A few weeks ago we were raving about Burner The Scumfrog‘s latest album, “In Case We’re All Still Here“. I listened to it again last night, it just keeps getting better and better. Here’s a great (and rare) interview with the superstar DJ about the album, and life in general. I really liked his description of how once you’ve gone from starting out in your career, to having made it, you can be anywhere.
Well, if you don’t want the album because you really need to keep your 8 bucks for something else, you can help yourself to a whole host of free music at his site, GlamScum.com – Glam Scum International Radio.
In 2008, superstar DJ and producer Jesse Houk aka The Scumfrog launched his radio project Glam Scum on Sirius. After instant acclaim and with a fast growing buzz from dedicated listeners, the wildly popular show is now available for licensing worldwide.
*** MAIN OUTLINE *** Similar to shows like “The Essential Selection” with BBC jock Pete Tong, “Release Yourself” with Roger Sanchez, or “Ferry’s Countdown” with Ferry Corsten, Glam Scum is based on its host’s personal selection of upfront club sounds. The show’s main draw is Jesse’s finely tuned sense for the sounds that move a dance floor, and past show’s playlists prove that when it comes to predicting, discovering and premiering future anthems, the frog never misses a beat. However, what truly sets the show apart from other ‘club radio’ is Jesse’s long background as a radio-host, his approach to a truly international market, and his unique ability to alluringly characterize the global club industry through his presentation. From his studio on Sandia Mountain, New Mexico, he lends his insight, wit and personality to expose the face of the international Electronic Music scene: a movement that — while sometimes unfairly getting pigeonholed as faceless and obscure – still creates trends in all genres of music.
*** THE SCUMFROG *** No radio-host is more international than The Scumfrog. He moved to New York City from his native Amsterdam in 1997, and is mostly known for his club performances around the world, and his award winning studio work with international artists such as David Bowie, Missy Eliott, Cyndi Lauper, New Order, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Amiel and Hikaru Utada. His own single Music Revolution was used in the TV ad for the Chevrolet HHR through 2005/2006. However, his resume prior to adopting his alter ago “The Scumfrog” is all about radio. At 19 (while still simply Jesse, and still in school) he started developing his on-air personality at local stations in Amsterdam. He quickly worked his way up to the national stage, eventually branching out into jobs as music director and program director. Even though Scumfrog-produced music has been a regular part of rhythmic radio programming since 2001, Jesse himself had been absent as a host on the airwaves since he left Amsterdam, until Glam Scum marked his return to radio-hosting, and his debut as American radio personality. Since Glam Scum’s inception on Sirius in January of 2008 it earned critical acclaim from media heavyweights in the Dance Music community, and caught on fast with the broad Satellite radio audience, attracting not only Dance Music fans, but also a large new audience that otherwise wouldn’t tune in to voiceless ‘techno radio’.
We’ve mentioned a few times Burning Man’s new Social Alchemist Bear Kittay. Well, today’s his birthday, and we wanted to swing him some love. As Burning Man’s Social Alchemist, Bear’s job is to go to as many Regionals and similar events as he can, listening to the people “in the field” about what more Burning Man could do to help them, and also spreading the news about the latest goings on of BMOrg and the Burning Man Project.
I saw him at work doing this in Costa Rica at Envision, and I have to say, he’s awesome at it. Burning Man have done well to ensnare their Bear, he is the consummate networker and a man of many talents. One of those is musical, and as his friend it’s been great to see him finally recording his album over the past year. He’s leveraged his contacts in the musical world to record some amazing tracks with some well regarded people in his crew.
Now he needs our help to get the new “peer to peer” album out. “We need your money, but even more than that, we need your voice”. Helping Burning Man’s Social Alchemist, helps Burning Man. Plus it’s his birthday. So help Bear, please give whatever you can, every bit helps.
The record is being mixed and mastered by Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, a very affable chap who wrote perhaps the greatest song lyrics ever. He’s also retained Oliver and Sabec as counsel, who are the lawyers responsible for the Grateful Dead catalog (shout out to Jacqui, happy birthday to you too!)
First off, THANK YOU for taking the time to read this
With so much clutter, clunk, detritus, and distractions on the internet, we don’t want to take up more of your time staring at a screen than is necessary, so we’ll keep this as brief as possible.
We’ve been putting this album together for close to a year now, but the underlying motivations and reasons for making it have been fomenting for most of our lives – and this is when it’s all coming together. Bear’s been traveling the world as Burning Man’s roving Social Alchemist, working to connect communities in new and novel ways… but as much as he loves organizing through network and hands-on “pitching,” he’s also been deeply honing his craft as a musician — and for him, this album is the essence of the storytelling that has permeated from his global experiences.
Music has always been a huge part of Bear’s life — he sung opera as a child, was bugle boy at camp, and picked up the guitar at 13 on a childhood expedition from Scarsdale, New York to the Utah Desert. His study of music has been through deeply immersive experiences, studying North Indian Classical music at Oberlin from his teacher, or “guruji,” Hasu Patel, and studying diverse ethnomusical traditions in his travels.
And now his traveling has brought him to the point of making this album. In June of 2012, Bear reconnected with Doce Luna (the producer of “Radio Beartopia,”) a bass player from an Obama benefit he had played in New York City four years earlier, at an Obama benefit . Luna reached out to Bear via Facebook to join him at the Bold Academy – a personal accelerator, “real life school for superheroes,” in Boulder, Colorado. Luna is a deeply steeped and studied musician, having gotten a degree in jazz performance at the Manhattan School of Music, where he performed an eclectic mix of jazz, classical, rock and electronic music, which culminated in a Latin Grammy nomination for his work with the Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra. After spending years as a professional bassist – his calling – he tragically, in a freak accident, paralyzed his left hand, a condition that doctors said was likely permanent. This accident put a sudden stop to his performing career, and he reached out to Bear in need of life recalibration.
Not a day later, Luna arrived in Boulder, and him and Bear began a deep, inventive collaboration, blending analog and digital, melody and production, in unique and novel ways. Luna fully dove into developing his music production skills, as a means of continuing to make music with a paralyzed hand. Subsequently, Bear convinced Luna to move to San Francisco and to come to Burning Man, where Bear was organizing live music experiences. Since his paralysis left him, somewhat paradoxically, with more freedom of movement, Luna happily obliged. And while at the Burning Man event his hand had finally recovered to the point where he was able to pick up the bass once again. Their first performance, a “Cosmic Cruise,” took place on top of a psychedelic double decker art-bus, with the North Mississippi Allstars’ Cody Dickinson on drums. This performance was, in fact, the first time that Luna had played the bass since his accident.
After Burning Man, Cody invited Bear to come down to Zebra Ranch Studios, and lay down some tracks with him and his brother, Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars, The Black Crowes). Flattered by the invitation, and feeling a desire to update his material, Bear embarked on a songwriting binge, the majority of which took place on a small boat in the Mediterranean, where he and some of the founders of Burning Man were on a vacation / strategic ideation retreat. It was in the context of philosophical strategy mixed with the ancient ruins and amphitheatres of the Greeks, Mycenaeans, and others, that he rediscovered his muse, writing a “boatload” of new songs, and producing a rough EP of the material, using nothing more than GarageBand and his MacBook Air’s laptop mic. Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, in fact, collaborated on some lyrical content. Armed with this material, Bear went to Mississippi to work with the Allstars.
After returning from nearly a week of recording 12+ songs with the North Mississippi Allstars at the Zebra Ranch, he brought the tracks to Luna, with an initial reluctance for much tinkering. Luna, despite Bear’s initial attachment to the “purity” of the Mississippi tracks, immediately began dissecting and re-tooling them, and thus instigated the beginnings of the Radio Beartopia sound – defined by a stark juxtaposition of acoustic and electronic genre stylings, nevertheless unified by theme, mood, and overall style.
With original tracks recorded in Mississippi, Turkey, San Francisco, Malibu, New York and at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, where Al Green recorded his oeuvre – Radio Beartopia is a record with a truly diverse and international sound. Bear & Luna are now working with Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) and ET Thorngren (who mixed and mastered over 100 legendary records, including Bob Marley’s “Legend”) on the mixing and mastering of the record.
The Record.
“Radio Beartopia,” as a title, is intended to evoke the central idea of the record – that in terms of concept, it is sort of like switching between different radio stations, between different styles – but having those various styles and concepts be unified by Bear’s lyrical presence, and by the overall mood and arc of the album. And even the classical radio station is represented – several tracks on the album are instrumental works by Luna, that he composed for an eighteen piece electroacoustic ensemble, including a string quartet, woodwinds, horn section, classical percussion, rock percussion, and synthesizers.
Where We’re Currently At.
We’ve recorded an absolute ton of tracks, and explored just about every detail and potential variation in the absolutely metamorphic process that has been birthing this record. We’re about 90% done with the tracking and editing process on 14 tracks, although we are still TBD about our launch timeline, and whether we want to release an EP before the LP, etc. We have several music videos in development and our website, beartopia.com, is launching imminently. We’ve retained Oliver & Sabec LLP (Grateful Dead, Burning Man) as counsel and we have Jim Walsh (Big Hassle) and a couple other friends helping with PR. We’re still making some decisions on the management front, but have a couple of incredible candidates for the role. As of now, we haven’t yet started meeting with potential booking agents.
This record has a diverse array of collaborators musically.
—-
Bear Kittay Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Sitar, Electric Sitar, Banjo, Melodica, Kazoo
Doce Luna Producer, Upright Bass, Electric Bass, Guitar, Synththesizers, Percussion
Cody Dickinson Drums, Piano, Percussion, Electric Washboard
Luther Dickinson Slide Guitar, Guitar, Mandolin
Memphis Gospel Singers Background Vocals
Give what you can. Spread the word through social networks or by picking up the phone, blogging or word of mouth. Let us know what you think! We do this together.
Well, it seems that he is now foraying into the burgeoningEDM bubble. His latest track “Dance My Friends” features either Rihanna, or a sound-alike.
This builds on his previous commercial song, “Mega Upload” featuring Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West.
“Kim Dotcom, also known as Kimble, and Kim Tim Jim Vestor is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur, currently residing in New Zealand. He is the founder of Megaupload and its associated websites, as well as Megaupload’s successor site, Mega”
He stands 2 meters tall, and has three albums out. One of his claims to fame is having been ranked the #1 player in the world in the XBox game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to see him back at Burning Man anytime soon, since the US is trying to extradite him.
“It’s just kind of ridiculous what they did to his life,” Apple founder Steve Wozniak told the AP. “An awful lot of Kiwis support him. The U.S. government is on thin ground.”
It looks like Kim.Com is pulling out all the stops to defend himself against bizarre accusations of a victimless crime, a “crap indictment” personally signed by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and recently described by New Zealand’s highest judge as “a miscarriage of Justice“. He recently won some big legal victories, including an apology from the Prime Minister. We wish him well in his case, which affects all of our rights as Internet users and global sovereign citizens.
Our recent piece stirring the horny nest hot-button issue of kids at the Burn prompted an amusing comment from Burner St Addis of Paul.
Leave it to burnersxxx to get to the real issue here — are babes spoiling the “true meaning of burning man”? (i.e. DJs and the people who love them) You’ll just have to think of kids as living, breathing little Freebirds-at-Temple-burn, and I’m sure Mr the Pro would counsel you that that’s the kind of thing you just have to suck up and deal with in the name of freedom. Personally, St Addis finds it a little troublesome that there’s limited medical care in the event that a kid gets hurt, and thinks that anyone who sticks a kid in a car seat for an 8 hour exodus needs their head examined (i.e. I hope all those kids come in RVs, anything else seems cruel) but there were kids around burner culture long before there were international DJs with dusty cocks in need of sucking, and anything that forces people to realize that burning man is something other than “the world’s largest rave” is probably a good thing.
True. And it’s nice to know people are reading this blog enough to get the point. I’ve got no problem with other things going on at Burning Man beyond the hundreds, if not thousands, of raves. Indeed, I enjoy many other aspects too. But anyone who tries to deny it’s the world’s largest rave is crazy. Maybe Coachella, EDC, Ultra, TomorrowLand get way more numbers, $100 million+ just on tickets in some cases, $1 million+ for artists…but Burning Man is a CITY. We live in this rave. We ride bikes from stage to stage, or get a ride on a stage itself. We can turn our own camp into a stage if we want, anyone of our friends can get up and DJ, if the music is good people will come over and dance. Burning Man has it all over every other party in terms of its physical dimensions, number of DJs, and number of stages – especially when you consider that pretty much every art car is a mobile stage too. That’s about 500 stages right there. Music is everywhere! Unknown DJs mix with local heroes who mix with international superstars, who are often playing for free and incognito. This has become a fundamental part of the party, and explains most of the increase in numbers from 15,000 in 1998 to 68,000 now. They can get away with $400 ticket prices, because that’s about right for what people would pay to see these artists at a festival. A festival that is paying for the artists, of course. Look, I’ll grant you, it doesn’t all have to be dubstep, that’s for fucken sure. More psy-trance, more trance! But that’s an aside. Raves have always incorporated the art and lighting elements, as well as loud music and packed dance floors.
Now these days in 2013 we have “EDM”, this week there was a fantastic article by DJ Pangburn in Death and Taxes about the building EDM “bubble” in the United States. It seems doof has been a slow burner (if you pardon the pun) in this country, but right now it is on fire.
St Paul’s comment triggered a certain curiosity in me. Which did come first, the “pollo fuego” or the Eggstasy?
Which came first: raves or Burning Man?
Burning Man was a bit smaller in 1998
It seems that the first events the Burning Man founders had on the Playa did not feature electronic music. I do remember losing my Burginity in 1998 and rave was there, but maybe 2 or 3 camps that you had to find by listening for the bass. Anyone with more information, please let us know.
Wikipedia has slightly conflicting information on when Burning Man started, between the official Burning Man entry and the Cacophony Society. The movie Dust and Illusions goes into this in some detail. The first Burning Man was held on Baker Beach in 1986, a fire ceremony. Burning Man claims this as the start of their party, but in fact it was the Cacophony Society in 1986 and they claim it became Burning Man in 1988.
The first raves were held in the 1980′s, and the first description in the media of “Acid House Parties” as “raves” is claimed as 1989 – by Genesis P.Orridge, an occultist from the band Psychic TV . By 1991, the rave scene was no longer undeground and they were throwing legal parties in the UK for upwards of 30,000 people. That’s right, 20 years ago, they were throwing official, permitted raves – with electronic music – a comparable size to Burning Man.
What about the US? Wikipedia again:
American ravers, following their early UK & European counterparts, have been compared to both the hippies of the 1960s and the new wavers of the 1980s, due to their interest in non-violence and music.
In the 1990s, one of the most influential Rave organisers / promoters in America was San Diego’s G.U.N., Global Underworld Network known as Nicholas Luckinbill and Branden Powers. They were made famous for organising and throwing the internationally known OPIUM and NARNIA raves that reached in size of 60,000 plus people in attendance, a feat unheard of at that time. Narnia which would become famous for a morning hand holding circle of unity was featured on Mtv and twice in LIFE magazine being honored with Event of the Year in 1995. Narnia quickly became known as the “Woodstock of Generation X”. These festivals were mostly held on Indian Reservations and Ski Resorts during the Summer months and were headlined by well known DJs such as Doc Martin,Dimitri of Dee-lite,Afrika Islam and the Hardkiss brothers from San Francisco
So we have San Francisco DJs and San Diego promoters throwing parties for 60,000 people in the early 90′s. The Woodstock of Generation X. I think it’s safe to say that rave was well on the scene in California before Burning Man was anything more than some loosely affiliated people camping together in the desert for free. If you read the story of the first Burning Man on the Playa, it seems like it was viewed more as a Cacophony Society event back then. For about 80 people. According to the respected source Dr Dre Started Burning Man, they applied for their first permit in 1991 and Dr Dre took it over in 1995.
Just kidding. That video sure stands the test of time though. And raises more questions than it answers. But let’s go with Wikipedia instead of Dr Dre:
1996 was the first year a formal partnership was created to own the name “Burning Man” and was also the last year that the event was held in the middle of the Black Rock Desert with no fence around it.
Thus it seems we should call the official start of Burning Man 1996, when they built the fence, created the company, and called the thing “Burning Man”…and get back to my rant about raves. First, we should define “rave”. Wikipedia is good enough for me:
Juno Reactor – ultimate live rave band
According to Gibson (1999) rave is a spatial practice, which is done through the harmonization of dance, music and lighting. A part of a growing global subculture, and a powerful entertainment industry, the rave party is an event through which individuals can experience trances, religious rapture, deal with personal issues and of course have a really good time.[3]
St. John (2003) claims that raves pride themselves on their friendly atmosphere and welcoming attitude, by both the employees of the event and the guests. With a specific code of conduct, and a developing spiritual philosophy, rave culture can, according to St John, be viewed as part of new religious movement, as well as a re-invention of shamanistic or paganspiritual practices.[4]
Shamanistic? Pagan? You mean, as old as time then. Going all the way back to the Dreamtime. Reading this definition, you could argue that Burning Man already was a rave, as soon as it started.
A rave is an all night event, where people go to dance, socialise, get high and generally have fun in an uninhibited way with other likeminded people. Some say it’s about the creation of a community and re-connecting with something perceived as lost. Others just say it’s about necking loads of pills and getting wasted with your mates in a field.
They have some informaton on the origin of the term:
The term rave first came into use in Britain in the late 50′s referring to the wild bohemian parties of the time. It was then briefly revived by the mods, but didn’t come back into fashion until the illegal London warehouse party scene in the mid eighties. However it is likely that the term ‘rave’ came from Jamaican usage rather than a revival of any previous usage in Britain.
Wikipedia provides further clarification:
In 1958 Buddy Holly recorded the hit “Rave On,” citing the madness and frenzy of a feeling and the desire for it to never end
So, Buddy Holly was the first American raver. Right on, Rave On.
TomorrowLand in Belgium, the world’s biggest rave since Love Parade 2000 in Berlin
In the late 1950s in London the term “Rave” was used to describe the “wild bohemian parties” of the Sohobeatnik set.[5] In 1958 Buddy Holly recorded the hit “Rave On,” citing the madness and frenzy of a feeling and the desire for it to never end.[6] The word “rave” was later used in the burgeoning mod youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe any wild party in general. People who were gregarious party animals were described as “ravers”. Pop musicians such as Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Keith Moon of The Who were self-described “ravers”.
Presaging the word’s subsequent 1980s association with electronic music, the word “rave” was a common term used regarding the music of mid-1960s garage rock and psychedelia bands (most notably The Yardbirds, who released an album in the US called Having a Rave Up). Along with being an alternative term for partying at such garage events in general, the “rave-up” referred to a specific crescendo moment near the end of a song where the music was played faster, heavier and with intense soloing or elements of controlled feedback. It was later part of the title of an electronic music performance event held on 28 January 1967 at London’s Roundhouse titled the “Million Volt Light and Sound Rave”. The event featured the only known public airing of an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by Paul McCartney of The Beatles – the legendary Carnival of Light recording
Burning Man can trace roots prior to 1996 all the way back to the Cacophony Society, I’ll give you that. But the first raves started out of the Factory in Manchester, even earlier than that. Wikipedia accredits this to the Stone Roses in 1985:
The first warehouse parties in Manchester were organized by the group The Stone Roses back in 1985, when to get around the licensing laws they would play a gig and book a line up of DJs under the disused arches of Piccadilly train station. These parties were then advertised as an all night video shoot, and the kids who bought tickets for £5 would have a 1p piece sellotaped to the back as their fee for being extras in a video shoot, thus for several months the forces of law were kept at bay
…but that completely overlooks the role of Tony Wilson, Factory and the Hacienda in Manchester in shaping the career and sound of the Stone Roses, and New Order in the Factory prior to that. I highly recommend the movie 24 Hour Party People, starring Steve Coogan, which is the story of Factory Records. I have friends who were there and they assure me the movie is pretty close to the true story. New Order were the absolute pioneers of electronic dance music, of course they were not the only ones, but their 1982 track “Blue Monday” is the biggest selling 12 inch of all time. And I’m not talking dildoes. It used to be in every DJ’s vinyl collection.
“Blue Monday” was described by the BBC Radio 2 “Sold On Song” feature thus: “The track is widely regarded as a crucial link between Seventies disco and the Dance/House boom that took off at the end of the Eighties.”[12]Synthpop had been a major force in British popular music for several years, but “Blue Monday”, by encouragement of the band’s manager, Rob Gretton, was dance record that also exhibited influences from the New York club scene,[12] particularly the work of producers like Arthur Baker (who collaborated on New Order’s follow-up single “Confusion”).
Earthcore Australia, 2007. A proper Bush Doof. The lineup for their 20th anniversary in December is outstanding – click image for details
And then, we go back to the New York club scene. Possibly all the way to the synthesized disco beats of the 1970′s. Detroit and Chicago have strong arguments for creating the house sound, Derrick May in particular is viewed by many as the main creator of techno in 1987. Before that we had Kraftwerk from Germany. Jean-Michel Jarré from France – in 1986 he was doing shows with 1200 projectors, for 1.5 million people. Pink Floyd. Techno sound. Electronic sound. David Bowie, Brian Eno. All ravers. You follow the rabbit hole far enough, and you get to Lucy. Not Lucy, our common ancestor, the genetic originator of humans. The first one dancing to the beat of the drum, at the original rave in a cave. No, I’m talking about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. LS ‘n wonder lanD. The preferred trip of the trippers. Acid. The founding DNA of Burning Man, the Rave Scene, and 50 years of culture and creativity emanating from San Francisco, bringing peace and love to the world through art and music and invention.
You wanna argue that Burning Man can claim hippy purity by tracing its San Francisco roots to the 60′s acid freak scene of Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and the Grateful Dead? I’ll argue back that the electric guitar is electronic music. So Hendrix is one of ours, the Doors. Obviously we claim the synthesizer, meaning Transhumanist leader Ray Kurzweil is a raver. This Founding Father of the Singularity is now Director of Engineering at Google, BTW. He’s building a mind there. Actually it’s an Artilect, a Godlike Massively Intelligent Machine – an Artificial Intelligence Hive mind that will be plugged into all our emails, appointments, movements, and everything we see and hear and do through our phones, cars, homes and glasses. And, given that Google makes $3.5 billion profit per quarter and has $50 billion in cash, it’s probably fair to say his budget has no limits. So ravers got robots. It’s a mistake to classify all of us as drugged up and obsessed only with hotpants, glowsticks and deep bass.
Yep, he’s a raver. A hard core one – he pops 200 pills a day. No idea if we can claim him as a Burner – but I would be astounded if that guy had not been to Burning Man. Especially to get a job like that at Google, who seem to have already fast-forwarded the Singularity timeline about 20 years. The Age of Spiritual Machines was an amazing book, and most ravers I’ve met are very spiritual people – though not necessarily religious.
Anyway, do I need to get medieval on your ass? We come from the old skool:
Here we have electronic music even before acid. But let’s go back even further. Ecstasy was invented by Merck in 1912. Where were all the hippies then? Thomas Edison was inventing electric cars and the phonograph – AKA vinyl. The wheels of steel. This was back in the days before USB sticks son, before the DJ had to put a mirror ball on his head and hop around to his laptop. This was when music was first
Art Car – in 1912. And it was electric.
being electrified. The National Parks Service was created in 1916; Silent Spring wasn’t written until 1962.
Yes, that’s right. You heard it here first – Burners.Me BREAKING NEWS. Thomas Edison was a raver. Quite possibly the first one (other than Lucy, mentioned above). Think about it – he had the turntables, he was recording beats in 1878. Then he needed to develop the low-emissions, off grid art car and system so he could get to the doof, set up the sound system and the blinky lights, he was all about the blinky lights. 10,000 failures to get his light bulb going, that’s persistent. I bet he would have loved the Burner blinky light geniuses of today. He had electric cars, like Burner Elon Musk – whose car is named after Edison’s rival, genius Nikolai Tesla. Put them both together you get AC/DC, true fact. Sounds very Burning Man.
So, perhaps predicatably, I’m gonna have to call this one for the ravers. We were on the scene first, we were dropping phat beats and cruising in electric art cars before anyone even invented ecstasy or acid. Before the environmental movement began. Since there’s been electricity, since there’s been electronic music and blinky lights, there’s been ravers, and ravers invented art cars. We didn’t take over Burning Man, Burning Man came out of an existing scene of raves that had been happening for some time. We were there first, and as soon as our rave scouts found a place for a good doof, we showed up with the boom box. And we’ve been showing up ever since. We live in the 21st century now, sorry old-timers. We’re well into it. Hippies are still welcome, you can still bring your sitars and drop acid, it’s cool. But it’s not the 60′s any more, or the 70′s,80′s, 90′s, or Naughties. We’re in the teenies, and raves ain’t going nowhere. Burning Man is the world’s biggest rave and there’s no point fighting against it – especially given that “radical inclusion” is one of the core principles of the party.
The rave element is not only there, it is the greatest party in the world for lovers of that scene, many of whom bring extreme amounts of resources to the Playa which contributes to everyone’s enjoyment. There are more shiny happy people dressed up in sexy costumes there to dance, than are there for free booze, workshops and TED talks, or anything else. Those major lasers aren’t there for the kids! And neither are those giant, world class sound systems and video screens. This stuff doesn’t get provided by Burning Man, it gets brought by the ravers. It draws almost all of the crowd to the party, and everyone gets to enjoy for free. Without amplified music, it would not be a party, it would be people camping. A rainbow gathering, perhaps. Acoustic Burning Man. Some friends around a campfire at Baker Beach.
There’s only one rave like this we can go to. Most of us agree, there should be more. One of the major differences is the Art Cars. You can take your kids to the Houston Art Car parade, but we can’t throw a rave there. The same with pretty much any park in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are plenty of places you can go with your kids or for silence.
We welcome you to come with us, join us at our party, there will be music and dancing, wine women and song! And we’ll give it all to you for free! All we ask is, please don’t complain when you get there. Don’t try to turn it off, or make us turn it down. That’s what we get everywhere else in the world. In San Francisco, if we throw a rave, the cops can seize the sound system and the DJ’s laptop. Burning Man is one of the rare places in the whole world where we can come to turn it up. That’s why we travel for so many hours in the desert to go to it: so we’re not disturbing anyone. I know we make a great spectacle, and it’s cool and you want your kids to see it. We’re not stopping you, so don’t try to stop us. Accept and celebrate us: loud music is part of Burning Man, just like flashing lights are. Just like generators are. Bring some ear plugs. Camp on the outer perimeter. If you don’t like it, don’t go – we don’t like haters anyway, so that’s perfect. If you want to have your own party, by all means do. Get as much as you can out of Burning Man, express yourself, do whatever feels good. Go into the Deep Playa and enjoy the silence and sense of isolation out there, then get yourself into the middle of a packed dance floor and feel the Funktion1 15 hz bass so loud and deep that it makes your skull ache. Appreciate that you can easily do both, for free, without criticizing another human being or asking them to adjust their sense of wellbeing to benefit your own. Enjoy your Burn and the freedom of “We Do What We Want“, what a privilege it is for all of us to be there. In this giant, 24/7, thumping bass and blinky lights ultimate rave city.
One of the most prolific DJ’s out there on the Playa has been Dutch techno master Jesse “The Scumfrog” Houk. Here’s his set from Robot Heart at Burning Man Fertility 2.0 2012. Where I come from we call this the DPH…DEEP PROGRESSIVE HOUSE. And we also call it the TTH – TRIBAL TECH HOUSE. If you know Steve Lawler, Danny Tenaglia, Peace Division or Lexington Avenue, you know that this is the shit. YMMV.
Scumfrog’s been going as a DJ for more than 25 years. He has just released a new album “In Case We’re All Still Here“, and I have to tell you, it’s being played very loud and very often at Burners.Me HQ. You can keep your DeadMau5 and David Guetta, thankyou very much. That stuff is amateur hour. This is a masterwork – gezellig, as they say in Amsterdam. This album is the sound of one of the world’s Uber-DJs slamming it home, someone in the zone and at the top of their musical game.
Here’s to hearing more progressive house, psy-trance, hip-hop, trance and electro out there on the Playa this year and beyond. There are more beautiful experiences to be had beyond dubstep. Scummy bring this sound and crank it! Robot Heart turn it up…I think you might need some more speakers.
Congratulations to The Scumfrog for making such a wicked album. This seems like one that will stand the test of time…$8 well spent.
Nearly a decade after his last artist album, the underground legend that is The Scumfrog returns. His roots firmly planted in the underground house scene, the Dutch born producer/DJ brings a new connection between the intangible and deep and the ever-growing movement that is electronic dance music. ‘In Case We’re All Still Here’ is The Scumfrog in full underground swing.
Now that the dance scene is more alive than ever before, New York based producer Jesse Houk shines a new light on the deep, techy sounds of the underground. With more than 15 years of experience, the mastermind behind classics such as ‘The Watersong’ and remixes for the likes of Armin van Buuren, Missy Elliott, New Order, Kylie Minogue and Annie Lennox, is ready to take another deep dive into the journey of music. All through the sounds of ‘In Case We’re All Still Here’.
Featuring collaborations with Sting, Static Revenger, Christian Burns, Vince Elliott, Vassy and more, ‘In Case We’re All Still Here’ is the brand new album of The Scumfrog. An eclectic affair that takes you past the entire spectrum of electronic dance music.
Last year, The Scumfrog (aka Jesse Houk) returned to the global EDM stage with 12 new tracks, mixed together in a tailor-made DJ mix called “A Place Where We Belong”. The individual tracks were released by various prestigious labels such Armin Van Buuren’s Armada, Umek’s 1605, Prok & Fitch’s Floorplay, and more. Tracks like “In Love”, “Running” and his remix of the classic “The Sky Is Not Crying” quickly found support, not only from The Scumfrog’s long-time peers, but also from the new generation of underground DJs.
This year, the Dutch born American producer continues on his path, miles away from mainstream EDM, by completing a new, full-length album for Armada Records titled “In Case We’re All Still Here”, made up of cutting edge underground Deep House and Tech House. The first single from this album is The Scumfrog’s long awaited project with Sting. Since the beginning of DJ culture, Sting has been the voice of sampling-choice for many producers, and new bootleg versions of his popular songs still surface at an ever-constant rate. But an official Dance Music release baring the 16-time Grammy Award winner’s name is rare. Last year, however, The Scumfrog received approval to remake “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You,” and the amazing result of this long awaited project is finally here. The Scumfrog has been a House Music staple in the Dance scene, releasing records since 1999. He is mostly known for his underground flavored remixes of artists like Missy Elliott, New Order, Kylie Minogue, and Annie Lennox, his Grammy nominated collaborations writing/producing techno oriented works with David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper, and his own hit singles “Music Revolution”, “Serenade”, and “Escape”. With his versions of “If I Ever Lose My Faith,” The Scumfrog returns to his deep house roots, while still giving the main vocal mix his signature mass appeal.
As a DJ, he has toured the world many times over, and since 2009 he hosts a weekly radio show/podcast Glam Scum International.
http://www.glamscum.com
This is the first time you’ve ever heard Burners.Me recommending an album to you. Why this one? Think about it – there’s only one reason. It’s that good. It really stands out. It probably won’t be the last…we’ve opened a can of worms here. I have more than 16,000 albums in my record collection. What motivated us to break the proverbial seal? How good this album is, and also what a dedicated Burner the Scumfrog has been over many, many years. This is a seriously good album – I dare you to buy it and come here and tell me it sucks. I think more likely you will be so wowed that you will be in our comments going “thankyou, Burners.Me!”.
Get it, you won’t regret it.
PS. Nadia Ali is where it’s at. Check out the Scummie handiwork in this next one. Scumfrog and Nadia at Burning Man this year? Or, maybe even, one dares to dream (especially at Burning Man) all of the above plus Juno ReactorMichele AdamsonLucent DossierCosmic Gate and Emma Hewitt and Deekline? Dreams may come true…
In 2008, superstar DJ and producer Jesse Houk aka The Scumfrog launched his radio project Glam Scum on Sirius. After instant acclaim and with a fast growing buzz from dedicated listeners, the wildly popular show is now available for licensing worldwide.
*** THE SCUMFROG ***
