Anton Zaslavski, aka Zedd

Anton Zaslavski, better known by his DJ alias Zedd, is no stranger to the music world growing up in Germany with two musician parents. By age four, he'd began playing the piano and drums and receiving training in classical music. "I played classical music until I was 12 years old and realized it wasn't as cool," says Zaslavski. "Then I joined a rock metal band and played the drums with them for almost 10 years." He played in Dioramic, signed by Lifeforce Records, even once he began his electronic music producing career in 2009. "Once I started touring as a DJ I flew back to Germany to make another album with the band, but it just didn't make sense for me to stay in the band if I was always away," Anton says. With hardly any accent, you could barely tell he's only been touring the States for a year.

Zedd's interest in electronic music came from hearing Justice's "Cross" which made him want to produce electronic music and incorporate it with his band. "I knew Daft Punk and Justice but that's it," he says. "I really just did it for fun. Then one day I sent Skrillex a remix and next thing you know he brings me on tour and my life is changed." Anton went from playing a show with his band once or twice a week to DJing for three months straight after releasing songs on Dim Mak Records and OWSLA (Skrillex's label). "I do miss my family and friends from home but you kind of get used to it," says Zedd adding that when he does get a break he goes straight to the studio.

See Also:

*Slander: Two Former OC Frat Boys Help Take TrapStyle Worldwide
*Nocturnal Wonderland: Our Recap From A to Z
*Singularity Highlights the M in EDM

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Derek Andersen & Scott Land aka Slander at Radius Fest

Derek Andersen and Scott Land met as fraternity brothers at University of California Irvine. Their DJ careers started as half a joke and half destiny. Originally DJing parties for their fraternity because at the time everyone only played hip-hop, Andersen was passionate about bringing house music to OC. After DJing only house music at his own party Derek teamed up with Scott to make Slander as a way to entertain their friends. It wasn't until DJing a beach party in Havasu for all of their fraternity bros that they realized they had found their calling. At the time the EDM scene was just about to blossom in Orange County and what they created was an innovative and fresh brand of house music that eventually, with connections from their fraternity, banged in every major OC club opening for world renowned DJs like Dillon Francis and Madeon.

Little did they know a mere two years later they would be pioneering a DJ movement that incorporates hip-hop with dance music in OC. The birth of their new trapstyle sound is actually what they were originally trying to get away from but magically creates a symbiosis of the two sounds. They headlined a show at Ten Nightclub in Newport Beach last night and tomorrow they are opening for A-Baum at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana. We caught up with Derek and Scott in their Newport home-base and talked about their transition from house heads to trapstyle advocates. We also learned a little about the genre that is taking the blogosphere and internet by storm.

See Also:

*Borgore on His Dubstep Track With Miley Cyrus: "I'm Fucking All These Chicks, That's What I'm Going to Sing About"
*Krewella Want to Play Hard With OC Fans This Weekend
*Bassrush Massive @ the Orleans Arena

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Iris DeMent

See Also:
*Duran Duran Speaks: John Taylor Says Twitter Helped Bring Their Fanbase Back to the '80s.
*Jesca Hoop on Her New Album and Returning to California
*Hopscotch: Downtown Fullerton's New Beer and Whiskey Joint Also Serves Hillbilly Tunes

Maybe it'd be a little crass to start this out by talking about what an ass-kicker Iris DeMent is. But if outlaw country means telling it like it is, then Arkansas-born and Orange County-raised Iris DeMent is still on the run and free at age 51. Her new album Sing The Delta--her first originals in sixteen years--is about to release on her own Flariella label and she says she feels like a kid again: "You do it for the joy of it and make the music the best you can and go out and sing, and if people want it, so be it," she says. "If you're willing to talk to me, I'll talk back."

And she does, with a voice straight from one of those mysterious and powerful 78 RPM records that taught a young Bob Dylan what folk music really was. If there is something most special within the many special things about DeMent's music, it's the fearless and even agonizing way in which she pours her true self into her songs. Lots of people cry when she plays something like "My Life," which starts with the line "My life, it don't count for nothin' ..." and stares alone into a lonesome universe. More »

Bloc Party

Matt Tong, Russell Lissack, Kele Okereke and Gordon Moakes

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*Remix Exclusive: Boys Noize - XTC (MMM REMIX)

*HARD Summer vs. Nocturnal Wonderland--Which One is Better?

*Shockingly, Bloc Party's Kele Okereke Enjoys Being In a Wildly Successful Rock Band

British indie rock band Bloc Party has specialized in showing American practitioners of dancey post punk how it's done since the release of their 2005 debut Silent Alarm. Kele Okereke's distinct deep voice was the soothing soundtrack to many teenagers and twenty somethings just discovering themselves and their music tastes at the time. After a hiatus and overdue break in 2009, the London quartet came back on the scene last year more ready than ever to produce their highly anticipated fourth album, aptly titled Four, to be released  August 20th.

It comes as no surprise that the band who bridged the gap between guitars and electronic sounds back in '06 would be headlining tonight at the fourth annual HARD Summer Music Festival, a mostly electronic dance music festival at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. Since most of the acts are mostly DJ sets it caught our attention and interest in the new album and their evolving style. Gordon Moakes, or Gordy, the bands bass guitarist, synths player, backing vocalist and even glockenspiel player (it's kind of like a xylophone but out of metal) was nice enough to answer a few questions for our inquiring minds.

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Cracker

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Flickr User Kamilie

Tonight, S.M. Entertainment-- the premier publishers and masterminds behind Korean pop music--invade the Honda Center, bringing with them marquee acts Girls' Generation, Super Junior, SHINee and TVXQ. Likely to attract any local K-Pop fan worth their salt, the S.M. Town Live World Tour III is an evening-long celebration of candy-coated synth beats, coordinated dance moves and hot young Korean stars that usually only roll in packs of five or more.South Korean television and radio giant Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (better known as MBC) is co-hosting the show with S.M. in celebration of the network's 50th anniversary.

For those looking for an excuse to practice some shrill, adolescent screaming before the show starts, we've compiled five K-Pop jams from your favorite artists that are guaranteed to boost your excitement (and your hormones).

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Above & Beyond

Tony McGuinness is living the dream as one-third of the UK group Above & Beyond. He has made a career for himself in music starting off as a guitarist in English indie band Sad Lovers & Giants, with whom he produced five albums. Later he moved on to work at Warner Music Group where he was a highly successful marketing director winning awards for artists like Madonna and Seal. Soon McGuinness found his place in the EDM spotlight.

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She sings for you...live!

With her sultry vocals, Nilu Madadi garnered attention when she released a video earlier this year for the free, downloadable single "Sing For You." The lyrics and arrangement struck a chord with music lovers craving authentic artistic expression. But what has the Irvine-based singer been up to since her viral video spread far and wide amassing more than forty-thousand views to date with a little help from the Weekly and a lot of help from Young the Giant?

"I've been in the studio recording a couple songs for some more Noise Coalition videos," Madadi says of her recent whereabouts. The singer-songwriter is busy readying new material for opportunities to come as the year progresses. "Outside of 'Sing For You' which everyone's heard, there's about ten other songs in the works," she adds. "Some incorporate classical elements, but there's also some soul influences, too." More »

Don Normark

Workman returning to his home in La Loma, Chavez Ravine, Los Angeles, 1949.

Baseball fans in Los Angeles may have celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dodger Stadium on Tuesday for the home opener, but a new photography exhibit opening tonight in Fullerton will display the images of the Mexican-American community of Chavez Ravine before it.

Photographer Don Normark was present in 1949 with camera in hand to document the neighborhood on the eve of uprooting evictions by the city of Los Angeles. The controversial clearing out of the community allowing for the eventual construction of the baseball park still conjures up bitter memories for those who lived through the experience.More »

​Ladies, I've got a secret for you: Men don't like Valentine's Day.

I mean, we just got over the pressure of the holidays and now we're expected to come up with more gifts to show our love and appreciation. And do we ever get it right? Of course not. We're guys and we suck.

But we know if we play our cards right, tonight's almost a slam dunk in the bedroom. With this on our minds, we're acting all soft and cute with our roses, cards, teddy bears and chocolates, but what we're really thinking about is getting naked with you. (To be fair, we're also thinking about how to get you naked on the other 355 days of the year, but tonight, the odds of that happening are much higher and we like when the odds are in our favor.)

So while you're thinking about how he went to Jared or how every kiss begins with Kay, plain and simple, we're thinking about fucking you. Just so you can't say I didn't warn you, here's the soundtrack to what's going through our minds as you gorge yourself on chocolates and white wine spritzers.



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