Around The World With A-Trak: The Fool’s Gold European Vacation Tour
- story A-Trak
The Fool’s Gold European Vacation tour was the first official FG tour outside of American shores. The line-up was various combinations of: myself, Jokers of the Scene, Congorock and Greenmoney. For two weeks we traveled across the Old Continent, spreading the gospel of Mr Goldbar, leaving a trail of stickers and sweaty club kids. We slalomed between language barriers and customs officers, all in the name of the logo, as Lyor would say. Even when we hit cities that I’ve played by myself, it was a completely different experience to show up with a posse and make that statement, throwing merch into the crowd and playing snippets of upcoming 2010 releases. Representation in the European parliament shouldn’t be very far off.
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posted on Jan 7, 2010 in AROUND THE WORLD
Just Blaze Plays a House Set, and Other Live Mixes
- story Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
- photo HiFi Cartel
A couple of weeks ago we wondered, “WHERE IS JUST BLAZE,” as he is one of the greatest hip-hop producers of all time and whatnot. Perhaps exactly at that moment, in a stroke of galactic synergy, he was DJing at the Fools Gold/LTD Mag holiday party playing an assortment of his own productions (AKA nearly every rap song that was amazing in the first part of the ’00s) before launching into one of the SICKEST house sets we’ve heard in a hot minute. Even if you don’t like house or hip-hop (WHO ARE YOU?!?), it’s worth listening to for his shout-outs on the mic, i.e. “Shout out to everybody in line for the bathroom, that shit is hella long,” or when he cuts out “Flipside” on Peedi Crack’s intro ad-lib and the entire crowd tries to speak Spanish but just sounds like “Que tu aklajdsfljalkdfjsdalkfjdlsjf SHE SAYS SHE BLOW LA LA!” Bonus goodies: download the rest of the night featuring sets from Nick Catchdubs, Max Glazer, A-Trak and Dave 1 of Chromeo aka the Macklovitch Bros, and Trackademics on the mic. KIND OF EPIC, TOO BAD OUR INVITE GOT LOST IN OUR E-MAIL! 
Download: Just Blaze Live at the Fool’s Gold Holiday Party + Much More
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posted on Jan 4, 2010 in MP3 / STREAMS
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Heads Will Roll” (A-Trak Remix) MP3
- story Sam Hockley-Smith
Feels strange to think of a time when Karen O’s slightly nasal snarl was anything but ubiquitous considering she’s now got her hands in a million different projects at any given moment. FADER blogger/World Famous DJ A-Trak’s remix of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ “Heads Will Roll” (from last March’s It’s Blitz), does its part to keep her in the spotlight (as if the Where the Wild Things Are soundtrack, performing with the YYYs, and just being Karen O aren’t enough), turning the original into a full blast club track. Especially fitting for a band that has moved further away from guitars with each successive album.
Download: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Heads Will Roll” (A-Trak remix) (via Discobelle)
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posted on Oct 19, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS
Video: Duck Sauce, “aNYway” (Surface To Air Version)
- story Matthew Schnipper
There is some reckless groping in this video. Surface To Air, design collective extraordinaire, have reworked A-Trak and Armand Van Helden’s group Duck Sauce as the soundtrack to their remake of Ghost’s most famous scene (not the one where Vincent Schiavelli teaches Patrick Swayze—RIP both of you—to move stuff in the subway). We’re envisioning the meetings behind the creation and explanation of this video to A-Trak and AVH: “So we want to get some erotic clay happening, then have that burst into court jesters, but all come back to your cartoon duck logo, because we know that’s crucial.” Then everyone high fives and passes the GIANT PIPE OF PCP because they had to have been SUPER HIGH.
Video: Duck Sauce, “aNYway”
The only way this video would be better is if the Duck Sauce boys, A-Trak and Armand Van Helden, were wearing fake beards and bell-bottoms and playing the guitarist and hand-drummer. Without them you’re almost like “Is this an old video for the song’s original sample that someone found on Beta in their dad’s attic?” But the hilarious on-pointness of the funky bass player’s taut stance is just slightly too extra to be true. By the time the song’s stutter comes in about two minutes in, and the “singers” do a funny twitchy robot freakout, you’ll be enamored and wondering if there is some sort of Grammy for lip-syncing and simultaneous choreography. (via Fool’s Gold)
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posted on Oct 12, 2009 in MUSIC VIDEO
Around The World with A-Trak: Australasia
- story A-Trak
I went to Japan for some gigs about 3 weeks ago. You may recall I did a pretty hefty Asian tour back in May where I hit a lot of countries where I hadn’t played before and as a result didn’t go too heavy in Japan since it’s normally the prime destination for a DJ. So this time around I came back and did my Nippon jaunt. Read More
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posted on Oct 9, 2009 in AROUND THE WORLD
Around the World with A-Trak: Heaps Decent Edition
- story A-Trak
On one of my days off during the Parklife tour in Australia, I flew to a small town called Wagga Wagga to do some workshops for Heaps Decent. Heaps Decent is an organism that Diplo launched with two of our mutual friends, Levins and Nina Las Vegas. They bring music resources to underprivileged, mostly indigenous kids Down Under and help foster creative environments for them. It’s a wonderful cause and I was very motivated to take part in it. The plan for the day was to go to the Riverina Juvenile Justice Centre with Levins and Nina, meet the kids and work on some songs with them.
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posted on Oct 8, 2009 in AROUND THE WORLD
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XXIV: 10,000LB Hamburger Tour—The Second Serving
- story A-Trak
- photo Pooya Nabei
Time for the final recap of the 10,000LB Hamburger Tour; the second serving, if you will. For those just catching on, this lasted all throughout July, traveling across North America on a tour bus with Treasure Fingers and Theophilus London. We did an extensive run across enormous Canada. Normally I have a rule: no more than four shows in a row. I’m not sure how but that rule got broken, or bent, and we did a five city blitz. The day before that started, I was in Vancouver and decided to get a massage at my hotel to try and ease the tour wear-and-tear. Then we went to our first Canadian show in Victoria, which involved putting the bus on a ferry. There’s something pretty phenomenal about putting an entire bus on a boat. But hey, Archimedes wasn’t kidding, buoyancy is very real. We also saw some porpoises in the water as we were leaving the docks. How do you recognize a porpoise? By its fin! In Victoria, about an hour or two before my set my neck started stiffening up. It got bad really fast and I had to play my set whilst in pain. Damn massage! On the lighter side, a girl asked me if I was Amish.
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posted on Aug 19, 2009 in AROUND THE WORLD
FADER TV: On The Road With Bacardi B-LIVE Episode 23: Our Favorite Moments
- story THE FADER
Here it is, folks, the final episode of On The Road With Bacardi B-LIVE 2009. And just like every great weeks-long event—The Olympics, NCAAs, seasons of Lost—we are wrapping up the whole thing with a visual tribute to the top performers. Hold back the tears, please… There’s always next year.
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posted on Jul 29, 2009 in EVENTS BACARDI B-LIVE, EVENTS CHANNEL, FADER TV, FADER TV EVENTS CHANNEL SPOTLIGHT
Around the World, Part XXIII: 10,000LB Hamburger Tour
- story THE FADER
I’m about halfway into the 10,000LB Hamburger Tour so I think it’s time for some stories. We started off in the South, which I think is a bit unusual. Most tours go through the South in the middle, it’s typically the hardest leg of a tour because the distances are so long. It’s tricky finding decent food on those long drives so the name turned into a self-fulfilled prophecy: We ended up really eating hamburgers all the time. I’m gonna get fat! Someone pass me a parsnip or something.
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