color theory applied

Ghostly has categorized their album library by colors which correspond to different mood states in an effort to help you ‘discover’ new tracks and playlists according to how you feel.

I am so happy to see a cutting edge electronic music label elegantly implementing these concepts to further investigate the mind-body-technology relationship further, ultimately to put us in the mood we want to be in:-)

This cutting edge project was probably conceived in Ann Arbor Michigan, home to Ghostly. I would like to have been a fly on wall during the planning stage meetings.  I feel as if Ann Arbor has always been somewhat of a Silicone Valley for techno. It is so close to Detroit, how can it not be.  Those brainy students who like to party will rule the world someday…wait we already do.

The parameters are quite simple as you can see below.

Ghostly Discover iPhone App choose color mood

Choose your desired ‘hue,’ I was feelin’ yellow, then you choose your rhythm type fast/slow, organic/electronic  - pretty well thought out.  Click ‘ DISCOVER’ to get your results (click to link to the song to preview):

I do think this result matched the mood, and the other songs that followed in the suggested playlist also rocked.

The app has a monetization plan, everything is well though out. In the end this is a different experience towards finding and purchasing music. Put a boy tie on this, nice job.

You can choose to buy the track, rate it or get an artist bio.

In conclusion, this is a true holistic approach to music discovery.  If you love the Ghostly label I suggest you download this immediately.  Good job to the creative minds at Ghostly.  SV4 and the bunch.

Now go eat some cake.

San Francisco and The Ferocious Few have a symbiotic relationship.  The city provides music friendly street corners to play in and the duo returns a raw original rock sound from the gut that stops pedestrians in their tracks.  They can be found anywhere from 9th and Irving, to 4th and Market, to 16th and Valencia and of course the cosmic home base, Dolores Park.

The first time I saw drummer Daniel Aguilar and guitarist Francisco Fernandez at Dolores Park was in the Summer of 2007, my jaw dropped. David’s drumming intensity (the facial expressions) was reminiscent of Michael Shrieve’s leyendary Woodstock performance but on a small kit, just brutal.  Francisco’s rock singing and guitar playing was as if he was possessed by a southern blues spirit from the past that was trapped in his body.  This duo has that voodoo juju in their funk mojo.. dig?

For being so lo-fi, their sound is so big. Indeed they are a ferocious act so their name is well-earned.  I personally believe these guys are a rock duo made in heaven that will be listened to by many.  I think you are lucky if you get to see these guys in their local element, before they blow up, which should not be surprising.

Enjoy this video of the Ferocious Few from this past Sunday at beautiful Dolores Park:

Find them on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ferociousfew

Walter Goyburu is considered one of the local masters of Peruvian criolle music but from his respected neighborhood of Callao, Lima. Do not mistake this music to what they call creole music from New Orleans.

Goyburu’s version of the classic valz song Cenizas, originally by Emilio Visosa, was recently featured in the all star album La Gran Reunion, Los Guardianes de la Musica Criolla (’the great reunion, the guardians of creolle music’) which features 19 respected criolle music artists.  This album has been coined the Buena Vista Social Club of Peruvian criolle music, may be so.

Understanding Spanish would help the appreciation factor because the lyrics are stunningly beautiful, but its beautiful rhythm and melodies will captivate any music lover until the end of a song. If you feel this, I was even able to find the lyrics for you:

Ábreme y no me cierres

la puerta de oro,            (bis)

del cofre de la ventana

que hay en tu pecho,

sabiendo que eres

el único tesoro,

que engalana mi vida

trecho a trecho.

Dame luz de tu amor

y no me engañes,

escucha la canción

del que agoniza;

mátame con el fuego

de tu mirada,

hazme polvo

y vuélveme cenizas.  (bis)

As of two years ago cumbia in Peru has once again taken the front seat as the popular music but with a more comercial sound.  Los Chapillacs however have decided to revamp the old Chicha sound and bring back the lost party flavor from the dead.. and they did it well in Lima on 3/31/09 @ Bar Mochileros.

The most amazing thing for me about this band is that these young kids are from Arequipa, a conservative southern city with nowhere near the cultural capacity of Lima the capital.  It is rare that a band from Arequipa can come to the capital, pack a nightclub, and rock the hell out of it on a Tuesday night.  The band received great accolades from the crowd which ended up full of sweat by 1:30 am.  I also find it cool that their name, Chapillacs, is derived from La Virgen de Chapi who is the virgin patron of Arequipa if you will.  If you ever go to Arequipa you will likely see Virgen de Chapi efigies everywhere.

Their live show simply rocked, it did not sound psychedelic as their music claimed but if you can listen to their recorded sound here: http://www.myspace.com/chapillacs

I suspect that a band like this would do well on a little West coast American tour. San Franciscans would love it.

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.

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:)

See you there or beware.

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.

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.

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!

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/

My least favorite holiday of all time is coming up. Valentines Day! Boo. I am one of those Valentine day haters, along with a few others. I was offered to dj an Anti-Valentines Drink the pain away party at the Argus Lounge, located at 3187 Mission St at Valencia in the lovely city of San Francisco of course. My Dj Buddies:Tau G and Saiman will be sharing the decks with me.  $4 Fernet Shots!!!

The music? Hateful love songs a la techno electro booty shake redemption. Yes. I should have started the promotion like three weeks ago, but like I said, bad women and hard work. To those girls out there who have been kicking my heart around like Diego Maradona kicks a soccer ball lately, I dedicate this to you. ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.

I will be back with more quirks, news, and ridiculous opinions soon. My day job has been squeezing every drop of my time. I woke up this morning dreaming about funnel pages, user experience and email subject lines. The first word I said this morning coming out of a deep dream was “conversion.” Yes folks, that is how crazy I am becoming. Marketing to your minds.
I will be attending one of my other favorite Anti Valentines day events in San Francisco earlier in the night however. The massive pillow fight. Here is a video from last years Valentines day pillow fight extraordinaire:

Call it 8th grade humor, or just plain tipsy on cheap book-signing-wine, but upon looking at the signature table I couldn’t help to point out the admitted “dummies” all around, getting their Dummies book signed. Yes me included, but I ended up there by chance that night, I swear. It was held at my favorite club Temple.

It is typical that a green book signing would also take place in a club deemed to become the worlds first green nightclub. But they are not alone in this pursuit, a club in the Netherlands is making waves.

It is the green nightclub race of the decade. Temple’s club’s sustainability director, Mike Zuckerman also has plans install a power generating dance floor next year. He feels confident that they have found the person to do it. In the meantime, he is starting with something a little less ambitious which he calls a vertical garden shown here:

Elsa Wenzel at Cnet.com, whom I met outside of this book signing beat me to this story because it is her full time job to do so. She deemed this club the Chia nightclub in her Cnet Crave blog story. Look at the future vision of Temple nightclub in her entry and it will make sense.

This green night club business is great and all but it does nothing to offset the pollution created by those dj’s that fly millions of miles around the world year after year. Techno demi-god Richie Hawtin decided to do something about this problem and made an environmental pledge to his fans with this press release (PDF): Minimize Your Impact – by Richie Hawtin. I have not read any articles suggesting that others are following his footsteps, then again, Richie is always ahead of the curve on most things.

It is only a matter of time until we will all need to dance to keep the lights on.

This is one of those events where you see everyone you have ever met in San Francisco who is or has ever been involved in underground music in any significant form. I saw mad heads including my man Alvaro, who decided to ‘retire’ from doing turntable repair jobs. I think he might be the only person in the Bay Area who knows how to fix and calibrate any tone arm. He undermines how valuable this skill set is.

Regardless, this party was one to not miss. Here are a few more pictures:

A slick fella in a black leather jacket pulls up roaring some deep soul track in a custom designed colorfully lit bicycle with powerful sub woofers in hand crafted detailed fenders. (Please bare with the phone camera pics) He parked his bike, met a friend, shook some hands, meanwhile a dance frenzy stirred up around his bike, in no time there was a party halfway onto the corner of 22nd and Bartlett. The tipsy crowd became infected by the thumping break beats that this dude’s sick bike provided. So many ladies were dancing.

Meet Paul Freeman. Inventor, bike enthusiast, and owner of Rock The Bike knows how to rock a party like white hip hop star. He has game. He designs bicycles with great intentions and goals. For example, he designed and produced a unique “convertible” bike seat system that allows riders to ride in 4 different positions. You can ride it like a chopper or haul ass in a stand up position so you can get to work quick like me.

One of Paul’s great missions is to educate people on the coolness of riding a bike to music. It’s lovely. Paul offers weekly community rides with the music blaring about town. He is poised to transform bike culture and enthusiasm by showing people first hand how much better it is to ride to music blasting. I would personally love to blast deep sexy baseline driven beats on my way to work every morning.

This street party went on for over 2 hours strong without letting up. Paul had a microphone on his bike which turned the music set into a live performance by Paul and other ‘rappers’. The dancing, hootin’ and hollering were out of control fun. It was an evening to remember. When in the neighborhood of 22nd and Bartlett, keep your eye our for the dude on the music bike.

When the police rolled up curiously at the flash dancing mob the first time, the music automatically shut off and everyone stopped dancing and pretended to anxiously wait for a bus. The creator of this spectacle rigged the bus stop with a mini sound and laser light system that was remote controlled. It was semi concealed in the upper-inner vestibule area of the canopy. The crowd ranged from the typical hipster fixed gear dude, your 60’s hippie still on acid, the random homeless guy, the cute working girl types, the usual emo-hipster chick, and your classic geeky types who got off on discussing chemical reactions at the bus stop.

I was interviewed by this girl who wondered what I thought of this bus stop flash mob action. I told her that I thought this was an evolution of the urban public space remixing culture. This bus stop temporarily had a different purpose from its everyday purpose and use. It was now a mash up bus stop/rave party. There were even underground party fliers on the ground from promoters who targeted this motley street dancing crew.

The urban public space remix concept is well explored by my friends Matt and John B, who on this same day had their annual Park(ing) day. Let me first disclose to you that these guys are pranksters at heart and they treat their work in a scientific manner. Park(ing), in case you have not heard, is paying for parking spot, and turning it into a mini park. It’s yours, you paid for it, you don’t have to necessarily park a car in it. Instead you can put park bench and some grass, read the paper why not? Hence, park(ing). Clever. There has been so much written on them already, but check out their other work. Unfortunately I was not able to make it park(ing) this year.

Eventually the cops curiosity amounted and they hung around the corner for a while trying to figure out the mob. They did not once realize that the structure was rigged with a sound and light system. After the crowd broke up a little bit, this guy displayed some strong feelings about it.

The beats came back and the party started up again with lower numbers but just as much energy.

The night started with twisted deeper techie cuts that preserved the original Chicago house hat hit that sets the mood. It progressed smoothly into deeper bass grooves with asynchronous clack-like sounds that teetered yet maintained funk. House head bopping was inevitable. I went with my deep homie ‘Mole’ with whom I first discovered Cajual Records back in 1992. He went on to being a deep hippie in the woods of Montana with a ZZ top beard. But on this particular night ‘Mole’ was throwing down some house jakin’ dance moves in his hometown of Chicago to the sounds of Cajmere. It was great to see, we both went back to the basics.

Dajae, the original Diva of Cajual Records came out and did all the greats “U Got Me Up” and “Brighter Days” included. It felt good to hear the Windy City sing along to the lyrics. Groovy! here is another horrible picture (I’ll get a camera soon):

Anyway, it was dark, I used my phone. Please cut me some slack.. I know the picture quality sucks.

As you can expect U Got Me up made the crowd loose their shit, but even more so was when we all heard the undeniable funky beginning beats of the “The Percolator”. Wow! Chicago, thank you for representing for your own sake. It was fucking great to see the love Cajmere get out there and actually perform the percolator live with a microphone in his hand. He actually showed us what the percolator dance looks like. Feast your eyes on yet another crappy phone camera picture. Here is a glimpse of Cajmere dancing the Percolator:

The guy to his right is one of his new artists whose name I can’t recall. After this apex moment, Cajmere took back the decks and continued to dj for another 2 hours. He stayed true to himself and played some of that ultra hard techno which he produces frequently under the alias Green Velvet. Personally speaking, another large highlight for me was when he dropped Plastikman’s ‘Spastik’ and Chicago welcomed it hootin’ n’ hollerin and jakin’ to it. I personally live between Chicago, Detroit, and Berlin as my favorite music epicenters so this was a special moment for me. Here is a picture taken at the moment he was playing it:

I ran into my old friend Tim Baker, founder of Elephanthaus Records, Detroit. He ran an early techno operation that spawned the Ann Arbor to Detroit techno contingency in the early 90’s. An old school head, great to see and catch up with. Another great surprise was seeing and hanging with yet another important Detroiter, Brian Gillespie whom I had the pleasure of knowing and rubbing shoulders with back in my party throwing days in Ann Arbor/Detroit.

I was happy to go home with this great auto graphed souvenir by Cajmere. I plan on framing it.

quick prop delivery and a picture with Cajmere. Good times. Back in San Francisco now.

Here is Brian in front of Galoppierende Zuversich, manning the sound board.

Galoppierende Zuversicht translates roughly to ‘Galloping Confidently’ in English. At times I would look around the room and see people loose their shit dancing. I was one of them of course. During the show their name became apparent. These guys can keep this techno train rolling once they press ’start’ with out failiure, very confident indeed. Their system is set up so that it is actually hard to fail. They can drop beats from any of their synths and keep their rhythm rocking the room with no problem at all! Effortlessly.

How can I describe this in words: the music as a whole sounded like the natural cosmic flux falling in love with itself and creating strings and baselines that defined the meaning of love with every beat and measure. On top of some nasty sick ass beats of course. I don’t really know where these guys came from, they say Switzerland, but I think it is more like another planet from far far away.

No laptops, just good ole’ analog sound gear…..1,2,3 blast off into space with Galoppierende Zuversicht.

Here is my with one half of the group, Styro2000. Meeting this man made me believe in extraterrestrial life by the way.

I would also like to mention that eventhough I gathered no pictures of anything else but the group doing their thang, this party by far had the most attractive women I have ever seen at a techno party, but I have no pictures to prove it. I guess good looking women do like real techno. It is like finding a diamond in the rough.

Of course, this was taken after the group was done and walked away from their gear:

At least once a summer they also take place at McLaren Park in the southern part of San Francisco. The picture below is witness to this local San Francisco outdoor house music moment.

This picture was taken during the very early part of the day. The sunlight gave a cool effect.

The creators of the Sunset Parties are three guys: Galen, Solar, and J-Bird – all great dj’s. They are regulars at most respected events on any given San Francisco weekend. Cool dudes.

A memorable Sunset Party moment for me was watching dj Miles Maeda perform a top shelf dj set during a summer 05 event. The crowd was so captivated by his calculated funky syncopated rhythms, while dancing under sky and the trees above, lit by the disco ball points. Go West Coast Go!

Thank you sunset guys for doing this service to humanity. I had a good revelation about Galen, Solar, and J-Bird after a McClaren Park Sunset Party in 2006. My friend and I hung around till the very end of that party. Next thing we knew, it was just Galen, Solar and J-Bird, cleaning up every remaining cigarette butt from the grounds. The same dudes who started this whole thing. Who else I guess, but it was still cool to witness the devotion to the party.

Naturally my friend and I started helping out. It was hard work. A lot of bending over and lifting motions including the very heavy equipment loading into a van. For these guys, this part of job happened after managing an 8 hour party and setting up early. These men have been doing this for 10 years plus purely for the love of music. They are not getting paid to do this. Come on, is that not something to appreciate?

more pictures from the other day.

above: from behind the decks, earlier in the day.

below: girl with a sunshine groove.

This last one was taken and messaged to me on my friend’s iphone. It does no look good expanded.