​If you think the opinions of critics and passionate fans of rock and rap and pop and country mean nothing to the Grammy Awards, being a dance-music fan widens the gap that much more. Essentially, if you're allergic to bottle service and/or newbs with glow sticks, you're better off crying into your pitch-shifter. The bulk of this year's Best Dance Recording roster is out to party like it's 1999—specifically, that year's Ministry of Sound compilations, only dumbed further down. Yet that's notable in itself—part of a shift exemplified last December, when I this Top 40 back-announcement: "I heard that overseas three years ago. That's how far ahead of the curve Europe is when it comes to dance music." That pronouncement is this category—which has six nominees instead of five—in a nutshell.

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Swedish House Mafia w/A-Trak, Jacques Lu Cont
Madison Square Garden
Friday, December 18

Better than: Sitting around and becoming convinced audio of a microwave breaking is actually a leaked Daft Punk track.

Swedish House Mafia sold out Madison Square Garden in nine minutes for Friday night's mammoth "One Night Stand." Impressive enough, but if the deafening crowd response was an indication, the trio of Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, and Axwell could have filled the space three times over. Playing MSG is a coronation for any group, but Angello sounded like he was celebrating on behalf of a worldwide electronic music family when he said early on, "We've come a long way. We put a nightclub in Madison Square Garden!" The merchandise for sale was just as inclusive, emphasizing the singularity and historical significance of a DJ group filling MSG. (One t-shirt slogan: "We Came. We Raved. We Loved.")

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Twitpic via our pal Yancy Strickler

​Kanye West
Brooklyn Bowl
Saturday, October 23

Better than: Pretty much everything but the Blow.

Let us go now to Brooklyn Bowl, where the hour is just past 2 a.m., the enthusiastic but mostly ineffective CyHi Da Prynce is winding up his set, and bounding out now comes Kanye West himself, Horus chain like a wrecking ball, pyramid rings gleaming, launching into "So Appalled," the crowd that by now knew this was coming screaming anyway, Prynce at some point wandering off the stage, West shrugging off his coat and staying, shrinking a large building down to something smaller, more intimate--more CMJ-like, even. (Not the letters "CMJ" have a lot of meaning for Kanye West.) He did five songs. It was great.

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Duck Sauce, mid-interview. All photos by Chris Klassen.

​When A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch) and Armand Van Helden teamed up as Duck Sauce for last year's dance hit, "aNYway", we were surprised, then pleased, then completely addicted. The production duo shares roots in old-school hip-hop and club-friendly, sample-based dance production, but come from entirely different worlds. To give an idea: In 1997, a fifteen-year-old A-Trak was busy winning the world DMC Championship. He would spend that year, and the rest of his teens, known as one of the youngest, most talented scratch performers to ever exist. 1997 was also the year that Armand released his Greatest Hits compilation (on infamous house label, Strictly Rhythms) and Sampleslaya--a party breakbeat album. His next single, "U Don't Know Me", dropped later in the year and went to the #2 spot on Billboard pop charts.

Since then, A-Trak has gone from scratch champion to Kanye's DJ to Fool's Gold label-founder and production guru. Armand has continued to put out hit records-- most recently, 2006's "My My My" peaked at #2 on Billboard's dance charts, and 2007's "I Want Your Soul" did the same. With the wave of disco revival that has been sweeping through dance music in the last few years, it was only a matter of time until these two met. The result of that meeting? The birth of Duck Sauce, creators of delightfully nonsensical and catchy club bangers. The pair's second single--debuting a year after their first go-- had quite a buzz before it even came out. This probably had something to do with the title--"Barbra Streisand"--but it also had a lot to do with the fact that the song turned out to be insanely catchy. The star-studded video--featuring Kanye, Pharrell, Questlove, and Ezra Koenig--didn't hurt either. We caught up with the A-Trak and Armand yesterday (the day of the single's official release) in Union Square to chat about the project.

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all photos by Puja Patel

The Brooklyn Crew's aggressive (and we suspect, inebriated) group of fans

Converse Band of Ballers
Wednesday, August 12

Yesterday's Converse Band of Ballers was as much of a shit-talking contest as it was a three-on-three tournament. The invite-only event went down at the Church gym in SoHo to a crowd of no more than 200 team friends and affiliates, contest winners, and an overwhelming number of Converse staff members. The All-Star team coaches were Jim Jones (The Jones Family), Asher Roth (The Roth Boys), Diplo (Mad Decent), A-Trak (Fool's Gold), Matt and Kim (The Brooklyn Crew) and Pac Div (... Pac Div). DJ Cipha Sounds was behind the turntables; Hot 97's Miss Info and Peter Rosenberg were on the lighthearted banter. With the exception of Mad Decent's rebellious POPO bros, who both wore neon-print shorts, the teams were, of course, decked head-to-toe in Converse gear--by the number of video cameras on the court, we're sure the game will become an ad campaign for the sponsors. As for the winners, they would go home with bragging rights, a new pair of sneakers and a golden (definitely spray-painted gold) trophy.

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