PillowTalk is Sammy D, Ryan Williams and Michael Tello. Based out of the famous Lower Haight District in San Francisco, PillowTalk’s music fuses classic R&B, boogie and disco with underground house and techno with an original feel. With releases out on Visionquest, Life & Death and Wolf + Lamb, 2012 is shaping up to be a huge year as they hit the road with the live band.
It all started when they found themselves up late, gathered around the baby grand piano in Ryan’s kitchen. Tello would be strumming on guitar and Sammy would be fiddling around on the Wurlitzer. It all just came together organically…without knowing it, melodies would form, songs would appear and before anyone realised, Sammy would be singing some off-hand hook and, hey presto, you had what Arthur Russell would call; “first thought, best thought” compositions.
Soon, these impromptu and improvised jam sessions were recorded on iPhone apps before being taken to ‘the lab” (a space about two blocks away) and from there they were transformed into alluring, charming, dance-pop ‘songs’.
With experience of, and backgrounds in, so many genres, Pillow Talk are making some seriously inspiring and beautifully original music. If you’re trying to pin down their exact sound you may have to refer to their motto of ‘D.A.G’ (destroy all genres – a term borrowed from a famed underground San Fran DJ). With influences ranging from the Beach Boys to Sam Cooke, from Freddie Hubbard to Harry Nilsson, and from Larry Heard to Theo Parrish, you can tell these guys are ruled from the right side of their brains. Having just started composing, this trio are still finding their own true groove, with their full potential yet to be explored…
PILLOWTALK – LIVE – (Wolf +Lamb, Liaison Artist, Life & Death, Visionquest) The Architects (Portland) Xan Lucero (Seattle) OFDM (Seattle, Classcadia) Recess (Seattle, Shameless)
Cold Cave are an experimental electronic pop group from Philadelphia and New York City who make melodic synthscapes with jackhammer beats. They acknowledge the dark roots of synthesizer music as well as its potential for making the brightest pop with their hard songs celebrating the contradictory beauty of the human condition.
As with their ancestors, for Cold Cave the synthesizer is as much about mayhem as it is melody. It is a means of conveying, via dissonance, ideas about disturbance and decay as effectively as the harshest guitar rock. It comes as no surprise to learn that mainman Wesley Eisold is a writer with a past in hardcore punk and noise bands. Caralee McElroy has spent the past few years performing and recording with the acclaimed Xiu Xiu. Manhattan-based Dominick Fernow is known for for performing as the noise group Prurient, and as the owner of the NYC record store and label Hospital Productions.
Cold Cave strive for balance, between the ugly and the beautiful, between rupture and rapture. The songs on Cold Cave’s debut album Love Comes Close have an immediacy that belies thought-provoking titles like “The Laurels of Erotomania” and “The Trees Grew Emotions And Died”. In this way they mark that transitional moment when synthesizer music went from a subversive device for sound collagists to a serious commercial force. They are cerebral and savage, yet sweet and seductive.
And their mainman Wesley Eisold is an absolute new young god of nihilism and despair. He says things such as, “I couldn’t understand why people were wearing watches, because they seemed like hourglasses of death, keeping track of how much time was running out”. He talks of his “absolute fixation with nostalgia and the idea of people and loves that never happened, so much that I can’t function properly with the people in my actual life”. And in two pithy sentences – “I dread clubs but I love the music they play in them,” and “I find it all so disheartening, what we hope to find when we leave our homes,” – he brilliantly captures Cold Cave’s aesthetic: the Morrissey of “How Soon Is Now” wailing over Nitzer Ebb beats.
According to Eisold, if anything, their music reflects what it feels like to live in the present. Eisold, whose baritone is as rich and resonating as that of Phil Oakey, Nick Cave or Iggy Pop, says “Of course we love the lineage of the genre, early experiments with machines to convey human emotion; the marriage between pop and industrial music. At the time it was documenting the early stages of a new world, and we are recording what it feels like to be alive in that world.”
When asked whether there is a set of guiding principles at work here, a Cold Cave aesthetic that runs from the artwork to the music, he answers: “We spend a lot of thought choosing what we do. The artwork is as imperative as the music. It is the only imagery attached to the recording. We judge books by covers everyday and it is my hope to have the sleeves represent the emotion, or lack of, in the music.”
He concedes that even though there are few explicit references to the heart of darkness on Love Comes Close, there are hints in the language used in the song titles at depravity and desolation. And he agrees that this makes Cold Cave heirs to the synthpop noir of New Order, Throbbing Gristle, Soft Cell and Muslimgauze.
James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan. According to his obituary at NPR.org, he “was one of the music industry’s most influential hip-hop artists, working for big-name acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes and Common.” Just as his music was becoming increasingly popular, Yancey died in 2006 of the blood disease TTP.
Renowned producer Pete Rock placed J Dilla on his list of the top five producers of all time, while the editors of About.com ranked him #15 on their list of the Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers. Andy Kellman of Allmusic stated that—by 2004, after being active for well over a decade as a producer—J Dilla had accomplished enough to be considered “an all-time great.”[5] J Dilla made the “Elite 8″ in the search for The Greatest Hip-Hop Producer of All Time by Vibe.Also, The Source placed him on its list of the 20 greatest producers in the magazine’s twenty-year history.
We want to help you start your Saturday night off right with a yoga session at one of your favorite Capitol Hill venues…the Electric Tea Garden! Lael will be instructing an hour and half session while Recess plays chill music on the decks. All levels welcome. $ donation. Bring a mat and make sure to drink lots of water.
1.6.12 Gene Hunt, Bryan Furious. Miss Shelrawka @ FAM FUNK: A House Music Monthly at Electric Tea Garden
**Gene Hunt**
Gene Hunt’s first release was on the infamous TRAX imprint and he swiftly followed it up with a string of tracks that were personified by a strong influence from Detroit. Deep strings mixed with intricate drum patterns were his trademark and his Melodies EP for Nepenta was one of the labels first hits. A Chicago house music pioneer, and World Class deejay, Gene has collaborated with a range of critically-acclaimed artists and producers, including Adam Beyer, Cari Lekebusch, Carl Cox, Paul Johnson, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Frankie Knuckles, and Ron Hardy. A key contributor who helped shape house and techno music worldwide, Gene is no doubt a true innovator of the Chicago house sound.
**Miss Shelrawka**
Dave Segal writes: “…[Miss Shelrawka] brings an East Coast energy and grittiness to her techno and house mixes. They’re also incredibly sexy, featuring much percolating hand percussion; swiveling, loin-engorging bass lines; cooing, groaning, and sighing vocals; and ass-smacking beats ….-a low-slung, funky, tribal strain of minimal techno-with excellent aesthetics and technique….” — DATA BREAKER 10/2009 – The Stranger, Seattle
**Bryan Furious**
Bryan is originally from Tacoma WA and currently resides in Seattle/Lynnwood. Bryan is been along time fan of EDM for about 10 years and enjoys the club/party scene. Bryan has also found himself enjoying DJing at local night clubs in the Seattle area.
1.7.12 Classcasia presentsBody Heat III featuring M A N I K, 214/J.Alverez, Pezzner, OFDM, Justice
The promoters for Classcadia brings style and class to underground dance music events; whether held in dirty warehouses, secret lofts, or sweaty clubs. The BODY HEAT events at Electric Tea Garden (first Saturdays of each month) invite you to “stick your pinky out” while trying our themed cocktail list, dressing your best, and dancing to the newest and sexiest sounds in electronic dance music.
***MANIK***
M A N I K is a young New York City born and bred music producer/DJ thats making huge waves. DJ Mag recently named him one of their official ‘Hot To Watch 2011.’ His youthful looks belie the serious and sophisticated musical talent that lies beneath. He is one of the cities few true musicians. The M A N I K discography boasts music releases on the worlds best underground imprints like Josh Wink’s Ovum, L.A based Culprit, Steve Bug’s highly praised Poker Flat, and an upcoming release on the almighty Hot Creations- run by Lee Foss and Jamie Jones.
You could throw around any number of “genre-locking terms” – House, Funk, Deep House, Disco, Acid, Electronica; however, you’d still fail to get to the meaning of M A N I K.
***214***
Seattle resident by way of Miami. “Audio mulcher” of the electro sound. With releases on Hypercolour, Fortified Audio, Frustrated Funk/Clone Records , Harbour City Sorrow/Clone Records, Touchin’ Bass , Car Crash Set, Outside Recordings, Mikrolux, Ai records and Digital Distortions record label.
***OFDM***
A founder of Classcadia, OFDM has been playing music and throwing parties for over a decade. He’s recently been making some tracks which he’ll probably inflict on you at some point during his swaggering NU-Disko DJ sets.
*great tracks…several Traktor box upsets on this recording…sorry.
Everything Electric is a night of electronic music every Thursday @ The Electric Tea Garden. Hosted by some of Seattle’s hottest DJ’s and Producers. Covering genres from House to Drum & Bass, Techno to Dubstep and most things in between.
JIMPSTER – BIO:
Jamie Odell aka Jimpster and Audiomontage has been producing, remixing and DJing for the last 17 years and co-running his Freerange Records (voted Best British Label 2007) label for the last 13 of those. His musical upbringing and early introduction to production and DJing have helped him forge a sound that is at once warm and deep as well as being innovative and club friendly.
His seminal Jimpster LP Messages From The Hub (1997), as well as his more dancefloor oriented Audiomontage 12”s really helped establish Jamie as an artist of some merit and he quickly became in regular demand as a remixer (over 75 at the last count!) and co producer on a wide range of underground projects. His third Jimpster LP Amour was released 3 years ago on Freerange to excellent critical acclaim and appeared in numerous published Top 20 LP’s of the year charts. In recent years he has released his first original track for another label, choosing Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly for Square Up which became a big underground house track sitting in the top 5 of DJ Mag’s Hype Chart for 2 months. His last 12” for Freerange was Dangly Panther, another deep house anthem which has just been nominated for Best Dance Single 2008 in the coveted DJ Mag Best Of British Awards. Recent artists to get the Jimpster midas touch in the form of a remix include Osunlade, Bob Marley, Joris Voorn, Seal, Mark Knight & Funkagenda, Marc Romboy, Solomun…. The list goes on.
Over the past 5 or 6 years Jamie has built up a reputation as a highly regarded dj in the UK and around the world, having played over 100 gigs last year alone. With an emphasis on the deeper end of electronic house music, but not afraid to stray from the path, he retains an old school approach that has seen him booked for gigs as diverse as Fabric and Matter (London), Panarama Bar and Watergate (Berlin), Cielo (NYC), Warehouse 702 (Tokyo), Zoo Project (Ibiza), D-Edge (Sau Paulo), GOA @ Fabrik (Madrid).
Record Label:
Freerange Records / Delusions Of Grandeur / Buzzin’ Fly…
During the very first year of Decibel Festival (2003), Shameless presented back to back afterparties (both Friday and Saturday nights) at the Oseao loft space which has now become ETG. This year we’re proud to return to the same venue for this year’s Friday night Decibel Festival Afterparty.
Tickets only available at the door. Limited space so be sure to get there early to guarantee entry.
LINE UP:
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MAX COOPER
(Traum Schallplatten/Bedrock/Veryverywrongindeed)
London, UK http://www.maxcooper.net/
After 4 days, 22 showcases, a handful of afterhours, and more trash thrown into your body than humanly thought possible, sleep is clearly not an option.
On Sunday morning Oct. 2nd, 2011
Sweatbox Presents: Still Going (Decibel Edition)
Featuring…
Dead Seal feat. Zoe (Live)
Auralism / Crosstown Rebels / My Favorite Robot : San Francisco, US
Derek Plaslaiko
Spectral / Perc Trax / From 0-1 : Berlin, DE
E. Spleece
G.O.D. / Exchange Bureau : Detroit, US
The Perfect Cyn
Alga rhythms : Portland, US
Eugene Fauntleroy
Night Pigeon : Seattle, US
Ctrl_Alt_Dlt v. Roddimus
Sweatbox : Seattle, US
+ Special Guests.
Electric Tea Garden 1402 E. Pike, Seattle
5am – ?? // 21+ // $10 at the Door
Free late-morning BBQ.
