Street Style » Jo Jo Zep

Goodnight LCD Soundsystem and BDO side stuff

Jo Jo Zep — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:14:11 +0000

Some very, very sad news today. James Murphy has announced that he has finished with the LCD Soundsystem moniker. I first heard this news after the Big Day Out in Perth this year where it was said James mentioned that it would be their last live show. This rumour was quickly crushed by the man himself but has resurfaced just recently and looks pretty official this time. The only thing confusing about this is that James has also said he has an album worth of songs “in his head”. Brother is so talent-full he doesn’t even need to write his shit down. I’ve been a big fan since I purchased the Losing My Edge / Beat Connection 12 inch a few years ago and believe LCD have pulled off the rare feat of not really releasing anything that sucks. Sure, some things may have slightly missed the mark, but no one else in that post disco / krauty world has really touched anything James has done. Exceptions to this rule include !!!, Hot Chip and Yura Yura Teikoku who are also in the business of crafting dope jams. For proof, check this live shit.

Meanwhile I’m sure a lot of you would have caught them at the Big Day Out this year, but back to the break up theory… I think it may just be a case of James soldiering on but leaving the name behind him. He has always talked about doing a rock / psyche band, so hopefully that is the jam he gets on.

On another note, just for the hell of it, read this whole thing

Also, BDO side shows have been announced:

ALL TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 1 DECEMBER

THE PRODIGY

MELBOURNE - Thursday 29 January - The Palace

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

SYDNEY - Wednesday 21 January - The Metro

MELBOURNE - Sunday 25 January - The Prince Bandroom

ARCTIC MONKEYS

SYDNEY - Thursday 22 January - The Enmore

MELBOURNE - Saturday 24 January - The Palais

PENDULUM

SYDNEY - Sunday 25 January - The Enmore

MELBOURNE - Wednesday 28 January - The Forum

LUPE FIASCO

SYDNEY - Tuesday 20 January - The Enmore

MELBOURNE - Tuesday 27 January - The Palace

HOT CHIP

SYDNEY - Wednesday 21 January - The Enmore

MELBOURNE - Sunday 25 January - Billboard

SERJ TANKIAN

Plus special guests

FANTOMAS

BRISBANE - Wednesday 21 January - The Tivoli

SYDNEY - Saturday 24 January - The Enmore

MELBOURNE - Sunday 25 January - The Palace

THE TING TINGS

SYDNEY - Tuesday 20 January - The Metro

MELBOURNE - Wednesday 28 January - The Prince

TV ON THE RADIO

plus WOLF & CUB

SYDNEY - Saturday 24 January - The Metro

MELBOURNE - Thursday 29 January - The Hi-Fi Bar

THE BLACK KIDS

SYDNEY - Tuesday 20 January - Gaelic Club

plus VAN SHE

MELBOURNE - Saturday 24 January - The Corner

plus GAMEBOY GAMEGIRL + STREET PARTY DJs

DROPKICK MURPHYS

SYDNEY - Sunday 25 January - The Metro

plus THE CORPS

MELBOURNE - Wednesday 28 January - Billboard

Plus BULLDOG SPIRIT

Justice Busted

Jo Jo Zep — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:06:19 +0000

Not huge news, and probably no surprise to anyone that has actually followed the duo since day one, but Justice have revealed that their debut long player, †, used over 400 samples… only 3 were cleared. Anyone who hates on this fact is really, really idiotish. I already know people that are hating and dudes and dudettes, welcome to music. The use of uncleared samples is a daily occurrence and IMHO rules. Especially the fact that besides the super obvious Goblin rips, which were cleared by the way, the samples are used in a way that pretty much renders them unidentifiable. Most are used to add layers to the sound and so sit next to notes played by Xavier and Gaspard. Dudes know how to write a song regardless of methods used and they can not be hated-on for that.

While I’m in the mood for defending Justice, and keeping in mind I am rarely in the mood for defending anything, there has been a photo creeping around on the innernehtz lately and has resulted in the 2 French battlers copping a little Flak.

The photo looks a lot like Gaspard is playing a machine that is not plugged into anything. I would totally agree, but a few facts for the lads..:

1. This particular device can be powered by USB… there is a USB cable just below the device that looks like it has just been pulled out.

2. They had just started playing when this photo was taken and had not yet noticed.

3. Gaspard said this; “I couldn’t remember the city but I think it was in Manchester , I didn’t notice at first, because as you can see I was looking at the computer to launch the next vocal hook and right after I realised that the blue screen went black, so there was no way possible it could work. So I plugged it back in, big deal! And the next thing you know is this picture.”

4. THE FRENCH NEVER LIE.

5. This may be a lie.

Peace!

shit happened again… Tatlers / Piano Room Sydney throwdowns

Jo Jo Zep — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:03:46 +0000

I thought the Parklife weekend was a long one. This weekend just gone killed it. It started Thursday night at Tatler’s a great venue in the middle of Kings Cross, for the release of the new Bang Gang mix; “D is for Disco, E is for Dancing”. Known for it’s “exclusivity” getting into this place is hilarz. You knock on a gate and a guy comes out from behind a door behind the gate and asks you what you are there for… You tell him “the Bang Gang party” and he goes back inside the door to check you are on the list and then lets you in. As you can imagine, doing this for every person that arrived resulted in a line streaming down Darlinghurst Road … Way to keep secret bar hidden. Party was good, lots of free Vodka and beer and drugs and epic jamz played all night long. As usual Jamie and Gus killed the game, Jamie especially… dude’s DJing is sooooo tight! I stayed in Friday night… worked out it was the first time this year. Shit is heavy. Saturday was a fizzer but Sunday night was hands down, best party of the year. The Modular ARIA after party went down. Party was off the party chain. I don’t think Kings Cross’s Piano Room knew what hit it. The place was packed to the rafters with a good, solid mix of Sydney ’s D Grade celebrities. Music ruled (left of centre shit through to pop…) and so did the vibe. The party started at 9:30 and was still crazy full at 5am when they shut that joint down. Kick ons were a must and I can’t imagine what some people were like at work on Monday morning. I know one reputable Sydney DJ / Party runner who’s Facebook status from his desk at work at 9:15 Monday morning was pretty funny. GOOD TIMES. Sydney is party central at the moment. I am scared for my brain / liver with summer approaching. x

happenin now…

Jo Jo Zep — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:02:03 +0000

I wish Dwayne Michael Carter Junior was my boy. I wish when I finished work I could meet him at the pub and talk bitches and money till the wee hours. I don’t think it would work though. What with me a middle class, Catholic school boy raised in the green pastures of South Australia and him raised in pre-Katrina flood New Orleans . Our world’s really couldn’t be much different. I’m going to try though. With a Lil Wayne tour rumoured for sometime in 2009 my chances may have increased… I’m probably way more likely to befriend MGMT while they are out here but to be honest, I’d rather not. Having said that I definitely would. In other news, my girl Catcall is currently making hew way around the East coast of the USA . She’s based in Williamsburg , Brooklyn for the CMJ Festival. I guess you could describe it as the SXSW of the East but it has more of a College Radio (huge in the US ) focus rather than an indie label focus… She’s there with Sleater Brockman who is her on stage DJ and manager. While he’s not DJing for / looking after Catcall he has been playing a few of his own gigs around New York . The lucky bastard is playing The Rub this coming Halloween weekend. For those that don’t know, The Rub is a party run by DJ Ayres, DJ Eleven and Cosmo Baker. If you don’t know who they are you should probably Google that shit. They rarely have international guest so needless to say, gig is kind of a big deal for Sleater. Lastly, there are 2 pretty amazing shows on this weekend, although unfortunately I am out of town ( Melbourne – vom!) for them. Both are on Saturday night… First of all, Rye Rye, the teenager from Baltimore who has worked with the likes of Diplo and Sinden and is now signed to Insterscope is playing at Oxford Art Factory. More importantly (I think) DFA records official in house DJ and all round top dude Tim Sweeney is playing at La Campana in the city. Needless to say shit will get deep into party town, wish I could be there… L

Jo Jo Zep just wants to let you know how his October Long Weekend went and doesn’t care it was a while back

Jo Jo Zep — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 05:30:39 +0000

This is my review of the October long weekend for me in Sydney . It was one of the longest weekends I’ve had. It started Friday at Goodgod, possibly Sydney ’s best club night. It’s run by Jimmy Singalong, Hanna Shamamanana and Sprucey Lee Lee. My favourite thing about the night is the dress code. White jeans and a blue T or blue jeans and a white T. Genius. The venue is La Campana, Liverpool St. CBD. The music is literally EPIC JAMS from beginning to end. Naming genre’s is for jerks so I’m not going to do that but it is fairly safe to say if your taste lies slightly left of centre, this party is built for you. I’m playing the next one on the 7^th of November, come party! Saturday night was Jovivivi Bear’s UP TOP DISCO at One Love followed by No Answer at Q Bar. Sorry, way too high to remember what went down… I imagine both parties were fairly fun. I awoke Sunday morning for Parklife. From what I can gather, the main thing about Parklife is getting your shirt off. Also, having the Southern Cross tattooed on you somewhere is also an obvious requirement. Metro Area were killing the game when I got there, they were also clearing the dance floor of the main stage which was pretty hilarz. Soulwax played after them and were amazing but there was a severe lack of vibe. I blame the fact that it was still early in the day… Diplo dropped the cheese straight after, I vaguely remember seeing Peaches from really far away and then it was time to go. I played one of the fifty seven after-parties at World Bar. My boy Reggie Lewis killed the game all night long, I DJed for about 10 minutes then passed out in a taxi. I woke up on Edgecliff Road . SYK PARTY BRO!

Jo Jo Zep kicks off on MGMT

Jo Jo Zep — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 04:41:33 +0000

This is my review of how I will be conducting reviews. Probably most importantly, there will be no scoring. Scoring doesn’t work. You can’t apply a number to this shit. It doesn’t make sense. Oh, this record gets 18/20 because dudes on the cover have seen a General Pants catalogue. Whatevz. I can not be bothered with that. What you will be getting is an insightful exploration into funny gossip about whoever made the record. Let’s face it, no one cares about music anymore… we just want to hear about who the artist is sleeping with / what drugs they are doing. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule (Little River Band, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, anyone that has stood in the same room as Brian Eno) but they are so limited that I’d rather pretend they don’t exist. For instance, if we were to look at the current MGMT single “Kids” my review would go something like this..:

“Two dudes that live in Williamsburg that look like every other dude that lives in Williamsburg that can now afford way better drugs than you because a major label gave them shit tonne’s of money and the drugs are way cheaper in New York than Sydney. Anyway they wrote a song called Kids and it seems OK but I would probably rather look at pictures of the girls these dudes are sleeping with than listen to this. Having said that, song is a bit of a jam. I’d definitely download it illegally.”

I have to write 400 words though so I will probably actually do some sort of research on the band / artist. There is also a pretty good chance I will just make heaps of stuff up. Oh, and one last thing; if you don’t agree with something I say, I don’t really care because it just means you’re wrong. Please feel free to tell me what you think though and I love getting opinions on new music… it’s all just soooo great. I’m hanging to hear about how good the new Kings of Leon record is dude bra. Do you and the rest of the bra’s love it? Thought so.

MGMT crowd photo by Pam Cantú