Once again the Video DJ professionals of the world will unite this September 2012 under the Las Vegas stars for the 2nd Annual Video DJ Conference. An exclusive meeting bringing together the world’s disc jockeys, vjs, editors, animators, hosts, managers & other industry members who have adapted their craft with the use of video. This unique annual event started as an experiment for the most rapidly expanding genre of disc jockeys in the world. It has grown into the official place to be once a year for networking & education for a variety of topics in the video dj community. The experience comes complete with panel discussions by industry leading professionals, product launches by top brand name companies, pro sessions designed to educate and enlighten, live webcasts, an awards show & even the highly anticipated Video DJ Battle of the year! The conference will take place at The Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on September 23rd – 26th, 2012. Hotel rooms are available directly through VJDC at a discounted rate. Special Pro Packages are also available for 1 or 2 people including an inclusive bundle of items.
Whether you’re a Pro, Beginner or even just thinking about getting into video…. This is the conference that you should not want to miss. It’s going to be the one all your competitors will be talking about.
Watch this behind the scenes video for Santigold’s new video for “The Keepers”. This is snippet of behind-the-scenes footage captured during filming in brooklyn of this grotesque dark comedy.
“In talking about Appetite For Destruction, an album that turns 25 on Saturday, it’s fun to think about the context that burped the band up: A group full of hard-partying Sunset Strip veterans who’d all done time on the L.A. pop-metal scene, led by an Indiana transplant that still thought of himself as some sort of off-the-bus hick delinquent and compensated accordingly. And that band happened to have both the ridiculous chops that the pop-metal scene required and a sort of alchemical, otherworldly chemistry that few other bands in history have ever displayed — one of the things that makes their quick dissolution so tragic. And that hick happened to have this sensitive sandpaper wail that sounded sensitive when it was trying to sound tough, and vice versa. That’s a deep and rare combination, and somehow it doesn’t come close to explaining how an album like this could happen. Instead, you almost have to think about the album in pure mythic terms. In his great Axl Rose thinkpiece a few years ago, John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote that Guns N’ Roses were “the last great rock band that didn’t think there was something a tiny bit embarrassing or at least funny about being in a rock band,” probably the best description I’ve ever seen of this particular band’s peculiar animal glamor. Their filth was mystical. (more…)
Dave Grohl’s new project is starting to seem just as exciting as his album material. The Foo Fighters frontman just dropped the third trailer for his forthcoming documentary about legendary L.A. recording studio Sound City, and while it still doesn’t offer a release date for the movie, it’s packed with cameos from Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Mick Fleetwood, Butch Vig and more.
“Sound City, mannn,” Tom Petty coos about the legendary studio, which turns 40 this year and has been the birthplace of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors and Nirvana’s Nevermind, as well as the final three Kyuss albums and countless others. The space, owned by Rainy Day Records CEO Tom Skeeter and his family since the ’70s, went fully private in May 2011.
“When Sound City closed last year it was a very sad day,” Dave recently explained. “That place was like a church. The list of people that recorded there is like a virtual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We recorded Nevermind there back in 1991. That funky old place had the best drum room in the world. The drum sound at the beginning of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit?’ That’s Sound City. I decided to make a film about that feeling when you put five guys in a room, hit ‘record’ and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Expect some epic jam sessions.”
Despite the one-minute run time, the new clip goes a long way towards attesting to some of the magic the room has been capable of. That has mostly to do with the studio’s massive and legendary Neve 8028 analog sound boards, which Grohl himself liked so much he actually bought it and installed it in his own garage studio.
Sometime in late 2007, Adam Goldstein, aka DJ AM, entered into an agreement with Interscope records and Jimmy Iovine to do a DJ mix cd. I was brought in on the deal to be the executive producer of the mix and to work with Interscope & Adam on what songs needed to be cleared. Adam’s wishes were for a timeless, classic mixtape that had everything from Michael Jackson to Guns N Roses to Madonna on it. He wanted to showcase all of his classic mix routines and was unwilling to compromise on the music selections, he felt that if we used current music it would sound dated almost immediately. I agreed 100% with his viewpoint on the project but I knew we were facing an uphill battle for legal clearances. It proved to be simply impossible from a budget standpoint to get approval on the artists Adam wanted on the mix. The project stalled and was eventually shelved. During the development phase of the project, Adam was asked to record live mixes from his gigs and send them to me. I was then asked to tracklist the mixes and group together mix sets that were candidates for the Interscope project. Over a month period in early 2008, Adam sent me several live mixes from various parties he did and I tracklisted them and sent the info to Interscope.
By this time, DJ AM was a national superstar in the club music scene. He was signed to a very lucrative contract to be a weekly resident at Pure Nightclub on the Las Vegas strip. As Jonathan Shecter, aka Shecky Green, pointed out in his excellent article on DJ AM entitled “Scenes From A Life,” his deal at Pure changed the game. It was a deal for 1 million dollars per year for working once per week. No other open format DJ had ever approached this kind of money for spinning commercial tunes. I remember after he signed the deal officially, he called me and expressed his excitement at reaching this new plateau. He told me he kissed the ground and thanked God after the deal was official, he finally felt he had reached the success he was striving for. The following live recording is from his Pure Nightclub residency. It was recorded on January 25, 2008. After some googling, I discovered that it was a party for the 34th birthday celebration of Tiffani Amber Thiessen of Saved By The Bell & Beverly Hills 90210 fame. You’ll notice there is one minute of dead air around the 49 minute mark, this is when the Pussycat Dolls brought out Tiffani’s birthday cake and sang happy birthday to her. Check out the event flyer below and notice how small DJ AM’s name is on it:
“Touring’s fun but it’s fast-paced.” Finis “KY” White, a tall, lanky studio engineer, sits down inside southern rap phenomenon 2 Chainz’s personal tourbus. “We’re in the club for like, 20-30 minutes, then we go and we’re recording, then we drive to the next place and have another show.”
White has spent the last six-and-a-half months on the bus as 2 Chainz’s studio engineer. “Even though we’re out on the road we still have to keep moving, because hip hop moves fast,” he explains. White, 2 Chainz and on-bus producer Jack “Suthernfolk” Brown have labelled the bus’s fully loaded recording studio (complete with stripper pole) “Deuce Mobile”, and often give it a shout-out in recording credits, tagging the city they’re travelling through – “Deuce Mobile Atlanta”, “Deuce Mobile Houston” etc. 2 Chainz also being the king of cameos, Deuce Mobile has been credited on Nicki Minaj’s “Beez In The Trap” and a remix of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend”, as well as the Drake-featuring “No Lie”, the lead single from 2 Chainz’s forthcoming debut solo album, Based On A T.R.U. Story. Even Kanye West has stepped in the bus booth to record a few verses. (more…)
“Coachella has become so big, even two back-to-back weekends aren’t enough to satiate eager music fans. The fest’s promoter Goldenvoice has announced that it will launch S.S. Coachella, two separate sailings with the same lineup. Pulp will headline the two inaugral voyages: Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas from December 16-19, and Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica from December 19-23.
The best part of a Coachella cruise? No never-ending traffic to get to the venue each day. Find out more details and check out the full lineup below.
Both cruises will take place on cruise ship Celebrity Silhouette, which offers 12 dining venues, 9 bars, multiple live music settings, a spa and an impressive pool deck.
Reservations for S.S. Coachella can be made beginning Saturday, July 21 at 10 a.m. PST. Prices start at $500 per person, with easy payment plans available with only $250 due at time of purchase. Reservations are available at http://ss.coachella.com.”
“It’s not exactly “International Love,” but Miami rap star Pitbull is about to bring his act to a nonetheless far-flung site — Kodiak, Alaska. The unlikely tour stop announced Tuesday will mark the first time the chart-topper will visit the state known as The Last Frontier, and it comes as a result of a marketing deal and perhaps a little mischief. Pitbull, aka Armando Christian Perez, in a promotion with Walmart and Sheets Energy Strips, agreed to visit whichever Walmart got the most “likes” on its Facebook page. David Thorpe, a writer for The Boston Phoenix, thought it would be funny to exile the “Give Me Everything” rapper to the most remote Walmart possible, and encouraged people to “like” the Walmart in Kodiak. The store in a city with a population of about 6,100 wound up with more than 70,000 “likes.” The surrounding borough, which Alaska has rather than counties, has about 14,000 people. Walmart spokeswoman Sarah Spencer said details of the trip are still being worked out, including whether it will be a one- or two-day appearance. Pitbull will spend time in the community and with Walmart employees, Spencer said. Pitbull appeared in a YouTube video Tuesday while on tour in Madrid, Spain. “I heard that Kodiak, Alaska, has the most likes due to someone who thinks he was playing a prank,” Pitbull said on the video. “I said, ‘OK, great, this sounds really good.’ You have to understand I will go anywhere in the world for my fans.” Read More At New York Times
Nelly Furtado‘s video for “Spirit Indestructible”, the Darkchild-produced title track from her forthcoming album has just been released. Watch as she goes from the stage to the mountain top.
