HEARTSREVOLUTION

My intention for today was to share my February column with you, but the scanner room is currently occupied by a Very Important Phone Call. Instead I will provide entertainment in the form of a HEARTSREVOLUTION video. Heron wrote about HeartsChallenger last summer on our House of Naked site succinctly:

HeartsChallenger is a baby pink specialty truck from L.A. It operates in the same spirit as your typical neighborhood ice cream truck, but comes with some extra goodies. Founder Leyla Safai stocks the truck with rare ice cream brands from around the world, along with products such as Cobrasnake tee shirts, magazines, buttons, various mixtapes including some from her band HeartsRevolution and even toys.

So, a band. That's what HeartsRevolution is. a great band. This type of music (and video) usually has only been seen coming from Europe (namely France), but these guys – as Heron mentioned – are from Los Angeles (EDIT - There seems to be a little bit of confusion... someone commented this morning saying "Actually, the video makers are French : B. Lattanzio, J. Demery, G. Berg (but Latanzio lived a bit in L.A)." but GBH.tv says "This is some seriously slick LA shit (even though it looks like it was filmed in Barcelona or some other European city) being brought to you by two guys named Jean Demery and Bastien Lattanzio". I seem to trust both sources somehow... which will it be?) I saw their video for C.Y.O.A. this morning via GBH.tv and could not stop hitting play. I was excited to be able to understand the screaming Japanese in the beginning. The girl is cute, the colors are bright and the backdrop is the type in which I hope to find myself this weekend.


Enjoy, guys. Put on your silver RBK Customs and start dancing.

France France France. Para One.

I don't know what's going on with France. I really don't. Everything awesome is coming out of there lately. Ever since before I wrote about remix culture and how this particular brand of it has exploded seemingly out of nowhere, more and more and more has come up and it's all been from France (okay, with the exception of Simian Mobile Disco, among a few others). Justice, Uffie (well okay, all of Ed Banger Records), The Teenagers (who don't completely fall under this, but their remixes definitely do), and Para One, whom I just discovered today (yeah yeah yeah, sometimes things fly completely over my head). I know there's more. Help me out, guys.

Para One's stuff is really, really catchy. I just read about him in Earplug and found out that he's recently made the switch (this seems to be a trend in Paris right now) from hip hop to club music. The thing is, this isn't your typical club music that you would find in trendy places here in New York, all the girls wearing backless tops. This is different. Like I said in my reflections on the Dafterparty, these guys have a good time. They don't seem to care about who's looking. There is no pretension. Unlike the "I don't smile" attitudes of these other clubbers (or NY hipster socialites), this is what Para One does:


(which reminds me a lot of Teddybears, who played last night at Hiro):


The animal head thing - whether it's a trend or coincidence - is proof of this. It has to be. I mean, look at what Para One does to a dance floor. Nobody standing around and posing for the camera. They don't even think of it, they're too busy dancing their faces off and even sometimes injuring themselves doing so.




Sometimes when I'm really excited about something, I have problems articulating myself. But I guess what it is here is simple: they just want to make people smile and move. That's it. The energy clearly comes through in it all. When my roommate asked me what kind of music I was about to dance to last night, I shrugged and said "neon."

EDIT | I just realized the sheer idiocy it takes to rave about dance music that makes you unable to sit still, but only offer text and non moving visuals. Sorry guys. Here is Para One's video for dundun-dun. It looks like something Vice might shoot - a bunch of hot girls having a pillow fight, feathers blowing everywhere. Somehow milk got brought into the picture too.

Now, dance.

Hallo Berlin

Dino pointed me towards this today, with the caveat that I might immediately move to Berlin.

Now I can see why. For those who don't know, Stil in Berlin is a blog about Berlin street fashion, essentially. This entry follows a troupe of aerobicizers through laundromats, the underground subway system and the street. From what I gather, this is similar to a zombie walk, but with less death and more neon spandex. What a fun idea. It makes me want to throw a highlighters party in an all-white room. Or just do something similar to this. Who wants to?

For more photos, here is the Flickr set and here is what I think is the group of people who do this.

tonight.

You only have a couple of hours, but here you go.

Just Jack, 9.00pm @ Hiro Ballroom.

RSVP here.

Chromeooo

Chromeo
Originally uploaded by tokyohanna.

I was only halfway through track 3 on Chromeo's latest release, Fancy Footwork, before I ran to the design station to upload this photo and write. I don't know why some things take me so long, but better late than never? Get this album, guys. You will never stop dancing. The Fader put it well with "Gold-plated basslines and rhinestone-studded synths." I am now heartbroken that I missed them at Hiro a couple of weeks ago.

The tiniest snippet of background: Chromeo is two guys - friends since childhood. One is in Montreal, the other is in NYC getting his PhD in French Literature @ Columbia. One is Jewish, the other Arab: Chromeo seems to serve as a great example of music uniting people.