The Making of Battle's "My Machines"

This is awesome!

DJ Magazine Review (UK)

The UK sends some love with MONO EFX Series landing the Star Product award from DJ Mag!

"Monocase are the makers of cool, practical DJ luggage that are high in the fashion stakes and also smack of pure professionalism."

The Core DJ's

The largest coalition of DJ's to date, The Core DJ's reach out to the world is something to behold.  The brains behind the collection belongs to none other than Tony Neal.  The span of DJ's runs deep from east to west coast and beyond.  We caught up with the folks over there at their retreat where attendance was through the roof.

More to come with this crew, way more to come...

Dub Trio 11.17.11

@ Brick and Mortar, San Francisco. Dub Trio on tour with their latest IV, killed it.

Where MONO lives.

We love our spot. The San Francisco bay is a destination I feel everyone needs to venture off into at some point in their life. We take for granted our way of life out here, we can grab a bike and pretty much get from place to place without worrying too much about the weather. It's November and we're still out here in the mid-60's. I feel guilty sometimes!

This is the first official week of experiencing our new space. Yeah it's not a secret anymore, we're now together. Brett, Daniel, Randy, and I are now working out of an actual space. Randy was telling me how he feels we're finally here. Our new space just feels right. I'll have to get some photos up once the place is all ready to go. At the moment we're still assembling office stuff and figuring out our wiring for the super sound system we're going to install.

On my way to work I've got one of the better views in the world. The Embarcadero awaits my bike, so I stopped to say hello to the bay bridge. This one connects us on the peninsula to the east bay. Oakland, right on the other side. A stroll down the Embarcadero lands me at the Ferry terminal on my way to Larkspur.

Getting to the Ferry building this early in the morning, nothing in there is open. If you've never been, you need to check out some of the shops there. The markets there are great, it really gives you a taste of what SF is about.

The Ferry ride is ultra plush, I sit outside with my Peet's house brew every morning and stare at the magnificent bay. I can see 3 bridges along with 2 islands (Treasure and Angel) and 1 state penitentiary along the 30 minute ride. I guess you could say 3 islands if you count Alcatraz, oh and then I guess 2 state penitentiaries...

As soon as I land in Larkspur, I'm basically right where our office lives. This week has been all about the setup and getting our battle stations ready to conquer the world. We are aided by some office toys as well...

And as soon as I leave the spot, I'm kind of missing it. It's our new home, MONO now has a place to live. Baby steps I know, but we're here. And of course I can leave you without a photo of our office...it's right over there...

Rusic TV episode 63: "Alaska"

Close encounters with Daru Jones with Talib Kweli and Idle Warship.

Rat Race is the latest single from the Idle Warship album “Habits of the Heart”. The album will be available 11-1-11.
You can hear Habits of the Heart now on Spotify

Idle Warship - Rat Race by idlewarship

Fixie?

How many of you commute to work? We live in NorCal, so the commuting is set up for us through nature. I've been looking at some bikes lately and geez, what's up with all the fixed gear bikes??? Hipster colors, single speed, riding backwards? What is going on? Gone are the days of riding uphill pumping your legs at 3200 rpm. It's now about leather seats and retro colors.

Not sure if I'm down with the fixie just yet, I need those extra gears to make it up some hills on my journey. But it would be pretty sweet to ride that thing backwards once in a while.

Minus the Bear @ Slim's

Highly Refined Pirates came out 10 years ago? That's a decade, so where did that time go? Well there was Menos El Oso, then Planet of Ice, and their newest Omni. I guess 10 years and 3 albums is a pretty good rate of music. Lucky for us they played all of Highly Refined at Slim's. The whole tour is actually dedicated to the 10 year mark of this awesome album.

Erin mentioned that it was fun playing the older stuff. In fact the whole night of hanging out together was reminiscent of the time we all met. Planet of Ice was still yet to be released, Minus the Bear was in town. We sneak our way backstage and show the guys some of the gear. They love it! Then 4 years goes by in a flash. Why did it take this long for a reunion? But the night was placed with so many memories. Even Scottie was there! Head of security who we've seen a dozen times, each time getting the fuzz for a second then high fives.

Bud Light was flowing right about now and the band was in pre concert form. Jose, the head chef at Slim's, dishes out some homemade chips and salsa which are pretty much gone before MTB heads out on stage. Velvet Teen and The Lonely Forest are backstage as well. These guys are opening for MTB as they make their way back up to Seattle for the final leg of this tour. Many of the guys have families to get back to, a different phase of their lives. I often wonder how much this will affect the albums to come. Sentiment can whole heartedly bring out the good in songwriting. Rejection and pain are one thing, but when you have something so tangible like a family, children, something you want to protect so badly, greater emotions start to rule your life. How does that translate into writing music? The question is open ended obviously.

What I do know is that MTB is still a band that has the live aspect of their music intact. They are one of the best live performances on our artist roster. The math rock is still there, and precise as ever. Knudson cashes in on his loops and taps, while Jake's boy next door vocals sit above all the abstract textures of sound. Cory, Alex, and Erin tear into the complex beats with all the subtle changes in tempo. Absinthe comes on and I just about lose it...gosh has it really been 10 years?

Dub Trio, Past, Future...

The year was 2007, MONO's first full year of existence. We were fresh faced newbies, wide-eyed if you will. Fast forward that to 2011 and looking back, things are good, really good. I'm sure the same parallel can be said for Dub Trio because 2007 was also a year full of surprises. The Oh Seven was when we all met up...



Helmet was in town and we just had a meeting with one of our favorite bands down in LA. Like I said, we were wide-eyed for sure, things were happening fast for us. Helmet took us in and made us family. Page calls us up and tells us he's coming to SF with the band on a mini tour. We take a look at the bill and see an opener, Dub Trio. Never heard of them. Little did we know that we already had with Peeping Tom. I can tell you this, my jaw dropped as soon as I heard that first bit of sonic wonder. Something so heavy but Dub. I looked over at Dan and we both had an epiphany, it seemed like our lives were now complete. There was much to be had at that show, Dub Trio's need to tweak sound on the go and the way they did it left us in amazement. It immediately prompted us to seek them out after the show and get them onboard.



Over the years we've had the opportunity to spend some time with the guys, and as great as they are musicians, they are equally or better people. We love hanging with them.


Joe, the ultimate fist bumper. Loves talking about the finer details of food (pescetarian) and makes short films for fun. He's a recent dad who can't stop talking about his daughter, the unconditional love there is 110%.


DP, the quiet one. Put a guitar in his hands and see how quiet he becomes. Loves howling wolf t-shirts and you'll sometimes here his Canadian roots with an eh?


Stu,the ultimate professional. Always in search for the best iced coffees in town and has a set of eyes that could cut glass. Holds down the low end of the trio so thick you're swimming in it.

Their adventures immediately landed them as backing band for Matisyahu and we were excited for them. They traveled the globe probably multiple times and will continue to do so. We're hoping an album with Matis is in the works. In lieu of sitting around during down time in between Matis touring and their own as a band, the Trio got together and have now placed "IV". Exactly that, their 4th full length album, this one has to be the heaviest of them all. This, like their previous records are spoken without a single lyric for the most part. The band excels at creating the type of texture that are the bases of metal and dub. An unlikely mix of ingredients that leave you with a "wtf" was that? And then you begin to understand what just happened. Your mind was just blown, and things are good, really good.

DJ A-Trak - Mehdi Forever Mix

As if winning the DMC World DJ Championship wasn't enough, he did it at the age of 15!  Phenom is written all over this one.  Fast forward 10+ years later and he's already Kanye's official DJ and is considered a DJ pioneer.  All before the age of 30 as well.  Montreal puts out some talent, real talent.

Make sure to check out this October episode of Fool's Gold Radio. This is his megamix dedicated to Mehdi using only his tracks as well. Full podcast below:

Fool's Gold Radio - October 2011 Mix by A-Trak

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We made Fab's top 100 best gifts under $100!  Grab that wallet for a friend or yourself!