Fort Knox Recordings and The Vinyl District are proud to present Memorial Weekend Blowout at U Street Music Hall this Sunday night, May 29th, the night before Memorial Day. You can hang with us till the wee hours of the night and still (wo)man the grill the next day.
The Memorial Weekend Blowout artists will be taking over TVD this week, and we’ll be interviewing all of them as well as giving away some tix and some wax.
Get your summer started off right, and blow out that three day weekend with the best DC funk, soul, reggae, and dub beats.
Memorial Weekend Blowout
Sun, May 29, 2011
10:00 pm – 3:00 am
U Street Music Hall
$10.00
Tickets available through Ticketfly
Ages 18+, ages 18-20 must buy tickets in advance
LIVE SETS:
See-I
Empresarios
DJ SETS:
DJ Who
Thunderball
Empresarios’ DJ Arsam and Sonny Cheeba
Thunderball, the trio of Rob Myers, Steve Raskin, and Sid Barcelona, “purveyors of sophisticated, stereophonic-thrillers, and cinematic dub” (and all members of Fort Knox Five), release their new remix album 12 Mile High Remixed on ESL Music next month. Deserving of their name, they start our week off with a bang.
Is there a contrast in energy between East and West Coast audiences?
At first West Coast folks may seem mellower and tend to get into the groove quicker, while the East Coasters seem a bit more intense, but in the end they all get down the same. For us, we see a greater difference between American audiences versus the rest of the world. We have a much bigger following in Europe and Canada where it’s great to see people instantly recognize our music.
Musical or non-musical, who influences you?
We love ’60s cinema and ’70s blaxploitation films and soundtracks. We are all graphic designers as well and love modern design and pop graphics from that era. We are also inspired by a lot of the great new music out now, and we selected some of our favorite new producers to remix our latest album, 12 Mile High. We love hearing other people’s takes on our songs and were stoked to get brilliant remixes from Drumagick, Knight Riderz, Fort Knox Five, Ursula 1000, among many others.
Thunderball | Theme Music for Players and Ladies
How does music come to you? Is it metronome? Is it little voices in your heads? Is it classic music theory?
In writing our latest album, 12 Mile High, our mission was to write an entire album from start to finish as one thematic journey. We didn’t want to just compile a bunch of singles together. We always strive to write a soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist and make each song act as a scene change in the film, constantly driving the plot forward.
It was great to take time off from our Fort Knox Five duties of writing dancefloor tracks and focus on just writing songs. We also loved reconnecting and writing songs with our crew, including Mustafa Akbar, Rootz and Zee of See-I, and Miss Johnna M, who are always inspiring to collaborate with.
Tell me a show that made you feel like royalty.
A couple of years ago we did an Australian tour and travelled with Snoop Dogg, Jurrasic 5, the Beastie Boys, playing various festival shows—it was an amazing experience to chill out with some of Hip Hop’s top dogs.
Thunderball | 12 Mile High (JPod The Beat Chef Remix)
Tell me about a show that made you feel like the dregs of society, or damn near.
We get offers to play corporate events from time to time to perform as the live band. During one such event, the event organizers decided to open the buffet table at the very moment that we were starting our set. Classic!
Do you parents (or elders) brag about you?
Our families have always been our biggest supporters, and they attend our shows often. They’ve been doing this from the beginning, starting back in our early punk rock days when we were kids, and we love them for it.
