It’s that time of year where we get ready to pack up and drive down to Austin for an extended weekend of rock rap, posters, friends, barbeque, and NO SNOW. We’re super excited to spend time at SXSW and want to give everyone a head’s up about all of the cool shit we’ll be gettin’ into…

FLATSTOCK 24
Thursday March 18, 1 – 6pm
Friday March 19 & Saturday March 20, 11am – 6pm
Austin Convention Center, ground floor, Exhibit Hall 1
more info here

Along with dozens of our postermaking peers, we will be exhibiting our art prints, rock posters, t-shirts, sticker packs, and more. We’ll have everything from the common to the rare, from the old to the brand-spanking new. Bring a little money, come say hello, and take home some new art for your home, your office, or for your friend!

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

NEO OBSOLETE POST NASAL SURREALISTIC CARNAGE
Thursday March 18, 7-10pm
Obsolete Industries (1700 East 12th St, Austin TX 78702)

From the warped mind of Haze XXL, the same man who brought you NON-CONSENSUAL POST DADA CONSTRUCTIVIST CEREBRAL WARTS, comes another destructive combination of art and music. Check out art on display from a slew of Minneapolitans: Burlesque, Broken Crow, Haze XXL, and Grant Hart from Husker Dü. Hart will also be performing music, as will Gay Witch Abortion. This all goes down at East Austin’s Obsolete Indutries screenprint studio.

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

DO IT TO IT 3
Thursday March 18, 8pm – 2am
Silhouette (718 Congress Ave)
21 up / Free with RSVP here: burlesquedesign.com/doittoit

What would SXSW be for us without a party at Silhouette? Our favorite sushi and karaoke duplex is once again letting us take over and fill the room with BASS. Here’s the lineup of DJs for this year’s festivities:

8:00 – Jimmy 2 Times (Get Cryphy / MPLS)
8:45 – DJs Pump & Hedspin (Eh! Team DJs / Calgary, Vancouver)
9:30 – DJ Mel (Rock the Casbah / Nasty’s / Austin)
10:15 – Mike 2600 (Burlesque / Crossfaded Bacon / MPLS)
11:00 – Prince Klassen (Fully Fitted, Austin)
11:45 – Smalltown Romeo (Hai Karate / Plant Music / Calgary)
12:30 – Cubic Zirconia (live performance / Don’t Cry / NYC)
1:15 – Bird Peterson (Undocumented / BP Americo / CA via TX)

At the party, we will be releasing DO IT TO IT VOL. III, the third (duh) in our series of Do it To it musical releases. This CD features brand new and exclusive tracks and remixes from Do it To it veterans Bird Peterson, Mike 2600, Smalltown DJs, and Prince Klassen as well as BK-One, Nick Catchdubs, DJ Ayres, and many more! Stay tuned to the BRLSQ blog and newsletter for a sneak peek at the full CD packaging.

Have a listen to all of the tracks right here:

Do it To it Volume III preview by Mike 2600

OK that’s it for now. More TX news as we get even closer to the festival!

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!

Our man Jimmy 2 Times put together one hell of a mix dedicated to the even mainier man right now – Dr. Dre. One of the DJs performing at this Thursday’s Dre Day at Triple Rock Social Club, Jimmy blew the roof off with this one! If you have even one grain of appreciation for the doctor, download this right NOW and get in the spirit! We are just ONE DAY AWAY from Dre Day!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD or you can also grab the mix from our BRLSQOTHEQUE podcast!

Go grab your advance tickets for Dre Day at triplerocksocialclub.com – don’t get left out in the cold on Thursday!!!

Tracklisting for the official Dre Day mix
1. Jimmy2times – Dre Day Intro
2. Blackstreet f/Dr. Dre – No Diggety
3. 50 Cent f/Mobb Deep – Outta Control(Remix)
4. Dr. Dre f/Snoop Dogg – Tha Next Episode
5. Snoop Dogg – What’s My Name
6. Dr. Dre f/Snoop Dogg – Deep Cover
7. Snoop Dogg – Tha Shiznit
8. Dr. Dre f/Knoc’Turnal – Bad Intentions
9. Dr. Dre – Let’s Get High
10. Snoop Dogg – Gin & Juice
11. N.W.A. – Gangsta Gangsta
12. N.W.A. – Fuck the Police
13. The D.O.C. – It’s Funky Enough
14. Dr. Dre f/Snoop Dogg – Little Ghetto Boy
15. Dr. Dre – Let Me Ride
16. Snoop Dogg f/Xzibit – Bitch Please
17. Dr. Dre – What’s the Difference
18. Dr. Dre f/Hittman – Ackrite
19. Snoop Dogg f/Tha Dogg Pound – Doggy Dogg World
20. Mary J. Blige – Family Affair
21. The Game f/50 Cent – How We Do
22. Snoop Dogg f/The Lady of Rage – G Funk Intro
23. Dr. Dre f/Snoop Dogg – Still DRE
24. Dr. Dre f/Kurupt, RBX & The Lady of Rage – Lyrical Gangbang
25. Busta Rhymes – Break Ya Neck
26. Eminem f/Dr. Dre & 50 Cent – Crack a Bottle
27. Snoop Dogg – Lodi Dodi

In a total coincidence, two of Minneapolis’ best DJ-based dance parties celebrate their two year anniversaries this week. Last night, hundreds of muisc-hungry party people packed the Triple Rock Social Club for the two year anniversary of our weekly Triple Double party.

This coming Friday, DJs Plain Ole Bill and Jimmy 2 Times will host the two year anniversary party for Get Cryphy, a monthly party crammed into First Avenue’s VIP Room focusing on rap-related dance music. For two years, these fellas have been spinning everything from E-40 to Disco D to Blaqstarr to 2 Live Crew to Paul Wall to Missy Elliot and have featured guest sets from DJ Sega, Low B, Emynd, Prince Klassen, and Burlesque’s own Mike 2600 and WZZWNSHP. The result is a big, sweaty, bass-filled mess with one of the most diverse crowds in town. We rides hard for Billy and Jimmy and support everything they put their energy behind, so expect to see many more collaborations between Burlesque and Get Cryphy!

photo by Dennis Jeong Plaster

Burlesque has been responsible for the design of 23 of the 24 Get Cryphy flyers and also a brand new t-shirt which will be debuting this Friday! Catch a sneak preview below.

Get more info and RSVP on Facebook!

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.

with your DJs:
Mike 2600
WzzWnshp
Jimmy2Times & Plain Ole Bill
Rambo Salinas
TRL
Shannon Blowtorch
King Otto
Jeff Dubois
717 Boys

One of our favorite local radio stations, 89.3 The Current, just hit their five year anniversary. Part of Minnesota Public Radio, The Current has been supporting great local music and artists since the beginning. We’ve had a chance to design a handful of posters, t-shirts, and CD packages for the station and were thrilled to design the poster commemorating five years of music being broadcast through the air of Minnesota.

Wes and I collaborated on the design, passing bits of Illustrator and Photoshop files back and forth until it was just right:

The posters debuted yesterday at the Rock The Cradle event and, if there are any copies left, will be available at The Current’s SOLD OUT anniversary concert in the First Avenue mainroom featuring P.O.S, Solid Gold, Lookbook, and more.

If you didn’t get tickets to that show but want a poster, The Current will have them available on their website and we will likely be selling a few copies on ours as well.

If you want another chance to catch Solid Gold performing live (they’re all the rage right now), they will be co-headlining First Avenue’s Gimme Shelter concert on February 6th. Organized by the folks at City Pages, proceeds from the concert will go to the Red Cross’ relief efforts in Haiti. Mike 2600 (me) and Jimmy 2 Times will be DJing inbetween acts and I also designed the flyer.

RSVP on Facebook

JUST ADDED – our friends over at Rhymesayers have put together a monster of a concert to benefit relief efforts in Haiti. Check the flyer below for the lineup and meet us at First Ave!

Thank you thank you thank you to EVERYONE who came to check out A Visit from BRLSQ at Lower Haters gallery in San Francisco this past Friday night. There sure were a bunch of you there. If you missed it, our prints will be hanging up in the shop for the next month. Lower Haters is located at 597 Haight St. at Steiner in the Lower Haight, just around the corner from our buddies at Upper Playground.

Will you be in San Francisco this Friday? Stop by Lower Haters store / gallery (597 Haight St). We’ll be decking the walls with screenprinted posters new and old and celebrating the new show with an opening party from 7-11pm. I’ll be in the building and will be spinning some music for a bit alongside my Bay Area disc jockey brethren King Most, Enki, and Platurn. It’s free to get in, so come say what up and pick up some prints!

The following night, I’ll be DJing at Triple Crown with Trouble & Bass recording artist Jinder. In town all the way from Stockholm, Jinder will be performing live, so don’t miss out! Locals Sticky K, Shane King, and the Goldsweat DJs will also be throwing down, so come celebrate 2010 for the bass odyssey that it is! Last time I was in town, I DJed at a Goldsweat event and it was nuts! These guys know how to throw a party!

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!!!