Friday, March 30, 2012

Vampire9000 - Colours remixed!

Today I'm happy to share with you the sixth release on our little lable, SMAC006 AKA "Vampire9000: Colours remixed".

The double A-side features two very different remixes of songs from our second release, Vampire's Colours EP. Each remix, in name, has been done by a different entity, but in reality both were produced by J-Dawg and B-Cat/ Jaysynth and Sassquatch/ Jason & Ben ELM.

Together we've been working on some more awesomeness, which I hope to be sharing with you sometime soon. For now

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

V9K vs Louis Minnaar!

A teensy bit of exciting news from Camp SMACM! Vampire9000 have some new press pics. They were created by the overly-awesome Louis Minnaar, which basically means they're all kinds of great!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Rebel Alliance 5 Trailer!

Illustrations and animations from The Rebel Army have started rolling in. Things are looking pretty amazing. If you want some proof, here's the trailer for Saturday:
With all the artists getting involved in this, the guestlis for the night is huge. I'm not sure how many open seats there are gonna be in The Bioscope. You may want to book some tickets here.

Till then Rebel Scum!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Nicolaas van Reenen - Wrestlemania is out!

Wrestlemania! is only 15 minutes long, but I could write pages and pages about how much I love this little EP. Carrying on about it for ages though, would only delay me getting down to the important part; telling you to CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NICOLAAS VAN REENEN'S WRESTLEMANIA!

We do this all the time: Rebel Alliance 4!

With Rebel Alliance 5 less than one week away, this seems like a pretty good time to share some pics from the previous installment of our music and moving-image mash-up nights. Documented by SMAC-BFF Patrick Dinneen, last month's pics from Rebel Alliance were blessed with a black and white, rock and roll style, quite different from the way Hanro Havenga shot Episodes 1-3!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Free Music Friday: Greenisforturbo - Dinosaur!

It is with great joy that I can present to you this episode of Free Music Friday!

As I mentioned last month, SMACM will be releasing the postmortem, debut album by the so very well loved Centurion post-power-pop renegades Greenisforturbo. In the build up to the April 21st release of the album, we've decided to share another single of the album! This time, it's firm fan-favourite, Dinosaur! Some other exciting dinosaur related news is that we're making a video for this song. Well, that is kinda exciting the really exciting part is - this video will be yet another project where Cam and I harness the collective awesome of the people around us to try make something new and fun for people to enjoy. I don't wanna give too much away, but if you'd like to appear in the video, screaming and running away from dinosaurs, pull through to Rebel Alliance next weekend!

Oh! And since dino is now up for streaming, we figures we'd make Graduated Canada, the previous GIFT single, freely downloadable! Click on that little arrow! Do it!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

You are invited to the awesomest (free) party ever!

It's really encouraging to see how some major local brands are getting behind seriously cool events!

One brand showing a lot of sense for what's really cool (and willingness to help make it even cooler) is Bacardi. Last year I played one of their "Better Together" events, a really original concept, celebrating creativity and collaboration. I was lucky enough to be a part of a night brought to life by the brilliance of Louis Minnaar, Yesterday's Pupil & Felicity Steenkamp. In short it was easily the coolest brand event I've ever played.

Now Bacardi are at it again, getting behind one of the brightest stars in the current Jozi-nightlife sky. Half 'n Half Productions are frequently putting together some of the best nights this city sees these days. They book shows for the excellent Fire Through the Window and Short Straw, both of which are playing the event this whole post is supposed to be inviting you too. There's also some extra Joburg flavour in the form of Dance You're on Fire, some exotic spice with Cape Town touring act Holliday Murray and DJ action from Half n Half for desert! On top of all that, the night features firm SMAC favourites Yo Grapes! And most amazing of all BACARDI ARE GIVING YOU THIS HYPER-AWESOME LINEUP FOR FREE! It all seems to good to be true, but this really is going down tomorrow night. There would have to be something seriously wrong with you if you didn't celebrate that.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Day's like Television: Jo Fo vs Peach!

Not sure how nobody knew this was out there, but Anja stumbled across it two years after the fact.

It's a neat little video about the 2010 collaboration between Peach and Jo Fo. Lex says all kinds of lovely things about our little community over here. I start feeling homesick for being homeless with these kids: P.S. This song was re-recorded for the band's incredible third album. I still like P-dog's version best!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

You are invited to Rebel Alliance 5!

Jozi's only music/ animation/ live-performance/film/ illustration mash-up night returns! With a lineup that celebrates the release of new local music, features a performance from one of JHB's most-loved live acts and debuts three new collaborative projects that pool the super-powers of more than 50 creatives! Strap yourselves in for interstellar adventure on Saturday the 24th of March with
Rebel Alliance pt5: The Empire Strikes Out!
featuring


The Frown!
Live! The recently re-imagined synth darlings return with brand new awesomeness for your awesomness-receptors!


Awewolves!
Cape Town's most ferocious VJ duo make their Joburg debut!

RA Animation Jam 01!
Combining the powers of over 20 animators; this is the 1st of three new collaborative projects debuting at this months event!


Vampire 9000 - Colours Remixed!
Sneaking it's way into the night in surprising ways, it's the latest from SMACM! A double A-side release featuring two remixes from last year's Colours EP by Vampire9000!

Rogue Squadron 01!
The Alliance's new team of elite creative star-fighters take off for the first time! This month the squad represents some of the brightest new stars from the galaxy of photography featuring Hanro Havenga, Patrick Dinneen, Alex van Rensburg and Olivia Mortimer!

Greenisforturbo - Dinosaur music video shoot!
The most thrilling rear-screen, dinosaur projection, this side of 1958! And you can be a part of it!


RA Illustration Jam 01!
Illustration jam pulls together hundreds of doodles drawn by artists around the country and brings them to life on a psychedelic alien planet!

Doors open at 8PM!

Cover only R40!

Presale tickets available here!

More exclaimation marks to follow!

SMACM Merch on sale!

Complimentary high fives all night!

Fight the good fight!

Defeat The Dark Side!

Join the Rebel Alliance!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

You are invited to "Jukebox: The best of high five records"

Over the course of a year, we threw 12 High 5 parties, each themed to a very different sub-genre of the wide wide world of rock & roll. Each party was presented as an imaginary compilation, the "tracklisting" of which, was the lineup of the night. Generally this was Ri & I, plus 3 of our favorite DJs. Over the course of each night, 7 and a half hours of dancing were divided up by that month's "High Five".

On Saturday the 17th we'll be hosting "Jukebox - The Best of High Five Records!" a wrap-up event to celebrate the end of the series! Sonically, the night will span the full extent of all the genre's explored over all 12 installments of the series, from swing to surf, proto-punk to post-punk, 50ies soul to 80ies new wave to 90ies indie. The real surprise is, breaking away from our formula of 5 DJs in 7 and a half hours, we won't have a "High Five" , but rather a "High Fifteen"!!! Yes, we are being as ambitious and crazy that we think we can squeeze 15 DJs into 1 lineup and what's more we think it's gonna work out pretty damn well!

If you're wondering about the maths, we have 7 and a half hours from 8:30PM - 4AM, a total of 450 minutes. Divided by our 15 DJs, it leaves each DJ with a power set of 30 minutes each. Whether they try fit 20 doo wop hits into that time, or would rather just play two epic disco jams for the whole set, that's totally up to them. Seeing what people do with a micro set like this and the madness of giving the dancefloor a new selector every 30 minutes, we think this is gonna make for one of the most fun, crazy nights-out that Joburg has seen in ages!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Beach party - Water

This is just great. New Beach Party music video by Dylan Culhane . Neato!

You are invited to Gig!

The Ocean Doesn't Want Me are on the verge of releasing their new album. As mentioned previously I am dead excited about, and I think it's pretty safe to say it'll be one of my favourite local releases of the year. Gaining momentum in the lead-up to the LP's release, the band have been organising a string of shows and this Friday, I'm very glad to say, my band is going to be supporting them on one of these dates. As if an ELM & TODWM show weren't enough to be excited about, the lineup will be completed by the much-loved Make Overs! And it's going down in the wonderfully tacky Shiva's Rock - one of my favourite live venues around! In other words, I am super excited for this!!!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Animation Jam welcomes Ricky The Rocket Panda!

I am very happy to announce the latest addition to the team collaborating on this month's Rebel Alliance Animation Jam is also our very first international participant! Welcome to the Rebel Alliance Rocket Panda!
Rocket Panda, know to the authorities as Riccardo Albertini, is a motion designer from Bergamo, Italy. His wonderfully cute name and logo, love of Star Wars and passion for creating beautiful animation was a clear sign he was a perfect fit for our motley crew of rebel scum. Plus he's got mad skills - just check out his reel!

With Rocket Panda on board the total number of animators participating in this project is now 22 (and counting)! A lovely collection of human beings with a very diverse variety of backgrounds they are:


1) Ben Rausch (Cool Your Jets)
2) Cameron Lowry (Turn Your Lights Up High)
3) Daneel Malgas (Awewolves)
4) Derrek Pitts
5) J Matthew Nix
6) Jarred Pereira (Jestr)
7) Jason Sutherland
8) Jim Nicholson
9) Gordon Bakkes
10) Lodewyk Barkhuizen (Planet Future)
11) M.J. du Preez (Doktrine)
12) Matt McFarlane (Cool Your Jets)
13) Neo Majafe
14) Philip Davies (Sheer Shurikahn)
15) PJ Kotze (Planet Future)
16) Riccardo Albertini (Rocket Panda)
17) Richard van Beek
18) Silas Lekgothi (Pencils & Crayons)
19) Stuart Ziegler
20) Sylvia McKeowen (Muis)
21) Terry Adams (Pixel Ninja)
22) Werner Redelinghuis (Cool Your Jets)


To say I'm excited about seeing how this is gonna turn out would be quite an understatement!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Make Overs are back in action and you are invited!

After a bit of a breather after their epic summer tour, Make Overs are getting back to what they do best: making more noise than two people should ever be capable of! They're playing two shows in the space of the next week. Playing both dates alongside Make overs are one of the most promisng new bands to emerge out of Joburg in the past year, The Idiots!


2011 in lists: SMACM releases!


Are you excited? You should be! Prepare your eyes and ears for a post that tries to catch up on my so over-due list making of things from last year, multiplied by the power of a Free Music Friday!

I'm still in the process of making a list of my favourite local recordings from this past year. While doing this I realised a large chunk of those recordings are actually things that we landed up releasing through SMACM, the label I launched last February. It seemed a little biased putting all those EPs in my SA Music list, so instead I'm giving them their own list. May I introduce to you

THE 2011 SMACM DISCOGRAPHY!
***
SMAC001
EYES LIKE MIRRORS
CRUSADES
Art by Franci Lawlor
Design by Ben Rausch

SMAC002
VAMPIRE 9000
COLOURS

SMAC003
JAYSYNTH
ST
Art by Jason Sutherland

SMAC004
MARTIANMARTIAN
ST
Download Martianmartian here!

That's it for now; I hope that by this time next year I'll have been able to share even more lovely sounds coming out of our little country!