Category: Music

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How to start a dance party

I’ve been to many dance parties, clubs, shows and festivals so far and how people react in mass tends to very by location, genre of music and level of intoxication. There’s no doubt everyone reacts differently to music but I’ll say no matter who you are, there’s gonna be some tune out there that gets your foot tapin, head nodding or body rocking. Not everyone though has rhythm but that should never stop you from feeling the beat and moving to it.

I’ve danced by myself many times, typically when I go to hear good djs/bands, playing at douche bag venues where the look, style or vip of the scene is more important than the company you keep and the music that’s bumpin through the speakers. I’ve never let a bad scene deter me from getting down and I’ve certainly been the first on a dance floor early on in the night when the music encourages me.

Here’s a great vid of one guy, feelin it at the Sasquatch festival in OR and with a tipping point of 3 dancers, this becomes a field dance party:

Just Dance!

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French electro pop garners proper attention…from male eyes

French house and electro pop has always been associated (to me) with new disco and filtered funk 4/4 beats. I think my first French house track I bought and loved was Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” – which I still love and would play today. Later their Homework album opened the door to a short disco house era blown up by Stardust’s “Music sounds better without you”.

Today, my French house bag holds more of the deep house, trip hop and laid back tunes coming from artists like St. Germain, Laurent Garnier, Modjo, Air and Stephane Pompougnac, but I still keep in rotation tracks from Dimitri from Paris, Sabastien Lager, Bob Sinclar, Justice, and Rinôçérôse.

I just watched the video for “Baby Baby Baby” by Make The Girl Dance, a new French Pop group sure to break out this year with at least attention paid from the male audiences. Since I don’t read French (and have the time to dig-translate-report), the best I can understand from them is that they like to “make music to make the girls dance”. I and many men (and women) can get behind that:

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The video is more entertaining than the track (check the lyrics below), but it has potential to cross over to the US clubs and I hope there’s some good remixes that come out from this (Justice?).

I want to have Sebastien Tellier on my Ipod; I want your Mom’s Black AMEX; I want your dad’s car; I want to go out with your friends; I will wear my cutest panties; I want a hot sex session; You can look but you can’t touch.

I want to be in Justice top friends; Gaspard’s hand on my thigh; I want to be able to count without my fingers; And I want yours in the right spot; I don’t want to take the stairs; Carry me in your arms then; I want to be the only person on pictures; And I want to model for Yves Saint Laurent; I want geniuses as children; And I want my dog to graduate; I want your head on a tray; I want mine on TV.

I dont want a piece of cake, I just want blow; I dont want Kate, I want Ethan Hawke; I want to jump off of big ladder; do as you can for the rainbow; i want chocolate and vanilla flavoured ice cream; i want your balls to be blueberry flavoured; I want to dance like Vanessa Paradis; I want to see her boyfriend at Ibiza; I want to be asleep when you wake up; and I want Yelle’s tshirt; I want to fit in all my jeans; and I want you to make me presents with your pay check; I want ice cubes in my glass; I want to make your grandma smoke weed; I saw your stupid ex blah blah blah

Ah yes. Perfect for the NY Club scene girls at Cain, Luxe, Eldridge, or Oak 1.

Daft Punk – “Da Funk”
[audio:https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/409697/348%20Da%20Funk.mp3]

Stardust (Still getting reworked 10 years later) – Music Sounds Better With You (2009 Dirty Bergeon Remix)
[audio:http://www.therealkylestewart.com/biscuits/may09/Bergeon_Stardust.mp3]

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Car makers still extending lifestyle with electronic music samples

America is the last major country on earth where the populous doesn’t appreciate the nuances of both electronic music and soccer. Despite flare ups of popularity of both (womans US World cup and olympic performance, Moby’s incredibly popular “Play” album years ago or today: Lady GaGa’s “The Fame” album) both still struggle with mainstream attention.

In the realm of electronic music, the only on going success has been in soundtracks, ESPN and shopping mall background music and in advertising. When I was ahead of the curve, buying white labels, in record pools and hanging out at record shops hours on end to get the latest music, if I heard anything I purchased, later turn up on a commercial that track would instantly go into my dead pool. Dirty Vegas’s “Days Go By” was a key example, made famous by the Mitsubishi Eclipse commercial.

I’m not so much on the forefront of music these days so a good background track on a commercial catches my ear and I will want to hear it again, maybe even buy it. This happened earlier this year when I caught a Scion tc commercial entitled “Samples”. Here’s the commercial:


Scion Samples TC

I did plenty of research on this one and found the track isn’t even a full track but was created by Face the Music (Executive Producer: Adam Joseph Composer/Sound Designer: Tony Shimkin Mixer: Tom Burbank) specifically for the commercial, rather than the marketer picking up an already produced track to match the commercial message.

FTM has done some quality work for commercials and I’m sure they claim to have a successful business out of their work, however, I’m putting a public request out for them to remix the Samples track into a full 12″ and I’m sure they can extend their music talents with a private record label.

Justice went the other way with a sample from their “Genesis” track at the end of the Cadillac Escalade commercial. The sample didn’t kill the track use in the club scene however, still drove home the point of the commercial.

As long as the style continues to permeate in American culture, I’ll continue to accept it, hoping one day electronic music becomes even half as popular as European football.