Wednesday, February 27th The Brattle, Weekly Dig, and Basstown present Daft Punk's ELECTROMA 40 Brattle St, Harvard Sq. Cambridge, MA 617.876.6837 8pm / 74min Brattle members: $10 General Public: $12 Purchase tickets (2006) dir Thomas Bangalter & Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo (aka Daft Punk) w/Peter Hurteau, Michael Reich [74 min]
Daft Punk's ELECTROMA is an odyssey of two robots (Hurteau and Reich) who journey across a mythic American landscape of haunting, surreal beauty on a quest to become human. This silent feature-length film, set to the music of French electronic music pioneers Daft Punk, made its international debut at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, ELECTROMA will dazzle music fans and film enthusiasts alike. With breathtaking cinematography, innovative filming techniques, and above all its underlying search for humanity within a dystopian environment, Daft Punk have delivered a film that finds a common thread with their previous work while exploring new horizons as directors of their first feature film.
Tickets are $12 general public / $10 for Brattle members (must present Brattle membership card at door). Join Basstown for Make It New on Thursday, Feb 28 from 10pm-2am w/ special guest Morgan Louis (Hearthrob, Lovelife), and resident DJs Die Young, Volvox and Baltimoroder. Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass. Ave. FREE. (Please note: this event is not occurring on Wed, 2/27 as previously listed)
Basstown's youngest resident, Etan, is a DJ who's coming up at a rapid pace. Since his mother first taught him to sing and pick up tunes here and there on the piano as a wee lad, he's accelerated at drums, can play guitar and piano, and could probably play you a song on the trumpet or saxophone. A bit fan of indie rock, he's brought us more suggestions of local bands and acts than we could have found on our own. Months before Passion Pit hit it big on a local level, Etan was singing their praises. The same goes for La Zen Bee and Plus Move. Well connected in his Berklee circuit, he's one of the most genuine people you'll meet. A definite future rockstar, there's much more to be said for Etan, but we'll start with three incredible remixes.
this is where i wash my socks. i know this isn't an art phlog but when my roommate joe and kerry of proletariat invited a bunch of friends to cover up the drunk graffiti diarrhea that's accumulated on our basement walls from parties, i was completely floored with what they did and have to share joe's post over at arevolt.com. a very big thank you to everyone who helped paint.
Lovers of Basstown, single or not, we'll be celebrating love all around. Not only is it Valentine's Day, but Valenthrob of 2007 was more or less the moment where all of us met. What is now SOLID!, Blood Sugar, Basstown, Black Magic, Hearthrob...some of it existed before, and some folks met after, but it was about this time one year ago that love was in the air and techno was coming through the speakers.
We thank everyone who is our friend, for your unending support.
Last night's performance of Kanye + DP at the Grammys was actually quite amazing, and also Daft Punk's first ever television performance.
Admittedly, I wasn't all that into the Kanye version. It made me cringe just a tad less than that Jimmy Page/Puff Daddy remake of "Kashmir" (renamed "Come With Me") for the Godzilla soundtrack. In any case, last night's performance proved that Kanye really does live up to his reputation, and Daft Punk are still rocking that Pyramid like it's 2500 B.C.
More details to come in the next post, but Basstown is going to present a very special event along with Vice and the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square - Daft Punk's film, Electrorama. The following day, Hearthrob's Morgan Louis will be our special guest DJ at Make It New, spinning French House. Possible giveaways!
Mark Your Calendars Film : Wednesday, February 27th (Brattle Theater) Party : Thursday, February 28th (Middlesex Lounge)
Spoon really did release one of the best records of last year. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga came out on Merge and converted every non-believer to understand that Britt Daniels is not fucking around when it comes to writing hit song after hit song. There is not one lagging track on the whole record, and it's nice to see worlds collide for a good cause. Diplo - Basstown's very special guest for our February residency - has just remixed Spoon's "Don't You Evah," and it's definitely a grower that will be put on repeat for most of your upcoming week.
This particular MP3 below fades out early as a protection for the actual MP3. All proceeds from purchasing the song go to charity, so it's probably a good idea - for the love of Diplo, Spoon, and peace on Earth - to spend your 99 pennies.
this just in. the speacial guest on the shake em down flyer has been announced. DJ Huggs. montreal canada. dim mak, smalltown djs crew. in jp. milky way. ill be there making the walls bleed neon. visuals i meann.
You may know him as C. Rockswell of Spank Rock, but lately he's been touring all over the world with Devlin and Darko Soundsystem and putting his real name up on flyers, Chris Devlin. When Devlin isn't jettin out to Austrailia for a New Years throwdown or flying into Seattle for a one-off friday nite jam, he calls the Southwest Boston neighborhood Jamaica Plain, home. He may have been born and raised in Baltimore and rose to fame with the city's now world-renowned music scene, but we couldn't be happier to have this Maryland transplant here in Basstown.
I was lucky enough to hang with Chris at a JP laundromat and get to know his story better and learn quite a bit about his experience in throwing a party and making a scene happen. I apologize for not presenting a formal interview and proper quotes, you can find those anywhere on the innernets, but i will try to relay what i learned in a three hour conversation with a DJ whose done some serious things.
Chris started DJin 12 years ago when his high school started a radio station, his show featured alot of hip hop and some jazz. After trying a traditional college path he took some time off and decided to try out art at Maryland Institute College of Art. He found it to be a great experience and it is said that at one of his art shows that he introduced MC Spank Rock (Naeem Juwan) and producer Armani XXXchange (Alex Epston) and the the landmark debut album "YoYoYoYoYo" followed in 2006. Chris modestly denies this story and says they had met before. Art took backseat to his music career as Spank Rock took off and since he has DJ'd all over the world with the group. With his DJ partner Ronnie Darko (Ronald Rubarth), the two perform as both a routine DJ crew and a four turntable party soundsystem. here's a video from Montreal's Igloofest last weekend, watch as they move 3500 people with Ghislain Poirier and Daedelus, despite it being outside and -20 degrees!
Now that Chris comes home to Boston, he has already started to make his mark in the Basstown community. His party SHAKE EM DOWN is an all around jump off that goes down the first thursday of every month at Jamaica Plain's Milky Way Lounge. He's brought in Spank Rock, XXXchange, and Pase Rock in the past and featured local Dj's Red Foxx and Emarce. When talking about what goes into what makes a local party happen, i learned A LOT about what it really takes.
I had been under the impression that a music scene is under the jurisdiction of the legal environment of the town in which it is located, more specifically the mandates against all ages and 18+ shows and the early closing times of many clubs in Boston. By telling me the story of Baltimore's Taxlo party and how it started withhout any real talented Dj or without a great venue (they are just as strict on IDs there) and how it was all about hard work and letting people know what was going on and getting them out to the party. It made me realize how ideal Boston is, there's tons of amazingly TALENTED dj's and great venues in every neighborhood, its all about letting people know when, where, and why. Here's a clip from Dj GHOSTDAD's show called MOFO RADIO (link to his fresh blog) on which Chris Devlin shared some records last week, to let you know why Chris Devlin and Shake Em Down is the place to be ona thursday nite in JP. Chris' edit of the show on his blog FULLY FITTED
Basstown was started in 2006 when the growth of techno and dance parties around the country became unavoidable, and the virus was hitting the New England city best known for being a college rock town. With the rise of great parties like Hearthrob and Thunderdome, a community of DJs, dancers, party kids, and everyone in between started turning venue tiles into dance floors all across Boston and Cambridge.
The dream of Basstown is happening NOW.
Gone are times of wishing there was more than one or two decent dance parties or events to hear more cerebral techno (you've been to Make It New, ya?). The city of Basstown is exploding alongside its local colleagues. Stand back and watch it burst.
Extended, more verbose but mildly interesting, Basstown bio can be found on MySpace. [read more...]
www.basstown.net/spreadshirt.php