MetroWize

Top 10 California Festivals, 2007

2007-07-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

It's summer and that means that festival season is upon us! Hopefully you'll be packing up the car this year and heading out to at least one festival somewhere in California. For the more sedentary types in the Bay Area, see my Top 10 San Francisco Festivals article for the great events in our backyard. For the rest of us, we'll be right there with you, in line at the vending area waiting for my giant egg roll or Java a go-go, partying in the hotels, campsites, and the late-night events. Here is a top 10 list of our favorite California festivals in calendar order starting with the festivals still to come this year.

Reggae on the River/Reggae Rising
Beginning of August (3 days) - Humboldt, CA

California's premier roots and reggae festival with headliners like Ziggy, Damian and Stephen Marley, Fantan Mojah, Collie Buddz and Steel Pulse. The story of Reggae on the River became very interesting this year. After 23 years of holding the annual event at the Dimmick Ranch and French's camp, the founders of the festival mysteriously lost their lease on the venue and subsequently lost the event entirely. People Productions and Dimmick Ranch applied for the lease and were granted permission to throw the event under the new name Reggae Rising. There appears to be some bad blood between the 2 groups, but the festival lives on (kind of) and promises a killer line up this year. If you dig reggae, this is the festival to hit.

Burning Man
Early Sept - Labor Day Week (7 Days) - Black Rock City, NV

Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind. While Burning Man technically takes place in Black Rock City, NV, this is definitely a Californians festival. The event is totally unique in that there is no "planned" or "hired" entertainment, no vending whatsoever and it's located in the absolute middle of no where. Each year, tens of thousands of partiers, performers and artists flock to the desert for a week long "do what you feel" kind of event. Groups of festival veterans create "camps" and each brings it's own unique flavor and artistic slant on what Burning man is to them. The art is out of this world, the music is totally unpredictable and the experience is second to none. This year's theme is Green (of course!).
*Planning ahead is an absolute must since every person is responsible for bringing in their own supplies and surviving on what they have.*

Earthdance
Mid September (4 Days) - Laytonville, CA

Earthdance is a 3 day camp out and celebration for world peace and unity featuring 5 stages of entertainment from jamband to electronica and reggae to folk music. Late night cinemas, speakers forums, global crafts and eco education (what festival is complete without eco education!) and a healing village make this festival very very California. Earthdance is very big on global community and it shows at every corner of the event. This years headliners include Lyrics Born, Medeski Martin and Wood, Ozomatli, Les Nubians, New Monsoon, ALO and many more.

Love Fest
End of September (officially 1 day but parties happen all week long) - San Francisco, CA

Even though we did a piece on San Francisco festivals that talked about Love Fest, it is impossible to write an article about California festivals that does not include Love Fest in it. This is North Americas largest electronica event that attracts close to 100,000 people to the streets of San Francisco for a party that was created in the vision of the Love Parade in Berlin. The party starts with a parade through the streets of SF and ends at Civic Center for a full day of some of the most amazing dj's in the world on the dozens of floats parked around the square. Pre parties and after parties abound and this event ends up being a full week long when all is said and done. Amazing.

Symbiosis
Late September (4 Days) - Northern California (Location TBD)

Symbiosis Gathering is a synaesthesia of art, music, transformational learning, and sustainable living integrated into an unparalleled extravaganza of fun under the Northern California skies. With headliners this year including Hallucinogen, Shpongle, Eat Static and Bassnectar, this is gonna be a party under the stars like no other.

Coachella
End of April (3 days) - Indio, CA

When Coachella started back in 2000, founders Paul Tollett and Rick Van Saten had a vision of creating a festival that drew in massive crowds and showcased the top musical talents in the world. During the first 2 years, the pair lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and Paul nearly lost his house, but somehow the word caught on and the crowds grew. Today Coachella serves as the pinnacle of music festivals perhaps in the entire world. During the 3 days of the festival, 100,000+ music fans head over to the Empire Polo Fields each day in Indio, 20 miles east of Palm Springs in the middle of the desert. Generally considered to be a rock festival, Coachella has an amazingly diverse offering of music including world class DJ's, punk rockers, pop stars, country legends and everything inbetween. Over the course of the 3 days, there are over 120 artists, bands, dj's and comedians scheduled to perform.

Lightning in a Bottle
Mid May (3 days) - Santa Barbara, CA

Lightning in a Bottle is in it's 8th year and is what we would call a "festival with promise." While LIB hasn't yet reached the size of some of the other festivals listed here and the artists that perform are still on the local level, the seeds have been planted and each year the festival grows in popularity. For a glimpse at the Burning Man esque madness, check out the video we shot while at the event in 07. MetroWize presents Lightning in a Bottle

Harmony Festival
beginning of June (3 days) - Santa Rosa, CA

The Harmony Festival brings together eco consciousness, health and healing and music and raps it all up neatly into one of the best California Festivals of the year. Celebrating its 29th year this summer, Harmony festival continues to expand in size and quality. This year it featured 3 stages of music, a full global craft village, 2 exhibition halls for health and wellness, dozens of food and beverage vendors and a handful of powerful political speakers... oh yeah, there were also over 10,000 attendees! Next years event is sure to be even bigger and better so stay tuned.

High Sierra Music Festival
July 4th weekend (4 days) - Quincy CA

An intimate yet first-rate festival nestled in Northern California's majestic mountain range, the High Sierra Music Festival is a unique four-day music and camping festival that features an eclectic and boldly creative span of music from acoustic singer-songwriters and down-home bluegrass to high-energy funk and skillfully improvised jazz, rock and live electronica. Held in Quincy, CA and celebrating its 17th year, High Sierra launched as a roots-oriented festival with 20 artists on one main stage and has since evolved into to a 10,000 person event with more than 75 performers on five day-time stages and in five late-night venues. When it comes to camp out events with lots of great music you have never heard before, there is none finer than this one.

Got an event that we missed? Let us know what you think are the best festivals in California, we'd love to hear what you think.

Lightning in a Bottle 2007

2007-07-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

A few months back, MetroWize took a trip out of the city and headed down south to Santa Barbara for the 8th annual Lightning in a Bottle festival. The music, vibe and So Cal country side made for an incredible show. Of course our cameras caught it all! For more info on LIB check them out on their Myspace page.

Put this video on your website, myspace or blog! Just click the Get Code Icon to get the html. Need to know more? Check out our article on how to take MetroWize videos with you wherever you want.

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Klaxons @ Great American Music Hall

2007-07-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Klaxons are easily the biggest new band to hit the States this year and on the 11th, they touch down at Great American Music Hall to show SF what they are all about. Their music has been described as “new rave,” but in reality that has more to do with ideological influences and their brightly colored clothes. So, what does it sound like? Electronic inflected indie rock, complete with hooks and fluttering melodies. Two big hits so far have been “Atlantis to Interzone” and “Gravity’s Rainbow.” So if you’re picturing art-school kids interested in occult imagery and reading “the classics,” you’re not too far off. At the same time, it works for them.

From their rave homage aesthetic to their easily digestible - but slightly odd - pop songs, the guys are hitting a nerve with all the right people. For starters, they won Best New Band from NME this year, and their debut was produced by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco. They’ve also been remixed by the likes of Modular Record’s pop-outfit Van She and Germany’s electro-powerhouse Digitalism. Well, that and they’re featured on Tony Hawk’s Project 8 videogame.

Catch them as they continue their relentless touring of the States, as they hit the Great American Music Hall on July 11, 2007.

Click here for more info

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Weekend Preview 07/06-07/08

2007-07-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July hits us on a Wednesday this year and depending on who you work for and what you do, this is either an awesome thing or it sucks real bad. Let's assume that you have a good job and a boss who wants you to get the most out of life so he/she told you to get the hell out of here and enjoy an extended weekend away from the office.
Obviously there are lots of fireworks to see tonight but moving into the weekend, there are some great shows happening that you really should make sure not to miss. Let's get into it shall we?

Friday night has Steve Lawler coming in to Ruby Skye to show everyone what he is really made of. If you have never seen this man perform, you really should... If you have, you know what i am talking about. Music at it's finest on one of the best sound systems in the country = great night out. As an added bonus, Mr. Lawler will be playing an after party next door at Slide after this show. You must buy tickets ahead of time for this intimate engagement and you can do so here. For the house heads, Remedy is throwing you an independence weekend bone by making their monthly event a freebie @ DNA Lounge! No cover all night long... Can't beat that.

Saturday night, things kick up another notch with DJ superstars Blank & Jones poppin in to Ruby Skye and D:Fuse @ 1015. Both shows will be big over the top electronica nights with packed sweaty dance floors and crowds going crazy. These are some of the biggest names in DJ music so get ready. If you are looking for a bit more of the local vibe, CODA (a brand new Burning Man Camp) is throwing their monthly fundraising party over at Shine. With $10 cover and some of the sickest local DJ's around, this is my pick of the night for the place to be. If you are into funk, one of the countries fastest rising Funk bands is hitting The Independent on Saturday as well. Dumpstaphunk is a New Orleans funk band that will make your booty move guaranteed so check em out if funk is your bag.

Have a great long weekend everyone and get out there and do some partying!

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Armin Van Buuren Ticket Giveaway

2007-07-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Dutch musician and DJ Armin Van Buuren is coming to San Francisco’s Ruby Skye on July 15. Voted in a readers poll from DJ Magazine as the #2 Dj in the world, Buuren is a true master at work. Van Buuren’s style is trance, for sure, but it never really keeps him from spinning the sickest in breaks and progressive house. When it comes to him, it’s both his love of music and the attention paid to the crowd that pulls it together, while the music is nearly secondary to the connection with the people.

Want to go? Of course you do.
Metrowize and Spundae are giving away two free tickets to see him but you need to be on the newsletter list for your chance to win so get signed up now and watch your inbox for the Weekly Wize Guide.

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Hidden Places - Nile Cafe

2007-07-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my theme of great hidden places that few people know about, I have to include Nile Café. It’s kind of a little hole in the wall and kind of blends in with the myriad of other cafes and restaurants in the area, but trust me, this one is special.
Nile Cafe
544 Jones St.
415 409-1000
Nilesf.com

I mentioned this place a while back in my Places to go for Drunk Food article but a mere mention does not do it justice. This place doesn't have amazing food or a huge drink selection, rowdy crowd or banging music. What it does have is hookah, amazing tea (they won’t tell you what kind though, it’s their “secret recipe”) and lotsa pillows to lounge on.

On the nights when I want to go out, but I just don’t want to fight the bar crowd, this is where I come. It’s my little oasis. The owner is friendly, and remembers you if you come more than once. And you’ve gotta love the old men sitting around outside smokin’ it up (and drinking it up – even though this place doesn’t have a liquor license).

This is how they describe the place on their site:
"Nile Cafe is San Francisco’s latest, greatest little gem - leading the re-vitalization of the TrendyLoin! Nile is in the heart of The City, and blocks away from some of SF’s hottest night spots. It’s the perfect stop to pre-party with some high energy Espresso or Turkish Coffee, wind down the night with our smoothly blended hookah flavors, or escape the crowds and relax with friends in a hip, comfy place with delicious food, drink, and smoke!"

The Jasmine and Vanilla hookahs are my favorite, and I always get the tea. Now let me clarify, if you’ve never had a hookah, it’s not what you might think. You don’t get high, and it doesn’t taste like a cigarette – although it is technically tobacco. It’s lighter and sweeter and you don’t have to truly inhale to get the best taste, but you can if you want.

**some other hidden hookah joints worth checking out**
Kan Zaman Café
1793 Haight St.
415 751-9656

Marrakech Moroccan Restaurant (this one has belly dancing!)
419 O’Farrell
415 776-6717
marrakechsf.com

Hidden Places is brought to you by MetroWize city expert - Alexis J.
Other articles by Alexis
Hidden Places - Hidden Vine Winery
10 places to get your late night food fix

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Stanton Warriors Reviewed

2007-07-02T22:16:00.000-07:00

I saw Stanton Warriors at 1015 Friday night. Both Stanton’s graced 1015 with their presence, which is quite rare to see both artists. Knowing very well the flavor of the tunes I was about to hear, I was thoroughly excited and was anticipating this event.

I walked in to 1015 early morning and was surprised by a not so packed club? Didn’t matter I was heading into the main room, where to my delight I heard a familiar sound… yep the two Stanton’s were already seasoning the decks.

They rocked the main room that was not empty but definitely not full, kind of cozy. One thing to note and I’ll leave it at that, (not intended to open the "the can of worms" discussion) the flyer stated "…rare live performance..". They rocked the set with decks and a Mac, not quite the "live set" I was expecting… None the less, they played a wonderful set laced with "phat" bass line breaks and some mind altering D&B bouncing it right back into sweet breaks. Oh I must admit breaks to D&B and back to breaks just gives me the jitters… plus the four screen visuals, was a nice addition to this all senses trip that was fully underway.

Very cool crowd, down to earth and everyone in that room seemed to know exactly what kind of rare treat this is. A sort of bond, if you will, with my fellow partiers and dancers. This seemed to add a nice vibe to the not so packed room. Wondering around the club, I noticed upstairs was some electro house, also not too full, but enough people to call it a party. The front room actually stopped the music 2:30 AM, but hey, who cares, the Stanton’s were still crafting the skills on the decks, no reason for hard feelings!

I loved hearing the retake "Still Here" (Feat. Eska), as it started just as it would on the 12’ and then halted abruptly to a nicely modified ground shaking edit that I have never heard!
I hope the Stanton’s come back, because I will certainly go, packed or not!!

Stanton Warriors review from Ofer R ... the man about town.

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Reno 911 Miami at the Independent

2007-07-02T11:23:00.000-07:00

Reno 911: Miami is a lot like the Comedy Central series, but raunchier. It's a cluster of f-bombs, ass jokes, and stupid humor, wrapped up into a low budget movie. This would be the perfect movie to go see with your friends or a date while having a few drinks. There are four or five times where I laughed so hard I almost cried, so if you're feeling a little less than intellectual, I'd head down to the 8Pm free show tonight at the Independent. There's a two drink minimum, but it's not enforced really. It's best to see this movie with a little buzz anyway. Show up about 7:45 to grab a seat. Check on the Monday movie listings every week on the Independent's website.

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San Francisco Fireworks and 4th of July partying

2007-07-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

If you're in San Francisco on the 4th of July, you should go check out the fireworks in the San Francisco Bay. Ideally, you'll want mooch off one of your friends that lives in Russion Hill or somewhere overlooking the water because drinknig a martini and eating your friends food is better than standing on outside with a bunch of strangers. In fact, you may want to call or IM that person on Monday morning if you haven't talked to them in a while. That way, it won't look like you're just using them for their place when you call them agiain on Wednesday. The evening of the 4th, go down to wherever you're going to watch really early. There's no parking for miles around. If you want to make an afternoon of it, here are some of the posted bands and things to do before hand.

CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO’S FOURTH OF JULY WATERFRONT CELEBRATION

Head down to Fisherman's Wharf for The City of San Francisco's Fourth of July Waterfront Celebration. At Aquatic Park, there will be entertainment for the entire family with live DJ Shon at 2:00 p.m., followed by Wonder Bread 5 and Notorious. The fireworks will begin at approximately 9:30 p.m. The 21-minute show will be launched from the foot of MUNI Pier and off a barge to the north of PIER 39. As in years past, Municipal Pier, located at the foot of Van Ness Avenue, will be closed to the public on the Fourth of July. The closure will be from 7:00 a.m. until midnight that evening. No illegal fireworks or barbecues are permitted in Aquatic Park. Boats will not be allowed to enter into Aquatic Park lagoon between 1:00 pm and 11:00 pm on July 4. Public transportation is strongly recommended.

Location: Entertainment will take place at Aquatic Park; Fireworks will take place off the foot of MUNI Pier and a barge just north of PIER 39

THE CANNERY’S FOURTH OF JULY FAMILY FESTIVAL

Come and celebrate Independence Day, July 4th, at THE CANNERY’s Family Festival. There will be face painting to entertain the children, live musical performances featuring local artists playing classic American hits plus delectable food offerings by THE CANNERY’s fine selection of restaurants and cafes. The festivities begin at 11:00 am at the Courtyard Stage at THE CANNERY. Face painting will be available from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Live music entertainment will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 pm.

Location: THE CANNERY, 2801 Leavenworth Street, at the foot of Columbus Street

GREAT FIREWORKS VIEWS AT THE BUENA VISTA

The Buena Vista is a great spot to take in the spectacular Fourth of July fireworks, as you warm up to a cup of Irish Coffee. Don't miss these priceless views!

Location: 2765 Hyde Street at Beach Street

As for what to do after the fireworks, go to the MetroWize Events Page to find out more. For my time, the place to be is 111 Minna for a late night Qool party.

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Ferry Corsten @ Ruby Skye Reviewed

2007-07-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

Last night, Ferry Corsten hit SF in a big way. Local promoters, Spundae, brought in this world class DJ and he shook the foundations of the Ruby Skye nightclub all night long. This was a packed event. The glamorous and fabulous of SF were out, and this was THE night not to be missed.

I walked into the club around 11:40 PM and TAJ was rocking the decks to a very healthy crowd of dancers. Then a quick DJ switch and Dirtyhertz played some good Ferry warm-up tunes, the crowd and I loved it. The crowd consisted of tailored and glamorous bay area beauties, for those who wanted to experience a night in a European night club and that’s exactly what they were served at Ruby Skye.

Ferry hit the decks at 12:10 AM and what an entrance, as he unwinds things down in his first transition tune, he brings the volume really low. The entire crowd went off the hook chanting “Ferry, Ferry… “ just like one would see at an English soccer game. Graciously, Ferry acknowledges the love from the crowd with air kisses and a big fat smile back…then raises his hands up in there and proceeds to blast the roof of Ruby Skye with his next track continuing through the rest of his set.

The room was packed and not a lot of room to dance, but the music was just a pure tasty journey with lots of visual delights including 4 cute dancers for additional visuals. Good old world class DJ club tunes, timed so perfectly for the ride of your life. Ruby Skye was in top performance mode; VIP lounges were set up all over, upstairs was open to everyone with a good bar and a half… The back room had lots of swanky smokers and hip hop blazing away on the decks… hey but for me no reason to leave Ferry’s musical delight.
Two thumbs up for Ferry, he certainly blows the crowd away so effortlessly with his marvelous performance.

Ferry Corsten review brought to you by Ofer R... man about town.

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Gearing up for High Sierra Music Festival

2007-06-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

Even though the city is a constant center of amusement and entertainment for me, it's good to get out of town from time to time. It makes me remember that there is a summer after all. So then, are you heading out to High Sierra Music Festival this week? You should be! With acts like Tea Leaf Green, ALO, Bassnectar, and most of SCI, it looks to be one of the strongest line ups in years. Here are a few final thoughts to share before you head out.

1. Expect to pay $20 to stay overnight in line the day before. Because so many people will be arriving on Wednesday, expect big crowds early.

2. Check out the merch area to the left of the main stage. Every year they get better and better about recording real time shows and selling them off within 12 hours of the set. They're great soundboard quality and some acts, like Xavier Rudd need to be listened to live.

3. Expect some great collaborations this year! Kyle, Kang and Travis from SCI will all be there, as will Page from Phish. Something cool is bound to happen, just get to the workshops if it's not too hot and see what goes down.

4. Keep your eyes out for all the post HSMF shows. The promoters do a great job of bringing all the acts into town days after the festival, (mostly because of proximity). So, if you live anywhere in California, you'll be able to catch most of the bands in the coming weeks in your home town.

5. Wear sunscreen. This year is going to be scorching hot.

That's all for now. Share your tips below if you have any to add or check out my 10 Tips for HSMF article from a few months back if you want to learn the real secrets. I'll see you out at Big Meadow, in line at Java a go-go or dancing to the Disco Biscuits late night.

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Where to stay in SF - Phoenix Hotel

2007-06-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

When you are looking for a unique place to stay in San Francisco, there is no place more unique than the Phoenix Hotel. The Phoenix Hotel defies conventional wisdom in a lot of ways. It’s one of best hotels in the city, but it doesn’t have most of the things a person looks for in a great hotel. It's located at the outer edge of the Tenderloin (sometimes referred to as the TenderKnob) which means it can be a bit on the sketch side, the rooms, they’re kind of like a fancy motel and the location, in terms of proximity, is not that great either to be perfectly honest.

The Phoenix makes up for all these shortcomings however, with the parties and the atmosphere surrounding the hotel. The adjoining, super hip, Bambuddha Lounge Bar and Restaurant, the Sunday pool parties, and the eclectic artistic vibe seen throughout in the sculptures and style of the property are why people stay here. This is a young persons hotel, for the tourist that will take a little sketchy to get a little edgy. Check the calendar before you book. You might wake up Sunday to fire dancers, D:Fuse banging on the drums and hundreds of guys and girls partying at the pool outside your hotel room. For some, that’s a horrible thought, for others, that’s paradise. If you know MetroWize, then you know what we think. It’s high on our list.

Phoenix Hotel: 601 Eddy Street, San Francisco

Neighborhood: Tenderloin

Avg. nightly Price: $100-$175 Check Today's Price

MW Recommendation: 5 of 5

Summary: Funky-cool place, great space if you know what you're in for. Check out the bar/restaurant and check their calendar for events while you're there.

Cieba Fashion Show @ Mighty

2007-06-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last week over at Mighty, Cieba Fashion held a fashion show to showcase their new "playa inspired" line of clothing and fashion. Complete with dj's, firedancers and some of the craziest urban fashion you have ever scene, this was definitly a "show".
Our good friend Gene from Phatcatphoto caught all the action with his camera.

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Hidden Places - Hidden Vine Wine Bar

2007-06-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to hidden places... A column dedicated to giving you the inside scoop to places you probably didn't know about, but will be glad you did.

Hidden Vine Wine Bar

½ Cosmo Place at Taylor Street

(415) 674-3567

Their website says that this place is a “secret wine bar,” which is more or less true, since it’s down in a (non-sketchy) alley, and kind of in the basement of a hotel. It’s cozy (only chairs and couches) and so not a scene.

I don’t know a lot about wine – except if I like the particular kind I’m drinking or not. So I’m a little leery of wine bars, since they sometimes have a reputation for being snooty, and then I feel forced to pretend like I know what I’m talking about. This is not the case at Hidden Vine. The husband and wife team that own the place are wonderful – so helpful and down-to-earth. None of this wine-snobbery stuff.

The wine menu is constantly changing to features areas, vintages and tastes. I love to get the tasting flights, which allow you to sample three or four different wines from the current menu. This place got me hooked on Reisling last year when they were doing their German tasting menu.

Of course, I would be lying if I didn’t say a big draw for me is their fabulous cheese plates. These change, too, to better pair with the wine, and I can never remember exactly what I’ve had after I’ve ordered and eaten it, but the plates are a fabulous combination of cheeses, breads, chutney and fruit. That’s a meal for me.

Another big bonus – although it’s located in the Union Square area, it’s not a tourist trap, since ya haveta be in the know to get to this spot!

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Beastie Boys get all classy

2007-06-28T16:55:00.001-07:00

This August (the 25th to be exact), the Beastie Boys are hitting the stage at The Greek Amphitheater in Berkeley for what is sure to be one of the best shows of the summer. Over the 20 some years that the Beastie Boys have amassed a catalog of songs and albums that will stand the test of time no doubt. While the show itself certainly will be awesome, the bigger news is the Gala Event taking place at The Warfield the night prior... The Boys are doing Gala events during this tour for a more intimate and sophisticated feel. This is coming from the guys who in a previous song used a sample that said "Shii... If this gonna be that kinda a party, I'll stick my dick in the mashed potatoes"

Anyways, here is how they explain it.

THE GALA EVENTS will be in smaller spots, more exclusive, more intimate. This will be more like quality time, our time, just you and the band sitting by a fire on a tropical beach late at night being serenaded with love songs. These shows are for people that are into our weird stuff, so if you want to get weird together, this is your call. These shows will be based around the instruments. Some songs will have vocals, others will be instrumental. BUT if you'd like to come to one of these shows, then DRESS TO IMPRESS, wear a suit, a tie, a dress, a gown or whatever you feel dressed up in... AND PLEASE leave your cargo shorts, birkenstocks and t-shirts at home, this is not that kind of party.

If you are interested in going to it, you will want to get your tickets ASAP... My guess is that this show will be sold out quick. Click here to buy your tickets (on Sale Sunday 7/1 @ 10am)

In the meantime, check out this classic B Boys video...

I love when he drinks the dude's soda and then spits it out in the next guys face! Classic! And Classy!

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It's all fun and games until someone loses a...

2007-06-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

Fourth of July is upon us and while fireworks are beautiful and loud, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye... or a finger. Have fun this holiday folks but don't be stupid with the old bang bangs.

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Weekend Preview 6/29-7/1

2007-06-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday and that means it's time to start thinking about the weekend (at least for me anyways)! There is a lot going on this weekend and even more going on as we move into the holiday weekend next week. I had a tough time deciding on what was going to make the Weekend Preview cut this week, but here we go...

Wednesday
Qool @ 111 Minna - I know this is not the weekend, but this is gonna be tight. Qool vs. the folks from Opulent Temple in a happy hour throwdown at one of longest running SF parties in existence.

Thursday
US Air Guitar Championships @ The Independent - Nothing says rock n roll like a guitar and it doesn't matter if the guitar is made from thin air. At the Independent on Thursday, there is going to be some serious faux guitar playing going on and it is going to be hilarious. Check out the site or check out this awesome air guitar video.

Friday
Whether you are into Live music or DJ music, you have ample to choose from on Friday.
On the DJ front, the Stanton Warriors @ 1015 is going to be rockin as both of the Warriors hit the stage to DJ and play live and superstar DJ Ferry Corsten @ Ruby Skye is an absolute no brainer for good Trance. For live music, The Fillmore is hosting Hot Tuna, The Independent has Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Les Claypool is at The Warfield.

Saturday
Saturday night is all about the intimate local parties. Local DJ favorite Dirtyhertz is hosting a party called Tag- You're It! @ Shine with his friends Nikita and Didji Kelli. A few blocks away the long running Funky Cozy @ Anu is having it's big farewell event. Both are cheap and going to be featuring great music from solid dj's. Over at 12 Galaxies, HSMF 2006 favorites Toubab Krewe will be laying down their African infused Rock n roll for an audience that is in for a treat.

Sunday
Wrap up the weekend with a stop by Bambuddha to nurse your hangover and groove out to some funky prog and house music. Plunge is an NK7 production and features local heros such as DJ Seven, Hoj, Kramer, Scott Carrelli and Greg Eversoul among others. RSVP here and get in for $10.

Whew... that oughta keep ya busy! Have fun every one.

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Trevor Simpson Ultra 8 CD Release

2007-06-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Metrowize.com and Keyframe Entertainment caught up with Trevor Simpson on the eve of his CD Release party for the new Ultra records dance compilation Ultra Dance, Vol. 8. What a crazy night from the studio to the club! Check it out.

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Stanton Warriors @ 1015

2007-06-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

It was a couple of weeks ago now that up in Santa Rosa the Harmony Festival took place. There were a number of stand out performances from the festival from the likes of Moe., Umphrey's McGee and Shpongle (who came around last weekend and shame on you if you missed it!). One performance that may have slipped under the radar a bit though was a DJ set from Mark Yardley of the Stanton Warriors. Booty Bass, Ghetto Breaks, Dirty prog... whatever label you attach to the grinding basslines and funked out synths, this is music that makes you shake your ass and dance - hard.

This weekend on Friday (6/29), 1015 welcomes both Mark and his partner Dominic as they rock out in proper Stanton Warriors form with Decks, Keys, FX and samplers. This is a giant party weekend and 1015 is certainly adding to it with this one.

MetroWize wants to send you and a friend there to see the dynamic duo for free. All you gotta do is sign up for the Weekly Wize Guide and check your email for your chance to win. If you already came to this article from the newsletter, you are automatically entered...

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Drinkers Digest - Pride and cheap beers

2007-06-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome fellow drinkers to the first edition of Drinkers Digest... Dedicated to finding the cheapest buzz in town. You don't have to thank me, just buy me a drink next time you see me.

So this last weekend was Pride here in San Francisco, so of course the city turned into reveling havoc just about everywhere I went. Bars and eateries were packed with people from miles around, making this not only one of the most festive weekends, but also one that makes you appreciate the solitude that comes with finding an empty bar. I wasn't even lucky enough to get that much. So here I am on Sunday, waiting in the heart of the madness at the Civic Center for some “new to SF” friends to roll through. If you are going to call SF home, Pride is something you really need to experience after all.

It’s one o’clock and the party is in full swing. I meander, half taking in the sights and half pissed because there's only one beer left in my bag and it's warm as hell. After about three hours, I had my fill of the madness and people trying to hand me condoms and lube. Time to bounce. Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. The party stretched for like 5 square blocks, a scandalously-clad colony of dancing underwear enthusiasts. Every turn led me deeper and deeper into the mix.

By the time I reach Leavenworth, the music is still beckoning from behind, but uphill I trudge until I come up on Cup A Joe on Sutter. "What the hell," I figure, "coffee's a good enough reason to have a seat and recollect myself." It's then I notice a sign with my favorite 3 words on it "happy, hour and special". The $2.95 happy hour special at Cup A Joe is for all beers from 4-8. They have 10 beers on tap and it just so happens to be 4:15. Dumb Luck I suppose, but luck none the less. There I sit enjoying my cheap beer in the coffee shop environment until my buddies who I had been waiting for all day long finally give me the buzz. They're hungry, something about going to check out some sushi spot they saw from the bus.

So this sushi spot is called Kyoto Sushi, a few doors from the corner of Van Ness and Sutter, and as I walk in, the most marvelous sign one could see: $1 Sapporo's, everyday. Right on! I Go take a seat, say what's up, turn to waitress and order three Sapporo's. She comes and sets them in front of me, so I turn to the other guys and ask: "oh yeah, did you guys want anything to drink?"
For some, Pride weekend is a chance to explore and express sexuality and freedom… For me it’s a week long invasion of my haunts and hollows and an excuse for digging even deeper to find the cheapest drinks around town.

Cup A Joe and Kyoto Sushi, me and my shriveled liver thank you.
Til next time…

Drinkers Digest is brought to you by Garrett Shockley

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Shpongle @ 1015 - Reviewed

2007-06-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

WOW... So, 1015 is roof-less after Shpongle’s performance this weekend! They shattered the walls and blew off the roof and then some…this is what it’s all about!!
I experienced Shpongle at 1015 Folsom last Friday night and I am still giddy with the tunes in my ears, what a delightful treat! Seriously a fabulous start to a wonderful Pride party weekend!
I arrived at 1015 at 12:30 AM and I was a little concerned on the location and its heavy invasive security at times, but last night was a breeze with a quick pat down and friendly, almost welcoming, attitude.

I walked inside the club and to my surprise the front room was quite full with some interesting glitch / hip hop / slow breaks tunes. I Kept on moving into the main room, which to my joyous surprise was Shpongle already on and rockin the place. The main room was packed but with friendly, courteous faces all projecting good energy and dancing for some good times.

As I got deeper into the main room, it morphed from a club to an ancient Amazonian forest tribal gathering, drums and visuals everywhere. This, my friends, is what I love! (I was under the influence of intoxicating true musical / visual treats). This live performance goes down in history, for me. The sound was phenomenal and Simon and Raja took the whole room for a ride of their life. Anything audible to the human ear was played in that room. I heard acoustic guitars, flamenco and Spanish guitar riffs, all kinds of percussion, wicked live synth lines, all these sounds mashed up into an unexpected bpm morphing exquisite sound extravaganza. The visuals where top notch too, a whole crew manned the visual enticement on the other side of the room, with a good 6 full blown large size screens. The video was cut and edited live adding to the intensity of the party. This was an all senses overload ride for sure!!

Downstairs there was some Dubby slow breaks music, but to be honest, it was mostly Shpongle for me, the rest did not matter, and it’s hard to compete with such incredible talent.
To sum it up, outstanding performance, great music, great visuals and wonderful vibe, man I love SF and I will cherish this get together in my memories forever!
I can’t wait for Shpongle to come back!

Shpongle review written by Ofer R.

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Carnaval SF, Photos from the party you missed

2007-06-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

San Francisco's Carnaval started 28 years ago by musicians and artists who wanted to represent the Latin countires culture and vibe. Since the event happens over Memorial Day weekend, a lot of people don't even know about it. Despite that, it's hugely attended, with a huge parade that winds its way through the Mission and a post party on Harrison. Check out www.carnavalsf.com. To get more info on the Mission check out www.sfmission.com . Photo credits are also due to SF Mission.

Check out the photo gallery below. There's a shockingly high percentage of beautiful women in the parade. Enjoy and don't miss out next year.

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US Air Guitar Championships @ The Independent

2007-06-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Have you ever dreamed of being in a rock n roll band and playing the strings in front of thousands of adoring fans? Ever played air guitar in front of the mirror instead? Sure you have... Whenever there is something that everybody does, there is bound to be a competition for who can do it the best. Well this week on Thursday, the US Air Guitar championships hit the stage at The Independent and we will all get a chance to bear witness to the virtual skills that these faux axe wielding musicians have. For more info on the event, check out The Independent or the US Air Guitar official Website
In the meantime, here is a bitchin' air guitar video to get you revved up!

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Elite Force Review

2007-06-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

What can I say? Shack played alone for me in the house last night… I went to see Shack’s Elite Force at Ruby Skye and I thought I knew what I was in for since I had the pleasure of seeing Shack play at Mighty a few months ago and I loved every club packed moment of it. Shack also released 3 new tracks this week so I knew there was fresh material involved.
I got to the club at 12:00 AM, on the decks was Syd Gris, who was rocking out to some electro / house breaks. The club was not full at all, the club/bar next door ‘Slide’, seemed to be the main attraction that evening with a big line building up outside.

The top floor at Ruby Skye was sealed off. The sound system was great with wonderful crisp sounds and body vibrating low bass, I think they have one of the better sound systems in SF, plus the flashing lights on the speakers as they go off are cool.

The stage was set, but I kept on waiting for the people to poor in through the doors. Then I started thinking; did I miss something? Is Thursday, not the night to go out anymore? Did this gig completely fly under the radar? Has SF forgotten who Shack is and how awesome it is when he rocks out?? Ok time for another drink, must stop thinking!
Elite Force stepped behind the booth at 12:45 AM, and played a beautiful set, OMG what smooth mixes. He starts off with some progressive house tracks, then into some wonderful raunchy breaks and even later drops a drum and bass track keeping the musical journey a complete mystical and musical surprise.
The sad thing was that you had to close your eyes to imagine the wild party, because it was not wild and the dance floor was not close to full, in fact slightly on the empty side. No visuals either, just light’s from the club on a semi empty dance floor.

This was a great musical journey with no party people. For shame SF!
I hope he comes back again soon! Maybe it’s time for a good old SF underground location for Shack’s Elite Force!

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How Weird 2007 Photos

2007-06-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

The How Weird Street fair is as San Francisco as Bay To Breakers. One thing that I've always loved is the artistic sensibility within the electronica scene that you don't get in other cities. If you are reading this from anywhere other than SF, you probably associate the DJ scene with flashy lights and annoying guys trying too hard to get laid. I won't say that doesn't exsist in SF, but the real dominating scene, the one that puts out the vibe for electronica around the country, is the underground scene. How Weird and Western SOMA in general, embody this to the hilt and it always makes me think "I love this town". So, even though the event was over a month back, I thought some pictures from the event would be cool. Besides, this isn't CNN, its MetroWize.

Thanks to Gene at Phatcat Photos for the pics!

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San Francisco House Music - Remedy

2007-06-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Remedy @ DNA Lounge is one of the longest running house music parties in San Francisco. This Friday is another installment. The party packs em in every time and the beats, the crowd and the venue all add up for a killer time. There is a plethera of killer things going on this weekend but don't let this one pass you by if you are a House head.

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Weekend Preview

2007-06-20T12:37:00.001-07:00

It’s time to clone yourself, because there are no less than three places you’re going to want to hit this Friday. Okay, sure, try to get to all of them as one person instead, but don’t wear yourself out because Saturday is going to be a total rager, too.

Pre-Friday party action starts Thursday at Ruby Skye with the Elite Force. His blend of breaks, house, and electronica are sure to bring down the house.

Friday night you’ve got Carl Craig, Mirko (Lazy Fat People), and Gamall spinning at Mezzanine. Craig is one of the biggest names in techno, and at the same time as Richie Hawtin he helped develop Detroit techno’s second wave. He is one of the biggest DJs in the world, and San Francisco is pumped for him to be back again.

Sander Kleinenberg is over at Ruby Skye spinning only the sickest cuts of trance and progressive house. Check out the Dutchman that everyone’s going to be talking about for the next few weeks.

If you missed the Harmony Festival last week, don’t sweat it. 1015 Folsom has brought headliners Shpongle back to our fair city for another dose of downtempo psytrance goodness. If you’ve never heard them, then don’t miss out. This is an opportunity to experience transcendence.

Okay, Friday? Check. Let’s move on to Saturday.

Saturday is all about live music with Michael Franti over at Mezzanine. But of course we're going to plug a DJ gig as well. Dubtronic Science is bringing hip-hop, dancehall, and dub at Slim's. Brace yourself. Sunday is a long way away.

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Warped Tour Giveaway

2007-06-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

Metrowize is primarily concerned with nightlife, but sometimes you have to venture out during the day. The Vans Warped Tour is one such occasion, and we’ve got tickets for you, too. Not into the music? That’s cool because there’s also the extreme sports part that you can check out, and, hell, maybe you just need to get out of San Francisco and get some sun for the day. Whatever the reason, two things are undeniable: it’s going to be a blast, and Metrowize and Live Nation want to help get you there. You know the deal, sign up for our weekly Wize Guide and you’re instantly registered!

Shoreline Amphitheatre just finished Live 105’s BFD, and now it’s time again for the Vans Warped Tour. Not only does it feature countless bands, extreme sports, and over-priced booze, but this year’s lineup is particularly enticing. Bad Religion, Drop Dead, and Throwdown all offer you a chance to get punk in the pit and lose it. Maybe the pop melodies of Coheed and Cambria, New Found Glory, or Yellowcard are more your thing. That’s cool, because they’re going to be there, too.

Get ready now because you’re going wake up, ignore your hangover, and get on Cal Train down to Mountain View. Just register for our Wize Guide and you’re entered into the contest, and you’re eligible for future contests as well. Every week we’re giving away awesome prizes to our subscribers, and we think you deserve some free stuff and good times.

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Ferry Corsten Giveaway

2007-06-20T12:16:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 29 Dutch producer and DJ Ferry Corsten is slated to annihilate the Ruby Skye dance floor. In conjunction with Spundae, Metrowize wants to send you and a friend to go see him. He is one of a handful of such artists whose name is instantly recognizable by nearly anyone. Since the early 90s he has been producing and spinning records that have garnered a steadily increasing amount of respect, and international acclaim. Corsten started with hardcore gabber, but he eventually found himself making trance. It was a good move for him, because now his name resonates with innovative artists like Paul Oakenfold and Tiesto. His newest album L.E.F. has recently been released and he is touring the States in support. Check out the first single, “Fire,” which features Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. But first, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter for your chance to win.

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10 places to get your late night food fix in SF

2007-06-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Don’t lie. You know what I’m talking about. It’s Friday night, you’ve had a little too much to drink and all of the sudden, onion rings, milkshakes and Denver omlettes start sounding really good to you. You know the food – the stuff you usually don’t eat. Or maybe you usually do eat it, but for whatever reason, now you just have to have it. Well, look no further, here are 10 places to get your late night drunk food fix from one of our newest contributors Alexis.

1. Crepes a Go-Go (SOMA) 350 11th St

Fortunately, they have several locations all over the city, but the one I’m talking about is THE BEST one to go to – especially after a night out drinking in that weird sketchy area they call SOMA, but it’s really the Mission or something else altogether. No matter what “they” call the neighborhood, I call it dodgy. Anyway, this particular location is more of a roach coach, right next door to Butter, which I’ll get to in a minute. Yummy Nutella goodness and warm gooey crepes equal drunken bliss.

2. Butter (SOMA) 354 11th Street

This is a bar with some of the best drunk food ever. Designed to scarily and accurately resemble the trailer parks we’ve all known and love, this place serves up heart-stopping American fare with the best of ‘em. Tater tots. Onion rings. DEEP FRIED TWINKIES!!! What’s not to love?

3. Lori’s Diner (Union Square) 149 Powell Street

These are all over the city and can be kind of a tourist trap during the day, but they serve up good ol’ Denny’s-type fare like you used to feast on during college drinking binges. Ah, memories.

4. Nile Café (Tenderloin) 544 Jones Street

Ok, Ok, this doesn’t have much in the way of FOOD, but who needs food when you have hookah? Nile Café is a great hole-in-the-wall place, with great owners who will stay open as late as you’re there. But it’s only because they’re smokin’ it up, too.

5. King of Thai Noodle (SOMA) 55 5th Street

Beware, this place is only open until 1 am, so you won’t be able to shut down the bar and go here. But if you want to start nursing your self back to health before the hangover, this is a good place to start. Yummy, slurpee, noodly Thai.

6. Nizario’s Pizza (Castro) 4077 18th Street

When it comes to late night pizza, there are a number of options out there but the hands down winner is Nizarrio’s in the Castro. Fresh toppings and interesting combos are part of it of course, but the real deal sealer is the crowd that goes there. The post bar time crowd is as comical as they are hungry and you are bound to get in a ridiculus conversation with some other drunkard. This is a proper joint for grabbing that late night slice before you go pass out in a stupor.

7. El Farolito Taqueria (Mission) 2777 Mission Street

Nothing says drunk like a late night burrito or quesadilla, and no one does them better past 2 am than the boys in the heart of the Mission at El Farolito. If you are looking for cheese and grease to sop the alcohol in your stomach, go for the super quesadilla suiza. If you are feeling adventurous in your intoxicated state of mind you can order things like tongue, brain or lips – I recommend the tongue. You may regret it in the morning but it makes for funny stories.

8. Sparky’s (Church) 242 Church Street

Late night diners come in all forms. Sparky’s is the local favorite of Castro and Delores Park dwellers. Open 24 hours a day, Sparky’s has a 50’s décor and jukebox and serves up things like malts, chili cheese fries and grilled ham and cheese to a rowdy and packed crowd. If you go at 2am, be prepared to wait a while for your seat because this place gets going right when the booze stops flowing.

9. GrubSteak (Nob Hill) 1525 Pine Street

GrubSteak, located in the neighborhood often referred to as the TenderNob, has been around for ever and there is a reason… Actual good food, anytime of day. Drunk or not, you need to hit this place up sometime when you are hungry. They stay open until 4am and the food is actually all that much better when you have your stomach coated with beer, vodka, jack or whatever your drink of choice happens to be. Diner style food done right. You’ll know you found it when you see the street car that is it’s home.

10. Naan N curry (Tenderloin) 336 O'Farrell Street

Indian food at 2am? God damn right! Naan N Curry serves up the goods 24/7 at this particular location and the 2 am drunk crowd sops up the curry and spinach night after night. If you are looking to jump off the deep end, get some lamb vindaloo and have them make it Indian Spicy… you may not remember why your throat is still burning in the morning, but you will love every drunken bite while there.

Got ideas for other great late night spots? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Alexis is a local SF writer and nightlife expert. You can read more of her rants, reviews and musings on her blog stella6.com.

Wanna write for MetroWize? We are looking for city experts with something to say so give us a shout!

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Adam Freeland Reviewed

2007-06-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, breaks legend Adam Freeland came to Mezzanine for a night music on the forefront of electronica. MetroWize had an insider on the scene, Ofer R. Here's his review of the show.

"To sum up the Freeland show, it was HOT HOT HOT. A couple of friends and I arrived at the Mezzanine at about midnight, it wasn't too crowded and very pleasant personnel just cozy all the way (no crazy strip / airport security check, like some other places I know) I was a little concerned on space because last time I saw Adam was at Mighty and the place was packed, one moving line in the entire club. I was juiced for this night a whole week prior, getting ready to shake off a hard week that just finished that night, at 11:00pm, with amazing choones. We walked inside and the setup was awesome the visuals where great and the DJ booth not far up from the crowd. The sound system must have been adjusted because it sounded tight, ear piercing highs and gut churning bass! Oh baby I knew I was in for a treat.

Immediately hooked up with a good old friend Patron getting ready for a party "te-qill-ya!" Adam was roaming around before the set and you could tell he was excited for this gig, the place was not overly packed but nicely full. Adam unpacks his headphones and approaches the decks about 12:45 AM and next thing, BAM! like magic we were all sucked into a time warp. You
lost all sense of time and space and just had an incredible audio / visual out of body type ride, I know this music very well and I could not recognize any of the tunes played that night. Raunchy bass line, wicked/evil guitar licks and OMG the beats, what crazy beats! I danced so hard I was aching for a week later.

Woke up the next morning sort of disorientated and sad that it was over but extremely glad I was there and lived that moment, I will be back for sure."

Ofer R is a SF local and subscriber to the Weekly Wize Guide. We sent him and a friend to the show for free as a winner of our weekly ticket giveaway.

Wanna go to shows for free like Ofer and our other weekly winners? Get the Weekly Wize Guide! Each week we giveaway another set of tickets to great upcoming shows as well as a collection of cool articles, videos and events. Get it now!

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Fire Dancing in Union Square Photo Show

2007-06-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

There's always something fun going on if you know where to look. In late April, there was a firedancing show in Union Square and Gene caught it on tape. I love the way firedancers show up on camera. Check out this photo gallery at www.phatcatphoto.com Just some eye candy to get you through the work day. Enjoy and thanks Gene!

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Sander Kleinenberg in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas

2007-06-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

International DJ and producer legend Sander Kleinenberg is headed to the west coast this next week with stops in San Francisco (6/22), Los Angeles (6/23) and Las Vegas (6/28). The man referred to by his friends as the Flying Dutchman is best known for taking dancefloors on a musical journey of trance and progressive house. If you have seen before, you know what to expect, if not... this should be one you check out.
Here is a video to get you warmed up!

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KY Lingerie Fashion Show

2007-06-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

Just because we talk a lot about music and events here at MetroWize doesn't mean that we don't also appreciate some of the finer things in life... Like girls and lingerie for example. This is a video taken from a sexy lingerie fashion show at SupperClub a few months back.

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Shpongle Ticket Giveaway

2007-06-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Shpongle is the World’s premiere psy-trance group, and next week they’re headed for San Francisco (6/22). Lucky for you, Metrowize wants to help you get there for free.

Simon Posford and Raja Ram (a.k.a. Shpongle) are a psybient duo heavily influenced by the Goa Trance scene. The difference is that their take on trance is a downtempo, psychedelic excursion, exploring the space within tracks rather than filling them. The instrumentation itself features Eastern ethnic sounds, Western synth pieces, samples, and live elements that are emphasized by their swirling, acid-inflected production and ethereal percussion. This is going to be a show that you won't want to miss, and we don't want you to miss it either.

How to win:
If you came to this article from our Weekly Wize Guide, you just entered yourself by clicking the link. If you aren't already signed up for the Weekly Wize Guide, sign up now so these and other great giveaways don't keep passing you by. Each week MetroWize gives away tickets and passes to some of the biggest and best shows in the bay area but you have to be signed up for the email to be eligible so what are you waiting for? Sign Up Now!

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Harmony Festival Review

2007-06-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I ventured out of the fog and headed to Santa Rosa for the Harmony Festival. I've always been used to travelling some epic journey to get to a festival. This event however, is only an hour away. That fact alone should make you get out there next year. That, and a killer line-up of electronica and live music.

The festival is divided into 2 main stages with music going from 10AM to 10PM. Acts like, Umphrey's McGee, Ganga Giri, New Monsoon, Blue Turtle Seduction and The Roots played all day long. One cool aspect of the artist management was that some of the bands got really long time slots. A lot of times bands only play for 45 minutes and if you're into that band, you barely get to see them. The line up was kind of all over the place, but it all seemed to work. Would I normally go see Brian Wilson and Eryka Badu, probably not, but it was great to throw them into the mix of acts I liked. That's what's so great about festivals, for the artists and the fans.

At first I was annoyed with the amount of vending as we walked around. I felt like I was in the Montgomery Flea Market, just like a mini-mall. Once I started roaming though, there were actually some really interesting booths. There was a Healing expo too, so if you love chakra's and chanting, you'd have dug this area a lot. That area aside, there were a lot of mainstream products talking about ways they are reducing their impact on the environment which I was into. We were so inspired in fact, we put together a piece, posting soon, about the eco-friendly companies at the festival.

The late night shows were not "late night", they all ended at about 2AM. Saturday nights line-up of Ganga Giri, Stanton Warrioirs, Rabbit in the Moon, and Shpongle was worth it at any time of the day. As a side note, every DJ should have Lucent Dossier performing in the background. Who doesn't like sexy fire dancers? I don't want to know you if you don't. And the Grace Pavillion was like a stadium, so there were thousands of people at the show too. Friday night was my festival highlight, a high energy moe set. They can tear it up when they want to.

Finally, MetroWize TV will be cranking out content from the show for the next few weeks. We talked to many bands, djs, speakers, sponsors and party goers. Prepare to be entertained as we were entertained and next year, head to Harmony Festival to get it first hand. In the meantime, we have collected a handful of images from some of the 1000's of images we found from local photographers on Flickr. Check out the colors, the people, and the good times and see you there next year!

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Honeycut live @ Mezzanine - Noise Pop

2007-06-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

Honeycut wants to make you shake your ass! Their energetic live shows are taking the indie rock scene by storm. Check em out at here from their recent show at Noisepop!

Put this video on your website, myspace or blog! Just click the Get Code Icon to get the html. Need to know more? Check out our article on how to take MetroWize videos with you wherever you want.

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Win tickets to go see Data Rock @ The Independent

2007-06-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

This week, MetroWize is giving away 2 pairs of tickets to the upcoming Data Rock show at The Independent (6/12). Datarock is Sweden's indie-electro power duo, and this show is bound to be one of the best to come through The Independent this summer.

How to win:
-If you came to this article from the Weekly Wize Guide, you are automatically entered. Watch your email on Friday because we just might send you something to tell you won!
-If you did not come to this article from the email, you need to be enrolled in our newsletter to be eligible to win so get signed up. Each week we have another contest where we give away tickets to a great show at a local venue. Sign up now!

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Ten New Albums You Need to Check Out

2007-06-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Music is obviously something that makes us tick here at Metrowize, and we’re guessing it’s the same for you. With that in mind, we’ve decided to compile a list of the top ten records we’re feeling at the moment. From electro house to disco and rock to motown lounge, you can see we have eclectic tastes. Take a minute to check out the reviews and then go out and get these albums! If you’ve got suggestions for us, drop us a line and clue us in.

Bassnectar – Underground Communication (OM)
Underground Communication is exactly what you would expect from Bassnectar, the unexpected. This has all the dirty, hip-hop influenced breaks Lorin always serves, but it is more experimental and it accurately captures the feeling of his live shows.
Buy this album at Amazon.com Underground Communication

Efdemin – Efdemin (Dial)
Berlin-based Panorama Bar resident DJ and producer Efdemin focuses on melody and atmosphere, but never loses sight of the dancefloor. This is for that moment when you walk in from the club, not ready to sleep and just a little bit partied-out.

The Field – From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)
Axel Willner has more perfectly dissolved the conflict between what works in the club versus the living room. This record is pretty and layered, but it never stops banging. If you like techno, trance, or shoegaze, get to your local record store right now.

Gui Boratto – Chromophobia (Kompakt)
It’s sad that New Order officially broke up, but it’s great that Gui Boratto is here to fill those shoes. While it’s not an exact replacement, the electro-house and techno elements that he adds blend so perfectly that it doesn’t even matter. This is the next level.

Honeycut – The Day I turned to Glass (Quannum)
Every band tries to make the claim that they’re so unique that they can’t really be classified as any one particular thing, and most of them are wrong. I’m making the claim for Honeycut: these boys definitely have their own thing. Catchy, Motown lounge funk.

Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye (Domino)
Electronic music isn’t dying, just changing. An increasing number of DJs and live performers are beginning to merge programming and instrumentation, and Junior Boys are ahead of the pack. This is catchy, indie electronic music with just a touch of soul.

LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (Capitol)
James Murphy and the DFA crew have saved rock. As a musician and a producer he gleans from so many different genres that it doesn’t really matter what you’re into, you’ll be into this. Sound of Silver is some serious disco, electro, rock madness. If you're ready.

Lindstrøm – It’s a Feedelity Affair (Feedelity)
Disco isn’t a dirty word anymore, so don’t worry. In spite of its influence, people got tired of all the diva sing-a-longs. Hans-Peter Lindstrom has resurrected this lost art form, added some psychedelic elements, and put in a touch of everything else.

Pantha du Prince – This Bliss (Dial)
Pantha du Prince is labelmates with Efdemin, but that’s where the similarities stop. Where the latter goes after stripped-down dance numbers, the former is content to mold a dance into a layered, blissed-out headphone listening experience.

Trentemøller – The Last Resort (Pokerflat)
If you know anything about electro-house, and you were alive the last few years, then you’ve at least heard the name Anders Trentemøller. From Vitalic to The Knife, this is the guy who’s been remixing all the hits into hard-hitting dance floor bangers. Get it.

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Live 105 BFD 2007 - Preview

2007-06-05T14:18:00.000-07:00

Live 105’s BFD party at Shoreline Amphitheatre on June 9 is as big as they get. The location holds over 25,000 people, there are 20+ of the biggest bands around scheduled to play and the hype is bigger than ever. So what's the BFD?

BFD began in 1994 and it has featured bands like White Stripes, Beastie Boys, and the Cure in it's 12 years. This year is another affair entirely. The bill is chocked full of electronic indie bands, and there are even two huge pre-parties at Mezzanine. The official BFD roster for 2007 includes Bloc Party, Interpol, The Faint, and tons more. If you decide to hit up the pre-parties, then you’ll get to see LCD Soundsystem, CSS, Bondo do Role, and even a DJ set by The Faint.

If you’ve got the extra cash and the itch to drive down to the south bay for a day of sun and music... this is the place to be.

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Weekend Preview 6/1-6/3

2007-05-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

If you are into electronica, this is the weekend for you here in SF. DJ masters like Adam Freeland, Richie Hawton, Bassnectar, Cut Chemist (ok, not really electronica but a master none the less) and Luke Fair to name a few are gonna tear up the city all weekend long... get out there people!

Freeland @ Mezzanine
Breaks champion Adam Freeland will be gripping the decks of SF’s Mezzanine on Friday, June 1. He recently recorded a set in Mexico City for the Global Underground series, which he is touring to support. From Mr. Oizo to Spacemen 3, you can bet that he’s on top of it. You can also bet that this one will be slam-packed, so if you want to take part in this musical orgy you better show up early.

Get Freaky @ 1015
For the final GET FREAKY before Burning Man 2007, they've amassed a lineup of DJ's and performers that cross a wide spectrum of music, and is beyond insane.
Main Room: Cut Chemist - Bassnectar - Rogue Element - Ren the Vinyl Archeologist
Soft Cell: Glitch Mob - An-ten-nae - Mozaic - Laura - Jocelyn
Sutra: Space Cowboy DJs - Evin Rude - Aaron Jae - Mancub - The Geometrist - 8-Ball - Pure Evil Ernie Trevino - Kapt. Kirk
Cirque: The Fringe Mopo Dov tim dietz Bill Barany Mycho CoCo
Make sure you get here early for this extraordinary event!

Richie Hawtin @ Mighty
Richie Hawtin is scheduled to blow your mind this Friday at Mighty. If you go, I’ll see you there because I am not going to miss the father of minimal techno rocking it in my own town. Magda will be spinning as well, which means I am doubly excited for this event. Their stripped-down assault is always one to remember, and if you’ve ever wanted to hear some good techno then this is your night.

Kontrol @ RX Gallery
Kontrol throws the best minimal techno parties in this city. Bar none. The party is officially 2 years old this Saturday, and it just keeps getting better and better. It was originally over at RX Gallery, but Greg Bird and crew decided that a techno party should have great sound and no closing time. Yes, that’s right, The End Up. Their guests include Baby Ford and Zip of Perlon fame. If you miss this, don’t blame me.

Sunday Pool Sessions @ Bambuddha w/Luke Fair
Ready for summer? Along with boat rides, Sunset parties, and all that jazz, summer means pool parties with plenty of rest, relaxation, good beats and booze. Come spend Sunday with Luke Fair, courtesy of Spundae and Flirty Flirty, and check out his funky, bouncy house at Bambuddha Lounge in celebration of his Balance 11 record release party. Come for the music, stay for the summer. Get on the free guest list here.

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Club Six and Broken Politics

2007-05-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

I remember when Club Six wasn’t much more than a sweaty basement I would have avoided in my own home. Still, those were some of the best parties I can remember, people break-dancing, banging on the bongos (like chimpanzees), progressive trance till 4AM with dry ice fog and giant fans. Those days might be over it seems now that Club 6 is up on trial for noise violations with the Entertainment Commission. Even if you don’t live in SF, or if you wouldn’t know Club Six from a hole in the wall (that’s a different bar), the story of the club and what got it to this point might make you go “hmmm” and make you struggle with your own political beliefs.

It's not breaking news, so I'll just summarize; Club Six is on one of the seediest blocks in all San Francisco, and that's saying something. The Club has served as a catalyst for other cool bars (like Anu) and nightlife traffic in the area. Despite soundproofing efforts, complaints from the neighbors have caused it to be temporarily, and potentially permanently shut down. These complaints have come from a very small minority of people for what amounts to minor infractions. In a city like San Francisco though, everybody matters, so even a few people can cause a huge hassle.

Normally I'm pretty left leaning. By US standards I would be called a knee-jerk liberal. That said, I'm not so knee-jerk that I can't recognize a system that doesn't work. People from all over the city move into SOMA and then bitch about the noise. In the case of Club Six, over $250K was spent to sound-proof and it still wasn't enough. At what point do we say, "let's look at the good of the whole here". Thousands of people enjoy that venue, they pay property taxes, it contributes to the music scene, the owner has spent almost a million dollars making it nice inside. If this was the whole neighborhood compaining, that's one thing, but this is mostly a few people's personal mission to be a pain in the ass to the detrememnt of thousands of other people.

The case of Club Six is an interesting example of liberal politics gone so far that they counter act progress. I never thought I'd say it, but maybe a successful society includes a few assholes who steam-roll over everybody just to make a buck and a few looneys who would stop traffic for a week to save a pidgeon with a hurt toe. Somewhere in the middle, we find practical thought.

Good luck Club Six, I'm on your side!

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Harmony Festival Preview

2007-05-29T15:29:00.000-07:00

Harmony Festival will celebrate 29^th years of proving that awareness and partying can go hand in hand. Beginning on June 8, those who make the trek to Santa Rosa will have the opportunity to go nuts for three days while listening to their favorite bands and attending various workshops.

The emphasis for this year’s gathering is on global issues, which is made evident by their theme: “Promote global cooling!” Not only will there be a handful of lecturers and workshops, but the event’s organizers and promoters have voluntarily gone under the magnifying glass. That means the festival is aiming to reduce its waste by 25% this year. But it’s not just about this year, it’s about the future. In that spirit, there will even be a workshop concerning the ominous year 2012, and all of its possible meanings.

Artists will include The Roots, Shpongle, Rabbit in the Moon, Stanton Warriors, STS9, Ganga Giri, Moe., Eryka Badu, Steve Kimock and many other notable performances. The festival has more names on it than ever, given that it is now both three days and three nights long. If you live in Northern California, Harmony Festival is a convenient truth.

For a full line up and more event info, visit harmonyfestival.com

For tickets you can head here.

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10 cool new San Francisco Bars

2007-05-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

When you’re off work, it’s time to relax. Sure, you could just head home and catch up on your Netflix, but sometimes you need to get out and have a drink. The catch is that you’re trying to let loose, not spend a bunch of time doing research. Luckily for you, you've a friend called MetroWize! We’ve compiled a list of 10 new bars in San Francisco that are worth a whirl. Just sit back, give us five minutes, and you’ll be ready to cab it out to a new spot of your choice.

Ambassador 673 Geary St - Tender Nob
This spot is situated in the Tender Nob just across from the also-recently-opened bar Rye. Ambassador is run by the guys from Vintage 415, so you know things are going to be about quality. The feel is very clean and modern, but it gives a nod to the recently revived speakeasy aesthetic. Each table has it’s own closed-network phone, and the room centers around a custom made chandelier. On your way to the quasi-private mezzanine level you can pick up a perfectly poured drink from the bar.

Amelie 1754 Polk St - Nob Hill
Nob Hill is lucky to feature Amelie, no not the movie, the wine bar. While there are other types of alcohol available, the focus is definitely the vino. There is also food available, but specifically small things that go with the general theme. So, if you’re looking for a Mission style burrito to fill you to your neck, you may want to go elsewhere. But if you’re looking for a good red and a small portion of charcuterie, then this is your place.

Bourbon & Branch, 501 Jones St - Tenderloin
I would have never imagined saying this, but the Tenderloin seems to be doing something right these days. Between Bourbon & Branch, Ambassador, and Rye, things seem to be popping off a bit. The set-up and décor is true to San Francisco’s new obsession with speakeasies, but this place does it right. I mean, maybe it’s the little kid in me, but the fact that they have a library shelf that pushes back and opens into a secret room just kills me. As far as price, it’s not cheap, but sometimes you’ve just got to do it.

District, 216 Townsend Street - SOMA
You’ve just seen a baseball game, you’ve “invested” $50 in hot dogs and beer, and now you’re read to rejoin civilized society. How? You’re getting a drink. Fortunately for you, District is on your way home and they’ve got plenty of wine, and much better food than the ballpark. For instance, you may want the hamachi tartare, or perhaps the arugula hand rolls with goat cheese and balsamic fig jam. This is a place for adventurers and locals alike.

Double Dutch, 3192 16th St - Mission
Speaking of people or groups that just can’t seem to do the wrong thing, the Vintage 415 guys are the brains behind this one as well. The décor is a celebration of everything old school hip-hop, and it works well. There are b-boy pics and boomboxes on the wall, and even a nice little courtyard area in the back. The drinks are nice and strong, the music is good, and it’s really not far enough in the Mission to dissuade you from going.

Harlot, 46 Minna Street - SOMA
Okay, so it is another San Francisco bar that’s going for that Manhattan look, but that’s only a bad thing when it doesn’t work. Good news for Harlot: it works. While most of those places just end up looking like someone put stucco over a bunch of plywood, Harlot seems to have higher standards. The interior and exterior are both very angular, the inside has a lounge in all white, and the tabletops feature images of, well, harlots. It’s modern and clean without being faceless.

Icon, 1192 Folsom St - SOMA
While it’s true that a guest list is supposed to be exclusive, everyone wants to feel like a VIP once in a while. That’s why the newly remodeled and newly named Icon has the option to register online before you arrive, so you don’t have to pay. Gimmick? Sure, but it’s a good way to pack the place out. Young professionals seeking hip-hop and pop, in an intimate and swanky environment, look no further.

Retox, 628 20th Street -Dogpatch
These days it seems that everyone is talking about something or the other in the Dogpatch. If you don’t know the neighborhood, you should take a peek. Well, Retox is your excuse to explore, and it’s a good one. Take the new T Line Muni or take advantage of the copious amounts of parking (an SF rarity), then grab a drink and hit the dance floor. The music ranges from Britpop to ‘80s, and Retox is suitable for both explorers and locals.

Rye, 688 Geary Street - Tender Nob
Directly across from the Ambassador is Rye, and you should know both (Read above for the former). This place is the embodiment of crisp modern design, but with a warmer than usual color palette. So you can be both hip and comfy. There is a pool table in the back, and a smoker’s lounge out front. While Rye is definitely recommended, you’d be better of going on a weeknight, because this place gets seriously packed on Fridays and Saturdays.

Vessel, 85 Campton Pl. - Downtown
I’m not sure what it means when any spot describes itself as a “luxury boutique lounge,” but that’s neither here nor there. Vessel is a nicely packaged attempt to have a modern, minimal lounge in an area without many good places. There’s the Tender Nob to your left and North Beach above, but when was the last time that Union Square was your late night destination? This place is looking to change that with reserve bottle service that includes saving any portion of your bottle left untouched. Take that, add a little class, and it all works.

Did I miss something? Been to any of these places and have something to say about it? Let me know.

Cheers!

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Get MetroWize TV on your site!

2007-05-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Unless you've been without internet access for a few years, you already know that you can embed videos to any webiste, blog, MySpace, etc, you want. It's not easy to see on our video player, but the videos work just like YouTube and all the other video sites. Just click the Get Code button on the video (see below), and plop the code into your site. How easy is that?

But wait, it gets better - now you can take the whole TV station with you and get all our new videos as we release them. Read on and we'll show you how...

MetroWize TV
To get all of the MetroWize videos on your website, we offer different sized players to choose from. Both of them update automatically when we add new videos, you don't even have to wear out your finger clicking. This is really cool if you have your own site, because it's a constant feed of entertainment and freshness, and it's free. The TV player comes in two sizes, the first one is made to fit into a single column blog or on most community sites, like Hi5, MySpace, Linked In (for business hipness on your resume), etc.

See an example of the small TV player here.

The second sized player is larger and ff you are looking to add a full videos page to your website, this is your answer. The full player is designed to stand alone on a page and displays every video in our catalog.
See an example of the large TV player here.

Importing the Player

Putting either player on your site isn't that difficult if you have the space. In order to do it, you'll be taken to our video partner Brighcove, where you will create a quick account. You don't have to upload a picture or make "friends" and you won't get any Viagra emails by signing up.

Click here for the mini player
or here for the full player.
Once you sign up, you'll get one email from us, confirming your player with all our contact info included. We'll even help you customize it for your site to match colors and theme if you need a hand.

We're psyched to get our videos out there we think you'll like the player too. It gives us a reason to keep checking out the cities, music and events we love.

Send an email to admin(at)metrowize.com if you have any questions. Enjoy.

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Kompakt Records Tour to hit Mezzanine

2007-05-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Cologne-based Kompakt Records revitalized techno only a few years ago at a point when things were looking dire. Their records are recognizable without being predictable: schaffel beats, rolling basslines, and blessed-out synths riding high in the mix. Continuing to experiment and move forward, they’ve consistently released several of the year’s very best records. The company was officially founded in 1998 by Wolfgang Voigt, Jurgen Paape, and Michael Mayer, and the later is currently en route to San Francisco’s own Mezzanine with Gui Boratto.

While Mayer is essentially frontman for the label, Gui Boratto is an equally powerful force. He began as an architect, eventually got into advertising, and finally got around to making what may be the best techno record of the year, Chromophobia. Minimal techno has begun to give way to the lush sounds coming from artists like Boratto and Kompakt’s other current big-hitter The Field. A meticulous emphasis on melody over pure movement has propelled them ahead of their stripped-down counterparts. In fact, they’re making some of the best music since, well, last time Kompakt pulled everyone out of a rut.

Catch the two of them at Mezzanine on May 24.

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Get money for your videos, sites that pay you, Part 2

2007-05-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

After posting the first article on making money online with videos, I listed 17 sites offering embedded advertising, contests, google ads, and syndication offers. From some feedback and further research I’ve come up with another article posting the sites I missed the first time around. Some of these are newer sites that you definitely don’t have on your list.

Current.tv: Current has a range of opportunities to make money. You can make commercials for brands, promos for the site and other interesting contest features. It’s a unique site that has managed their brand well. If you are into Current’s concept, you’ll be happy to contribute even if you don’t win money.

SMS.ac: This popular social network offers video uploading with a $.99 fee. Users can place pay video on their home page for a fee and the publisher gets a cut. It won’t make you rich, but many publishers have 300 downloads or more.

Lulu.tv: Offers 80% of revenues to you, 20% to them. They run Yahoo Ads while you watch your videos. Not many users on the site right now though.

GoChongo: A unique approach, producers put up project parameters and cash rewards. Publishers enter submissions, the public rates it, the winner gets paid. For example, “make me a video for our new bands song”. This isn’t really getting paid for your video though, is it? It’s just getting paid peanuts to do work for somebody.

Votigo: This site is entirely devoted to contests. Make a contest, post it, people vote, winner is declared. It’s not seeing too much traction just yet, but that might be a good thing. Some of the corporate contests have very few entries and pretty nice prizes. You might already have the winning material.

Ziddio: This is Comcast’s video site where they post a number of contests in an effort to create interaction with television shows. An example would be the WWE’s biggest fan contest or, lines you won’t hear on the Sopranos. It may be a stretch to call it a money making site, but their plans are to create a channel that you can watch with your Comcast subscription, so I’ll chalk it up to interesting if nothing else.

Clip Syndicate: A network of publishers and content partners. Mostly geared towards news. I could imagine a recurring show, a la Rocketboom or TMZ really taking off. It’s similar to BrightCove and ROO media, but instead of syndicating a show permanently, you can choose individual pieces and quickly embed them into your sites feed. If you’re on the content producing side, you make money.

Cruxy: This site has a focus on bands and artists creating content and selling their projects. One interesting and unique application of Cruxy is the portable player that they have created for Second Life users. Download the widget that you have filled with paid content and carry it around with you in the virtual world. It’s like having a virtual IPOD for your virtual home or virtual person. I think these guys should really cash in and make the virtual player have virtual batteries that run out. Then you have to buy new ones with real money.

Helpful Video: In the How-To UCG video category, this site may find some users. It’s a simple site where you post what you know how to do, charge a small fee and people pay you. If you actually knew how to do something of value, this could be a great way to make money once more of these sites catch on.

I’m sure in a few months I’ll post a part 3 to this article. There doesn’t seem to be any slowing down with new video start ups with more and more sites looking to get you in on the money making game.

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Adam Freeland Ticket Giveaway

2007-05-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

On June 1st, Adam Freeland is coming to Mezzanine in support of his recent Global Underground mix, GU32: Mexico City, and Metrowize is going to give you the VIP hook-up. We’ve got two tickets to the event, and you definitely don’t want to miss this one. All you’ve have to do is register for our weekly Wize Guide to be eligible. If you already get the Wize Guide, you are already registered for this event and any others that we run.

If you know breaks, you undoubtedly know Adam Freeland and the influence that he has had on that genre. Freeland’s knack for mixing seemingly disparate styles into one cohesive piece is what keeps his shows fresh and interesting. GU32 features tracks from Paris underground label Ed Banger alongside surprising artists like Spacemen 3. So, if you care at all about dancing, get signed up today and go find your dancing shoes.

**Sign up by midnight Monday, May 28th to be eligible. The winner will be announced in the email on Wednesday May 30th.**

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Luomo Comes to San Francisco

2007-05-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

Finnish producer and musician Sasu Ripatti will make a rare appearance in San Francisco performing under his two biggest monikers: Luomo and Vladislav Delay. The former is where he experiments with the dance floor, making microhouse that’s much too sinister to be considered “deep.” The Luomo project broke out with the breathy and beautiful “Tessio,” and he has since released two albums. Ripatti is constantly reclaiming his crown, just as he did with last year’s Paper Tigers, which proved to be a success as it lept up the charts and into everyone’s stereo. Check him out at the RX Gallery.

Ripatti uses the Delay alias as a foray into murky but brilliant sound production. His performance will no doubt be well-attended, given the long history of experimental and fringe music in San Francisco. The world-famous Recombinant Media Labs, a perfect fit, will host this psyched-out, ambient dubfest.

You can catch Luomo on May 26 at RX Gallery downtown, and Vladislav Delay the earlier in the day over at Recombinant Media Labs.

RX Gallery
132 Eddy St

Recombinant Media Labs
763 Brannan St.

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Lightning Strike - LIB reviewed

2007-05-15T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend in Santa Barbara was the 8^th annual Lightning in a Bottle festival and I just could not resist the opportunity to bust out of town for a good old fashioned boogie fest in the woods. LIB focuses heavily on the electronica side of music and performance art. Think Burning Man meets Love Fest then make it intimate and put it in the woods instead of the desert and you have Lightning in a Bottle.

Festivals like this are always great because you get lured in by names you know and recognize and then ultimately you leave with new artists and music that you love and can’t wait to hear again. At LIB, the headliners definitely delivered but it was the lesser known (at least to me) artists that stole the show. Here is a brief run down of the people I heard while there that I think you need to check out.

Ganga Giri- Not sure how to explain these guys other than “They Rock!”. I think their site says it better… “Ganga Giri mixes red natural elements with fat tribal beats and dirty funky bass lines to create a unique tribal-technological deep earth dance experience.”

The Glitch Mob - I walked into this show at the Treehouse Stage and these guys were tearing the roof down. Some of the sickest, deepest, funkiest, hip-hop infused beats you will ever hear. Luckily these guys are Cali based and play SF a ton. Look for them at the next Get Freaky throw down.

Goddess Alchemy Project - These 4 female MC’s are lethal. They destroyed the main stage on Sunday morning. Again, their description says it best: “In collaboration with many artists and producers, Goddess Alchemy’s sound alchemizes a fresh, feminine flavor by integrating elements of underground hip hop, world accents, spoken word flows, and soulful melodics.”

BLVD feat Souleye - BLVD is a three-piece band that fuses live instruments with electronic samples to create a truly unique sound. Combining elements of house, breakbeat, and rock, their high-energy sound is perfect for the dance floor.

Others that you need to check out if you haven’t already…

Kid Beyond - Human Beat box master

Heavy Weight Dub Champion

March Forth Marching band

DJ's that rocked!

Bassnectar

Random Rab

The Ianator

Blue Tech

Jesse Wright

Sammy Bliss

I could go on… Bottom line is that this festival rocked and there are some fast rising stars in the genre that are going blow your socks off so watch for ‘em.

For a view into the wonderful madness, check out the Lightning in a Bottle video.

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17 sites for making money with online video

2007-05-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

If you checked out my last article, (Best embedded video player), you’ll see some other video sites are trying to differentiate themselves from You Tube. Some of them are actually departing from the UGC model all together and moving more towards the Semi-Pro or Pro video submission model. Even in the last year since I really started investigating sites for our website MetroWize, I’ve seen the business models change on a few of the companies I’ve listed below. I think this list once again illustrates the fact that there is no one solution that's right for everybody. Enjoy the list and feel free to add to it.

Contests sites: Contest driven sites are really good if you catch a guy fly off his dirt bike mid-air, or a dog humping a passed out drunk guy. Hey, it gets me laughing, but it’s not the best place for the aspiring artist or touching documentary. Here are 4 that offer you the chance to win money.

Addicting Clips: They’re partnered with Atom Films and award $500 to videos they choose. The choosing of the best video is based on “our own mysterious whims”, so good luck to ya on that.

Break: You get paid $2000 if your video is shown on their home page, $25 if your photo is shown.

VidMax: Pretty much the same as Addicting Clips, $500 if your video gets chosen.

WeWin: These guys reward people for watching movies and uploading movies. You get more points for uploading movies, but it’s a twist on the typical contest format. Prizes are smaller, like Amazon Coupons and $10 items mostly.

Google Ad Words: A few sites out there slap Google Ad words near the videos you submit and then offer you a rev share for the trouble. Here are 3 to watch:

Flixya: The cool thing here is that you can pull your existing videos onto their site and then get a 50/50 rev share on the Ad Word clicks. On the other hand, if you have your own website, why not just run the Google ad words yourself and get 100% of the money? Well, the V2 (now in a limited Beta) will be giving 100% of the Ad revenue to the users. Maybe that will change the traffic levels too?

Blip.tv: At least this company give users a lot of cool features to work with on top of the Ad Words piece. They run a similar model to the other Ad Word players.

Vume: The website formerly known as Eefoof. Their offer seems similar to the others, they run ads on the sides, you get some cash. I didn't understand this site when it was eefoof, and it's only slightly better now.

Selling Your Content: For some companies this is still on the horizon. Others are actually doing it to varying degrees. I know there are many sites selling movies and professional production videos, but I’m not going there this post. This is about places you and me could actually sell our videos. Check out these 4 companies:

Turn Here: Originally this was a more open network, submit your video, it might get chosen, etc. Now, it’s more of a network of videographers matched up with a network of small businesses. If you think you shoot decent video and you’re in Miami, they will know of a pizza store in Miami and they’ll hook you guys up for a cut. It’s like Craigslist, but they take some of the money and Craigslist is free.

Veoh: These guys seem to have the resources to take on everything. They have all the features set up for video on demand but I’m not sure that they are running it a full capacity just yet.

HungryFlix: There will be hundreds of these sites popping up in the next year. Sign-Up, upload your video, charge money, the end. How-to videos are already becoming popular. Also, let’s just take it as a given that I’m leaving porn out of the whole VOD discussion here.

Brightcove: Tremor Media and Brightcove just got together to combined the Ad network with the publishing space. Within their sign up demo, they clearly show people uploading video for sale. Their back end admin features don’t seem to allow the sale of video yet, (or at least I couldn’t find people doing it), but I know it’s on the way. The big question will be whether people will pay for what they seem to be able to get for free.

Embedded Advertising: Pre-roll, Post-roll ads. Here are 3 sites putting ads in video for rev-share opportunities.

Revver: Revver offers 50/50 rev share split when you post your videos with them. Like the other sites that offer embedded ads, they are not focused on getting you crazy traffic. Instead, they kind of make that your job. Try uploading your favorite video you made to 10 sites on the web like Daily Motion, You Tube, Metacafe, etc., they will usually all beat out Revver. That said, it’s one of the most popular money making sites out there.

BrightRoll & AdBite: There are more than two websites offering you the opportunity to embed their ads into your video, but these two are pretty significant players. If you have the next million view video and a decent Blog, sign up for one of these sites, use their video player in your blog entry(Ad Brite has one, not sure about BrightRoll), and go build your financial fortune.

Others worth checking out:

Metacafe: There’s no Ads running on these videos. If you reach a 20,000 views and a decent audience rating, you start getting paid $5 on every 1,000 views (it’s retroactive too). There are a few people that have made good money on this site. Quite a few videos get declined for one reason or another, but you can tangibly see people cashing in. Best of all, Metacafe gets a lot of views, which means, unlike some of the smaller sites, 20,000 views is no problem for something good.

Google Video: I’ve heard lots of stories about their intentions. I remember hearing that users we’re going to be able to set their own viewing price at one point, but I don’t see that. Maybe somebody wants to comment on what Google Video has up it’s sleeve. Right now, nothing in the way of paying people.

ROO Media: Last Friday these guys pulled down another $25 million in funding to further extend their network of publishers and advertisers. If you have some decent content that you are cranking out on a regular basis, syndication is the way to go. Brightcove and ROO offer some pretty good packages if your recurring show finds a few homes on other high traffic websites.

Conclusions: 1) If you have a one-off one of a kind video and you’re looking to score big, I would go with MetaCafe or Revver. If it’s amazingly painful, sexy or immature, post it to the contest sites as well. 2) If you have a long term vision of consistently putting out short clips on a semi-regular basis, use BrightCove, ROO, or another syndicating/affiliate site. 3) If your site gets good traffic already, think about AdBrite. 4) If you want to sell your video, I’d hold out till Google gets around to it, or look into Turn Here.

Hope this uncovered a few sites you didn't already know about. If you can add to this list, please do.

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Doc Martin to Take Ruby Skye by Storm

2007-05-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

This weekend, SF welcomes a house music legend Doc Martin. Long before becoming a "house" hold name (pun intended), Martin spun funk and disco all the way back in the mid-80s. Currently based in LA, Martin was instrumental in developing the West Coast house sound and bringing raves to California. He was also one of the first DJs to have multiple residencies on both coasts. So, prepare yourself to catch his new project May 18 at Ruby Skye.

Martin now performs with vocalist Lillia, as he spins records to showcase her vocals. You can expect to hear tribal basslines alongside deep soulful vocals, the playful bounce of acid, and rare old school grooves at their shows. Martin is known to rock crowds for hours on end so grab your tickets and do yourself a favor, rest up now.

May 18
Doc Martin w/ Lillia
@ Ruby Skye
420 Mason St. 94102
10 p.m., $15

Visit Ruby Skye for more details

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The best sites for making video players for your blog or website

2007-05-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

Here at MetroWize, we geek out on Video start-ups a lot. At the end of the day, some are better at distribution, some claim you can make money, some of them are online mixing stations and some of them just plain suck. The leader in the video market is of course You Tube and if you want measure by pure traffic levels, they can hardly be touched. Youtube is far from the only player in the market though and if you are looking for other features like an embeddable player list for example, there are better places to upload your videos. Here are a few of my favorites and a few that suck and should maybe re-think their service.

V Social: .See the player in action here.

This website has a ton of cool features including a number of ways for the videos to display.I’m a big fan of the scroll bar below where you can advance the videos or play them all. Great looking UI and ease of implementing makes these guys one of my favorites.

Daily Motion: See the player in action here

This is an awesome player and so easy to make. The tabs you see below are just check boxes which create whole line ups either from your account or from the site’s favorites. These guys are based in France (or somewhere in Europe?) so you can load up full movies. I watched the movie "300" on here the other day. I could write another article on why that movie sucked so bad, but it's pretty cool that I got to find out for free. There is a big downside to Daily Motion though (literally). This Jukebox is frickin' huge! Who wants to embed this gigantic thing in their Blog. Does it even fit?

Grouper: See the player in action here

If this article is just about embedded players and nothing else, this doesn’t cut it for me. It’s just OK, but not bitchin’. There was a time when having something like this that simply "worked" was fine but that time has come and gone. These guys need to catch up to the people who are getting it right.

Veoh: See the player in action here.

These guys are in the top 5 on the web today in my opinion. I don’t like everything they have, but from the video quality and the embedded player side of things, they are rock solid. Keep an eye on this company, they “get it” and they will be a big player in the “Internet videos on your TV” game.

Panjea: See them in action here.
These guys can eat a BFD, seriously. They changed their UI and strategy recently and when they did they just erased all the videos and pictures I uploaded on there previously. That's pretty high up there on the "might lose some current users for that one" scale. Now, they've become a completely different company. They scour the major video sites and make you a player from all of them, (but they only have agreements with 4 or 5 sites). There’s another company VodPod that’s doing the same thing (shown later). Wasn’t there some Country song called “That don’t impress me much”? Well, the woman was for sure talking about UGC Video sites that aggregate content from other UGC Video Sites, right?

Brightcove: See them in action here.

Brightcove is great for a lot of reasons, but for most people they are overkill. You pretty much have to take a class on how to use them, but if you’re a semi-serious publisher, they are the best choice, hands down. Now that they’ve hooked up with Tremor Advertising, they are positioned to take it to the next level with monetizing UGC video. Like I said though, this is not the place for you to upload 4 videos of your kid saying hi to grandma or that video you shot of the dog chasing a squirrel and hitting the tree, this is serious stuff here people! I could write another separate article on them (and maybe I will), it’s who we use at MetroWize so we’re obviously into them.

GoFish See this player in action here

Recently this site went through a pretty massive design change. I think their design has a lot going for it. Plus, you can modify the colors, add logos, etc. and it comes in two sizes. I also like the fact that you can custom your url. That doesn't seem like a crazy feature but only a few sites do it.

Vod Pod See the player in action here

I have issue with those smiley faces on the bottom right. Why do I need all those cartoon icons? Also, why do we need another company that scours the web for good videos to put into a player? If they were pulling from every site, OK, I get that. But when you say that the best of MetaCafe, You Tube, Google and Daily Motion can be yours, the differences are only in the search technology, the results are pretty much the same. To their credit, they make it easy to jam your line up into your IPod and that's a decent feature.

Revver

For a major player in this space, these guys could do better. This filmstrip is all you get and its not totally intuitive as to how you make it either. Revver never said they were the end all, be all for features though, their goal is to help people monetize their videos. For those of us that aren't Ask A Ninja though, I see no reason to use this site. The revenue scheme is kinda bullshit, but that's a topic for another post.

You Tube: See the player in action here

See what I mean? If we’re talking pure aesthetics here, this player sucks ass compared to the other ones out there. It’s not surprising though, that's not their game. You Tube is the place where you are gonna see Hasselhoff drunk and eating a burger on the floor while his daughter chews him out (which is pretty frickin funny by the way). These other sites need to pick their battles and if there is a segment that really want to have a cool looking player with 4 or 5 videos on their blog, then they might go with one of the little guys.

… in closing.

There seems to be a never ending amount of video sites entering the game. If you’re looking for a nice player for your site and have some tech experience, go with BrightCove, otherwise Veoh, or V Social. I know there are many more sites putting out cool UI, I just don’t have time to go through them all. Let me know what you think...

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Dirtybird Records Monthly @ Shine

2007-05-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

The funky tech-house of San Francisco-based Dirtybird Records has been quickly catching the attention of producers, DJs, and clubs all over the world. Fortunately for us here in San Francisco, on every third Friday, they’ve got a killer monthly party at Shine.

Barclay Crenshaw (a.k.a. Claude VonStroke) is both the founder and the label’s biggest artist. Originally from Detroit, VonStroke has made a name for himself by producing tracks that blur the line between the seriousness of techno and the slapstick humor often found in house. His tracks are played and have been remixed by artists as big and diverse as Kevin Saunderson, Pete Tong, and Audion. The party that he brings is both funky and dark, smart and still a blast.

Dirtybird is also home to Justin Martin, Christian Martin, Worthy, and Sammy D. Each of these artists has a unique approach to melding the elements of several subgenres within dance music. Handpicked by Ben Watt for his Buzzin’ Fly label, Justin Martin selects the best parts of tech and deep house, and ads just enough flippancy to keep things interesting. Sammy D’s work stands in a bit of contrast to that of his labelmates, in a good way. His sound is a darker, more techno heavy affair, which complements and diversifies the burgeoning label’s roster.

Dirtybird happens every 3rd Friday and you will usually find a packed house jamming out to killer tunes and enjoying the laid back atmosphere that only Shine can offer.

May 18, 2007
Dirtybird
@ Shine
1337 Mission St. 94103
10 p.m., $5

You can find Dirtybird records on the web @ www.dirtybirdrecords.com and on myspace @ myspace.com/sfdirtybird.

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The return of the Wize Guide

2007-05-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

The MetroWize Wize Guide is back after a short break with a new look and exciting content. We’re working hard to bring you more information about what’s going on not just in San Francisco but the around world. Our mission is to make sure that when something good is happening you know about it.

Each week the Wize Guide will cover a particular event, city or vibe in depth with articles, videos, podcasts, you name it.

Our archives section is another new feature. Starting from now, as our back issues pile up, we’re going to have a section for you to go back and check them out. So if you ever want to remember why you should’ve gone to Coachella, or why you still need to visit Berlin, you can head over there. You need to be subscribed to the Wize Guide to get access to the archives so make sure to sign up if you haven't already.

Work takes up most of the week, our job is making sure that you’ve got something to do when you clock out.

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MetroWize just got a whole lot wizer!

2007-05-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

The times definitly are a changin’ here at Metrowize. Not just with our totally revamped newsletter, Wize Guide, but the site itself is improving too with cool new features up the yin yang. Some of the improvements have already launched and there are many more to come. Here's a taste...

Our event listings have been expanded to include more complete information. Rather than simply stating where and when, we’ve included a link to maps and a summary of each event. Check out an example. Coming soon, events are going global! We will be covering the biggest events from around the country as well as local listings in LA, Chicago and New York.

The video section is starting to get pretty hefty (thanks Erik!) so now it includes a search function for tags. Check it out! If you want nightclubs, interviews, or both, then all you have to do is select that tag and see all the videos in that tag category.

Even though this is San Francisco, home to some of the coldest summers ever, we’ve got our sunglasses on. Why? Well, the future is looking bright. We’ve got plans for our archived issues of Wize Guide to be hosted on our site, which means you can leaf through them at whenever you get the urge. You need to be a subscriber to the Wize Guide to get the archives though so make sure to sign up if you haven't already. Coming soon, is the MetroWize music player that will give you a slice of all of the newest and best music that you need to hear.

Contests, contests, contests! This summer we will be giving away tickets to tons of great parties from around the country. There's only one thing you need to do to be eligible to win... get the Wize Guide delivered to your inbox each week and check to see if you are a winner.

We're just getting started so stick around!

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How Weird Faire

2007-05-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Who wants to get weird? You know you do, and in a city like San Francisco that ain't a problem most of the time. This week in particular, San Francisco gets really weird though. How Weird Street Faire is back in what appears to be it's final waltz (at least in it's current locale of Howard and 11th). The How Weird Street Faire is a hoj poj of burning man meets Love Fest meets SOMA and it's all rapped together with 4 sound stages that rock all day long. Even though this is on a Sunday, the after parties (of which there are many) rock until the wee hours of the work week. Gear up SF'ers this is gonna be a weird trip!

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Lightning in a Bottle Festival - May 11

2007-05-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

On May 11, Santa Barbara will host the green-friendly Lightning in a Bottle Festival. Over 40 acts will perform on three stages set up at the Live Oak Campground, which offers plenty of outdoors delights with its 40 acres of forest. The event is centered on the philosophy that people can get together and have some fun while being conscious of their environment and their impact on it. In an effort to put those thoughts into action, solar energy and bio-diesel will fuel the event and all of the debauchery that inevitably comes with it.

Bassnectar will undoubtedly unleash a barrage of heavy as lead bass lines, pulling together the melodies floating around them. Politically, he is a perfect choice for the festival, which emphasizes not just talking about things like environmental issues but living a solution. The hip-hop influenced break-beats of Freq Nasty will also be present, taking no prisoners with his funky, demolished disco. You may want to have a fire extinguisher during the Mutaytor set, which will feature fire breathing, over a hundred drums, and who knows what else.

So, if you’ve got a few extra bucks, and a few extra days, get moving.

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Metrowize Love Fest VIP Contest

2007-05-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

The largest electronic dance festival in North America, Love Fest, is coming and Metrowize wants to send you to it in style as we celebrate the launch of our revamped email magazine, Wize Guide. After registering, you will be instantly eligible to win a two night hotel stay, guest list action for all the great parties, and everything else that comes with over $1000 in VIP treatment. Wize Guide is your weekly window into the world's best festivals, coolest party cities, and the newest music and trends.

Love Fest was inspired by the Love Parade in Berlin, and it celebrates the same spirit of togetherness and letting go that inspired the original event. The Wednesday through Sunday celebration peaks on Saturday's main event, which features the biggest DJs in the world and thousands of freaky people taking over the streets of San Francisco.

So if you want the full VIP treatment at the party of a lifetime, sign up for our Wize Guide and stay informed about other upcoming giveaways as well.

Check the Love Parade site for more complete event information.

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Contributor Profile: LT

2007-04-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

LT is MetroWize's resident cheerleader and "keeper of all things". As a ten-year resident of San Francisco, she draws on her Wisconsin background to identify the city's best dive bars and cheapest drinks and eats. Her eclectic musical tastes include alt rock to jam bands and she can often be found rockin' out at any number of San Francisco's live music venues. She can be counted on for recommending good live shows at local venues and occasional rants and raves about local establishments. LT is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, enjoys a nice pair of slacks and has a soft spot for Jack Daniels.

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Contributor Profile: Brian

2007-04-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

The leader of the MetroWize team, Brian Lillquist has spent the bulk of his adult life researching the global party scene. He’ll disappear for days on end, sleep at his desk, call in sick repeatedly, all in the name of research. “My weekend starts on Tuesday”, he likes to say around the office. Currently, Brian is mapping out a MetroWize research assignment which will include Amsterdam, London, Barcelona and Ibiza. In the meantime, he can be found at Mezzanine, Mighty or the XYZ Bar at the W most days of the week.

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Bassnectar Live in San Francisco - Video

2007-04-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

MetroWize.com is proud to present our video of Bassnectar live in San Francisco at the DNA Lounge from (4/1/07). Bassnectar is one of the best breakbeat talents to ever come out of the Bay Area and this show demonstrated why. Bassnectar is on tour currently promoting "net nuetrality" and the release of his new album "Underground Communication" which will be released at the end of April at all major music buying outlets.
Check out the Bassnectar Video here!

Put this video on your website, myspace or blog! Just click the Get Code Icon to get the html. Need to know more? Check out our article on how to take MetroWize videos with you wherever you want.

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Green Apple Festival - Music to save the World

2007-04-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Back in 1970 when Senator Gaylord Nelson declared that there needed to be an "Earth Day", his intentions were to bring awareness to rising environmental issues facing the world. Over the last 40 years the environment has unfortunately gotten a lot worse (anyone seen Al Gore's movie?), but a man by the name of Peter Shapiro along with Relix magazine are on a mission to fix that with a festival they call the Green Apple Music Festival. Over the weekend of the 20th-22nd of April, over 200 artists will play at over 60 venues in San Francisco, Chicago and New York in the name of saving the planet. Green Apple is a completely eco-friendly event and it's goals are to affect change amongst people to make a positive impact on our environment. Read more about it and see the full line up below...

About The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival:
Entering its second year, The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival is produced by Peter Shapiro and Relix magazine in partnership with Earth Day Network and presented by JPMorgan Chase. It is bringing the message of Earth Day to over 60 live music venues with over 200 performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco over Earth Day weekend. The event achieves its mission of increasing awareness for Earth Day by combining top-tier live musical performances with educational programs to elevate activation of crucial environmental issues on both local and global levels.

The Green Apple Music & Arts Festival will put the Earth Day message into practice by “greening” all of the participating venues. Working with Onyx Distribution and JPMorgan Chase, Green Apple will provide venues in each city with environmentally friendly cups and straws; napkins and paper towels made of recycled materials, compostable garbage bags and biodegradable cleaning materials to ensure the event has a direct impact on how the venues operate.

Furthering their zero waste goal, the entire Festival will be carbon-neutral, meaning it will offset any carbon dioxide emission produced as a result of the festival, making this the nation’s largest carbon-neutral event ever. Additionally, each venue will have an informational table featuring educational and volunteer information relating to prominent environmental issues and organizations.
“The core idea of the Green Apple Festival is to raise awareness of Earth Day,” said Peter Shapiro, Founder and Executive Producer of the Festival. “By featuring a diverse group of musicians and uniting these venues under one cause, we are able to coordinate a very exciting, and somewhat unprecedented event. We hope the national footprint of the Festival will help inform as many people as possible on these important issues. And, we hope to expand to additional cities in future years, as I think everyone would agree that Earth Day should be recognized in a big way every year.”

Full line up of artists performing in San Francisco for the Green Apple Festival this year:
Bob Weir and Ratdog, Stephen Marley feat. Junior Gong, Greyboy Allstars, Yonder Mountain String Band, Martin Sexton, Trans Am, Tea Leaf Green, Railroad Earth, Electric Six, Newmaster Sounds, Everyone Orchestra, Girlyman, Akasha, The Drastics, DJ Scheme and Plan B, May Lake, Kite Flying Society, Black Taj, The Sippy Cups, The English Beat, The Plimsouls, Xiu Xiu and Smoosh.

For a complete schedule of performances and venues, go to:www.greenapplefestival.com

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Coachella 2007 - The biggest show on earth

2007-04-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the biggest show on earth might be a bit of an exaggeration but not by much. Over the past 6 years Coachella has gone from idea (of Paul Tollet) to one of the most notable annual events in music. This year attendance is expected to top the 200,000 mark over the course of the 3 day event and at this point 2 of the 3 days (Saturday and Sunday) are already sold out. Headliners including Bjork, Rage Against the Machine, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyke, Interpol, The Decemberists, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Manu Chao and Willie Nelson come from around the world and cross just about every genre imaginable.

When Coachella started back in 2000, founders Paul Tollett and Rick Van Saten had a vision of creating a festival that drew in massive crowds and showcased the top musical talents in the world. During the first 2 years, the pair lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and Paul nearly lost his house, but somehow the word caught on and the crowds grew. Today Coachella serves as the pinnacle of music festivals perhaps in the entire world. During the 3 days of the festival, 100,000+ music fans head over to the Empire Polo Fields each day in Indio, 20 miles east of Palm Springs in the middle of the desert. Generally considered to be a rock festival, Coachella has an amazingly diverse offering of music including world class DJ's, punk rockers, pop stars, country legends and everything inbetween. Over the course of the 3 days, there are over 120 artists, bands, dj's and comedians scheduled to perform.
For more details you can visit their site at http://www.coachella.com/ and for tickets for Friday (the only day left) you can go here.

Are you going to Coachella this year? Have you gone in the past? Tell us about it and we will add your story to this article. Send articles and submissions to feedback@metrowize.com.

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WMC on Red Bull/Red Bull does WMC

2007-04-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

We all know that Red Bull is synonomous with clubbing and partying. It makes sense then that they would send a team of Red Bull peeps down to Miami to party and document WMC this year. Our good friend Mason works on the Red Bull on the Move team and he hit Miami in a major way this year. We asked him about it when he got back from his trip and he couldn't remember a thing. Luckily for us, he kept a journal of all 6 days there...

DAY ONE

At LAX airport, had an easy check-in but a weird cab ride, total agro cab driver who wanted to make sure i understood that he was a bad ass and that drivers who cut him off would pay, he drives an old beat up Crown Victoria and doesn't care about it and he'll ram you without thinking about it. So if you are in Los Angeles, don't cut off or flip off a cab driver... it could be that guy.

On the plane, saw Mike Hiratzka who has a new album due out soon with good friend D:Fuse got the sampler called Skyline Lounge with 3 sampler tracks and one exclusive, plan on sharing that with everyone. Also saw Andy Caldwell who was sipping his coffee saying it was a little too early in the morning for him. Sat next to a real nice girl, Isis who is a singer for a house music label out of Spain and lives in L.A. Rocky Balboa was the movie on the flight and it wasn't that bad... I actually thought it was pretty good, despite some of the poor acting and writing, but man, I love Rocky, I can't deny it.

In Miami not hot but terribly breezy and somewhat cold staying at the Loews at 16th and Collins, a great hotel got a nice corner room with a view of the mayhem below. Luis' room is one floor above my own. Grabbed some drinks at the Raleigh pool and discussed the madness before us, then hit up some events went out Shine at Shellborne where Todd Terry and Jazzy Jeff were playing. Saw my old friend Dennis Wheeler of Def Mix who is running Shine. Stayed for awhile and then cut across town to the Large party just in time for Chuck Love's set which was amazing. He was playing live and spinning. Played everything from keys to horns to guitar and sang on his tracks this guy is talented and knows how to do it. After his set Mr. V got on to say a shout out to him and said he did everything back here, he played Trumpet, he played Keyboards, he sang, he played video games great response from the crowd. After that Mr. V came on and destroyed the place stayed awhile longer and decided to head back and on my way out ran into Miguel Migs and Marques Wyatt big hugs all around and hello gotta love WMC run into people you don't normally see everyone is out making rounds.

DAY TWO

Had breakfast with Luis and Sky of BPM (XM) as well as Mike Abrams (XM). Took off after a nice early breakfast and went to the pool to relax and work on scripts and plans and got kicked out of the chairs by some old bitch woman who said you didn't reserve these chairs you have to move these are mine! I reserved them! Okay lady, no worries don't get excited we can move... but the last laugh was on her because we sweated all over her towels. Down to the beach to relax there, no grief try and get rid of my pale look so people don't think I have jaundice. Big afternoon, first off to Pearl to set up for Hi-Tek Soul party and get gear set up to record. Then off to Mandarin Oriental hotel downtown with a great interview and catch-up with Danny Howells who is one of my all time favorite DJ's and someone who has always been so kind and welcoming to doing interviews and recording. He is a class act and an amazing DJ can't wait to hear him tonight he is going to destroy the place! He is the man. After a great interview and a few laughs we were off to Pawnshop for set up of gear in the booth. Finally got through all of that and jumped in a cab back to South Beach... this time the cab was strange the driver had on some African Talk radio station where the man was speaking in French and for about 5 minutes was ranting and ranting. I finally broke the weirdness in the cab by saying doesn't this guy take a breath? Everyone laughed and then we couldn't stop laughing at this radio station, the host was seriously pissed about something and it was almost sounding militant. Strange.

Back in South Beach walking around bump into Jay-J of Shifted Music and then to Monique Bingham and Joe B of King Street Sounds... again gotta love Miami get to see people you normally only talk via email.
It is finally time to head out, a group of us meet up at Pearl @ Nikki Beach for the Hi-Tek Soul party lots of great peeps here and got some great interviews. Had a chance to meet with Stacey Pullen and Lee Burridge as well as get some sets from them to share... also we met with the legend Derek May for the show. Then it was the arrival of the Red Bull Pinz which is a crazy truck driven by a gracious host, Tim. He waited for us and got everyone in the Pinz that had the Move playing on the soundsystem with Mackies in the entire thing... also in the back seat was a Red Bull fridge. We put Lee Burridge and Betty Kang of Plexi PR and crew in the Pinz and took them to B.E.D. - while dropping them off I ran into Villo and Chris Fortier of the Balance Record Pool, old friends and music partners of mine. Now it was off to the Pawnshop for Danny... we all arrived and it was absolutely pouring rain out. When we got into the place it was going off, totally mental and we were able to capture the set to share with everyone. This is a party that is not to be missed, great vibe and Made Event really went the extra mile bringing in a full sound system on top of what was already there. The place was jumping and Danny was in full force loving every minute of it and hitting the horn on the Mac truck DJ booth and igniting the place. Finally left there at about 6AM and back to the hotel to get some sleep, even bigger day ahead tomorrow.

DAY THREE

Up at Noon and organizing gear and preparing for a very long day indeed... while Luis heads to Remix Hotel I’m off to Beach Plaza Hotel for the OM records meet and greet where I am able to catch up with Chuck Love and Colette... also catch up with my SF Peeps from OM and off to Remix Hotel for our first day of live broadcast. Good lineup with Scumfrog and Kaskade and had some great visits from Luke Fair, Hector Romero and Villo of Balance Record Pool. A nice vibe all day and great crowd, the weather actually cooperated for the most part and had a nice broadcast.

Relaxing back at the hotel have to turn it around big night at Y Ultra Lounge / Totem Gardens for OM records party... an amazing line up. Headed out tonight at 10pm and it is now 5:30AM and I am back after an amazing party that had four rooms of music going absolutely off... rammed packed and great sets by Troydon, Bassnectar, Jake Childs, Peter Kruder, Sir Piers, Chuck Love, Farina, Heather and so many more... Gunnar & Lindsay of OM made sure I was well taken care of for interviews and recording... going to be a great show... need rest long day ahead again.

DAY FOUR

Up at Noon off to get some food and head over to Remix Hotel for day two of the live broadcast... big lineup with Minus crew... Ritchie Hawtin, Magda, Gaiser, Troy Pierce and Tiefschwartz.

Amazing day place was rammed packed and the music was spot on... good minimal driving beats - also able to head over to the Smart Bar party at Beach Plaza Hotel and capture Justin Long and Dayhota for the show... full Chicago Style!

Went and had a nice dinner with Luis and friend Peek and then back to the hotel at about midnight to get organized and head out wanted to go see Miguel but passed out from total exhaustion and woke up at 3AM... can’t get hold of anyone... figures now I can’t get back to bed… oh well… tomorrow is another day right?!

DAY FIVE

Lots of things to do today start it all off with a production meeting by the pool and then off to make sure things are set up for recording tonight. Luis is off to Ultra while I’m interviewing Mark Farina at the Sagamore and then to the Townhouse for ESL vs. Supperclub party and then two gigs tonight.

Farina was a great interview... now to race back to the hotel and grab the crew and head to the Townhouse... great rooftop party ahead. Fort Knox Five, Nickodemus, J.Boogie and Ursula 1000 for ESL vs. Supperclub. All friends and good people... place was slow because it kept pouring rain and we were on a rooftop! After two times people were just like fuck it and just danced away despite the weather. Music was pumping and got some great interviews... then I had to run and change and make it over to the Red Bull Fashion tent for a two hour gig with friend DJ Isaiah Martin. A nice time, played some soulful house, then had to run over to Dek 23 for another gig out on the patio for good friends Shifted Music (Jay-J’s) party.

This was by far my favorite party the music was insane all night! Good people great vibe and Ron Carroll destroyed the front room. A long walk back to the hotel, or more or less stumble, it’s 6AM... time for breakfast!

Day Five just rolled into Day Six... its pool time after a few hour nap... time for food and production all day. Grabbed a great dinner with the crew at Tantra although the place is nice it is super expensive like all Miami is… and they had a Drum & Bass DJ who decided it was best to blow the place out... hilarious at this point I was two dirty martini’s deep after a long week so all I could do was laugh... out of South Beach headed back to L.A.... glad WMC only comes once a year.

Red Bull on the Move is dedicated to bringing you closer to the underground. For more articles, videos, photo galleries and other cool stuff, visit their site. www.redbullonthemove.com.

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Contribute to MetroWize... We want you!

2007-04-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

If you are a writer, photographer, videographer or just a partier who has something to say, we want to get you heard on MetroWize. Each week we feature videos, articles and all sorts of other media to our audience. As you can guess, that's no small task so if you have something that you think would fit on our site, let us know.
We will credit you for your work and provide a link back to where ever you like. It's a chance to get some recognition for the things that you do and reach a whole new audience.
If you want to be a contributor, send an email to info (at) metrowize.com with your name, contact info and what you would like to contribute.

The Massive is alive and well - ETD Pop 2007

2007-03-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend in San Francisco (Saturday actually), clubbers, ravers, trendsetters, scensters, teenagers and adults will all come together and converge on the Bill Graham Civic Center for the 10th installment of Electro Techno Disco Pop from the legendary party promoters at Skills. ETD Pop is a party of epic proportions by every definition of the word with 3 giant stages of sound, international superstars like Infected Mushroom, Christopher Lawrence, DJ Dan, Diesel Boy, Mark Farina and Kaskade (to name but a few) and 10,000 people expected in attendance. This is a party that had a budget of more than $250,000 and took 5 months to plan. Needless to say, you need to be at this event.

March 31st will mark the 10 year anniversary for the Skills parties and Skills founder Jason Sperling could not be more excited for it. “Skills has been through the good times and the bad times of the (dance) scene and we feel lucky to have been doing our events for the last 10 years” says Jason about the company he helped start bak in 1997.

Plans for an event of this size start as much as 5 months in advance and begin with securing the venue. Once the venue has been booked, it’s time to go after the talent and which can sometimes be complicated due to the fact that the date and venue have already been established and the artists they are courting are international DJ’s who are constantly playing all over the world. There are tours to think about, album releases that come in to play and exclusivity contracts that only allow performers to play a particular venue in the city or only so many times in a year. It’s a lot of work to have someone come and play records.

Skills hasn’t always had to go through all of this work to bring people in to their shows. In the first years when they started throwing their annual massive, the dance scene was healthy and full of young people who couldn’t get enough of the new sounds that boomed out of the towers of bass. Back then, Skills was able to rely on just their name to draw in the crowds. If it was a Skills party, that was enough. The focus was on the good vibe and music and not so much the big name stars performing. That’s all changed in the last 3-4 years and now it is much more about bringing in the biggest names, having the best sound and over the top lighting and decor. Jason welcomes the change and thinks it has made the energy level rise and the crowd has become more diverse and eclectic. “We now have to think of ourselves as concert promoters creating a top notch experience with the best sound and lighting and world class talent.”

This Saturday, all sounds in electronica will be well represented. Main headliner Infected Mushroom (originally from Israel) have been rockin’ stadium crowds around the world for years and Jason is excited to give them the stage that he says they deserve as the main act in the main room. Christopher Lawerence makes his 3rd consecutive appearance for Skills to add to the massive Trance sound that will be represented. In the house arena, some of the big names include DJ Dan, Kaskade and SF’s very own Mark Farina. Diesel Boy, Ed Rush and Optical headline the Drum and Bass room. According to Jason this is the most diverse line up a Skills party has ever had. For more info visit the site and for presale tickets go to Groove Tickets.

Make sure to check back next week because we are going to be there with our cameras so we will have some great videos.

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Death of the DJ?

2007-03-24T14:19:00.000-07:00

Over the last year is when I really started to notice it. It’s been gradual, but at the same time it seems to have come out of no where almost over night. There’s a change happening in nightclubs around the world and it’s the biggest thing since Disco. No, it’s not a new drug that’s killing teenagers and it’s not a hot dance move that’s sweeping the nation. It’s a shift in the core of what we all consider to be nightclubbing… I think the DJ is dying. In his place comes a new breed of Electronic bands that bring higher energy, more creativity and a longer lasting impression to the nightclub experience. For the DJ, it’s time to adapt or get left behind like the 12” and the 8 track.

It’s been about 30 years since the DJ was first introduced to the nightclub. Back in the 70’s, the DJ brought disco to the masses in a way they had never gotten it before and basically made the live performer obsolete. Club owners were happy, Dj’s were happy and the crowd seemed happy or atleast didn't seem to care. Over the years, the DJ became more of a main stay at clubs and venues around the world and dance music evolved to incorporate the DJ more and more. It’s actually gotten to a point now where a lot of “dance” music is made strictly to be played by DJ’s in nightclubs. It’s an interesting evolution in music when you think about it, but the real interesting evolution is the re-birth of live performance in the nightclub scene.
I first started paying attention to it a couple of years ago when one of my favorite DJ’s of all time, Sasha, decided that he was done DJing pre-recorded music and shifting to performing at his shows using Abelton Live to remix music on the fly and produce a unique version of each song every night. It became even more noticeable though when I started seeing some of the popular “Indie” bands performing at venues like Mezzanine and DNA Lounge here in San Francisco. Acts like Mylo, The Presets, MSTRKRFT, Ghostland Observatory, Bloc Party and countless others are now basically playing the electronica music that we have all been hearing from DJ’s for the last decade. Their bringing live music back to club culture.

It all kind of came to head for me this weekend while at the Booka Shade show at Mezzanine. I was listening to these guys up on stage rocking the crowd and playing truly good live electronica and I started thinking to myself that it’s time for the DJ to bring something new to the table or risk becoming replaced by the performers that he initially replaced 30 years ago.
There are some DJ’s out there like Steve Porter and James Zabiela who have gotten this message and have decided to step up their game by breaking down genre barriers and bringing new elements and sounds into their show. There are DJ’s like D:Fuse who are taking it a step further and incorporating instruments like full drum kits and electric violins into their show. The vast majority of DJ’s however are still sitting back comfortably behind their turntables and CD players and playing the same old tracks like nothing has changed in the dance community. Something has changed though and it is about to redefine nightlife culture.

Just take a look around at what’s going on at major concerts and festivals around the country this year. The Presets headlined a party at WMC and played SXSW basically in the same week, MSTRKRFT is playing at Coachella and touring with John Digweed, Sasha is playing at Bonnaroo and doing a full international club tour and the list goes on. The merging of DJ and live music culture is happening at lightning speed and the artists who will survive are going to be those that adapt and change to appease both audiences. It’s a very exciting time in my opinion. Club culture in its current state has reached a level of staleness and uniformity. This new era might be a re-birth of the nightlife party experience and now it’s up to the DJ to decide if he wants to be a part of it.

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High Sierra Announces 2007 Line-Up and Top 10 Tips

2007-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's still early, but the preliminary line-up for this years High Sierra Festival has been announced and it's shaping up to be a good one. Some of the early headliners include Tea Leaf Green, Yonder Mountain String Band, Bassnectar and ALO to name but a few. What's High Sierra you ask? Well, read on and I'll fill you in on the best summer camping music festival on the West Coast.

High Sierra Misic Festival is held each year in Quincy, CA, about an hour north of Lake Tahoe/Reno area. It's a four day camp-out festival that seems to have stayed consistently at about 7,000-10,000 people. Between the four stages running from 11AM-1AM and the Late night shows going all night, it's a non-stop party. Add to this that even in the drier northern Sierras, it's still beautiful country with rivers and lakes and plenty of sun. I tend to spend my days with a schedule in my back pocket, a beer in my hand, and maybe a frisbee if I'm feeling athletic. If your musical tastes range from Bluegrass to Rock with a little electronica thrown in, then don't stress about the line-up, just get your friends together and go. Before you do though, make sure to follow my HSMF top 10 tips while you're there, you'll thank me later. If you're a regular and you have tips of your own, add them in. Enjoy the festival, looking forward to some summer heat and good tunes!

Top 10 Tips for enjoying HSMF

1. Get there early. Good spots are limited for camping and the morning sun is your enemy when it starts baking you in your personal oven (tent) at 7am. Good shade can be found in the aptly named Shady Grove and under the big circus tent tops provided by the Big Meadow Stage. If you can't get there early, bring a shade structure.

2. Take a day trip away from the festival to the river at least once. The water is ice cold and clear and a swim in it can serve as your shower for the day.

3. Don't bring too much food. Some might disagree, but I think keeping something cold in 100 degree heat for 4 days isn't worth it. Invariably, I'll see somebody eating some soggy crap while I'm enjoying my delicious Mango Lassi and Chicken Tikka Masala from the Indian vendor for $6. Just buy some good vending food and bring snacks.

4. Don't be stupid with drugs. Do all the drugs you want, I'm no preacher, but past years have had run in's with law enforcement, so don't be dumb. They ranged between being complete assholes, to apologizing, to basically saying, "just don't be a jack-ass and we'll leave you alone". That's a pretty good mantra for life actually; don't be a jack-ass and you can pretty much do what you want.

5. Buy your beer at Safeway down the street. Ever go camping
near a city yet load up on everything in your car? Quincy is actually a legitimate town and they have food there. I forgot that the first year, but now I load up in town.

6. If you've got it in you and you can play hookie one extra day, stay for Sunday night. It wasn't until year three that I stayed till Monday but I have ever since. I always thought people went home Sunday. Not true. The party rages till the wee hours on Monday morning.

7. Save some energy and hit the late night shows. Use the money you saved from my beer-run-at-SafeWay advice and buy late night tickets. It's well worth it and people will keep you up anyway. If you can't beat 'em join 'em. There are also good free shows late night too. Point is, the party kicks up a notch post 1AM so don't miss it. Make sure to buy your late night tickets ahead of time because the good ones will sell out.

8. Hit some of the musician workshops that happen throughout the festival. One of the coolest aspects of HSMF is the collaborations between the many artists and the sit in's. The workshops are a rare opportunity to get to know the artist on a personal level and they are indoors so they often serve as a good way to beat the heat.

9. Use the pool. The pool is great because it's so damn hot in Quincy, but it's even better because you get to use their showers and over the course of 4 days of partying, you start to stink real good. Definitely worth the price of admission.

10. Last but not least, be prepared for some drastic temperature changes. By day, it's gonna be 90-100 and blazing sun. By night it might get all the way down to the 40's so bring fleeces and wool hats, etc. By 8am the next day be prepared to literally get cooked out of your tent as the heat starts moving up again.

Ahh, High Sierra!

This article was added by Metrowize co-founder and 7 year High Sierra veteran Brian Lillquist.

Lyrics Born - Calling out all area crews!

2007-03-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

Just before the madness of Noise Pop hit this year, Metrowize was lucky enough to get to have a phone conversation with one of the bay area's most prominent artists, Lyrics Born. LB is an artist to the bone and it shows in everything he does. He's a producer and a performer and is as much a hip hop artist as he is a live band lead vocalist. He was born in Japan and moved to the Bay Area when he was 5. Hearing Hip hop for the first time in the first grade, he knew right away that it was his calling in life. He knew he wanted to be an artist. Read the interview below.

MW: Who were your first musical heroes?
LB: I first remember hearing, when i was little, groups like Sugar Hill Gang, Double Dutch Bus, Franky Smith and things like that... It was very different from what I had heard and Hip hop was definitely different from anything I had ever known. As I got older and got into junior high it was artists like Eric B and Rakim, Boogie Down Productions, Ice Cube... guys like that.

MW: Do you think that your multi cultural background has played a part in the fact that you have a sort of multi-genre sound?
LB: I don't know... I know that it's definitely a part of who I am so I think it has shaped my world view without a doubt and subject matter wize it plays a part in why I write about certain things but it's not like I tell the guitarist to play E flat because I'm Japanese. It's obviously shaped who I am as a person and my music is an expression of who I am so in that regard I guess so...

MW: You've said before that you never want to be considered anything but a true artist. What's your definition of a true artist and how do you think you live up to that ideal?
LB: I make art, and i think it's just that simple. I mean the money is good, but I'm not in it to be a mogul and the reason I started making music was because I love making music. It's just a part of me and who I am. I feel the need to express myself in this medium.

MW: Do you consider yourself more of a producer or performer?
LB: I do it all... I mean I do it all because I love it all, but it's all necessary in what I do. I don't think it's possible for me to perform unless I am able to produce good music and I don't think it's possible to produce good music if I don't think I will have some place to perform it. It's all related... It's all facets to the same gem, it's all a part of the same thing to me.

MW: You've gained much of your fame as a hip hop artist, yet you have performed for thousands at some of the biggest "rock" festivals in the country including Bonnaroo and Coachella. How does a hip hop artist find his traction with this crowd?
LB: I think it is the live aspect that I bring. I put a lot of emphasis on my live shows and I do anywhere from 100-175 shows a year so I've put a lot of time and effort into the road and into my show and I think people can see that and that they appreciate that. I think that when somebody puts that much time into anything that they love, it's bound to be a quality product and I think that all that just gels well with people's notion of what a good live show is.

MW: You seem to be an artist that puts a lot of time and effort into having a large online presence. How do you think what you do as an artist and how you promote yourself and your projects has changed over the last few years with the proliferation of things like the internet and myspace and the different ways that you can actually reach people now?
LB: With the internet, with Myspace and Youtube, I think what you have is a direct connection. (Fans) can check in with me or I can check in with them via Myspace or my website anytime and at anytime they can come check out LBtv where we set up videos where I answer questions sent in by listeners directly. The thing that people want these days is they want access all the time and they want it because they know they can get it through the internet. The old style of Q and A is just so obsolete where someone writes you a fan letter and you maybe respond sometime via snail mail or you find out about a party because someone put a flyer in your hand. People are much less reliant now a days on that kind of dialog and I personally love it. It certainly makes the world move a lot faster.

MW: One of the major issues in entertainment right now is copyrights and copyright infringement. As an artist, where do you stand on the issue and do you think the music and entertainment industry should be fighting this or embracing it?
LB: I think the music industry needs to choose it's battles at this point. The mold has already been cast. I'm not for illegal downloading or anything but people are going to do file sharing and downloading and people are going to be putting things up on Youtube. That's already happened and there really isn't any way that you can regulate that. There's hundreds of millions of people in the world. How are going to keep tabs on all of them? It's just absolutely impossible so you have to focus your energy in other places. This is the way the world is going and it's impossible to block that flow. That information is going to be made available to people no matter how loud I kick and scream. Everyone has equal access to to everything at this point and I think that is one of the beauties and one of the ideas that we've all had to have gotten used to about the internet.

MW: You're obviously someone who works a lot. In your free time, what do you do to chill out?
LB: I drive my car. I've got a 68 Cadillac drop top Coupe Deville and I love to drive. I'll drive for hours ya know and just go nowhere sometimes. It helps clear the head. I think that's a guy thing... We like to clear our heads.

For more Lyrics Born check out LBtv on Youtube and other video sites, his Myspace page at myspace.com/lyricsborn and his label site quannum.com.
Be on the lookout for the new album coming soon from Joyo Velarde on Quannum Records.

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Ghostland Observatory w/ Honeycut - Review

2007-03-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Ghostland Observatory w/ Honeycut at Mezzanine 03-03-2007

While I was away playing hooky on the ski slopes last week in Tahoe, I missed most of the Noise Pop shows. I did however get a chance to hit up Mezzanine and checked out Honeycut and Ghostland Observatory. MetroWize peeps had just interviewed Bart, Herve (RV) and Tony from Honeycut, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It was a high energy show and the venue was packed. The sound was definitly not what I expected and all I kept thinking throughout the show was "this is indie rock?"

Honeycut wails out eclectic, funky, sounds led at least musically by the keyboardist (RV) who dances as much as he plays the keys (which he does amazingly by the way). Vocalist Bart Davenport draws the crowd in with his stage presence and smooth loungey voice and the whole thing is held together by Tony Sevener who supplies the beats on a live drum machine. My first thought after seeing their show was that these guys could do well in a lot of different scenes and appeal to a lot of different ears. The band members are all well trained musicians and together they make up a solid band. The show left me wanting to follow them down to SXSW to get another taste.

All I knew about Ghostland Observatory before seeing them was that they were blowing up right now in the scene. The group is two guys from Austin, Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner. Behrens is the front man and occasional guitar player and Turner alternates between the drums and beat machines. At first glance, you might think you are looking at a joke band or some sort of SNL skit. Behrens prances around on stage in skin tight jeans and ponytails complete with giant 70’s sunglasses while he belts out non-sensical lyrics and yells into the microphone while Turner, dressed in a full cape, supplies the simple beats and rhythms. It’s their stage presence that carries this act. One thing is for sure about these guys, the crowd loves them. While I won’t pretend to understand, I will give them a tip of my hat on that.

Stay tuned into MW because next week we will launch a Honeycut video with live footage and a backstage interview.

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San Francisco Festivals - A top 10 List

2007-03-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

Top 10 San Francisco Festivals
With all of the great festivals and street fairs and all out craziness that goes on here in San Francisco on a yearly basis, I thought it would be good to make a "quick reference" guide to some great events that don't always show up on venue calendars or email lists. These are events that should not be missed and most of them draw in crowds in the multiple 10's of thousands. All of them are uniquely San Francisco events and a guaranteed great time.
See the list below...

Noise Pop Feb 27-March 4, 2007
Noise Pop began 15 years ago as a small gathering of 5 bands, put together by Kevin Arnold (later joined by Jordan Kurland). Today, it's grown into 100 bands, playing all over SF for a week. The bands are predominately Bay Area bands, coming up in the indie rock scene, and representing established groups as well. Lyrics Born, the Dandy Warhols, Cake, HoneyCut and many more are scheduled for the week. Of course, the smaller bands are where the real gems are found, but a good vibe is pervasive throughout the week. Make it your week to go see some live music. Note: Check out our MW interview with Kevin in our articles section of MetroWize.

How Weird May 6, 2007

Although this will be the last year in it's traditional 11th and Howard location, How Weird is a street fair that represents the creative culture of San Francisco. It's an awesome freaky, DJ centric event, with sounds blasting from seven stages and people dancing in the streets all day. This party brings it and this year, there is a How Weird benefit party at 1015 Folsom on March 23rd. There's sure to be some of the best local DJ talent and a friendly crowd.

Kaboom May 13, 2007

This is more of a family friendly event, but there are still good acts like Los Loney Boys, Keller Williams, and other big KFOG style bands. It's free fun, just take BART down to the Embarcadero stop and get yer stroll on, eat some food, listen to some music, watch the fireworks.

Bay to Breakers May 20, 2007

I know some people run this "race" but that's a difficult prospect when you're pushing a couch down Market street and drinking by 8AM. B2B is a moving frat party for most people, but add in naked old men, tortilla tossing, live bands, and a really long walk through the city (from Bay to Breakers, get it?). Important tips are; bring plenty of party accoutrement, dress up with a group of people, and accommodate comfortable shoes into your costume (I had a novice friend wear his scuba gear with fins once). This is the friendliest party of the year, with everybody getting in on photo ops and partying along the way. There's a shared kinship with the thousands who've made the journey. Hit the party at the Polo fields afterwards for some much needed grub and chillin' out.

Gay Pride Festival June 23-24th, 2007

The Pride Parade (and the parties surrounding it) is not just the biggest event in SF, it's also a political statement. Gay or straight, it's about living life the way you want appreciating other lifestyles and choices as well. It's part of what defines the city, part of what makes people proud and part of what makes some people stay away. To each their own I say, I'm just happy when people are having a good time. After the parade, there is a big convergence around city hall and people by the hundreds of thousands. It's worth checking out, and it's a great party.

Power to the Peaceful September 8, 2007

This is one of the cool free festivals, held each year in Golden Gate Park. It brings together music, art, and social justice. Last year there were over 50,000 people in attendance. The event is the brainchild of Michael Franti and has featured big name acts in hip hop, jam bands and the DJ scene. There's yoga, twig's n' berries, the whole nine yards. Even if you don't live the life of the activist, don't know who Mumia is or why we should free him, or don't eat tofu, you should still make the trip down to Speedway Meadow for the event. There's lots of good music, good causes, and ample patchouli oil.

Love Fest September 29th, 2007

This party is blowing up and it didn't take long. A few years after its inception and it has become the biggest DJ weekend next to WMC in Miami. True to San Francisco style, there are no velvet ropes, no dress codes, just partying. First you follow the parade, then all the floats circle the civic center square and create a sound mash up explosion for 6 hours. Go grab a bite and head back out. One tip, save your energy for the weekend parties, where you have the difficult decision of who to go see. This festival is made for San Francisco. If you like beats, you love it here.

Comedy Day September 30th 2007

Here's a sleeper event you should catch, Comedy Day in the Park. Between The Purple Onion, Punchline, Cobbs and the smaller clubs, San Francisco actually has a lot of places to see stand up. Who doesn't like laughing? There are over 30 local and national comedians including hometown favorite Robin Williams jammed onto 1 stage over the course of 5 really funny hours. This event is at Sharon Meadows in Golden Gate Park, it's free and usually a beautiful day. Bring a blanket or lawn chair.

Folsom Street Fair September 30th, 2007

You know the album Nothing's Shocking? Well, Jane's Addiction hadn't been to the Folsom Street Fair when they made that album title. Seriously people, wtf is with this event? It takes place every year on Folsom & Dore, down near 8th Street. On the surface the leather, bondage festival is shocking, then, you hear some stories from friends and you think, "no, not possible what he just said". But it's true, all true. This party is not for the faint of heart (the faint of heart should attend Comedy Day, same day). If you like ball gags and leather though, this is your party. Crack that whip and enjoy.

Castro Street Halloween October 31st, 2007

There was a time when this was a really big event. It is uniquely San Francisco and a lot of fun, but there have been problems in the past (there was a shooting last year that injured 10 people). Despite that, if you haven't been, you'll have a good time, at least for the first few years. Usually, it's a good pre-party before heading out on the town. I feel like Halloween is year round in San Francisco, and I mean that as a compliment. Check the web link closer to the date and head down to Market and Castro for some eye candy.

Finally, a note to our visitors; If you plan on partying in San Francisco, there's about an 80% chance that your event of choice will be encouraging some kind of costume. Feel free to wear your loin cloth, Burning Man gear, whatever you wore for last Halloween or even go naked if the mood suits you. Come to think of it, you can pretty much wear that stuff any day around here, we're a do-what-you-feel kinda city, gotta love it.

"See you at the party Richter". Ten points for calling out my obscure movie reference. Hope the list helps. Don't forget to check out the MetroWize, Top 10 California Festivals, 2007 for a little road trip partying. Enjoy.

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Noise Pop 2007 - Interview w/ Kevin Arnold

2007-03-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Well it's time once again for the annual Noise Pop Festival here in San Francisco and this year (it's 15th!) promises to be the biggest and best yet with headliners including Cake, Lyrics Born and The Dandy Warhols amongst others.

For our coverage of Noise Pop this year, we wanted to go beyond telling everyone that this is a great festival that you really need to come out and experience. We wanted to get to the source of it all and find out what Noise Pop was really all about so we went straight to the top and worked out an interview with Kevin Arnold, founder of the Noise Pop festival. Listen Now!

For Everything Noise Pop including schedule of events, list of performers, history, photos and Noise Pop shwag, go to www.noisepop.com

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D:Fuse Brings the drums to San Francisco

2007-03-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

What happens when you mix a DJ, a full drum kit, an electric violin, 1000 fans and one of the biggest sound systems in the country? You get D:Fuse at Ruby Skye and one of the most rockin' performances to hit SF in a long long time. Metrowize's own chief Wize Guide, Brian, was lucky enough to get to run around with D:Fuse all day and get some great one on one time with him before during and after the show. He got so much material that I had to split it up into 2 videos! See the D:Fuse Bring the drums Extended Version or the D:Fuse Bring the Drums Radio Edit.

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DJ Marcus live @ Ruby Skye (Video)

2007-02-26T16:44:00.000-08:00

Dj Marcus is one of the Bay Area's newest rising stars. If you haven't seen him yet, you can bet you will soon, with a new residency at Empire Ballroom in Las Vegas and dj spots in San Francisco and all around the country this upcoming spring. We caught up with Marcus last week while he was rockin the house at Ruby Skye and put together a video of the night. See the DJ Marcus Video here.

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Spundae turns 14!

2007-02-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

This weekend is one of those momentus party weekends here in San Francisco. Perhaps the most influential party promoters on the west coast are celebrating their 14th birthday. Spundae is known globally for their parties and their world class productions. From North American tours, reality TV shows, 30,000 person NYE festivals and their huge presence at the SF Lovefest, it's no wonder that that the IDMA (international dance music awards) voted Spundae the #1 club in the USA in 2005. We take a closer look at Spundae and their influence in this week's MW spotlight...

Ever since it was founded in 1993, the Spundae mission has been to bring world class electronic dance music to San Francisco's club scene, and for 14 years, they have been doing exactly that. Time after time, party after party, they have brought the global scene to west coast culture by constantly throwing electronic dance parties like California has never seen before. From the original parties at the now defunkt DV8 to their long run at 1015 Folsom and now Ruby Skye, these guys have thrown a major party nearly every weekend for longer than any other promoters in San Francisco. As if that wasn't enough, Spundae has a huge presence in Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas, always throw huge parties in Miami for WMC and are one of the cornerstones of the San Francisco Lovefest throwing the official after party each year for 10,000+ people.

Guests on the Spundae turntables have included international DJs such as: Sasha, John Digweed, Timo Maas, Paul Oakenfold, Nick Warren, Cass, Christopher Lawrence, Tiesto, Pete Tong, Jerry Bonham, DJ Dan, Sandra Collins, Sander Kleinenberg, Deepsky, Ferry Corsten, Max Graham, Infusion, Steve Lawler, Dave Seamen, D:Fuse, Doc Martin, Dieselboy, Carl Cox, DJ Irene, Simply Jeff, Donald Glaude, Lee Burridge and many, many more. With a Dj resume like this, It's safe to say that Spundae has played a significant role in establishing San Francisco as the best club city in America.

This weekend Spundae welcomes intrenational legends Blank and Jones to help them celebrate their anniversary at Ruby Skye.
For more information, visit their site.

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Qool San Francisco w/ Spesh

2007-01-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

Who is Spesh and what is Qool? If you have to ask, you probably think that the only nights to party in San Francisco are Friday and Saturday. For the last 11 years, every Wednesday night at 111 Minna Gallery downtown, Spesh and his team from Looq records have played host to a happy hour party like no other, Qool. Spesh sat down with MetroWize for an interview about Qool, Djing, musical influences and life. Read the interview below.

MW: Thanks for joining us Spesh. Your real name is Stephen, so where does the name Spesh come from?
Spesh: It's a short version of a nickname that's based on my real name. Check it out:
Stephen Kay (real name)
Special K (nickname)
Spesh

Voila!

MW: How long have you been involved with music? What got you started?
Spesh: I have loved music all my life and really got into in the 70s when punk rock came to the suburbs. I would seek out the music any way I could get it. I taped radio shows, begged my folks to take me to record shops in the city, and traded vinyl with friends. I discovered dance music in the 80s, and learned to DJ then, so I guess you could say I've been at it or a long time!

MW: What were/are your biggest musical influences?
Spesh: I think I take a bit of something from everything I am exposed too so it's hard to be specific, but I'll try to give you a few. New Order, Roxy Music, John Digweed, Buzzcocks, Danny Howells & Doc Martin.

MW: When started doing Qool, Minna was just an art gallery that let you bring records in and play music for the patrons at the gallery. What were those first Qool sessions like?
Spesh: Sketchy! In the beginning, the gallery didn't really have a sound. But fortunately they had weekend rave parties in the space and there was always some leftover gear laying around on Wednesday that hadn't been picked up yet. Each week I just sort of pieced together a system and hoped it sounded OK. The bar was just a few kegs of beer on tap and a cash box. But that was enough for my friends and I to have a great time. We really thought we were getting away with something listening to all that great music after work in that wonderful hidden space in the middle of downtown.

MW: When did you know you were on to something big with Qool?
Spesh: When people began forging Qoöl Qards which were vip cards that allowed people to skip the line and go straight in. Back in the dot com days, we had lines around the block as early as 6pm, and those cards became like gold to people. We even found them for sale on Craig's List for upwards of $300. We had to switch to a paperless system after that!

MW: You have a great relationship with your crowd (AKA Qoolios). What do you think separates Qool from other parties that go on in SF? How do you keep the vibe friendly and laid back?
Spesh: We say, "Qoöl Is You", because it really is. People discover it, and claim it as their own. So really all we do is take care of this natural phenomenon! But I do think there are some things that we do that help, like recognize that these people who are coming to Qoöl every week are not just clubbers, they are interesting people in their own right. We encourage people to come as they are, and even profile some of our regular customers on the website. The website also allows us to expand on some of Qoöl unique culture, and of course make fun of ourselves, other clubs, DJs and anyone taking themselves too seriously.

MW: Can you tell us a bit about Looq records. What makes a Looq track?
Spesh: Loöq is a label that Jondi & I started in 1998. It was born from a love of music and that is primarily where it has stayed. Fresh sounds with a strangely broad appeal are what drive Loöq Records. We've had over 50 releases, and our artists come from all corners of the globe. Besides being great to dance to, a Loöq track has to push the limits of the genre a bit. And we've even had a bit of success beyond the world of electronic music, with some of our tracks being featured in various episodes of CSI, and in a very popular video game called "Dance Dance Revolution". We really enjoy those moments when we are able to take a young dance music producer's music and get it exposed to millions of people on national television.

MW: Over the years, how many guest dj’s do you think you have had on the decks at Qool?
Spesh: Oh, that's a calculator question...
11 years of Qoöl, 35 weeks a year, an average of 3 guest per week... that would be about 1,155 guest djs, give or take 100. Rather astounding, don't you think?

MW: Definitely! Do you have a favorite?
Spesh: I really can't say. There are so many different DJs with so many different and unique styles. Its just fun to be around all that talent.

MW: Take Qool out of the equation for a second, who is your favorite DJ?
Spesh: Danny Howells.

MW: Favorite band?
Spesh: Band? Hang on, let me look at my iTunes for a second.... Kraftwerk!

MW: How long will you keep doing Qool?
Spesh: We'll do it until the day people decide that they now longer want to have fun once a week after work.

You can catch Spesh this Wednesday @ Qool for a 5 hour Spesh-A-Thon.
Qool happens from 5-10pm every Wednesday at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco. This is no regular happy hour, this is Qool.
To see footage from MetroWize from a recent Qool, Click Here
photos courtesy of John Kane. www.johnkane.com

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Anon Salon New Years Eve (Video)

2007-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

This year for New Years, MetroWize went big with Anon Salon. Sea of Dreams 2006 featured some of the biggest names in the music and dance scene and was the place that nearly 10,000 people celebrated the coming of 2007. The 2 day event was huge and the parties were off the hook. We have a video to prove it... See it now!
New Years Eve with Anon Salon featured String Cheese Incident, ALO, Lotus, Mark Farina, Bassnectar and many more...

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Add MetroWize to your Toolbar!

2007-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hey MetroWize people. Brian here. Wanted to let you know about a few cool ways you can stay in the loop with MW happenings. We've got a bunch of new feeds you may want to add to your MyYahoo page, RSS Reader, or IPod.

For starters, you can add us straight to your Google Toolbar. Just click on the little button in the lower right corner. A pop-up will tell you that MW will be added in your toolbar. You'll see the icon near your search. Pretty cool. You can do the same thing with FireFox by hitting the RSS symbol in the address bar when you're on this site.

Next is our Pod Cast Feed. That's right, you can subscribe to our podcast and when you sync up your IPod, you'll get our newest videos and music uploaded to your IPod. Of course, it's free, so check it out if you're into PodCasting.

Then we've got the RSS Feed. For the 96% of you that don't use RSS feeds (I just read that in some magazine), I'll explain. If you have a Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Earthlink, etc. account, you can customize your home page so relevant articles pop up when they're posted, no matter which site they come from. As long as the site you want articles from has an RSS symbol (look under the subscribe label on the right) then you can feed that site into your site. Try clicking on those buttons, they'll do the rest.

So, wherever you are on the geek ladder, we hope you'll join in and hook up to MW, or at least get our weekly newsletter. I'm making it my personal mission to hit every bar, club, concert, street fair, brothel, warehouse party and festival in the next year, you won't want to miss any of it.

Brian

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New Years Eve Bites (Article)

2007-01-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone. I’m sure we all have many ridiculous stories to share and while I have you sitting around the MetroWize campfire, I’ll take this opportunity to share with you mine. It’s about me and the 18 year old crazed girl who bit me. It’s a classic boy meets girl, boy gets too close, boy gets bit, boy punches girl type story. Read on…

This year for New Years, I went up to Tahoe with my girlfriend for all of the festivities. For those that haven’t been there for New Years, South Lake is one of the strangest places anywhere to celebrate this particular night. I’ll set the stage… It’s about 15 degrees out and thousands of people come from miles around (most on foot) to go stand in a giant cluster of people in the middle of the street between the casinos. South Lake is split in half by the California/Nevada border and on the California side the police are in riot gear and have check points set up everywhere confiscating any alcohol they find. If you manage to make it to a particular intersection without getting caught however, you make it into Nevada where they lose their jurisdiction and any power to stop you from apparently doing what ever you want. It’s like a giant game of tag with police in riot gear. Literally hundreds of people would get together and make a dash for it to get to the Nevada state line. Some would perish and have to forfeit their booty but it was for the good of the group… Think of a pack of gazelle’s being hunted by a cheetah, but the cheetah is wearing riot gear and the gazelle’s are trashed.

So anyways, we make it to the State line, narrowly avoiding the cops and sneaking in our backpacks full of booze. We nestle our way into the sea of people and stake out our circle of trust (you’ve seen those candles with the people holding hands in a circle right?) that under no circumstances is to be broken. New Years hits and the mob goes insane… The crowd starts shifting and swaying and our precious circle is broken. This is when all hell breaks lose. As I am holding on to my girlfriend to protect her from this madness, I am getting tossed around in the sea of people. Apparently, and I say this because it was very unintentional, I invaded some girl’s personal comfort envelope with my arm… This happened to be close to her mouth and her razor sharp teeth. She did what any drunken 18 year old girl in a mob of New Year’s Eve revelers would do in her situation and opened wide then chomped down on my arm with all her might. I know it was all her might because this was a very little girl who managed to grind her teeth into my skin through my ski jacket, fleece and sweatshirt. Needless to say, this caught me by surprise and it hurt like a son of a bitch and my knee jerk reaction was to swat at whatever was causing this horrible pain. My big black mitten hit her square on the face as I wheeled around yelling some sort of string of swear words like Ralphy in the Christmas Story.

Now I see this vicious animal and she has this exorcist style possessed look on her face. I think she might have had rabies because she was foaming at the mouth (that might have been Champaign though)? She screams at me to “Back the F’ off” and makes another lunge at me with those jaws of death of hers. I felt like a kid who thought it would be fun to throw rocks at the bee hive but then realized that when bees get mad, they come at you and sting you. I did what any boy in that situation would do… Got the hell out of there. I’ll be honest, she scared the crap out of me. The rest of the night was spent nursing my wounds and listening to my intoxicated girlfriend tell me how she would have kicked that girls ass and how I was a wuss… happy New Year indeed.

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Contributor Profile: Erik

2007-01-01T16:48:00.001-08:00

Erik Lillquist (Aka Erik Rumors)

MetroWize Co-Founder Erik "Rumors" Lillquist has been at the nightlife and clubbing game long enough to call it a lifestyle. If it's got a 4/4 beat and some bass to it, Erik is on it. Progressive house, techno, psytrance, breaks, house (the good house) and anything else electronica is Erik's world.
"I love to go out and catch a local dj who can throw down as much as the big dogs when they come to town. Good music comes from the heart and popular or not, a good dj is someone who knows that." He's MetroWize's resident electronica expert so if he says "it's on", bet on it.
Erik also happens to be the man behind many of the MetroWize video productions. The video-cofounder-electronica-guy... That's Erik.

Portrait of a Photographer w/Gene Kosoy (Video)

2006-12-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

In our ongoing quest to keep you dialed into what's really going on out there in the city, we bring you a video about one our favorite hard working nightlife photographers: Gene from Phatcatphoto.com. See the video and visit Gene's website, @ www.phatcatphoto.com

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