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.

DGAF Profile #7: Phra of Crookers

The "Crookers! Phra and Bot!" Edition

UPDATED 1-20-10

This profile should have been done last year. We talked about giving Phra a DGAF profile, but somehow it didn't happen. So we've awarded him the first DGAF profile of 2010. There's not a whole lot we know about Phra, who is one half of DGAF DJ duo favorites Crookers. But then, there's not much to say about him either, because we think these videos more than speak for themselves:






Save time and go to 1:10, 5:05, and 6:30...

He can cook like a chef, rocks a pink polo shirt like nobody's business, and started off as a hip hop DJ at 11 years old! It doesn't appear that he'll blow you off if you approach him, no matter how drunk and obnoxious you are (as witnessed at the Custom Hotel after Hard Summer in August 2009). If you've seen Crookers DJ, you'll have even more evidence that he's DGAF. But we're pretty sure you haven't heard him rap. Yes, rap. He can rock the decks AND mic with equal DGAF.

His Twitter name is also Phrappuccino. PHRAPPUCCINO. As you can see we're not making this up. You sure as hell won't find that at your local Starbucks. I think he should do a rap album, and maybe it could be called "phRAPpuccino".

But what kind of name is "Phra"? We assumed it was short for "Francesco", his real name, and spelled with a "ph" for fun (phun?). But on further investigation, we accidentally found out on Wikipedia that "Phra" was a Thai title of nobility and royalty! It was probably intentional, but even if it wasn't, that doesn't make him any less DGAF.

No wonder the upcoming Crookers album is going to be called "Tons of Friends". Who wouldn't want to be friends with someone that DGAF?