On June 25th and 26th I performed at LA’s immense and much fabled Electric Daisy Carnival. The first night was with Travis Barker under our Travis x A-Trak project which we originally kicked off in March. See pictures below. We revamped the set, added even more wikki-wikkis and beefed up the lights on stage. And the second night was with Duck Sauce, our 2nd show ever, our first festival show ever, and the first appearance of… the duck. (more…)
I flew into LA and stopped by the Obey office to sign a couple hundred freshly printed Dirty South Dance 2 posters. The deluxe pack (digipak CD + poster + t-shirt) is dropping next week, June 15th. Keep an eye out! More info in the coming days.
Then we headed to San Diego where I performed in the huge Sports Arena. I have one word to describe it: PYRO. (Photos by Robin Laananen)
The day after Detroit Movement festival I hopped on a plane and headed to the gorge in Quincy, Washington to play Sasquatch festival. This is one of the most beautiful sites that I’ve ever performed on. Check this photos… first of the road from Seattle to Quincy and then of the festival itself.
I barely played any gigs in May. You could say I went into isolation for a few weeks… I’ve been putting together some new material for my summer tours which I’ll start revealing soon. After about 4 weeks in the batcave, I came out to play the Detroit Movement festival (formerly the DEMF). I was surprised to see the intensity of the raver costumes…
The Midwest does feel like another world sometimes. However I gotta say it really felt great to play live, test out some new tracks and feed off a crowd’s energy! My stage was right next to the waterfront and I played as the sun was setting. I took this pic right before I started spinning.
Here are some pics of my set courtesy of Dustin Downing and Nick Schrunk.
I’ll be the first to admit, my blogging took a dip in March and April. I hate to play the “I’m Busy” card but… I was really busy! I started my collaboration with Travis Barker in LA, then with Fool’s Gold we organized parties at SXSW, WMC and Coachella, and I came home and finished my mixtape. It would be a bit crazy to go back and do a detailed Around The World post for these trips at this point in the game, but here are some highlights at least!
First, SXSW
This year in Austin we had 2 Fool’s Gold events. The first one was more of a big club show with Travis and I headlining. It was rammed, there was a line down the block before we even opened doors. The second show was the label’s official SXSW showcase where all our new bands, DJs and rap dudes performed (too many to name!). I loved the location, it was at a spot called Malverde with an open terrace right behind the stage and plenty of foliage. Ferns! It really felt different from all the other industry shindigs going on. Then the next day the temperature suddenly dropped to 40 degrees Farenheit. For Austin that’s just weird.
Like we do every year, there was a big FG party, this time in a new venue though. Armand and I played our first Duck Sauce set, which seemingly got the word out on the internets about a new song named after a singer of yore. I never went to sleep earlier than 6am the whole week. I played at Ultra under the beating sun. I went to see Steve Angello DJ one night and Shaggy grabbed the mic… that was funny. Wound up at Diddy’s house again on my last night.
Coachella
I went to Coachella with my brother and Nick. We rented a house which I nicknamed the Wu Mansion. We did a party with Stones Throw where we only played old house and disco. We also played at the Anthem Lagoon pool party with some of our buddies. Heard some good music at the festival, my favorite were Phoenix. No big surprise there. Although when I got home I saw youtube clips of Plastikman’s show and was floored, I wish I saw it live.
The Fool’s Gold European Vacation tour was the first official FG tour outside of American shores. The line-up was various combinations of: myself, Jokers of the Scene, Congorock and Greenmoney. For two weeks we traveled across the Old Continent, spreading the gospel of Mr Goldbar, leaving a trail of stickers and sweaty club kids. We slalomed between language barriers and customs officers, all in the name of the logo as Lyor would say. Even when we hit cities that I’ve played by myself, it was a completely different experience to show up with a posse and make that statement, throwing merch into the crowd and playing snippets of upcoming 2010 releases. Representation in the European parliament shouldn’t be very far off.
This weekend I went to Mexico City for a gig and had a great time. There will be pics, recaps and mementos coming shortly, but for now I wanted to share a story about one of my favorite topics: laptops. I’m profoundly puzzled and wondering if anyone can help elucidate this business. It all started last year when I went to Mexico to play in Puebla. When I landed and went through customs and immigration, they searched my bags and asked me why I had 2 laptops. I told them I was there to work as a DJ, that one laptop is for my shows and the other for work. The officer said: “you’re a musician? do you have a card?” I looked at him incredulously. Like, a business card? I’ve always refused to have a business card. Categorically. But I wasn’t going to give this officer my schpiel about “why do I need a card? If I want to give someone my number I’ll just give them my number.” I simply said no, I don’t. To this guy, though, if you’re a professional musician you must have a card, if you have a card then you’re a musician and if you don’t then you aren’t. (Necessary and sufficient conditions. A question of logic.) It didn’t matter that I had an official work visa from the festival and letters stated that I was there to DJ. The fact that I had 2 laptops was a problem. After much pleading and interventions from the festival organizers they eventually let me through, but it was obviously a big problem to travel to Mexico with more than one computer, and in all my years of globetrotting I’ve never encountered anything similar.
This weekend when I was on my way to Mexico and filling out customs forms on the plane, I read the small print for the section where they ask if you’re bringing in professional equipment (and what you’re entitled), and lo and behold there was a clause about not having more than one personal computer. What in the world?? Thankfully this time when I went through customs they didn’t search me and I got in without a hitch. But I really felt like I was smuggling something. So strange.
Later that night I went to do sound check at the club. It was a big club and we had to fill out sign-in sheets. A security guard looked at my bag and guess where he stopped? He saw that I had a laptop! I had to fill out a sort of registration form just to walk into this club with my computer. Name, contact info, make of the computer and reason for bringing it in. All this for a Serato sound check.
I was asked by Mr Skateboard P himself to DJ the MOCA’s 30th Anniversary gala last weekend. The MOCA is LA’s Museum Of Contemporary Art. Here’s a pic with Pharrell and Murakami… it’s been a while since I posted a simple “look who I met” picture on this blog but I think this warrants it! Later on Lady Gaga performed for a tent full of deep-pocketed diners, accompanied by the Russian ballet. Fancy.
