​If there is one guarantee in life is that Ultra Music Festival's lineup is always one of the best in the country. Need proof? Early-bird, two-day tickets to the festival, which sold for $99.95, are gone. What's impressive is that it happened without a single act being announced for the 2010 edition.
But don't fret, tickets to the festival haven't really sold out. Two-day general admission tickets are now being sold for $139.95 (plus all those taxes and ticketing charges). Still no word on who exactly will be performing, but if you're smart you'll probably want to snag some tickets right away. The festival will take place March 26 and 27 at Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami. Tickets are available now via ultramusicfestival.com.
​I have a personal pledge not to think about Winter Music Conference until, shit, at least Art Basel Miami Beach, and, ideally New Year's are both over. Still, if you are absolutely, totally positive you will be attending both days of the Ultra Music Festival in 2010, this early-bird ticket special, on sale today, is the best deal you'll find. Starting at noon today, you can buy a two-day festival pass for $99.95.
No, there isn't a shred of line-up released yet, just the two dates: March 26 and March 27, which, like every year, are the Friday and Saturday, respectively, of WMC. We'll post details when we get them, eventually; it's Ultra, though, the line-up will be good. You can purchase the tickets starting at noon today, at ultramusicfestival.com. Uh, happy Halloween.
MSTRKRFT performing at the Bayfront Stage at Ultra Music Festival Day 2.
With two-days worth of performers, Ultra Music Festival is still to this day the show to attend during Winter Music Conference. Our cameras were out there in full-force to give an unprecedented visual compendium of everything that went down during the festival. Check out photos from both Day 1 (part 1 and part 2) and Day 2 (part 1 and part 2), as well as our look at the fashion you will probably only come across by at the festival.
Cut Copy lead singer Dan Whitford at Ultra Music Festival Day 2.
Ultra Music Festival '09: Cut Copy Saturday, March 28, 2009 Bicentennial Park, Miami
Better than: Listening to them on your iPod.
Most of my encounters with Cut Copy have been while drunk at The Vagabond or White Room, where indie dance-rock is pretty much the norm. However it wasn't until Boys Noize gave "Lights & Music" his own personal electro-house touch that I started to really give them any attention.
Considering these guys have been at it since 2001, even having performed in Miami back in for WMC 2006, they aren't exactly new to electro-pop scene. However, 2008's In Ghost Colours has definitely been the band's defining moment giving them not only critical acclaim, but plenty of presence on the dancefloor.
At Saturday's performance at Ultra, the Aussie quartet gave the audience plenty of synthetic beats and melodies to dance to. Yes, this wasn't you hard hitting electro banger, but who the hell cared? Not me. Plus, my ears appreciated the break.
So after wrapping up a couple of feel-good stories about a female inmate being sexually assaulted by prison guards and the ridiculous shenanigans by some cops in a tiny place called Biscayne Park, I stepped out this past Friday to The Vagabond for a little Winter Music Conference R&R.
There we caught stupendous live performances by English indie band Late of the Pier and underground rapper Rye Rye, who answered a few questions for Crossfade following her set.
Here we have footage of Late of the Pier killing it at The Vagabond's outdoor patio:
Crystal Castles vocalist Alice Glass at Ultra Music Festival Day 2.
Ultra Music Festival '09: Crystal Castles Saturday, March 28, 2009 Bicentennial Park, Miami
Better than: Everything else at Ultra -- seriously.
The lights dimmed at the Bayfront Stage at Ultra Music Festival and from the darkness emerged the silhouette of the lead singer Alice Glass, a petite girl who looks like that goth girl in high school who kept to herself and nobody bothered to mess with because everyone thought she might beat the hell out of you. The man in shadows, Ethan Kath, poured synthetic beats over the speakers that sounded similar to their remix for the Klaxon's "Atlantis to Interzone" however it could have been a variation of their song "Knights" from their 2008 debut Crystal Castles.
My first encounter with Crystal Castles was back in 2006. The duo came down Miami several times to the now-defunct Revolver party. But it wasn't until WMC 2007 at Mansion's Mansion Loves Electro party that I got to see what they were made of. Glass shrieked her way through the set while crawling on the floor. Most people in attendance either looked toward the stage with confusion or simply made a quick exit to the adjacent room.
Sources say that The Prodigy missed their flight to Miami and might not make it in time to perform tonight at Ultra Music Festival. With Calvin Harris and Bloc Party already AWOL this week, we are starting to see a trend.
Stay tuned here as the news develops.
UPDATE: A commenter noted that their Twitter says "We're in Miami for the Ultra Music Festival today." Putting in some calls to confirm that they've arrived in Miami.
UPDATED X2: The Prodigy's people confirmed that their flight was delayed, but they should be flying into Miami in time for their scheduled performance.
My sources are buzzing tonight with some special surprise guest appearances at several parties. First, it's been confirmed that Ed Banger Records head-honcho Busy P will be spinning at the Fool's Gold Showcase tonight at White Room. The party is free, no RSVP required.
Over in Allapattah, Our House West of Wynwood is hosting U Don't Like Me, I Don't Like U. Diplo is on the roster and who will be MCing for him than none other than Lil Jon who is working with the rising DJ/producer on tracks for his new album. This party is also free and there will be free booze as well.
Holler if you've heard of anything else happening around town that we should know about.
Ultra Music Festival: Santigold, The Ting Tings Friday, March 27, 2009 Bicentennial Park, Miami
Better Than: The best pop you've never heard.
Hard to say the best way to tell when I'm most thrilled by a band. Is it when I'm so giddy with excitement that can't stop shooting the show? Or is it when I gotta pocket the camera and pull-out the notebook because I've lost my ability to focus? Then again, maybe it's when I'm so taken aback I can neither click nor write, so I just stand there and take in the sheer pleasure of the experience.
But I've got a job to do, and allowing myself to wallow in joy while a band's on stage won't help me get out the story. So I shoot. And I write. And, more often then not, I'm fumbling around trying to do both. And when I'm done it's generally the act who gets both the most shots and the most ink that has gotten to me more.
From the double-digits on my camera's shot clock and the pages upon pages of scribbled scrawl, I'd say Santigold and The Ting Tings came up tied last night. Both had me clicking and scribbling as if my world was on fire. And when I was finished, I knew I had just witnessed two of the best pop acts in music.
Yes, I'm not going to be very popular by saying this, but Day 1 of Ultra Music Festival sucked. Perhaps it was the nerve of organizers scheduling Santigold for a 5 p.m. performance slot (WTF?), or Bloc Party canceling, or perhaps LMFAO taking the stage during the Black Eyed Peas performance to cement what is certain to be their one-hit wonder status by singing "I'm in Miami, Bitch!" Everything was bad -- really bad!
The only real highlight for me was seeing The Ting Tings perform. I couldn't get over how intense they were despite being only two people, and the crowd loved it as well.
Trust me, I tried to give the festival a chance, but to many things went wrong in my book. The fact that Para One, Surkin and LA Riots were relegated to the small, hidden Biscayne Stage is unforgivable in my book.
Black Eyed Peas brought their humps to the main stage at Ultra.
Ultra Music Festival: Black Eyed Thieves Friday, March 27, 2009 Bicentennial Park, Miami
Better Than: Having My Wallet Stolen
Call me a snob, but besides stage-front, my favorite place to hang at Ultra is the VIP/Press Lounge. And this year, was no exception. Put together by my ol' colleague Michael Sheehan, ex of the late, lamented Map Magazine, it's got everything a working journalist could need: free-flowing 42 Below, ice cold cans of either Pilon coffee or Penthouse Energy Drink, access to artists and organizers, and a comfortably cool configuration of settees and tables courtesy of Wynwood's wily Urban Icons.
The Lounge also has swag. Not Oscar-sized Gucci bags filled with lift tickets to Vail, mind you, but hip stuff that fits the program. Stuff like Skull Candy, which increasingly seems to be the DJ's first choice in headphones. In fact, I got my first pair of Skull Candy buds from DJ Miner when I interviewed him for this very paper. And I've been an acolyte since.
So I was understandably a little thrilled last night when Michael gifted me with a brand new pair of electric blue Low Riders; so much so in fact that I kept them in hand while I went off to cover the Black Eyed Peas' set. Since it was the last act I was gonna catch and I was only going to the photo pit in front of the stage, I didn't see a problem.
If you were one of the 300 "regular" folks, or the 150 or so "press" types who got invited to the Bacardi B-Live Press Pool Party on Tuesday night, say a hefty thank-you prayer to the God of Groove.
Inside the basement Japanese restaurant, Fountainbleu's Blade, free drinks flowed (Bacardi, of course). On the interior stage, as it was called, just steps from the Blade bar, music from the likes of Craig Pettigrew and Drop the Lime saw a small crowd gathered around, dancing to the beat, while outside a massive rum-drenched, music-induced pool party was turning the sophisticated Bleu into a purple haze.
By the time we sauntered in and made the rounds, kicked back and had a few free rum and DCs, Drop the Lime had taken over the turntable on the interior stage. This New York City born and bred self-imposed deconstructionist wasn't just tapped to play the Bacardi gig because lime mixes well with the spirits, but because the Lime-man mixes well with anything.
Here are some pictures from between 1 and 3 in the morning of Gigolo Night at Goldrush strip club in Downtown Miami. Thanks to Goldrush for the shooting access. It's a good place to spend every dollar in your pocket -- don't worry they have an ATM. Also thanks to DJ Hell for doing a show in a strip club. That is a genius idea, although I did overhear one dancer tell another "Why don't they just like play Lil Wayne or something?" Here are the shots:
My WMC day on Thursday went from swish to underground to somewhere in the middle, and it was interesting to see how conference is holding up across the economic strata. It seems like in the alternate world of dance music, people who have been partying on yachts are still partying on yachts. The rest of us are maybe saving cash by staying home more this year, or bored of the excess these industry extravaganzas can bring.
To wit -- my day started on the annual private Sasha and Digweed cruise aboard the Lady Windridge yacht, sponsored locally by Creations/the Vagabond and also by the swank San Francisco club Ruby Skye. For those really into progressive house titans and the feeling of living the high life, this was a dream party. The Brit super-DJs spun for a small crowd of a couple hundred, and there was all the catered food, top shelf booze, and Red Bull one could drink. What recession? Everything was ridiculously idyllic, from the way the tunes matched the changing light to the dolphins swimming behind the yacht (really).
For the Latin music lovers out there, WMC hasn't forgotten about you. Our sources at the Shelborne say salsa princess La India is slated to make a cameo some time this afternoon, er, which is basically now. The hotel is hosting DJ Magazine's Recession Sessions so this ought to be interesting. We're stuck going to the Bacardi B-Live event at Blade, but let us know if you hear of what went down.
Apparently Timbaland felt like driving over from Pinecrest for some fun on Saturday. He's been added to the bill for Ultra that day, where he'll be performing a live set after the Prodigy and before Paul Van Dyk. If you somehow need more information about Ultra, visit ultramusicfestival.com.
Well it's Winter Music, and this writer has gone to exactly no events. Today is the Sasha and Digweed booze cruise, errr yacht excursion (invite only so forget about it) and tonight is Tony Touch at the Vagabond, but.... also next door slyly opening for Frankie Bones is Miami's own reclusive transplant from Waukesha, Dan Doormouse, playing his first stateside set of hardcore in almost a year following a semi-retirement of sorts. Doormouse is known for pushing the envelope past the breaking point in both music and performance, and he claims to be excited about the set. It's going down at PS14. Don't sleep.
That green blur is the lone dancer at Nocturnal last night.
Yesterday, Jose Duran weighed in on the Eatskeet . com / Hipsterrunoff . com "Party Worth Blogging About" at the Gansevoort plunge pool, which we both attended. He was mostly on the money, but I should add that the party attendance had improved by the time I arrived around 2:30. In fact, it got downright crowded as the afternoon wore on, although the music never improved (that busted speaker issue never got resolved) and the drinks, sadly, never got magically cheaper. By late afternoon, some live humans did variously stand behind the decks -- the only one I recognized was Hollywood Holt -- but that's barely the point of a Hipsterrunoff-sponsored meta-party, right?
Around five, the party switched over to a private Ultra Records thing, but with that busted speaker still, the only thing that noticeably really changed was the tan and collagen level of the people trickling in. (It's a little sad that I wasn't the only one who recognized a cast member of Real Housewives of New York City there -- it was Ramona, if you're wondering). Deadmau5 was supposed to play, and I spotted a guy in Deadmau5's signature mask thing, but who knows if it was actually him or just an avatar (he seemed really young by his build).
I must have spent the whole day at the Gansevoort South yesterday, because after attending A Party Worth Blogging About (debatable), I returned for an private Ultimat Vodka event at the hotel's rooftop pool featuring Steve Aoki. It was, eh. Really, I only attended because I was planning to go to Louis -- also located at the Gansevoort -- for Les Six Years du Institubes party featuring Para One and Surkin.
Do I really have to say how awesome the Institubes event was? I had high expectations and the party definitely didn't disappoint. I arrived just as Curses! (also known as Drop the Lime) was in the middle of his set. But the highlight of the night was definitely Para One who built up the momentum and had the entire place going crazy.
Around 3 a.m. I decided it was time to go see how White Room was kicking off Conference. Their first WMC party was Bang! Bang! which featured Craze, Shy FX, Drop the Lime and more. The place was packed, wall-to-wall, which was a bit overwhelming. It was obvious the crowd was enjoying themselves but I avoided the main room because I don't think another body could fit in there.
If there is nobody at a pool party can you still call it a pool party?
Just returned from the Gansevoort South. Music editor Arielle Castillo and I were at the A Party Worth Blogging About event by EatSkeet.com and HipsterRunoff.com. So in honor of HRO I'm going to ask a few philosophical questions:
Do pool parties need people in order for it to be a 'partie'?
If someone plugs in an iPod are they still DJing?
How many children can a $9 Heineken feed?
I don't think I would be so critical about the party if I hadn't received an e-mail from some girl named Lindsay saying "Please come early! The venue holds 700 and we have 2000+ RSVPs!" Apparently, the 2,000+ RSVPs were still drunk in their hotel rooms sleeping, because when I arrived at 1 p.m. there was no more than 70 people.
Hamburg-based producer Stimming has been making waves in the elite minimal community with a series of highly distinctive and phenomenally funky releases on his hometown's Diynamic label. Both a trained classical musician and certified audio engineer, his mind-boggling productions defy the stereotypes of techno and the very parameters of dance music itself.
Richie Hawtin was touring Australia last week. Now he is in Miami for WMC. After Miami? Who knows. He lives for his music. His music has layers and layers of beats that are played over and over until your mind becomes hypnotized.
It has been called "minimal techno," and it is what I am listening to right now. I emailed his publicist some questions while he was in Australia, and a few days later she responded: "Here are Richie's answers for you. They're actually in-depth and great answers! I learned a thing or two about Richie myself! Please read the following email interview, and learn. Richie Hawtin's live shows are legendary. He is playing at Ultra, but we were more concerned about his record label's showcase at Karu & Y tomorrow night, Thursday March 26.
Dutch DJ Joris Voorn has gotta be one of the headiest head-spinners working the decks these days. In fact, his double-disc Balance 014 mix CD seems to spring straight from an ether all its own. So New Times decided to give the celebrated dance man a chance to bring it all down to the ground where we mere mortals live. Here's how he fielded things. -- John Hood
New Times: If you had to peg your sound to one genre, would you say it's techno, minimal, house or trance?
It's a bit of everything I think, maybe trance the least of them all though haha... I like to work across different genres and combine different elements of all into one sound, or maybe a different sound for each piece of music I work on.
First night didn't go so well for me. After a few too many glass of
champagne early in the day at the Gansevoort's rooftop pool, I had to
go home to sleep off the buzz. Yes, I broke my rule of not drinking
early in the week. I woke up groggy and with back pain around 9 p.m.
Needless to say, last thing I wanted to be doing was go out on a
Tuesday night, but, eh, whatever.
I made it to the Major WMC party
at Electric Pickle around 11 only to find the place dead. Can't say I
was surprised. Tuesday night of WMC has always been an Achilles' heel
for the mainland. Also the party was run by a bunch of people from Los
Angeles, which is where this Major party is based out of, and Miami has
definitely never taken cues from LA as far as its own dance music scene is concerned -- that's not to say there aren't great LA DJs, but Miami and LA's dance scenes are worlds apart (2 a.m. closing time and celeb-obssessed crowds, no thanks).
Close watchers of the local electro scene may remember producer/DJ Jason Tyler's splashdown here from Chicago a couple years ago. (Read a past New Times article on him here). While last year he went back to the Windy City for a while to work on some new music, he's returned, and as a partner in a new lower - Washington - Avenue club called ... well, Chicago.
No, the club won't be plagued by frigid blasts of air. Rather, think of the good things about the actual town of Chicago -- friendly people, relatively cheap drinks, a seriousness about dance music (and dancing), and hot dogs. For real. Well drinks here will only cost you $5, and you get all the Chicago-style hot dogs you can eat (although, perhaps, there may be ketchup available). If you're broke, you'll be wise and stop by here every day -- there's an open bar from 10 to 11 all through conference.
The club reaches across two floors, indoors and out (it was Club Zoe for a hot second, and aging ravers might remember it wayyyy back as the site of the old Mission, home of those infamous Beatcamp drum'n'bass parties). Only the top floor will be open, starting tonight for the annual Spider Pussy WMC throwdown. After the jump comes all the info on the club's WMC lineup.
Before heading off to see Wavves (for the third time in 36 hours, as it turned out) an No Age (for the second time in 24), one of the last shows I saw at last week's SXSW was Kid Sister at the Don't Mess with Texas fest. Flanked by DJ duo Flosstradamus, the trio admitted that their voices were on its last legs after a week of partying and playing countless show, literally, giving credence to the meme that Winter Music Conference is getting South By's leftovers.
But, lets get it straight, while WMC has certainly taking a back seat to SXSW in the media, the two conferences couldn't be more different than the sun and the moon, or The Sun and The Neon Lights and "My Moon, My Man". WMC started in 1986 in Fort Lauderdale as an eighty person conference, a year later SXSW debuted in Austin, Texas with a whopping 700 person attendance. For the next decade and a half the dance-centric WMC and the indie-fied SXSW really didn't overlap. Then somewhere along the way someone started "playing Daft Punk to the rock kids," and in 2002 two dudes called the DFA resurrected dance-punk and produced a little song called "House of Jealous Lovers" for The Rapture, leading to a weird world of cross over dance acts, house remixes of punk bands, and all sorts of MP3-blog fuckery.
Since their inception two years ago, the Ting Tings have enjoyed unbridled success, laying siege to charts and hearts in both the UK and the United States. So much so, that even a reporter could become nervous when speaking for the first time to one half of the British outfit, drummer/vocalist/producer, Jules De Martino. So the interview got off to a rocky start.
Santigold isn't pop. She isn't electro. And she sure as hell isn't hip-hop or R&B, despite what some narrow-minded critics have implied. It's a position she continues to defend, though just listening to her music should allow her to rest her case. Rather her music is a blend of underground sounds, leaning heavily on dub and New Wave with elements of electronica and what she herself calls a "psychobilly" groove. The smartest thing would be to avoid classifying it altogether.
"I decided to just switch my focus to just making my music," she says, "with no expectations of what I needed to make or what it needed to sound like. Not try to say, 'Can this be played on radio?'" But being true to herself, and refusing to compromise her creativity, has paid off in spades. Santigold is ubiquitous -- her music is heard in commercials, she recently opened for Coldplay on a national tour -- and still has retained her underground cred.
The Sydney, Australia-based duo the Presets has been dubbed, variously, industrial, psychedelic, techno, and dance-punk, among various other genres. There's some truth to all of those, though none is 100 percent accurate. Imagine if Trent Reznor produced New Order's latest album, and you've got the first inklings of it, but even that misses out on the Presets' distinct, frequent sense of joy.
"On the one hand, the music has darker elements, but these are juxtaposed by some lighter, more 'pop' moments," says keyboard player/drummer Kim Moyes. "As an album, and as a live show, you want to have some bangers as well as some delicate moments. Even when we go 'dark' we like to have a bit of romance about it. We like putting odd things together and seeing what comes out of it."
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