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Started my day the Austin way -- 3 shots of #Tacos. With a belly full of salsa, my SXSW started with a bang at the Surefire Boat Party.
Surefire Boat Party -- Nick Hook b2b Jubilee, Bok Bok b2b Kingdom, Machinedrum and Jimmy Edgar as Jets.
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I couldn’t be happier that I started out of the gate with this party. As I pulled up to the boat, getting off the bus (I saved my ID from when I was a student at the University of Texas to ride for free #Protip), I was immediately reacquainted with my old crew and friends from the Austin electronic music scene. Myself, Supraman (pictured above), Nikes, MoheganSon (NJ), Tr∞th (Houston), MikeG, and Lefty would spend the next three hours surfing Austin’s Lady Bird Lake to the sounds of some of the top figures in the electronic game. Add free tequila b2b coconut water, and you have one hell of a party on the Austin skyline.
Absolutely. Perfect. Boat. Party. Weather.
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Nick Hook and Jubilee brought the newest sounds of New York to test the banging Bassmaxxx system, while Nick Hook kept up his usual behind-the-mic antics to warm the crowd up.
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Bok Bok and Kingdom playing back to back definitely took the cake, for me anyway. Watching the energy of the Night Slugz and Fade to Mind founders respectively interplay between one another flawlessly with the perfect combination of Vogue house, UK Grime, and the patented bass-laced minimalism of the Fade to Mind sound was incredible.
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Bok Bok (left) // Kingdom (right) | SXSW
There are few people on my personal list of electronic artist I love but haven’t seen live, and Bok Bok was one of them.
Yea, so I pretty much fell in love, so what dear readers, so fucking what.
Jimmy Edgar and Machinedrum performing as Jets.
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To see what these guys have done as Jets was really interesting. The Jets sound clearly departs from both of Machinedrum and Edgar’s work individually. In my tequila-ed state of mind I was still reeling from the kunq-induced emotional adventure I just returned from in listening to Kingdom and Bok Bok -- so my take on the Jets set was a little muddled. I took Jets to be a take on cyborg house for horny girls. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is not a bad thing. Jets should fill stadiums while candy kids bask in the house-y glory of a genius entirely unknown to them.
RWD.FM 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY
Next I went to my own gig at the Austin Lumber Yard -- the RWD.FM Birthday Party. First things first, RWD.FM is one of the hottest online electronic music stations in the country at the moment. RWD hosts weekly shows from artists all over the US and the UK, including Boston artists the JASS crew and Dan In Allston who are both RWD contributors.
LUMBER YARD RAVE.
Finishing before my set was Trillwave, who all but burned down the lumber yard in a trapped out 808 flurry. I played my set for the RWD family, bringing Dancehall, Cumbia, and some Angolian House to the SXSW scene. And after that, Outlaw Producer, an Austin local and member of the Elevator Action outfit, brought the depth of UK Funky and Garage to the Yard. Lumber Yard Raves going down all week here at SXSW2013!
The last stop of the night was to catch Boston’s home-grown M|O|D Crew (all formerly Berklee School of Music students, currently undertaking a Tour de Force of SXSW) play at the Pure Ultra Lounge. The MOD squad was in full order C.Z, Arnold, Lil Texas, Yung Satan, and Rewrote ran the spot from the moment we walked in.
SWAG.BLAST.
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What’s great about MOD is the diversity each member brings to the crew. Even as artists who first made a name under the nebulous title of “Trap”, really MOD is anything but. We walked into Rewrote and C.Z. playing back to back spinning nothing but House and UK Funky vibes. Frankly, it was incredible and people were eating it up! They played the sound just as well as anything in the MOD vocabulary, and I left more and more impressed with the MOD squad. There’s a reason that these guys are booked for Camp Bisco this year, trust ; )
MOD Crew boy band posters coming soon.
That about wraps up day one. I’m still surprisingly sane, it think it’s because I’ve been drinking hella water -- also mad SXSW #Protip: dehydration sucks -- avoid at all costs. More Today! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Recap and an interview with Austin’s #FEELINGS records on the development of the Footwork/Juke sound of Chicago and Texas.
~ ~ ~ Swelta’s Official SXSW2013 #Tacos Juice Cleanse ~ ~ ~
Swelta’s #SXSW2013 #Tacos Juice Cleanse ~ Total Tacos Eaten: 5
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Twitta @djahSwelta for live updates, breaking sxsw news, after parties, live pics, and electronic music scoops. facebook.com/djahSwelta