Pretoria, you were amazing! Thanks for coming out in such force!

DirtyLoud and F.O.O.L love the show!

Big thanks go out to Olmeca, KWV and Monster Energy!

Check out the pics:

Shot by Stefan Jordan-Rozwadowski

PICTURES

Blow-up dolls, passed-out revelers, killer shows, dirty sunshine, keys locked in cars, the popo overhead, sleeping ooms, plenty tequila. And the music that mattered. All in 100 pics.

Photos by Taryn Arnott & Pieter Van Jaarsveld

THE KOPPI 2011

Check out the pics from our Dont Party.TV launch that was held on the 29th July 2011 at The Assembly in Cape Town!

Epic times were had!

CHECK OUT DONT PARTY.TV HERE [CLICK]

Check out the pics from our Dont Party.TV launch that was held on the 29th July 2011 at The Assembly in Cape Town!

Epic times were had!

CHECK OUT DONT PARTY.TV HERE [CLICK]

My ribcage is rattling and my mind has just gone apocalyptic. Pimply teens are out past their curfews for the holidays, shaking their heads and limbs like mad scientists. Skism has just taken the stage, and the tension in the Woods is about to break. And I can’t move.

I tend to find refuge in the sounds of happy-go-lucky indie, because it makes me feel warm and fuzzy and unthreatened. The uneasiness that comes with dubstep – the heart palpitations and apocalyptic state of mind – makes me nervous. But tonight, I realise that, no matter how hard I fight it, I’ve been converted.

I realise this mid-Twelv’s set, when his live-mixing and sickly scary drops have me wallowing in the trippy sordid squalor that only dubstep can bring.

Jo’burg’s dubsteppers can’t be fooled. And this climate of high-demand for quality mixing and sick originality leaves no wiggle room for shit DJs. Thank the okes over at DubstepSA, we don’t have to worry about any of those turning up, ever.

Like a 5-course Mexican fiesta, the starters for Skism night are spirited and pack the punch, and they keep coming back to me the next day. With Kid Fonque’s deep bass, Ambush’s creepy electro flare, Jackie Paper’s ginger madness, Twelv’s megalomaniac dirty beats and Phyzicist & Crossman’s brash magnetism, it’s hard not to get sucked into a whirlwind mess in dancefloor limbo. But, enough pleasantries. This is dubstep that is psychoactive, fresh and good.

And then, there was Skism.

I didn’t know it could be done. In the past year, Skism has reached cult status in dubstep circles. He reels in the skeptics with the artful mixing of big names, without compromising the integrity of his own style. And after netting the skeptics he showers them with live mixing and creating that still has me shaken.

Nothing says enthusiasm like a manic kid screaming with pleasure into Skism’s face for the duration of his two-hour set.

Skism’s mean round-house kick can corrupt babies and possess kittens like they’re on crack

He can send Twelv back into the Matrix so hard that he can’t avoid floors flying at his face.

When Phyzicist & Crossman take the stage, it’s on fire. They stoke it and possess the crowd until early morning, and I can’t get enough.

I learn three new things on Skism night.

1. Don’t get stuck in the middle of a dubstep crowd with a glass in your hands. Mosh pits happen to dubstep too.

2. Don’t sit next to the friendly looking dreaded guy. The peace and love emanating from his aura are not going to stop his puke from getting all over your shoes.

3. Don’t dive nose-first into the DJ box, even if it is carpeted. Twelv’s now deviated-septum can tell you that.

I learnt a few more very important things about Twelv on Skism night:

1. When the Tokoloshe goes to sleep he checks under the bed for Twelv.

2. Some magicians can walk on water. Twelv can swim through land.

3. Twelv once peed in a Toyota bakkie’s petrol tank. That bakkie is now Optimus Prime.

4. Twelv uses paper to cut scissors.

But Twelv is not averse to the hypnotic powers of Skism. Would someone please write these guys into Wikipedia?

*** All Photos courtesy Pieter van Jaarsveld

Check out the photos from the epic Designer Drugs [USA] event that was held in Town Hall in Jozi! The event featured Designer Drugs [USA], Haezer, Sedge Warbler, Liver and Musical Chairs and it went OFFFFFFFF!!!!!!

**** All photo courtesy Mooki Mooks [da boss]

Check out the photo’s from the Dont Party Toffie After Party we hosted at Cape Town City Hall, it was an amazing night at one hell of an awesome venue! For the rest of the photo’s check out DIARY OF WARD HERE! :: The El Jimador Tequila room photo’s will be available shortly on the Dont Party fanpage!

For the rest of the photo’s check out DIARY OF WARD HERE!

I’m not surprised when a gimp on a leash pulls the hooded and pale Eve Rakow through the dank and subtly frenzied hipsters. The gimp’s eyes dash wildly about while his head sways round in mechanical loops. He obediently sits close by while the Frown conquer the joint, keeping a wobbly distance from the blood thirsty beatniks. Sans drummer tonight, the Frown slip into a cloud of anxious anticipation.

Rakow and Tim Apter are playing dress-up, in appearance and attitude and depth. And it turns us on. The particular brand of esoteric freak folk with its gloomy and dangerously dark beats has a sweetness that flows through the Woods.

They’ve been called “the poor man’s Lark” (a label I don’t necessarily agree with) and have redefined the Jo’burg underground, which has been hiding indoors and hibernating during the rainy months.

I don’t know how or when the Frown got so big, but they have ballooned into a mythical creature that must be captured and tasted and consumed upon the faintest hint of capture. Their uneasiness and enigmatic affect have launched them to cult status.

The crowd is edgy now. They can’t quite make sense of the distance between themselves and the performers.

But this is the beauty of the Frown. The distance is what makes us want them more. Knowing that we can never quite devour them, never connect. It makes us ache for them. Rakow has vanquished the cliquey  mass of misplaced cool kids. They are thirsty and bored, mysterious and aloof, unfazed but peacefully agitated. And she is their queen. But the pure detachment has them uneasy and hostile.

And in today’s Jo’burg, saturated with fly-by-night indie groups, worn out rockers, and drug-fuelled doof doof, they are the next big, and we hope, lasting thing. But a sense of foreboding, of eminent doom, trails in the dust of their success. We have come far enough to know that we have to clutch onto the great things while they last.

The Frown are not ones to bar any holds when it comes to arousing the desires of their followers. But two sweaty bearded men have bogged down upon the stage, flashing and jumping, and have sent the overly-protective crowd berserk.  But the Bohemian cupcake that is Eve still maintains her glow, in fact, she thrives on the tension, and spits it back into the crowd.

There is an emptiness in their sound, in their approach. A bunny-faced Tim Apter has harnessed the power of silence, and tamed it with dark crunching simplicity that is intensified by the rake-like quality of Rakow’s voice. At one point Apter and Rakow sandwich together, and the crowd is turned on, bathing in the lust.

Another faceless, shirtless, gimpish man, resembling perhaps another Apter brother, has taken up a spot on the side of the stage, building upon the detachment.

There are a few moments of desperation, of indulgence, of darkness, of flashing depth and gloom, of righteous indignation, and sweet diabolic affliction. And then there is a mash up and slide in with MTkidu, a bit of uncertainty, and then the crowd forgets their tension and surrenders to the sweet silliness and grinding beats of Mtkidu.

Afterwards we turn again to a bit of mindless moving and indulgent self-glorification to the beats of Twelv and Thesis, and from there, everything becomes a blur, a buxom deluge of lost dignity and pleasure.

And soon we have all forgotten, let the enigma fade into the night, ready for another day of empty thrills and desperation in the big city. Big bulky photographers permitting.

GALLERY

]]> http://www.dontparty.co.za/2011/02/the-frown-esoteric-freak-folk-in-the-january-woods-jhb/feed/ 4 http://www.dontparty.co.za/2010/12/photos-start-now-charity-event/ http://www.dontparty.co.za/2010/12/photos-start-now-charity-event/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:30:05 +0000 Blogged http://www.dontparty.co.za/?p=21862

Photos from the charity event :: Start Now hosted at Karma in Camps Bay on Sunday the 12th of December.

Well done to you all R30 000 was raised for a great cause! Pat yourselves on the back!

*** All photos courtesy Mike Hazell

There’s a new kid on the block in PTA’s party scene. And what better way to celebrate the capital with a party pumped full of snor’s and cleavage at Pretoria’s best kept secret, Rust? We popped in at the Summer Love bash for some sweet tunes.

Dancy pop and funky kids crawled out of the wood work for one of the arbest and hardest nights of the year.

One of the brains behind the project, and the guy who brought you the original The Woods, and Town Hall , Zayn Jelinek, spoke to us after one of the first of many parties promised from I love P-Town.

What is the idea behind ‘I love P-Town’?

Well, simply put ‘I Love P-Town’ is the brainchild of three guys who
want the Mother City to party as hard as they used to, and to see top
artists like they used to back in the day. We all remember the days when
you never had to question whether there will be a great party on a weekly
basis, but this dream world died a few years ago, and the community of
P-Town was forced to conform to average music, average vibes, and
average parties. Basically, we want to party hard again with our fellow
Pretorianers!

What is so great about P-Town?

1. students
2. trends
3. loads of bars
4. music lovers
5. girls

But no one can describe the awesomeness of our great city like
Bittereinder do in their co-lab track “A tale of three cities”:
‘Ek skryf hierdie rympie in Oktober terwyl my geboortestad pers is

vir elke boemmie op Kerkplein wat veilig onder sy kombers is

vir almal wat sonder werk is, van Danville tot Waterkloof tot Arkadia

en almal wat goed weet van gewapende roof

ek skryf vir die mense wat piekniek hou by die Voortrekkermonument en die karre op Voortrekkerstraat wat dice op vyftig sent

en vir Polly’s met sy king-size snoekertafelsessies

en vir die hippies en die cool kids elke naweek by Tings

ek skryf vir die Noorde se Cool Runnings en die Wonderboom

en ek skryf vir die ou Nile waar ons bands kon drome droom

vir ‘n godsdiens van blou bloed en die Bulle op Loftus

vir die Telkomtoring en vir Zeplins waar die Goths is

ek skryf vir Lollipop Roadhouse aan die oostekant van Kerkstraat

vir die Staatsteater en vir Sunnyside as dit donker raak

vir Esselenstraat in die tyd toe Stix nog bestaan het

vir dronk tieners in Burnett en prostitute in Beckett

ek skryf nou vir Players en vir Vaic se “9-ball skills”
en ek skryf vir TUKS FM waar Stav nog steeds eclectic is

vir UNISA en Fountains en die parkeerterrein van Menlyn

en vir almal wat hyg na asem in die verkeer op die N1

ek skryf vir die PTA News en vir die uitsig van die Uniegeboue

en vir Crossroads Coffeeshop waar mense inkom van die koue

vir die botaniese tuine en die Breytenbach-teater

ek skryf vir die dieretuin se golfkarretjies en Magnolia Dal se water

en ek skryf ook vir Boys High en Pro Arte Alphen Park

bittereinder moes ook skool toe gaan,

ai, daai dae van lag en smart soos ‘n hoëveldweerligstorm

is hierdie stad in my ingebrand
Kerkorrel se Snor City, Pretoria in my hart’

(ag cute!)

What have you got planned for the future?

We do have some great parties lined up for 2011, but secrecy has to
prevail for now…. The best hint we can give is that there will be a few CD
launches from awesome artists…

(Note: I also smell a killer New Year’s Party… That’s all I can say for now. Gonna. Be. Big.)

Is ‘I love P-Town’ going to make it big?

We hope so! But the strength of this venture is only as great
as what the people of Pretoria will make it. We live in a town with so many opportunities for nightlife, and so many venues deserve a piece of the pie.

But when people pitch up to our parties, in many of P-Town’s venues, they can rest assured that bigger acts will soon follow, and more venues will jump on board.

Who else is on board for this project?

We get great support from a couple of people. Tuks FM has been great,
the Hotbox boys (Henk, Chris, Willie) have been awesome, the Cheeky Monkey
group, Henry at Rust, and of course all the party people of P-Town. They’re all
building towards success with us!

Watch this space for s’nor of the action. Grunt.

Photo contributions by Pieter van Jaarsveld