Jump 'N Funk with Rich Medina
—Keen One (Miami, FL)

I only played one party, and it was nowhere near the best. I think Sunday School for Degenerates wins that title again, but watching both the Masters at Work on four CDJs each, with Jazzy Jeff jumpin' in on Serato — on a yacht — that was dope bidness.
—Susan Langan aka Qzen, iTunes Dance & Electronic Programmer (San Francisco, CA)

Spectral Social at the Clinton Hotel.
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Spectral Social at the Clinton Hotel.
—Philipp Hofmann, Stars & Heroes (Berlin, Germany)

Somewhere between the Beatport Sessions at the National, Robots at B.E.D., and Sunday School for Degenerates at the Pawn Shop.
—Kim Booth, Rebel Butterfly Promotions (Paris, France)

Caught one or two Ed Banger sets that were great, and Rich Medina as always. Unfortunately, there was nothing mind-fuckingly stellar that really jumped out at me. That's what I look for at WMC: the next. No next this year. Maybe I just missed it. If so, bummer. For gear junkies, however, the Remix Hotel was an interesting stop, as always.
—Jason Jeffers aka Fitzroy (Miami, FL)

The Presets with Crystal Castles and Finesse & Runway at Churchill's — great vibes and one of the only 18+ events during WMC week.
—Lauren "Lolo" Reskin, Sweat Records (Miami, FL)

A tie between Kruder & Dorfmeister, Ben Watt, and Kraak & Smaak for free on the Raleigh rooftop, and the big Om party at Y Ultra Lounge!
—Gunnar Hissam, Om Records (San Francisco, CA)

The Wednesday-night afterparty at the One More Day Mansion, straight into the Scion Raleigh rooftop rave with the Rub, Justice, and Andy Smith on Thursday day.
—Roxy Cottontail, promoter/DJ (New York, NY)

I played a really nice event for Johnny Walker Blue Label with a big group of friends including Doug Lee (Rong Music), Justine D (Motherfucker), DJ Pube$ from LA, Blu Jemz (Turntable Lab), Lindsey Caldwell (Negroclash), and Chess Hubbard that was a real break from the normal MIA madness. Oysters, caviar, lots of top-shelf whiskey, and an enormous check at the end… What beats that?
—James F!@$%^ Friedman, Throne of Blood (New York, NY)

Three-way toss up between our Robots party at B.E.D. with Tiefschwarz, the insane afterhours gig at Pawnshop for Sunday School for Degenerates, and the Roam Music party on the rooftop of the Townhouse Hotel with myself, Three, Pier Bucci, and Mathew Jonson. I'd have to say that this rooftop party was the best party I attended. Really nice vibe and the setting was perfect.
—Bill Patrick, Robots (New York, NY)

Played? Chocolate Sundays at the Purdy Lounge, featuring A-Trak, the Bangers, Egg Foo Young, and the Stunnas. Attended? Ed Banger party at Studio A and the following afterparty at PS14 that went until 10am. Oof!
—Induce, WonderSound (Miami, FL)

Best party played was the Turntable Lab party with the rest of the MoneyShot crew at the Shore Club. The best party attended was probably the afterparty held at my house (One More Day Mansion) on Wednesday night after the Mark got shut down by fire marshals. It was pure insanity, off the chainsaw, bonkers, banana-rama. Peaches, Spank Rock, JD of Le Tigre, Roxy Cottontail, Lastnightsparty.com, the Turntable Lab DJs, and half of Philly were all in the building. An amazing way to start WMC.
—Jake Jefferson, MoneyShot/One More Day (Miami, FL)

Best party played—and by played I mean planned—was the Ed Banger afterparty at PS14 … I pulled it together day-of, had Franki Chan draw a flyer, and we jammed 'til 10am. It was unreal. Best party attended was the penthouse party with Justice and MSTRKRFT. Amazing!
—Xavier Burt, MoneyShot/One More Day (Miami, FL)

PATT remixes! No, really: all the "Who's Afraid of Detroit?" remixes were everywhere.
—Susan Langan aka Qzen, iTunes Dance & Electronic Programmer (San Francisco, CA)

Klaxons, "Myths of the Near Future" — does anyone else feel as if Klaxons should have been at WMC?!
—Celeste Tabora, VP of Publicity, the 857 Collective (Los Angeles, CA)

You mean MP3 — didn't see any records, [it was all] Serato. What happened to vinyl?
— Joel Meinholz, promoter (Miami, FL)

Pär Grindvik, "Attack" (Sthlm)
Claude VonStroke, "Who's Afraid of Detroit (3 Channels Mix)" (Dirtybird)
Marco Resmann, "Gouache" (Mobilee)
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Depeche Mode, "Everything Counts" remix
"Who's Afraid of Richie Hawtin" — ah no, that was Detroit, right?
Larry Heard Presents Mr White, "The Sun Can't Compare" (Alleviated)
—Philipp Hofmann, Stars & Heroes (Berlin, Germany)

Jamie Jones, "Panic" (Crosstown Rebels)
Larry Heard Presents Mr White, "The Sun Can't Compare" (Alleviated)
Martin Landsky, "Dance for You" (Poker Flat)
—Kim Booth, Rebel Butterfly Promotions (Paris, France)

Kieren Hebden & Steve Reid, "People Be Happy/Rhythm Dance (Audion's Highlight Mix)" (Domino)
—Piotr Orlov, URGE (New York, NY)

Onionz, "Woman of the Sun" (Om)
Bassnectar, "Yo (Trevor Lovey's Mix)" (Om)
—Gunnar Hissam, Om Records (San Francisco, CA)

Lil' Mama, "Lip Gloss" (Jive)
Spank Rock & Amanda Blank, "Bump (Switch Remix)" (Big Dada)
DJ Mehdi with Chromeo, "I Am Somebody" (Ed Banger)
—Roxy Cottontail, promoter/DJ (New York, NY)

The Rapture, "W.A.Y.U.H. (Claude VonStroke Vocal Pantydropper Mix)" (Throne of Blood)
Frankie Valli, "Beggin' (Pilooski Edit)" (D*I*R*T*Y Edits)
Hot Chip, "My Piano" (!K7)
—James F!@$%^ Friedman, Throne of Blood (New York, NY)

Frank Roger, "Raise Your Hands"
Blackstrobe, "I'm a Man (Audion's Donation Mix)"
Heartthrob vs Troy Pierce, "Horse Nation Amended"
—Sam Valenti IV, Ghostly International/Spectral Sound (Ann Arbor, MI)

Not sure, but the winner for the most overplayed, overrated record that you could definitely hear more than once in a night if there was more than one DJ playing: Mims' "This is Why I'm Hot." What a fuckin' bore!
—Induce, WonderSound (Miami, FL)

Busy P and DJ Mehdi killed it.
—Jamie Strong, Stones Throw (Los Angeles, CA)

I finally got to see Lo-Fi-Fnk and was pleasantly surprised!
—Celeste Tabora, VP of Publicity, the 857 Collective (Los Angeles, CA)

Ed Banger Records and [visual artist] Parra.
—Joel Meinholz, promoter (Miami, FL)

Seth Troxler!
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

El-P's new album is awesome, and I love the Klaxons!
—Lauren "Lolo" Reskin, Sweat Records (Miami, FL)

Found out how much I've been sleeping on the Ed Banger guys and their heavy-metal house! Fuckin' aggro!
—Induce, WonderSound (Miami, FL)

The Bangers from NYC!!! They killed it Sunday at Purdy Lounge… DJ Roctakon at the Shore Club and Purple Crush from NYC… All amazing… The new Vice Records mix CD is also out of this world.
—Xavier Burt, MoneyShot/One More Day (Miami, FL)

Have you been to Miami? Fashion is not its strong point. For the worst, there was this one girl who was wearing a yellow top with her boobs wired up — it looked like a planter. The best isn't claimed by anyone particularly, though it was likely taken by some girl with less gold or lots more fabric on than Planterboobs.
—Susan Langan aka Qzen, iTunes Dance & Electronic Programmer

Seth Troxler wearing tight swimming shorts.
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Best: A pink dress fat-suit with a big arse and big boobs. Worst: The same.
—Kim Booth, Rebel Butterfly Promotions (Paris, France)

Aside from the "club people," lots of the locals have style so it was mostly the tourists committing fashion crimes. On guys, I'm definitely sick of seeing the edgy-graphic-hoodie-tight-jeans-and-dunks thing. On girls, I still wish pointy shoes would go away.
—Lauren "Lolo" Reskin, Sweat Records (Miami, FL)

Too many hipster t-shirts/hoodies/colorful sneakers worn by old people.
—Piotr Orlov, URGE (New York, NY)

Best: Steed Lord on Collins Ave.
Worst: The gel-haired Dragon Ball Z guidos on Collins Ave.
—Roxy Cottontail, promoter/DJ (New York, NY)

I'd need a whole book for the worsts. Sorry, but it's Miami Beach. I will give it up to Pube$'s white Marc Jacobs shoes. They were a bold (and handsome) look.
—James F!@$%^ Friedman, Throne of Blood (New York, NY)

Best & Worst: Konrad Black in tight black leather pants jacked up to his nipples with a black Robots shirt tucked in.
—Bill Patrick, Robots (New York, NY)

Best: NEON EVERYWHERE!!
Worst: The spring-break vertical stripes in South Beach.
—Jake Jefferson, MoneyShot/One More Day (Miami, FL)

Grooverider using Serato. (I hung out with the wrong people, apparently.)
—Susan Langen aka Qzen, iTunes Dance & Electronic Programmer

Some random guy licked my face. Yeah. Some random guy licked my face.
—Celeste Tabora, VP of Publicity, the 857 Collective (Los Angeles, CA)

PS14 with no power, trying to run two sound systems off a generator.
—Lauren "Lolo" Reskin, Sweat Records (Miami, FL)

Meeting Tiëstovanbuurenfold.
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Mr and Mrs Perfect Surgery walking down Collins in stars-and-stripes outfits — have never seen that in real life.
—Philipp Hofmann, Stars and Heroes (Berlin, Germany)

Getting my photo taken with Ferry Corsten on the main stage at Ultra — genius moment!
—Kim Booth, Rebel Butterfly Promotions (Paris, France)

Standing a couple meters away from a fight that ended up with a gunshot being accidentally fired and the top of someone's ear sliced off with a bottle.
—Jason Jeffers aka Fitzroy (Miami, FL)

My assistant Lindsay getting crushed by a speaker falling on her.
—Gunnar Hissam, Om Records (San Francisco, CA)

Either Peaches jumping up and down on Jake's bed with DJ Lloydski and Spank Rock while JD remixed the DJ Contra set with a vocoder, or jumping on top of the speakers at the Raleigh rooftop rave during Justice's set with Peaches.
—Roxy Cottontail, promoter/party diva (New York, NY)

Standing five feet away from some guy who pulled a gun out in the middle of Collins Ave at 3pm and almost getting hit by the stray bullet that blew the tire of the car next to me. All while [intoxicated].
—Bill Patrick, Robots (New York, NY)

A tie: Biz Markie learning Traktor Scratch from Mo (Droid Behavior/NI) and Jazzy Jeff at the Native Instruments room at Remix Hotel. Also, yoga class at Miambient with Sascha from Flavorpill DJing and luminaries like Steve Nalepa and Princess Superstar in poses!
—Susan Mainzer, Vibration Institute Music (Los Angeles, CA)

$18
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Can't remember paying for anything; a benefit of being a local.
—Jason Jeffers aka Fitzroy (Miami, FL)

Pay? What's that?
—James F!@$%^ Friedman, Throne of Blood (New York, NY)

Nothing. Ever.
—Induce, WonderSound (Miami, FL)

Think it was around $32 for two shots of Patron…
—Jake Jefferson, MoneyShot/One More Day (Miami, FL)

Yes, but where was the Western country?
—Anja Schneider, Mobilee Records (Berlin, Germany)

Gospel core!
—Bill Patrick, Robots (New York, NY)

Nope.
—Philipp Hofmann, Stars and Heroes (Berlin, Germany)

Yes. I see crossover potential.
—Piotr Orlov, URGE (New York, NY)

Eh?
—Gunnar Hissam, Om Records (San Francisco, CA)

Not if the fate of electroclash is any indicator.
—Susan Mainzer, Vibration Institute Music (Los Angeles, CA)

Wha? Oh you mean "blog house"?
—Sam Valenti IV, Ghostly International/Spectral Sound (Ann Arbor, MI)

]]> tag:flavorpill.net,2007:/wmc//40.5944 2007-04-04T06:06:22Z 2007-04-09T17:46:58Z

They say that hindsight is 20:20, but we're not so sure: running around Miami fueled by little more than Vitamin Water and soy chips, we found our vision blurry enough during WMC itself. Since returning home, catching up on sleep has helped relieve the pressure in our heads, but many of the week's moments are evaporating like wisps of a dream. Fortunately, we've got a great Flickr photo gallery up to help jog our memories. Better yet, we've assembled a dazzling, many-angled portrait of WMC 2007 as it was lived by DJs, promoters, label reps, publicists, and punters like ourselves. We polled an all-star panel to find out the highs and lows of their WMC experiences; read on for their strange, occasionally shocking, and entirely true (except when they've been kinda, sorta embellished) accounts. They came, they saw, they raved — and they lived to tell the tale.

What was the best party you played or attended?

What were your top records of WMC?

Did you discover any new records or artists?

Best and worst Miami fashion?

Craziest moment you saw or experienced?

The most you paid for a single drink?

Nu rave, filter punk, scuzz disco etc: here to stay?]]> tag:flavorpill.net,2007:/wmc//40.5940 2007-04-03T22:11:54Z 2007-04-09T00:37:23Z

Kicking off the festivities on Wednesday night, we headed over to SoBe Live for the first installment of our Flavorpill WMC Audio series. The SunTzu Sound guys laid down a nice mix of broken bits and classic funk, the...

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Kicking off the festivities on Wednesday night, we headed over to SoBe Live for the first installment of our Flavorpill WMC Audio series.

The SunTzu Sound guys laid down a nice mix of broken bits and classic funk, the perfect music to start off the night. Markus Enochson took over the decks for a short set of exclusives from his recent Sonar Kollektiv release, Night Games, but things really got hot when Bugz in the Attic jumped in with a set bursting with bangers from last summer and soon-to-be classics — with mandatory rewind! A live set from Clara Hill pumped up the soul, followed by closing ceremonies from those Black Forest funksters in Jazzanova.

Special thanks to: Tomas and Joe at Aquabooty, Daniel Best at Sonar Kollektiv, Orin, Daz, IG, J-Justice, Atlee, Clara Hill, and Juergen.

For more live sets recorded during WMC, check the Flavorpill streams page.

Photo courtesy of DJ Rhome]]>

In one of our absolute highlights of WMC, Stones Throw Records got hella ambitious with its Hella International throwdown, a full day of funk, classic hip-hop, and soul. Live performances from Stacy Epps, Aloe Blacc, and Wildchild had the crowd hanging on every lyric as the performers passed the mic and intertwined vocals over lickety-split mixing from DJs A-Trak, J-Rocc, Peanut Butter Wolf, and James Pants.

Though it drizzled a bit in the early afternoon, the sun shone through while Benji B mashed exclusives in a live Deviation-style set. He was followed by the maestros, Karriem Riggins and Madlib, who took brief but memorable turns at the decks. Presented in two parts, the Hella International sessions are a glorious mish-mash of party jams, left-field freakouts, and stone-cold classics. Close your eyes, crack a cold one, and live the madness all over again.

Special thanks to: Nate, Jamie, Egon, Madlib, Busy P, DJ Mehdi, Stacy Epps, J-Rocc, Peanut Butter Wolf, Karriem Riggins, Wildchild, Aloe Blacc, Benji B, and A-Trak.

For more live sets recorded during WMC, check the Flavorpill streams page.

There's nothing like an intimate, friends 'n families gathering to recharge the batteries, and that's just what Ann Arbor's Spectral Sound provided at their Spectral Social, a mellow gathering held in the soothing confines of the Clinton Hotel courtyard. Thanks to banging releases from the likes of Audion and James Cotton, Spectral boasts a rep for tough techno. But this three-part recording of the evening proves that the Spectral soldiers can smooth it out and house it up on demand.

Part one features Detroit's Seth Troxler on the decks and the first snatches of Pär Grindvik's grooving live set. Part two finishes up with Troxler and Grindvik, before Spectral's longtime go-to DJ Ryan Elliott takes over the turntables. In part three, Elliott, Audion (aka Matthew Dear), and Troxler whip up a dizzy game of tag-team. Listen carefully for multiple plays of Audion's remix of Black Strobe's "I'm a Man," sure to be one of the hits of the summer.

Special thanks to: Sam Valenti IV, Missy Livingston, Jeff Owens, Matthew Dear, Ryan Elliott, Seth Troxler, Pär Grindvik, and the rest of the Ghostly/Spectral crew.

Although the WMC frenzy had dwindled considerably by Sunday evening, the swaggering paraders and hapless vagrants on Lincoln Road were still wandering around in hordes — and such will always be the quotidian scene on the strip. But by now, our over-stimulated brains had surrendered to a depleted state of withdrawal. We're not sure what it was, but hallucinations had become customary. So we had to blink twice when an old, emaciated bum with a Santa Claus beard suddenly appeared, clasping a branch from the plant near our table at Rosinella before crashing to the ground before us in a drunken stupor. That, we figured, was our cue to scoop up the last bits of risotto and head over to Purdy Lounge for one last gasp.

In Purdy's smaller lounge room — adorned with Persian rugs and a suitable wall painting of palm-tree silhouettes and a crimson sunset — bleary-eyed people were loafing on sofas and digging the old-school hip-hop (if Salt-N-Pepa's "Shoop" could be considered old-school). Strangely enough, luminescent napkins were strewn all over the floor and some chick covered in face paint was even raving with neon glow sticks. Could she still be tweaking from Ultra, we wondered?

Meanwhile, we were able to catch up with some familiar faces we hadn't seen since WMC started, knocking back a few beers and exchanging highlights from the week: Meatheads in white capris doing pushups from their terraces as Boris dropped deep house by the Shelbourne pool; Madlib spinning bugged-out Quasimoto hits to a blissfully stoned crowd at the Raleigh; lesbians in heat humping each other ravenously at the Datarock show at Circa28; the surreal extravagance of the Friday-night bash at Hotel Setai (which included a massive brontosaurus float and a naked Amanda Lepore rubbing herself in an open-air bathtub); and Stockholm's Freddie Cruger (aka Red Astaire) lamenting how many rappers aren't "teaching anything" anymore before taking the stage at Raw Fusion. WMC can definitely be a hectic week, but looking back, we're always glad we did it, despite the gnawing head sores that inevitably ensue. ]]> tag:flavorpill.net,2007:/wmc//40.5885 2007-03-26T20:12:48Z 2007-04-09T00:37:23Z

People love to say that electronic music represents a new evolutionary phase, but our Miami experience often seemed to be all about devolution: wet-nap baths, filthy clothing, pilfering wi-fi, lost and found laptops… The list of indignities could go on. We found the soundtrack to such a primal state at Made Event's Sunday School for Degenerates party, a 14-hour marathon of regressive house music.

]]> We arrived to the Pawn Shop at five in the morning, just as the previous party's deep-house types were shuffling out and a motley crew of troublemakers was amassing at the door. Bill Patrick, of New York's We Are Robots party, was absolutely on fire in the back room, weaving a dense, filigreed web of some of the stickiest, trickiest minimal techno we've heard in eons. (Extra points for pulling out Ricardo Villalobos' remix of Shackleton's dubstep masterpiece "Blood on Our Hands," surely the darkest cut in dance music this year.) He was accompanied, for almost the entirety of his set, by a blissed-out Lil' Jon look-alike getting crunk behind him, hands in the air like it was a dancehall show and flashing a silvery grill; his day-glo pajama-print hoodie was the icing on the cake.

By the time we wandered outside in search of fresh air — no day party belongs inside — Jesse Rose was rocking the patio, tossing off bright melodic phrases and deep, UK-style sub-bass. His "You're All Over My Head," with its stuttering breakdown, was the highlight of his set: its chorus, a glorious psychedelic rock sample skipping like a broken record, had every pair of hands in the place held aloft.

After Rose, it's hard to say who exactly was playing, but it hardly mattered: the music was top-notch, and the vibe jubilant. There were no ins or outs at the party, so clubbers had come prepared with packed lunches and Vitamin Water; with the wind whipping around the palms in the courtyard, it felt as much like a school picnic as a party. We hung on long enough to catch Mobilee's Anja Schneider and suffer a wee patch of sunburn. Somewhere around noon, though, we realized that our chariot had turned into a pumpkin (and our brain to pumpkin soup). A few hasty farewells to new friends and trusted accomplices, and we were out the door, diploma for degenerates in hand. ]]> tag:flavorpill.net,2007:/wmc//40.5884 2007-03-26T01:31:35Z 2007-04-09T00:37:23Z

5. The woman wearing the white lace (read: completely see-through) pants and thong at the Scion yacht party. Honorable mention for the girl who was stone-cold passed out in the hallway below deck. 4. The hot-dog cart guy in...

Anna http://activate.us
5. The woman wearing the white lace (read: completely see-through) pants and thong at the Scion yacht party. Honorable mention for the girl who was stone-cold passed out in the hallway below deck.

4. The hot-dog cart guy in front of Pawn Shop, and his crazy secret weapon: French-fried shoe-string potato crisps, all mucked up with ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, slapped on top of the bun and frank. Sweet sodium bomb, pass the grape soda!

3. The anarchy that ensued when the police shut down Claude VonStroke in the middle of his set at the Apple in-store showcase. With the officers standing sour-pussed in front of the decks, Mr. VonStroke slammed the volume up to MAXIMUM, ripped his headphones out of the jack, and stalked off to the roar of the cheering crowd. You'll never take us alive, coppers!

2. Flavorpill Team Leader, Phil Sherburne, and his amazing collection of sparkly, fringed man-scarves.

1. The hefty stash of condoms we found hidden in the wall outside our condo. Because sometimes when you're on the move, you don't have time to stop at the store; you just gotta pull a condom out of the cracks like, whu-bam! Extra points, too, for showing us a really good place to hide our keys.

]]>

No, it's my second, actually. And I really like it. You know, my grandparents have a place here, up in Hallandale.

So what's your impression of the city so far?

Miami is for old Jewish people and that's what I like about it. When I think of Miami, I think of Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and old Jews, and what can better than Miami rappers and old Jews living together in harmony?

Miami has a rep for being mainly about big clubs, big tits, and big beaches. And of course that's partly true, but there is a lot more going on culturally.

It definitely seems like everyone is moving here. De La Soul, N.O.R.E., they all live here now. And all the studios are here — the city's gangsta.

Chromeo just finished playing two sets tonight at Circa28, a new venue in Wynwood, which I think has a lot of potential because it isn't like anything else in town.

This is the only spot in Miami where I haven't seen vertical-striped shirts. I really like this place.

Who's your favorite rapper?

Lil' Wayne.

Favorite DJ?

Do you know my brother, A-Trak? I think he's one of the greatest DJs alive.

Any last thoughts?

Again, when rappers realized that old Jews were wearing Coogi sweaters, they did the same thing. Now that rappers caught on that old Jews are living in Miami, they're all moving here, as well.