Rating: NNNNN
Nice party, people
Friday night after my rock show at the Bovine , we hopped in a cab to go to Stones Place for an eclectic little party called Nice Shirt, Gaylord . Before anyone gets upset, the word “gaylord” is being used here in the childish insult way, not as a reference to sexual orientation. Patrons were invited to wear their stupidest shirts for prizes, while listening to TInkertoy ‘s live melodic techno, Tetris Hold’Em ‘s Nintendo Gameboy- fuelled electro beats and DJ sets by Jonny Dovercourt and Matt Collins .
During his closing set, Collins (better known as part of Ninja High School) dropped everything from vintage hiphop and metal to 50s rock ‘n’ roll. An unlikely mix of music, but I guess that was the point of the night.
Shit happens
Over the past few years, the Expensive Shit parties have been some of the hottest in the indie-dance scene. Unfortunately, with the imminent departure for Europe of co-founder (and sometime NOW Magazine writer) Luca Lucarini , they’re calling it quits. Thursday night’s grand finale at the Boat drew a capacity crowd. True, you could have packed in a couple dozen more heads, but the new bouncers downstairs weren’t having any of that. In case you’re wondering, the Boat still smells like urine, a situation that probably won’t change until the proprietors can afford to tear up the ancient floor and replace it.
That didn’t interfere with the party, though – you just have to concentrate on breathing through your mouth. Musically, Lucarini (aka Captain Easychord ) and Rob Gordon (aka DJ Nunk ) describe their sound as dancehall, electro and hiphop, but I’m not sure I’d agree completely. Many of the modern electro tracks they play sound a whole lot like early Chicago house, and many of the classics were also pre-house anthems. Not to say they overlook the dancehall and hiphop, just that it’s not the dominant sound of the night.
WeDance combo
Local house promoters WeDance combined two of their brands ( WeGoDeep and WeGetFunky ) last Sunday for one event at Mod Club Theatre . The line between the two is fairly indistinct, since funky house and deep house aren’t exactly at opposite ends of the musical spectrum. Canadian-born, San Francisco-based Julius Papp provided the deep West Coast house, playing lush melodic tracks but not as jazz- and soul-influenced as that NYC deep house sound. He played some good tunes, but it was evident that most of the crowd wanted it harder and jacking.
They got their wish from Joey Youngman , who, though also California-based, plays closer to that third-generation Chicago style – lots of short aggressive sounding loops, with much more focus on rhythm than melody. He started off strong but got a little boring after about an hour, so we called it a night.
