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!
So, this is how it started. After spending some time dancing under a bus stop , we ended up taking our selves to Cafe Revolution in the Mission District. The usual goatee scratching communist types, hipster girls, and crunchy but not hippie fellas smoking and sippin’ Chamay beer. This place is best known for it’s cool outdoor sitting area and a bohemian atmosphere.
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.
I was not prepared for what happened when I turned the corner of Fillmore onto Haight. A mob of about 150 people were dancing their brains out to old school house music around a mere Muni bustop. As cars and buses went by, bus stop ravers would unite in a hollerin’ fit while keeping their rhythm going strong to the beat. It was irresistible to avoid. My curiosity mounted until I found myself on their side of the street freaking out at other passer byers. The drinking and smoking were definitely in effect keeping the status quo of the Lower Haight.
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.
