Oct 31st Cowboy Monkey and Maximum Strength Sound System bring you the latest installment of DUBSTEP MASSACRE. Halloween night starting at 10pm the bass will be blasting til 2am with some of the best dubstep djs in the state.

WE WILL BE HAVING A COSTUME CONTEST:
there are no rules, but there are prizes, come dressed to impress to get some swag from local business AND some autographed vinyl by a certain DJ who played here recently.

Special Guests: Phaded and Richie August will be gracing the decks with some HEAVY tracks. If you haven’t heard these guys, you are in for a treat!

Richie August started mixing Drum & Bass and Hip Hop in 1998. He then started producing his own music in 2000, and worked with Chicago Hip Hop artist, “Skope The Lyrical MC”, until he was exposed to Dubstep in early 2008. It didn’t take him long before his first Dubstep release was signed to Betamorph Recordings entitled “Death Proof EP”. As soon as that EP was released, it solidified his sound in the Dubstep community as a Producer / DJ with nothing but teeth rattling bass and a Hip Hop edge… A sound which nobody has been able to imitate. Since then, he’s been making beat after beat, remixing, collaborating and pushing out tracks. As soon as you hear a new Richie August tune, you know it’s his. Richie has played clubs and raves all over the US. He has shown his skills at the infamous “SmartBar” in Chicago numerous times, murdering their dance floor on the clubs’ Funktion-One sound system. Richie just got back from playing Fuzz in Pittsburgh, has a tour planned for this Fall/Winter, and is currently filling up his calendar with dates throughout the U.S.A.

Blazing the U.S. Dubstep scene constantly for the last several years, “Chicago Dubslinger” is a name that Phaded solely secures. El Phado is one of the pioneer DJ’s on the premier online Dubstep radio station, Dubstep.fm, with a loyal following for his Sunday broadcast- The Dented Sessions Live From Chicago. He’s also the founder of the Dubfix franchise, which is responsible for showcasing some of the biggest names in the Dubstep scene to the midwest. Phaded has played along side the likes of Caspa, Rusko, Benga, Hatcha, Distance, Reso, Kode 9, DZ, Joe Nice, The Glitch Mob, Ana Sia, Dj Ott, Bass Science, Shpongle and VibeSquaD just to name a few. You can always prepare for the heavyweight bass with Phaded in the place.

Afterhours location will be announced at the show, BUT, know that Brandon S will be in the place blasting it out for the late night party, with some Drum and Bass from Geist to follow!

Thanks to our friend Pirkle we’ve got some awesome video footage from Dubstep Massacre 6! Check it out:

New release from DZ on his record label Badman Digital. Looks like these tracks are exclusive to Beatport, so preview them below, and snatch them up! They’re killer!

Many thanks to Chris Perardi for the amazing photography Friday night! You can check out a gallery of all the photos he took right here. Look for more photos from him in the future… I smell a great partnership in the making! And head over to the Facebook album and tag yourself in the crowd photos!

Download Mertz’s DM6 Mix

Download Substr8’s DM6 Mix

Download Geist’s DM6 Mix

Download Lincoln’s DM6 Mix

If we haven’t made it clear enough let me make it crystal clear…

DZ IS COMING TO DUBSTEP MASSACRE 7!!!!

It’s going down at Cowboy Monkey on August 28, which is the first Friday that the University of Illinois is back in session. In other words, GET THERE EARLY because we’re going to have the biggest party in town that week! Cover is $5 before midnight, $2 after.

Have no fear though, we’re giving away FIVE FREE ADMISSIONS that we’ll be drawing randomly from the list of people that are on the confirmed list on the Dubstep Massacre 7 Facebook Event.

AND we’re bringing in the biggest and best sound system in town, so if you thought past Massacres have had a lot of bass, you have no idea what bass is!

Peep the web flyer, spread the word, and get to Cowboy Monkey EARLY on Friday the 28th, cause we are going to be packed and rocking ALL NIGHT!

World On Fire: First off what’s the story about how you got started as a DJ/Producer?

DZ: Not much of a story i guess, i was born with it in me somehow, i remember losing my shit when hip hop found me, and the break became my heartbeat. add some rave and hip hop’s re-invention of sorts post 1993 and the rest is history, or so far at least…

WOF: Can you remember the first dubstep song you ever heard, or the first time you ever heard a DJ spin dubstep? What was your initial reaction?

DZ: First tune was ‘lightning’ by Skream that a friend brought me back from England, and a tape of the “Dubstep Warz”. I dug the production but couldn’t get into it at first until I listened to the Dubstep Warz show a few times.

WOF: How is producing and spinning dubstep different than being part of the drum n bass scene?

DZ: The only part I had in Ottawa’s DnB scene was the fact all my boyz spun it and the foundation of “Badman Press” is breakbeats in general, from breakbeat/hardcore to acid & bigbeat thru to nuskool breaks and jungle/dnb. Ottawa is a house city so it was always breaks & jungle/dnb that would get put together in the side rooms, so it was only natural that we repped each other’s genres up as the underdog material. As a producer I am a breaks fanatic, from growing up (like many) on NYC hip hop, so I built DnB not so much to get tunes signed, but to understand the different ways of using the same break. Spinning it was fun, but the bar was so high to begin with skill wise we started to adopt the 90 second rule when mixing, which meant as soon as the needle touched the wax, dude has 90 seconds till he’s done. That was ok, but was it fun? Not half as fun as playing a dubstep set with so much diversity within itself as a blanket term to keep even an hour set fresh and driving.

WOF: What has been the best party you’ve played at so far, and what event or city surprised you the most as a DJ?

DZ: Best party bar none was NYE 2008/09 at 1015 Folsom in San Francisco. Diplo & Jesse Rose were the main headliners and the dubstep room consisted of rastatronics, the spit brothers, antiserum, plastician, mrk1, kromestar & myself until 4am, then I went down to the main room and played to a packed place for another hour while mrk1 & kromestar just vibed. dubstep and sublow owned that night, very special indeed!

WOF: Hip hop samples seem to run through some of your tunes (obvious ones like “Oooh” or “Regulate” or less obvious like the Steinski sample on “Wildstyle”). And we know you got started out spinning old school hip hop, electro, breaks and hardcore. In terms of where you find sample inspiration, do you mainly rely on the classics that you know, or are you are trying to keep up with newer songs to nick things from? What qualities does a sample have to possess for you to use it in a song?

DZ: Man, there are sooooooo many classic samples that have their firm place in our culture, it’s nuts… for me, it just kinda fits if it fits, I build a lot of tunes that the process is like a piggyback, or call & answer session, where the sounds play off of each other. I think it’s just in my nature to keep using hip hop and funk samples because I know them, they reverberate with me as memories and feelings – always back to when I first heard it used and went ‘damn, that was fucking witty!’. it’s not quite an OJ thing, but if it fits, it fits.

WOF: What are you listening to when you’re at home?

DZ: samples, synths, old accapellas, funk, the voice in my head that keeps asking me why I don’t have a beer in my hand, lately I haven’t been listening to much unless I am working on it, spare dubs from the lads when I get my head out of my arse and need to assemble the weapons for shows.

WOF: How has being a father influenced your music?

DZ: 100% or more directly, in drive and determination. I don’t have the relationship with my daughter that I had hoped for, but to hear that she is proud of her father has really helped me get through some tough times and stay focused on what I am trying to achieve with my music.

WOF: Where do you get your inspiration to make such ridiculously heavy tunes?

DZ: The desire to hear something I have not heard before I guess, we used to get treated to ridiculously big breakdowns and drops in breaks in the 90’s and they were fun. I see that and feel that in dubstep as well, so when I build a chune and hear it out, my headspace is in the crowd vibin onit. A bunch of my tunes aren’t procuced as crisp and meticulous as most in dubstep, but I’m not a fan of constantly re-visiting a tune and fiddling with the idea that spewed out in the first place. I like raw shit that bumps, it’s what drew me into the scene in the first place, that ‘dub’ aesthetic, pure vibesssssssss…

WOF: Conversely, tell us about the Bobby Caldwell track… what has it done for your producing and DJing career in terms of opening doors? And how does someone making heavy tunes in a heavy genre end up listening to that original song and think “I should make a dubstep version” ?

DZ: I like this story… I had a studio session that lasted a couple days and was on fire, and wanted to do something different while I had the spark going. My girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and she had just recently sent me an mp3 of her fav tune ever, “What You Won’t Do For Love”. I thought it would be a cool lil project to try and about 6 hours later that track was done. I couldn’t hold it back and sent it to her, she loved it, and I said “wouldn’t it be cool if it came out some day?”. Sent it to a few lads, including Starkey, and it just started blowing up hard. Starkbot asked if i’d be interested in putting it out on Slit Jockey and the rest of that is blogfare history. Opening doors-wise, I am not sure. I’m not a blog junkie by any means and try not to hear what ‘they’ say when it comes to hype, but when I started doing a lil googlin’ trying to get reference points for my last bio, I noticed it did some major damage across the globe in the dances. I still think that my JOTS remix was the one that probably got me a bigger look. Who knows, cause I sure don’t, and it’s better that way I reckon.

WOF: You’ve also done dubstep remixes of Pink Floyd, Crookers and Major Lazer… is there any genre or artist that you keep off limits in terms of remixing? What artists (dubstep or not-dubstep) would you like to work with or remix that you haven’t gotten the chance to yet?

DZ: There are so many, I have a wishlist for my real artist LP, but we’ll see. I just always love working with different situations whenever possible, steady learning. I’ll admit the Major Lazer remix was calculated, I did it to get Diplo’s attention by giving it out and not posting it on the Mad Decent blog – I think just to see if I could get him to holler for it. I’m not trying to mimick styles sounds or techniques necessarily, I just don’t want to do what I did yesterday.

WOF: We know you’ve got some nasty tracks hidden away. What’s the word on new releases coming up?

DZ: In the last month Badman Press 002 (vinyl) has come out and is selling out like mad (AWOL/Crack), I have a dubwise release out on DubsAlive, a track out with Excision on EX7 (Ying & Yang), a track out on Rottun (Oooh) & my “Coast II Coast” EP just came out this week on my Badman Digital Media label. Coming up you can expect my 13 track digi LP to drop (DZ – The Proliferation Sequence – BDM004), my 10 (or 11) track house LP after that (DZ – The Flophouse – BDM005) and SamXL & I just signed off 2 tracks to Contagious Records, so keep an eye out for that as well. Oh snaps, and the Crookers ft. Wiley & TJ “Business Man” remix on Southern Fried any day…

WOF: Please finish this thought: In ten years, dubstep will be……

DZ: …sponsored by sirrichard@thevirginspacestation.com

BIG UPS to DZ for spending the time to answer some questions, check some of his mixes and tunes out here:

http://badmanpress.com/

Some DOPE mixes and exclusive bootlegs!
We’ll be seeing you all out @ Dubstep Massacre 7!!

Tickets for Skream at the Highdive (Sept 17) will be available this weekend! They’re only going to set you back a mere $5. That is an amazing price to see one of the most important names in the history of dubstep.

Now here’s the thing. This show would not be possible without our amazing scene here in Champaign-Urbana (and our supporters in other places like the Charleston Massive, Chicago, Indianapolis, etc). So we’ve set up something special for everyone. We’re throwing a street team/scene appreciation pre-party the night of the Skream show. The party will actually be going down at the Highdive itself, so if you can get in, you will be able to stake out a prime spot on the floor, hang out with other people in the scene, get your drink on (on the cheap), kick it with the Maximum Strength Sound System crew and maybe run into certain other DJ folk.

So how do you get into this special pre-party event? Well we’re looking for our scene and all the dubstep fans in the area to step up and help us make this BIG show a BIG success. We’re looking for help selling pre-sale tickets to the Skream performance. You help us do that, and we’re going to hook you up. Anyone can participate in this, even if you’ve never been to a Dubstep Massacre before.

Here’s how it works:

For every five Skream tickets you sell, you get an entry into the Scene Appreciation Party.

Every two tickets that you sell gets you a raffle entry.

So if you were to sell 50 tickets, you would have 10 invites to the party and 25 entries in the raffle.

And just what are we raffling off?

Autographed vinyl (from DZ and possibly from Skream himself)
Free admission to three future Dubstep Massacre events
A limited edition CD from a Maximum Strength Sound System DJ (it will be an exclusive single copy that no one else will have unless you decide to share it)
DJ lessons from a Maximum Strength Sound System DJ (2 one-hour lessons)
A copy of the Dub Echoes documentary DVD
And more surprises and prizes to come…

So if you’d like to get involved in this effort, or if you just need an early handful of tickets for your friends, email us directly at ms3@maxstrengthsound.com

We know a lot of you are excited about the chance to see this dubstep legend without having to leave town, so we really hope some of you will step up and help make this show a big success.

Tickets will also soon be available at local record stores and online. We’ll bring you those details when we have them.

In the meantime, here is some video of Skream spinning a set in France, just so you know what your getting yourselves into!

See you guys next weekend at Dubstep Massacre 7!!!