Its Saturday: Get Crunk to MSTRKRFT-FRSHPRNCFBLR

As if Yuppie Dance Party needed another reason to like MSTRKRFT



Your Weekly Shot of Energy: Bounce-MSTRKRFT

Turn up really loud and repeat after me:

“All I do Is Party Ah Ah Ah Ah”

“So Bounce Low”

“Bounce High”

Note to readers: If you, like some of YDP’s friends like to get amped listening to Elliott Smith, Bread, Dave Matthews Band etc then this song will probably not have the desired effect on you.

I can’t stress this enough, for the desired effect, you need to crank it to ear damage loud. Generally this is a bad idea but once a week in a time of need is definitely acceptable.

[clearspring_widget title=”Grooveshark Widget: Single Song” wid=”48f3f305ad1283e4″ pid=”4aaf0805972e14db” width=”400″ height=”300″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

Song of the Day: MSTRKRFT ft. John Legend-Heartbreaker

Despite eschewing vowels in their group’s name, MSTRKRFT rocks.  From the club scene to the studio, they really have their act together.  That’s why it shouldn’t be a surprise that they could take the smooth lyrical stylings of John Legend, and turn it into a sick party beat.  If everyone who listens to this doesn’t have it on their party mix by week’s end, I will punch myself in the face.

Enjoy!

[clearspring_widget title=”Grooveshark Widget: Single Song” wid=”48f3f305ad1283e4″ pid=”4a89127a4b6b7a9d” width=”400″ height=”300″ domain=”widgets.clearspring.com”]

Lolapalooza Saturday Sunday Recap and Final Thoughts

After Lola, YDP was extremely impressed with the lineup, format, organization and location of the shows. The Grant Park setting was unbelievable and the backdrop of Lake Michigan, the Sears Tower and downtown Chicago Sky Scrapers was incredible both at day and at night. The concert did a great job of keeping everything on a tight schedule and creating a good low key vibe. Since YDP is obviously all about being green, it was very excited to learn that a portion of every sale goes to help Chicago’s beautiful parks. Also exciting was to see people all day collecting recycling for free giveaways.

The bands in general were all in good spirits and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. People would wander from one concert to the next and as a result got exposed to a lot of music they wouldn’t have heard otherwise giving some great opportunities for up and coming bands.

The big suprise was how much fun “Perry’s Tent” the DJ tent was. Always a packed area with an incredible list of DJ’s, Perry’s lured in a lot of people that traditionally wouldn’t go to see a DJ play. The reason was that a DJ party with a big crowd in the day is a lot more accessible than a dark night club where no one can see anyone and there is often one defined feel i.e. snobby, hipster, clubby etc… Perry’s was the first time I have ever really enjoyed watching a DJ perform. Maybe DJ’s should do big outdoor daytime parties more often.

After Friday the rain stopped and YDP got to see some great shows

Saturday:

Arctic Monkeys: Brit Pop at its finest. Played some of their new songs and can’t wait for the new album. Really translated well to a huge festival venue

Santigold: Fun, Funky, Cool style and a much improved live performance to Terminal 5 earlier this year.

Diplo: His set had a more drum and base house feel to it than expected. In the end it seemed like he played the same songs as everyone else, didn’t play much of his original material and didn’t really make an impression.

Animal Collective: Very trippy psychedelic sound scape music where songs blended from one to another. Was a great place for people to sit down and lay low for a while.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Headlining in place of the Beastie Boys the Yeah Yeah Yeahs rocked the house. The performance was top notch and you could tell the band was really enjoying what I believe is their first audience of that size. One of the great moments of Lolapalooza where I’m sure a lot of the audience hadn’t heard of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and walked away fans. Highlights included “Zero” and “Heads Will Roll”

Sunday

Passion Pit: Suprisingly good performance on one of the small stages that gathered a big crowd. Great mix of synth and falsetto singing.

Lou Reed: I know you aren’t supposed to bash a rock god but my initial thought was it was like watching an old man singing Karaoke. I’m going to stop before I attract the wrath of everyone else. Also for the record I am a huge Lou Reed fan and was very excited to see him live.

MSTRKRFT: These guys know how to rock. Chain smoking and drinking straight from a bottle of Jim Beam these guys had an amazing crowd. A mix of hippies, hipsters, club people, yuppies descended on Perry’s Stage to dance and jump. “Bounce” while not my favorite MSTRKRFT song to listen to generally was ridiculously fun. Nothing like watching a hippie dance in barefeet on a tibetan cloth next to some guy covered head to to tattoos doing the robot.

The Killers: A much better than expected show from this Vegas group. Totally embraced glam rock with a high energy high performance show. A great run through of their work and had a massive nighttime crowd gathered.

Jane’s Addiction: Playing at the other end of the venue at the same time as the Killers, I was able to catch the second half of their show. While I don’t claim to be a huge Janes Addiction fan (I really like Jane Says and a couple of other songs.) Watching though I loved the high energy old school arena rock show these guys put on. Perry Farrell commanded the stage with monologues, dead on vocals and his typical weirdness. Dave Navarro ran all over the stage unleashing devastating 80’s style guitar solo’s that were probably overdone at the time but something that I really miss these days. Rock ‘n’ Roll was build on guys without shirts and leather pants holding their guitars vertically while they shred a solo. Its amazing how unrock rock bands can be these days and when you see them juxtaposed with Jane’s Addiction its even more obvious. I get it the Kings Of Leon are nice guys and maybe don’t want to be that but there has got to be 4-5 guys out there that are good enough to make a real rock band.