Beer fest + John Beltran + SOS Band + Tittsworth

Blogger power outages and a musical about two witches has left me MIA the past few days. (ADD moment: speaking of MIA, I am absolutely in love with the Soulwax remix of 'Paper Planes,' a song that is normally almost unlistenable. Go download it from Glitter and Gold right now!!!!!) Also, forgive me if I don't link everything below -- I am running late, as usual. Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yes...

This weekend is totally going off. Tonight there's an over-priced Beer Fest taking place at Heritage Square that may be worth checking out. Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes these things can turn into drunken frat boy fests (try saying that five times fast!). Not my scene, jellybean.

The Fast Forward crew will be bringing another one of Ubiquity's golden boys, John Beltran, to DJ at the Peacock Room this evening, alongside Dr. Um and Riverside. Nujazz, soul, funk, broken beat and house music lovers unite!



And on to Saturday's events.

The house kids in this town have been trying to pull together a daytime pool party for ages, and it seems as though it's finally happening on the roof of the Vue building downtown. Not too shabby. The free party goes from 12 - 6 PM with DJs Atnarko, Edson, Rob Slac, Mo Negro, Nat, Buckner and TARD.



Old skool kids can relive their Firestone days for a good cause. Tomorrow night a memorial party will be held for Donald Johnson in an effort to raise money for the family he left behind. The lineup includes Stylus, Sandy, Rob E and more. Click the flyer for full details.



Orlando is on a roll with awesome disco-band reunions -- tomorrow Star 95.4 will host a free block party on Central Ave between Orange and Magnolia. Who's performing? None other than the S.O.S. Band. You know them -- they sing "Baby we can do it, take your time, do it right, we can do it baby, do it tonight!" Since I can't find any awesome funked out photos of the band, here is a great album cover that could have easily been shot last week at a hipster fashion show.



And here are two dope songs from the same album:

S.O.S. Band - You Shake Me Up.mp3
S.O.S. Band - Can't Get Enough.mp3

The big event of the weekend will take place right down the street from the block party. Art and music nerds alike will be flocking to the warehouse space at 630 West Central Ave. for the Pintura International Graffiti Conference. The all-day event begins at noon and will continue until the wee hours of the AM. Headlining the event is Tittsworth; other talent on the bill includes Kittybat, Swamburger, Phat-N-Jazzy Collective, Andrew Spear, MOT, Mega, Cub and a ton more. Find all of the details on WPIentertainment.com and MBArtProjects.com.



Grab the Tittsworth remix of AC/DC at Awkward Pirates (and grab the Crookers version too, it's sick).

And finally, if warehouse graffiti parties aren't your thing, the Peacock Room is hosting its new monthly hair metal party, "Turbo Love Machine," and DJing this month are Anti Social and Angry Asian. Come prepared to rock out with your cock out.

Earth, Wind and Fire Still Rules + Glitter and Gold Launch Party

Whatever joke I was trying to make about Earth, Wind and Fire in my previous post (i.e. they're past their prime, will only play the hits, not quite the show it used to be, etc.) was completely, utterly, totally and absolutely WRONG!!! Thank goodness. They may have bad hair but MY GOD, they are entitled to rock whatever hairstyle they want while we humbly bow at their feet.



The three original members of EWF are still on point: Philip Bailey's voice is ridiculously amazing, Verdine White can thump a bass like nobody's business and Ralph Johnson is a mean percussionist. The musicians they found to fill in the gaps also didn't disappoint and the show included a few jam sessions where they proved they could funk out just as well as the originals. In addition to the hits, they touched on a good portion of their catalog that I wasn't expecting to hear: among the songs were Serpentine Fire, Brazilian Rhyme, Kalimba Story, Mighty, Mighty and On Your Face.

It was definitely worth the overpriced admission fee and fighting the crowds to see them.



Tonight head down to BackBooth where the fabulous ladies of Glitter and Gold, a super dope music blog, will be hosting their launch party. Tunes will be provided by Pauly Crush, Miss Fit, Justin Scott, Ge30n and Koolbreeze. Get in free before 11 by signing up for the Crush guest list.

Tonight: Lismore, Purple Haze, Robitussin

Oh, Miami, why do you always leave me in such bad shape? I was fine for a few days... then this monster cold gripped onto my chest and won't let go. Unfortunately (for me), tonight I will be downing bottles of Robitussin (not in the good way) while Lismore performs live at The Peacock Room alongside Orlando's own Q-Burns Abstract Message.

If I am lucky, this villainous cough will take a friggin hike ALREADY and I can catch them this Monday at Crush. Le sigh.


Also happening this evening at ex-Blue Room turned Voyage is Purple Haze, a mysterious event claiming "YOU are the star." As instructed, I checked the Myspace page for more info (there wasn't any). What I do know about the event is that Miss Fit, one of Orlando dopest girl DJs, will be playing and that's reason enough to go. She's also behind an awesome blog, Glitter and Gold, which was kind enough to drop the new Mstrkrft track a few days ago. Muchas gracias!