There is a lot to take in at this year’s Together Festival. From Yasiin Bey (AKA Mos Def), to Noisia to Robert Hood, the festival’s musical lineup has something for everyone and, best of all, ample opportunities for just about anyone to fall in love with something new. More
Many electronic music producers strive to make genre-bending music, but Eliot Lipp is known for actually doing it well. The Brooklyn via Chicago via San Francisco via Tacoma, WA musician has mastered a warm, analogue synth-laden signature sound steeped in jazz, funk, synthpop, and hip hop influences and inspired by the many places he’s called home. More
DJ Leah V (a.k.a. Leah McFly) knows how to throw a great party, as anyone who’s been to ZuZu on a Tuesday night in the last five years will attest. The Boston nightlife favorite and Boston Music Awards winner, who runs ZuZu’s weekly queer dance party with Blk. Adonis (a.k.a. Justin Cameron), will be bringing her special touch to Harvard Square’s new O Sushi Restaurant and Bar this Saturday for “Karate,” a new high-energy dance night that comes with a side of sushi, sake, and Nintendo. More
If you’re familiar with drum and bass music, chances are you already know and love Elements. If not, but you enjoy hearing new music and getting a little weird under a disco ball, you should really get to know and love Elements. The legendary dance party at The Phoenix Landing in Cambridge turns 15 on Thursday, making it one of the longest running dance nights in Boston and as a matter of fact, the longest running drum and bass night in America. It’s also, not surprisingly, a genuinely fun time, with one of the most enthusiastic followings of any party in the city. More
Going out on New Year’s Eve is tricky business. If you’re not careful, you could wind up sardined in with a bunch of strangers, holding a $20 flute of bad champagne and struggling to muster some remaining enthusiasm for “Blurred Lines.” But it’s time to leave 2013 — and Robin Thicke — behind. This New Year’s Eve, mark the passing of time among friends, cathartically dancing to timelessly good music. If you’re down, the Together crew has you covered. They’ll be showcasing some of Boston’s finest DJs at Great Scott Tuesday, including the great DJ Kon. While he packs dance floors around the world, luckily for us, Kon will be ringing in the new year at home. Better still, as we wrap up 2013, the master DJ, who has over two decades of experience under his belt, agreed to share some of his favorite tracks of this and other years gone by. More
It’s gross out. You just spent all week alternately shoveling snow, engaging in petty battles with your neighbors over parking spaces, freezing your face off, and bitterly detailing it all on social media. Fortunately Picó Picante, Good Life’s rollicking monthly global bass party, is back this Friday to help you thaw out and shake it off. We asked Sara Skolnick, also known as DJ Riobamba, who runs the night along with resident DJs Oxycontinental and Ultratumba and visual artist Hexbeam, to tell us how she keeps the dance floor red-hot. No big deal, but Skolnick also happens to be studying digital music culture in Colombia on a Fulbright grant. Read on as the DJ-scholar drops a little transnational music education on us. More
At your standard dance party, visuals can often seem like an afterthought. But for a party to be a special and not merely an elaborate, expensive way to get hammered, it has to transport you somehow, take you out of your everyday life and maybe even your everyday persona. Stepping into a space that’s been transformed from a familiar bar into a live piece of art creates a barrier between the world of the party and the real world outside. That’s what happens at CVLT, an elusive, semi-retired art and dance party that will pop up at Middlesex Lounge tonight for one night only. I talked to Robert McElaney, the visual artist behind the night, about how he does his thing. More
Love dancing, hate clubbing? Before you resign yourself to a lifetime of Saturday nights spent twirling around the living room in your favorite sleeved blanket, meet Alan Manzi. The local DJ legend has a remedy for dance music lovers with nightclub fatigue: “Some Like It Hott,” a unique monthly dance party at Inman Square’s cozy Lily Pad that he describes as “intimate, sweaty, fun, sexy, and no BS. The complete opposite of the Boston club scene.” How does the Boston underground veteran keep keep it real and keep the party vibrant? He gives us a peep at some of the tracks he has up sleeve. More
