NO SCRUBS: 90’s Dance Party began in 2004 as a one-off concept party by friends and DJ partners Will Eastman and Brian Billion. The idea was simple: play both guilty pleasures and underground classics you listened to growing up in the 90’s: Salt N Pepa and Nirvana. Ace of Base and Happy Mondays. The Prodigy and Biggie. By its third edition, the party quickly began to sell out the Black Cat back stage and, later, fill the Cat’s mainstage. Rather than host No Scrubs weekly or monthly, Eastman and Billion insist on keeping the party quarterly and as guilty a pleasure as they want it to be. After another 6-month hiatus, NO SCRUBS is back August 7th. We’re exercising our pleasure groove to Bell Biv Devoe, TLC, C&C Music Factory, Oasis and 2Pac at the spacious 9:30 Club whose sound and light systems are simply incredible. Back in August, the night nearly sold out, so be sure to get there at doors for this special event. Look forward to seeing you there!
Party throwers and music blog Blisspop.com’s quarterly rager, BLISSPOP, returns with hometown heroes Tittsworth, Nadastrom, Will Eastman, Dmerit, special guest Le Castle Vania. Blisspop is a force to be reckoned with as it not only provokes it’s patrons to get intoxicated, in trouble and in love, it adds a fourth element: insanity. Blisspop showcases the best of D.C. electronic dance music, with the occasional addition of one or more international guests, guaranteeing a night of the most skillful of DJ sets alongside an insurmountable experience of peak energy and excitement.
Continually pushing capacity at U Street Music Hall, Will Eastman’s forward-looking dance party, Bliss, returns on Saturday, July 24th with special guest DJs Dominique Keegan and Andrew Jaye. For nearly a decade, Bliss has ignited a fire among its patrons with a no attitude, just fun and “insane dancing” agenda. Its mission statement is to get its patrons in trouble, intoxicated and in love. This time, with fellow Plant Music label mate Dominique Keegan and local DJ Andrew Jaye, Bliss is set to reach a new peak of uninhibited stark raving dancefloor madness.
LA’s Classixx have been tearing it up for some time now, and this Saturday they will hit the decks with Will Eastman, Micah Vellian, Ed Dudes at U Street Music Hall. Cop their ballin’ XM Mixtape 1 below for a preview.
Dear friends, my remix for the fantastic UK group The Pipettes is out now. The song has been available for two weeks as an iTunes exclusive and we’re please to now make it available on Blisspop. Cop the remix below and be sure to nab the entire single featuring the original song and a remix from Kompakt Records’ Justus Kohncke HERE.
Hope y’all enjoy the track and holler with ur thoughts!
Dear friends, Arjanwrites just posted up my new mix of Reni Lane’s “Place For Us.” Had a lot of fun working on this one at my dude Micah Vellian’s studio and looking forward to dropping it in the club. Nab a free download at Arjan’s blog and if ur feelin it, please tweet and give it a <3 on Hype Machine. It recently reached the number 2 spot in Hype Machine’s Twitter Chart! Holla!
Grab a free dl of Reni Lane “Place For Us” (Will Eastman Remix) http://awe.sm/527Ay @hypem & click <3 if ur diggin it! Pls RT.
In 2009, Phoenix (a BLISS favorite back to their first record, United, and our very first event in 2000) made the indie album of the year, pulling heartstrings of bloggers and Madison Avenue (Cadillac commercials) alike.
Producers were the heroes of 2009. They took dance floors to new levels of insanity and beauty. Favorites of the year are Classixx, Doorly, Harvard Bass, Laidback Luke, Nadastrom, and Riva Starr. Classixx’s remixes roll subtly and gently, never revealing more than needed. Their remixes of Phoenix and Holy Ghost! and anthemic original, “I’ll Get You,” featuring Jeppe of dearly departed Junior Senior/“Move Your Feet” fame, count among the year’s finest.
Whereas Classixx and The Twelves dominated electropop, Electro House and Tech House propelled dance floors. Nadastrom were in my best of list last year for their debut ep. This year’s follow up, The Saved ep gained them wide-spread recognition, sending the guys around the world. We can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!!! It’s simply a pleasure watching these guys work a floor and each new production is like a Christmas present.
This year, local producers and DJs stepped up in a big way, a fantastically welcomed new trend that was one of the most exciting things of the year. I hope it continues to pick up speed in 2010. Gave a lot of stuff by locals a work out in the club in ’09: Tittsworth, Nadastrom, Outputmessage, Micah Vellian, Steve Starks, Nacey, Gavin Holland, AutoRock, and the list goes on.
I don’t believe it’s possible to quantify the “best” of any art form and year in lists typically leave me unsatisfied, therefore, in no particular order, with no particular, easily rounded number, here are some of my favorite tracks and remixes of 2009. I probably inadvertently left out a bunch. It’s all good. There’ll be more.
Lusine – Two Dots
Miike Snow – Silvia
Bingo Players – Devotion
Nadastrom – Save Us
Will Eastman – Feelin’ (Original Mix)
Drop The Lime – Set Me Free (Harvard Bass Remix)
Scottie B & King Tutt – African Chant (Top Billin Remix)
Steve Starks – You Don’t Want None
D.I.M. & TAI – Lyposuct
Bad Brains – Intro
Rush – Limelight
Queen – Flash’s Theme
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster)
Will Eastman – Feelin’ (Nadastrom Remix)
Hervé vs Metallica – Enter Sandman
The Stooges – I Wanna Be Your Dog
Calvin Harris – Ready For The Weekend (Fake Blood Remix)
Beni – Maximus (Harvard Bass Remix)
Noob & Brodinski – Peanuts Club (BeatauCue Remix)
Outputmessage – N.Y.R. (Will Eastman Remix)
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Outputmessage’s “N.Y.R.” single comes out today. Outputmessage is one half of Dmerit with Micah Vellian and his upcoming album is so fine it’ll no doubt make a big splash. Will Eastman does a remix for his good buddy that you can DL here, and cop the original on iTunes, Amazon, or Band Camp.
Directed by Chris Burke. Short documentary about a very long day in May shooting the music video for Will Eastman’s Remix of “So Damn High” by Ruby Isle. Video coming soon from Kindercore Records…
Follow