How was WMC??

[skahound]

Re: How was WMC??

"bitches" and "faggots?" ^yeah, sounds like good times. racism sure is fun isn't it?

What racism?

[ftc]

Re: How was WMC??

thanks to all of you who came out for the spleen/angora/dinamo party @ astor hotel. i'm glad you enjoyed it! fun times... it sure was nice meeting fellow ms'ers! hopefully next year we'll be back with something better

few of my highlights from wmc week:
being that it was the 20th year i decided to attend the conference and to be honest, i really enjoyed the seminars/panels/forums i woke up for :P
james zabiela's dvj demo was very impressive. the pool parties we're alright unfortunately the idma awards sucked (ended up leaving halfway)
the om party @ mansion was one of my favorites, bc party @ b.e.d. was fun (although there were a few technical problems), the hustler party on sunday @ state was bumpin (derrick may laying it down proper), bubble soul party @ prive the first night (monday) was good aswell... i filed a dispute against ultra for what happened at the carry on. we had vip tix and were give gen admin when asked to speak with someone in charge there was no one from ultra at the ticket counter/press entrance... what a load of crap. anyway, i was reminded once more to make sure to avoid all large events where they don't show any effort to honour the service you pay for. nonetheless, things like this happen so not a big deal. m3 summit party on friday with mylo live, evil 9, ellen allien, the glimmers was a good alternative to nikki beach. we checked out nikki beach for the wmc closing party, i thought i was gonna pass out from the testasterone curtesy of all the guidos...

anyway,

looking forward to 2006

[headrushmusic]

Re: How was WMC??

Late getting on this thread...

The Conference definitely had some ups and downs.

First, a big thanks to everyone who played the Toes in the Sand party. Special thanks to Naveen G for an absolutely LUSH prog breaks set (Keep your eye on this guy!), Samer for some Proper deep progressive, Jondi & Spesh and Randall Jones & Hito for holding the party down and keeping everyone there even through the rain! Three cheers also to Deviant for an absolutely on-point set at the end of the night! Thanks also to Austin Leeds, Ty Tek, Thomas Penton, and Noel Sanger for dropping their latest. Shouts out to MS member Chuck C for downing some beers with us...were there any other MSers at the Toes party?? Pics of the day HERE

As for my total Conference experience (as a partier, not as a labelhead), I'd have to say I left this one feeling the most unfulfilled of all of them. The tastes of many DJs and crowds have shifted. There was a lot of bullshit, a lot of dudes hoping to score some fake tits...Sadly, it wasn't just Spring Breakers creating that vibe at the events. There were people there for the 'Conference' that were less interested in hearing the latest tracks and more interested in taking home conquest stories. Musically, overall there was a lot of acid, a lot of bounce, a lot of rehashed 80s crappy mashups and bootlegs, and less deep trippy vibes, and I just wasn't feeling it. I've had much better nights just sitting in front of studio monitors smoking a phatty listening to streams of new artists on Proton, a strong testament to the quality of lesser-known artists broadcast there! I found myself longing for the glory days of Renaissance and Baroque, the days where you'd walk into a peaktime frenzy of hundreds of sneaker-clad dancers riding on the wings of lush and angelic choruses.

(Speaking of Proton, Steve Gerrard gets three cheers for a proper set at the Proton party at Cafeteria...one of the highlights of the week)

Jadedly yours, :P
Amy

[rewing3]

Re: How was WMC??

Headrush,
Your the first to say you did not have fun at the conference. Which is surpring. Also did you record any of the set at your party. I would defiently like to hear some Austin Leeds, Ty Tek, Thomas Penton, and Noel Sanger set. Well maybe next year. I did notice that there were a lot of horrible 80's pop tunes highlighted this yr at the conference. Which sucks I hated most of those songs back in the day and now I still hate them. Let hope some of the better hidden records will start to emerge instead of some of the crappy shit I have been hearing so far on the Wmc sets. I will admit I like desyn massielo sets but that is it so far.

[skahound]

Re: How was WMC??

Headrush,
Your the first to say you did not have fun at the conference. Which is surpring.

I've heard a few people mention that this year wasn't as good as years past. The parties that I attended seemed to be full of music-loving 'normal' people. The only time where I encountered beefed-up guidos sipping their G and holding glowsticks was at the Ultra Carry-On. I guess it's a pick-and-choose type of thing and I made sure that I went to events that were either RSVP/Invite only or very small venues without the 'big name' stars (only exception being LMR Party on Thursday night).

[chuckc]

Re: How was WMC??

I have got to agree with amy (headrush) that this years wmc was not the same feel....both musically and crowd wise...

This was my 5th straight year and clearly was my least favorite....nobody blew me away...and the crowds were just ok....

I prob had the most fun hanign with all the ms'er and headrush at the astor party......just a chilled out vibe there.

And seems to me that sasha/digweed was way way to commercialized...its almost like they threw that event for there own personal financial gains...it sure wanst for the fan.

[Jenks]

Re: How was WMC??

This was my 5th straight year and clearly was my least favorite....nobody blew me away...and the crowds were just ok....

shame you missed, Jeff Mills, Sven Vath, Damaian Lazurus, 112 Crew, because they all blew me away.

[skahound]

Re: How was WMC??

shame you missed, Jeff Mills, Sven Vath, Damaian Lazurus, 112 Crew, because they all blew me away.

Didn't realize it was you (until later) that I lent my lighter to while waiting in line for the Pawn Shop to open up on Friday morning.

[Jenks]

Re: How was WMC??

^haha. no shit? awesome. i remember that.

[skahound]

Re: How was WMC??

^haha. no shit? awesome. i remember that.

Unfortunately for me I grabbed a cab shortly after that because I was still mad-wrecked from the night before. Definitely regret not sucking it up like a man and making the journey inside, I hear it was a great time.

[Jenks]

Re: How was WMC??

That afterhours friday morning was the best time i had at conference. 112 on the terrace and mr c, little mike, francis harris, and damian lazurus just slayed it inside. Girlfriend and i and our group were mangled by noon. It was a mess. Best music of the conference. We came straight from Mills @ Jade, tried to get Ruby to make it, but he dissappeared.

[Jenks]

Re: How was WMC??

for the sad folk who didn't go to Robots @ Bed w. Sven Vath...

a lil distorted video i took with the digital camera...

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1V7YX6AEF68HD10UV7DTSUUMYI

[headrushmusic]

Re: How was WMC??

Headrush,
Your the first to say you did not have fun at the conference. Which is surpring. Also did you record any of the set at your party.

It's not that I didn't have fun. I did. I especially enjoyed the carefree vibe of the Space terrace during Sander's set, and even managed to get in a good 30 minutes of hard dancing in the main room also. I enjoyed socializing at most of the parties, and met some great people. The Conference definitely wasn't a total loss, it just wasn't "next level."

I did miss many good parties. A couple of the days were consumed either doing events or recovering. So, I'm sure had I been able to attend those, my perspective might be different.

We did record what we could until rain wiped out the recording setup we had going in ProTools. We're still waiting on files from our sound engineer down there. Once we have a handle on them, they'll be distributed via internet radio broadcasts.

I am one of the most critical people I know, so I don't mean to be overly harsh. I know we've all taken a fair amount of criticism that the music and the vibe has taken itself all too seriously in the past, and maybe this year was the bitchslap it needed to lighten up. I guess my larger question is: "Did things lighten up too far at the expense of quality?"

What you get out of the Conference is something deeply personal. I think it largely depends on where you are in the journey. It's entirely possible that someone who went to different parties got their minds blown while other people may be saying, "Been there, done that."

Here's an article that ran in the Miami New Times for a different perspective:

What Does It Mean?
BY MOSI REEVES
mosi.reeves@miaminewtimes.com

This past Saturday on a breezy yet warm night, the Nocturnal warehouse at 50 NE 11th Street in downtown Miami bubbled with flashing lights and pounding house music. On its rooftop lounge, club director Dade Sokoloff shuffled CDs into the mixer. He played Louie Vega's achingly beautiful Elements of Life and then inserted a rare collaboration CD between Paul Oakenfold and Fatboy Slim, all for the enjoyment of a handful of friends enraptured by a digital video display projected onto a canopy tent covering much of the lounge.
But Sokoloff, his wife, and associates weren't there to celebrate Nocturnal's launch after nearly three years of work. Instead, they drank beer and champagne, played with the club's "toys," and wondered about the week that wasn't.

"I spent the week trying to get the club open," said Sokoloff. He called the music festival popularly known as WMC "the worst week of my professional life."

Of the more than 300 bacchanals taking place during March 22-26, when this year's official Winter Music Conference was held at the Wyndham Resort, as well as for several days before and after those dates, Nocturnal's debut was the most eagerly anticipated affair of them all. Built over three years at a cost of an estimated twelve million dollars, the club had not only drawn many of the week's hottest parties but had also gathered a cacophonous buzz from a club crowd whose never-ending quest is to find new spaces to conquer and pillage.

The first sign of trouble was when Nocturnal's managers hastily canceled a "sneak preview" scheduled for Friday, March 18. The following Monday they moved the club's first official event, a Phuture party featuring cutting-edge techno and trance producers such as Tiefschwarz and the MFA, to Space.

Throughout the week, they continued to move some of the acts they had booked to other locations: Fatboy Slim, for example, was moved to crobar, while the Aquabooty party was taken to Opium Garden and turned into a free afternoon jam. Other parties, including Saturday's Contagious Musiq showcase with Rabbit in the Moon and many others, were canceled altogether. Sokoloff claims that all the artists and promoters were paid and that club owner Glenn Kofman lost "hundreds of thousands" as a result.

Oddly enough, the Nocturnal people never made an official announcement concerning its progress. So as it became clear to all that Nocturnal was having serious problems opening its doors, several conspiracy theories emerged. Some whispered notorious Space owner Louis Puig influenced the City of Miami to deny the club its permits, while others opined the police "busted" Nocturnal on some sort of offense. (What kind of "bust," you ask? Don't ask me; I'm only repeating the rumor.)

Sokoloff strongly dismissed both fantasies and explained that when Nocturnal didn't pass its roof inspection, inspectors required that he apply roof sealant and other finishing materials in order to ensure that it could withstand the weight of hundreds of people. However, he says that the club passed a number of other inspections, including ones for health and electrical permits. "You name it, we passed it," he says.

"Look, we didn't get it fucking finished. That's the bottom line," he continued, noticeably fried from a lack of sleep. So when will the damn club open? "Oh no, not that again," he laughs. "I'm not saying until it's finished."

In years past, there was one story that dominated the conference. In 2003 it was America's invasion of Iraq and its calamitous effect on a tourist industry still recovering from 9/11. Last year it was the arrival of the M3 Summit, a new conference that sought to woo back all the hipsters and record-industry folk who had stopped going to Winter Music Conference.

But this year's edition seemed diffuse and scattershot. While it's difficult to imagine a single nightclub becoming the talk of a weeklong event spread across two cities and involving tens of thousands of people, the Nocturnal fiasco was on the shortlist of conversation starters. Then there was the three-year-old Remix Hotel, a free confab for technology junkies. It seemed to yield a surprising amount of positive feedback among its 4856 registrants. Though that was only a slight increase over last year's 4800 attendees, more people than before seemed to be talking about the three-day event than before.

As usual, so many parties took place throughout the week that I can't make much more than general observations about them all. It seemed there were more VIP events than in years past. On Friday there was BBE Records' Real Music for Real People at the totally unreal Skybar at the Shore Club, where Questlove threw down Leaders of the New School's "Case of the PTA" and other old-school hip-hop classics. On that same night, a nondescript mansion on Pine Tree Drive was host to Sasha, who spun a furious tag-team set with James Zabiela and shocked many with his newly bald pate. As for those parties open to the public, Bugz in the Attic's showcase at Amika Monday, the Club Shelter event at Nikki Beach Thursday, Danny Howells's party at B.E.D. Wednesday, and the cool-as-fuck Revolver event at Pawn Shop Lounge Friday all received high marks.

As usual, the prospect of too many parties, alcohol, drugs, and fake tits (one friend complained that he felt as if his eyeballs were about to explode) drove many men and women to feel burned-out, overwhelmed, and dehydrated. Compounding matters were several complaints about the cavalier treatment some doormen, particularly the fine fellows at Opium Garden and Rokbar, were inclined to dish out to their would-be patrons. Such a combination of 24-hour partying and rude behavior from South Beach natives led many to wonder: What does it all mean?

Not much, at least to an industry that calculates winners and losers according to their Soundscan sales totals. Of the thousands of DJs, musicians, and vocalists who performed here last week, only John Legend, who headlined an M3 Sunset Session Wednesday, saw his last album go platinum -- unless one counts P. Diddy's surprise appearance with Felix da Housecat at the Revolver party, where he reportedly "jacked his body" like a metronome.

For now there isn't an American festival that has supplanted WMC as the premier showcase for electronic music. Most critically acclaimed artists flirting with mainstream success, however, are making South by Southwest (SXSW), the Austin, Texas industry conference that took place a week before WMC from March 11 to 20 (and turned journalists who had to attend both into burned-out zombies); or Coachella Valley Music Festival, which takes place from April 30 to May 1 in Indio, California, their major priorities. Unfortunately WMC is losing its reputation for featuring breakthrough performances by new and interesting acts, though M3's Sunset Sessions can count Brazilian Girls last year and Mylo this year as part of its growing list.

One prime example is Astralwerks Records, which decided not to host a WMC showcase this year. Astralwerks general manager Errol Kolosine notes that four of its artists -- newcomer Juliet, dance-rock hybrid Radio 4, Ben Watt, and the aforementioned Fatboy Slim -- made appearances in Miami last week. But he admits that others on its roster were more interested in playing at SXSW, where Astralwerks mounted two popular showcases, than WMC. "In all honesty, this year we didn't have the availability of enough of our artists to build a big event," he says.

Winter Music Conference is usually blamed for this lack of enthusiasm and disinterest. Over the past two years, however, co-founders Bill Kelly and Louis Possenti have tentatively begun to work with local nightclubs and add value to the badges -- that is, cut deals so badgeholders can get into parties for free or at a discounted rate. Though the laminate badges still wouldn't get you into most nightclubs, I saw several people wearing badges at exclusive, difficult-to-access VIP events such as the BBE joint at Skybar and the Defected Records pool party at the National Hotel. Perhaps Winter Music Conference is drawing more industry hustlers than people think.

If the good folks behind WMC, M3, and now Remix Hotel want to return WMC to its onetime role as one of the country's premier showcases for new music, they will have to continue to tame South Beach. They will need to do a better job of attracting young and hot musicians who want to actually sell records, not just mature into thirtysomething "superstar DJs." They will have to make financial deals with the city's premium nightclubs, from the towering Mansion to the opulent Mynt, and even downtown Miami's Pawn Shop Lounge and I/O. Then they will have to ensure that record-industry people who fly into Miami from around the world won't have to deal with overzealous bouncers, drunk meatheads looking to kick some hapless guy's ass or molest various women, and velvet-rope bullshit. It's a tall task that will keep WMC from drifting into irrelevance, if not necessarily obsolescence.

After twenty years of surprising growth and disturbing complacency, Miami's much-beloved music festival still has the ears -- and hearts -- of thousands. But, like the hundreds of industry folk who have already turned their attention toward SXSW and Coachella, many of us are wondering if WMC is merely full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2005-03-31/basshead.html

[headrushmusic]

Re: How was WMC??

and the New Times review of Ultra:

Winter Music Conference closed out with Ultra 7, what should have been the most wonderful night of the year for electronic music lovers, especially the ground-level fan base who couldn't afford or simply couldn't get into the more exclusive fetes and concerts attendant to WMC's music-industry dweeb/professional partier cavalcade. At its best -- and there have been some awesome Ultras -- the festival can be a nearly Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, a synthesis of the arts using visual spectacle, surround-sound amplification, and a gorgeous ampitheatrical setting to focus equal attention on the audience and the stage to create a dizzying, unifying mass experience.

No such luck this time. Ultra Music Festival, which is supposed to feature top electronic acts, has devolved into an ugly rave sideshow replete with washed-up B-talents such as Paul Oakenfold, Perry "Peretz" Ferrell, and Kelly Osbourne; throngs of marauding hicks; and stall after stall of vendors hawking tacky trinkets and more varieties of fried meat than the World Hamburger Expo. To add to the suckage, the so-called post-party called Ultra Carry On at American Airlines Arena was a poorly organized fiasco. Hardly anything went right this past Saturday night, and nothing went well. So what happened?

For one thing, nearly every DJ on every stage and in every tent had a train-wrecked set. A different sound crew than in years past was handling much of the audio technology, and the unfamiliarity with Bayfront Park's acoustics was fatal. Sound bled corrosively from place to place (as did the greasy haze from a zillion deep fryers and griddles). Of course there were exceptions -- Josh Wink, PVD, and Donald Glaude overcame heat, reverb, and an unusually low-energy audience to crank out great sessions. But stalwarts Oakenfold, Lil' Louie Vega, and even Ti?sto brought the same tired tracks everyone's heard endlessly. And maybe Eminem is right with his constant jabs at nemesis Moby -- nobody listens to techno, and certainly not to a truckload of acoustic instruments, not at Ultra anyway.

Over the years Ultra's reputation has spread. It's a place to take Ecstasy and mushrooms, dance, and basically go nuts for a few hours in a relatively safe environment. The new breed of Ultra attendee includes the original Europe-y ravers but also a lower common denominator, the kind of people who probably chained their dogs to the tree before packing the family -- including the eight-months-pregnant baby mama and gramma in her wheelchair -- into the Kia and heading downtown, only to take up a huge amount of dance-area space drunkenly doing lasso tricks with glowsticks-on-a-rope. The spring break-enhanced presence of squads of inebriated fraternity boys didn't help the thug quotient either. The most widely sported T-shirt was a white-on-black model declaring: "Fuck You You Fuckin' Fuck." Not your traditional smiley-face rave sentiment. So the vibe, once so infectiously happy, was infected instead with an undertone of predation and violence.

Drug use was as prevalent as ever, but in contrast to Ultra 6, during which more than 100 people were busted for possession, the cops didn't seem to give a ... darn this time around. Miami Police Department spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz said there were only sixteen arrests during the entire noon-to-midnight festival, fifteen of them narcotics-related and one for disorderly conduct. That's as many people who get arrested in downtown Miami on any regular day. Some partiers would probably have been better off with an intervention, Man-generated or otherwise. At 4:30 a.m. Sunday, more than four hours after Ultra ended, there were still nearly 50 people in the park in various states of OD, some completely unconscious. One man, a 26-year-old electrical engineer from Davie, said he'd taken more than a dozen hits of LSD and lost his cell phone, his glasses, and the rest of his stash.

He wasn't alone in leaving stuff behind. The park, one of Miami's loveliest public assets, was trashed beyond recognition, a foot deep in discarded electronics, vomit, hats, food, bottles, flyers (and let's not forget fried meat) -- much worse than last year, when the presence of booths staffed by social watchdogs such as PETA, NORML, and Greenpeace reminded at least some to put refuse in the trash receptacles. Speaking of all that biohazardous waste, come on now, people, how could you possibly go barefoot at Ultra?!?! Puh-leez.

Those hoping to escape the clinging grease at Ultra for the air-conditioned after-party at American Airlines Arena met with disappointment. Mike Walker, executive vice president of AAA's Heat Group Enterprises, explains the situation like this: "The promoters [Ultra's Alex Omes and Russell Faibisch] did not plan for the resulting amount of will-call and guest-list numbers for the event, hence the AAA was not made aware of the situation resulting in the initial backup of guests attempting to secure tickets from either their Internet order or name on a guest list.... AAA did not manage or handle the overall ticket ordering and sales process for this event nor were we notified of any guest-list will-calls until shortly before the event was to begin. Had we been better informed by the promoter as to the ticketing procedures setup, the initial delays at the box office could have been more efficiently managed. As it was, all the people attempting to pick up or buy a ticket were handled within the first two hours of the event start time."

Two hours! Good thing it wasn't a Heat game people were trying to get in to see. AAA employees and contractors working the party were spectacularly unhelpful. Journalists, roadies, and pass holders of all ilk were shuttled from gate to gate to gate by uncooperative AAAgents, with one imaginative crew chief claiming the press was not allowed to enter the arena at all.

For those who did get inside, the absolutely unadorned arena was set up like a high school gym dance. Predictably, annoying adults stepped on the fun, making the kids turn the volume down on that crazy music and absurdly turning the house lights on every few minutes. (Smoking, on the other hand -- cigarettes, cigars, and nontobacco -- was encouraged by lack of enforcement of the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act.) Hernan Catteneo almost single-handedly rescued the event with an energetic jam, but DJ James Lavelle of the group UNKLE played one of the worst sets of the entire conference, an inexplicable clunker that sounded like Kansas mashed up with REM.

The Miami Herald reported Monday that 60,000 people attended Ultra; Andrew Fox, CEO of Track Entertainment and one of Ultra's major underwriters, said it was more like 45,000. Tim Schmand, executive director of the Bayfront Park Trust, said the number actually was "31,000 and change through the gate." Why did nearly 7000 people bother with the hassle of trying to get into the after-party at all?

Well, after a two-decade run of high-energy but socially fluid WMC parties and concerts and six bouts of Ultra, the creep of Miami social stratification finally caught up with conference. The Calle Ocho festival is welcomed year after year by a public willing to endure a bit of jostling and sloshed beer in order to see a bunch of great Latin music artists together in the same place. Ultra isn't free as CO is, but it operates on a similar principle. Now that WMC has been clubitized, schmoes from Kendall can wave around all the twenties they want, but if they're not on the list, they're not walking into State to see Miguel Migs, into Pawn Shop for a rare and exclusive Kool Keith appearance, and definitely not into the even more private parties at hotels and private mansions.

When events organized around a fringe interest become mainstream popular, they inevitably lose cachet. This happened with Burning Man in Nevada and is likely the fate of Indio, California's Coachella Music Festival. Should Ultra continue, its organizers need to take drastic steps to give the festival back to the people it was intended for in the first place. After all, as someone pointed out, electronic-music people don't rock, they pulsate.

[skahound]

Re: How was WMC??

Then they will have to ensure that record-industry people who fly into Miami from around the world won't have to deal with overzealous bouncers, drunk meatheads looking to kick some hapless guy's ass or molest various women, and velvet-rope bullshit.

Very well put.