Live: Skrillex @ Warehouse Project

Skrillex may have been dubbed the most hated man in dubstep, but there are nearly 2000 people in Manchester alone who’d disagree following this performance. 
  

Skrillex
Warehouse Project
1^st December
5 stars

Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, has had a wide range of publicity this year. He was, at one point, named by a collect few, as the ‘most hated man in dubstep’ but more recently was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2011 award and his first European tour has been extremely popular with every date selling out.

While Feed Me, the direct support to Skrillex, performed a good setlist, much of tonight’s crowd are still stood at the bar, killing time before Moore graces the stage. The Hertfordshire DJ doesn’t let it bother him though by performing stage dives, generating a little more interest.

As Skrillex’s infamous Macbook is lit up and the lights go down, he opens the set with a remix of Avicii’s ‘Levels’. Stood up there, he resembles a child that’s had a sugar rush and who is bouncing off the walls. The crowd go just crazy. Two extreme highlights of his setlist made up predominantly of remixes are Benny Benassi’s ‘Cinema’ and La Roux’s ‘In for the Kill’.

While the setlist is mainly made up of remixes, a few of Skrillex’s own songs are thrown in, including ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ and ‘My Name is Skrillex’. ‘Rock n Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)’ proves that he is not just a glorified remixer and the lights are absolutely amazing, along with the accompanying video played throughout the song.

Everything about tonight is simply amazing from the setlist to the light show. While people will continue to hate on Skrillex, likely for the rest of his career, it is unjustified. So what if he is the most hated man in dubstep? After tonight there are over 1800 people who’d disagree with you in Manchester alone.

MTV names Katy Perry its 1st artist of the year

NEW YORK (AP) — Katy Perry's run of No. 1 singles has earned her the distinction of becoming MTV's first artist of the year.

Perry topped Adele after a spirited discussion among MTV's internal panel of experts, the network said Thursday. Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" was chosen top song of 2011, said Amy Doyle, the network's chief of music programming.

MTV also declared Skrillex its electronic dance music artist of the year over David Guetta.
Different parts of MTV would make "best of" lists in the past, but the network wanted to establish a franchise that brought all its online and TV arms together and emphasized MTV's music roots, Doyle said. The network, established in 1981, hopes it becomes an annual thing.

Seven panelists made the final choice, and their deliberations were featured in MTV programming this week.

"Rolling in the Deep" was an obvious selection as top song, Doyle said. Runners-up were Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" and Rihanna's "We Found Love."

"I loved the song the moment I wrote it," Adele said. "The melody and the beat added some conviction to it. I think that's why people connected with it."

Perry's achievement of tying Michael Jackson's "Bad" as the only albums to yield five No. 1 singles was particularly impressive, Doyle said. Along with the title cut, "California Gurls," ''E.T.," ''Firework" and "Last Friday Night" (T.G.I.F.) all topped the charts. She's trying to beat the record with the current single "The One That Got Away."

"You just really felt her presence in pop culture throughout the year," Doyle said.

Skrillex, whose real name is Sonny Moore, describes his music as a combination of "dubstep, electro and glitch." MTV included the category of best electronic dance music artist to pay tribute to the way the style is taking off with its young viewers, she said.

MTV also asked its viewers to vote on their choice of the best live performances shown on MTV all year. Their choice was "Hurricane" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Skrillex Remixes Avicii’s “Levels”

What do you get when you take two of the biggest names in the world of dance music, and combine them with the biggest dance music anthem of 2011?:  Skrillex’s remix of Avicii’s “Levels,” a song of absolutely titanic proportions. “Levels” is undisputedly THE dance music song of the year. It has been remixed by some of the biggest names in the world of music. “Levels,” which features a vocal snippet from Etta James’ 1962 classic, “Something’s Got a Hold On Me,” has helped to bridge the gap between the world of dance music and the mainstream when Flo Rida sampled it in his song “Good Feeling.” This song has been played all over mainstream radio, and even in special television presentations such as NFL games.

With the recent release of Skrillex’s remix of the anthem, “Levels” is more wildly popular than ever. As somewhat of an ambassador to dance music, Skrillex is largely responsible for the popularization of dubstep and dance music in general. Skrillex infuses the euphoric progressive house banger with a hefty dose of dubstep. He adds some refreshing filth to the tune, and his re-imagination of the original is wildly creative and teeming with innovation. I have to say that Skrillex’s “Levels” remix is definitely one of his finest- it is quite possibly the very best song he has ever produced. The mark of a good remixer and producer is the ability to take an already phenomenal song and place a unique spin on it, creating a product that is arguably just as good as the original. Skrillex masters this feat with flying colors. Be on the lookout for big things from both Skrillex and Avicii; 2011 has been an absolutely huge year for both of these talented DJs and producers, and I can only anticipate that the best is yet to come.

Check out Skrillex’s “Levels” remix here! What are your thoughts?

Not a Helicopter

I got old at some point. Cue the actual old people saying, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE OLD” out of their earhorns or whatever the fuck, but hearing the sound of a floor full of college freshman playing dubstep wasn’t dissimilar to Elizabeth Perkins walking into Tom Hanks’ room and going ‘wtf’. I didn’t bang a falsely matured teenage boy like she did, though, so I still have that going for me.

I heard this name, Skrillex, mentioned a lot recently, and, curious as to what new type of candy this was, I googled it. It’s a dude with some hair like you’d imagine a guy named Skrillex would have and he’s the hottest thing in music right now. When I say “hottest thing in music” I refer you to other people who keep saying he’s the hottest thing in music right now. I trust them because Google told me to. Here’s a Skrillex video. Personally, the hottest thing in music right now is the 1996 music video for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s (I had to look up how to spell it) Tha Crossroads.

So that should tell you something.

Tampa Bay's top electronic music clubs keep techno and dubstep fans dancing

Tampa electronic music fans don't know how good they have it. This week, the world's No. 1 DJ, David Guetta, performed at the St. Pete Times Forum. And on Friday, the hottest name in dubstep, Best New Artist Grammy nominee Skrillex (Page 35), has a sold-out show at the Ritz Ybor. • Then again, maybe Tampa fans do know how good they have it. Electronic music broke big in 2011, thanks to the Identity Festival (which hit Tampa in August) and the Electric Daisy Carnival (which hit Orlando in May). Almost every weekend, there's a world-class DJ packing some local club, not to mention an array of weekly dubstep, house and electro nights. • As 2011 wraps up, let's survey the Tampa Bay electronic-music scene. Let the rave commence. — Jay Cridlin and Kate Cillian

The Ritz Ybor

1503 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City, (813) 247-2555, ritzybor.com 

Known for: Big names

Big headliners: Tiesto, Deadmau5, Skrillex, Wolfgang Gartner, Borgore, Mimosa, Excision, Cookie Monsta

The Ritz isn't really a club — instead, it offers all sorts of concerts, from pop to hardcore to techno. Three of the world's biggest DJs (Tiesto, Deadmau5 and Skrillex) have played here, making this Tampa's top destination for electronic A-listers. Another one, Diplo, will come to town in February. The dance floor is massive, and there's a VIP section upstairs.

Amphitheatre

1609 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. (813) 873-8368, amptampa.com

Known for: Trance, house, dubstep

Big headliners: Afrojack, Rusko, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Dash Berlin, Fedde Le Grand, Morgan Page, ATB, Downlink, Doorly, Feed Me

John Santoro, long one of the area's biggest electronic music boosters, knew what he was doing when he reopened the Amphitheatre in April. The building itself is a great venue, with an upstairs VIP area with a balcony overlooking Seventh Avenue, a big dance floor and a booming sound system with an in-your-face lights show. And it has more events than any other club, whether it's just their in-house DJ (Nerd Rage) or a world-renowned artist (Ferry Corsten). Among acts who performed there in 2011, Afrojack, Markus Schultz and Dash Berlin are all on DJ Mag's list of the top 10 DJs in the world, and Fedde Le Grand and ATB are in the top 20. All things considered, this is probably the best electronic music club in the area.

The Kennedy

2408 W Kennedy Blvd., Tampa. (813) 259-9669, thekennedysoho.com

Known for: Celebrities, hip-hop, house

Big headliners: Carl Cox, Diplo, John Digweed, Sander Kleinberg, Paul van Dyk, Pete Wentz, Korn's

Jonathan Davis

The Kennedy is in many ways your typical see-and-be-seen meat market, the sort of vodka-and-Red Bull palace that brings in flavor-of-the-month celebrities like Antoine Dodson for a club appearance. But every now and then a world-class DJ will come to the Kennedy, bringing out the house music fanatics. In April, Lady Gaga stopped by the Kennedy for an impromptu performance of her single Judas.

The Venue

2675 Ulmerton Road, Clearwater. (727) 571-2222, thevenueclub.com

Known for: Brostep, drum 'n' bass, new rave

Big headliners: Avicii, Steve Aoki, Paul Oakenfold, Chuckie, Edward Maya, Nervo, DJ Pauly D, DJ

Jazzy Jeff, Vanilla Ice, LMFAO's Sky Blu

Go here for your mainstream dance-music needs. The interior is plush and exotic, but be prepared for a vibe that combines Girls Gone Wild with MTV Spring Break. Though the Venue traffics in celebrity DJs and live concerts (Flo Rida, George Clinton), they also book house icons like Steve Aoki and Paul Oakenfold. Avicii performed here in September, just before his hit Levels became a worldwide smash. The Monday service-industry night is massively popular.

FUBAR

658 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. facebook.com/fubardowntown

Known for: Dubstep Big headliners: None

Two words: Turbo. Tuesday. The hottest dubstep night of the week in Tampa Bay. It's a tiny little punk-rock bar that serves only beer (cash only, too), but it's very popular among the electronic crowd. There's always a low-key DJ with enough wobble to help you make it through the week, and the cover charge is usually under $5.

Also check out

The Honey Pot This gay-friendly club occasionally books dubstep DJs like the minimalist Mount Kimbie or the electro-house artist Feed Me, who'll be there on Dec. 28.

Hawaiian Village at the Stadium Green Iguana This venue has been booking rock acts, but its most successful shows might be DayGlow paint parties, which bring DJs from around the world. thehawaiianvillage.com.

Czar This hipster-dominated club recently saw the end of the five-year electro night known as Pulp the Party, but Friday's Filthy Richard party is still hugely popular. czarnation.com.

Orpheum The indie-minded Retro Red Square Saturdays have stayed strong in the Orpheum's new location on Seventh Avenue. And once a month, the Monday-night SOUL! party spins old-school R&B and funk. theorpheum.com.

Skrillex Killed Dubstep

2011 has been one of the biggest years ever for Dubstep, quite possibly the most significant since its decade-old inception in the UK. The Pop music industry as a whole has witnessed a massive transformation taking place over the last year, as major artists from all around the world have begun incorporating the instantly recognizable sounds of dubstep into their music. Britney Spears and Rihanna, two of the biggest female stars in American pop-music have already “jumped on the dubstep bandwagon” so to speak, harnessing the unrelenting, high-energy sound typical of the dubstep genre to infuse their music with a whole new dimension of appeal. Even more telling, industry juggernaut’s such as Jay-Z and Kanye West licensed the classic Flux Pavilion track “I Can’t Stop” in their official single “Who Gon’ Stop Me”. To top it all off, dubstep-icon Skrillex has not only released recent collaborations with several music-industry giants such as Korn and The Doors, he also just received a whopping FIVE Grammy Nominations, including the first “Best New Artist” nomination EVER to be awarded to a DJ/Producer.

What started as an entirely underground movement has begun to gain mainstream recognition, and the community response to this transition has been dramatic and highly conflicted to say the least. To fully understand the ramifications of what Skrillex has accomplished, we have to begin by looking at the structure of another genre that has gone through a very similar evolutionary process, the Hip-Hop industry.

The first lesson to be learned from the history of Hip Hop is the supposed fate of the underground and the role Skrillex is playing in “reshaping” the sound of dubstep. Hip Hop is by far one of the most influential and expansive musical genres currently in existence. New Hip Hop acts are constantly emerging, many of them reaching millions of followers within their first few months of touring. However, despite the monumental reach and power of contemporary Hip Hop, it has still maintained a wonderfully rich and vibrant underground culture that is hardly diminished at all by the explosion of Hip Hop and Rap in the mainstream. If Hip Hop becoming mainstream didn’t kill the underground, why would the story be any different for Dubstep? If anything, the underground has matured and evolved into a relatively unaffected category separate and distinct from the Hip Hop mainstream, but with the added benefit that underground artists are able to make a living from their craft.

There is another important aspect of Hip-Hop that deserves to be noted in order for this comparison to be relevant. The dominant role in Hip Hop is almost always granted to the MC (just as in pop music it is granted to the singer). This is not to say that it is impossible to gain attention as a Hip-Hop producer, but it is certainly significantly more difficult as the majority of the attention and praise is awarded by default to the MC. In many cases, incredibly talented producers are ignored entirely as relatively untalented figure-heads spit mediocre rhymes over their producers finely-honed instrumentals. Whatever your personal opinion concerning Skrillex may be, his nomination for Best New Artist as a dj/producer has the potential to completely change the way this model functions, opening wide the doors for a whole new generation of producers to gain the respect and attention they so rightly deserve.

At the end of the day, producers make music so that people can listen and enjoy it, just like all other musicians. Any success for the Dubstep community at large is ultimately a success for the industry as a whole. Brilliant producers like Skrillex are casting light on what the mainstream has been missing out on, and this illumination will only serve to benefit those who follow in his footsteps; whether they choose to produce in a mainstream or underground style is completely irrelevant . Until very recently, many critics have been reluctant or even unwilling to consider producers to be musicians, instead preferring to think of them as some other sort of entertainer unworthy of the “artistic” title of “musician”. With his boundary shattering nomination for Best New Artist, Skrillex has boldly demonstrated the falsehood of these unjust claims, stating that he’s “only hoping that his nomination this year will carry on to the next year, and open doors for more people to come up and be noticed and recognized as actual musicians.”

The important thing to keep in mind is that when people begin to accept Dubstep as a whole into what people refer to as “actual music”, the generally accepted value of the producer will increase dramatically. Before Hip Hop was recognized as part of popular music, it was extremely rare to find an artist that was able to support themself solely from their musical career. The same is true now for the producer; the general populace is relatively ignorant to the musical complexities of dubstep, and as a result it is extremely hard to get recognized as providing a service genuinely worth enough money to live on. Most producers are instead forced to rely on a side-job that prevents them from focusing all of the necessary energy on production, a vicious cycle that inevitably prevents many talented individuals from ever reaching their full potential. When the genre is accepted as an essential part of popular culture, talented producers will have a much better chance of being able to direct all of their energy at developing their musical career rather than struggling to support their musical through various odd-jobs. Although dubstep being incorporated into the mainstream may dramatically increase the number of producers (and many of them will surely copy Skrillex, as he is the very definition of “Whats Hot”), it is important to remember that there will always be an underground, and there will always be quality producers of all styles and varieties….it’s just a matter of finding them!

If bridging the gap between the mainstream and the underground helps clarify for the listener how they can personally relate to and interact with the music they are hearing, there is certainly no harm in such a simple endeavor. If Skrillex being nominated for a Grammy helps pave the way for a whole generation of up-and-coming producers, that is a tremendous accomplishment regardless of how you feel about his music.

There Is Going To Be An R. Kelly Cruise

Would you like a chance to hear “Trapped In The Closet” while you, yourself, are trapped on a cruise ship? Today’s your lucky day! Funniest man in R&B R. Kelly has just announced he’s joining the likes of Weezer, John Mayer, KISS, the garage rockers of The Bruise Cruise, and my personal favorite Skrillex, in offering a musical cruise just for his biggest and most nautically inclined fans. It’s called “The Love Letter Cruise,” after his 2010 album Love Letter, critically hailed by The New York Times as “lean[ing] heavily on gentle adult-contemporary R&B.” Fun times!

For a mere $1,499 (and up), cruisers will go on a four-day voyage from Miami to the Bahamas and back, during which they’ll be treated to a sensual R. Kelly concert, as well as performances from a few other artists TBA. For an event that costs about twice as much as other musical cruises, it seems a little light on the R. Kelly, but cruisers will also be treated to “delicious cuisines,” a “stepping class,” a “12 play basketball game” and massages (which are extra)…i.e., the same things you can get on any cruise.

The cruise’s website also promises “And more!! To come!!!” at the end of its list of activities. One can only hope that “more” includes “all manner of water sports,” because I hear he’s really into those.