by JD Samson of MEN
Going down under is always a pleasure for me. Especially during the holiday season when it's snowing in my town and scorching in Oz. I'm not the only DJ/ Musician that knows the secret to getting a tan during the northern winter. My trip began with this guy – Mr. Roo met me at the airport and bounced me all the way to Brizzy where I DJ'd with Yacht and got to spend some good quality time with one of my favorite people ever, Susie Patten from I Heart Hiroshima! Then we drove down to The Gold Coast and played putt putt and ate sushi and she played me her new solo electronic stuff that is going to melt your brain – it is so good!
After an amazing drive through the Australian Bush, I met up with Edward Droste from Grizzly Bear in Melbourne where we ate some wild and crazy Chinese food at The Supper Inn in Chinatown. Then I DJ'd at an amazing Gay Ass Homo soiree at The Roxanne Parlour with Jonny,"Seymour Butts", part of the amazing gay bathhouse DJ/remix/production team, Stereogamous – who just finished an amazing remix for MEN that is yet to be leaked! Get excited people, its gayer than gay AND radder than rad. Then, off to Sydney for New Year's Eve with Dj's Ajax and Sinden at Luna Park where we got to ride on all the amusement park rides for free with no one else on them! It Ruled! Even a wall of mirrors and a ferris wheel!
After a huge hike up the hill we made it to my next DJ gig at The Red Rattler which is an amazingly cool lesbian-owned-not-for-profit performance space in Sydney. There were some pretty incredible drag/burlesque shows including an incredible rendition of "Gloria" by Patti Smith which included a glass water bottle in the va-jay-jay and a very large beaded necklace. New Years Day was a blast at the Field Day Festival where I ran into my favorite Philly Feminist Rapper, Amanda Blank and her awesome DJ's Devlin and Darko. We hung out backstage in the heat and shot the shit with a bunch of other Northern Hemisphere musicians that were down under as well because Australia STILL pays money to musicians for their work (can you believe it?).
Amanda Blank killed it in Sydney!
January 2nd was the grand finale of shows at the Civic Hotel in Sydney with the most incredible line up of amazing bands. On the bill was Micachu and The Shapes from the UK, Telepathe – my old pals from Brooklyn, and my most favoritest band ever to see live in the whole wide world PONYTAIL! In the middle of the Ponytail set I got straight into the pit and sweated my brains out while freaking out to their amazing music and feelings! I haven't been so into a show in a long time.
Mind officially blown.
This is Ponytail the best band ever!
Then we hopped off to Adelaide for some last minute tanning and dancing and fishing and farming. I've only got a couple of days to wind myself up and then MEN is going to take this tan to the UK to melt all the snow and give everyone something to sweat about.
MEN are coming to London on January 18th and 19th – Make sure to check out their MySpace page for all the details on the shows!