Panasonic Kills Off Technics Turntables

If you’ve ever been a DJ, known a DJ, or listened to a DJ, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with Technics. Panasonic’s analog turntables are legend among scratchers and spinners. And now they’re gone. UPDATED:

Panny made the announcement that they’d cease Technic SL-1200MK6 turntable production because of “a decline in demand for these analog products and also the growing difficulty of procuring key analog components necessary to sustain production.” … Continue Reading

Manhattan Club Santos Party House Shut Down Due To The “Criminal Sale Or Possession of Controlled Substances”

The notice went up abruptly last night, just hours before Ninja Tune’s 20th anniversary party was scheduled to kick off at the downtown club Santos Party House: “NINJA TUNE XX NYC HAS BEEN MOVE TO BOULEVARD 199 BOWERY AT SPRING.” Why? See the sign above, which was taped to the door of the venue when our photographer/operative Puja Patel got down there. (The notice alleges: “Criminal sale or possession of controlled substances, marihuana, or for any other violation of Articles 220 and/or 221 of New York State Penal Law.” Articles 220 and 221 set criminal penalties for possession or sale of, yup, marijuana.) A promoter-affiliated door person we spoke with said that she had just arrived at Santos to set up for the party when the police came to shut the venue down. They were told they had to leave because no one was allowed in the building. Which is indeed what the signs posted outside say: … Continue Reading

MUSIC: The Realness – Shade [RKDS013]

For all you Paris is Burning lovers . . .

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Recap of ElectricZoo NY 2010

I’ve no complaint whatsoever about Randall’s Island; the site was large enough to hold three huge stage tents and house a main stage, with enough room for amenities like food stalls, portable bathrooms and even art installations. The only complaint I had was of the scarcity of recycling bins and garbage cans. By night’s end you were waddling through dust and crushed plastic bottles and cups, though there’s so much you can ask a drunk participant to do.

You hardly felt you were surrounded by people (except for the times when you were surrounded in a tent) and the speakers in each tent were so loud you couldn’t listen to what was going on in the other tents. You could walk from one tent to the next and you would have a completely different experience.

Event organizers did an amazing job with transportation to and from the event. I took the bus both days without a hitch. After the last show, droves of people made their way to the bus line and even if you were all the way in the back, you would be in a bus five minutes later. … Continue Reading

How to get your music into iTunes and Amazon MP3

iTunes and Amazon aren’t interested in dealing with artists directly, but a rich ecosystem of intermediaries has sprung up. They typically provide a one-stop shop, so you can upload your music to one place and have it ripple out through all major stores, and sometimes over a hundred minor ones too.

Some of these intermediaries are selective of who they work with. DashGo is one service Amazon recommends as a way for independent artists to get into its MP3 catalogue. Ben Patterson, president, says: “For independent artists, besides great music, I’m always excited by bands that are risk-takers and self-motivated. I learned a long time ago while working at a management company that an artist has to be their own biggest fan and advocate. Nobody should want it more, and if they do, then any success is bound to be fleeting. So when I see an act that has taken real steps beyond recording the album to start to connect to fans and build an audience, that is a great indicator. Typically I pass on music that DashGo can’t add value to in a meaningful way.”

Most other providers are open to all-comers. “An artist has no requirements to jump through for us,” says Peter Wells, co-founder of TuneCore. “Who are we to say what’s good music, what will sell, what is worth being in the world? So all we ask is that our artists avoid all samples they don’t have the rights for, and that they do have the right to sell all the material they put up through us.” … Continue Reading

Midtown’s now home to a new nightlife scene for grown-ups

The Performance Culture of Burning Man

Theatre in the United States for the last twenty years has been evolving in scope by way of a cultural phenomenon known as Burning Man. In 2006, this festival attracted over forty thousand participants to the Black Rock Desert in Northwestern Nevada to a flat dusty Playa surrounded by mountain ranges. While the natural environment there is hostile, the creative atmosphere is welcoming and invites a broad scope of performative behaviors and genres to be exhibited there, the entire week the festival takes place. Make-shift stages and theme camps, as well as large-scale interactive art pieces play host to participants who dress up in fanciful costumes to perform in all manner of imagining. This dissertation maps out the cultural terrain of Burning Man in order to explain how performing there is form of identity-making and cultural commodity. As one of a handful of North American festivals which expressly discourage commercialism and commodification, theatricality takes the place of significance for entertainment and communication. Performance forms of all kinds historically are represented at Burning Man and this dissertation will investigate and theorize how a new performance culture has emerged from the festival itself and by its presence as a theatrical event, has exposed and expanded performance and theatre forms. This dissertation offers a critical framework through which to consider performance and performers within the Burning Man community as applied to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of Carnival and the Schema for Theatrical Eventness proposed by the International Federation for Theatre Research Theatrical Events Working Group. The theories of Victor Turner, Baz Kershaw, and Michel Foucault are also presented in this dissertation to consider how performance occurs at Burning Man. Whether informal and spontaneous, interactive performing or rehearsed, staged formal performance, Burning Man provides an exciting lens through which to consider how new performance genres are emerging in a large-scale outdoor festival setting at the beginning of the twenty-first century in North America. … Continue Reading

Burning Man becomes a hot academic topic

A fire dancer practices her craft at the 2001 Burning Man festival in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. The annual event is held the week leading up to and including Labor Day. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) … Continue Reading

MUSIC: BlackAngel and Tobetsa_Fall out (Tobetsa’s early Hours Edit)

Beautiful deephouse music from South Africa after the jump. … Continue Reading

MUSIC: Margaret Grace – Circle Of Life (Main 12″ Mix)

Dancefloor friendly.

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