The only video I took at Inazuma Festival in Tokyo this past weekend.

For the first time in a long time, I am heading to NYC without a laptop. It is pure leisure weekend in the Big Apple for me. I’m bringing a sack of clothes, a phone, and earplugs.

Music is possibly the most important thing in my life outside of my friends and family. I still get excited to hear new music and I tend to spend too much money on headphones.

And I am incredibly excited about this weekend.

As the stars align, NYC is being graced this weekend by some of the biggest names in the dubstep scene. The guys I hold close in Boston are very much on the same page as me about what may transpire over the course of two nights listening to the loudest, newest, and clearly, most banging sound on the planet today. I’ve been excited for a month in regards to this weekend.

I want to invite everyone in NYC reading this to join me for what will be two events like no other.

So this is how we’re starting it off…

Tonight (Fri): Mary Ann Hobbs and Pinch for Dubwar at LOVE Niteclub

This lovely woman helped elevate the genre through her radio show as well as a comp that pushed the sounds to the masses. In the USA, it’s getting there through the ability to download her BBC 1 programs via bootleg MP3s or direct from the BBC Radio 1 Player. I, like many, have spent hours listening to Ms. Hobbs drop the best new records out there.

Pinch as well with rip into the deep side of the dub. For the deeper side of the sound and is the night to hit for the dub purists.

On the other end of the spectrum is Saturday night at Le Poisson Rouge with Skream and Benga - easily the two biggest name DJing at the moment.

For me, it is a special treat to see them both together on the same stage. Below some select moments of madness from these gentleman. The have dropped some of the hardest in your face dubplates one could imagine. Hearing those tracks on downloaded MP3 mixes has been great but they clearly will not compare to hearing them in person on a massive PA. MP3’s simply cannot give you the sound of the big club. Both of these gents still roll with vinyl dubplates on top of their CDs. We want the vinyl. We hope to get it.

I should add that Saturday night is also part of Trouble & Bass 3 Year Anniversary, so congrats to them for making it this far. Well done. Keep pushing it.

I expect nothing but full on head bangers on Saturday night.

This is NYC. We are not fucking around. See you there.

Though the crew may be moving down to Brooklyn, they’re still Boston’s own. They’re off for the Summer festival season shortly. Good luck guys.

Ben Harper covering Bowie’s “Pressure” at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston.

Boston. Kode 9 with Incyde and Scotch 1 tonight in our city - absolute must attend performance.

When I tell people that I became addicted to noise records this winter, I get the strangest of looks. My friends who tend to listen to a wide array of sounds and music cannot grasp my love of records that bounce - at times - non rhythmic sounds across long long compositions, which can be described as nothing more than fucking noise. 

I won’t try to describe noise records, because I simply just got into the genre. But I will point you towards some of my favorite artists working in this field today - Thuja, Eleh, Hototogisu who tend to drone out their sounds and compositions into what I almost label as ambient. On the extreme side, I tend to turn to Karlheinz, Japan’s Government Alpha, and John Wiese.

If I take anything away from noise records, its a certain renewed focus on all other music I listen to.  Noise may not be the most pleasant of genres to listen to but maybe I am looking for music/sounds that make me actually listen a little harder to get to the core.

Most noise is only available physically as vinyl releases, so I have been stocking up on the shit I love. You would be surprised how low some of these press runs are (or maybe you are not surprised).

Billy Bao’s “Fuck Separation” 10″ is not a true noise record but more of a layered non-stop guitar and percussion driven sound fuck. It’s rhythmic as hell and a brutal non-stop 20 minute assault. It’s easily the best rock record I have discovered this winter and it only took me a week to track down a hard copy via this small mail order joint in Berlin.

Billy Bao makes all their music available for free download. You will not find a harder piece of sound.

I happen to love the tonal white silkscreen on white cover of the 10″.

Lansdowne Street in Boston - tucked away behind Fenway Park’s “Green Monster” - is a place of legend in Boston’s music scene. Where the Paradise (now known as the Paradise Rock Club) was the entry way for many music acts into not only Boston but the United States market, playing a room on Lansdowne was the next logical step up the venue ladder. For many bands, this is where they remained while monsters like U2, and Radiohead simply moved into the arena and stadium realm.

I went through my ticket stub stash (I love keeping ticket stubs - they are very much a reminder of a moment for me) and found the stub for the first show I ever saw on Lansdowne back in 1994 when I moved up here from Connecticut. The band was Quicksand.

A few years ago, when I re-located into the Fenway, I moved into a loft at the top of Lansdowne. Being able to walk to the Avalon or Axis was a convenience in its own right, but unfortunately, Lansdowne shut down for renovations as quickly as I moved in. The renovation was not simply a rehab, but a full tear down gut job of the old Avalon and Axis rooms to build one unified, 3000 capacity venue, which included seating on the third tier.

The venue, now known as the House of Blues, has just re-opened. I was lucky enough to see Thievery Corporation with my good friend Seth, last Tuesday. The new venue was worth the wait. The sound, size, art, and the spacious nature of the venue make it a very pleasant place to view a show. It reminds me much of the Paradiso in Amsterdam with a main floor and two mezzanine teirs of standing room and seating.

But like all new affairs, HOB needs to work on handling the door entry better, and should consider removing the second check with their metal detector wands. How many hippies go to a Thievery Show strapped? And what happened to the draft beers? Bring them back, please.

Boston needed Lansdowne to open again, and with more than 300 shows a year scheduled for the House of Blues, business is back. Welcome.

Still my choice for electronic music.

The new standard.

“Used to be arlight. What happened? Etc. Etc…”