Benoit & Sergio Talk Sunday School and Melancholy Dance Jams

Benoit & Sergio’s rep on the international EDM scene rised slowly and surreptitiously, thanks in part to word-of-mouth praise from inner-circle luminaries like Seth Troxler and Bruno Pronsato. The release in question was a two-track gem of an EP called Full Grown Man which Pronsato put out on his small…

Ultra Week 2011 Party Picks for the Ticketless

You were lazy. You were broke. You were stupid. And now you’re standing ticketless and bereft outside Bicentennial Park, peering enviously at all those beaded, drooling pookie heads as they bask in the Day Glo wonder of this year’s totally sold-out Ultra Music Festival. Sure, in a desperate, last-ditch stab…

Your Mysterious One-Night Stand at Swedish House Mafia’s Masquerade Motel

You really, really, really want to spend the night at Swedish House Mafia’s Masquerade Motel. But how do you even find the place? Well, you could always try to track the synthy cinematic overload of the club-killing triumvirate’s superhit single “One” to its source. However, here’s another (admittedly fictional) way:…

Röyksopp Gets Cosmic at Ultra Music Festival 2011

Röyksopp albums, like all good things in life, come to those who wait. The duo of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland first began experimenting with synthesizers together as kids in their small, sub-Arctic hometown of Tromsø, Norway. “I remember seeing this documentary when I was seven, I think, about robots…

Taste Youth Blood With Jinder at Ultra Music Festival 2011

On her single “Youth Blood,” Josefine Jinder confesses to possessing a “late-night thirst.” But gratification has been anything but immediate for the self-described electronica girl who grew up listening to Art of Noise and Aphex Twin. Her early recordings amounted to diffident mimicry, the vocals buried in a morass of…

Keep It Hard With Gary Richards at Grand Central March 24

Gary Richards wants to introduce you to your new favorite party. It’s called Hard, and since 2007 it’s been drawing thousands of electro heads together for messy free-for-alls in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Next city in Richards’s sights? Miami, of course. A DJ and record industry insider…

Nobodys Hero, To Be Hated, Enough!, M66, and a Dog’s Fourth Birthday

Nobodys Hero, To Be Hated, Enough!, and M66 Saturday, March 19, 2011 Churchill’s Pub Better Than: Ben Weasel’s punk rock mess at SXSW the night before. According to Nobodys Hero’s Joe Koontz, “Someone stole one of the urinals from the men’s bathroom.” He also politely asked, “If you have that,…

Nobodys Hero and Destroyio Records at Churchill’s Pub Tonight

Nobody’s Hero S/T (Achála Productions) myspace.com/nobodyshero305 It would be easy to make unusual and extraordinary demands on Nobodys Hero. And it would be easy to dismiss them too, if you’re feeling like a prick. This band’s pedigree is like the Wu-Tang says: “Nothing to fuck with.” Seriously, you’re talking about…

Philip Glass at the New World Center, March 17

Philip Glass New World Center Thursday, March 17, 2011 Better Than: The last time you raptly sat through 85 consecutive minutes of a classical concert. Philip Glass, noted minimalist composer, performed Thursday night at the fantastic new New World Center, designed by Frank Gehry. But before discussing the concert, I…

Carl Cox & Friends at Ultra Music Festival March 25 and 26

The WMC-Ultra electronic music season has reached its 26th year and British DJ-producer Carl Cox is one of the few scene veterans who can boast having been there for the long ride. A child of the late-’80s acid house boom and Second Summer of Love, Cox cut his teeth spinning…