Part of DGAF never dies

Need we say more? photo: JKatan

The best thing about LA is its ability to have outdoor music festivals without humidity or a big chance of rain. And the best thing about outdoor festivals is definitely the fresh air. It can get hot, nasty, and stuffy as hell inside a packed indoor venue. I mean nothing against indoor venues of course, but it's definitely way more comfortable being in the middle of a sweaty crowd when you're outside.

Not a bummer in sight. photo: JKatan

HARD Summer had the right idea of moving to the Los Angeles State Historic Park. It was the same quality, just a different vibe. Instead of an all-night rave style party, it felt way more like a regular daytime music festival.

This is not EDC, people. photo: JKatan

The security was not messing around... we'd already witnessed an arrest before we'd even got in. We then had to remove our shoes at the gates, airport style. Police were patrolling the streets, drug dogs were walking around, bouncers were everywhere. Nobody was fucking around.

HARD gets it right again. photo: JKatan

We arrived just in time for Breakbot, who warmed up his set with clean funky disco-tastic house, surprised everyone when he decided kick into harder gear. We were left so flabbergasted by the transition from Snoop Dogg to Mr. Oizo that we did a synchronized jaw-drop that no one could even imagine choreographing.

The breakdown with Breakbot. photo: JKatan

We headed to the Harder Stage for Switch, who was dropping all kinds of baile funk fun, and witnessed a pretty intense 2-hour tag team set from Benga and Skream. It was wobbly, energetic dubstep madness. They know how to work a crowd.

This is how we roll (no pun intended). photo: JKatan

We listened to the always dope sounds of Diplo as we headed toward the food trucks. The only thing security couldn't stop were the red ants that were crawling on my shoes and biting my feet while we were in line. We finished our sandwiches and made our way back to see Flying Lotus, who was playing a good but very mellow set. Apparently I missed him drop some heavy ass shit just as I left to check out Crystal Castles, who were assaulting the senses with their controlled, noisy chaos. If they're not punk as fuck, I don't know what is. Hell, even Alice Glass rhymes with badass.

Is that steam? photo: JKatan

But we could not bear to miss Tiga, who was tearing it the fuck up. He probably played the most undeniably danceable set all day. Proxy kept the party going... but we had to head over to at least catch the end of Major Lazer. There was a Chinese dragon and a ton of people dancing on stage, and we knew we'd missed some ridiculous antics. Leave it up to Major Lazer to take the party to the next level.

video: JKatan

But nobody brings the party like Soulwax. Yay Belgium! If you also know about 2ManyDJs, you know that the Dewaele brothers have so much musical talent it's disgusting. They've evolved from a really cute, catchy, and interesting pop band to this nonstop dance machine. It amazes me how they make live instruments sound electronic and analog equipment sound digital... you get the energy of a live band with the sound of a DJ set. It's totally legit.

video: JKatan

My only complaint? That they didn't play for like 2 hours. They were the perfect closer to HARD Summer. I don't think you can really follow Soulwax; I think it worked out to not have other DJ's on til 4am after the headliner.

But I forgot to mention one of the highlights of the day, and it was seeing the lineup for this:

Part of the weekend never dies.

Baby, I'm DGAF

Breakbot - Baby I'm Yours (feat. Irfane) - HD from Ed Banger Records on Vimeo.

Leave it up to an old school medium like watercolor to push the art of music videos forward. Let's face it, it's an art form that stalled in the late '90s... you might have noticed that most of them from the past decade, especially mainstream ones, still follow a formula that hasn't evolved much since the pre-millenial end of MTV's heyday. But it's dope ass shit like this that gives me hope... or maybe it's just the sight of Breakbot with a keytar.

Breakbot, I'm Yours.

DGAF Cats

Ed Banger DJ's, free beer, cookies, mini-cupcakes, and pizza on a sunny afternoon. Whoever can think of something better wins a prize.


Busy Pizza Party


They TOTALLY planned to match. I don't care what anyone says.


Gettin' down with Busy P


Even Jesus showed up!


Jesus Christ, Breakbot!


Gaspard: no Justice, no peace


Brian Bell, what the hell?


Ed Banger KILLS it every time.

It doesn't matter if it's at a small club, at a festival, or at a Cool Cats pop-up store like the one at Barracuda on Melrose... Ed Banger know how to bring the party and keep it DGAF. They even brought the Dubstep this time, FUCK YES.

Apparently they're going to be back in LA next week, stay tuned!

aNYway: day 7

Yes, it turns out that Day 7 was also the same day as the Ed Banger 7 at Terminal 5. Here's where the visuals go down in both quantity and quality a little bit... of course my backup digital camera that was working fine right before the trip decided to crap out on me during the trip when I needed it. I mean on the upside, it still took photos. On the downside, the display was broken so we couldn't see for shit what we were taking pictures of. talk about the blind leading the blind! The camera also stopped taking pics too, it got filled up and we had no way of deleting them to make more room. We should have been better prepared, but whatever. We still managed of course to have the time of our lives, and also take a few pics from that night:







We arrived a little late, but managed to catch the very end of Mehdi's set. The place was already packed and bumpin'. Coat check was already closed. The special guest was A-Trak, as he dropped what seemed like a nearly flawless set, except he did not play the obvious Duck Sauce crowd pleaser "aNYway"! He did somehow manage to fit in the intro of "Circle of Life" from the Lion King without skipping a beat, though. Utterly baffling. But the crowd was going insane, with good reason. The next surprise guest was Uffie, who had a short 2-song set. She was cute but not hugely impressive. I am still confused as to what happened after her set, right before Busy P came on. Everyone got on stage as this giant cake was unveiled, and there was a balloon drop... I just can't really explain it. I still have no idea what happened. Just watch this video to get an idea:



The crowd was getting more chaotic, and I had to get out of the crowd as Busy P started his set. (It's awkward being stuck in a dancing crowd when you have to hold onto you coat.) I love how he drops the Crookers remix of "To Protect and Entertain" every time he plays. Busy P always knows how to bring the party, it's a well known fact.

Justice are cute if a little low on bass. Gaspard is not doing anyone a favor by wearing those creepy glasses. I once told him he was hot at Cinespace and I couldn't imagine doing that now. We realized we were actually more excited for the afterparty with SebastiAn, So-Me, and Feadz. After Shimosh gave A-Trak a high five in the hallway, we decided to roll up to the Webster Hall in a taxi. It was a good decision, as we arrived just as the party was starting. So-Me was already killing it!

The smaller venue and more low-key vibe made a huge difference, as there was actually room to get up to the front, and more importantly, to dance! We'd already decided the afterparty was way more fun. When So-Me took us back to the '90s with "You've Got to Show Me Love", it was more like, you've got to So-Me love. But when he continued the '90s with Wu-Tang's C.R.E.A.M. (which is WAY more fun to sing at karaoke than Prince's "Cream", by the way), that pretty much made my night. The only major difference I've noticed between NYC and LA electro fans at clubs is that EVERYONE KNOWS WU-TANG LYRICS IN NYC! I felt right at home. Peanut Butter Wolf would have been be so proud.

So-Me ended his set by doing a VERY DGAF backflip into the crowd. Then SebastiAn made his entrance by playing none other than Mariah Carey's "I Can't Live (If Living is Without You)" which cracked us up and confused the hell out of us al the same time. Then he flipped everything on us when he began the 11 minute long mind fuck of an intro of his new song "Threnody". The whole crowd was left in a state of suspense until the song dropped, and the party kicked up again. SebastiAn is never short of surprises when he DJs, which definitely makes him one of the most interesting around right now. He does it all with a straight face, no matter how ridiculous it gets. Even when he plays a string version of Killing in the Name Of.

Now Feadz, who we practically discovered that night, is a completely different kind of DGAF. I don't remember seeing anyone else from Ed Banger who was feeling it more than he was. I don't remember seeing him stop dancing around for a second, and he was clearly wasted and making the most out of it. He even messed around with the crowd a bit before throwing an Ed Banger 7 t-shirt into the crowd, waving it around like a matador would with a bull. The shirt was even red, LOL and he was getting a kick watching the crowd freaking out in anticipation. Hell, I was too, and I was in the crowd! I still have no idea how he managed to pull off a really smooth DJ set while most likely drunk. He seemed to know every word to every song he played though... if Busy P brings the parties, Feadz definitely brings the fun.

The afterparty was over at 5 a.m. with no regrets whatsoever. What followed was an odd taxi ride back to Greenpoint, which involved our taxi driver picking up an additional customer who was about to get ripped off by a private cab. We'd officially discovered that the G train, near our friend's apartment, wasn't running from a nice old lady who randomly started talking to us when we got out of the taxi. Good thing we took a taxi. Good thing we're DGAF.

FREAKBOT!!!

Breakbot is an artist on the Ed Banger record label based in Paris, France. He is a crazy man.

flier for Control

No, just kidding. But he did DJ in Hollywood at the Avalon, at Control on Friday, November 27th, 2009 (yeah, yeah, this post is really late. We DGAF).


Dancing in the infinity net

CMYK and Ed Banger—we just can't resist their French charm. The night started off with the opening acts C-Town, Sleazemore, and resident Mr. White.


OHHH BREAKBOT

For some reason, DGAF and friends went really overboard with freaking the entire night. We apologize to Breakbot if we freaked him out in any way, because he's pretty low key. But it was a sign of good times, and let's face it, Breakbot dropped every tune like it was hot. We just wanna thank him for tolerating us and putting on a freak-worthy set. That's quite a feat.


Breakbot surrounded by a bunch of crazy LA kids

Next superstar DJ of Ed Banger? I don't see why not!