Seems like our friends Black Gold and Barbara Butch & Unisexy of Queerer Park are all over the place these days! Coming off the First Pride event at the Toyota Creative Lounge and a super fun night at Berlin’s Stardust party, they’re now taking their roving dance party good times to Beauty Bar for Hot/Mess with JD Samson! Everybody already knows that JD’s DJing keeps things live…but besides being in for a fun time, JD’s appearance at Hot/Mess is also a benefit for the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois. TJLP is an organization fighting for gender self-determination, prison abolition, and transformative justice, so go out and dance for a good cause!

Friday, June 18
10 PM – 2 AM
HOT/MESS
with JD Samson and Queerer Park DJs Black Gold and Barbara Butch & Unisexy
Beauty Bar
1444 W. Chicago Ave

To get you excited, check out this mix JD made!

JD TAKE BACK THE NIGHT MIX 2009

Tracklisting:

2 UNLIMITED/YMCA INTRO
A CAUSE DE GARCONS- YELLE (STA REMIX)
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOY- DENIECE WILLIAMS
HOT DOG- SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO
FINALLY- CECE PENISTON
GREAT DJ- THE TING TINGS (CALVIN HARRIS REMIX)
FAR AWAY- CUT COPY (HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS REMIX)
WE ARE THE PEOPLE- EMPIRE OF THE SUN (SHAZAM REMIX)
BREAKING IT UP- LYKKE LI (PUNKS JUMP UP REMIX)
RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT- DEBARGE
D.A.N.C.E- JUSTICE (MSTRKRFT REMIX)
ONE MORE TIME- DAFT PUNK
HOLLABACK GIRL- GWEN STEFANI (DIPLO BALTIMORE HOLLERTRONIX REMIX)
CREATOR- SANTOGOLD (SCOTTIE B REMIX)
A VOLTA- N.A.S.A FEATURING SIZZLA, AMANDA BLANK & LOVEFOXXX)
CROSS THE DANCEFLOOR- TREASURE FINGERS (DESIGNER DRUGS REMIX)
NOT GONNA TEACH YOUR BOYFRIEND HOW TO DANCE…- BLACK KIDS (THE TWELVES REMIX)
THIS BOY’S IN LOVE- THE PRESETS (LIFELIKE REMIX) WITH TO PROTECT AND ENTERTAIN- BUSY P
YOU BELONG- HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR (RITON REMIX)
YR MANGLED HEART- GOSSIP (LINUS REMIX)
JOHNNY COME HOME- JEPPE
SEND HIM BACK- POINTER SISTERS (PILOOSKI REMIX)
NEW IN TOWN- LITTLEBOOTS (FRED FALKE REMIX)
MOVE- CSS (FRANKMUSIK REMIX)
YOU’VE CHANGED- LAUREN FLAX FEATURING SIA

Tonight the Bloody Rag Collective presents a riot grrrl cover band show benefiting the Chicago Women’s Health Center at Locked Out! The show promises to offer all our favorite Bikini Kill, Sleater Kinney, Huggy Bear, Excuse 17 songs and more. The show is also all ages and on a $5-$10 sliding scale (and benefits a great cause) so there’s no excuse not to go!

Check out a few of our favorite riot grrrl/queercore songs and see you there!

Bikini Kill – Hamster Baby

Huggy Bear – Her Jazz

Bratmobile – Panik

Tonight! Free! Fun!

I’m telling you…if you haven’t been to Queerer Park you are totally missing out!

Assorted jams that may or may have not been heard last time:

Kid Sister – Right Hand Hi (Kill The Noise Remix)

Sam Sparro – Black and Gold (Russ Chimes Remix)

The XX – Heart Skipped A Beat (Jams Dean Chicago Girls Remix)

It’s been a hot minute since we’ve done a giveaway here, but what better act to break that streak than Trouble & Bass’, heavy-hitting front man; Drop The Lime! As you can see from this marvelously crafted flier (I’m not being sarcastic, “marvelously” and “crafted” is just a solid combo), Luca will be here this Friday at Smartbar with support from local legends Willy Joy and Black Holes. Get your $10 tickets at the door, get them ahead of time right here or try winning a pair of tickets through our Twitter giveaway.

We usually do giveaways through email, but I thought it would be fun to change things up and run it through Twitter this time. All you’ll need to do is tweet @ us with via the provided link below and you’ll be entered for a pair of tickets to this nutty (21+) show. Winner will be picked at random on Thursday, April the 22nd of 2010.

Friday, April 23 @ Smartbar:
Drop The Lime
Willy Joy
Black Holes
$10 Before Midnight ($12 after) / Show: 10pm / 21+ (buy tickets)

For kicks:
Little Boots – New In Town (Drop The Lime Dub)

For a pair of tickets to the show:
drop this on Twitter

Beats™

Tagged: black holes, Chicago, Drop The Lime, giveaway, metro, smarbar, willy joy

My good buddy, Mike Perry (aka Black Holes), and his band, The Dirty Diamonds, are just about ready to drop their debut album, Monster Ballads. In case you’re unfamiliar with The Dirty Diamonds, they’re a very solid band out of Chicago with a penchant for balancing pop, soul and doo-wop. Their new album will most likely be the soundtrack for many-a-folks’ Summertime cookouts this season, because good pop music (such as theirs) and warm weather were basically made for each other. As a whole, the best part about the album is the continuity. Not only do they do a great job of maintaining a rich soul experience, but the final mixdown smoothly transitions each song into the next, which means you could keep that puppy on repeat all day long.

Get a taste of these good vibrations with their featured track, “The Right Direction”, and mark April 13th on your calendars because UR Chicago will be giving away the Diamonds’ new album for free. If you can’t wait until the 13th, gear up for the album release party (Saturday, April 10th) with Flosstradamus and free beer, details below.

The Dirty Diamonds – Monster Ballads Release Party:
Saturday, April 10th @ Le Compound (map)
Flosstradamus
The Dirty Diamonds
Special Guests!
21+ / Free beer until 11 (or until it runs out) / RSVP (via UR Chicago)

The Dirty Diamonds – The Right Direction

Beats™

Tagged: black holes, Chicago, the dirty diamonds, ur chicago

Fresh off his URB Next 100 listing, JDP is back with some more fire. Aptly dubbed “Sky Blue Diamonds”, it’s easily the freshest thing to come out of the Chicago Hip-Hop scene in a long ass time. As per usual, JDP’s rhymes are cleverly on-point and refreshingly concise in contrast to the large number of mainstream rappers who spout off about all the same old, irrelevant shit. Along with the stellar lyricism, the production is also something to take note of.

The production mirrors the same quality of that in the Top 40 charts. At first listen, the subtle background synths reminded me of those in T-Pain’s self-produced track, “Buy U A Drank”, while the overall feel was more along the lines of T.I.’s “What You Know”, which was produced by DJ Toomp. Two mainstream classics, need I say more? No. Check it out for yourself and keep an eye out for -Purple-, the follow-up to his Air Raid mixtape.

JDP – Sky Blue Diamonds

Beats™

Tagged: Chicago, Hip-Hop, jdp

I got another exclusive from the disco/ funk/ house duo known as Le Principle. This one is, apparently, inspired by the Division & Ashland intersection here in Chicago, as it’s aptly named “Division & Ashland.” Whether it’s referring to said cross-streets or not, this is definitely the funkiest thing I’ve heard from these guys and it’s a direction I hope they continue to travel.

If you’re unfamiliar with Le Principle, not to worry, as they’ve got some nice things lined up with Solid Bump Records (San Fran disco house outfit) that should dazzle you as the year goes on.

Le Principle – Division & Ashland

Beats™

Tagged: ashland, Chicago, division, le principle, solid bump records