I should have mentioned this in yesterday’s post but I forgot. That DJ gig at La Paz that was supposed to go down tonight got canceled. It’s probably better anyway because I have to work at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow. (A rare occurence, thankfully.)
I really don’t have time to post much today, so here are a few quick tidbits and 2 totally amazing videos.
The initial Bonnaroo schedule has been released. There will probably be many changes, so don’t be totally upset yet if 2 of your favorite bands are playing at the same time.
I just realized that I don’t actually have mp3s from a few of the bands on my 8 off 8th, I’ve just seen them live a few times and/or played with them. Weird huh? Well, instead of an mp3, just go check out Mean Tambourines’ myspace page, where they have a few new tracks streaming. Also check out Cuttlefish’s myspace for a sample of their tunes. Coming on Monday- mp3s from Carter Administration and The Only Sons.
My band Tigers Con Queso is playing at Springwater this Saturday night. We will be joined by J.A.W. and Teenage FBI. It’s the grand opening of Taco Party, the new taco bar on the back patio of Springwater. Come out, drink some beer, rock out, and eat tacos. Starts around 10pm. Here’s the flier. Click to enlarge.
Ok, here are the totally amazing videos. Seriously, you need to watch these all the way through. They will both blow your mind.
Cinco de Drunko/DJ party friday/Apple tablet
May 5, 2009
Cinco De Drunko is today. Ryan Bruce has put together a fun show at La Paz Mexican restaurant in Green Hills for tonight’s festivities, including performances by How I Became the Bomb, Jensen Sportag, Coral Castles (from Chattanooga), Mean Tambourines, Heypenny, and many more. Word on the street is that bands start at 4pm, have 35 minute sets, and 20 min. breaks between. Janet from Out the Other has a good preview of the show, and will have HIBTB on her show tonight.
Speaking of La Paz, they’re also having a late-night dance party this Friday night, for which I’m DJing as DJ Burgers. From what I’ve been told, it’s me and DJ Hippopotamus (who doesn’t seem to have a myspace…). But there could be others. I’d post a flier but I don’t have one yet, and that’s probably because Mr. Bruce is understandably consumed with tonight’s festivities. I’ll post more info as soon as I have it. But please do come out Friday night. It’s a later gig, supposedly not starting till 11 and going till at least 2am.
Speaking of DJ’s, Ultimo & Disco is bringing the legendary Steve Aoki of Dim Mak to Play Dance Bar on June 10th. Check out Blogging Is Serious Business for more info/flier. It’s amazing that they’re getting Aoki here. Who would’ve ever thought a big-name L.A. DJ would play in Nashville? Kudos to U&D for putting this together.
Don’t forget- my 2nd 8 off 8th is happening next Monday May 11th, and it will feature The Nobility, Mean Tambourines, Codaphonic, Kelly Kerr & the Distractions, Carter Administration, Paper Navy, Cuttlefish, and the Only Sons. I will be posting mp3s from each band over the next few posts.
Remember back when Wayne Coyne dissed the Arcade Fire? Well now he’s apologizing… kinda.
You’ve probably already seen this website by now, but if you haven’t, go see it now. Texts From Last Night. Endlessly entertaining.
There have been increasing rumors floating around about a possible new product line to be unveiled by Apple this fall. Supposedly they will be releasing a new tablet computer that runs full OS X but the input is entirely touchscreen-based. Basically it’s going to be a huge iPhone that runs OS X…. but isn’t a phone. Read more about it at this ZDnet article. I have a feeling it will be pretty pricey, though, as is most Apple stuff. I really look forward to playing with one at the Apple Store, though….
While reading this article on Universe Today, I realized that I don’t post enough space/science-related stuff on here about he European Space Agency and what they’re up to. So for more info on that just check out ESA’s website. Probably the biggest thing on their horizon is the ExoMars rover, which is tentatively scheduled for launch in 2016. Let’s hope this lander doesn’t suffer the same fate as the Beagle lander, ESA’s last attempt at a Martian landing.
Thomas Bangalter
For all those who seriously hoped Daft Punk were real robots, I guess you’ll just have to cry now. Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter was spotted doing a quick DJ set at L.A. club Cinespace for the birthday party of Ed Banger owner Busy P…. sans the robot costume. That’s him behind the shades. Pitchfork has the full story. Twitter obviously went bonkers. Oddly, though, there’s no mention of the apparent brawl that went down afterwards… Hipster Runoff posted several photos of an apparent clash between the bouncers and the Ed Banger crew. The Pitchfork article posted some video clips but those have since been made private and un-embeddable. Robot Drama!
In other music-related news, Record Store Day was a big success. Billboard reports on the various statistics. Check it out if you’re really interested in all the numbers, but in summary there was a small but substantial increase in indie records store sales compared to last year’s RSD. Vinyl sales are way up compared to last year. A big part of it is the fact that so many artists/bands did special limited-edition releases specifically for that day. If this kind of thing keeps happening, I’d say record stores aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Kudos Record Store Day!
The Scene has a great story on the “band that almost was,” The Remains. They came out of Boston, appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, and opened for the Beatles on all 19 shows of their 1966 tour. Then they broke up. They’re playing tonight at the Cannery. I may be there, hopefully taking photos…
Short post today.
New mix/edge of space/honey bees
April 14, 2009
DJ Burgers (me) has posted a brand new mix for your dancing/listening pleasure. Click here to download the official DJ Burgers Spring MIXXXX 2009. Here’s the tracklist:
Leif-Timbs
Le Castle Vania- Trouble in Daylight (LA Riots Remix)
KUDU- 4 Let’s Finish (Sinden Remix)
All-American Rejects-Gives You Hell (Bloody Beetroots remix)
La Roux-In For the Kill (the Twelves Remix)
Jensen Sportag- Jackie
PNAU-Baby (Breakbot remix)
Daft Punk- One More Time (Radio edit)
Black Kids- Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance (Twelves Remix)
The Presets-Girl and the Sea (Cut Copy Remix)
Rye Rye- Bang (ft. M.I.A.)
If you want me to DJ at a party or something, email me at djburgers@gmail.com. Also I’m hosting another 8 off 8th at Mercy Lounge on May 11th. Mark your calendars, it’ll be a good one. Lineup is mostly confirmed but I’ll wait until I hear from everyone to post it here.
Ok now that the shameless self-promotion is out of the way, on to some music news… and there’s really only one thing that sticks out to me today. Phil Spector was found guilty of murder and could face life in prison.
From the department of “OMG THAT’S DISGUSTING!!!”…. A man in Russia had a 5 cm. fir tree removed from inside his lung. I don’t understand how it grew without any light…. In fact, I question the legitimacy of this story. Gross, nonetheless.
Scientists in Spain have discovered one potential cause of Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder, Science Daily reports. No, it’s not lethal tree farts as M. Night Shyamalan would have us believe. They found a bacteria that was infecting a colony and successfully treated it with anitbiotics. This may or may not be the main cause of CCD. Let’s hope it is, because if they keep dying, it could be devastaing for the world’s food supply.
Scientists at the University of Calgary have come up with a new definition for the edge of space. According to them, it’s 73 miles above the Earth’s surface. But the definition is still pretty unclear, becuase technically an astronaut is said to have been to space after travelling only 50 miles above the ground. Furthermore, for the space shuttle the edge of space is defined as 76 miles becuase that’s where it switches from thrusters to using air surfaces (the wings) for control. But the atomsphere at that altitude is still negligible, the only reason the space shuttle can use air surfaces that high-up is becuase at that point it’s just beginning re-entry and thus is travelling at 16,000-17,000 mph. If it were travelling much slower than that it would still have to use thrusters.
On this day in 1970, the famous words “Houston, we have a problem” came across the radio from Apollo 13. If you’re interested, you can read the details of the incident on the National Space Science Data Center website.
Update to yesterday’s post- the tornado that hit northern Murfreesboro was upgraded to EF4 intesity. It briefly reached EF4 status around Highland Park Drive and again near Tomahawk Trace, but was at EF3 strength for most of its duration. The total path length was also extended to 23 miles.
ISS nearly gets whacked/weekend stuff
March 13, 2009
You’ve probably already seen this by now, but the astronauts on the International Space Station had to prepare for a possible emergency evacuation yesterday as a piece of space junk flew with 3 miles of the station. It was all over by the time it hit news headlines. It did not hit, thankfully, and everything is back to normal. Apparently the debris was about 5 inches, and traveling at over 20,000 mph, and was part of spent satellite rocket motor, not a piece of the two satellites that collided a few weeks ago. The crew has a Russian Soyuz capsule constantly attached to the station that they can use as a lifeboat should they need to evacuate the ISS.
Well-known music blog Largehearted Boy mentions Nashville’s own The Non-Commissioned Officers today, and has a link to download their free EP, which is part of the soundtrack to the locally-made film Makeout With Violence, which has 3 showings at SXSW this year. (None of which I can make, unfortunately…)
Another cool link via Largehearted Boy is the Top 10 Most Overlooked Band members on Spike.com. This is probably the only thing I’ll ever read on that website, as it’s mostly geared towards douchebag bros.
It’s friday. The weekend is upon us. Here’s where I’ll be:
Tonight: King Khan & the Shrines at Exit/In. I saw KK with BBQ show back in Nov. and it was amazing. Can’t wait to see him with “big” band. There’s also a lot of other shit going down tonight. Too much to mention here.
Saturday: Superdrag album release for Industry Giants at Exit/In. The 90’s powerpopsters are back in full effect, original lineup and all!
Sunday: I’m DJing (as DJ Burgers) at the Rock Swap in East Nashville. I’m doing the “after party” segment starting at 6pm after the official events/bands are over.
Third Man Records settles into Nashville/Big summer DJ & dance series to hit 12th & Porter
March 12, 2009
Jack White’s label Third Man Records has just opened its new office in downtown Nashville, Stereogum and Nashville Cream reports. Included in the new space is a custom designed recording studio. Damn… I’d love to see that. Apparently the opening party featured a performance from yet another JW supergroup side-project called The Dead Weather. This new band features Jack on drums, Raconteur Jack Lawrence on bass, Stonage Queen Dean Fertita on guitar, and the Kills’ Allison Mosshart on vocals. Not only is the space an office and studio, but it will (does?) house a record store and photo studio. Is the photo studio hiring? If so I’m first in line.
Blogging is Serious Business reports on the new Friday night series kicking off May 8th, and lasting all summer, called Noise to Nashville. It’s being put on by Ultimo & Disco and Beatport. “A fusion of indie, pop, electronica and nu disco, Noise will bring artists by the likes of A-Trak, Cut Copy, Chromeo, The Presets, Crookers, Diplo, Little Boots and the best local and regional residents.” Wow. If you had come up to me 5 years ago and said that such large national electronic artists/DJs would be hitting Nashville on a weekly basis in 2009, I’d have laughed in your face. It’s really amazing how far Leon Jackson, Justin Kase, Principal & Coach, Jensen Sportag, and the many others involved in our electronic scene have taken it.
In other music news, BrooklynVegan and Bob Lefsetz chime in on the Ticketmaster/Live Nation fiasco. I’ve said all I can say about it… but I thought you might find both of these posts interesting.
David Friedman of Ironic Sans has a good idea for progressive food packaging. I may just do a little of my own progressive packaging next time I go to the grocery store…
Space Shuttle Discovery had its launch scrubbed yesterday due to a hydrogen leak in one of the fuel lines. Apparently this has nothing to do with the valve issues that caused the earlier delays. They have a tentative launch set for March 15th, this Sunday.
My 8 off 8th tonight/Deli Party pics
January 26, 2009
Number one priority for your Monday: coming to my 8 off 8th tonight at Mercy Lounge. It’s free, and it’s a great lineup, so you have no excuse. I’m not telling you the order so that you’ll come early because you don’t know if your favorite band (out of the lineup) will be first or last or somewhere in between. The Nashville Cream was kind enough to post a blog entry about it. Also, Courtney from Left Can Dance will be DJing between bands. Click the image to make it bigger.
The Deli Party was a huge success. Home Keys got things off to a great start, I DJed for a while, then Makeup & Vanity Set and Jensen Sportag did a tag-team setlist, trading off songs, which resulted in total awesomeness. The only minor buzz-kill was that it was so hot and steamy in the basement that the speakers kept overheating (and thus cutting themselves off). Thankfully that didn’t happen during my 2 hour DJ set after MAVS & JS finished. I had a total blast, and so did the crowd. Everyone was dancing, and it got pretty full for a while, then it thinned out a little around 2:15am, and I thought it was gonna wind down from there, but then suddenly everyone came back, and it got hot & heavy again at around 2:45! People were still going strong right up to the end when I had to call it quits around 3:20. My last two songs were for fellow photographer Johnny Kingsbury, who was celebrating his birthday that night. His sister let me in on the secret that one of his favorite party songs was You Get What You Give by the 90’s one-hit-wonder New Radicals. They all went crazy. I’m DJ Burgers, and this party should be very good reason for you book me at your next throwdown. For some great photos from the party, checkout Courtney Wilder’s photoset.
Speaking of photography, photographer David Bergman made 1,474 megapixel panoramic image of Obama’s Inauguration. Seriously, click that link! It’s amazing how much you can zoom in on that image and see the details. It was done using a Gigapan imager.
Some science links for the nerds:
We’re one step closer to teleportation. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to actually teleport a human being from one place to another, but instantaneous transfer of information could eventually be possible if we’re able to build upon this discovery/breakthrough. That could be very useful when we eventually send humans to Mars, and even farther. Not having to wait for a radio signal to travel all the way back to earth would be very handy when Val Kilmer lands on Mars and says, “Holy shit! There’s all kinds of glowing algae stuff everywhere, and it suddenly made the atmosphere breathable!”
Earth is being stalked by and asteroid. It’s ok though, it won’t actually hit us. It just follows us around everywhere we go, and calls us to leave cryptic messages, and….
3 2 1 Contact!
January 8, 2009
I don’t think I really need to say anything about this video…. other than the fact that you have to be at least 23 or so years old to appreciate it.
Hippies, get ready to do your happy little hippie dance- Phish has officially revealed their full reunion tour. And yes, you read that right, they’re strongly rumored to be headlining Bonnaroo… *groan*
In case you didn’t know, I’ve started doing some DJ gigs as DJ Burgers. I started a myspace profile for it. Get on it and add me if you haven’t already. Pardon the ridiculous flashing logos, but it’s all part of the gimmick, ya know? My next gig for it will be a party on Jan. 24th at 3609 Pilcher Ave. in west Nashville, featuring Jensen Sportag, Makeup & Vanity Set, and my bandmate Seth’s new solo project, Home Keys[asdfjkl;]. I’ll be DJing between bands and after. Come and dance. Or maybe vice-versa?
Now for some nerdy space stuff-
Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system, the holy grail of astronomy has been discovering an earth-like planet outside our solar system. As in, roughly the same size, mass, and density of earth, and also with a stable atmosphere, and orbiting within that star’s “habitable zone.” A star’s habitable zone is a region of distance from the star in which water can easily exist in a liquid state on the surface of a planet- not too hot and not too cold. Now that astronomers have found literally 100’s of huge, Jupiter-like, gaseous exoplanets, they’ve started finding what are called “super-earths,” or solid, rocky planets roughly 5-10 times the size of earth. The few of these we’ve seen were discovered through the transit method- they passed across in front of their parent star, and we detected the slight dimming of the star due to that transit. This Universe Today article talks about how astronomers are taking it one step further, by attempting to determine the composition of those super-earth’s atmospheres. They do this by subtracting the chemical signature when the planet passes behind the partent star. We’re so close, EVER so close to detecting an earth-like planet. It will only be a few more years, once the Kepler mission and the James Webb Space Telescope get into orbit and operation, until we find one. This is one of my greatest hopes in life. I look forward to the discovery of an earth twin orbiting a distant star like an Emperor penguin looks forward to spring in Antarctica. Crazy analogy, I know… just go with it.
In other NASA news, it looks like NASA chief Michael Griffin will step down, along with the rest of the presidentially-appointed staff under him. This Space.com article also lists some likely candidates on Obama’s shortlist to replace him. I don’t know how I feel about this. I kind of feel like that right now what NASA needs is continuity rather than change. But who knows?
steve cross loves music and science 