Rich Medina Returns to Orlando

Rich Medina's son is way cooler than you. (Photo by Karl Rex.)

You know who’s awesome? These Lazy Afternoon guys. In the last few months, they have busted their asses to drop some knowledge to this town. Have you heard of Questlove? Brought him. Pete Rock? Yep, him too. DJ Craze, Maseo, Kon and Cosmo Baker? Check, check, check, and check. These are guys after my own heart and we’re lucky they’re doing their thing in Orlando.

Up next, they’re bringing back Rich Medina, one of my all-time favorite DJs, on Sunday, September 4. Their party on Memorial Day weekend was the shizzzzz, with Mr. Medina rocking the dance floor with all types of music the whole evening. (That is, until Eye Spy resident DJ Perry decided to ruin everything. Seriously, what’s up with this guy? He is *still* dropping "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers like it came out yesterday.)

This time the dance floor antics promise not to be cut short, as the party will be held at SUbstance. A reason to get there early: Orlando’s finest -- LT Smash, Kittybat and DJ Y-not -- will be on deck to warm up the dance floor.

A reason for the ladies to get there early: We get in free before 11. Oh word!
A reason for the guys to get there early: Ladies will be there.

Cover: $10
Why you shouldn’t complain about the cover:
A) Ladies in free before 11, so no excuses.
B) You’re contributing to make Orlando’s scene better. Help these dudes continue to bring true talent without losing their asses. Shit ain’t free.


21 and up, 10 PM, Peep the FB invite for more details.

PS... There are rumors circulating that there might be a steady Rich Medina Orlando residency in the works. Stay tuned!

A Wet Wednesday

Oh, Orlando. It seems as if the feast or famine rule also applies to the weather. A drought for 3 months followed by torrential downpours for 3 days straight (and counting)? Why not spread these things out a bit??? It would make for happier residents.

Anyways, if the rain finally decides to stop, or if you can rock a pair of galoshes like nobody’s business, then wade your way to one of these parties tonight.

The almighty Rocksteady crew is taking on Brownsville tonight for Sound Clash Soul @ Peacock: Kittybat and Diddles vs. Nigel and ThinkDifferent. Serato will be in effect.


And it seems the monthly Good Look party has been moved from beloved Bikkuri Sushi. Why? According to a cryptic Facebook message, it seems Bikkuri has been violating city codes and has been shutdown indefinitely. So much for the secret venue with seizure-inducing disco lights (they were a cool photo backdrop, though). The new home of Good Look is The Beacon, which just doesn’t seem the same. Maybe it’s the frat boy-esque, “see and be seen” vibe that accompanies most of the restaurants in Thorton Park. Can the Good Look kids thrive in this kind of environment? We’ll find out tonight.

Happy Wednesday!

Today Sure is a Good Friday, Huh?

I never could figure out why Christians call this day "Good Friday" when their favorite dude was crucified. I would think "Black Friday" would be more appropriate, but I guess that name was already taken by the post-Thanksgiving retail store hell. Anyways, here’s what’s going down this weekend:

Mr. Religulous himself, Bill Maher, is spitting his brand of religiously-offensively-awesome humor tonight at Hard Rock Live. I wonder what he has to say about Good Friday and Easter. If you want to find out, tickets start are a mere $55 + Ticketmaster fees. Ouch. Here he is with a penguin.



I have said before that Kittybat is the best DJ in Orlando, no question, hands down. I’m pretty sure it’s because he’s so damn versatile musically – in fact, he plays bass in a rock band called The Attack. They are playing the early show at The Social this evening along with Fake Problems and the River Boat Gamblers. Show starts at 5PM (yikes) and costs $12.



For a cheaper road, check out the Disco Disco party at Peacock Room with Latenight Society, Tard and Nigel. Don’t let the name fool you – not a drop of disco music will actually be played. I scoured the interwebs for a flyer, but all I could find was this video:

disco!disco!


Or, if tasty kid snacks and punk rock is your thing, check out the awesome all-girl band The Little Debbies over at Crooked Bayou. I was always a fan of the oatmeal creme pies.



And on to Saturday. Hipster favorite, Ratatat, will be playing at House of Blues. I don’t really have an opinion on them either way, but I do dig these Bjork and Kanye West Remixes.

Bjork - Wanderlust (Ratatat Mix).mp3

Kanye West - Get 'em High (Ratatat Remix).mp3



There’s also a Ratatat afterparty going down at The Social. This is the part where I would tell you who’s playing (I believe the aforementioned Kittybat is in the mix) but the social’s website is down at the moment, so I cannot fact check. Hopefully by the time you read this, it will be back up and you can get all the info for yourself.



And last, but certainly not least, we have The Empyres a band formed from ex-members of The Hatebombs, Fantasie and View-finder (and also Swami and the Salamis, if you remember them). They’ll be playing over at Peacock with Vanda.



If you believe in the Easter fairy tale, then have a nice one. If you don’t, have a kick-ass weekend anyway.

When Black Friday Comes...

Welcome Orlando kids who have stayed in town this holiday weekend. I took the last few days off to do the family and cooking thing, but now I'm here with your leftover Thanksgiving weekend events.

Right now, as we speak (or, as I type would be more correct) The Milk District is hosting one of their killer parties in honor of Black Friday. Head over to Etoile Boutique, Covert and Beta for awesome sales, leftover potluck goodness, potent holiday punch and dope ass music. Party is happening until 7PM.



Tonight, don’t miss an awesome show concealed by a shitty marketing title. The 2K Sports Bounce Tour hits House of Blues tonight in an effort to promote video games. Oh, and Q-Tip and Cool Kids are headlining.



Over at BackBooth catch Too Hot Redux, a music and art show featuring Peter Baldwin, Unique Assassin with DJ Dirty Sneakers and aesthetic by Mokobun.



Peacock Room is helping you work off your extra helping of turkey with their Stuffed party, featuring Latenight Society, Atnarko and Tard.



Also helping you work off the Turkey Day fat are the Spam Allstars at The Social. The 9-pice band blends “electronic elements and turntables with Latin rhythms, funk, hip-hop and dub to create an eclectic, original sound.”



Saturday night don’t miss Mumpsy and Yip-Yip at BackBooth.



Also tomorrow night kicks off a new party - Secret Saturdays at Bikkuri Sushi. This week fesatures LT Smash and Kittybat.



Hope you’re having a great holiday weekend!

Pop Off is .... errr... Popping Off Tonight

The holiday edition of Pop Off is going down tonight at The Social. If you're so inclined to brave the semi-cold weather and get there at 9, you'll be rewarded with free admission and an hour of free wells and PBR tall boys. If you'd rather go a tad later, there will be $5 Patron shots to keep you warm and $1.50 PBR's for all you cheap hipsters. I would stick with these specials since the drinks are grossly over-priced at The Social these days. Music will be provided by the ever so talented Rocksteady Soundsystem (aka the dynamic duo of Kittybat and Diddles) along with the horribly named FISHDICKS + Hardersauce. 18 and up welcome, $5 cover after 10 PM.

PS... I love how fly Obama looks on the flyer.

Busiest.Weekend.Ever.

Busy, busy, busy. I'm busy -- you're busy -- we're busy -- this weekend is super busy. You'll probably have to clone yourself at some point to keep up. Due to all this busy-ness, I don't have much time to add a heavy dose of my usual witty commentary. I'll do my best, though.

First up, tonight. Don't go see Jeff Foxworthy or you're an idiot. If you're going to do something semi-embarrassing, go see Extreme at the House of Blues. Admit it -- you loved "More Than Words" and "Hole Hearted" back in the day. Dear Nuno Bettencourt, I would have 10,000 of your babies. <3 Becky.



Playing at The Social is Japanese cover band for The Beatles, The Silver Beats. Here's their awesomely Engrish description: "Of note here is Eric, who is a dead ringer of John Lennon, not only for his appearance, but for his movements and voice. One feels the ghost of John on stage when Eric sings. As an anecdote, Tadaaki sang "Yesterday" for more times than Sir Paul!?"



Over at Crooked Bayou, they'll be welcoming Mala all the way from the UK. More info on the flyer.



Hoochie Productions is hosting a party tonight at The Peacock Room with Jevne. Also more info on the flyer.



Get Mental is in full effect at Sky60 with Spear and MOT. Password tonight is Blah, blah, blah, mental.



On to Saturday. The newly coined Milk District is hosting a super-dope BBQ in the parking lot for Covert, Beta and Etoile Boutique. The best DJs in town -- Kittybat, Diddles, MOT, Spear -- will be on hand for your listening pleasure and mad sales will be going on at all three stores.



Taste is having a fundraiser for local animal rescues in the form of a Zombie Trailer Park Car Wash. Say what??? There will be bands also - check the flyer.



Tomorrow night at the City Arts Factory is Spoiler Alert, an art show featuring Bask, Tes One, Parskid and Steakmtn. Awesome DJs too! More info on the flyer.



Phew. Plenty going on in our sleepy li'l town, eh? Hope to see you out, kids!

Pop Off: The New Thursday Night Part-ay

Tonight, The Rocksteady Soundsystem presents Pop Off, a new weekly Thursday night party at The Social with Kittybat, DJ Diddles (whose b-day is this Saturday!!!), Infinite Horns, and Fishdicks + Hardersauce. It's even 18 and up, so the kids who are boycotting Saturday Thursday will finally have place to dance! The 21 and up crowd shouldn't be discouraged -- just get there early for free vodka!

If you missed it, check out my April post for Kittybat's mix, What the Hell You Just Standin There For!?

Also, grab some mixes over at Glitter and Gold:
Sunday Morning Smoke Session #4 - DJ Diddles

Sunday Morning Smoke- Dj Diddles and Infinite Horns

Click the flyer for more info



PS... Don't forget tomorrow at the Peacock Room!!! I would love to see all your smiling faces for my birthday!!!!! <3

Grandma Party + Duran Duran + The Invincilbles

Today is very special. It's one of the few days the hipsters will brave the hot Florida sun and come out during the daylight. The annual Grandma Party Bazaar will be taking place from 10 AM until sundown in the Stardust parking lot. Expect to see a lot of bicycles, cut off shorts and pale legs (yeah, I'm really one to talk). Should be fun times! Click the flyer for more details:



Duran Duran will be playing tonight at the UCF Arena. I really hope they don't play Ordinary World because that songs sucks. Here's a photo from when they were dope:



Weren't the 80's great? It was totally hot for men to look super gay! I had the biggest crush ever on post-Wham George Michael. Actually, you may see the same hairstyles featured in the photo above at the Grandma Party.



And finally, over at The Social, you'll find west coast rapper Murs joining forces with Florida punk band Whole Wheat Bread to create The Invincibles. Get there early to hear Kittybat throw down beforehand.

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.

Kittybat's new mix - "What the Hell You Just Standin There For!?"

Man oh man. There are some people in this town that everyone knows -- and, more importantly, everyone loves. You probably can't find a single person who has something bad to say about these select few people. They are just (somehow) down with everyone.

Kittybat (also known as Mike(y) Cortez) is one of these people and has been around forever. Some may know him as the most awesome Park Ave CDs employee who will help find whatever type of music they are looking for. Others remember him as the badass guitar player for the Spitvalves.

Well, he's also a dope DJ with crazy skills and awesomely eclectic taste in music. He has shared his new mix with us and you should go download it now:

Kittybat - "What the Hell You Just Standin There For!?" (via DivShare)

Check the tracklist:

1.Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (intro)
2.Wale - W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E.
3.South Rakkas Crew - Mad Again (Diplo Club Edit)
4.Kardinal Offishall feat. Busta Rhymes - Watchalike
5.Dead Prez/M.I.A. - Warzone Explosion (Kittybat Blend)
6.Rockmaster Scott & the Dynamic Three - The Roof Is On Fire
7.Aaron LaCrate & Amanda Blank - Get Um Girl
8.Wing Wang Twins - Bmore Enure
9.Kid Sister - Beeper
10.Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir - Know How Theme Mix
11.Daft Punk/the Perceptionists - Electro Shake (Kittybat Blend)
12.Shawty Lo - They Know (Mano Remix)
13.Kill To Win - Peaches and Dro
14.M.I.A. - XR2
15.Bonde Do Role - Gasolina
16. Dj Tameil - Trans Newark Express
17.Fully Fitted & XXXChange - 100 Million
18.Pase Rock & Amanda Blank - Sexy Motherfucker
19.33Hz feat. Devin the Dude & Teki Latex - Paris, Texas (Inflagranti Mix)
20.Masterboogie Song & Dance - Roll the Joint
21.Loose Joints - Is It All Over My Face?
22.The Clash/L'Trimm - Rock the Cars That Go Boom (Kittybat Blend)
23.Sammy Bananas - K7
24.Bird Peterson - The Jump Off
25.Def Jef - Droppin' Rhymes On Drums

LL Cool J + Guns 'N Roses Tribute Band + Art and Fashion Show

There's plenty to choose from on this lovely Saturday evening. Brave hip-hop souls who feel like fighting off tourists can head to Universal Studios for Mardi Gras, where the infamous LL Cool J will be taking the stage. Don't call it a comeback -- he's been here for years.

Now a second photo for the ladies. DAMN.

Metal heads can check out Appetite for Destruction, the ultimate Guns 'n Roses tribute band, at The Social. My favorite writer, Chuck Klosterman, has a whole chapter dedicated to the popularity of these guys in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and I would image they more so resemble G-N-R than the actual band itself.

If you're in the mood for a vintage fashion slash art show, you can head to the bright orange Say It Loud building on Mills (you know, the one with the best logo ever and the orange sneakers hanging from the power line to grab your attention??? Brilliant). You Love to Hate features the artwork of Dolla Lama, Bask, Tes One and a ton more (click the flyer to view the full list). Also showing off their fashion skills will be Etoile Boutique, If You Nasty Vintage, Covert and Beta, with hair and makeup by Alchemy. Tunes for evening will be provided by Kittybat, Kidgusto, and the best Simpsons rip-off DJ name ever, LT. Smash ("Lieutenant Smash? That's right -- Lieutenant L.T. Smash"). Last but not least, there will be FREE BOOZE, thanks to the Shipyard Brewery. All this can be yours for a mere $10 donation.

Pauly Crush VS. Firestone

It appears that the folks at Firestone got into a little tiff with Pauly Crush this past week and things don't look promising for Saturday Thursday. In addition to PC, everyone who used to be on the roster has officially severed ties with the night -- Miss Fit, Justin Scott, Kittybat, Diddles, and Y-Not -- all gone. Taking their place are a bunch of kids I have never heard of -- DJ Marcos, South Rakkas Crew***, DJ Deville and DJ Elementz -- and Firestone seems desperate to keep the crowd coming by lifting the cover and offering free drinks until 1 AM. It's rumored that Pauly will be starting a new night at a different venue to compete with ST but I guess we will have to wait and see. His crew is definitely loyal to him and there's no doubt that he helped make the night what it is (was) today. It will be interesting to see what happens with ST going forward, but there's a good chance it will fizzle out before too long.



***EDIT: Ummm... the South Rakkas Crew??? Ummmm.... they're like, freaking everywhere now... Urb Next 100??? They are all up in the scene, way more than li'l ol' me. So, I was super mega wrong on that one -- I can admit it. Still haven't heard of the other guys, though. Hopefully I won't have to follow up with another edit, eh??? :)

Wet BBQ + Art Opening + Lismore again

The BBQ at Etoile yesterday was amazing! The tarps shielded us from the pouring rain (sort of) and it was one of the most fun dance parties ever, thanks to Kittybat, Diddles and MOT. I love when DJs go all over the board and these guys tore it apart -- hip hop, disco, funk, soul, 80's, 90's, indie, mashups... unreal. Huge thanks to Katie Reynolds for throwing such a great customer appreciation party. We <3 Etoile!


And now on to tonight's festivities. The Peacock Room is hosting the artists' reception for the group show Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World from 8 - 11 PM. The show features works from Terribly Odd, Horsebites, Cathey Miller, Adriaan Mol, Mania, Robt, and Moore. Music will be provided by DJs Nigel and Cub.


After getting your drink on at Peacock, head over to Crush at BackBooth to get your second fix of Lismore. See them for free by getting on the Crush guest list. Mondays are usually insanely packed at BB, so get there early. Or, if you get there late, you can always chuckle at the paradox of the hipster entrance line at BackBooth vs. the homey entrance line waiting to get into the club next door.

Rain, rain, go away...

Well, today is the One Year Anniversary Party and Dirty Dub BBQ for Etoile Boutique and God has opened the sky to pour his wrath upon their shindig. But, the show must go on and Katie and MOT have scrambled to build tents for the occasion. So come out, dance in the rain with two of the best DJs in Orlando, Kittybat and Diddles, drink free PBR and support locally owned independent clothing stores like Etoille, Covert and BETA.