We do this all the time: She Vox!

Hi5's "She Vox"

Kitchener's, Johannesburg

Sat 8 Aug 2011

Good weekend: She Vox and The Vinyl Vultures

This past weekend was definitely one of the most awesome variety, and what's more an extra long one at that. Starting on Thursday night, Cam, under his Turn your Light Up High banner, hosted Vinyl Vultures. As the name suggests it was a party soundtracked entirely off records, and Cam assembled a pretty great collection of Vultures to provide it. Ash, Ri, Chad, Cam and Ben to be exact.

By the time I got there at 8 Kitchener's was already uncharacteristically full for a Thursday. Ri started the night off with a lovely laid back set, but as soon as Chad took over things broke down into a killer little dance party. Cam kept the part going and then it was time for me to break out my crate of precious black gems.

Back when Ri and I started DJing we used to squeeze a bit of vinyl into our sets, but pretty early on decided it'd be best for us to stick to CD. I haven't tried playing off the format since. With the mountain of records Anja got me while she lived in the UK, dusty gems I've dug up myself and intercontinental presents from Jun and Evan, I was atomically excited to play my first vinyl only set.

And as much as I was excited about my set beforehand, I was double as excited with how it actually went. There's something so satisfying about flapping between a crate of covers, picking something out, counting grooves and putting the needle down. It just so much more rewarding than playing off CDs. Needless to say I had an amazing time. Said amazingness was undoubtably highlighted by spinning my Los Camp 10" and an insane mass-handclap-athon breaking out in Kitcheners. It was beautiful.

And then more amazingness would follow, in the fom of Ash, most-certainly one of my favourite DJs around.

And after his awesomeness some 1 on 1 fun followed. Some time around 2 Cam brought his massively succesfully first vinyl party to a close with a record of African Animal sounds, it was just perfect.

I had to be up rather painfully early on Friday morning, but I couldn't complain - I had to race around and buy art supplies for the installation Feiyue had asked me to do in the window of Mooks that afternoon. There's little in life that makes me as happy as drawing, and having people ask me to draw whatever I want for them is always a very welcome surprise. The last time I was invited to do something like this was Ke Ai's Popobe designer toy exhibition, where I got to turn a giant white bear into a giant mecha-kitten monster.

For Feiyue's Shapes campaign, i decided to invent an imaginary band called the shapes. This "kittencore" band involved little cats driving giant robots and making them play instruments. bringing this concept to life in a very short time limit was a little daunting, but as soon as I got into the window and started drawing i just had the best time. The guys at Mooks were super welcoming, Cam paid me a little visit and best of all the whole thing was soundtracked by some of my favourite music. I wish I could spend every Friday afternoon drawing in shop windows listening to TV on the Radio.

I spent the rest of the normal weekend not doing too much outside of animating things for UK 70ies prog-rock icons, playing X-Box and easing into life in my new home.

Ri had moved in during the week, and outside of the general awesomeness of sharing a rooftop with on of my favourite people ever, this fact was made even better by Ri bringing Chi along with him.

One winter's evening back in 2005 I helped Ri move into a new home in Brixton. As we were bringing in Ri's stuff we discovered a box of abandoned kittens in the empty house. I obviously freaked out, although the litter mostly wanted nothing to do with us stupid humans. That was of course, other than one little grey and white kitten that wouldn't leave us alone. Needless to say Ri adopted little kitten, called him Chi and he would go on to be a ray of sunshine in my life everytime I'd see him. Fast forward 6 years and I'm lucky enough to call this little guy my third housemate.

So the weekend would usually have ended with the final hours of sunday evening, but this past one was special. With the public holiday of Woman's Day on Tuesday, Ri and I threw She Vox to celebrate on Monday night. Lindi opened things up as Calamity Jane, and for the first time since winter struck, the high Five Dancefloor started rocking right from the first set.

Ri played some loveliness after that.

And then it was my chance to bring The Sass. For each of our themed High Fives I've needed to prepare some music for the night (it's not like I usually play much surf or swing), but with She Vox I didn't have to at all. Ever since I started DJing my collection has featured a hefty chunk of awesome songs featuring awesome girls.

My set flew by in a blur. The crowd was just lovely and I got a huge kick out of dropping femme favourites from Le Tigre, YYYs, We Have Band and Saturday Looks Good to Me. Honestly it was the most solid set I've played in ages and by the time I had to finish I still had a mountain of planned rockers I hadn't even gotten to play.

Luckily Maude was bringing more awesomeness, so I couldn't complain.

And Shady Lane ended my awesome weekend off with more of the same.

You are invited! She Vox!

This month we're throwing our High Five a little earlier than our usual end of the month slot. With Tuesday the 9th being Woman's Day, we figured a little party on the night before would be a pretty awesome way to celebrate our great great love of girls with microphones in their hands. As The Sassquatch, songs with girls singing in them (or at least boys singing like girls) formed the backbone of all my early sets. "The Sass" has obviously remained a prominent feature since, but I gotta say I'm dead excited to play an entire set of all girl vocals!

RSVP here!

Free Mix Friday: Commodore 64 and Shady Lane go 90ies!

Shady Lane and Commodore 64 are two of my favourite DJs in Johannesburg right now. They also happen to be 2 of the 4 voices behind the wonderful music blog, Sad Birthdays. Recently the both DJs released 90ies themed mixes which you can download right here, right now!

DOWNLOAD COMMODORE 64'S "SHE SMILED AT YOU BOY" HERE!

DOWNLOAD THE SHADY LANE'S "DAYDREAM GENERATION" HERE!

You are in invited: Dance, wrestle and roll!

Internationally the sport of Roller Derby has only come into it's own over the past few years, here in South Africa the first league for the sport only began last year. This Thursday, some girls starting up their own team, are holding a fundraiser. I'm glad to be contributing my DJing skills and projector to this good cause and look forward to spinning some rock & roll alongside a radically little selection of some of my favourite DJs in the city!

RSVP here!

Here's a new mix by Jozi's newest DJ, the oh-so-sweet Shady Lane!

Click here to download Shady Lane's "They say the sky is falling...I'm not so sure"!

Don't forget, you can catch Shady Lane providing a rock and roll soundtrack to the after party of Tuesday's Scott Pilgrim launch. If you're planning to attend this super special evening be sure to book tickets via scottpilgrimvsjhb@gmail.com - there are less than 50 seats left!

You are invited! Scott Pilgrim vs. Johannesburg

FREE SCREENING AND AFTERPARTY!!

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TO BOOK YOUR PLACE AT THIS UNPRECEDENTED EVENT OF SUPREME RADNESS:

Send your full name to:

scottpilgrimvsjhb@gmail.com

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Indie rock! Kung Fu! 8 Bit video-games! The vegan police! American Ninja Delivery girls on rollerblades! Red hot romance! Bromance! Robomance!

For 5 years Scott Pilgrim fans have been enjoying the thrill of these once separate worlds, coming together in the coolest comic known to man!

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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World collects the awesome stories of all 6 comics and combines them into 1 awesome film of ultimate awesomeness. Directed by Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead, Spaced) the film has already established itself as one of the definitive cult films of the decade. Now it's finally coming to South Africa!

To celebrate the arrival of this magical film, "Outer Limits" and "So Many Animal Calls" have endeavored to bring you a lunch party of suitably radical proportions. With the support of Nu Metro and United International Pictures, we're happy to say; our dreams of a Scott Pilgrim super-launch party have become a reality!

We're really (really) happy to announce that on Tuesday the 30th of November, Monte Casino's Nu Metro cinema 15 will be the hosting a free Screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. A private after-party in the cinema's Prive Lounge will follow the screening. A suitably rock and roll soundtrack will be supplied by the DJs:

Sassquatch
Kodiak
Shady Lane


The night will also feature comic and merchandise prizes from Outer Limits!

So string your bass, sharpen your katana, strap on your 'blades and prepare for Scott Pilgrim vs. South Africa!