Alice has broken 2 ribs in a car accident .

Crystal Castles cannot perform at the next 10 dates. HEALTH will continue on the tour without Crystal Castles.

So here’s a personal track from me! I just finished this project for California based artist/record label owner Ellee Ven. The original song, “Roll The Dice,” was a hip hop tune, and actually pretty darn cool. Ellee contracted me to make it more clubby and electro and I was very satisfied with the result. Since this is coming out on iTunes, Hot Sauce Records, CDBaby.com, etc. I have to respect Ellee’s wishes and not allow people to download it directly. However, if you are an industry professional, i.e. journalist, DJ, etc. and like the tune, contact me at dani@danideahl.com and I can e-mail it directly to you. Thanks! 

Sorry for the random difficulties over the past couple of days. Firefox was acting buggy, due to some faulty coding courtesy of third party publishing program Ecto…grrr. Everything is fixed now (minus some minor formatting) so dsquared should be up on Hypem.com within a couple days!!

Speaking of frustrations though, there have been some odd happenings at gigs over the past couple of days, including:

-Random guy being escorted out of club and then pulling the fire alarm because he was upset over being kicked out.

-Guy being kicked out and crashing through club’s front door (made of glass). The glass shattered everywhere…the guy got pulled back into the club via a back entrance by three security guards. Uh oh.

-Someone accusing me of being discriminatory because I wouldn’t play hip hop.

I’m curious to hear some of your tall club tales if you have any…leave in the comments below!

Here is an article I wrote about Chicago-run Front Forty Press. Out right now in the Jan/Feb issue of URB Magazine.

“Chicago’s Front Forty Press is undoubtedly the dark horse of the art book world. Started just a few years ago as a virtual publishing house, Front Forty has gained steam in the past two years, jumpstarted by a feature at P.S.1 MoMA, and now boasts six acclaimed titles in circulation with several more planned for 2008.

Doug Fogelson, the man behind Front Forty, is just as much of a curiosity as the press itself. The straight-laced man in a pinstripe suit hardly seems like the person who would publish the racially charged graphic novel The Hole. Other books range from the ponderings over built environments in Sonneteer to Matt Volla’s Unruly Drawings, a sketchbook chronicling the misadventures of tiny drawn creatures. However, the biggest success for Front Forty thus far has been Graffitecture, a visual thesis where Fogelson provided photographs of high end spaces to well known graffiti artists to do with as they pleased. Accompanied by four essays on graffiti, the book is as much about musing as it is markers and wound up winning best design 2007 at the Hollywood Book Festival.

A recent distribution deal with the University of Chicago Press mans that big box retailers will soon carry Front Forty releases, as well as the small independent shops and museum stores that Fogelson contacts directly. Despite the hard work, he admits the sudden success is a bit puzzling. “People have really responded to the books, which is suprising,” he says. “Everyone’s been trying to figure our who we are and what we’re about. Our philosophy is [that] if we think something is interesting enough, we make a book out of it.”

Saturday night was my night at KISSATLanta.com’s AFTERLIFE party in Atlanta, and it did not disappoint. I was able to play exactly how I wanted, and the crowd was bananas. Actually, I got the biggest compliment I could have hoped for - Preston himself (AFTERLIFE promoter/KISSATLanta.com founder) said I played the best set out of anyone they have had since the night’s inception. The crowd’s energy was infectious and several times I left the decks to pull people on stage, dance on the speakers and generally get sweaty and drunk. Aside from all the fist pumping and dance-your-ass-off action, here’s a rundown of the night’s highlights -

-Random girl pulling “Girls Gone Wild” stunt by pulling shirt down on the dancefloor and licking her boobs for the video camera.

-Guy running around with no pants all night.

-Two shirtless guys walking around together, one with “SL” painted on him, and the other with “UT”.

-Two guys wearing colonial powdered wigs.

-Group of girls stripping in the bathroom to show off tattoos.

Photos will be posted soon (today or tomorrow), but in the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of the tunes I played in my AFTERLIFE set. On a side note, I had a couple kids say they loved my style of “deep house” which I thought was really confusing. I realized that because they called blog/indie-electro music “electro,” they assumed anything else was deep, and even though most of what I played was very close to what they were used to anyway and they loved it, they didn’t know what to call it. For the record, THIS is deep house, and THIS, and THIS as well. What I played (below), is electro house…mostly (Crookers is pretty much just awesome, or fidget if you want to be particular).

Buy Now - For Sale (Felix Da Housecat Remix)
Download
Buy at Beatport.com

EDU K - Gatas Gatas Gatas (Crookers Remix)
Download
Buy at Beatport.com

D.I.M. - Is You
Download
Buy at Beatport.com

Daft Punk - One More Time (The House Moguls 2007 Remix)
Download

Static Revenger, one of my favorite electro-banger producing artists, is releasing “Love Song Surprise” just in time for Valentine’s Day. It’s a compilation of downtempo love songs…which is obviously very, very different from what we’re used to hearing from him. Actually, the press release says “unapologetic downtempo love songs,” which leads me to believe he knows he might get flack but is going to say f**k you anyway.

Most actually don’t know that Static Revenger was in a major label band back in the 90s and had opening acts like Kid Rock when they toured around. This gets back to his roots in a sense, and I guess it’s been deemed successful - “Sweetest Day” (below) was actually chosen by Britney Spears as her wedding song when she had that trainwreck of a reality show.

If you want to buy the album, it’s being released on D-Dub Records digitally on April 15th, and physically on May 6th. Until then, here are a couple teasers and at the bottom, a more recent Static Revenger tune (with his usual electro sound).

Static Revenger - Sweetest Day (From Love Song Surprise)
Download

Static Revenger - Satellite (From Love Song Surprise)
Download

Static Revenger - Ooh La La
Download
Buy at Beatport.com

That’s right, this weekend I’ll be flying down to Atlanta to play at KISSATLanta.com’s famed Decatur Social Club and AFTERLIFE! These parties pack it in every weekend and there seems to be an increasing number of chicks with their shirts off every time I see photos. Not too shabby. If you are in the Atlanta area, make sure to stop on by. I can’t wait to make my Atlanta debut. To give you a taste, here’s one of my favorite tunes of the moment.

London Calling - You Drive Me Crazy (Yellow Drill Remix)
Download
Buy at DJDownload.com

Tittsworth is the party jam DJ known for hot bmore mash ups of everyone from Justice to the Four Tops, making him the name on everyone’s lips and blogs in recent months. With ten years of production under his belt, industry friends like Diplo and a nod from URB’s Next 100 list last year, it finally seems like this DJ’s time to shine. Currently in Hong Kong, I spoke with Jesse Tittsworth (yes, that’s his real name) about finally being on the radar, his upcoming album, and eating moth souffle.

* This is only a sample of what will eventually be printed in URB magazine in a couple months. I’ll post a notice when the issue comes out. To make up for the tease, please enjoy the Tittsworth tunes included at the end of the post

read more

“Take your glasses off.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re famous.”

Full news story here.

Link to the official post on KISSATLanta.com

Wrapping up….

a) Yes, as an URB writer I’m aware of the rejected Justice mix for Fabric. I lent a quote for the Red Threat blog on the matter, saying “The fabric mixes are usually so stellar because the artist is given the freedom (well, usually), to do whatever they want. And more often than not, that means delving into the crates and exploring their influences. Pat Mahoney did just that with his Fabric mix and put together a roster of totally obscure disco tracks. I don’t see the sense in Fabric essentially negating what Justice sees as a body of work that helped make them who they are.” Anyway, you can also download the mix via Red Threat if you want to take a listen.

b) The URB Next 100 list was released to us writers today and I’m stoked at a good amount of my submissions were accepted. Of course, I can’t say who else is on the list but overall it looks pretty formidable. Feel free to guess away with who you think is up on that list!

c) I’ll be playing for KISSATLanta.com’s Black Heart Ball February 9th, headlining alongside KISSATLanta.com’s own - Preston Craig. More info and a flyer to come!

d) If you’re in the Chicago area, come out to Debonair Social Club Wednesday night - good times!!