It hit me like a ton of bricks last friday; Michael Jacksons death. I have to even admit that I sobbed. Yesyes, I did. I wasn't going to blog about it because I figured that the blogs would be swamped with stories about the King of Pop. But whatever, I just feel like paying some respect. He was a true hero, an innovator. Not a lyrical one, but the ultimate songwriter with the ultimate vision. I respect people with strong ideas and opinions, because it's so easy to get sidetracked. All music junkies of my generation will admit at some point that they had a special moment in their life and that that special moment was linked to a MJ song in some way. I have moments like that. Being a little girl, dancing in front of the TV when 'toppop' was on. Trying to copy Michaels moves together with my sis. Then my early twenties, as a hardcore clubber battling my co-clubbers on some oldschool hiphop track, that would eventually be followed by Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Popping and locking and flirting our asses off! And we never did get enough, nor will we ever get enough in the future. Because where there's a party, there will be Michael Jackson. This stuff is timeless, your future kid might loose it's virginity to IJust Can't Stop Loving You.... Yes, That is a possibility. Scary? No. Good.
To make this slightly sentimental blogpost somewhat cheerful. I'm leaving you with this very funny hindi-version of Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Now that you know I'm a true fan, you'll know I'm not mocking MJ with this.
So this weekend I was in London and I was thrilled that Rye Rye would be in town as well! This girl (she is barely 18 I think) from Baltimore has already worked with the likes of M.I.A., Blaqstarr, Diplo and The Count and Sinden. No cat pee, as we would say in Holland! Anyways... on Fridaynight we headed to East London for this club Cargo. When we got there it was well beyond midnight and there was a looooong queue. We had been standing in line for a good 20 minutes (my boyfriend even had gone to the off license around the corner to fetch us some beers to make the wait bearable) when we reached this sign:
Exit queue.
I hope things are okay with Rye Rye and family (may be she is a distant relative of MJ??!)... We enjoyed the rest of our beers while we wandered the streets of übertrendy Shoreditch, watching the hipsters and their fixies. Even though I was absolutely gutted by Rye Rye's cancellation, it couldn't ruin my weekend in London. I had a really good time with friends. I went to a screening of animations by Don Hertzfelt (plus Q&A with the man himself) and I visited a great exhibition of my heroes Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake at the Museum of Childhood, where I saw some original drawings of the latter for the first time in my life (it made my eyes watery). And I went on a boat ride. So what the heck, here is Rye Rye's latest with our darling M.I.A..
So last Saturday it was the day that all the 'crafties' headed south; for Bazar Bizar. I packed all the Dutch Dolls stuff and my market-essentials tried to carry myself, my sweat and my stuff to the busstop. I think I lost about 2 pounds in that little stroll. Still looking cool with the sunglasses though, hell yeah. I arrived almost an hour late... but all that was bad about that was that I needed coffee. After unpacking and decorating all the addictions were taken care of.
I like this market. All the participants worked really hard and brought the coolest homemade stuff ever. I found shrimp made of felch, comics, vinyl, pluchies, shirts, jewellery and much, much more. There are loads of squatters with half-shaven heads, dogs and crusty-babies. There are old people, big black mamas with cute kids and artsy folks all over the place. The Dstruct DJ-team provides just the right soundtrack with dubstep, hiphop, jazz and italodisco. The sun is out, there's beer, good food and lots of people that I know. Even Swamp Thing (picture above) came, with his megaphone.. being the ultimate vendor. I had so much fun that I kinda forgot to sell stuff. Whoops!
After last year's HUGE success, there had to be a sequel to Rotterdam's coolest (crafty)market: BAZAR BIZAR! It takes place on Saturday June 27th between 12.00 and 18.00 in the Wolphaertstraat (that's in the southern part of Rotterdam). This is the place to buy original gifts for your friends or for yourself! Or just indulge yourself in food, music, alcohol and lots of artsy people. We’re telling you, this will be cool... so go cross that Erasmus Bridge and hang out with us! Check www.bazarbizar.hyves.nl and/or www.myspace.com/bazarbizarrotterdam.
This year I really got spoiled with birthday presents... Ghetto gold AND my lovely boyfriend treated me to a weekend trip to Manchester. He knew how much I wanted to visit this city, home of my favorite band ever: The Smiths (and many other great bands). I've been a die hard fan since I was 16, so his gift was a dream come true! Highlight of my pilgrimage was traveling to this gritty neighborhood in Salford (next to Manchester) to have my picture taken in front of the Salford Lads Club. The place became an icon because of the famous picture by Stephen Wright, which was used for the inner sleeve of The Smiths' The Queen is Dead album. It also appears in the video I posted earlier here. I can die now and heaven will know I'm not miserable. Saturday we spent the day strolling through the Northern Quarter, which is packed with 2nd hand stores, crafty markets, independent boutiques, cute eateries, great bars and clubs. And there are some excellent record shops as well. One, Beatin' Rhythm, stocks nothing but cds and 45s of girl groups, doo wop and northern soul. I probably could have completed my collections of songs about dances there instantly, but my budget forced me to stick to just a few cds.
It was also in this store that I saw a poster... The poster said Toddla T, the boy wonder from Sheffield, was DJ'ing that night in Manchester!! Another dream come true! His set didn't disappoint. He played some of my favorite tracks, like Too Many Men and The Migrain Skank (blogged about here and here)! My boy and I were the only ones who knew how to do the Migraine Skank, so we got props from the MC haha!
Manchester isn't the most beautiful city on earth, but I kind of like cities that are a little rough and in transition. It has an interesting (musical) history and nowadays it's a great city for shopping, drinking beer (go to The Knott for some real ales) and parteeeeee! MADCHESTER!!!
Het Paard in The Hague last friday was pretty wild: we watched Paul (Yobkiss)and Sander (Jaques de la Disque) invent this totally awesome new thing called 'ringtone beatboxing', I payed a visit to a toilet with a bad lock.. and got totally surprised by Spike (yes, the Di-rect guitarplayer), we got indecent proposals on different occasions, free champagne, and o yeah... we deejayed too!!
The evening itself was pretty interesting to begin with because it was the albumrelease of Splendid. These kids bring summer, and the new album makes you wanna go scoobadiving or limbodancing or something like that. And they brought alot of fans! After that it was the superfriendly Hitmeister D behind the decks, and he clearly brought alot of fans too! After that came De La Sarge (Kraak en Smaak); as we say in dutch 'dampende massa'. And then us two girls; we had fun, totally improvised and I think we emptied the airhorn. New fans? I hope so!
Cool thing is: it turns out The Hague doesn't wanna hear housemusic or electro, but craves basss and dancehall: Nanna and Geeske were soo happy! Here's some of the tunes that we played. We selected something old, something new and something that should have been played, but wasn't. Something old:Briljant tune, still. Natasja R.I.P.
Yesyes, we've blogged about La Roux before, I know. But I just LOOOVE this song called Quicksand - for sometimes, I'm in it too..
This UK-based act consists of two people; the lovely redhead Elly Jackson and her co-writer/producer Ben Langmaid. Their sound is not one I've never heard before and goes hand-in-hand with acts like Little Boots, Jenny Wilson and Sally Shapiro, so is best described as eighties style synthpop, with a female singer and lots of catchy hooks and melodies.
So why am I obsessed with this song, if it's not that original anyway? I think it's mainly the voice which screams despair and gives me goosebumps. Not surprisingly, an up and down relationship was the inspiration for the whole album. Pfff, love stinks, but it makes wonderful songs! You might say that these lyrics come STRAIGHT from the heart but are not too complicated or sentimental at all. I can relate but they also make me wanna boogie! When did heartache become so much fun?
I'm hooking you up with every possible remix of the song that I could find. So you can listen to it in many ways... Enjoy!!
Back in the days when I was young and started going out I didn’t have a clue what to do with myself on the dance floor. So together with some friends I ‘invented’ a dance that gave us something to do to those idiotic eurodance tunes, and that prevented us from looking like total hay sticks. Our dance moves were based on domestic chores… Do the dishes! Iron! Vacuumclean! Clean the windows! Do some painting! With a little imagination you can picture it, right?! Och, it's a great dance. I still do the domestic-chores-dance every now and when I go dancing, and I’d like to think I can pull it off.
So I dig songs that are all about a dance instructions. I started to collect them. The Twist, The Locomotion, The Boomerang,The Zonk, The Kangeroo, The Mashed Potato, The Monster Mash, The Wah Watushi, The Shing A Ling, The Roach, The Bug, The 81, The Camel Walk, The Funky Chicken, The Duck, The Bird, Walking the Dog, The Harlem Shuffle, The Clapping Song, Footstompin’, Barefootin’, The Monkey Walk, the list goes on and on… Yeah, it was a real craze in the 60’s!
And it’s a real craze right now in the dancehall/UK funky/grime scene as well!! Migraine Skank, Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes, Stanky Legg, Stupid Skank… Watch the Fresh Az Ice Dancers do all these dances to this track by Doctor. Pretty brilliant!
So I’m leaving you with one oldie and one contemporary dance-song. Now go practice in front of the mirror.
Dee Dee Sharp – Mashed Potato Time. Get it here (YSI).
Gracious “Napa Man” K – Migraine Skank. Get it here (YSI). Instructions on how to do the Migraine Skank here ;-)
Thursday June 18th we’ll be bringing you BASSSSS again at Het Paard van Troje in The Hague. The party will start at 20.30, when Scheveningen's very own Splendid will release their latest album. Sweat and bouncing guaranteed, these boys will set the roof on fire. After that, it’s Dancenans and Ravegees in the house!! We’ll bring our filthiest bootybass, zouk, dancehall and Bmore. Booty-shaking music! Email us or leave a comment here if you would like to be on the guestlist (this is for the club night only, not the band). They gave us enough places for you and your neighbour and your ex!
Think local, act global! Being hundreds of kilometers apart doesn't stop the Dolls from working together and participating in all sorts of events. Take this Afrikaandermarkt-project for example...
Freehouse and Jeanne van Heeswijk asked us to join a project called 'De Markt van Morgen' (The Market of the Future). It's all about the Afrikaandermarket, a colorful, vibrant market in the southern part of Rotterdam. Local market vendors team up with artists from all sorts of disciplines to create new products for the market of the future. Dutch Dolls got assigned to a very friendly seller of BAGS. Especially for the occasion Nanna designed a brand new print (check the sneak preview at the top of this this post) and Geeske will be silkscreen printing it on canvas bags LIVE at the marktet, in the stall!!
This will take place this weekend, June 6th and 7th! So come on down to the Afrikaanderplein and get yourself one of these unique Dutch Dolls bags (act locally - death to the plastic carrier bags!!). The market will bustling with artists making designs on the spot and customizing clothing, up and coming local bands performing and students of the Willem de Kooning Academy styling the stalls. Of course there will be plenty of food. Dishes from all over the world, prepared with ingredients from the Afrikaandermarket. So think global, act local and travel South!
Dutch Dolls is a Design + DJ duo. This is our blog. Here we write about our designs, upcoming gigs, events and exhibitions, our latest musical findings, inspirations and whatever goes on in our daily lives...
All music and images posted on this blog are for promotional purposes only. Downloads are available for about a week. You like what you hear? Buy it!!! Links to the artists' websites are always provided in the posts.
If you are an artist, or are affiliated with an artist and you want your music/image taken down, please contact us and we'll be happy to do so.
