a friend of mine played a venue in chicago on a saturday. He was making small talk with the sound engineer about what happened the previous night and it turned out it was this dude terry (perry?) corston (maybe forsten??). Apparently this guy was named the number one dj in the world a year or so ago by some magazine and is basically just a tiesto/oakie clone.
the sound engineer went on to describe this guys method of djing:
His set was completely pre-programed. He djed with two cdj's and left them on 0% pitch the entire time. This meant that he adjusted all the tempos back at the lab before he got to the club. as well, the sound guy noticed that the whole set was in harmonic nirvana so he must of adjusted the key of all the songs as well. All he did was start songs and fade them out and if he had his cue points set...and im sure he did... then he didnt even need to bother to remember the set. On top of that all this was done off of two cd's. how boring.
You would not believe how common this is in the electronic dance music market. this has been going on for years. They will get a tune, load it up into soundforge, peak or whatever and set it to a set tempo and then burn it to CD or cut it to dubplate. There are a couple of DrumnBass DJs who have been called out for cutting their dubplates all at 175 or 180 bpm so they don't have to worry about beat matching.
This shit is weak. I mean music that is sequenced is a hell of a lot easier to beat match than it is recordings where you have live instrumentation. it really makes the DJ look lazy. It is not that hard to beat match. I mean dudes that are making big money off of DJ'ing are doing this and club goers are keeping them in business by paying 20 dollars a head or whatever to seem him/her play.
AM i got no problem with, dude is dope and hes paid hella dues.
Have seen AM live and was not disappointed. Its not like I had high expectations, I just didn't have any. He rocked it and seemed like a cool dude for the brief time we talked to him.
the average listener has no idea what most djs are doing, which is usually close to nothing. that music can be so damn generic sounding that even if they were doing something impressive, you wouldn't be able to tell.
prerecorded/pitched/bpm'd cds is wack! those cats should be ashamed, if not for that then for their stupid names. mom jeans? yo....
i can't speak on am though, can't watch the vids from the job site.
Steve Aoki???s Big Spin ???It??? DJ brings only flash and what???s familiar to the ???table???
~ By DENNIS ROMERO ~
~ No flava: Steve Aoki at his own Dim Mak event ~
Steve Aoki has been featured in Vanity Fair (pictured with K-Fed, among others), on the cover of the Los Angeles Times??? magazine, and in L.A. Weekly many times. He???s usually hailed as the hottest DJ in Hollywood, a spinner-to-the-stars who???s been spotted helping Lindsay Lohan throw down a track or two. During Ibiza, Spain???s summer clubbing ritual, he was awarded the annual ???Set of the Season??? DJ prize. The son of Benihana restaurant-chain founder Rocky Aoki and brother of actress Devon Aoki, he has even inked a deal with the Thrive label to mix a compilation, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, due early next year. It???s already getting devotional attention at websites such as Pitchforkmedia.com.
With all that under his belt, you would think the guy could play a turntable like a-ringin???-a-bell. But the times I???ve heard him, it???s been more back-to-back non-segues than on-the-money beat-matching, not to mention the music itself, which can be described as pop, indie, and hip-hop. That???s all fine and dandy for a wedding DJ or even a spinner at the Vegas Hard Rock, but for the second coming of DJesus, you???d think there would be more heat on Aoki???s decks.
As I blogged recently (Dancemusic.blogspot.com), this is all part of his genius, or b.s., depending on which side of the turntable you stand. Here???s a jock who???s privy to a multimillion-dollar trust fund (and who calls himself ???Kid Millionaire???), who runs with the Hollywood tat pack, who spins chart-toppers such as Kanye, Timbaland, and JT with little more than a jukebox???s discrimination, and yet who somehow manages to spin himself as a tastemaker with street-level cred. Sure, he occasionally blends in more alt material (managing to get ink as an ???indie DJ???), but even then his sounds comprise predictable, hipster-friendly tunes. (Tracks from Justice, the Klaxons, and Franz Ferdinand, for example, will appear on Pillowface). His label, Dim Mak, and his one-off events, such as his recent Neighborhood Festival in downtown L.A., are slightly edgier, and he can certainly win over heads when he books rappers such as Spank Rock and Amanda Blank, or when he spins French electronic act Digitalism. But then he plays Britney Spears as if it???s somehow ironic ??? so uncool it???s cool: Kids with the nouveaux mullets are dancing to ??? Britney! (Of course, many of those kids are trust-fund babies, too ??? and Lindsay???s dancing on a tabletop nearby). It???s music for people who call their friends ???my bitches.??? In other words, a little bit of hype spices up a bland platter of pop and it???s sold to us as ???next-wave.??? Aoki is laughing all the way to the ATM.
Sometimes I don???t know whether to vilify him or praise him. I have to love his irreverence for superstar DJs, his manipulation of the media, his punk-rock pose in $1,000 jeans. He has demystified and then reconstructed the superstar DJ to reflect his own likeness. His long-haired, unkempt looks and rough-mixed, rock-and-hip-hop DJ sets are a virtual middle finger to the over-hyped, under-talented, spiky-haired superstar DJs of electronic dance music. It???s true: Trance DJs in particular have become oversized, ego-crazed, arena-rock pretenders worthy of a DJ-oriented version of Spinal Tap. It???s like the cool kids and the nerds have changed places, and now Nintendo-playing dorks are mocking super-club DJs who wear ridiculous Dolce & Gabbana shades.
I kind of want to laugh right along with Aoki???s people because it???s true ??? there isn???t much art to beat-matching, four-on-the-floor dance music and acting like you???re a god. And yes, people with glow-sticks are dim-lits. What???s the big deal about Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, and Tiesto anyway? They play other people???s music and, as Aoki has shown, even Lohan can do that. ???Paul Van Dyk, Erick Morillo, Tiesto,??? Aoki told Billboard recently, ???I have never even heard of half these DJs, or know their music. That is really not my world.???
And yet Aoki is enjoying the advantages of being a part of the e-music DJ scene. He has become the official poster-boy for BPM magazine and its increasingly red-carpet-crazed parties, scored a compilation on a top dance label, and conquered Ibiza. I might even like him better if he played less pop and stopped dissing dance music as a way of placing himself above it. He has said that his DJ sets have musical ???energy that???s so much bigger??? than that of your big-name e-music spinner. Any Aoki follower who has experienced a set from Carl Cox, DJ Dan, or even John Digweed knows that???s doubtful.
It???s easy to get journalists to think Aoki???s just as skilled as those guys. But so far, I don???t think so. He spins accessible music at accessible locales for the most mainstream of people ??? young Hollywood stars and the people who love them. This is coolness you can put on your expense account.
But how cool is that? I???ve called Aoki the Benihana of DJs: His father also ingeniously took a notion of a scene (Japanese cuisine) and fetishized it into a chain restaurant that gives you an eye-popping visual banquet. At Benihana (slogan: ???An experience at every table???), samurai-like chefs prepare basic, tasteless Asian food in a flurry of tableside knife chops and flame-grilled rice tossing, delivering tourists a hallucination of Rising Sun gastronomy. Of course, it???s not authentic. And most people at least seem to know that it???s somewhat of a theme-park ride. A food critic in his or her right mind wouldn???t trumpet the joint as cool, edgy, or forward-thinking, especially now that we know better. But with Aoki???s equally flavorless music, anti-DJ skills, and paparazzi-lit scene, we???re getting the hard-sell that, somehow, he embodies newness ??? that this is a four-star DJ giving you an experience at every turntable.
As I hope he well knows, Aoki???s no master chef on the decks. But, like his dad, he sure can spin perception.
Ok, Adam DJ AM is ill, hands down and a cool dude to boot, paid his dues and all that. I'm glad he is getting $20 Grand to play, seriously. But I don't think anyone here has ever mentioned this guy?! I believe he gets over $100 Grand to play! And honestly, where is his skill and wtf is he doing?
Ok, Adam DJ AM is ill, hands down and a cool dude to boot, paid his dues and all that. I'm glad he is getting $20 Grand to play, seriously. But I don't think anyone here has ever mentioned this guy?! I believe he gets over $100 Grand to play! And honestly, where is his skill and wtf is he doing?
thats rad. look at yanni with his 6 tritons killing it. If him and tiesto did a concert together, it would probably be so good that all other music would cease to exist.
I think that Aoki ( ) article applies to AM- but he does it with a lot more skill. I've enjoyed him- but it's nothing groundbreaking or interesting. Truthfully, it's easier to get props in LA
AM is one lucky SOB. He was just a regular [good] club dj and landed Nicole Richie when she was blowing up. If that didn't happen, his life would be dramatically different right now. People think LA is easy. For a no name fool, it is the hardest place to start making a significant rep. out here, there are 8 million djs, rappers, actors, singers, shiesters, producers, writers, hipsters, haters, and on and on and on. It is much easier to make a rep elsewhere and move here, eventually. That said, there is more opportunity and money out here than probably any where else in the world.
It is much easier to make a rep elsewhere and move here, eventually. That said, there is more opportunity and money out here than probably any where else in the world.
Aoki's djing makes me laugh. When I sam him at the beauty bar it was godawful. He's got this ADD style where he's got everything all pre-queued in Microwave and dropping 12 cuts per minute. When he is blending and not just dropping songs in (raer) the blends are mostly off. Then his playlist is goddawful (killers song, pacman theme song, g-unit, dolly parton, spankrock). I was laughing so much, I had to leave.
Comments
weird, i know both of those chics
You would not believe how common this is in the electronic dance music market. this has been going on for years. They will get a tune, load it up into soundforge, peak or whatever and set it to a set tempo and then burn it to CD or cut it to dubplate. There are a couple of DrumnBass DJs who have been called out for cutting their dubplates all at 175 or 180 bpm so they don't have to worry about beat matching.
This shit is weak. I mean music that is sequenced is a hell of a lot easier to beat match than it is recordings where you have live instrumentation. it really makes the DJ look lazy. It is not that hard to beat match. I mean dudes that are making big money off of DJ'ing are doing this and club goers are keeping them in business by paying 20 dollars a head or whatever to seem him/her play.
Yo, where is your avatar from? Is that an outtake from Clerks 2 or something? She is so fly.
i been a fan of ol girl since kids
Holy shit.
Hahaha this is the best part of this thread.
PS. I didn't even know Mom Jeans was a real DJ name, i thught it was a joke on the board until I saw that bus.
un real.
is that mom jeans?
AM i got no problem with, dude is dope and hes paid hella dues. Shadow puts on a hell of a live show and hes a killer dj.
Danny masterson and the benihana kid however can get the dillz!
hahahaha.....
Are you kidding me???
Nah, Rosario "Jaws" Dawson
Re: DJ AM, someone posted this in another recent thread:
HE'S THE WORLD'S LARGEST PAJAMA PARTY!!!
These girls should start posting in "Becky" threads on Soulstrut.
Have seen AM live and was not disappointed. Its not like I had high expectations, I just didn't have any. He rocked it and seemed like a cool dude for the brief time we talked to him.
the average listener has no idea what most djs are doing, which is usually close to nothing. that music can be so damn generic sounding that even if they were doing something impressive, you wouldn't be able to tell.
prerecorded/pitched/bpm'd cds is wack! those cats should be ashamed, if not for that then for their stupid names. mom jeans? yo....
i can't speak on am though, can't watch the vids from the job site.
wow, talk about white folks catnip. I can't turn up the volume at work. is that shit
I am not really a fan of Blink 182 or any of their side projects but Travis Barker is a dope drummer. No doubt about that.
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=6450&IssueNum=231
Steve Aoki???s Big Spin
???It??? DJ brings only flash and what???s familiar to the ???table???
~ By DENNIS ROMERO ~
~ No flava: Steve Aoki at his own Dim Mak event ~
Steve Aoki has been featured in Vanity Fair (pictured with K-Fed, among others), on the cover of the Los Angeles Times??? magazine, and in L.A. Weekly many times. He???s usually hailed as the hottest DJ in Hollywood, a spinner-to-the-stars who???s been spotted helping Lindsay Lohan throw down a track or two. During Ibiza, Spain???s summer clubbing ritual, he was awarded the annual ???Set of the Season??? DJ prize. The son of Benihana restaurant-chain founder Rocky Aoki and brother of actress Devon Aoki, he has even inked a deal with the Thrive label to mix a compilation, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, due early next year. It???s already getting devotional attention at websites such as Pitchforkmedia.com.
With all that under his belt, you would think the guy could play a turntable like a-ringin???-a-bell. But the times I???ve heard him, it???s been more back-to-back non-segues than on-the-money beat-matching, not to mention the music itself, which can be described as pop, indie, and hip-hop. That???s all fine and dandy for a wedding DJ or even a spinner at the Vegas Hard Rock, but for the second coming of DJesus, you???d think there would be more heat on Aoki???s decks.
As I blogged recently (Dancemusic.blogspot.com), this is all part of his genius, or b.s., depending on which side of the turntable you stand. Here???s a jock who???s privy to a multimillion-dollar trust fund (and who calls himself ???Kid Millionaire???), who runs with the Hollywood tat pack, who spins chart-toppers such as Kanye, Timbaland, and JT with little more than a jukebox???s discrimination, and yet who somehow manages to spin himself as a tastemaker with street-level cred. Sure, he occasionally blends in more alt material (managing to get ink as an ???indie DJ???), but even then his sounds comprise predictable, hipster-friendly tunes. (Tracks from Justice, the Klaxons, and Franz Ferdinand, for example, will appear on Pillowface). His label, Dim Mak, and his one-off events, such as his recent Neighborhood Festival in downtown L.A., are slightly edgier, and he can certainly win over heads when he books rappers such as Spank Rock and Amanda Blank, or when he spins French electronic act Digitalism. But then he plays Britney Spears as if it???s somehow ironic ??? so uncool it???s cool: Kids with the nouveaux mullets are dancing to ??? Britney! (Of course, many of those kids are trust-fund babies, too ??? and Lindsay???s dancing on a tabletop nearby). It???s music for people who call their friends ???my bitches.??? In other words, a little bit of hype spices up a bland platter of pop and it???s sold to us as ???next-wave.??? Aoki is laughing all the way to the ATM.
Sometimes I don???t know whether to vilify him or praise him. I have to love his irreverence for superstar DJs, his manipulation of the media, his punk-rock pose in $1,000 jeans. He has demystified and then reconstructed the superstar DJ to reflect his own likeness. His long-haired, unkempt looks and rough-mixed, rock-and-hip-hop DJ sets are a virtual middle finger to the over-hyped, under-talented, spiky-haired superstar DJs of electronic dance music. It???s true: Trance DJs in particular have become oversized, ego-crazed, arena-rock pretenders worthy of a DJ-oriented version of Spinal Tap. It???s like the cool kids and the nerds have changed places, and now Nintendo-playing dorks are mocking super-club DJs who wear ridiculous Dolce & Gabbana shades.
I kind of want to laugh right along with Aoki???s people because it???s true ??? there isn???t much art to beat-matching, four-on-the-floor dance music and acting like you???re a god. And yes, people with glow-sticks are dim-lits. What???s the big deal about Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, and Tiesto anyway? They play other people???s music and, as Aoki has shown, even Lohan can do that. ???Paul Van Dyk, Erick Morillo, Tiesto,??? Aoki told Billboard recently, ???I have never even heard of half these DJs, or know their music. That is really not my world.???
And yet Aoki is enjoying the advantages of being a part of the e-music DJ scene. He has become the official poster-boy for BPM magazine and its increasingly red-carpet-crazed parties, scored a compilation on a top dance label, and conquered Ibiza. I might even like him better if he played less pop and stopped dissing dance music as a way of placing himself above it. He has said that his DJ sets have musical ???energy that???s so much bigger??? than that of your big-name e-music spinner. Any Aoki follower who has experienced a set from Carl Cox, DJ Dan, or even John Digweed knows that???s doubtful.
It???s easy to get journalists to think Aoki???s just as skilled as those guys. But so far, I don???t think so. He spins accessible music at accessible locales for the most mainstream of people ??? young Hollywood stars and the people who love them. This is coolness you can put on your expense account.
But how cool is that? I???ve called Aoki the Benihana of DJs: His father also ingeniously took a notion of a scene (Japanese cuisine) and fetishized it into a chain restaurant that gives you an eye-popping visual banquet. At Benihana (slogan: ???An experience at every table???), samurai-like chefs prepare basic, tasteless Asian food in a flurry of tableside knife chops and flame-grilled rice tossing, delivering tourists a hallucination of Rising Sun gastronomy. Of course, it???s not authentic. And most people at least seem to know that it???s somewhat of a theme-park ride. A food critic in his or her right mind wouldn???t trumpet the joint as cool, edgy, or forward-thinking, especially now that we know better. But with Aoki???s equally flavorless music, anti-DJ skills, and paparazzi-lit scene, we???re getting the hard-sell that, somehow, he embodies newness ??? that this is a four-star DJ giving you an experience at every turntable.
As I hope he well knows, Aoki???s no master chef on the decks. But, like his dad, he sure can spin perception.
this guy must have been lurking on that SS thread with the aoki jesus photoshops
AM is one lucky SOB. He was just a regular [good] club dj and landed Nicole Richie when she was blowing up. If that didn't happen, his life would be dramatically different right now. People think LA is easy. For a no name fool, it is the hardest place to start making a significant rep. out here, there are 8 million djs, rappers, actors, singers, shiesters, producers, writers, hipsters, haters, and on and on and on. It is much easier to make a rep elsewhere and move here, eventually. That said, there is more opportunity and money out here than probably any where else in the world.
- spidey