Kaskade rocks Cielo!

kay...have you had enough Kaskade yet? Not me...I went to hear him last Thursday night at Cielo Club in New York City. And I wasn't disappointed.

Cielo continues their commitement to the music by bringing breaking wunderkid from San Francisco (See last week's post for more on Kaskade's origins in the biz). A very cosmopolitan, sexy crowd filled the dancefloor all night as Kaskade layed down a blend of vocal vibes and deep tech house. From jazzy vocals and remixes of classic dance tracks with a darker flavor, Kaskade held the floor like a champ from when I arrived to when I left. I was definitely impressed. I think this kid's going to be around for a long time to come.

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Music I’m Feeling: Kaskade and The Killers Remixes

Last week, my friend and editor of Raves.com, Jennifer Warner and I had an impromtu IM session over AIM. We haven't spoken in what seems like forever (really a year or so...has it been that long?). The conversation turned to MySpace.com the music-driven online social networking community. We didn't realize we'd both signed up to the site but hadn't connected yet.

Linking into her MySpace page, an .mp3 file of a house music track she'd embedded in her bio section began to play automatically. It was super hot! I had no idea who it was but it one of the best house music tracks I'd heard in a while. I furiously typed, "YO! What is that track playing on your page?" Jen quickly replied, "Kaskade! " She explained, Kaskade, one of her favorite house music producers is on Om Records out of San Francisco. Of course he is! I should have known.

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Completed Spring Semester at NYU, Consutling/Biz Dev for MusiKube/411song.com

So, you must be wondering what I've been up to the last few days since there hasn't been a posting. Well, I've been working hard on various projects, which I'll run down for you here.

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David Alvarado and Jay J Pump Cielo

Oh what fun I had last night! three glasses of Chardonnay and a champagne drink with raspberry vodka and peach juice at MEET on Gansevort and Washington, with my friend's Jodi, Jay, Tim and Allen, and I was ready to roll on into Cielo, Manhattan's DJ driven hot-spot to see LA's super-hero house Dj David Alvarado and San Fran's JJ in the mix at the BPM Magazine sponsored, Thursday night soire.

JJ was on point from the minute we walked in until his last tune at 1:30 AM. A lush mix of pretty, soulful deep tech-house vibes was just so much fun to dance to. As he blended track into track, some with a latin-tinged sals flavor and others with a sensuality that I hadn't heard in such a long time, I was reminded of how much I love that West Coast, vibey, San Franciso deep sound. The club wasn't very crowded (by 1:30 AM most of the bottle tables sat empty), but everyone there seemed to be on or around the dancefloor, most likely because people (like me) were having so much fun. My friend Jodi and I were really kicking it for a while on the dancefloor...getting into the groove and watching everyone else losing themselves in the mix.

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Otaku Strikes: Japanese Subculture On Display

On Sunday, my friend and classmate Noriko and I visited the Japan Society on Manhattan's East Side to see an intriguing and thought provoking art exhibit entitled, Little Boy, The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture". Created and curated by world-reknowned Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, the show explores the impact of Japan's otaku subcultures in art, film, television, books, magazines and its ties to commercialism in Japan's burgeoning consumer society.

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My iPod Helped Me Rediscover My Music

So, I'm on the train last week and I realize, like everyone else has in the last two years or so, that our iPod's are just really helping us all push the boundaries of what we listen to.

I know that this has been written about over and over, but I still can't get over the fact that my iPod has helped me achieve musical paradise in that I am not constrained any longer by the physical limitations of a compact disc or cassette tape. And, now that I am really aware of this, I truly believe that this revolution in music consumption is going to open up doors for the music industry like never before.

As I looked across the aisle to a girl sitting in a seat directly across from me, I noticed her CD player and through my complete understanding of the transition from compact disc to MP3, I had this incredible feeling of power, that I had broken free of the chains that bound my musical consumption. I looked down at my own iPod and I thought to myself, this is just incredible. The fact that I can take all this music on the go with me, and I only have a 20 Gig. Wait til I upgrade. Or, even better, wait another 5 years when the limitations have become almost non-existent and the future is more than we imagine today.

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Napster, Yahoo Pitch Subscriptions As Best Consumer Download Model, Fanning Talks Snocap

Yesterday, I attended the 2005 edition of Digital Media Wire's Digital Music Forum in New York. For a one day conference, it is becoming de rigeur for anyone interested in the digital music industry. I did not attend last year, but did so the year before. At that time, it was clear the war going on over the legality of Peer 2 Peer software companies, for example Kazaa and Morpheus, who's software allow the end user (that would be you) to share music files over the Internet, was centerstage.

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Digital Music Forum – March 2, 2005

From 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM on Wednesday, March 2, the digital music elite will converge at the French Institute Alliance Francaise, 55 East 59th Street in New York City for the 2005 edition of the Digital Media Wire's Digital Music Forum. This year's keynote addresses will be delivered by Terry McBride, Founder & CEO, Nettwerk Productions and David Goldberg, VP & General Manager, Music, Yahoo!

Shawn Fanning - Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Snocap (formerly of Napster) will be interviewed by Chris Anderson - Editor-in-Chief, Wired and Mike Conte, General Manager, MSN Marketplaces, Microsoft will be interviewed by Paul Brindley, Managing Director, MusicAlly.

I attended this event two years ago. It seemed then that most of the discussion centered around P2P and music piracy. This year's panels seem to be focused on the business of online music and the explosion of music on wireless devices....

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Mobile Ring Tones: Where's the House Music?

Interesting thing about the move this time. It forced me to take a look at my communication options. Did I want to switch my standard ATT Home service to the new apartment, or should I just try and survive on the celly? With all the taxes and surcharges you pay for a home phone, plus long distance, it was costing me more a month for the phone in the house than the one I'm carrying around. I remember in the early 90's it was the other way around. Carrying a cell phone was much more expensive. How times have changed.

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