Scion Dance Zine 5
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DANCE ZINE SCIONAV.COM VOLUME 5
description
Featured in Scion Dance Zine 5 are Los Angeles funk evangelist Dam-Funk, legendary Hip-Hop producer 45 King, and much more. Discover the roots behind Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)". Dig in and find spreads featuring Italians Do It Better, Night Slugs, Throne of Blood, Gramophone Records, and Jeremy Glenn.
Transcript of Scion Dance Zine 5
DANCE ZINE SCIONAV.COM VOLUME 5
STAFFScion Project Manager: Jeri Yoshizu, Sciontist Editor: Eric DuckerCreative Direction: ScionArt Direction: BONGraphic Designers: Cameron Charles, Matt Koulermos
CONTRIBUTORSWriters: Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Sacha JenkinsPhotographers: Mike O’Meally, Jimmy Mould
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© 2011 Scion, a marque of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. All rights reserved.Scion and the Scion logo are trademarks of Toyota Motor Corporation. 00430-ZIN05-DN
COVER ILLUSTRATION: Franki Chan
JANUARY 17 SCION A/V PRESENTS: 12TH PLANET
JANUARY 31 SCION A/V PRESENTS:
(THEE) MIKE B FEBRUARY 7
SCION A/V PRESENTS: BIG DADDY KANE —
BACK TO THE FUTUREMARCH 13
SCION A/V PRESENTS: MOODYMANN
SCION A/V PRESENTS: DAM-FUNK — INNAFOCUSEDDAZE
SCION A/V PRESENTS: SKREAM & BENGA
SCION A/V PRESENTS: NADASTROM — EL BAILE DIABLUMA
S C I O N A / V P R E S E N T S MUSIC VIDEOSDILLON FRANCIS, “I.D.G.A.F.O.S.”
KASTLE, “You Know That I Know You Know”OMAR S., “Who’s In Key”
POOLSIDE, “Take Me Home”TREASURE FINGERS, “Rooftop Revival”
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Jeremy Glenn produces gleaming disco gems
vocals. Glenn’s journey to this bright eyed sound began in the late 1980s with the underground hip-hop radio show in Toronto that he used to listen to. When he tried to track down the songs he’d heard over the airwaves, he found that they were only available on vinyl, so he bought a pair of turntables. Around the same time, his older brother introduced him to what’s now considered classic house music, adding another dimension to his growing record collection.
These days it's easy to go on about the impact that electronic dance music’s current strains have on today’s biggest hip-hop hits. Dubstep, electro, sun blazed Ibiza house—their DNA is obviously and inarguably present in new music from Kanye West, Jay-Z, the Black Eyed Peas
that far back into rap’s back pages to realize that club music and hip-hop cross-pollinating isn’t
hip-hop, it was 1988. Everything was more about dancing, so the worlds of house and hip-hop were more intertwined,” says Glenn. In fact the lovefest between those two genres was so real
which sounded just like its name would imply and which Glenn loved.
Over the years, Glenn’s skills as a producer and DJ improved. In the late 1990s he noticed that the house tracks he was spinning sampled disco tunes, which set him off to try to channel the spirit of the source material in his own music. He then began writing lyrics and singing on his instrumentals to make them stand out even more. And though the times have changed, Glenn maintains that his reasons for staying in the music world remain the same: “I’ve always been into going to clubs primarily for the dancing.”
jeremyglenn.com
Watch an interview with Jeremy Glenn at scionav.com/dance
Story: Eric Ducker
DJ and producer Mowgli is at a transition point in his life. Four years ago, he left Bologna to live in London because if you weren’t cranking out German-style techno in Italy, it was near impossible to make a living there as a dance music producer. Now he’s ready to return, partially because fellow countrymen like Bloody Beetroots and Congorock have made their more unique approaches more popular (and lucrative), and partially because he’s growing up. As he nears 30, Mowgli has fully
ready to make an album because I’m settling into
house music, but when I was 20 I was too angry to make 120 BPM soulful, deeper house. Now that I’m almost 30, I feel it’s something I can do forever.” Like most dance music producers, part of Mowgli’s journey has been managing the world of remixing—a crucial part of career development that can also zap your creativity. Here, Mowgli explains his thoughts on remix gigs:
I was doing remixes because when you remix more commercial releases, it’s good money. Even if I didn’t want to, I had to. London is an expensive city and I had to pay the rent. Now I’m the exact opposite. I’m not so fond of remixing and I remix only if I really, really like the song. I’m in the position now to say I don’t want to do that, because it’s not really my sound.
My take on remixes is that if I can give my touch to a song and make it good without making a new song, I’ll do it. When you do those songs for money and you don’t like any parts of the original, you basically have to give away an original track. You might make a really good groove, but you’ve already committed to the remix.
The remixes in the beginning were very important for my career, because when people see your name next to a bigger name they’ll say, ‘Who is this guy?’ But ultimately it’s the original music that gets you to a certain level, because unless you do a really, really big remix, it won’t change your career. It’s the original music that puts you on the map.
As told to Eric Ducker
facebook.com/mowgli4eva Watch an interview with Mowgli at scionav.com/dance
Interview: Eric DuckerPhotography: Jimmy Mould
Dam-Funk has built a well-earned reputation as an evangelist of
the funk, but like a true student of music, his knowledge is deep,
varied and multi-dimensional. On his new EP, Scion A/V Presents:
Dam-Funk — InnaFocusedDaze, he experiments with a heavier
sound than on his previous releases. When discussing the
motivations behind this move, Dam revealed a few key chapters
in the story of his musical education.
IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU USED MORE GUITAR FOR THE SONGS ON INNAFOCUSEDDAZE. I’m using a new guitar sound, but that sound was triggered by a Roland keyboard that I have. I’m able to strap it on and it has that effect.
particular project. It’s more aggressive, but it’s still melodic funk.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TAKE THAT APPROACH? I was just feeling that way at the time. I’ve always loved metal, so I wanted to mix it up. It truly came naturally. I was just going through sounds and I was like, I’m going to roll with this sound instead of the more synthetic vibe that people are used to from me.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO HEAVIER MUSIC? When I was younger, TV Guide would get sent to our house and they’d have ads for Columbia House where you order 12 records for a penny. When I was doing that, KISS just popped out because of the artwork that they had for releases like Love Gun and Rock and Roll Over. Kiss was my gateway into metal. I got into harder stuff like Iron Maiden and Saxon. I became immersed for a minute.
MANY PEOPLE ASSOCIATE YOU WITH A FUNK-BASED SOUND AND AREN’T AWARE OF THE BREADTH OF STUFF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN. WHAT ARE SOME GENRES THAT PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW YOU’RE A FAN OF? People don’t really call it new wave anymore, but I love new wave. I grew up listening to KROQ, stuff like Siouxsie & the Banshees, Soft Cell, XTC, Romeo Void and early Tears for Fears, before “Shout.” I love post-disco. I love house a lot, in the early 1990s I was buying a lot of that stuff—Larry Heard, Underground Resistance, all kinds of one-
of progressive rock. And I even love pop. Prefab Sprout is one of my favorite groups. I listen to them daily because of the songwriting and the musical structure. One day I’d like to put out some material like that, still based in urban funk, but with deeper songwriting and song structure.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO PREFAB SPROUT? I learned about them in late 1989 from a friend of mine who worked with me at Poo-Bah Records [in Pasadena]. He put on Two Wheels Good, or as
it was known in the UK, Steve McQueen,
I got everything they put out—all the albums, all the B-side 12-inches, all the later records they had.
TELL ME ABOUT WORKING AT POO-BAH’S. Now it’s on Colorado Boulevard, but it used to be on Walnut in Pasadena. It was opened in 1971 and it was right next door to a head shop. It specialized in Frank Zappa and that type of stuff. A lot of people
cats that ever worked there. Later on a guy named Rob bought it and now it’s more of a beat-scene record store.
HOW CRUCIAL WAS WORKING AT A RECORD STORE TO YOU BEING TURNED ON TO SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC? My dad turned me on to Poo-Bah’s. Before I worked there, I would always ride my bike there. The owner, Jay, catered to people who were into funk, rock and soul, and he was a heavy jazz head. Each person who worked there had their own specialty. This one dude, Mike, was into experimental, and if it was his turn [controlling the stereo], you’d just hear noise. Another dude, Rick, was into Captain Beefheart. There was this lady Pearl who was into the soul stuff. Another guy was into garage rock. And here I was, more into the funk stuff. I started working there the summer after I got out of high school. They offered me a job. They knew the type of stuff that I was buying. They knew my repertoire. They knew I was well versed in many genres. Also, it was a good look to have someone from the community behind the register.
stonesthrow.com/damfunk
Hear Scion A/V Presents: Dam-Funk — InnaFocusedDaze, a collection of four new songs, at scionav.com/dam_funk
AS A FAN OF HIP-HOP AND A NEW YORKER, IT’S ALWAYS AN HONOR TO SPEAK WITH SOMEBODY WHO EMBODIES THE CULTURE. AND THAT CULTURE, TO ME, MEANS THINKING OUT OF THE BOX. I’m left-handed, that’s what it is. I think with my left hand when other people are thinking with their right hand.
WE’RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS AND YOU’VE ALREADY GIVEN US ONE INSIGHT. It helps if you’re crazy, too. If you’re touched a little bit, the beats sync more. You don’t need MIDI when you’re crazy. I have an automatic sympathy with the music.
YOU HAVE A METRONOME IN YOUR DOME? I should have said that.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR HISTORY IN DJING. I started DJing in 1976. The reason I know the year is because I did the 9th grade party. I played stuff like “It’s Just Begun” by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. I didn’t play “Apache” because I didn’t have it, but if I did I would have played it. It was all the hot b-boy stuff. I’m an original b-boy.
An innovative hip-hop producer and DJ, 45 King has had a storied career. As a founding member of the Flavor Unit, he was behind some of the classic production on albums by Queen Latifah, Lakim Shabazz, Chill Rob G and Apache. As a break records creator, he made songs like “The 900 Number,” which is among the most recognizable tracks in dance music. He also produced the megahits “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” by Jay-Z and Eminem’s “Stan.” At the Scion Music(less) Music Conference he spoke about his history and process as a producer.
Interview: Sacha JenkinsPhotography: Mike O’Meally
45 King
WAS THAT A CULTURE SHOCK? OR WERE YOU A CULTURAL AMBASSADOR? I was the first one with Gazelles, the first one with British Walkers, the first one with the sheepskin, because I was from the Bronx and I knew all that stuff. I was amazed that they had fades.
SO YOU WERE THE BRONX DUDE? Nah, they didn’t really know. The main difference was I was cutting records back and forth real fast and they were blending records together. In fact, a thing I liked about moving to New Jersey was that I got into the Zanzibar music, the house music. Before that, coming from the Bronx, I couldn’t understand how people got off to that.
SO YOU HAD THAT INFLUENCE AS WELL? Not in my hip-hop stuff, but in the club stuff, yes. When I put out break records, what I try to do is one or two club records on one side and bunch of hip-hop stuff on the other side, so if the hip-hop stuff doesn’t pop off, maybe the club records will.
TAKE US THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING A RECORD. For the hip-hop and club records, I use hip-hop kicks and snares. I will go to an old 1976 record and get two bars of a drum track. And it won’t be a drum machine sound, it will be a drummer from an old record that has that funky high hat sound that you can’t get anywhere else. Then I put basslines and bells and whistles over it.
WAS THERE EVER A TIME YOU THOUGHT YOU SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON THE HIP-HOP STUFF OVER THE CLUB STUFF? I was trying to get at both people at the same time. I wasn’t scared to press up a record. I’m scared to press up a record now because I’m going to have it as furniture, because why buy a record when you can get it for free from a pal?
HOW DID YOU PUT TOGETHER THE TRACK FOR “HARD KNOCK LIFE”? DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO FREAK THAT SAMPLE OR DID YOU JUST HAPPEN TO BE LISTENING TO IT? That started when I was watching television and there was a commercial for Nell Carter, who was coming to New York to play a character in Annie on Broadway. And they played the horns [from the original] in the commercial. I thought I might be able to do something with that. Months went by and I went to the Salvation Army to look for records and I saw the soundtrack for Annie for 25
THIS WAS IN THE BRONX? This was uptown in the Bronx. I was the record boy for Breakout, the DJ for the Funky Four Plus 1. He had four crates of b-boy records and I got to know which records had what on them, so if I went to the record store and saw anything from his crates, I picked it out and bought it. That helped when I started producing, I started looping up those records.
HOW DID YOU END UP BEING BREAKOUT’S RECORD BOY? The guy who taught me how to DJ was Jerry Miller, he used to breakdance with Breakout. Jerry knew Breakout and he knew he needed a new record boy. So I went over to Breakout’s house and he was impressed I knew what Bob James’ One was.
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THOSE FOUNDING TIMES IN HIP-HOP? Raheem [of the Funky Four Plus 1] killing it. He used to be like the Michael Jackson of rap, in my opinion. He had singing in his raps and came up with stuff other people weren’t saying.
WHAT ABOUT THE OVERALL CULTURE? For me, it was just something that was being done. It wasn’t a big thing. It wasn’t called “rap,” it was called “rhyming.” When things get commercialized, they like to name it so they know what shelf they can put it on when they get tired of it. They say everything needs a hook every 16 bars so people remember it. They say to do that to make it sound better, but we know what our Big Daddy Kanes sound like, what our MC Lytes sound like, so we don’t need them to say a hook to know that they have a new record out.
WHEN DID YOU MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM NEW YORK TO NEW JERSEY? My mother used to work in the post office in Jersey. She got tired of driving from the Bronx to Jersey everyday, so she said, “Guess what? I’m going to hit up your father for some money and we’re going to move to New Jersey.” I didn’t want to go to Jersey. My father lived in Hollis, Queens. First I moved to Jersey because I couldn’t say no. Then my mother let me move to Queens and I met Davy DMX. He was the nicest DJ up there. I was hanging out with him for a little while, then I moved back to Jersey.
cents. If I see a soundtrack and it’s in the right era, I pick it up. If it’s from 1980, 1985, I’ll leave it alone. So I went home and I played the record, trying to find the horn section. I found the kids singing, “It’s a hard knock life for us.” I put a drum track under it, but a bassline on it, and pushed it out. It took a whole 34 minutes. Once you get an idea, the whole thing is basically there.
SO WHEN MAKING A TRACK, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY OF IT. Everybody is right when it comes to art. If what you have going works for you, it might not work for me. And you’re right. And me saying it doesn’t work for me means I’m right. When it comes to art, everybody is 100% right, so do what the person paying for it wants.
IS IT SURPRISING TO YOU WHEN A SONG THAT TOOK YOU ALL OF 34 MINUTES TO MAKE BECOMES THAT HUGE? It was shocking. I just think I’m lucky.
WHAT ABOUT THE EMINEM TRACK “STAN”? The Eminem track was a domino effect from “Hard Knock Life.” Em heard “Hard Knock Life,” and he knew about Lakim Shabazz and Naughty by Nature. He knew of me. Foxy Brown’s brother bought the beat first and then Steve Stoute from Interscope, who was his boss, said, “Why don’t you give the track to Em, because Em likes it?” He kind of strong-armed him. I tracked the tape at my house and I sent it to California and they did their magic. I think Em did the bassline, he added the guitar to it and he did some other stuff.
WHAT KIND OF EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE? I can tell you the equipment, but it’s not really about the equipment, it’s what you put into the equipment. Basically anybody who has a laptop has a studio if you hook it up to a big screen. I use Logic, I’ve been using that since Logic 4. I use sounds from old records, so all my sounds match up, kind of.
WHAT’S YOUR PROCESS NOW? ARE YOU STILL GOING TO THE SALVATION ARMY? I actually stopped digging for records. Now I just rely on Kid Capri. He has records and people just give him records. Every record that Kid Capri gets, he’s like, “Yo, this is going on my album.”
BUT HE HASN’T HAD A RECORD SINCE LIKE 1993? Yeah, but it’s going on his album. But I love Kid Capri. Without Kid Capri there wouldn’t be a “Hard Knock Life,” because he played [an acetate copy of the instrumental] at a Puffy party and Jay-Z heard it and wanted it.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN A SAMPLE? I have to look for stuff that other people won’t look for, and since I’m older than other producers, I like older stuff. I like stuff that came out in 1976.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT YEAR? That’s when it went from funk to Donna Summer–type music. They call it disco because it was played at a discotheque, but to us it was just music. The music they now play at clubs becomes club music.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT RECORDING QUEEN LATIFAH’S FIRST ALBUM? With Latifah’s first album, I knew I had to impress [former Tommy Boy Records A&R rep] Dante Ross, so I just put in a whole lot of bells and whistles, samples from here and there. He said, “Why don’t you use this?” and I’d say “Okay.” Like I said, do what you have to do to get paid and then do what you want. That’s what I did.
45king.comyoutube.com/user/markhjames
Watch the full interview with 45 King from the Scion Music(less) Music Conference at scionav.com/mmc
We’ve focused on singles to this point, because that’s what we can handle, resource-wise. If the label grows to a place where we can do artist albums and put them out properly and promote them properly and make sure they get the attention they deserve, I look forward to that time, but we’re not going to rush into that until we’re ready and we know there’s an audience there to buy the records.
The guys from the Rapture are still involved—Gabe Andruzzi has a solo 12-inch coming out, Vito Roccoforte produced a release from an artist called AKA JK. I think the label has grown into something much greater than we originally conceived, but it’s happened in a very gradual way, without a master plan. It’s grown into something really healthy and natural.
ZOMBI, “SAPPHIRE” (2009)“Sapphire” by Zombi was one of our best-sellers,
of print. Zombi is a two-piece prog, almost metal,
Goblin-esque instrumental music. Somewhere along the way someone played them some Italo disco and “Sapphire” was their attempt at making a record like that. This track found its way to me in 2005 and I was able to license it for my Go Commando mix CD. The song never got a stand-alone release, so I was able to relicense it as a full 12-inch and we got Escort to do a remix. Steve Moore from Zombi has put out a bunch of stuff on labels like L.I.E.S. and Kompakt, and this
POPULETTE, “MOMMY”/“DADDY” (2009)“Mommy”/“Daddy” marks the beginning of the current phase of what Throne of Blood is doing: lots of releases with really high quality remixes. It was the debut of Populette, who are one of our
us, two or three remixes and an iTunes-only label compilation called Populette Presents Throne of Blood. “Mommy”/“Daddy” was sort of a coming-out 12-inch for Throne of Blood. It got a lot of DJs’ attention and whatever momentum we have now started with that record. Also, my two best friends made it, so it’s a record I’m really proud to have been involved with since I love those guys.
The members of the band the
Rapture created Throne of Blood
after the release of their album
Pieces of the People We Love
in 2006. The initial reason for the
imprint was to put out that full-length
and singles from it on vinyl. The
band enlisted James Friedman,
formerly of Studio Distribution and
Trevor Jackson’s Output label, to
run the project. After the album
cycle for Pieces of the People We
Love ended, Throne of Blood was
reborn as an independent dance
music label with a growing roster
of artists. Friedman discusses their
philosophy and their progression. Throne of Blood’s mission is to support really good music and to create a space for the artists we work with to do what they want without a lot of interference from the label itself. I don’t tend to give heavy creative direction to my artists, I try and work with them to clearly articulate the ideas they want to express. I try and offer them a platform to do what they want to do. Once I make the determination that this is someone we want to work with, I give them a platform to do what they want. We don’t have a stylistic pigeonhole that
sounding house music. Some folks are really into pushing things forward using antiquated analog gear. Some people are into a darker sound. Some of our artists are into a more poppy take on dance music. We don’t want to have a strong focus on any particular minute subgenre.
COSMIC KIDS, “REGINALD’S GROOVE” (2011)Cosmic Kids are a duo of guys from Los Angeles I only knew from the internet who sent me a track out of the blue and I just fell in love with it. I still remain open to the random demos that I get. It initiated what I think is going to be a great relationship. They came to me with a song and with an idea for a 12-inch: They wanted their friend Juan MacLean to do a remix and they wanted their friends Classix to do a remix. Those are both artists I’m familiar with but don’t know super well, and it marks the only time one of my artists has really come to me with more than just a track and saying they want to do a 12-inch. Cosmic Kids had a really strong vision for what they wanted that meshed really nicely with what we’re doing and where we are at artistically.
live in New York. They’re really down for Throne of Blood and they’re really committed. It was probably our best-selling 12-inch for the year.
BEAT PHARMACY, INSIDE JOB EP (2012) Beat Pharmacy is Brendan Moeller, who is also known as Echologist. Brendan is a dub techno producer who is South African and lives in upstate New York. He’s a guy I worked with from 2001 to 2003 at Studio Distribution. He was a sales guy there who had a nascent production project going. He was always someone I really liked and after Studio fell apart he became a really respected producer who put out music on a lot of different labels. We started talking again over the past couple years, and it’s really nice to work with someone who I worked with at the beginning of my career. It’s nice to come full circle like that.
As told to Eric Ducker
throneofbloodmusic.com
Watch an interview with James Friedman of Throne of Blood at scionav.com/dance
The people that we loved were making good music, but there was no label for us to put records out on, so we had to do it ourselves. We’d been doing the Night Slugs club night for two years, and as a label, we’ve not been running for long at all. It’s two years in January.
[Philosophically,] we’re not out there A&Ring to sign the next thing, you know? We’ve got our crew and whatever anyone wants to do, we’ll work for their projects. Everyone on Night Slugs is an artist and an individual. We don’t care about what’s going on outside of us. We’re just doing our own thing, our vision. We’re not putting music out just for the sake of putting music out. We’re only releasing what we believe in and what we love. We just do it as it comes in. If someone’s got something ready, we’ll put it out. We’re just trying to keep developing as a label and as artists together.
Night Slugs began in 2008 as a club night where Londoners Bok Bok (Alex Sushon) and L-Vis 1990 (James Connolly) could showcase their unorthodox approach to DJing. A year later, they launched an outgrowth label with the same name. L-Vis 1990 explains Night Slugs’ origins and cites five releases that demarcate turning points in the label’s trajectory—and look toward its future.
MOSCA, “SQUARE ONE” 12-INCH (2010) We were already thinking about [doing Night Slugs as a label], but “Square One” was the track where it was like, OK, we’ve got to put this out. We’d been DJing it for three or four months, and then Mosca came back with another B-side out of the blue, “Nike.” It’s the most incredible track—not just dance track, but song, period. I think it’s Mosca’s best work ever.
L-VIS 1990, “FOREVER YOU” 12-INCH (2010)
house song that he’d ever sung on. I
out. It was like a student party and Joker was headlining. The dude before me was playing dubstep, so I was playing house music. The crowd was not really responsive, so I said Javeon would come up and host with me. I’d never heard him before, but he just picked up the mic and killed it. I was like, “Let me get your email.” I sent him the beat for “Forever You,” he sent me back the demo with vocals, and nothing else about it changed. That track was the point where I real-ized I’ve got my idea, and it worked. People like DJ Mehdi loved it. Brodin-ski, all these guys from across genres were playing it. It kind of started me thinking about working in a longer format [which became the full-length album Neon Dreams].
GIRL UNIT, “I.R.L.” 12-INCH (2010)
Phil from Girl Unit just came out of nowhere. We’d been playing a bit socially, DJing at parties, playing ghettotech and R&B. We had a Night Slugs party, and Alex dropped “I.R.L.” in the club and didn’t tell me about it. I said, “Who’s this?” And he said, “Phil.” I was like, "What the…!" We knew we were going to put this out, but we needed some B-sides. The day we go to master them, Phil comes back with this incredible mass of beats.
GIRL UNIT, “WUT” (2010)
We were at Opening Ceremony the other day and “Wut” came on. It was in a sandwich between, like, G-Unit songs. “Wut” was amazing for our label and certainly took us to another level. It smashed us into being what everyone was talking about. Claude Von Stroke actually asked us to remix it, like, “I don’t do many remixes, but I want to do this.” It was quite a song, but it should have changed the world of rap music. Someone should have rapped on it. But our records are timeless, so it doesn’t matter. It can still happen.
BOK BOK, SOUTHSIDE EP (2011)
It’s a bit of a game changer.
Alex hadn’t had a proper release after being on the scene for so long. Everyone else was copying Night Slugs’ style of music, but Bok Bok was taking it back to grime and ghetto, reminding people what it’s all about. The track “Reminder” is about that. It was really important for him as an artist to get that EP out. I just did an interview for the Guardian and they asked me what my most rewound tune is—it’s “Silo Pass.” As soon as that bass comes in? I love it.
As told to Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
nightslugs.net
Watch an interview with Bok Bok
of Night Slugs at scionav.com/dance
Towards the end of Troubleman, I was DJing a lot more and putting out more dance artists. We put out three Tussle records, Chromatics, Glass Candy, an Erase Errata remix album with some pretty big names. The dance records weren’t really catching on, because at that time no one in the indie rock world understood it, so I decided to start another label to put out 12-inches of groups I like, like Professor Genius and Glass Candy. It caught on and we took it from there. It wasn’t really supposed to be a serious thing, then it overtook Troubleman really fast. I had a couple more Troubleman releases, but that was the end.
We released the After Dark compilation, which is a CD comp that features the groups that Johnny is involved in, plus a few other groups. Pitchfork gave it this great review and that caught the eye of everyone. It totally changed everything.
The label is mostly just us at this point. We want to keep it small. We don’t want
artists and it’s not fair to us. There’s so much stuff out there, between labels and the internet, that we just want to stick to stuff we know we can focus on one hundred percent. Keeping it really small and insular is the best way to do it at this point.
Italians Do It Better was started in 2007. Its two founders
are Mike Simonetti, a music-world veteran and owner of
the punk label Troubleman Records, and Johnny Jewel, a
member of acts including Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire
and Farah. Simonetti tells the story behind the label and
four of their key releases:
VARIOUS ARTISTS, AFTER DARK (2007)
After Dark is what started everything.
GLASS CANDY, B/E/A/T/B/O/X (2007)
B/E/A/T/B/O/X
After Dark
MIKE SIMONETTI, CAPRICORN RISING (2011)
stopped putting out artists outside
As told to Eric Ducker
vivaitalians.blogspot.com
Watch an interview with Mike
Simonetti of Italians Do It Better
at scionav.com/dance
CHROMATICS, NIGHT DRIVE (2007)
the Drive
Night Drive
Interview: Eric Ducker
In the 1980s, Gramaphone Records in Chicago was
house music community. Soon Gramaphone would build its reputation on its dedicated support of this sound—stocking house releases and employing nearly every notable artist to come out the scene (even if they sometimes only lasted a week). Gramaphone went on to support all forms of dance music, local and otherwise, and still continues to do
himself—explains how new artists get their music sold at Gramaphone now that the industry is radically different from how it was it was 30 years ago.
HOW DO YOU DISCOVER NEW MUSIC TO SELL AT GRAMAPHONE?It used to be distributors and promotional companies that sent promotional products to the store. Nowadays, we buy more direct from artists and labels than we ever have before. There’s been a shrinking of the community—vinyl presses have shut down, there aren’t many mastering services and there are only 10 to 15 distributors we buy from, when it used to be around 50. Now to get new music, labels and artists solicit us directly, customers hear about music from blogs and ask us if we carry it, and then there’s our own research, where I look on blogs, Facebook accounts, SoundCloud, etc. There was a precedent that was set for Gramaphone in the 1980s of being a cutting-edge store where you go to
HOW OFTEN DO YOU DO RESEARCH TO FIND NEW MUSIC?Every day of the week. I work at the store six days a week and I probably am researching almost seven days a week. I’m immersed in it. My social life is connected to the store and the store is connected to my social life.
IF YOU FIND SOMETHING THAT YOU LIKE, WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS TO GETTING IT INTO THE STORE?
I’ll ask the artist directly if they are pressing physical music, and if they are, whether they have a distributor or a label or if they are handling it themselves. One thing that’s new is pressing our own music. We’re
developing a project with [Chicago house legend] Lil Louis, pressing some new and classic pieces of his on vinyl. We’d like to try to extend that out to new artists who want to make something physical.
WHEN YOU DO REACH OUT TO SOMEONE, HOW OFTEN DO THEY HAVE AN ACTUAL PHYSICAL PRODUCT THAT YOU CAN SELL?Sixty percent of the time there’s not a physical product. Thirty percent of the time it’s physically made in a vinyl and CD format that I can sell in the store. Ten percent of the time it’s something that’s only exclusively available through the artist or the label themselves.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN THE ARTISTS THAT YOU WANT TO CARRY?Quality music, no matter what it is. Obviously there’s a balance between stocking music that people are looking for and stocking music that we think is cutting edge in quality. If you only stock music that’s quality and cutting edge, then that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to keep your business open. You have to sell those records that are popular so you have money to support the other half of the store. You have to sell
of Nicolas Jaar or James Blake when nobody else has got them yet.
gramaphonerecords.com
Gramaphone Records is part of the Scion Partners network. To learn about deals and discounts available from Scion Partners stores, go to scionav.com/partners
LOS ANGELESLOS ANGELES
FEATURING:JAZZY JEFF, JUAN ATKINS, PRINCE PAUL, WINO, JOEY SANTIAGO, DWID HELLION, MOODYMANN, KID CONGO, TONY FORESTA OF MUNICIPAL WASTE, ROB SWIFT, TEKI LATEX, STEVE MCDONALD, HUNX, JOHN BAIZLEY, LANCE BANGS, MIKE SIMONETTI, GONER RECORDS, THIRD MAN RECORDS, POMP&CLOUT,
HENRY CHALFANT AND MANY MORE
WATCH PANELS, INTERVIEWS AND WORKSHOPS TO DEVELOP A CAREER IN MUSIC
Each presentation, filmed in high definition, exists as a digital resource at:
scionav.com/mmc
LOS ANGELESLOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELESAs a DJ and a club patron, (thee) Mike B is a fixture in the Los Angeles nightlife scene. The L.A. native frequently spins at beloved events including Dance Right and the Do-Over, and he was one of the figures behind the legendary Banana Split party. He is also a tireless collaborator, working on dance music production projects in-cluding Fifteenth with Sammy Bananas, Pools with DJ Morse Code, Camo UFOs with Nate Day and Graveleaf with Omar Doom. Here, he expands on what he’s ex-cited about in Los Angeles right now.
M A K I N G S H A P E S Making Shapes isn’t really a monthly or a bimonthly party, it’s more of a “whenever we feel like doing it” warehouse party in downtown. They’ve been doing it for almost two years now, but sometimes it’s a month in between them, and sometimes it’s three or four months. It’s a two-room event and it’s on the darker, late night side of disco, house and techno. They’ll book a lot of slept-on local people who don’t do enough stuff, they’ll bring a local DJ out of retirement and they’ll bring in international talent. There’s not a lot of people doing that in the underground, so seeing Simian Mobile Disco play super
rad experience. I’ve played three or four of the parties, and it’s always been fun.
R I C K R U D E Rick Rude invited me to come see him DJ at Hemmingway’s, which is a pretty over-the-line place that’s right on Hollywood Boulevard, but he was playing Martin Brothers records and new disco stuff and the whole room was going nuts. I don’t think there are a lot of Hollywood guys out there who are taking chances and trying to push new music to a crowd that’s not necessarily into dance music, but he’s making it work. He’s like 22 and moved out here from Boston a couple years ago with, like, a dollar and a dream, but he’s totally killing it now.
B O D Y H I G H There’s a new label called Body High that’s pretty awesome. It’s Jerome Potter from LOL Boys and Samo Sound Boy’s label. They put out a DJ Dodger Stadium EP and they put out an EP for DJ Funeral, which is an alias for someone who has name recognition. It’s kind of a high concept label. They’re having people who are kind of big names use different names to put out darker, harder, weirder tracks. They’re going to be putting out a Todd Edwards record soon, which is pretty awesome for a label based in Los Angeles that’s run by two dudes who are, like, 22 years old.
D I R T Y D AV E Dirty Dave is just a working DJ who came to Los Angeles from Phoenix six years ago and works like six nights a week. He doesn’t have any production releases or put out mixes, but he’s just out there playing all the time. He throws underground disco and house nights. I’ve never been disappointed by a set that I’ve seen him play. He just plays music whenever he can.
djmikeb.blogspot.com
Hear Scion A/V Presents: (thee) Mike B, a compilation of Los Angeles dance music, at scionav.com/mikeb
s c e n e r e p o r t : s c e n e r e p o r t :
play the Rihanna song with Calvin Harris and it’s not
call cooler music, and it works. It’s kind of like how when
who were playing straight hip-hop sets were dropping in
these poppy records because the production was a little
bit harder. All of sudden it was fun because you could
take requests and the songs people wanted to hear
were songs you wanted to play.
COSMIC KIDS-
of my favorite labels.
ELI ESCOBARis live vocals, some of it is sampled vocals. He comes
from a rap background of production, like a lot of people
do nowadays, but he has a great ear for chopping things
NOT USING SERATOset up. People couldn’t believe I didn’t have any playl-
stuff to draw from. I give people a lot of grief for using
I got booed by this guy who’s my friend who throws the
-
for-one or three-for-three the whole night. It gets real in-
soundcloud.com/blujemz
Listen to Night People Radio on Scion Streaming Radio at scionav.com/radio/channel10
As a DJ, Blu Jemz has taken on the mission to break new songs and new sounds, all while cultivating the potential for mayhem. This musical spirit can be heard on his Night People Radio show, as well as around New York’s club scene during his weekly Night People party at Le Bain and at one-offs throughout the city. Here, he talks about what he’s been into recently.
KITSUNÉKitsuné is one of my favorite labels and they started off
music, it was their compilations that really got me into it.
Then I felt like they got too broad for a while and were
putting out so much different stuff that it didn’t really
have a vibe to it. Now it feels like they have a direc-
tion again. A couple years ago, their rock and house
can play it anywhere and people are acting like it’s
what they came to hear. They did a really good single
played this summer at the Night People party. Their stuff
has become more cohesive. I think it ties in to a certain
style of playing right now that’s more poppy. You can
ABOUT TOWN
