Monday, January 30, 2012
Capt. Morgan giving free rides home Sunday
Posted by Scott Shoger on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 3:37 PM
Thus, the good Captain Morgan will be subsidizing free rides home in Indianapolis on Super Bowl Sunday from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fans in no condition to drive can simply dial 1-877-U-BEMYDD (1-877-823-6933), and a volunteer designated driver will ferry you home — in your own vehicle, no less.
This offer is for drivers of drinking age only and is provided by the designated driver service, BeMyDD, via Captain Morgan's First Mate Fund, which has donated $25,000 for the occasion. The brand is owned by the UK-based firm Diageo, the world's largest manufacturer of spirits.
Admiral Nelson has declined to comment on these developments; he could care less whether you live or die.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Special Events Slideshow: More from Zombie Walk 2011
Posted by Paul F. P. Pogue on Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 1:55 PM
We had two photographers on call to catch the rumbling, bumbling, stumbling zombies shambling through the streets of Broad Ripple Saturday night. Catch the first set of Zombie Walk photos here and take two below.
According to event organizer IndyMojo's Jason King, more than 1,000 zombies raised 5,349 lbs. of canned food for Gleaners Food Bank, which - as far as we know - doesn't yet offer brains as nourishment to the undead.
Slideshow
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Rock / Roots Slideshow: BRMF at The Monkey's Tale
Posted by Paul F.P. Pogue on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 9:36 AM
Slideshow
The Monkey’s Tale, featuring the NUVO/Oranje stages, was the ideal place for passersby. With its main stage separated from the street only by a short iron fence, it was the perfect place to wander past, stop for a sample listen, and drop in if you felt like it. The performers were equally accessible and presented an appealing mix of music. Sugar Moon Rabbit (featured previously in Barfly) dominated the outdoor stage in the pre-sundown hours with a brand of screaming bar-jam rock that simply demands to be performed with a mic in one hand and a drink in the other (and the band was more than willing to oblige). As night fell, Dell Zell took over while the combination of Mariah Page, Sam Flinn and Nurvous Vurn delivered sweet, soulful renditions of a variety of standards, followed later by Kilgore Trout and Ryan Pruitt’s acoustic sets.
Whitney Coleman and her band performed perhaps the most electrifying performance I saw all weekend. By the time they completed their warm-up, I had a pretty good idea what to expect — some high-quality soulful crooning. I had no idea. I certainly didn’t expect the explosive rock-based approach they took to soul; the opener channeled the spirit of Hendrix so well they could have only gotten closer if they’d set a guitar on fire.
DJ & Dance / Rock Slideshow: BRMF at The Mousetrap
Posted by Paul F.P. Pogue on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Slideshow
Broad Ripple comes alive at dusk and stays up ‘til first light. So it’s not a surprise that the early crowds at sites like The Mousetrap and its IndyMojo showcase were in the single digits in the 5 p.m. era. Not that it seemed to stop the DJs and performers, who were in the moment and every bit as focused as if they’d been at a packed London nightclub. Brian Summers, taking over the ‘Trap’s outdoor tent, worked the boards as if he was flairing a drink in “Cocktail,” and G, out back, did his thing with deeply intense concentration. Inside, Blue Moon Revue got the evening off to a start with a bluesy and heartfelt performance. Soon thereafter, Ed Trauma and SeaMonkey stepped in on the separate DJ tables, both delivering sets with distinctive video game overtones — Trauma with the bleep-bloop of the Nintendo era, and SeaMonkey with dramatic beats that could have been part of a PlayStation-era “Final Fantasy” game.
The Mousetrap was like a little bubble universe on the edge of BRMF proper that evening — it’s far enough away from the rest of the event that passerby were few. However, the crowd grew steadily and audience participation was encouraged, and included neon dancers, jugglers and of course a few dudes tossing around things on fire. As night fell, JIN-XS presided over the backstage controls looking like a mad scientist at work, while veteran DJ Topspeed handled the front tent with a decidedly 1980s theme, right down to a truly enviable hat. Each performer delivered the sorts of rhythms that you can dance to equally well in a group or all alone with your thoughts. They were rhythms to lose yourself in.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Review: Vocab:aret at the Casba
Posted by Paul F. P. Pogue on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 1:30 PM
Slideshow
Vocab:aret
October 11, Casba
4.5 stars
Rebelle’s Vocab night, held every second Tuesday at the Casba in Broad Ripple, is just about as old-school as it gets: a freeform jam of music, voice and dance. This time around, the theme turned towards the slightly naughty, with Vocab becoming Vocab:aret, courtesy of the talents of the burlesque troupe Creme de les Femmes.
Opening up were The Session Brothers and DJ Kyle Long. The Brothers warmed up over the last bit of Kyle Long’s set, and while I don’t think it was intentional, it all merged together in a pleasant jazzy kind of way. The Session Brothers are a pure '70s instrumental group performing the kind of music meant to be heard in a (literally) underground bar that could easily be mistaken for a basement. It's all wah-wah guitars and smooth rhythms. They’re the kind of bluesmen who seem to be engaging in ongoing conversations with instruments that have wills of their own. They set a nice pace for the evening with music to lose yourself in or converse by, depending on your mood.
And then came the burlesque! Burlesque's very nature adds to the mystique, since the ladies remain backstage prior to the show, do their routine, then quickly cover up before re-emerging to mingle in evening gowns or club clothes. Something about the mystique makes them a little bit incandescent; they draw attention to themselves not so much as objects of desire but as rock stars. Half the crowd wasn’t sure whether to flirt with them or to ask for their autographs.
Before and after, hostess Rebelle delivered introductions and performed some of her own spoken word, which was some of the most compelling of the night. The organized portion of the evening closed out with Spill and their unique combination of music, poetry and a bicycle as an instrument. Then came the open mic portion, which closed the anything-can-happen, unfiltered-but-friendly night.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Rock Pawn Shop Pub hosts Aristocrat benefit show
Posted by Grant Catton on Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 9:00 AM
The fire, which happened early in the morning on Aug. 25, caused an estimated $1.5 million in damage to the Aristocrat, according to reports. Early comments by the bar’s owner, Rick Rising-Moore, suggested the bar could potentially reopen in two months; however, the Facebook page for the benefit concert says that date could be as late as March of next year.
The all-ages show will kick off at 6 p.m. at the Pawn Shop, 2222 E. 54th St. (just west of Keystone Ave.), and will feature local acts Standard(ish) Jazz Trio, Bit-A-Danger, Hogeye Navvy, Cuba Pudding Jr. and DJ Dicky Fox performing on the bar's outdoor stage. The event is free, but donations will be accepted, and there will be a raffle with proceeds going to benefit the Aristocrat’s employees.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Review: Super Happy Funtime Burlesque
Posted by Paul F. P. Pogue on Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 11:30 AM
4 stars
Birdy's, Sept. 3
One of the great things about burlesque is that you can get away with a lot of things inside the deceptively simple setup. Such was the case with Michigan-based Super Happy Funtime Burlesque, who wove quite a story of intergalactic intrigue as the setup for all the teaserama business to come. The main story, such as it is, squeezes the cast into wardrobes of various sci-fi archetypes — warrior maiden, robot, et cetera — on a mission to rid the galaxy of an evildoer who's half Jabba the Hutt and half Baron Harkonnen. This thing has more plot than the back half of Lost except that every plot development requires the cast to drop half their clothes.
Which isn't to say they don't have fun with the structure. They use the barest of excuses to flash back to other points in time, and one of the show's high points is a comedic 1920s bit involving an artist, a model and a lot of pratfalls, silent-film style.
The intermission featured a couple of bits from Indy's own Jezebel Sinfell and Veronica Belvedere, performing such nerd-friendly fare as "naughty Hogwart's student" and "slave Leia." To which all I can say is HIGHLY APPROVED.
One thing I dig about them in a big way: Live music. Even if you discount all the dancing, the band itself is hellaciously tight. The End Time Orchestra (what is it with apocalyptic names these days, I wonder?) combines classic rock with swing-band brass sections and clarinet, and it all works out pretty damn well.
Friday, July 29, 2011
DJ & Dance Review: Lemi Vice, 'Lemons/Let's All Fall in Love'
Posted by Kyle Long on Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 12:05 PM
"Lemons/Let’s All Fall in Love"
Rad Summer
3.5 stars
Chicago-based producer Lemi Vice’s first effort for Rad Summer — the second overall release by the label — is a definite winner. The digital-only single features two Vice originals — "Lemons" and "Let's All Fall In Love" — plus remixes for each track.
"Lemons,” every bit as sour as the name suggests, unleashes 4 minutes and 37 seconds of well-composed acidic dubstep noise on the listener. Glitchy high-pitched squeals battle it out against raw low-end wobble as a vocal sample — a single word, "lemons" — echoes constantly in the background. Definitely worth a listen for those who like their dubstep loud, aggressive and dissonant.
Indy's Action Jackson provides the remix for "Lemons", transforming Lemi's dubstep sludge into an uptempo Baltimore club stomper. Jackson is no stranger to B-more beats; in fact, nearly every track or remix I've heard from the young producer has utilized the genre's familiar fast paced rhythms and handclaps. All that experience must be paying off, as this is his strongest work to date. That said, it would be nice to see Jackson veer off into some unexplored territory in the future.
On to the B side, which features another well crafted slice of dubstep . Built around a sample from British R&B artist Estelle's "Fall in Love,” Vice's "Let's Fall in Love" manages to strike a pleasing balance between the singer’s sweet soulful voice and a cold, hard thump typical of dubstep.
Chicago's Vyle handles remixing duties for "Let's Fall in Love", reworking the track in what may be the most unlikely new style to have emerged in club music in recent years: moombahton (a combination of Dutch house music and reggaeton). Probably the weakest link on the EP, Vyle's mix fails to channel the moombahton beat in an effective manner, leaving the track to meander aimlessly and effectively bringing an otherwise strong EP to a somewhat lifeless end.
Download: "Lemons," via Rad Summer
Hear: A full stream of "Lemons/Let's All Fall in Love," via Soundcloud
Lemi Vice - Lemon's / Let's All Fall In Love (RS002) Out NOW! by Rad Summer
Friday, July 22, 2011
Review: Action Jackson, 'When the Night Falls'
Posted by Kyle Long on Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 7:03 AM
Action Jackson, featuring Oreo Jones
Rad Summer
Three stars
Rad Summer, a freshly-launched record label created by the local booking outfit by the same name, released its first two catalog numbers this month: When the Night Falls, a digital-only EP featuring the work of label co-founder Ben “Action” Jackson, and Chicago-based producer Lemi Vice's EP Let's All Fall in Love. We'll check out Action Jackson's effort first, with a review of Vice's record to follow next week.
Jackson’s name should be quite familiar to Indy club-goers; aside from holding down a weekly Wednesday night residency at the Casbah, the charismatic DJ also co-hosts the popular monthly “Let Go” and “Manic Monday” parties with A-Squared. This is his first release as a producer.
As a DJ, Jackson is known for uptempo sets that deftly mix contemporary underground club bangers with '80s pop and hip-hop. Fittingly, When the Night Falls builds on that template. It's essentially a three-hour Jackson set in three-minute capsule form.
Building on a vocal sample from Whitney Houston’s confectionery pop hit “I Wanna Dance With Somebody," Jackson darkly recasts Houston’s voice over a throbbing ‘four on the floor’ house beat and tense Baltimore Club-style horn riffs. A verse from Oreo Jones, delivered by the emcee in his characteristic pop-culture laced, deadpan style, is a highlight. It's easy to see why Jones has been rapidly rising up in the ranks of Indy’s hip-hop scene.
On to the remixes, which constitute the second half of the EP and frankly steal the show from Jackson’s original. Up first is Indy's own Scott Matelic. Known for being a “producer’s producer," Metalic has been featured on the playlists of top selectors like Nujabes, DangerMouse and AfroJack. His mix features beefed-up drums and switches out the Whitney vocals with a sample from Ben E. King’s classic “Stand By Me”. Not a radical departure from the original, but tweaked just enough to make things interesting.
But it's Philadelphia-based producer Flufftronix — the other half of Rad Summer — who provides the clear standout track. His remix finds wheezing analogue synth sounds and distorted vocals colliding over a thumping Moombahton beat.
Preview the whole thing on Soundcloud:
When the Night Falls EP (Out Now!) by DJActionJackson
And there's a chance to hear it in person as well: Saturday's Rad Summer Festival at Rock Lobster will commemorate the launch of the label with performances by just about everyone involved with its first two releases.
Friday, June 3, 2011
DJ & Dance Fatboy Slim: Spinning old-school
Posted by Rudy Kizer on Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 11:05 AM
In the world of electronic music, there have been select few acts that have crossed over to mainstream popularity. Name recognition of DJs for most people is generally limited to a few names, and one of the first that comes to mind is Fatboy Slim. Defining the “big beat” sound that dominated the ‘90s and early 00’s, Norman Cook’s alter-ego has quite literally done it all, from starting influential dance bands like Beats International, scoring hits as a member of the Housemartins, rocking dance floors under pseudonyms Pizzaman, Freak Power, Mighty Dub Katz, and Wildchild, redefining music videos with director Spike Jones, playing legendary festival sets at Glastonbury and Coachella, and playing to 250,000 people in his adopted home town of Brighton at 2002’s Big Beach Boutique II (a monster of his own creation). Q Magazine has cited a Fatboy Slim performance a one of the 50 Bands You Muse See Before You Die. At age 46, he still maintains a ridiculously active DJ tour schedule, hopping from one side of the globe to the other (last week saw dates in San Francisco, Ibiza, Las Vegas, Detroit, and back in the UK over the course of 6 days).
This year’s installment of Detroit’s annual electronic music festival, Movement 2011 marked a significant milestone for Fatboy Slim, as he was invited to headline the vitaminwater stage on the festival’s last day. Known for his quick wit and easy-going manner, he’s a very sought-after interview subject. On the day of his first-ever performance at Movement 2011 in the mecca of techno, Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim sat down for this exclusive interview for NUVO.
- photo by Jack Shepler
- Fatboy Slim, Movement 2011
RK: How's it going?
NC: It's great - it's fantastic to be here.
RK: We're so glad to have you in the States for a spell. You've got this gig that you're doing out at Marquee Day Club in Las Vegas. That town seems to be purpose-build for Fatboy Slim. What was that like?
NC: It was OK. I mean, coming here - you kind of feel like it's a gathering of the tribes who worship at the shrine of electronic music. Vegas, it's still more about, kind of, pneumatic tits and, you know...
RK: (laughs)
NC: I mean, they're very much interested in the party more than the music. I mean, I do both, I do the party and I do the music. I feel more comfortable here.
RK: These are your people.
NC: Yeah, I mean, there's only so much Botox you can look at. (laughs)
RK: Now, you're doing something a little bit different with this new "Big Beach Boutique" touring show, with the added aspect of video as well as audio.
NC: Yeah!
RK: Talk a little about that technology and how that's affected the way you perform.
NC: Well, I was always very old school with technology. I learned to DJ on records, on turntables, and when they invented CDs and computers and everything, I was like "NO, No, no, no no, no - that's all wrong."
RK: "Bollocks!"
NC: And, plus, I couldn't work out how to do it.
RK: (laughs)
NC: But eventually, they started releasing vinyl, and I had to kind of "wise up". Darren Emerson from Underworld is a mate of mine. He turned me onto Serato (digital vinyl emulation system), and then I kind of bypassed CDs completely and went to Serato, whereupon you can put the visuals (synced to the track). As we've been doing bigger and bigger shows, we're competing with rock bands. So, I'm just a bloke DJing - we had to make a visual show. Before, they never knew what I was going to play next and we couldn’t sync the visuals to the music. So, I would sort of shout, "I'm going to play 'Star 69' next" and the visuals never quite synced to the tunes. I'd play them at different speeds... With Serato now, I take the audio file and the video file goes straight to the LED screens. So, technology in the right hands. I was a late adopter, but I figure it's worth
waiting.
RK: Wait until they get it right, rather than deal with something that's janky.
NC: Yeah. And also, with LED, you can build enormous great screens, which are really vibrant, and they become a light source as well as a source for the visuals.
RK: That's pretty awesome - I can't wait to see it tonight. Let's talk a little bit about your material. Some of your best-received remixes started out as bootlegs that you tucked in your crate just because you loved songs. The one that leaps to mind is Cornershop's "Brim Full of Asha". Are you still doing a lot of that kind of thing?
NC: Actually, it's happening even more now because I just got Ableton (production software), which I'm trying to learn to replace my studio, but it's quite complicated. Again, I'm old school.
RK: I was going to ask - that was my next question. Has the technology made it easier or harder for you?
NC: I'm still learning about making tunes on Ableton, but Ableton's great for doing mash-ups. It REALLY is perfect for doing mash-ups.
RK: (laughs)
NC: Between that and Serato, I can do a mash-up in my hotel room. In fact, I was doing one an hour ago that I'm going to play tonight. I'm actually loving that. That's in kind of the last 6 months, and already two of the mash-ups I've done are getting released. One is the new Crookers single where I mashed up the Crookers single with the Lazy Hands, because he's on my label and we're putting it out.
RK: Ah, OK. Makes sense...
NC: And I did a mash-up of His Majesty Andre, right, where I put a vocal on it, and now we're releasing it with the vocal. It's the same kind of process but with better technology.
RK: You mentioned your label. Skint has been releasing remix packages of some of your older, better known stuff.
NC: Yeah, it's because I haven't made any new records. (laughs)
RK: How involved have you been in that process - selecting remixers, choosing what to release?
NC: I kind of A & R it. Again, we just get sent a ton of bootlegs and people say "can we put this out?" Sometimes we say "yes, you can put it out" or sometimes we say "we'll put it out". So, yeah. Again, with beatport and that, it's not an official release, so we just call them the bootleg series. Most of them - they're not commissioned. People just play what they've got, and we say "yeah". Some of them I'm actually like "NOOOOO". There's a few that I've kind of said "no, I don't want that coming out with my name on it".
RK: This has been a great weekend, because I feel like I've gotten to talk with both of Brighton's favorite sons because I talked to Beardyman yesterday. He sends his regards…
NC: Oh yeah? Great! He's a good old boy.
RK: This is your first experience playing Movement Festival, and knowing the history of Detroit techno and the history of this festival...
NC: ... and the history of Detroit music, from Motown to Iggy Pop, yeah. For me, it's a proper honor to be invited to play here, because obviously I'm more of the commercial end of electronic music. I can imagine a lot of people in America probably think I'm the Antichrist because of what I've done with it (laughs). You know, to come back to the birthplace of techno and come back with my sort of bastardized version, it's a real honor to be invited. Everyone I've spoken to, they’re like "don't do a techno set — do what YOU do. That's what we love." For three days everyone's been kind of like, sitting on this kind of tense groove...
RK: People have been amped all weekend.
NC: ...and what I'm going to try to do is have the big party at the end - it's just the big release.
RK: Beyond the US tour dates, what kids of things do you have in the pipeline, studio or otherwise? Are we going to get another Fatboy Slim album?
NC: There will be, possibly, another Fatboy Slim album. (laughs) To be honest, the past couple of years I've been enjoying doing other projects like the BPA and working with David Byrne (of the Talking Heads).
RK: That project was fantastic.
NC: I just had another baby, which keeps me out of the studio. I'm really enjoying DJing at the moment. I kind of figure at my age, there's a finite amount of time I can do this, and I really enjoy the fact that I can still travel around the world and enjoy it (DJing). At the moment, I'm not really motivated to go into the studio. As I said, the only tunes that are coming out are sort of mash-ups I do. In this part of my career, I'm just not in the studio. Who's to say that in a couple of years time I'll get burnt out of traveling travel and get back to it.
RK: Well, we'll wait with baited breath.
NC: Yeah, but don't hold your breath. (laughs)
Fatboy Slim will be touring the US with upcoming dates an Marquee Day Club in Las Vegas July 3 and September 4, with a return to the area for North Coast Music Festival in Chicago over Labor Day Weekend.
Rudy Kizer is the host and producer of X103's "Hit The Decks" radio program, Sundays at10pm, and still can't believe this interview actually happened.
