SEAL OF APPROVAL (DC) – AFROJACK & NADASTROM – 9/2/10

  MOOMBAHTON by T&ARecords

Afrojack’s remix of DJ Chuckie and Silvio Eccomo’s “Moombah,” and Dave Nada’s “Moombahton”.

Anatomy of a movement, and the key development points for superstars!

Afrojack appears tonight at Lima for Panorama Productions. Check http://www.clubglow.com
Nadastrom are at U Street Music Hall for their residency.

Real talk, if Afrojack never would’ve remixed DJ Chuckie and Silvio Eccomo’s “Moombah,” this summer would’ve been nowhere near as entertaining. When the Dave Nada half of Nadastrom took that remix’s hypnotic, thumping bassline, and slowed it to 108 BPM, and meshed it with Sidney Samson’s “Riverside,” summer got screwed up, and became amazing. “Moombahton,” the Dutch House meets cumbia meets reggaeton development that has turned the underground on it’s ear also couldn’t have ever happened unless Nada started producing tracks with Matt Nordstrom. Nordstrom, a Grammy nominated house producer with a legacy that makes him a heavy hitter even without having ever playing with Dave. Nordstrom’s more measured simmer to a boil then back again method of production took Dave from the subtle build to massive explosion style he learned from being a punk rock kid who spun Bmore club to a brand new place as a producer, a place that has Nadastrom hot on the lips of everyone on the underground from U Street Music Hall to Eighteenth Street Lounge to all of the top names in the underground world, to yes, rappers like, amazingly enough, Lil B the Based God, and given they produced a track on the Jersey Shore Soundtrack, MTV buzzing about them too.

Just as Afrojack has leveled up and is now producing remixes with David Guetta (“Louder than Words”), Nada and Nordstrom leave at the end of September to Los Angeles to be closer to their Dubsided Records label chief David “Switch” Taylor, of Major Lazer and generally unique and dope productions fame. However, whereas a ton of people local to DC and Baltimore are acting like this is an enormous “farewell tour,” it really isn’t. If Nadastrom are going to continue to be dominant forces on the underground, then it would stand to reason that as their legend grows, selling out 9:30 Club, U Hall and Sonar will be as much a part of that legacy as pretty much anything else. And given that they’re from here, they’re going to have to bring it, and bring it massively. We’re not going to cry and moan about Nadastrom leaving town, in fact, we’re not even going to acknowledge it. We at TGRI are going to sit here and watch Twitter and wait for the first time Dave Nada calls some fool out in LA a “bama” on Twitter, or when a Nadastrom track is strongly influenced by a Bad Brains or Fugazi song, or something they learned from Scottie B or KW Griff, and we’ll know. You can take the boys out of DC, but you can’t take DC out of the boys. Well actually, they’re men now. Handling business like that too. And we’re proud. If you can, check both Nadastrom and Afrojack tonight. In VERY short order, they’ll be on the exact same level of eyes around the world. We know that amongst themselves, they already are on each other’s level, and that’s a victory in itself. Game recognize game, and we do too.

Top tier performers make tonight a top tier night.

Salad Days Mixtape Release Party – DC goes harDCore again this SUNDAY @ 3 PM!

DC STAND UP

This event makes all the sense in the world, and if it isn’t the first total sellout in the brief history of the U Street Music Hall, I’ll be mightily offended.

 Minor Threat, meet major threats behind the turntables Nadastrom and Stereo Faith. Y’all ain’t yeti.

The incredibly dope Cmonwealth x Mad Decent x Nadastrom x Stereo Faith “Salad Days” mix released two weeks ago by Mad Decent Records is as apt and awesome of a portrayal of punk rock as any mix ever created. This Saturday, a gathering of the tribes is taking place at the U Hall, for a most vital event in remembering and celebrating the past, present and future of the punk movement.

In many ways, Washington, DC is punk rock. Ian Mackaye. Henry Rollins. Bad Brains. Minor Threat. Dischord Records. Teen Idles. Fugazi. The lifeblood of the punk movement was as much about San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens as it was about Manhattan’s CBGB as it was about the original 9:30 Club. On Sunday, let’s go back. Waaaay back. Back into time.

This Sunday’s matinee show should be, if history were to be followed, at Food for Thought. However, it’s now at the Black Cat instead of in Dupont Circle, and something tells me that Embrace may not be able to make the show. However, this will be an epic event. DJing will be TGRIOnline’s own punk rock superman Denman Anderson, alongside the harDCore DJs responsible for the fantastic “Salad Days” mix, Dave Nada and Stereo Faith. This is topped off with the event being hosted by John Stabb of Government Issue, “punk rock karaoke,” and a performance by truly one of the best performing punk bands on the planet, the Brooklyn by way of Philadelphia by way of Baltimore by way of Australia MOTHER FUCKING DEATH SET. If not a believer in the Death Set, come out on Sunday, and trust and believe that you’ll know that there’ll be no negative thinking, and that they travel around the world and do what must be done, they’re on a top secret mission and their enemies were wishin’ that they had some bigger guns!

http://www.youtube.com/v/GqxYEj_zhyg&hl=en_US&fs=1&

3 PM. Sunday. Awww man.

TaxLo feat. Kid Sister/DJ Sega/Nadastrom @ Sonar – 4/10/10 – REVIEWED

I’m takin’ the tours, I’m wreckin’ the land
I keep it hardcore because it’s dope man
– Run-DMC “Down With the King”

Apparently, we all want to be down with the king. The self proclaimed “Philly Club King” DJ Sega that is. Sega headlined an excellent TaxLo event last night in Baltimore that, though nearly plagued by a number of occurrences, was still a more than wonderful time had by all. Cullen Stalin, one half of the combination that runs the event with Simon Phoenix celebrated his birthday 21 days late with a dream bill for him as it is every year for his birthday event, this year’s a once again spectacular array of hype at the moment artists on the underground scene. Top locals hard electro and dubstep spinning DJ Lemz and hyperkinetic party divas the Get Em Mamis joined with the most influential DJs of 2010 worldwide, Nadastrom, the electro pop and juking funk of diva Kid Sister, and the browbeating bass (and with apologies to MFSB the new “Sound of Philadelphia”) of DJ Sega for an intense bill of dancing, dancing, dancing, and yes, more dancing.

If not already acutely aware, Dave Nada and Matt Nordstrom’s Nadastrom tandem represents the finest DJ braintrust at present in the universe. From a technical and entertainment standpoint, the duo are literal light years ahead of not just where popular music culture is headed, but laying down the tracks for pop music’s constant evolution. Nadastrom’s remixes are perpetually on point, tightly wound, slowly unfurled gems of music magic, the most voluptuous of developed noise. The elegance of minimal techno and deep house the Matt Nordstrom possesses, mixed with the kill or be killed behind the musical 8-ball attitude Nada has towards producing peak hour bangers created Moombahton, the chopped and screwed Dutch electro sound, which Nada has apparently already bored with with his depth of musical intellect as he uncorked the newest and latest in that barrage, a Moombahton remix of KRS-One’s “Step Into a World.” Yes, the Blondie’s “Rapture” sampling hip hop smash took a tour from the South Bronx through a smoked out haze in the Netherlands, down into the Dutch Antillies, and back to Sonar. Speeding up The Teacher to meet Moombahton’s three quarter time melodic sway is a work of genius. Pure, unadulterated genius, or maybe two guys obsessed and motivated by crowds of people moving their asses in lockstep to the most enormous grooves. Even in the position as table setters instead of headliners, they were absolutely every bit as tasty as the Old Bay seasoning instead of delivering as the crab cake.

Chicago’s Kid Sister performed an abbreviated set last night due to travelling with the flu and a fever of 101 degrees. That being said, the Chicago mistress of motion boogied her way through a very professional set where she did battle with her failing voice, but, as was again the name of the evening, she did battle with the dance floor as well, her lithe physique swaddled in tight black lycra leggings and a loose cut sleeveless gray t-shirt emblazoned with religious affirmation “Too Blessed to be Stressed” not sick enough to be dissuaded from a dance floor workout. Her set, which only improves as she adds new jams to it that continue, as she does, to be a 21st century repository for the history of house music. The straight up Chicago juke of “Switch,” “Pro Nails (with a visit from Rusko’s dubstep remix at the tail end)”and her excellent take on the Jungle Brothers’ legendary “Girl I’ll House You” punctuated a very exciting set.

But the star of this night, as with most nights, were the Philly Club sounds of DJ Sega. Literally fresh off a bus from Philly after playing a set in Pittsburgh the night before, Sega merely arrived at Sonar smoking marijuana as he took to the stage, set up a laptop, got busy behind the wheels, and closed the party with an utterly dominant sonic display. I tend to think DJ Sega became Superman last night. He entered the venue as Robert Taylor, mild mannered and extremely humble Philadelphia native. With a few puffs of premium sticky icky and his fingers on turntables, a mixer, and some necessary staccato drum loops, Lil Jon samples, and a mountain of riotous noise, he became a club music superhero. Add to this the fact that Rye Rye AND her backup dancers performed during his set as well in a poorly kept “surprise,” breaking, popping, Spongebobbing, Wu-Tanging and performing gymnastic feats of skill to Sega’s productions, and you had a recipe for the tightest club music night out of many transcendent club music nights of the year.

Last night could’ve turned into a catastrophe. The main stage of Sonar in what is still an economically depressed era may not have been the best look for a show featuring so many artists that are big, but still at a niche status on a local, national and international level. As well, having the advertised draw suffering from illness isn’t exactly a positive as well. However, we once again learned the lesson last night that good music and a positive atmosphere can solve everything.

SEAL OF APPROVAL – (Bmore) TaxLo feat. Kid Sister/Nadastrom/DJ Sega – 4/10/10

All around good Baltimore homie and friend to the site Cullen Stalin alongside Simon Phoenix promotes the legendary TaxLo party at Sonar. TaxLo has hosted pretty much every major underground artist of note of the past five years, and broken quite a few as well. Cullen turned 21 again on April 3rd, and this Saturday night, he’s throwing one of the biggest parties of the year to celebrate. No, I know we say that often, but really, this is going to be so so so ridiculous.

Kid Sister is a beautiful, Chicago born maelstrom of positive dance energy. Her debut album, Ultraviolet is a personal fave, combining mainstream accessible hits like “Pro Nails,” with it’s A-Trak production and Kanye West’s sixteen bars, the Swedish House Mafia party smasher “Right Hand Hi” and current single “Daydreaming,” with Chicago house covers like “You Ain’t Really Down” for the album to get you through any Saturday night on the dance floor. And that’s where you’ll be if you’re at TaxLo as the TGRIOnline.com Hustlers of Culture fully intend to be. Stalin’s attempted to book the perpetually busy and very much in demand dance diva on three separate occasions in the last year and a half, so, this performance is likely to be huge.

But the party doesn’t stop there. Yep, the “El Jefe de la Moombahton” Dave Nada and the magnificent Matt Nordstrom, yes, Beatport perennial faves and most important DJs on the international underground Nadastrom will be there. Last time we saw Nadastrom in Baltimore was for Halloween, a set we described as “everything went from insane to armageddon and back again.”

We’ve also said the following about Nadastrom here on the site as of late as well:

– “They blend a potent mixture of so many musial styles that it’s hard to really categorize what they do, other than to say it’s a particularly excellent blend of electronic dance music.”

– “I’ve seen them open for Steve Aoki. They murked the Mad Decent Block Party in Philly. They’ve toured around the world twice in one year, have hit #1 on Beatport, and are a constant in the sets of literally every major and minor underground DJ on the globe.”
– “Clearly, the phrase that pays in 2010 is ‘Y’all ain’t Yeti.’

And you ALL know you forgot how dope this is:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7786344&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Nadastrom – Save Us from Ben Solomon on Vimeo.

Philly club music is SO on point this year. The Brick Bandits are the most inventive group of producers anywhere in the universe. The world champion of club music right now, DJ Sega. Some people may say Tameil, some may say Tim Dolla, some would promote young lion Nadus as being worthwhile, but for me, it’s Sega. He’s taking Philly club on an INTERNATIONAL ride right now, as club music gets more electro, Sega is the one in demand as a remixer, working with tracks from the likes of everyone from Toddla T to Laidback Luke and Steve Angello b/w Drake, all with excellent results. For a guy who had 200+ tracks done by the age of 17, his work ethic is legendary and production is phenomenal.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7445693&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Dj Sega from Ian Crawford on Vimeo.

As well, Cullen and Simon open, and they promise special guests doing things like this…

Yep. You read that right. Aww damn. Tickets $10. All ages. Again, this will be ridiculous.

PERMANENT SEAL OF APPROVAL: U STREET MUSIC HALL, WASHINGTON, DC

Well, let’s hope that this isn’t the last time we have to do this.

TGRIOnline.com is giving the U Street Music Hall a permanent Seal of Approval. In the first two weeks of the venue’s existence, an unbelievable energy has permeated the city’s EDM culture. No, it’s not the 20,000 watts of sub-atomic bass that Jesse Tittsworth turned on a slightly thinner than expected but ultra appreciative crowd at last night’s Plant Music showcase like a bunch of kids on a hot summer’s day on a street corner. No, it’s not the fact that Tittsworth gave us a preview of Nadastrom’s “Punk Rock Latino” and a bunch of other forthcoming Nada and Nordstrom goodies that will be the soundtrack to what promises to be an EXTREMELY rowdy summer. Nor will we claim that it was NYC legend Stretch Armstrong spinning an incredibly solid set of hip-house, body jacking, classic Chicago reminiscing set of house music.

No, we won’t point to Will Eastman and his now ubiquitous Giorgio Moroder moustache smiling mirthfully as his ten years of dedication to Blisspop turned into a sonic cold rush of blood to the head at the venue last Saturday night. It wouldn’t be watching ex-Glitch Mob member Kraddy work himself into a frenzied state of hysteria building his set of hip hop inspired dubstep to a crescendo. No, I won’t even point to the soft opening week with Tittsworth, Nadastrom and Dubfire sets. Or to Harry Hotter lifting his stock as a DJ in the city for those who just weren’t aware with kingpin selections on two separate occasions in a 72 hour period. And, we won’t point to the venue resurrecting Red, which may be one of the most personally gratifying occurrences of the year so far.

Happy Birthday, Scottie B!

I’ll point to the seeming perpetual standard the venue sets for excellence on a nightly basis. Tonight, for instance, it’s probably the best DJ in Washington, DC, Sam “The Man” Burns at Red Fridays. Tomorrow, Unruly Records kingpin, Bmore legend and godfather of club and house music Scottie B has a birthday party with confirmed spinners listed as his NO RULE cohort Cullen Stalin and the “U Hall Crew.” What exactly is a U Hall Crew, and, just how many local DJs claim Scottie B as inspiration and teacher and will spin as well? I think a blind, dumb and deaf man knows how we feel about #MOARCLUBMUSICS on this site, so, on that system, this is a necessary event for sure.

NYC’s Flashing Lights Crew of DJ Ayres, Nick Catchdubs and Jess Jubilee are in town next week, and, well, they’re all just superior talents bringing one of the universe’s best known affairs to DC. DJ Stylus spins Red Fridays, and, well, Gavin Holland, Nacey and Steve Starks, the young guns of DC EDM now get to throw Nouveau Riche as an 18+ event. This is the same Nouveau Riche that involved people swinging like orangutans from the rafter beams at DC9 and parties based around 1991 rave culture, and ass well was founded by Gavin Holland, the guy who throws parties where people are forced to wear shorts and can play in ball pits. There’s already a ridiculously high juvenile quotient to Nouveau Riche which is going to skyrocket in a wonderful way.

U Street Music Hall is the touchstone point for DC’s arrival as an international powerhouse. Have you ever complained that DC isn’t this or isn’t that or can never be what you want it to be? Definitely stop by 1115 U Street sometime. It’s proof that DC, at least for dance music, is exactly where you want to be. It demands and deserves a permanent seal of approval.