Afro Monk

Michal Menert just released his new full length release, Even If It Isn’t Right, today on Pretty Lights Music for FREE. If you’re a fan of Michal Menert or the sound that Pretty Lights represents I highly recommend grabbing this right NOW!

I had the pleasure of meeting Michal over WMC this year and got to kick it with him and take a glimpse into what the future holds on his side of things. This album defies a lot of the norm for most releases and tells his story in this long composition. Spending a few days with him and his manager I knew that I had to help them out. It’s not very often you come across such a talented artist with the ideals and vision that Michal has.

He’s your regular guy who likes to play video games, chill, make music, and eat tons of sushi. His story is quite a unique one and he’s the only person who could say that early Pretty Lights music was composed of Derek and Michal. It’s something that I believe isn’t noted enough.

I had the pleasure of being in Denver for Menert’s debut of his new fancy projection mapped stage. The moment I walked into Cervantes I was totally blown away. The team that put together is the same team that has put together Pretty Lights past stages but this one has been taken to a whole new level. The dedication and effort put behind Michal Menert is second to none. It’s a honor to have been brought in to take part of it. There’s much ahead and can’t even describe to you how incredible the experience was that night except by showing you a video of how wild it all came out below. The video was done by the Swaager team/website and is only a small glimpse into this magical stage represented by mountain like structures with a sun/moon center where Michal performs in front of.  The lasers, video clips, and seamless combination of music and visuals are some of the best I’ve ever seen in my life.

Dear promoters of all locations. This show and stage will be touring in the Fall. I HIGHLY recommend picking this up. It’s one of the most amazing stages I’ve seen. The production levels is on par if not higher than Pretty Lights and other projection mapping stages out there. Cervantes was completely slammed and no one had any idea that the stage was being showcased for the most part.

Now go grab the album for FREE and download Dreaming of a Bigger Life if you haven’t already!
Michal Menert – Pretty Lights Profile

Also the new website has had a soft launch and ready to check out if you haven’t seen it. Check it out and watch it grow as I work my magic on it.

Michal Menert Official Website

Whats your Phobia?  Do you have a overwhelming fear of Heavy Bass, Melodic synths, and Sick Beats then Woofer Cooker’s new release Phobia is going to drive you over the edge!  This compilation was created by the members of the Glitch Hop Forum Community.   The winners of the 2ed forum production contest were picked for the best original song following the theme, Phobias.  The results were across the board and were judged by some big names in the Glitch Community.  There were prizes and the such, but the selected were offered to be released for everyones listening pleasure!  After listening to this collection, I’m proud to be a member of our little community at Glitch Hop Forums and once again am totally impressed by how talented our members our!

Make sure you check out Noel Planet’s sick ink blots.  Each tracks gets its own orginal creation! Check Her out here!:

Here is a little Tease!

The release is going to be exclusively on Addictech for one month and then will be for sale through Woofer Cookers.  Grab it here!

Lightning in a Bottle took place this year from May 27th-30th in Silverado, California. This was the second year where it was held at Oak Canyon Ranch. The layout of the festival was improved dramatically to allow campers easy access to the three immense stages. Last year one of the biggest issues was going up and down the mountain to reach the main camp area and stages. This year it seemed like The Do Lab figured out all the little kinks out and made for one of the greatest events I’ve ever attended.

Right when you drive into the venue an incredible force and vibe takes you. The community unites for this giant gathering of music, art, workshops, and more. People from all over the world unites and creates a small city made up of tents, RVs, renegade sound, shaded areas, grills, and beautiful people. There are three main stage areas that host some of the biggest and rising stars of underground music.

The Wookie stage is one of the first stages you see as you enter the festival looking for camp ground. It was an incredible sight to see. I heard the stage was rocking a FunktionOne sound system but to be honest I stayed clear of that stage. The Wookie stage is generally known for playing House music and too be honest I’m not a huge fan and there was way too much going on to even step onto that dance floor but it definitely was going off every time I came back to camp.

The Lightning stage is where the a lot of the big boys played. The area was massive with an enormous amount of room. This clearly was the main stage area. The production value on this stage was incredible with stunning pyrotechnics during Kraddy’s set. They also brought in giant LED screens for big acts like Pretty Lights and Mimosa. The vibe during the day was more of relaxed journey. I had great memories listening to Invisible Allies during the day on Sunday. I will say many of the opening bands were quite disappointing such as Metal Mother which almost made me wonder what was going on or if this all was just a sound check. The biggest crowd I saw was during Pretty Lights. The place was slammed and had to resort to going backstage to catch his set. Despite Pretty Lights set crashing and having dead air for about 2 minutes kids were still ready to party. Mimosa surprised me with his set as he is known for raging out and playing heavy popular brostep he kept it quite tame and one of the best sets I’ve seen from Tigran. It’s always a surprise though to see such a talented producer not play all originals or even more than 4-5 for hour and half set.

The Bamboo stage is practically where I lived. All my favorites and close friends were playing in this area. The first act I caught at LIB 2011 was Sex Pixels. They won the slot for the mixtape contest and wanted to see who these guys were considering I couldn’t find anything about them on the internet. Turns out they are a duo act and played mainly house music which I thought was odd they were placed on the Bamboo stage vs the Wookie stage considering the style of music they played. Going back to my initial shock of openers were Pussy Monster. I almost felt embarrassed for them as it was one of the worst sets I’ve seen on a major stage. Granted I don’t expect to love everyone but I was just shocked to see such a booking for the opening slot. The rest of the week-end everything I caught on the Bamboo stage was absolutely breath taking for the most part. The vibe and feel of the music being played in this area was clearly geared to more of my style and taste. Friday night NastyNasty stole the show for me. There was nothing that was going to top his set. Having a full 90 minute journey by Jasper was heaven. The way he flowed and broke his set into 30min pieces from dubstep to slow jams to 808 hiphop beats made his set my personal favorite of the entire week-end. A few of my friends also played on the Bamboo stage such as: Stephan Jacobs, Goldrush, Gladkill, ill-esha, Love & Light, Mimi Page, and Joey Mousepad. All of them did such an incredible job up there! Other notable acts were Emancipator, Phutureprimitive, Lynx, and Paper Diamond (which I only heard about and upset I missed Alex’s set).

Lightning in a Bottle doesn’t only cater to the people who are interested in the music but many other things. Many of the workshops I heard were incredible. The art and live painting going on all around the festivals created a real unique experience. Thousands of people dancing, hoola hooping, spinning fire, and sharing each others presence makes this festival one of the better communities to be around. All the vendors and food was excellent. I couldn’t get over how tasty the pizza was. Everything was done with thought and consideration. I never ventured up the mountain this year as it was something I didn’t need to relive. I heard it was gorgeous up there this year but I decided to pass and stay close to camp and others things going on.

Lightning in a Bottle truly encompasses everything you’d want in a festival. It changed my life for the better going last year and this year was nothing short of amazing. The community and people make this festival. The line up may change every year but what doesn’t change is the passion, love, and dedication put into everyone who is involved including you.

Of Porcelain aka Josh Mayer is no joke my favorite producer. Anyone who has ever talked to me about producing music eventually knows that my biggest influence would be Of Porcelain. The downtempo trip-hop artist is most well known by his other alias Ooah of The Glitch Mob. He also has other projects he is part as well such as PantyRaid and The Seedling Escape.

Josh has created such an impression with me that he’s probably one of the few artist out there that still feel starstruck whenever something appears from him. Despite recently seeing him preform with MartyParty as PantyRaid at Lightning in a Bottle he regained my faith that there’s a possibility of some more Of Porcelain or melodic sexy music still inside him after that underwhelming Superior EP. Watching him play you could see Marty jumping up and going crazy during the heavy aggressive basslines and you could see Josh just chillen grooving. It was obvious when Josh picked a tune as you could see him swaying to the chill beat and getting into it and see Marty just standing there. It’s interesting to see and hear the obvious differences in their music today. You can really tell the parts Marty wrote and the parts Josh wrote.

This new track by Of Porcelain brings so much faith back into music and where I first fell in love with chill glitchy beats. Ooah’s most recent track on soundcloud The Love I Need almost left me questioning if he was just experimenting or changing his sound towards this new direction PantyRaid was going for. He is extremely busy now with the upcoming Glitch Mob tour and has quite the insane life touring with Marty as well so I can only hope after the tours tone down we will see Of Porcelain revisited or hell even The Seedling Escape. Kitty D has been on a role as well and still has that unique sound which continues to stray away from the heavy bass beats. I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to see so many others fall to the trap of making heavy dance floor bangers.

Josh, Thank you for what you do and the music you create. I think I speak on behalf of many of your fans and lovers of music when saying this: PLEASE Of Porcelain album is way long overdue and in this brostep era something beautiful is needed baddddd. Take your time. BUT please everyone is craving something new with those hypnotic tones you’ve shown in the past. See you at the Dallas date if not out of town for a show. Much Respect & Love.

Grab the NEW Of Porcelain tune off the Seek Sick Sound Comp Vol. 2

Sonic Bloom 2011 takes places on June 24th through the 26th in Georgetown, Colorado! This is the 6th time this event will be held and boy does it have great history behind it. This year will be no different with another legendary line up. The true nature of this event is focused on the art of music. Shadow Ranch the gorgeous location where this will be taking place is one hour outside of Denver.

This year I’m thrilled to be attending as a trip to Colorado has been way over due. A big majority of the readers of this site come from Colorado and can’t wait to visit all the homies out there. It’ll be great to finally feel the magic of the state in a breathe taking venue and incredible festival. I’m looking forward to also seeing some of the locals play some music on their home turf where a huge part of the bass family lives. As of now most of the line up has been posted and wow it’s going to be sexy. I’ve gone ahead and bolded out the ones I’m looking forward to see. This doesn’t mean that some of these guys don’t deserve credit but I feel the ones bolded are the ones that are unique to the festival and are not as common to experience during this years festival line ups. Lets get real most of these artist are worth being bolded but these are my personal favorites.

Line Up

EOTO
TIPPER SOUND EXPERIENCE
MALA (Digital Mystikz)
VibeSquaD
Random Rab
ZILLA
MartyParty
Heyoka
An-ten-nae
David Starfire
LYNX
Break Science
Janover
SPL
Gramatik
NastyNasty
Signal Path
Michal Menert
Octopus Nebula
Future Simple Project
Archnemesis
Juno What!?
Djunya
Love & Light
Nadis Warriors
Jantsen
Fresh2Death
Spankalicious
Somasphere
Project Aspect
The Floozies
DubSkin
Tatanka
Samples
Zobomaze
J.WAIL ft/ Chuck [Lotus]
Rumblejunkie
Seied
Mikey Thunder
Miss Murray
Eminence Ensemble
Vinnie Maniscalco
Papa Skunk
Prophet Massive
S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Miraja
Unlimited Gravity
Frequent-C
Fisk
DJ Synergy
& more TBA.

Besides an incredible  musical line up the event will showcase many other arts besides music. There will be tons of workshops, yoga classes, exotic food, vendors, and more! Fire dancers, jugglers, live painters, and more will be in full force to set the mood for the experience. Come and experience one of the most well known festivals in the States as we embark on a lovely journey to the Rookies for a few glorious nights of life.

If the sold out Manifestation Celebration in Dallas was just the pre-party where I had to chance to play a set. I can’t imagine how much energy will be present at this event. If that was just a small glimpse of the main event this will be another life changing event that will go down in history. There are still two other pre-parties that will be going on in San Francisco on Friday, May 20th at 103 Folsom and another in New York City on June 11th. Be sure to say hello if you seem me out there. I’ll be hanging and camping with close friend Ethan aka SubSynthesis.

BUY: Sonic Bloom Tickets

More Information:
SONIC BLOOM
Shadows Ranch
1259 Alvarado Road, (County Road 306)
Georgetown, CO 80444

Grassroots California is a small indie company that sells custom hats. They have been gaining popularity in the underground bass community as they have a strong presence at music festivals. If you’re into festivals such as Wakarusa, Nocturnal, Emissions, SXSW, WMC, etc… you’ve probably seen quite a few of these hats.

I’m a huge supporter of the company as they help bring light to many artist and sports teams. They are well known for spoof hats for many popular teams. They have a special music line that features big names like Pretty Lights, Lotus, Big Gigantic, Fresh2Death, and many more. I personally sport the Miami Dubphins hat. I’ll be adding quite a few to my collection in the near future and have even been in talks with them for special Afro Monk hat for 2012.

Be sure to check out their website that features not only hats but accessories, t-shirts, pins, and more. Also if you’re out at any of the music festivals you’ll probably see a vending booth. Be sure to know your hat size before you head over there. I promise you that you’ll be wanting to buy at least a few and chances are they might be limited to a certain size since they’ve been gaining such popularity.

Also be on the look out for the possibility of a Grassroots record label…
Much respect and love goes out to the Grassroots California crew!

BUY: Grassroots California

Manifestation Celebration 2011 Dallas, Texas

May 7th, 2011 Dallas, Tx
A Night at the Museum:
The Alex Grey Experience
@ Dallas Museum of Nature & Science

Speakers

Alex Grey
(Meet & Greet, Discussion, Live Painting w. The Nadis Warriors)

Allyson Grey
(Meet & Greet, Discussion, Live Painting w. The Nadis Warriors)

Daniel Pinchbeck
(Q&A, Signing)

Maestro Don Jose Campos
(Opening Ceromony, Closing Ceromony, Signing, Shamanic Intiation during Nadis Warriors Set)

Rick Strassman, MD
(Meet & Greet, Signing)

Mitch Schultz
(Q&A, Meet & Greet)

Jamie Janover
(Discussion: Unified Field Theory)

Peter Gorman
(Meet & Greet, Signing)

Rose Hahn
(Discussion: Divine Feminine, Signing)

Alberto Roman
(Poetry, Translator for Don Jose Campos)

Michael Garfield
(Live Painting, Discussion)

Music

The Nadis Warriors (w/ Jamie Janover & Don Jose Campos)
Bluetech
Eskmo
Janover
Phutureprimitive
D.V.S*
Govinda
Language Love
Brede
ONE4ALL
Metranohm
DJ PWR
Wizard
Afro Monk
& more TBA!

Film

Full Screenings of:
2012: Time for Change

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

They will be using multiple projections of Alex Grey’s art to fill the 79 foot Imax screen. All exhibits will be open to the attendees.

To ensure a pleasant and intimate evening for our attendees, only 1,000 tickets total will be sold for this event!!!

Insiders are reporting that there are less than 200 tickets available! This event will SELL OUT! Come join us on this amazing experience of pure artistry all around!

BUY TICKETS

Homie Strange Flow is one creative dude. He’s been working on some awesome ideas and been bouncing off me to see if I can help. One of his projects is Soul Outsider records and part of it is a small comic he has done with a friend. It’s funny as hell and high recommend it. It’s somewhat a depiction of random things that happened to them while in Denver. They hoped to capture some of the lingo and musical references in todays culture.

He randomly sent me a link to the new episode. He said to check out what was on the wall. Low and behold they’ve put up an Afro Monk poster. I laughed my ass off and couldn’t be more humbled. Much love man!

Be on the look out for Strange Flow he has been making moves and has had great success with his first edition of Grungestep Vol 1.

Here is a link to episode 5.

The Do Lab just put out word that Lightning in a Bottle 2011 is officially a GO! The official dates are Memorial Day weekend – May 27-30th, 2011. This event changed my life completely and can’t encourage any other festival out there. It was my first festival where I camped and also the first time I ever camped. It’s such an experience setting up camp with friends from all over the States. Small communities unite into this massive collection of artist of all kinds.

I’m proud to announce that this is officially a go!

This video was put together from last years festival. This is only a small glimpse into what the glory of LIB is. Be sure to stay updated on all the latest info on early bird tickets they go on sale Monday Feb 28th 2011.

The first annual RogueFest is being held in Asheville, North Carolina! This is the Place to be on Halloween Weekend. Rogue is your tasty alternative, extra topping to MoogFest, or Main Plan this Halloween in Asheville!

Music, Performance, Art, Visuals
Less than – 1 mile – walking Location updated distance from downtown!

…Massive local, regional & national lineup! (While moogfest takes over the city with their international lineup, this is where you can find the awesome local performers of Asheville who make this little freakville so cool + special regional & national guests and extra surprises!)…

LOCAL ARTISTS:
Quetzatl , GalaxC Girl, Cleofus, Kri, Medisin, Intrinsic, D:Raf, Emory, Moving Temple, Brad Bitt, Aligning Minds, Numatik, Super Glitch Bros, Johan Ess, Dep, Disc-oh!, Collaboration with Sounds, DJ Avi, Crunky Brewster, Gilbot, & In Plain Sight

REGIONAL / NATIONAL ARTISTS:
Freddy Todd, Chronicles of the Landsquid, Pericles, Afro Monk, Joshu, Fast Nasty, Ancient Intelligence, Magma Blood, Bass Disciples, & Klaws
more TBA

VISUALS:
GalaxC Girl (projected visuals)

Dave McDermott (live painting)
ART INSTALLATIONS:
Fire Fountian by Logan Alexander MacSporran

1320 Calendar Change by Sonfire

PERFORMANCE ART:
TBA

VENDING:
Brian Quinn – Handmade lampworked glass jewelry. Pendants, earrings and whatnot.

Brooke of Boheme Collective – Decoding your Dreams & making them come true. Reclaimed & Remixed Wearable Art with feathers, crystals, bones, vintage fabrics, found bits & more!

==================

Tickets on sale now @ http://www.professionalpartiers.com/

(if you have trouble with ticket sale page try deleting your browsing history or try another browser, like Google Chrome)

1 day – $12
3 day – $20
3 day + camping – $30
3 day couples discount tix + camping – $50

Limited onsite parking $5 (avail. for Roguefest Ticket holders ONLY)

WHERE:
235 Riverside Dr.
Asheville NC

More info @ Roguefest Facebook page

UPDATE!!!

ALERT!!! ROGUEFEST IS MOVING (15 min from downtown)!!! THE CITY AND POLICE DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW FACEBOOK WORKS AND HAVE FREAKED OUT ABOUT THE # OF INVITES AND REVOKED THE PERMIT!!!! DO NOT GO TO RIVERSIDE DR!!!

TICKET HOLDERS HAVE 3 OPTIONS:
1) come party and camp at new BIGGER and BETTER location.
2) if you were a moog attendee only wanting rogue tix for camping you can come camp at new location OR I have a house with fenced in yard on Haywood Rd you can camp in.
3) REQUEST REFUND

The city does not care about logic and how facebook actually works. Since 4000 ppl were “invited” they are taking that as a fact that 4000 people will show up. LOL!!!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD THAT ROGUEFEST HAS MOVED!!
For new location please visit the Roguefest Facebook page & send them a message.