Bazar Bizar!!

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.

Salford Ladettes Club

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!!!

Ringtone Beatboxing

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.

Enur feat. Natasja – Calabria. Get it here (YSI).

Something (fairly) new: Not all of their stuff is great, but some of it.. oohyeah!!

Flo Rida feat. T-Pain - Get Low get it here (YSI).

Something that should have been played, but wasn't: How could we forget we had this one!

Ciara feat. Sean Garret and Gucci Mane - Feeling on my ass. Get it here (YSI).

When did heartache become so much fun?

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!!

La Roux – Quicksand. Get it here (YSI).

La Roux – Quicksand (Mad Decent RMX). Get it here (YSI).

La Roux – Quicksand (Chateau Marmont RMX). Get it here (YSI).

La Roux – Quicksand (Joe And Will Ask? RMX). Get it here (YSI).

fan of a thousand dances

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 ;-)

Rockin' horse

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!

"wie maakt me los?!"

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!