Virgin

Following Canadian dance-punks Death From Above 1979’s untimely demise of 2006 the only stone not washed away by their sea of conflict was that album sleeve that coated their seminal You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine record. However the death disco contained within served as something of a blueprint for Jesse F. Keeler’s vowel-neglecting debut, The Looks. Not only were the 80s back on the retro menu but the cowbell was back and for a Canadian noise monger with no hidden ability behind 12” decks The Looks rivalled Justice’s rehash of crunching synths and vocoded nonsense. And, gasp, came a year earlier when the francophones had a single commercial remix to their name. Fist of God can hardly be said to stray into the realms of genre-busting revolution but 1,000 Cigarettes sounds like Daft Punk with a dizzying nicotine head rush whilst Vuvuvu accelerates the senses and goes some way to revealing what it feels like to become the velocity dial on a Ferrari dashboard.

Then of course come the guests. And whilst Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay roped in fellow Parisian and vulgar socialite Uffie for their debut record “†”, Keeler and fellow disco trasher Al-P have pulled out the stops. And then some. Billing their second outing as a DJ set in a tin as it were, there’s more drops than a BMX freestyle through the Grand Canyon. Synthetic cymbals straddle impeccable voiceovers from godmother of 90s Americana rap Lil’ Mo (It Ain’t Love), a siren-crazed scuffed up electro breaks burner scrawled all over by Ghostface Killer (Word Up) and dancefloor destroyer Heartbreak, featuring the swanky smooth John Legend and his pristine ivory capabilities. This year’s We Are Your Friends? We’ll see but it’s a divine 3 minutes 13 seconds to behold. If God’s fist were to hit as hard as MSTRKRFT would have you believe, get to your nearest Church come Sunday. And then grab Fist of God on Monday 1^st June. 8/10.

MSTRKRFT’s Fist of God will be released 1st June through Geffen.

• To find out more about MSTRKRFT visit their MySpace page.

Earlier this summer I had an opportunity to catch Thunderheist at the Virgin Music Festival out in Toronto, except for one thing, I was busy reviewing and taking photos of another act, a small group by the name of MGMT. So suffice to say I was a bit bummed, but then was totally stoked again when I ran into Thunderheist in the backstage tent area, where the good peoples of Bacardi were serving us lots of free booze. I immediately jumped at the chance for an introduction. During this meeting of the minds, Isis performed a freestyle with my online magazine name, Killahbeez, that went on for a good minute at least and drawing a crowd. Then we were on stage dancing during MSTRKRFT’s set. Definitely one of the dopest highlights of that weekend. So when I heard they were finally hitting the West Coast I was giddy like a 12-year-old schoolgirl.

The evening started off with the ½ Alive DJ crew which consists of: Tyler Fedchuk, My! Gay! Husband! and Tony X. These guys held it down and warmed the crowd up nicely as everyone was shaking it to their sets. They dropped some old school and I mean like Planet Rock type old school, hip-hop, New Order, MGMT and Breakbot’s remix of Pnau to name a few tracks.

Just shortly after 12:30, Isis made her way to the stage first and shortly after Grahm aka Grahmzilla joined her. Immediately the crowd was wildin’ pretty hard, those at the front, this includes yours truly, were getting squished against the stage. It was all worth it once the first track, “Bubblegum”, dropped. The energy that Isis had was pretty incredible and throughout the night she would maintain this frenetic pace. Showing some love to the crowd she at one point pulled a girl up on stage to dance with her, this said girl from the audience went buckwild and as she left the stage basically tripped over a chord and almost did a face plant onto the floor, luckily she was caught by a whole lot of people. Throughout the night both Grahm and Isis dove into the crowd to do a little surfing, very cool that they were keeping it mad real like that with the fans in the house.

Also in the house for the night was director That Go and model Ana B, whom were both involved in the video / visual delight for the song “Jerk It”. During the song “Jerk It”, which was the last jam of the evening, Isis pulled Ana up on stage and the crowd went wild, then home girl basically threw Ana to the wolves for some crowd surfing, all of it was pretty hilarious to watch.

Thunderheist went on to perform jams that any fan would recognize, hitting “Horny”, “Little Booty Girl”, “Peer Pressure” and “Sueos Dulces”. At one point during the evening Grahm threw on MSTRKRFT’s song “Bounce” and asked if everyone recognized the voice. Of course! It was Isis. She went on to let everyone know that they had her do the track and never gave her any credit or form of payment, pretty wack considering both crews are from Toronto and that song blew up.

The performance was high energy and had yours truly and everyone else from the looks of it, sweating like a mofo. Grahm providing the ill beats while Isis slayed the mic all night long and provided some comedic relief, commenting on how unsexy she felt with the amount of sweat coming off of her and randomly making comments like “OBAMA BITCH!”. The show was great and the audience was dope as you could tell everyone was there to shake their asses to some good music, I would definitely have to recommend that all music heads experience a Thunderheist show as they bring the muthafuckin’ heat. Much love to Tyler Fedchuk and the ½ Alive crew for hooking Killahbeez up with some tickets for a wicked show. Check out their website for upcoming shows and info: www.halfalive.ca. Stay tuned to the first quarter of the new year, as Thunderheist will have some goodies dropping.

If you like this review vote for me here.

For pictures of the event hit up my flickr page here.

One.

DT
www.killahbeez.com

MSTRKRFT (read as “Master-Kraft”) is an electronic group out of Toronto. This year at the Toronto Virgin Music Fest they replaced SebastiAn, when he missed his flight and they didn’t disappoint. The group came together in 2005 and consists of JFK (Jesse F. Keeler) and Al-P (Alex Puodziukas). The group has remixed over 30 songs of various genres including the latest remix of John Legend’s song “Green Light”.

On Friday I attended Fist Of God, which is the official name for the MSTRKRFT tour as well as their upcoming album, which is expected to drop in January of 2009. The stop I was at had Felix Cartal opening up, but there will be various openers throughout the tour such as DJ A-Trak, DJ Aoki, LA Riots, Congorock, DJ Assault and the aforementioned Felix Cartal. Blueprint Events, which is known as one of Vancouver’s best electronic promoters for a minute now, was hosting the event as well as the after party.

The event took place at Celebrities Night club and was fully packed, in fact this show could have easily taken place at Commodore Ballroom to accommodate more folks, but nonetheless the vibes were good as people were ready to dance their fuckin’ asses off. The duo came on at around 1am and they immediately had the crowd going crazy, as their sound is fairly distinct with that 4/4 beat and heavy heavy synths.

Like usual they played a range of stuff including their own remixes, from the Presets to Dem Franchise Boyz to Cupid to Daft Punk to Usher to Kylie Minogue and throwing in stuff from their first album as well. The set was filled with energy throughout and both MSTRKRFT and the crowd seemed to be feeding off of one another and it was non-stop. The set ended at about 2:30am, but an encore had JFK continue to rock the house til well past 3am. If you left this party not soaked from head to toe in sweat, then you my friend were not partying hard enough. Overall one word can describe this set. EPIC!

Thanks to Alvaro from Blueprint Events for hooking me up with the opportunity to attend the show. For more of their upcoming events check out www.blueprintevents.ca. For those out in New York on October 10th, MSTRKRFT will be playing at Webster Hall, but they’ll also be at the New Era Flagship store as they have a New Era collaboration that’s dropping.

If you like the review please vote for me.

David Thai
www.killahbeez.com

Here are the rest of their tour stops:

Fist of God tour dates:

09-26 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre (with A-Trak, Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
09-27 San Diego, CA - House of Blues (with Steve Aoki, Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
09-28 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre (with Aoki, Felix Cartal, Congorock)
09-30 Pomona, CA - Glass House (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-01 San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-02 Seattle, WA – Showbox (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-03 Vancouver, British Columbia – Celebrities (with Felix Cartal)
10-04 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Exchange Event Center (with Felix Cartal)
10-06 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-07 Chicago, IL - Metro (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-08 Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-09 Columbus, OH 0 Boma (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-10 New York, NY - Webster Hall (with Felix Cartal, Congorock, DJ Assault
10-11 Poughkeepsie, NY - Vassar College (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-12 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts (with Felix Cartal, Congorock)
10-13 Boston, MA - The Estate (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots, Congorock)
10-15 Baltimore, MD - Redrock (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-16 Charlotte, NC - Forum (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-17 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-18 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade Music Park (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-19 Memphis, TN - Hard Rock Café Memphis (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-22 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-23 Austin, TX - La Zona Rosa (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-24 Dallas, TX - House of Blues (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-25 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience: The Tenth Ritual
10-27 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-28 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre (with Felix Cartal, LA Riots)
10-31 Salt Lake City, UT - Salt Palace Convention Center (with Felix Cartal)
11-01 Las Vegas, NV - Fabulous Festival

Last Thursday on September 11th a few of us Killahbeez members were hooked up by Blueprint Events, definitely props to Alvaro for hooking us up with some VIP passes. The event took place at Caprice, which has been noted as having quite poor sound quality, but I have to say Blueprint Events did a great job in promoting the event as there was a great turnout showing support. The night started off with a DJ set from Expendable Youth, but we had arrived a bit later than expected so we really only heard about 30 mins of their set, which actually was decent. Their vibe is a little bit darker and harder then my taste, but the crowd was loving it and that’s all that matters.

Digitalism came on shortly after we arrived and started their set at 12:30am and wow! They killed it from beginning to the the end. Playing remixes of their hits as well as originals, they also played some Midnight Juggernauts and Treasure Fingers to name a few. There was definite love between the crowd and Digitalism as the crowd would cheer louder and dance crazier with every track that they played. The party would continue on until about 3am or so. Overall the DJ set was pretty fantastic and everyone easily left satisfied. For those that want to hear more from these guys, you need to go out and pick up the Kitsuné Tabloid compilation that’s mixed and compiled by Digitalism, props to my man AJK for introducing this mix to me.

For more information on upcoming events by Blueprint Events, hit up their website at www.blueprintevents.ca. Definitely looking forward to their October 3rd event with MSTRKRFT.

Day one of Splendor! I wake up with only a minor hangover - a miracle considering Nat and I probably kept Smirnoff and Bacardi in business single-handedly last night at the Great Northern. In need of a greasy breakfast and a beverage with fruit, we head to a little cafe in Byron and eat and drink our way to good health. We catch the shuttle to Splendour and are slightly alarmed when we hear that someone has been lining up for their wristband for about an hour. We so should have got those the night before… But when we get there, yes the line is long but it moves quickly. 10 minutes later we’re inside getting our drink tickets, then getting drinks, then our stubby coolers. Now time for the music!

First up we check out Art Vs Science, winners of JJJ’s Unearthed Splendour competition. And what an awesome start to the festival they are. The crowd is pretty big for a first act, and AVS don’t disappoint - in fact, they are impressive. Great energy, their sound is a mix of rock and dirty (almost French) electro. It’s also a chance to check out the fashions on the field, with some very interesting choices. And some pretty disturbing ones too. AVS manage to get many of the punters to take their shoes off and wave them in the air while massive blow-up penguins launch into the crowd. These guys have a big future (AVS, not the penguins).

Next up, we check out The Galvatrons. I immediately notice all the teens, and start to think maybe this gig won’t be for me. And I am right… it’s pretty boring actually. I think they think they’re a bit like The Darkness, with all the glam-rocker stuff going on, but in the end it’s just a bit… ordinary. With some spare time on our hands we check out the markets and merch, then pay a visit to our mates at the campsite. A few more drinks and smokes then it’s back to catch Hadouken! at the Mix-up tent. A few of the post-Splendour reviews around listed Hadouken! as a highlight, and I don’t disagree - they are awesome fun, a group who really knows how to build up a song (and the crowd) into a frenzy then just unleash! They do a great cover of The Prodigy’s Breathe, the visuals alongside the stage are of Tetris and Streetfighter etc, and each song has us jumping. Great performance, and it will be great to see them again.

I’ve seen Gyroscope a few times, but every time I see them they blow me away. IMHO they are one of the best groups to come out of Australia, and live they are so impressive. The definite highlight of their set (and until day 2, the festival), is when they break into Beds Are Burning during Fast Girl. It sends shivers up my spine, and every single person in that tent screams every word - and it feels like they mean every word, too. They then go straight into Snakeskin, just perfect. Gyroscope are awesome and if they don’t break internationally then there’s something wrong with the world rock music scene.

I was very excited to see MSTRKRFT, but apart from the dude climbing the tent pole and their mix of The Presets’ My People, their set is kind of boring. Maybe I’ve been very spoilt over the past couple of years, having seen Daft Punk, Justice, Jamez Zabiela, Bass Kleph, Aston Shuffle and so many other DJs and acts… or maybe I’m not easily pleased! I don’t know. But it just isn’t fresh or new and I am slightly disappointed.

Continue the disappointment with Cold War Kids, who I thought were just depressing and emo. Again, just my opinion! PNAU are excellent but by this time I am a bit sick of the crowds and all the drunk, munted punters who can’t follow ‘festival dance etiquette’ (which is, when it’s fricking packed to the rafters DON’T dance with arms flailing, elbows in faces, jumping up and down with your group of silly friends). I move right over to the side, then sing Embrace like my life depends on it.

I meet up with Nat at the end of The Living End’s set. They still know how to rock, and are still the best live Aussie rock band you’ll ever see. I’m not a huge fan of their last two albums, but I still love them. During this, we get talking to some dude who had lost his friends and is confused about set times. He hasn’t realised he’s missed The Music, Hadouken!, Cold War Kids. He didn’t know what stage he was at, didn’t know what stage he was going to… it was a long, confusing conversation! (I saw him at New Young Pony Club on day two, so obviously it all ended ok).

‘Are we not men?’ ‘We are Devo!’ To see such legends at Splendour is a massive privilege, and one we were not going to miss out on. Their performance is like musical theatre, complete with dramatic introduction showcasing their clips over the years - providing memories for the folks who remember them, and an overview for the young kiddies who don’t know much about them. I remember seeing them in their weird hats when I was a kid - I was slightly scared but also fascinated… Anyway. I love an act that has a dramatic element and is a bit out-there, and Devo are certainly that. Most people get right into it, singing and dancing their way through all the hits. I know this is so boring but Whip It is still my fave! Lots of older people in the crowd too, which is great to see. Booji Boy is a bit freaky, the suits are great, and the hats are awesome (kindly thrown out to the crowd to tear themselves apart to grab). So, the end of day one… we went home tired and very happy. Get ready for day two!

For more Splendour In The Grass photos, check out Bradii’s Flickr photostream