Club Oasis. Good luck finding a groovier place to hang out that night. Club Oasis is located at 135 12th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. 9pm to 4am, $10.
I look forward to meeting the crew who is throwing this party. They represented at my party last weekend. I know this because they put their flyers up:)
It was an incredible night and I would like to thank everyone who made it. The VHS crew and myself put together a ‘vibe’ as we were told. A lot of the success had to do with our Venue which had the perfect ambiance to create the perfect atmosphere for getting down. We had a happy dancing crowd formed before midnight. Enjoy this slide-show of the event.
All the djs had great sets. Kicked off my Chad Neiro, then Leonard, Jeno, Paul T, and capped off by Jesse. We had some great guests show up. David Harness and Lee Burridge from the UK just stopped by to hang out along with Gunita of Listed promotions who is putting on the Get Weird Lovefest kick off event at Mighty on Oct 3rd 2008.
The only bad thing that happened all night, and it was pretty bad I suppose, was that our sound-system broke and became 1/4th the volume. This happened around 3am right before Paul T got on. Unfortunately he played a quieter set than those who played before him. People were forced to get closer to the front to catch the show. It became very intimate. He played tracks I have never heard before with a certain grace and groove. His presence behind the decks is strong, he knows how to work a crowd. He gets very involved in his sound which is infectious to a bystander.
Paul T and myself had a moment to hang out and even get a little philosophic. The main thing I noticed was his humble approach to his djing talent. He said more than once that, “he is not a real dj,” but I attest that he throws down like a pro. In fact Paul is the owner of Sarcastic Clothing and also the co-head designer at Stussy. He and Dj Harvey put on Dj Harvey Sarcastic Disco, hence his affiliation to those events and to the music. Paul is NOT a fan of recorded mixes. He believes that an online dj set does not lend enough justice to the actual performance and would rather not allow his sets to be recorded and distributed online. The BeatsInSpace dj mix which has gotten so much attention was a one off experience for him. Paul has a very easygoing personality and I enjoyed speaking with him about many other topics. If Paul T comes to your town, go see him.
I ended the night well. I caught up with Jeno at the end and we shot the shit about old Detroit music. He knows his business. I told him my favorite Theo Parrish story but that for another blog post. Leonard as usual displayed his magic on decks and hung out all night which made me happy because I have known him the longest of any other local dj in San Francisco, he is a true connoisseur and has always looked out for me. Thanks Leonard. Albert our sound guy felt disappointed about the failure of his sound-system but I hope he knows that none of us are ‘pissed,’ S!!t happens. He is ‘good peoples’
Again, thanks to all of you who represented with us on this very special night. Look forward to more events from us in the future.
What happens in the Pink Palace stays in the Pink Palace, but on this night I walked away with some jamming footage. This was recorded last weekend, 9/20/08 at one of the Pink Palace’s afterhours events sometime beyond the 3am mark. There was a full blown electro salsa party going on upstairs but the downstairs studio was where the live action was happening. Much props to the musicians. Manolo, ex Manicato band member, was there representing on the bass. Check out Manicato’s music too, they founded the Pink Palace collective. We were all jamming in their studio after all: http://www.manicato.com/
If you can sit through 9 minutes of jamming you wont be disappointed. I wish you could hear the bassist better. His name is Manolo, ex Manicato band member, and he was killing it that night. My homie Jaime was rocking out with some small bongos on the side. The drummer was on point, the bongo player was ridiculously good, and whoever the guy was who picked up the taborine was also good. The lights go off at one point and the music gets a little crazier.
The contemporary Nu Disco sub-genre of dance music is revered by people who love its graceful tempo and have experienced its strange magical dancefloor powers. This magic returns to San Francisco on Saturday September 27th 2008 when the VHS crew and myself present Paul T along with Jeno and Leonard a non-club location.
Paul Takahashi, aka Paul T, is an underground culture trendsetter whose disco djing skills have earned him high degree accolades in the avant Nu Disco scenes. Paul T sees Disco through different lens. He drops drippy filtered psychedelic ’spaceship-landing’ Nu Discospheric selections mixed in an expert fashion with keen attention to vibe and programming. He was recently featured on Tim Sweeny’s highly acclaimed Bside radio broadcast, BeatsInSpace, out of New York. A friend of mine described this radio recording as “crucial.” Listen to it here.
Years ago Paul teamed up with the voodoo disco prince, Dj Harvey, to produce LA’s highly acclaimed Dj Harvey Sarcastic Disco events. Paul helped mature and foster a scene of serious disco music aficionados and veteran partiers who come out of the woodwork to celebrate the Disco warehouse spirit.
This will be Paul’s first show in San Francisco (he once played a wack fashion show here, so that does not count!).Paul has a reputation for being very selective about where he performs. This following clip from a gig in Mexico (Mexico has a rich history of loving disco music) displays Paul’s dj headnodding groove as he pounds a disco sample through the floor:
We made sure to secure a safe underground spot to make this event go off.Here is a very short video clip of Paul building a crescendo at a party in Mexico, we never really hear the drop but the energy is building:
Paul will be accompanied by Leonard of Tocadisco, an underground music guru (Leonard is very sought out for his limitless knowledge of rare vinyl recordings), and Jeno, our local Wicked veteran and headliner for the BackToBack parties.
In all, Paul T is the underground dj’s DJ.I am very excited to work with VHS to help bring Paul T to San Francisco. I personally look forward to repeating the Disco magic I experienced at a Dj Harvey show back in May. I cannot wait to feel the power of the beat through the mind of Paul T. 19 Heron St, $10 at the door, 10pm to 6am. See you there dance suckas!
Saturday night 5/3/2008, I was pulled out to Oakland to see Dj Harvey instead of my usual round to the monthly Kontrol party. I can not be more glad at the turn of events. I witnessed the best underground Disco set I have ever seen in my life and I have seen great ones from Andre Hachett and Maurice Fulton. Although I like Disco for its wide spectrum of funky styles I usually get a little tired of it after a half hour - the vocals drive me a little nuts. This night however changed my opinion of Disco but it’s also because Harvey has a rare deep and underground vintage disco track arsenal that only him and a few dj’s on the planet own.
I saw Harvey once before in 2000 but I didn’t like it. On this night however, the stars were aligned and he came down with the phenomenal disco force that only a well strapped dj veteran like him can. Let’s have a reality check here. Dj Harvey is old school - I don’t know his true age but you can read his Wikipedia entry and get an idea of how far his dj career goes - He is no spring chicken - he is more like the wise owl - check out his greying beard. As a dj for 14 years myself, I was impressed by every selection he made. I recognized 2 songs all night - 4 hours.
Description: Funk-Rock with a Disco kiss on it. A deep blend of washed out guitars, funky-tribally drums rhythms, wet high hats, psychedelic drone strings, far away sounds, dance friendly rock and just the right amount of Vocals. It is one of the most eclectic sounds I have ever heard yet, under the umbrella of Disco.
The show was small, it was one of those events that drew true disco music lovers - only those who knew were there, about 100 strong which Harvey kept dancing for 5 hours straight. I myself got lucky and met a great dancer on that dance floor. We danced till sweaty - two and a half hours straight before we finally took a water break What a lucky guy her boyfriend must be - he was not there. Too bad for him, on that night Harvey made her and I connect body moves to the underground Disco Beat Check out his site and learn more about Harvey: http://www.harveysarcasticdisco.com/
