Welcome to Summerstage on the hottest day of the year...

The presenter wasn't kidding.  My friend and I got to Central park at about 2:00, and there were 200+ people in front of us.  I assumed I wouldn't even be getting into the venue (not realizing how big it was).  I squeezed my way to about 5th row, and waited for the show to start.

I'm gonna have a lot to write about.

Mz Streamz

About 6 teenage girls came running out on stage and started dancing while DJ Blaqstarr was spinning.  I thought they were just a dance team, but then 2 girls grabbed a mic and started performing.  

I only had videos of them dancing to a backing track of their song.  I thought I recorded "Tear It Up", a really good Bmore club track featuring DJ Sega, but apparently I didn't.  They killed it, and I am looking for more of their songs, and can't really find any.  I read somewhere that they filmed a video recently and have a mixtape coming out soon.

Mz Streams Myspace

Blaqstarr

Blaqstarr came on and played some of the best baltimore club music I have ever heard.  I always love Blaqstarr mixes and the entire crowd was going crazy for "Hands Up, Thumbs Down".  He sampled some M.I.A. and Bonde Do Role (possibly a new song?).  Kid Cudi came on as a special guest, and he was alright.  I wasn't too into him, but I did manage to get a picture with him.  I'll be checking out his songs later this week to see what I think.  This is also around the time I may or may not have passed out for a second from the heat, so I had to make my way to the back of Summerstage so I could cool down (which is why I have no good pictures from this event).

DJ Blaqstarr - Tote It

Diplo

Hands down favorite DJ.  The fact is he is extremely talented, good looking, brings the best unknown music acts into the spotlight, and dated M.I.A. for a while.  He played a bunch of my favorites (his Golddiger Mix and Stronger Mix) and he sample The Gossip, which was a nice suprise.  He played for about an hour and a half (splitting the stage with A Trak, who was pretty damn good too) and it was great.   Check out maddecent.com to see all of Diplo's mixes, acts, up and coming artists, etc.

Rihanna - Umbrella (Diplo VNDLSM (Z-Share)

Santogold

This is what everyone was waiting for.  She walked right by me going backstage, but had her headphones in.  When she came on, all of Summerstage exploded.  She started with "You'll Find A Way (Switch remix)" and went on to sing "LES Artistes", "Starstruck", "Anne", "Unstoppable", and a few others.  She ended with "Creator" and it was really good.  She was really interactive with the first few rows (and I was extremely jealous of them).  Her backup dancers were PERFECT.  I was too far to get good video, but I recorded some live audio.  More will come later.

Santogold - Say Aha (Live at Summerstage)

(recorded by me)

Also here is a short video.  Its from really far away, and I was dancing but you can kind of see her backup dancers dancing.

Word.

Top Ranking

(Photo thanks to Mad Decent, www.maddecent.com/blog)

After tomorrow I'm sure the entire internet is gonna be buzzing with Santogold and Diplo's Top Ranking Mixtape.  Summerstage in NYC they will be onsale and I will get my copy, as should everyone going.

(if anyone asks me to take these down, I will)

Here are 2 tracks from it that I thought were amazing:

Santogold and Diplo - Guns Of Brooklyn

"Guns of Brooklyn" is already all over the interweb.  This song is so mellow, you can't help but love it.  Right after I got it I played it on repeat for ten minutes.  Normally with Diplo I would have expected a crazy fast beat, but I like this change of pace.

Gorilla Zoe, Santogold, and M.I.A. - Get It Up (Radioclit Remix)

The first two minutes of this song I'm not sure about.  I love rap, and I love rap even more over strange beats that you wouldn't hear everyday.  But Gorilla Zoe (who I have never heard of) just does not seem to fit in this song.  After listening to it all the way through, I usually skip to Santogold's part.

That being said, usually I can't get enough of Santogold, but this is one of my least favorite songs she is in.  For me, M.I.A. rules this song.  "Get it up, you can get it up!"  Then again, her tracks are always hot.

Buy Top Ranking here

Tu Tu

Last night was Chris Garneau live at Joe's Pub in NYC.  We got there and all the tables were already reserved, so we had to stand in the back.

Around 7:00 Olafur Arnalds came on.  He finished his first song at 7:15.  There were no words.  I am all about beautiful music, but 15 minutes of a piano and some instruments as ONE song, I could have done without that.  After 45 minutes (I think he played 4 songs.) he left and Chris got on the stage.  He started off with a new very sad song that he played on an accordion-esque instrument.  It was very good.

He ended up playing a very short set because another band was scheduled to perform basically RIGHT after him.  Some songs included "Relief", "Baby's Romance" and "In the Afternoon", one of his new songs.  He had a cover section too and did "Crazy" and "Walking After Midnight" by Patsy Cline.  

After the show, my friend and I stuck around to meet him.  I got a picture with him, told him how beautiful he sang, got a t-shirt, and was on my way.  This was a great concert night.

(we were far away so I have no good pictures of him.  Please view this video of him made by balancing the camera on my friend's head):

Baby's Romance (Live at Joe's Pub)

"There were about 100 trannies..."

After getting directions to "the ferry" from my TomTom, I drove for about 2 hours to "Staten Island".  The reason they are in quotes is because TomTom (which I am getting rid of ASAP) gave me directions to where the ferry lets off... in NYC.  The whole reason I was taking the ferry is because I cannot drive in the city, it is too frustrating.  So after about an hour of being lost in the city (oh, did I mention TomTom doesn't work in the city?  The buildings throw off the signal) we found a parking garage and ended up spending about 20 bucks, while the ferry would have been free.  My two friends and I spent about 2 hours wandering the city, getting some prime purchases at Canal Street, and then headed over to the Highline Ballroom.  We got in and were required to buy some food (10 dollar minimum, how nice of them) so we sat and waited.  Chris Pureka was the opening act.

She was pretty good (the lighting was so bad on her though, all of my pictures were too blurry) although I can never fully appreciate an opening band, since I get too impatient waiting for the main act.  Her one song "You Don't Know Me" was pretty good.  At least that is what I think it was called. Check her out.

www.myspace.com/chrispureka 

Jay Brannan!  He came on and told a bunch of jokes, stories, and sang a little of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This".  He was extremely entertaining.  One story had to do with all of 7th Ave filled with trannies that fought each other.  He "swore to god" it was true, an entire block full of trannies stopping traffic, yelling "Hold my bag, hold my bag!".  A video of that will be coming shortly.

He played all of my favorites, minus "Body's a Temple".  "Soda Shop" was probably the highlight, since it is his most known song.  The whole crowd was extremely receptive and he seemed like he had a great time.  He also played "Housewife", "At First Sight" (including him asking the audience to play percussion for him.  It sort of worked), and "Straight Outta Compton" (as requested by my friend).  For some of the songs, he had a cello player and a violinist, which he hadn't done before.

We stayed after and waited near the huge line (not in it of course) to meet him.  We were the last people he saw, and he didn't seem too happy to have that many people talk to him.  Regardless, he gave us all hugs, thanked us for coming, and chatted for a minute or two.  He was very nice, so I was happy about that.

Check out the video for "Soda Shop" that I filmed.  He started off with a different song, and goes "I tricked you guys!", so I got most of the song:

More videos will be on my youtube account later.

http://www.youtube.com/user/alorsvraiment