You may have already heard, but on June 25th we will be hosting the first of our monthly parties.

(So instead of staring at the screen you’ll be able to cavort with the real thing, in the flesh.)

It’s a celebration of our first year, and a way for us to thank all of you who have contributed, commented, sent us questionable presents, bought us drinks, picked us up off the floor and generally been there for us.

But as usual we don’t want to do it without you and your skilled hands…

So, if you’re a DJ (accomplished or aspiring), and want to spin at the party, we want to hear from you!

Send us a mix of what you’d play at our party. The DJ who rocks, suprises and inspires us will DJ at the first party.

(It’s not about seamless mixing - it’s the music that counts! You know how we like it…)

Send us a link to download your sample to submit@eastvillageboys.com

Uh… one more thing… be local, we unfortunately won’t be able to fly you in from Tokyo or Berlin!
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This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is Ruben, from Sint-Truiden, Belgium
Photographed and animated for EVB by Yves De Brabander

Collaboration is king, and when Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, Violens, and George Michael got together, the result was, well, the best work George has done in years. A gorgeous song, Already Over, by Violens, a mesmerizing video remix by Caroline, and a lip-synch performance by George Michael. Genius! I’ve watched this video so many times, I’m starting to think it IS a George Michael song.

Weston Bingham: First of all, how did you convince George Michael to lip sync a Violens song?

Caroline Polachek: It didn’t take much persuasion - the song’s been stuck in his head for decades.

WB: Was he your first choice to stand in for the band?

CP: Jorge [Violens lead singer] was my first choice, but he was on tour with MGMT so I had to resort to my plan B.

WB: How was he to work with?

CP: Old fashioned, yet pixelated.

WB: Who has better hair - Jorge or mid-80s George?

CP: Jorge. No offense.

WB: I love that you did a video remix, not an audio remix. Your idea?

CP: Actually, I was originally supposed to do an audio remix, but when Jorge found out I was more proficient in Final Cut than Logic, he suggested I put my money where my mouse is. I wouldn’t call it a remix though - more a multimedia mashup or historikaraoke. An anachronistic-inverse-cover, in which the new song covers the older guest artist.
WB: How many different videos did you pillage… which ones… and why those?

CP: Four. Faith for the dance moves, Father Figure for the babes and urban scenes, One More Try for the room scenes and passionate close-ups, and Careless Whisper for the lip-synching.

WB: The visuals (and the song for that matter) are kind of mesmerizing - how did you shoot this?

CP: Since all the YouTube videos are low-res and crunchy, downloading them directly would yeild a low-res product. I wanted the video to have it’s own look, it’s own color palette. To take it out of YouTube, I filmed the computer screen in HD from far across the room zoomed way in, purposefully defocused. The footage that came in was misty and seamless. I made multiple passes and framed each one differently, following my favorite features around the screen. The  gossamer double-vision effect came from layering the passes on top of each other at different opacities.

WB: Is it true that you cut the video together in the back of a van?

CP: Indeed. I was on tour with my band, Chairlift, and would plug my ears with foam plugs to keep out the loud van music, then put my headphones on and blast the song loud enough to get through the plugs. I love video editing in the van, it makes the long drives across the Midwest go by faster. I was so into into it that we’d stop at a gas station after a straight five-hour haul and I wouldn’t even want to get out.

WB: Is that usually how you kill time on the road?

CP: I also like reading, listening to music, and making shaky pen-drawings.

WB: Is this video even legal? Any ‘cease and desists’ yet?

CP: No and no.

WB: If you did a video remix of a Chairlift song, who’s career would you resurrect to sing for you?

CP: Jesus

For those of you that actually BUY music can get a legit copy of the Violens EP here,
directly from Cantora Records
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This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is JC, from Brooklyn
Photographed for EVB by Richard Welch

We get a lot of crazy shit in our inbox. Some of it’s really incredible, some of it’s best not to mention and usually followed by a stiff cleansing vodka, and some of it is just a nice way to start the day. This is the latter, from Daniel of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

So the EVB editors asked me the other day why I wasn’t on Twitter. I explained that with me being such a loosey goosey, getting my word count down to 140 characters is just way too constipated. I did, however, take a peek at some of the more interesting people on the tweet express, and this is what I found out:

Tony gets up in the morning… Anna eats bagels for breakfast… Jake loves a spot of AM sex… and  likes going to work with the evidence still inside him. I never knew how much I was missing! There I was thinking we all got up in the afternoon, had a bump of MDMA for good measure, and then went to the steam room for a seven-way frat fest.

Anyhow, that’s enough of my deeply insightful cultural ruminations, it’s Friday and I need to wash the tweet detritus from my credit crunched body so I’ve put a little collection of tracks together for you all to tweet about.

See you in the steam room BIG BIRD!

EVB Twittorhea Mix - Dick William [download]

I’m On Fire (Bruce Springsteen Cover) - Chromatics / Dear Boy - Bodies of Water / Teardrops - The XX / Michael the Lone Archer - Deastro the Dawntreader / Dragon Queen - Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Running Up That Hill (Datassette Remix) - Kate Bush / Word Up - Cameo / Something Special - The Tough Alliance / 844 Lisztomania - Phoenix / Moth’s Wings - Passion Pit / Message of Love - Leo Zero Featuring Freddie Mercury / Left Alone At Night (Tom Lown Remix) - Toro y Moi / Talk To Me - Peaches
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