WTF, winter?!

Today I wanted to highlight a few recent successes from our musical "world", Digital and Physical, of course.

A.
Ejemplo 1 being a promo item I was given at the Co-Sign Collective CMJ Party (yeaaa @jessfromcosign). Check this necklace airhorn, which requires only your mouth to emit a crazy loud & annoying horn:



Mimic and play along to your favorite rap, reggaeton, or mambo mixtape! To the big guys keepin score at home and wondering how your corporation can reach your target demographic so effortlessly it's simple, really:

THE KIDS LOVE AIRHORNS.

B.


This song and accompanying "remix" video are another great case study in mashupculture2010. Although not as recent as last weeks CMJ score, the relevance of this little bastard baby of my(?) generation will not wane...

THE SMUSHUP/MASHMIX

Just as this borderline unbearable mashup begins to wear thin, it transitions into Oro Solido's Baile Del Beeper and immediately becomes TAN SEXY(er). Although I still can't come to terms with my son growing up thinking/learning that Walk It Out is "old school", throwback at noon material, I will embrace the idea that maybe one day he'll make a great video remix like this and put it on Youtube earning 1 MILLION VIEWS or more!

C.
& Our last digi success 2 celebrate comes in the form of a great breezy, dreamy, synth heavy cumbia from Damn Zun favorite, Los Daddy's:

Los Daddys - Lucerito by Damn Zun™ - BK,NY

This just goes to show that there is still good in the world and more often than not it comes in the form of a bootleg cumbia compilation covered in bikini clad birdies!

Oye Carnal

As if the previous flashing post that I left up for days wasn't enough, one more reminder:

TODAY IS iBOMBA!

Apparently, this is NYC - some sort of cultural melting pot & CMJ is the biggest music festival we've got..
At Damn Zun we did our best to represent some sort of card reading, spiritual incense journey into the future of club music. All while simultaneously launching a multi-borough, PR & Marketing Campaign to sing the praises of a collection of top international selectors, producers, singers and remixers around. Esta noche, Brooklyn is set to do a little dance to the sweet sounds of:

STARFOXXX, the Chitown Juke & Footwork Princes/Kings to be

UPROOT ANDY, Brooklyn's Cumbia Digital Duke

ZAKEE, West African Kuduro killa & Vocalist

ZUZUKA PODEROSA, 100% Baile Bass Bad Girl

& MIOS DIO DJ, the Sonido Especialista

AND if you can't make it, we thought about you too...free download over @soundcloud, featuring exclusives, unreleased, and amazing rolitas from all involved and others we wish were here:

iBomba CMJ Edición:Mios Dio DJ Private Mix feat. Uproot Andy, Zuzuka, Zakee, y Starfoxxx exclusivas) by Damn Zun™ - BK,NY

Gif animator

0% Chance of Precip

El fin de is upon us locos. It finds me smack zab in the middle of America, searching out cumbia jems pa' ti. I hope you're safe at your home PC, or on your smart phone scouring the WWW for something smooth & sexy to start your weekend just right. Trust in me - Let's get into a great mix from Bogotá and the one known as El Criollo:

Miscellaneus Oct. LiveSet by El Criollo

Now I usually approach mixes 1 of 2 ways.
A) scan the tracklist & judge a book by it's descriptive, colorful cover OR..
B) put it in the headphones and make my way through NYC with a new, unknown soundtrack

Seeing as I got to this one before the tracklist was posted, I jumped around via mouseclicks a bit, but felt too dishonest cheating. The patient Zun in me found a beautiful ride, blended ever so gently. The vibes are chill, a bit warm (tropical!?), covering reggaeton, cumbia, dancehall, +++
But really it brought me back to the core of all this global bass, nu-whirled, world music, mash up Y2K, ghetto poor pan Panama-esque electro trending...
:: deep breath:: It's all HIP HOP PEOPLE. Download this great hip hop dance mix that destroys barriers and stays away from anything too BPM'y and RAVEY. I'll have to find El Criollo when I make my return to Colombia and shake his hand. Don't believe the media hype people. Colombia & México are not lawless slums where you'll get kidnapped immediately upon arrival.

: )

brand Brand BRAND

Having worked "in" the music "industry" for about 7 years now, $CRAPING by year by year, I'm inherently drawn to conversations re: "experiential marketing", the digital label revolution, magazines folding, bla bla..

It ain't a melody, it's a formula.
It ain't music, it's a product.
It ain't poetry, it's a sales pitch.
It ain't happening, cause it is dead.
Rest in peace, art and music.
They know not what they do.
But they sure make money doin' it.
And that's all it's about anymore.

-Commenter from NY Times Article

Two interesting pieces hit the web today, courtesy of a certain PR maquina, at a certain magazine, discussing global corporate superpower: Converse. The shoemaker, who recently picked up and moved out of the good ol' USA, has a new "record label" and recording studio to-be in the epicenter of COOL/CHIMBA/GENIAL: Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The Village Voice asks the, er, interesting(?!), question, "Is it possible to sell out in 2010?", as both articles explore the quick and revolutionary changes happening in and around "indie music", but even larger, the "culture" that surrounds it.

I wish I had stayed in school longer to explore the communication & media theories I had only begun to hit in my sophomore year, but alas the music industry seemed so exciting & attainable so I made the blind leap in! Wee unpaid internships, ufff for underpaid salaried desk jobs, so on & so forth..

Anyway, I usually keep my rants @minimal over here, but I'll link you to two (2) very interesting & relevant pieces of more scholarly journalism:

The 1st from Wayne&Wax dives a bit deeper into what the small guys are tryin to do to stay afloat as labels continue to sink while Corporate America steps up to save the day (as discussed in the NYTimes and Village Voice jwnz)

& the 2nd from the NY reyes Dutty Artz with a small intro to a new series titled: #realtalk. Definitely interested to see what one of the "good guys" has to say about the PR world, startups, & all this
"..and if ya say #realtalk i prolly wont trust ya.."

Lots of great talk on the internet. I'm planning an internet rally as we speak...

"New Psychodelic Styles & Lisergics"

About half a year back, Argentina's Brujjas Deejay had the clouds of sound rumbling. Present day finds the producer dropping 10+ mashups and remixes in the past 24 hours on his page AQUI.Now before you "X" out of this precious little internet portal, let me tell you something. I HATE MASHUPS. I really do, most of the time. Be warned, I'm about to post up a remix of "Pull Up The People" by MIA. Yea, remember that one from 6 or 7 years back?

03-Pull up the marihuane (bonus 8bit+mia) by Brujjas Deejay

Here it is again. Ran through the Reggaeton remix maquinas & then flipped into an 8-bit, cumbia digital SMASH of a track. Check Brujja Deejay's Soundcloud & grab those tracks before the free D/L's run out. Here's one more incase you needed more coaxing to move another 8 inches across the screen:

06-dovster vs yelle by Brujjas Deejay

Artist Statement:
"Brujjas Deejay has born to create the music that make dance and move to everything persons of all the dancing floors of the world. His genre is the cumbia mashup, though he enjoys certain times to rise in new psychodelic styles and lisergics. The music of this amazing DJ of the night, not only it is highly dance, his amazing psychoactive power, provoke big trips to many people throughout."

Damn Zun Sends iPads to Lisbon; Hailed as Hero

I feel as if I've been really pushing the Mexican rave music to you guys the past few, so thought we'd take it to Portugal for this one, courtesy of DJ Marfox. I came across this and hadn't listened to much Kuduro lately but I'm not sure why after making it through a mix from the Enfuchada label in Lisbon. If you're out there and close to Kings County with a car, WITH subs please msg me. The Damn Zun office is at the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge. At about 48 minutes the bass starts to clip, or my speakers blew, I'm not sure. Either way I'm not complaining. My Utopia is a borderless land mass where Kuduro blends with Mambo and Warachero to create beautiful "interracial music babies", as Zuzuka put it. But anyway, Yea, this mix is REALLY hard & mean but DAMN (you know I want to say it)it's good.
E-RADIO #12 - DJ MARFOX by enchufada