It’s February 19th, the day after Dre Day. Nevermind the 18th, today’s the day that needs to become a federal holiday. No one’s getting any work done and they really need the time to recover. Seems that people nationwide are choosing to celebrate all week long from the slew of parties that have been popping up! We don’t even know who some of you guys are but keep spreading the Dre gospel far and wide. Also, get in touch so we can send you stuff! We’re gonna put up a world map and stick pins in for each town that’s started observing Dre Day. Or maybe a globe so we can spin it. We really haven’t thought it through. Kinda like when we first thought of Dre Day back in late 2002. Here’s an exclusivo interview I did with Tigger at citypages.com that goes into the Dre Day origins.
BTW If you’re in Chicago, your celebration is tonight! With Psalm One at Darkroom. Here’s a few of Ben’s photos from last night at the Triple Rock. Check out his Dre Day 2010 MPLS flickr set for way more. The entire BRLSQ crew was there and had a ton of fun, maybe too much (…the phrase “Wes! I’m drunk! Gimme the keys to the truck!” may or may not have been uttered.) Everything went smoothly with setting up, Triple Rock staff was their usual great selves, and the crowd was hellbent on doing nothing but partying all night.
Oh, and next year?
February 18th, 2011 aka Dre Day falls on a Friday.
*Also, keep up to date with Ben’s awesome photos with the handy flickr feed on the left. It used to be linked to mine but I haven’t uploaded in ages. Once I start adding stuff again, I’ll put mine back up. Ben shoots a lot more than party photos too!
Tonight we celebrate the two year anniversary of Triple Double. Way back in February 2008, Wezz and I set up a pair of turntables on the floor in front of the stage of Triple Rock Social Club. Along with DJs TRL from Modern Radio and Tanner Klouda (of First Avenue and Triple Rock employment fame), we spun a mix of hip hop, funk, post-punk, ’80s, and more. Rockers, rapsters, hipsters, skaters, punkozoids, and b-boys came out to dance, see their friends, and drink 2-for-1 beers. The $0 cover, cheap drinks, relaxed atmosphere, and great music has been the perfect recipe for this long-running weekly dance party. We’ve heard dozens of DJs spin thousands of songs and seen thousands of dancers do their thing, helping make our Tuesday nights look more like a Friday.
Come out to Triple Rock Social Club tonight to hear more of the great dance music you’ve been loving for the last 103 Tuesday nights.
What happened this year? I thought about doing some top 5 lists but nobody wants to read those and people always want to question them and get all judgmental. Does anyone who looks at this blog care if I loved Inglorious Basterds or can’t think of any good albums that came out this year off the top of my head? Here is a multimedia chronological look back at some of my memories from 2009.
First, I traveled to our nation’s capital with my good homie Joe (A.K.A. Bitch Ass Darius) to try to look at the inauguration. This is about how close we got:
Joe and I returned home and got real serious with our glockenspiel band, New Kids On The Glock:
As a gigantic icicle melted outside our building, our office flooded the week before Dre Day!
Ain’t no punk ass icicle gonna stop us!
Survived yet another brutal winter in Hoth Minneapolis:
We rang in another SXSW with our second DO IT TO IT vinyl record, release party, and promo video:
Eric Inkala, John Grider, Isaac Arvold, and Keiko Yagishita rocked our First Amendment Arts gallery with their Almost Homeless show.
Syl Johnson put on an incredible performance at Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul Revue in Chicago:
I got to design the poster for the show as well:
Traveled to Vancouver BC for a DJ gig and was floored at how gorgeous the city is.
My Kidrobot Alphabet keychain series was finally released and I couldn’t have been more excited:
As part of Walker Art Center’s “Don’t Sleep On It” 24 hour art-making marathon, we led a roomful of high schoolers on a 3-6am adventure filled with building a wall of giant speakerboxes, overlapping video and slide projections, and plenty of BASS!
Went to Sedona Arizona for my brother’s wedding, stayed for the crystal healing sessions, wizard potions, and magnetic spiritual vortexes… brah.
Added another Bonnaroo poster to our repertoire:
One week after Michael Jackson died, I was in New York and ended up at an MJ tribute night hosted by the great DJ Spinna. It was one of the best all-Michael DJ sets I’ve ever heard and one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had while listening to a DJ spin. I’m talking like… religious experience level shit here, people.
Had to switch gears from Michael to Prince to DJ at the Purple Rain 25th Anniversary dance party at First Avenue. We were honored to have Minneapolis’ Mayor R.T. Rybak attend, share his thoughts on Minneapolis’ rich musical history, and then hand First Avenue a custom-made key to the city!
I spent a year staring at international postage stamps and used all that inspiration to design the packaging for my buddy BK-One’s new CD “Radio do Canibal.”
Autumn kicked into gear and things like this happened:
The whole BRLSQ team helped put together a crazy art installation at SOO Visual Arts Center for the super cool “Non-Consensual Constructivist Post-Dada Cerebral Warts” show with Haze XXL and Aesthetic Apparatus:
King Otto and I rocked the crowd at 7th Street Entry for another Halloween night all-oldies Monster Mash dance party!
The art school at Illinois Wesleyan University hosted Wes and I for the weekend as we installed and opened our largest gallery show yet, simply titled The Screenprinted Work of Burlesque of North America.
My dude Emynd released a digital EP of my music on his Crossfaded Bacon label. “Ready to Rock” is my first ever solo EP and I made a video to promote one of the choons:
We cut our teeth in the craft fair scene at the No Coast Craftorama. Expect to see us at many more arts & crafts-related events in the near future! We bout that craft, son!
2009 was a year of big changes both good and bad for myself, Burlesque, and my friends. I’m looking forward to a clean slate in 2010 to see what great things will come for everyone. LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Coming up this evening we have another edition of the fabulous Tuesday Triple DJ event we put on every week at the Triple Rock Social Club. 2-4-1 drink specials, funny videos, dancing and all around goodtimes.
Tonight’s lineup-
TRL
Wzz Wnshp
Lenka Paris
9pm-2am
Two of our favorite NYC DJs on the move are coming to town this Friday and we’re throwing a party for them to drop bass all over your face!
Star Eyes blew the roof off of First Avenue at last year’s Do it To it party. A member of the red hot Trouble & Bass crew (along with Drop The Lime, AC Slater, and others), she’s been spooking up dancefloors with her own unique brand of Haunted House music. Check out her song and video Disappear.
Jubilee will be making her Minneapolis debut this Friday. One year ago, she started the monthly Flashing Lights party with Friends-Of-Burlesque DJ Ayres and Nick Catchdubs, where they have converted unassuming dim sum restaurants into makeshift raves with guest DJ spots from Klever, A-Trak, Toadally Krossed Out, and Nadastrom. We love she and Udachi (Trouble & Bass)’s brand new song PAYPUR… alot.
Where is the party? Sign up for the BRLSQ newsletter to get all of the details of the secret location and all that. We sent out a mailer on Tuesday but will send out another one or two before the show goes down!
Expect to sweat it out on the dancefloor and hear plenty of heavy bass and big electro beats on what many consider to be the best sound system in town!
A big thank you to everyone who rushed our site for yesterday’s big Phish poster onsale! We truly wish we had more prints available for everyone but we gotta work with what we got. We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding – THANK YOU!
We’re back on the grind working on a bunch of new design and print projects, all of which will be available to you very soon!
1) Todd Bratrud’s new art print based on his cover art for CLOUT Magazine issue 11. Ten-color screenprint job done by Ben LaFond.
2) Mike Davis’ new poster for Fleet Foxes and Dungen’s performance tomorrow night at The Metro in Chicago. 2 colors featuring metallic gold, printed by Petey Wheatstraw. We’re gonna try to catch their Sunday night appearance at First Avenue!
3) CD and LP artwork designed by Mike Davis for BK-One’s “Radio do Canibal” album. Rhymesayers will be releasing this collection of Brazilian funk-inspired hip hop beats featuring vocals from an all-star lineup of rappers including Brother Ali, Scarface, Slug, Freeway, P.O.S, Raekwon, Black Thought, and more. Be sure to check out BK’s awesome hip hop mix on our BRLSQOTHEQUE podcast.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOW Thank you to EVERYONE who came out to our Let’s Go Crazy party last Friday! We packed First Avenue with 700 Prince fanatics who sweated it out to DJ sets from me and Dan Speak. We spun nothing but classic Minneapolis funk all night, mixing all of the legendary Prince songs with bangers from Morris Day & The Time, Jimmy Jamm & Terry Lewis, Mazarati, Cherrelle, S.O.S. Band, Alexander O’Neal, and of course The Twin City Rapper! We were also blessed with a dance performance from Minneapolis’ newest red-hot dance troupe The Velvet Whips, and some memorable and meaningful words from Mayor R.T. Rybak. Wezz’s dad, Larry Winship, helped us build the Prince symbol-shaped key to the city, which Mayor Rybak presented to First Avenue on the occassion of the 25th anniversary of the release of “Purple Rain.” What a night!
photos by Wes Winship and B Fresh
Mayor R.T. Rybak presents the new key to the city to Sarah Sandusky from First Avenue.
New York New York! I’m gonna be up in your giant of a city later this week. Catch me DJing Thursday night at Santo’s Party House for the Cubic Zirconia record release party. I designed the group’s “Fuck Work” 12-inch single cover and also this here gig poster for the event. Screenprinted posters will be on hand at the show and also available on our online store after the 2nd.
Three color print on French Steel Blue paper… printed by Bennie of course. Get a load of that lineup. Where else in one single night at one single venue can you hear the ghetto tech and booty jams of DJ Assault, the early ’80s cosmic boogie jams of Dâm-Funk, the electronic dance rock of Head Automatica, the acid house disco of Cubic Zirconia, and whatever the hell I end up spinning? What should I play?
Holy crapola there’s a lot of stuff going on this weekend.
THURSDAY
The OFFICIAL Santigold afterparty! Once the First Avenue show is over, swing on through Bedlam Theatre for our gigantic dance party featuring some excellent out-of-town talent and local favorites.
DEVLIN & DARKO – DJs for Spankrock and Amanda Blank (Santi’s opening act). Hittin’ you with electro fun, weird disco, Afro-funk, and oldies jams. TROUBLE ANDREW – Santigold’s other opening act spinning some tracks. We don’t know what to expect but it’ll be fun! JIMMY 2 TIMES & PLAIN OLE BILL – the keepers of the cryph! MIKE 2600 – takin’ you to rap city, funkytown, and the electric kingdom
10pm – 2am / 18up / $3 with Santigold ticket stub, $5 without
FRIDAY
The Bedlam party continues with BRLSQOTHEQUE’s monthly dance jam BOMP. This time around features… DJ ZEBO – the homie from Chicago comes to blast you with Bmore club and electro bangers SHANNON BLOWTORCH – our co-conspirator at Bomp goes hard MOON GOONS – we think they’re from outer space WZZ WNSHP & MIKE 2600 – they make posters and make you shake your butt
Plus speciall all-vinyl sets in the side room from ATTITUDE CITY – street sounds swirlin’ through their miiiiinds JIMMY 2 TIMES & PLAIN OLE BILL – the kings of the beats gonna rock the place!
10pm – 2am / 18up / $5
SATURDAY
A new art show opens up at First Amendment!
1101 Stinson Blvd (corner of Stinson & Broadway in NE Minneapolis)
FORMIDABLE FLAT featuring:
- new artwork from Drew Peterson & Kristina Paabus
- musical performance from Doomtree rapper Cecil Otter
- LIVE screenprinting! We’ll be putting down the final color on a brand new art print designed by Drew Peterson. Come watch it happen live during the art opening.
This show will run until June 23rd, 2009.
As always, the opening will be from 7-10pm.
Free admission and all ages are welcome!
After months of waiting, they’ve finally arrived! We were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to turn the letters from my alphabet poster into an entire series of vinyl keychains for our friends at Kidrobot.
Kidrobot fully knocked it out of the park, sparing absolutely no detail! They came fully correct with the tiny little nuances in the printing on the keychains, the quality of the packaging, everything is A+ on this.
The boxes are super tiny!
Jodi and Peter pick through the letters.
P is for princess Petey!
The packaging design also appears in a brand spankin’ new art print we’ll have available in our online store starting at 2:00pm today! This one is SUPER BRIGHT!
Celebrate the release of the keychains with us tonight at ROBOTlove! The party continues after that as our very own DJ Wes Winship throws down a guest set at SLAP! at Kitty Cat Klub alongside Tendercakes and Millions Billions. Oh yeah – it’s all FREE!
