Archive for the qbot tag

Red This Ever: Selfless

Three years ago, Kamar and I were asked to play the Baltimore Music Conference. Aside from playing at Sonar (one of my favorite warehouse-style clubs), the highlight of our trip wasn't the conference at all. Our friend Michael stole us away for a night to take us to The Depot, a venue that, if you're from Chicago, I would describe as sort of a cross between Darkroom and Liar's Club. The bill included DJ Medic, kindred soul to our new wave/synthpop/industrial focus, and the fantastic all-female Depeche Mode cover band Violator. But the best part was the headliners; Red This Ever absolutely blew us away with their energetic guitar-fused synthpop. I have since kept a Red This Ever button on my purse, and Kamar and I never forgot them.

You can imagine how excited we were when Michael told us they were coming to town. We jumped on the chance to book them, and so this Sunday, Atomic takes its first leap into live music. I couldn't ask for a better lineup, and Kamar and I hope that when you see Red This Ever, either at the show in Chicago or somewhere else on their long tour, that you're as impressed as we were that night in Baltimore.

RSVP to the facebook event page for a discounted-cover password

Selfless by Red This Ever

official website

A new chapter for Atomic

As of next Thursday, I will be quitting my residency at Neo. Along with me goes Atomic. This wasn't an easy decision to make, and Kamar and I are not really happy about it, but circumstances being what they are, it's for the best.

Looking into the future:
• Kamar will continue his residency at Neo on Thursdays under a different name.
• This blog will remain and continue to be updated.
• There will still be Atomic events, though they will be less frequent and at alternate venues.

In other words, not a whole lot is changing, aside from me not being in the booth on Thursdays. If you go to Atomic, I encourage you to continue to go to Neo on Thursdays to support Kamar, and if you read the blog, then keep reading the blog. Join our facebook group to be invited to future Atomic events, one of which I'll be posting about soon.

I've been at Neo for over four years, and it's been a great time. I've made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about the place, the music, and the people, and I'll carry that with me as I leave. Thanks to everyone who came and drank and danced, not just at Atomic but at all of my gigs at Neo over the years. I hope to see your faces again on my next dance floor.

-Qbot

Panic! 4 year anniversary / Aztec Camera: Good Morning Britain + The Smiths: Panic

Tonight, Panic! celebrates their fourth anniversary at Darkroom. I don't even remember how Kamar and I met Pogo and Arturo, but it's no surprise that the new wave djs with the Blondie-named night and the Britpop djs with the Smiths-named night were fast friends. I don't think Debbie Harry and Morrissey ever hooked up, but if Atomic was a girl, Panic would be our quirky British boyfriend. We're there almost every month -sometimes in the booth- and Arturo is one of our favorite regulars and guest djs at Neo. In either case, it's always a good time, and we're glad to help them celebrate their fourth anniversary.
In honor of Panic, I've chosen the oft-overlooked Aztec Camera single "Good Morning Britain", featuring vocals from Mick Jones of The Clash, from their 1990 release Stray. And of course this post wouldn't be complete without "Panic" by The Smiths. See you tonight!

Arturo, Kamar, Qbot, & Pogo

Buy Stray on Amazon
Aztec Camera on MySpace

Buy The Smiths on Amazon

Atomic’s 2 year anniversary / Cut Copy: Sands of Time

Join us tonight to celebrate two years of the best new wave party in Chicago with special guests Dark Wave Disco.
facebook event page

How time flies...
People ask me sometimes how we get so many people to come out to Neo on Thursday nights. There's a lot of factors involved (remnants of a built in crowd, people really like Depeche Mode, Neo's new wave-steeped history), but the short answer is that Kamar and I knew what we wanted to do; we had a good idea, we executed it, and it worked. We've never gotten a whiff of press coverage. We're more likely to pluck our guest djs off of our own dance floor than book a big name. At the end of the night, what brings people back every week is the energy of the music and the crowd, the feeling that everyone is welcome, and that anyone can be and dance how they want.

The first thing we decided, and the one thing we've very much stuck to our guns about, is that it's not an "'80s night". We've all been to '80s nights. There's nothing special about most of them and we've all heard more than enough cheesy pop for our lifetimes. It's not what Atomic is about. There is an astonishing number of current acts in the new wave/synthpop/new romantic genres, and the best way to keep the music -and the crowd- fresh week after week is to include that.

The one band that matches our style perfectly, hands down, is Cut Copy. Their New Order-reincarnate sound has been a staple every week for the last two years, right in there with all the Soft Cell and Human League where it belongs. Now if they would just get a little more prolific...

official site
"Sands of Time" is unreleased; buy Cut Copy on Amazon

Yello: Bostich

Last night started off really slow--after all, a good portion of our crowd was at The Queen Is Dead early in the night--but by the time Arturo went on and The Handsome Devilz arrived, it was a juggernaut. While Kamar was rallying the dancers over to Neo, I got to do a long early set. One of the things I love about doing early sets at Atomic is that I get to experiment a bit and gauge reactions before I play a song to a packed floor. Will they dance if I play this? Will the regulars run up to the booth screaming about how they love it or how they'll strangle me if I ever play it again? Sometimes, I realize that I should've been playing it at 1am all along.

Such is the case with the Yello classic "Bostitch". It blows my mind that this single was released in 1979. Typical of Yello's style, it's sophisticated, dark, and avant-garde. It's very new wave, it's really tech-house, it's vaguely industrial…and no, that is not Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb singing. Actually it's Dieter Meier [himself a very interesting person], the conceptualist half of Yello, whose ideas are executed by self-claimed perfectionist Boris Blank, who reportedly has a library of over 100,000 samples he made from scratch.

Now in their 60s, Meier and Blank are still making music as Yello, and it's still just as good. Most of their current work is in soundtracks these days. Recently, they've worked with Audi and been the subject of a documentary. I hope I'm half as cool as they are when I'm their age.

"Bostich" is on their debut album Solid Pleasure.

Solid Pleasure on Amazon
Yello Official Website