This week, Brooklyn, New York’s The National released their sixth studio album titled Trouble Will Find Me.  As expected, Matt Berninger sings more wonderful songs of love lost, regret and sadness.  I’m a sucker for bands that continuosly write about those subjects througout their careers.  It’s no wonder my iPod is full of bands are Joy Division, Belle and Sebastian, Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Jawbreaker and the like.

Though moody and slow, Trouble Will Find Me has one for the dancefloor with “Graceless”.  Despite Matt’s lyrics of a relationship gone sour, this one is sure to keep the dancefloor moving to the beat.

Best known as a founding member of seminal 60s rock band The Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek passed away today at the age of 74.

The sound of LA’s the Doors was distinctive and influential, thanks in equal parts to lead singer Jim Morrison’s magnetic charisma and dark poetry, guitarist Robby Krieger’s complex leads, and to Ray’s swirling keyboard lines. Ray played the Vox Continental combo organ, popular with many garage bands of the day, but Ray’s skillful and melodic playing was far beyond the usual garage band bashing. Ray also played bass notes with his feet (The Doors never added a traditional bass player to the line up). This added up to a sound that from the very start combined brooding psychedelia with a dark menace, even on their most accessible pop songs, like “Light My Fire”* from their self-titled debut album. This darkness would eventually consume Morrison, and lead to a well-documented and overly-mythologized self-destruction.

After Jim Morrison’s death in 1971, Ray’s talents extended to lead vocals, as the surviving members of The Doors carried on with two studio albums. But without their Lizard King, The Doors couldn’t maintain their audience and broke up.

The intervening years saw Ray enjoy more modest success first as a [unapologetically prog-rock] solo musician, later with his Nite City band, and still later duetting with Robby Krieger in Manzarek-Krieger. [He was also famous for his disdain for director Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic The Doors.] But perhaps his biggest and most influential post-Doors accomplishment was as a producer. In 1980, he produced Los Angeles, the debut album from LA punk band X, as well as their follow-up, Wild Gift.

*Watch this incendiary performance of “Light My Fire,” live on the Ed Sullivan Show. Amazing.

Wow this song from Tobtok is really good. I love his inventive sampling and the way he edits this strong and deep house groove. He is coming on really strong with these new cuts recently, but his back catalog is equally impressive. Check him out at his Soundcloud page here.

A new creature arrived on the plains of EDM sometime around 2010: DubStep. Although it had already been around from some time it was now visible to the more mainstream audiences of the party scene. From it’s primitive and simplistic states originating of the late 90s evolved a more aggressive, complex, and orchestrated version.  It was a sound that, like Americanized Mexican food, seemed more palatable to the masses than it’s original style. In the process tradition and roots gave way to appeal and gimmicks. DubStep purists quickly named this new mongoloid monstrosity BroStep in reference to the sub genres token poster boy the Abercombie frat “bro.”Now flash forward a few years. BroStep has seemed to find it’s niche in society putting away shopping carts and helping you load groceries into your car at Harris Teeter or in more respectable cases reminding you that at one time it too was a viable format until it took the dreaded, “arrow to the knee.” Fans have either moved on to the next level Pop/EDM fad or started to dig into the layers of DubStep to uncover the origins and branches of this bass music lineage.

Now if it at all seems that I’m bashing BroStep let’s keep in mind that I was a member of the infamous raging filth machine known as Grime Syndicate. I like some of the aggro and over-the-top tunes and as a DJ it’s nice to have a sea of new generation ravers going buck wild to your set. I was one of those DJs that jumped on the DubStep bandwagon in 2010 and in my search for tunes follow a trail deeper into the culture. On that journey I began to hear a faint and distant call… a beckoning if you will. As I became more familiar with local bass weight artist their message began to take hold. MC Twisty spit tales of the “Real DubStep.” I caught glimpses of the prehistoric legend when ever Encryption graced the decks. Eventually I was lead to the clandestine gatherings of the Deep Sessions crew. Then one day I saw this.

Mala’s (Mark Lawrence) weight carries a lot of respect in the DubStep and bass weight world. A search on the beginnings of the sound will come up with Digital Mystikz and the DMZ Label (of which Mala is co-founder) relatively early in it’s history. With support from BBC air play artist like Digital Mystikz, Plastician and Distance pushed this sound through the UK and to the world. A quick trip through Mala’s discography reveals a heavy, dark and soulful sound wrapped in the reverb of a sacred and mysterious hall. But like any good artist Mala’s sound is evolving as is apparent in his 2012 release Mala in Cuba. On this full length album Mala traveled to Cuba to work with artists on a unique mix of the London deep bass sound with latin instrumentation and vocals. The track Cuba Electronic was the first tune I heard from the album. The percussions and rolling bass connected with me deeply. I love this track. Having played it out a few times and it really takes a set to the next level while still keeping it deep. Make sure you check him out at U Street Music Hall on May 29th (Event Link Here). Enjoy!

All the Jheri Curl Funk, Champagne Soul, Lazer Boogie and SLOW JAM goodness from 1977 – 1987 you expect from us, as well as: playertastic tuxes, corsages, taffeta dresses, Mr. G, the “Picture Man”, and the coronation of the Axel F Prom King & Queen.

Axel F Prom: A Night To Remember

featuring:

• DJ Jahsonic
• DJ Stylus
• DJ Adrian Loving
• Ed on the visuals

Sunday, May 26 2013
10:30pm – 3am
The Howard Theatre
620 T Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001
Tickets: $10

More on Axel F:
http://axelfparty.com/about/

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http://axelfparty.com/home/tag/axel-f-prom

]]> http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/16/axel-f-prom-a-night-to-remember/feed/ 0 http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/15/song-of-the-day-the-wake-o-pamela/ http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/15/song-of-the-day-the-wake-o-pamela/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:07 +0000 The Pinstriped Rebel http://www.djdmac.com/?p=17575 The Wake's second album, Here Comes Everybody (FAC 130), that came out on Factory Records in 1985.]]>

“O Pamela” is the first track off of The Wake‘s second album, Here Comes Everybody (FAC 130), that came out on Factory Records in 1985.

It was hard for me to pick a song from The Wake because I’m a big fan of their records on Factory & Sarah but here’s one that I’ll probably play this Friday at Taking The P*ss at Marx Café.

]]> http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/15/song-of-the-day-the-wake-o-pamela/feed/ 0 http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/14/song-of-the-day-savages-husbands/ http://www.djdmac.com/2013/05/14/song-of-the-day-savages-husbands/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 17:21:18 +0000 Dylan http://www.djdmac.com/?p=17574 Savages is a relatively new band from England that I first heard of an hour ago. In the intervening time I have been able to watch several of their videos, look at hundreds of pictures, read a manifesto and a few articles about them, and eat breakfast. They probably hate that idea.]]>

Savages is a relatively new band from England that I first heard of an hour ago. In the intervening time I have been able to watch several of their videos, look at hundreds of pictures, read a manifesto and a few articles about them, and eat breakfast. The technology that makes this possible is one of the things that they are railing against. 50 years ago it would have taken years for word to spread via radio and magazines of an in-your-face rock’n'roll band from England poised to invade. 30 years ago, the band might have been derailed by a singer’s suicide on the eve of their US debut. 15 years ago, fans might have had to glean scraps of information from zines about an arty band who eschewed interviews.

Likewise, the aesthetic swings of musical culture are coming at an ever increasing rate. Trends that might once have defined a decade come and go with the seasons. With every new crop of young people, there will be those who want to get back to basics and reject artifice and excess. Are we approaching a point where everything exists at once, and nothing is new or old?

In 2013, long dead performers can be resurrected as holograms on stage, and the Rolling Stones may never need to retire. The idea that one “had to be there” will soon lose resonance when the memories of those who were can be downloaded to create a virtual facsimile, which anyone can experience from their couch. For now, here is an HD video, only two or three levels away from the real thing.

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