Q Dept + Tom Kuntz (photos) & BBQ (playlist)

just one week ago, Q Department launched The Directors Series...

Q Department Studios shape-shift into an avant-garde salon for writers, creatives and directors: a twilight members only. The Directors Series lends homage to the director as auteur of creating experiences. "Q Department consistently receives the most inspiring & surprising music direction from our collaboration with directors" says Drazen Bosnjak. "We thought it would be interesting to have an evening that amplified that experience".

director TOM KUNTZ graciously accepted the invitation to kick off the series by curating a musical journey for the evening, with the help of a wizard who presented Tom's eclectic mix like a restaurant menu. coupled with the full moon, the wizard set the story arch which peaked when an Oscar winning writer/director arrived and performed an impromptu drum set that was astonishingly coherent to Tom'smusical menu. just another happy accident that makes it all worth while.

the secret service swarmed in when the more attractive twin daughter of President George W Bush arrived to join the festivities. Drazen, Q Department's very own love guru didn't hold her pedigree against her, nor did anyone else. truth be told, no one really knew who she was, nor was the party crowd sober enough to notice the secret service. then again, the focus was on the music...

aiiight, enough of this. i figured some of you don't really know who i work with & it would be nice to elaborate a little on Q Department. since a picture is worth a thousand words... i'm posting many so i'm including a chill playlist, as a soundtrack to this series of photos:

☆ BBQ DEPT JUNE 08 ☀ 14 MP3Z ☆

- the Q Department crew several years ago -

(this was taken when Bosnian playboy Drazen Bosnjak quietly married
South African queen Jacqueline Millar in Manhattan's Central Park)

- ok, back to June 2008 -



- Q Department's French intern -


- curator Tom Kuntz -


- wizards -


- Jacqueline Bosnjak -


- commercial director corners Barbara Bush -


- Drazen Bosnjak -


- the girls of Au Revoir Simone -


- Q Department studs -


- Michel Gondry -


- Q Dept. producer Debbie with Maury Loeb & another Michael -


- quilted French teenager goes commando -


- Michel Gondry -


- South African vixens (Jacqueline & Q Dept. producer Kelly) -


- sexy South African male who goes by Mark -


- Sally-Ann Dale -


- Phillip Van -


- tits & instruments -


- Tom Kuntz & Carlos Arias -


- party animals circle Vivian -


- artsy fartsy geek action -


- reps never go to bed (to sleep); they power nap (at parties) -


- ammo -

by the way, i'm too tired to elaborate on the playlist. i credit every single artist correctly, so you can easily find out more about them on your own if you must...
i'll just point out how much i love New Zealand's LAWRENCE ARABIA lately. "The Beautiful Young Crew" is such a sweet song...
i also love FERRABY LIONHEART. enjoy!

Lykke Li covers A Tribe Called Quest

for shits & giggles

Adil et moi:

moi, Barbie Q et Adil:

Cutie & The Beast (Victor):

she's a lady (Phyllis Navidad):

sisters are doin'it for themselves:

Dave, Luther & me:

hmmm:

photos courtesy of Victor & Luther...
more pix HERE & HERE.

BRIAN LICHTENBERG show this coming Friday:

SUDS - San Francisco 6/27

RSVP & details HERE. this event will be in LA on 7/11.

moustache mondays

it's a fun place to be at in LA on a Monday night... check out these photos taken there when i met Dita Von Teese, and more pix shot the first time i went.

obamapology

just in case you haven't seen this SNL skit yet:

LA BOUM (playlist) + Tenori-On + LITTLE BOOTS + Automatic Lover by Dee D. Jackson...

LA BOUM - MP3 downloads
(14 more tunes for your iTunes)

at the last minute, i was invited to see LA's CASXIO at Bordelo last night. i was pleasantly surprised & open this playlist with their song "Seventeen" remixed by NOEL ZANCANELLA.

NY's THE VIRGINS play tonight at the Wiltern. "Teen Lovers" is a cool song... i follow with a new FAKE BLOOD remix of "Stuck on Repeat" by LITTLE BOOTS. for another version of the same song go to this February mix (it's track #15). i have a feeling Little Boots is going to blow up. why? cuz i'm a dog person yet she posted this & i luv it:

Denmark's KASPER BJØRKE nails it as usual, this time with NY hotties THE PIERCES currently doing a few shows in NY & Brooklyn. i still love "Thunderstorm" which i posted last year on this playlist (track #40)... i'm really digging the whole new wave vibe by GO GO CHARLTON remixed by fellow Frenchie HYPNOLOVE who also does a fun remix of Sebastien Tellier's La Ritournelle. you can hear it on myspace. the original is track #41 on this January playlist & click here for the video.

i love what A-TRAK did for Nike Plus; i've listened to this one on repeat many times. here are some pix i took of him with his girlfriend Kid Sister... i'm also very fond of Italy's BROKE ONE who keeps putting out some fun original tracks & remixes... as for tunes i don't mention here, look them up yourselves.

if you don't get my reference to "La Boum" here's a clue:

aaaaah le cinéma français!!! "La Boum" introduced us to the beautiful Sophie Marceau; "Léon" to the irresistible Natalie Portman, etc etc... French directors have impeccable taste in girls!!!

check out Little Boots doing a cover of Hot Chip. it's delicious!
here's her cute intro about it:
"ok are you ready for the FUN?!? here is cover of hot chip's ready for the floor, its not exactly perfect but best i can do on the amazing tenorion!!! i turned the light off so u can see a bit better... and so u can't see my hair... i don't even wanna talk about it........ also can i just say the words were on the computer that's why i keep looking at the screen... like a berk."

Media artist Toshio Iwai and Yamaha have collaborated to design a new digital musical instrument for the 21st century, TENORI-ON. A 16x16 matrix of LED switches allows everyone to play music intuitively, creating a "visible music" interface.

The TENORI-ON is a unique 16 x 16 LED button matrix performance instrument with a stunning visual display. For DJs & producers it is a unique performance tool enabling them to perform using MIDI and load the TENORI-ON with samples to 'jam/improvise' within their set BPMs.

on this Video it seems lame at first but watch it all the way through:

The TENORI-ON 16 x 16 LED button matrix is simultaneously a performance input controller and display. By operating and interacting with the LED buttons and the light they produce you gain access to the TENORI-ON's numerous performance capabilities. The TENORI-ON provides six different performance and sound/light modes for broad performance versatility, and these modes can be combined and used simultaneously for rich, complex musical expression.

www.global.yamaha.com/tenori-on

my boss Debbie Maniscalco is a hot mess!!! J/K!
anyhew, check this out:

REALITY + Little Pictures

in the honor of the summer soulstice, i just had to share my favorite summer love song ever. "if you do exist, honey don't resist" says it all:

every summer party should have this song to slow dance to!!!
speaking of bedroom pop, Kiwis LITTLE PICTURES deliver:

Flaunt Party + pix + a mini lesson on Belgium

Friday night, WE ARE THE WORLD go on at 11pm at the FLAUNT party being held at SHITS & GIGGLES, downtown LA. click HERE to check out a few cool pix i took of WATH last time i saw them perform.

WATH are the band members of Work with performance artists Ryan Heffington & Nina McNeely. they put on a really fun show, trust me!

... pix i took with my mobile last Friday:

• dinner

• leahy

• phyllis navidad

• tara & leahy

• wu, adil, zachary & dream girl jennifer hudson

• don't let these kittens cover Technotronic ever again

look, i'm open minded but the Belgian blood running through my veins froze up in cloths & i nearly died of an aneurysm. if you're gonna cover "Pump Up The Jam" then you better pump it up or die! enough said. by the way, did you know that Technotronic is Belgian? if you want to know more here's THE SCOOP... there's a lot more to Belgium than beers, waffles & chocolates you know! music aside, you should know about the Antwerp Six, Raf Simons & my all time absolute favorite MARTIN MARGIELA who opened a store in LA last year.

party in my tummy

i totally forgot to mention track #17 in the canibalized mix! it's a remix of a song pulled from the best kids show on tv for kids & grown ups on the air: YO GABBA GABBA. here's a tv clip of the original song:

carrots wanna go to the party in my tummy? YEAAAH!!! speaking of food, Kenny from SHYNOLA shows us how to bake bread:

how hot is Kenny! yummie yummie YEAH!!! lets bring it back home with this original broadcast of Playboy's roller disco & pajama party from 1979 with news flash & commercials:

soundtrack by IN FLAGRANTI whose "Firmly Planted Memories" you can find in canibalized as well. track listing here is:
"Codependency, Coquine, Grand Central Shuttle."

CANIBALIZED (playlist)

CANIBALIZED - MP3 downloads
(45 more tunes for your iTunes)

lets not save the best for last & get right to it!!! this playlist ends with "The Step And The Walk" by THE DUKE SPIRIT. here's the video:



ok, back to the beginning...

RINALDO DONATI smoothly kicks off this mix. since i put it together last week, in light of Friday the 13th i thought the theme music to Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" would be fitting. just in case it wigs you out a bit, relax! the voice of LYKKE LI will soothe you right afterwards. you can listen to a more upbeat version of the same Kleerup song on my previous mix... the whole first chapter if you will of this playlist is rather mellow. i really like ELBOW's cover of "Back to Black." if you missed it last month, i had posted a few of their original songs on this mix. the smoke filled lounge vibe carries on with France's MAKALI & Brazil's CÉU, sandwiching THE PHENOMENAL HANDCLAP BAND from Brooklyn. "Baby" is a fun uplifting song which makes me think of all the wonderful ladies who've blessed my life & taught me so much. later in the mix you'll get to another livelier one of their songs, "15 to 20."

by now it's time to throw in a few tunes you can not only swoon to but dance to. Lisa Stansfield & The Orb can't make it any clearer with 1992's "Time To Make You Mine." CALM & the great ESAU MWAMWAYA provide ideal beach tunes. on the other hand Washington DC's LE LOUP is dreamy, bleepy & sorta creepy. i got the title of this playlist from RAT SALAD's "Canibalized" & keep it rocking with songs from THE PINKER TONES, ARMY NAVY, Queen cuz we are the champions till the end, HAIL SOCIAL remixed by CRIMP YR HAIR, CHIN CHIN remixed by ELI ESCOBAR and PILOOSKI who skillfully reedits The Pointer Sisters! for more of his originals & remixes, revisit the following mixes here & here & here.

the dance party gets serious with a perfect blend of piano house & Detroit techno from SURKIN that reminds me of the garage parties i used to go to in the late 80s back in Brussels, at the height of Technotronic & Inner City's "Good Life" not to mention the locally produced & infinitely repetitive music we used to call back then acid house & boccaccio (after the famous Belgian club that only shut down once there were too many car crashes caused by patrons driving home too high). Paris had a club scene with an attitude; London i can't remember; Germany had techno; Belgium had the Boccaccio with everyone & their mothers coming from across our borders to party, dance without an attitude & enjoy pure synthetic drugs. this was another era, when Ibiza was a sunny rustic destination away from the grey Belgian skies. back then the Mediterranean island only had dirt roads & many unspoiled beaches! it wasn't the massive cheese fest it has become (think Cancun or even worse, Daytona Beach)... oh well!

MAJIK JOHNSON's remix of the KAROSHI BROS (who tell you that Madonna is not hot & ask you to love the world) & DON RIMINI's remix of Young MC's "Bust A Move" (click here for another remix of the same track), TOM NEVILLE's remix of OCELOT & IN FLAGRANTI bring me back to what it used to be like at raves in the early 90s at the infamous & ecstacy infused Club at Firestone (a huge Firestone garage converted into a club) in desolate downtown Orlando, Florida, while i spent a summer waiting tables at the French pavillion of Epcot Center with a fun group of other debaucherous Euros who trafficked all sorts of treats between Amsterdam, Paris, Mexico & Florida; pure insanity... that's where i had my Sasha & John Digweed phase as they would throw frequent parties at the Firestone where they'd distribute freely pure MDMA from Amsterdam, London & Geneva... we'd come down, rent kayaks & get lost among the scary gators while tripping on mushrooms. somehow it made sense back then... i lost my mind & before the summer ended i went to Miami & stayed with an old friend from Caracas & 2 hot South Africans also crashing at her pad... which really wasn't so much "mellower" than Orlando! anyhew, if you dig In Flagranti here, "Coquine" still is one of my favorites; it's #19 in this January playlist that also has Don Rimini's "Absolutely Rad.".

things take a more new wave turn with ANORAAK remixed by GRUM & with a LIFELIKE remix, get a little gothic with Berlin's BLACK AFFAIR, then organically shift towards the emotronics of DISCODEINE who are the duo formed by PILOOSKI & fellow Frenchie PENTILE. "Joystick" is a true dancefloor jam!!! at this point why not add the full on melodrama of PAS/CAL before mellowing out again with Sweden's AIR FRANCE... if you enjoyed that Lifelike remix, check out this one, this other one for The Presets posted on this playlist, and this one for Cazals posted on this other playlist.

Ozzies DAMAGE ON THE BACKSEAT do a sweet remix of FEIST whose voice i never get tired of. i can't get enough of HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR either; they truly "Raise Me Up." for "Blind" go here & for their remix of Yazoo go here... Colombians QUANTIC do a chill remix of PAINE. finally, i couldn't resist adding some old school Chris Rea, Bootsie Collins, Lord Isis & another disco classic titled "Mucho Macho." the album cover of this disco jem is totally appropriately gay: