NON-BRIT: Larry Tee vs Don Diablo!

Larry Tee is my hero. He's my friend. And he has very often been my mentor (despite being many states away and only seeing each other once every 3 years or so). The man has influenced music in a way that many DJs and producers could only DREAM of.

Here's a little Wiki-bio for those of you not familiar with his work...
Tee was born to two Canadian-born citizens in Seattle, Washington. He grew up in Seattle and then Marietta, Georgia. He moved to Atlanta in the early eighties, where he became a part of the music scene and he hung out with drag personalities such as RuPaul, Lady Bunny, Amanda Lepore, and Lahoma Van Zandt at the Celebrity Club in Atlanta.

In 1989, Tee along with RuPaul and Lady Bunny and Lahoma Van Zandt moved to NYC and quickly took over the Club Kids scene with his epic party, Love Machine. He hosted the infamous DISCO 2000 seen in the movie Party Monster's hot body contest, and also DJ'ed at the ROXY on a weekly basis.

During the 1990s, he became a prominent DJ by playing at highly-regarded venues such as Palladium, Twilo, and the Roxy NYC. In 1992, Tee co-wrote the RuPaul's top 40-hit "Supermodel (You Better Work)".

In the early 2000s, Tee created and trademarked the term "electroclash" and it became well known enough that it started to appear in the Oxford Dictionary. He coordinated and managed the 2001 Electroclash Festival, which featured Scissor Sisters, Fischerspooner, Ladytron and Peaches, who all participated in the festival. He also created and managed the nouvea-music electro girl group, W.I.T."

I mean come on! Creating "electroclash" and then defining music for years to come, helping launch some of the most important acts this decade, writing on of the most popular dance songs of all time? THE MAN IS A GENIUS! I could tell you more awesome things about him (like his amazing transformation from drug addict to superstar DJ) but I'm sure you'd rather hear this remix, featuring Roxy Cottontail, from 2009's remix king Don Diablo :)

LARRY TEE - LET'S MAKE NASTY (DON DIABLO REMIX)
LARRY TEE - LET'S MAKE NASTY (DON DIABLO REMIX) zShare
LARRY TEE - LET'S MAKE NASTY (DON DIABLO REMIX) YSI

Here's Don Diablo's press...
Don Diablo (www.myspace.com/dondiablo), who's currently on tour through North America, gets nasty with New York nightclub legend Larry Tee's forthcoming single 'Let's Make Nasty' on Ultra Records, adding tons of subbass, freaky synthstabs and his trademark guitarlicks, turning 'Let's make Nasty' into an effective clubrocker Don Diablo style. Play this baby on a big soundsystem in a dark underground club and damage will be done to the dancefloor. Expect Don Diablo to cause damage to dancefloors in Houston (Rich's, 17 Dec), El Paso (Club 101, 18 Dec) and San Diego (Voyeur, 19 Dec) this week!

I love being able to post stuff that has two people I admire in it and this is one of those rare opportunities. Larry Tee is an inspiration to me and I don't think he has any idea how much people adore him. IF you somehow don't own Larry's most recent album Club Badd you need to get with it and but it here.

Anyway, I'll be back soon with new stuff from HWD! I'll try to get it up quick (but finals and life are kicking my ass)... be back soon!

South Central and MACHINES DON'T CARE... sounds like the best Tuesday of your life...

Funny thing about blogging is eventually the line between promoting someone else's music for fun... and posting about the music of people you like turns into the same thing.

Example: South Central.

South Central are my fucking boys. They produce banger after banger (in a non-Ed Banger way; I'm starting to get a little worn on that whole thing... not to say it isn't good guys; you know I love you) and are cool fucking dudes in the process. Doing a widely publicized remix for an up and coming band like Late Of The Pier, doing a fucking insanely sick mix for Kiss FM, and touring for Club NME would have most young duos/bands getting huge fucking egos and losing all their hard work to too much charlie and groupie head. These guys however just keep plugging along, making new tunes, and checking their ego at the door. Great tunes+great attitude=Eventualbigtimesuccess in my humble opinion.

So I present to you a wicked new remix that shows serious growth towards that goal... this tune is really different from their previous remixes but I reallllllllly like it...

Sneaky Sound System- "Pictures (South Central Remix)"

On a different note.... The world also gets smaller when you blog a lot... eventually people you post about, if you spend enough time working to the heart of this music biz monster, are friends of friends (if they aren't your friends already).

Example: Herve

6 degrees of separation turns into 3 degrees. Herve has done two high profile projects with two of my friends... hopefully someday we will meet... who knows? I think it's fucking awesome though... makes me feel like the world is really small which is nice in an age where there is no community anywhere. Now his Machines Don't Care project is getting closer to having an album released so I'm giving you a track off it.

Machines Don't Care- "On A Roll Man"


APPARENTLY Machines Don't Care isn't just a couple of names you'd expect to see next to Herve's. It's like a BUNCH of names... MACHINES DON’T CARE are Hervé, Sinden, Trevor Loveys, Affie Yusef, Toddla T, Fake Blood, Detboi & Drop The Lime?!?!? WTF? That boy Toddla T is making it happen I tell ya... I'm trying to get him back on the line but looks like he's hella busy lol...

This track was passed on from their website Machinesdontcare.com... go check it out...

I love this fucking track. It's like straight up acid, with an MC with a heavy accent, with strange vocal drops that I can't tell if they're watermarking or part of the track. It reminds me of current stuff, with a pinch of Josh Wink, and then the first half of Simon Reynold's book "Energy Flash" all put into one song. It's ravey and it's bonkers and I love it...

Speaking of ravey and bonkers... the video for my boy Larry Tee's song "Licky" (which appears to be the original song superimposed on top of Herve's remix) is finally out. It's weird to me the life of some songs. Like... "We Are Your Friends"? That song could still blow up a room right now. Doesn't matter how many times it's been played (other songs from the same time period as the original release I doubt we can even remember). Same with this track. I got it March of last year, it's been officially released, put on loads of comps, Santogold put a verse over it for Steve Aoki, and this fucking thing just keeps on ticking! It's a testament to how fucking truly genius the man is. Shit even I've posted about it in some form like 5 times. Check it out... Princess Superstar is awesome...



Let me say something real quick though before I end this post. Don't get me wrong for two seconds. This doesn't make me special. I wear a blue shirt and khakis, lift heavy shit all day long, am despised by my coworkers, and making barely over minimum wage in the process. I can barely ever pay for anything other than flowers for my girl and discounted "Ice Cream" trainers. I'm treading water like there's no tomorrow. But at least there is something exciting in the middle of that shit storm and it's knowing that almost every day some artist I like or someone I know has a new tune out... and I'm proud to help represent that. So it doesn't make me special... Simian Mobile Disco calling and waking me up last Friday was cool, but it didn't make me special. When I have an album done and people recognize that (if that ever even happens) then that's a whole 'nother something. But it in meantime I'm here to spread the gospel of other people's amazing work and enjoy doing it :)

See you on the next post!

Everybody gotta work it out... Herve gives you 'Cheap Thrills'...

Me in a bad jean-short/visor/sweat-soaked-combo with my friend the legendary Larry Tee

SO here's a fun post where I get to tell you guys about a great memory. I mean a great memory. And I get onto Herve starting his own label... Trust me it will all tie together...

Ok. For those of you who have been reading for the last year, you may remember me telling you about all the fun that was had in Miami during the Winter Music Conference... alas, I will not be going this year, BUT all the awesome shit that happened last year makes up for it.

SOOOOOOO... the last day of the 'conference', Sunday, was a pretty down day. My partner was totally worn out from the whole week and not trying to deal with the world. I had some new found friends call me out to kick it at Remix Hotel insuring me they had badges lying around and I wouldn't have to pay. At the end of the afternoon I found myself standing on Collins waiting for Anya (aka Womso... the only girl I've never slept with who almost ended my relationship doing nothing!) to come out and get me because there was a SUPER long line (she was waiting to come out when she knew she could sneak booze back in)... while I'm standing there waiting my buddy Curt Autobot (of Flosstradamus fame) just happens to walk down the street after having just flown from SXSW...

...so I tap him on the shoulder and he's like "Yeah, dude, I'm so wiped. We've just been moving non-stop. Josh (J2K of Floss) got stranded at some airport, I just met MSTRKRFT like two seconds ago and was too tired to talk, and I'm fucking starving. Everything is just too intense right now and I feel like shit. I gotta get something to eat... walk and talk." So we walk a few blocks down some really crowded area I didn't know existed (really how much of Miami, or rather South Beach, do you see when you go to WMC?) he runs into some people and I begin to feel a little out of place...

...see, Curt and I came up in the same town in Michigan, played the same weird ass warehouses, both went to school in Chicago at the same time, and even worked on songs together for a while... as in we were close enough that I stayed at his house while my roomie and I were finding a place in Chicago... but eventually I moved out of the Chi, which is one of the things that caused us to stop talking/working/hanging out together (we reconnected at Intonation Festival right before Flossy D BLEW UP)... but if you find a copy of my first demo you'll find that Curt's the first person I thank... but frankly you're never gonna find that unless well I dunno you're Larry Tee, or Errol formerly of Astralwerks, but I think I retrieved all the other existing copies!

...so anyway, here I am with my newly anointed "international-jetset-superstar-dj" buddy (he was on the cover of URB that month) walking with his friends I totally don't know and I start to feel weird. I mean REAL weird. He, although very tired, keeps trying to engage me in conversation and I start to become more and more uneasy. I release he's headed somewhere NICE and here I am, Midwestern Retard, dressed in a wifebeater, a black visor, JEAN SHORTS (which trust me I have since given up), sweating like a crack whore in a sauna from nervousness/heat...

...and we arrive at, exactly as I thought, a fucking really nice cafe! And I hesitantly walk in with him ...and I feel the air conditioning hit me and I'm like thinking "Ok, maybe I can hang. I just need to relax." So, the hostess takes us to a table that seats about 12... I can see most of the people have been sitting for a little while, and there are two seats left! Sweet right? So, Curt sits down and I go to join him BUT I suddenly look up and see Naeem Juwan at the other side of the table... I mean, that's probably what you'd call him if you knew him well like Curt does... but to me, my sweaty stupid looking Midwestern ass is staring at Spank Rock... and despite having met him two nights previous at the Turntable Lab party, I knew I couldn't sit around and chill with someone whose CD I listen to like every fucking day... no seriously, I'm man enough to admit I couldn't hang! I was in over my head... Now Benny Blanco is apparently trying to fuck my ex-girlfriend seeing as she "accidentally" sends me emails about it all the time but I digress (I guess go gettem Benny!)...

So I immediately bail and find a slew of mean text messages from Anya about how I left her in line and she saw me walking off and how I was a motherfucker for making her come out for nothing... she was REALLY pissed. I hauled ass back to the Remix Hotel gig and we all danced like retards... or at least I did... I was wearing an inflatable duck on my head...

Then blah blah blah we went to this Oakenfold thing and got past the wait, which despite the fact I don't care for him anymore was really fucking cool to bypass a three hour wait and a velvet rope! PROBLEM was Anya didn't have her ID... I mean I dunno??!? She's Russian! I don't know how that all works... but she couldn't come in with us... so I was there for like 10 minutes and declared "I gotta go to downtown Miami. My friend Curt is playing down there. I'll see you guys next year!"

And off I went. Patrick and Anya drove me to a corner where I knew I could catch a bus and that was that. I took the bus downtown and walked to the venue. It was REALLY fucking tiny and both Curt and Pase Rock were playing... there were like maybe 20 people there and I could tell both of them were like "Who fucking roped me into playing this place on a Sunday night in Miami?"... I went to talk to Curt but he was going on and... what was I going to do? Hang out with Pase Rock? Nope nope nope nope... I listen to Five Deez and his solo shit quite a bit so that's not happening. Some people I can do that with and some people I can't (that's kind of where this story is heading). So I stand in a corner and slowly make my way backwards to the bar. I figured "Hey, I'm gross, out of place, still wearing an ill advised beater and a visor, and I probably just need to go home. Just like earlier. Blah."

So I depart from this bar that is JUST far away from the bus station to be scary. There are literally crack heads walking around like zombies and then start coming closer to me. Every time I look over my shoulder they get closer, every time I speed up so do they! As I think I'm about to get dragged into the crackhead underworld a silver two door comes speeding up to my side, the door flings open and who is it other than my mentor Larry Tee!

He says "Do you know where Karu & Y is?", without even looking up at me.

To which I said "Larry, I'll get you there but you've got to take me with you!"

When he looked up and saw it was me, he leaned forward, I jumped in the back of the two door and we ran off to this club...

...which was the greatest thing ever because Larry didn't play which meant we got to hang out all night. Top five best nights of my life ever and I was totally sober. Amazing. I could tell you all about it again but I think I did last year.

Anyway, it comes time for the night to end and Kevin (Larry's friend and assistant) drops Larry off, and then goes to drop my ass of (because it's SO not safe to take the bus that late). Kevin turns to me and says "Have you heard the song?"

"What song?"

"Have you heard the song he did with Concetta? Off Larry's Sampler that he gave you?" (FYI: Concetta is Princess Superstar)

"Well, no, because he just gave me I copy. He hasn't had them on him all week because I always see him when he's relaxing or it's the end of the night."

"Holy fuck. You have to hear this..."

AND THIS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHERE THE STORY TIES BACK TO HERVE! We're driving down the highway at god-knows-what-o-clock and I'm hearing "Gettin' low low on the ground" thinking "Awwww fuck. This is why Larry is a fucking genius." And then Kevin goes "Hold on, I gotta turn it up." And then I hear...

"L-i-Licky-c-k-Licky-y-L-i-Licky-c-Licky-k-y"

AND THEN A BASS LINE AND A SYNTH THAT MAKE THE EARTH SHAKE. Which of course resulted in my jaw hitting the floor. And Kevin goes "I know right? This is the Herve remix... it's so fucking good". That drive back to my hotel on 72nd was fucking amazing... best WMC ever... how can you top moments like that? I waltzed into the hotel at like 5am and said "Hey, Electroboy, guess what you just missed out on?"... (FYI: Electroboy is Larry's nickname for Sam)... and, of course, he knew he realllllly missed out... especially if my lame ass is coming home at 5am because I'm usually in bed by 10pm lol...

When he finally got to hear the Herve remix the next day we were like "How did we ever end up in the position where we have a copy of this before everyone else?"... sometimes you're just lucky I guess...

AND today my friends you are luck too because I'm gonna get you hooked up with some good shit fer reals... here's the info on Herve's new label...

New label launched by Joshua ‘Hervé' Harvey aka The Count

Featuring new releases by all the alter ego’s and new talent including Action Man, Voodoo Chilli and Detboi

The Count & Sinden’s “Beeper” released in the UK on Domino Records on 24th March 2008

The Count & Sinden debut album out in summer 2008

www.MySpace.com/hervespace

www.MySpace.com/thecountofmontecristal

Maybe this is "DJ snobby" of me but errrr hasn't "Beeper" been the hottest shit on wax for 12 months? How is it JUST getting released? PLEASE tell me this doesn't have to do with red tape from Star Trak (seeing as the vocal is from a FamLay song... I jumped on his back once... but that's a different story for a different place... it's been easier to explain that story since the "Beeper" song came out)... still just as hot 12 months later though...

ANYWAY... here's the goods kiddo... I tried to keep it as British as possible... so here's a Herve remix of the Chemical Brothers that is fucking soooooooo sick... from 2:30 on it's like a weird Prince song and then the drums are sooooo fucking dope....

Chemical Brothers- "The Salmon Dance (Herve Remix)

And here's a mini mix Herve would like you to have... enjoy.....

The Count of Monte Cristal EP 2 Martelo Mini Mix

So see.. there, you got a fun story where I make an ass out of myself multiple times and we get to hear one of the greatest songs like ever... you wanna hear the Larry Tee song? Go to his Myspace and buy the damn thing... or swap that new Steve Aoki because it's on there with Santogold rapping... I'm not giving it to you for free... sorry kids... hotness... see you soon...