It was a good year for Philly. The Phillies won the World Series, Diplo killed everything he touched and Kurt Vile put out this tune which I have major brotherly love for. Dude plays a jingle jangle 12-string and looks like a Dazed and Confused reject.
Every year I try to put together some of my favorite chunes which I never get a chance to play in the club. It's always hard to get it done by Dec. 31, little things get in the way, like partying your face off for two weeks at the end of the year. But not this year - I managed to compile some of my fave "non-rap & not necessarily played very often in the club" chunes of the year, so you can bump it at your house parties this week.
First the tracklist: White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes Chemtrails - Beck Aly walk with Me - Raveonettes Swiss Glide - Michna Sexual Healing - Hot 8 Brass Band Little Bit of Feel Good (Mr Oizo Remix) - Jamie Lidell Rich Girl - The Virgins Kim & Jessie - M83 For Emma - Bon Iver Electric Feel (Prince Language Remix) - MGMT L.E.S. Artistes - Santogold American Boy - Estelle feat Kanye West Something is Not Right... - Cold War Kids Mercy - Duffy Cross the Dancefloor (Chromeo Remix) - Treasure Fingers The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (Chromeo Remix) - Vampire Weekend Blind (Frankie Knuckles Remix) - Hercules & Love Affair Ready For The Floor - Hot Chip Wearing My Rolex - Wiley Lights Out - Santogold Nothing Ever Happened - Deerhunter Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon Halfway Home - TV on the Radio
Devin the Dude drops a little knowledge nugget for the hockey fans on his new album:
"Admirin' my weed jar, it's rather stocky At the crib, how about myself lookin' at hockey And wonderin'- who's gonna win the Cup? If it was full of coughee- I know the brothers will man up"
When I saw this picture in Pete's post I started drooling on my keyboard, which got me wondering, is Guinness the greatest liquid in the history of the universe? Like drinkable one I mean. Coffee's for sure up there too, maybe Coke. But Guinness gets you drunk. So it's a wrap.
Honestly, drinking a pint of the black is the most satisfying branded experience ever/in the world. The specifics of the pour, the black-white color contrast, the bitterness, the silky texture of the head (ew/sorry). Plus it turns you into an irresistibly charming and whimsical old chap.
So I forgot to mention before we left London for Helsinki we went and checked out our homie Alex XXXChange who was playing at Cargo with Boy-8-Bit. Then afterwards we all headed to Fabric where Sinden, Zinc and Fake Blood were on the bill. It was such a great night of music - my head was spinning from the awesomeness.
So back to Helsinki, after the show there we were able to hang out for a couple days. It was such a great place. It's safe to say The Smalltown DJs are now officially "Finnantics"!
The Top Billin Crew - aka The 5 equally powerful and intelligent monarch rulers of Finland - Sampo, Jussi, Heikki, Leo, Nenis:
Heikki showed us around the city
And we got to take part in some traditional Finnish activities and games, like "Figure out which letter isn't on the side of this building"
"Reindeer Rodeo"
Followed by "Reindeer Soup" mmmmmmm - cute AND tasty.
and "Let's burn down the airport with these giant matches"
As the snow started to fall that was our cue to leave town, destined to return at some point
After Helsinki we headed to Cardiff, Wales.
The people there were great, and despite being only a couple hours from London, some of the Welsh speak their own language To translate: "Gwyl Y Gaeaf Caerdydd" means "12/11/08 - 4/01/09"
We had a blast, it was the one year birthday of Plan B at Basement Bar - Stu and Rodski were running tings
Then we hopped on a plane to Shannon, Ireland - for the last show in Galway.
We were greeted by a band of small but talented singing Leprechaun Santa Clauses
The Irish have their own language too (Gaelic I guess?) This means "Merry Christmas from Galway" (I think) - either that or "Get out of our town Canadian Scum"
The Irish also have their own beer
We eased into it and discovered that Guinness does taste way better in Ireland
So we had more
The last show was a great one. The Irish folks were super funny and nice. Cant wait to go back.
I think you can see Newfoundland from here
Streets of Galway
So that's it. Great times were had. Evvy chunes were played. And we learned to live a little bit along the way.
Big Ups to Ali B, Shaun at Fabric, Sinden, Skream, Dom Stanton, Steve and Rob at Faze 2, TOP BILLIN, Brendan, Stu & Rhod, Antoine, Sweet Fred, Zizek Soundsystem, ASkillz, Fuzzbox, The Orange Rooms, Dre, Joanna, and all the party people we met.
Everyone in Ireland is awesome. The accent is the best on the planet, they all sound drunk.
When I lived in London, Ontario (the bad London) on Tuesday's we used to go to this Irish pub an the house band always played this song. I couldn't stop thinking about it when we were pounding Guinness in Galway:
Speaking of snow... if sheer quantity of listens is an accurate indicator of how awesome an album is (it is to me) then I gotta give album of the year nod to Jeezy. Still playing the shit out of it. Added relevance as we sink further into the economic dump. Need that thug motivation. No food, no jobs... still got bills though.
So right now I'm living in my best friend's vacant apartment as he cavorts about in sunny Costa Rica. The reason for this is that I'm dog-sitting. For some reason, when anyone finds out about this, they burst into laughter at the thought of me looking after anything. I don't find it funny. Also, he's 110 pounds, and a Rottie. I'm not scared of anything. First time in my life thoug, that I've touched dogshit through a plastic bag. Doesn't make you stonger, just resentful I thing the dog secretly relishes the fact that I'm bound by law to do this. At any rate, just so you know, I'm a (temporary) guardian. Unrelated, never having kids, as of now.
Also, marking a first, put snow tires on my car, which meant I fucking changed 4 tires. I'm pretty fucking stoked on that, given that I can't even put the chain back on a bike, so let me have that one for a bit. What have you ever done that's so great? I change tires. Like I said, I'm stoked. Or, I was, until I got towed from behind the Hifi. At least the tow truck had decent traction behind.
I just loaded this video and was reminded how fun The Rumble in Malmo was (sorry for the gratuitous arm pumping). Sweet Fred if you're out there thanks again my dude.
......after Sweden it was back to London where we had a day off to check out the city,
Lots of old next to new in London.
Checked out the legendary "Sounds of the Universe" record store, which is home to the great "Soul Jazz Records" label.
Nearby was the more traditional and cultured district of London:
Then we headed to Southampton for a show with Askillz at a club called Orange Rooms, great looking spot.
But why do they call it the Orange Rooms?
The show was tons of fun.
One guy kept bugging us to play "something off Doggy Style by Snoop":
The day after we poked around Southampton, there was a german christmas festival going on, but it was kind of a sausage party
Also - just to give you a little glimpse of how we prepare for our shows, it always involves deep mediation and focus. And hotel boredom.
After being back London we headed out for Helsinki Finland to meet up with the kings of the planet, our dudes from Top Billin. They run a label and a bunch of other stuff in Helsinki, and are basically top mates.
We got off the plane and went straight to the club. A great night.
DJ Flipperi & Anonymous
Fiskars & Jussi
Finland is a bit like bizarro Canada, they LOVE hockey, and drinking. They have a shot made from Fisherman's Friend and vodka it was amazing.
Also here is another unique finnish custom I guess
More party pics:
This is Nenis, he is the elected king of Helsinki and rules with a kind heart and heavy chunes. Make sure to check out www.topbillinmusic.com
Heyo everybody - this is the long overdue first installment of the Smalltown DJs Eurotour blog. So to summarize the tour so far: they are Euros, and they are dancing.
The people have been so awesome in every city. We started in Paris.
We played the Beat and Juice party for Antoine. It was a great way to kick it off, the club was called Casino Noveau and it looked great. The dudes Almost and Moody Mike were also on the bill.
The Parisians were mad cool, except we were only in the city for a few hours. We never even saw the Eiffel Tower, oh well. So then it was over to jolly old England, where we were staying with our good mate Ali B and his flatmate Dre. They are the best mates a mate could have. Ali lives in a clocktower, and so to quote Skeewiff: "He really knows what time it is":
Saturday we played Ali's night at a place called Paradise. All soul, funk and disco gems. It was the funnest night we've done in a while. Great club and great crowd, and to top it off, DJ Eleven was in town and came down to hang out and consume pints and party. It was a total blast.
Joanna Majeriisicieivinski then joined up with us in London. Thats why the pics get good from here on. She is a skilled photographer and awesome travelmate.
This is one she took of some super nerdy Canadian dudes:
And one of Mike in Brighton:
We did some sightseeing and touring around London, also filmed part of our new travel show for the travel show network:
Then that weekend we were booked to play Fabric, its a legendary club and it was so great to play there for the first time:
We did the night with Fuzzbox, Ali B and A Skillz. They killed it. The club was so dope inside and out - and really lived up to it's reputation. We had to bang it out a bit cause there was major drum & bass dudes playing the other rooms, but that suited us just fine.
Also Maya showed up to hang out, as well as a bunch of Calgarians who live in London. It was so great to see everybody jamming in London.
As Ali would say: "Result"
Saturday we hopped on a plane for Copehagen, then drove to Malmo, Sweden.
We played The Rumble (for the man Sweet Fred) which is like this legendary jam, they love to go crazy to all styles of music, it was deadly.
The styles were bonkers there
The party was so fun, we played a bunch of club, house, electro and some rap.
Once again: "Such a result"
ALso on the bill were these dudes from Buenos Aires Argentina called Zizek Soundsystem, try to check them out their stuff was great.
Then on the way back to London we saw proof that different species can live together in harmony:
