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The Elysium Midsummer Festival 2008 Lineup

 

The Musicians

Alfred Howard & The K23 Orchestra  -  www.ahk23.com
Alfred Howard and the K23 (AHK23) combines in the pocket funk, staccato spoken word, classic soul, aggressive rock and vintage psychedelic. The group has invented its own genre by combining limitless soundscapes to create something new and impacting. Their musical style moves seamlessly through tightly arranged changes to extended open jams with powerful crescendos and quick shifts in dynamic, while Alfred Howard's lyrics transcend a style or genre, appealing to humanities most primal essence.
Danyvaad  - www.danyavaad.com
Danyavaad plays live original Middle Eastern flavored music featuring the electric sitar and tribal drum beats. Danyavaad creates an atmosphere of Middle Eastern lounge mixed with Indian vibes and rock. Danyavaad means 'thank you' in Hindi. 
The Shimmy Sisters embellish aspects of creativity and art in their inspiring bellydance performances. Their diverse show may include snakes, swords, candles, fire fingers, isis wings, glow hula hoops, and traditional bellydance props such as veils and zils. They are unique, classy, and genuinely talented dancers that  will undoubtedly mesmerize you!
The Fuxedos  -  www.myspace.com/thefuxedos
A demented, criminal pack of extraterrestrials sexually assaulting a game show host in a giant vat of goat spleen pudding, somewhere in the 11th dimension.

THE FUXEDOS are America's favorite apocalyptic lounge-punk-comedy-rock and roll-free jazz-storytelling-freakout-cinematic-what-the-hell? band, complete with costumes, props, and bizarrely humorous theatrics.
The Gumbo Brothers  -  www.thegumbobrothers.com 
The Gumbo Brothers’ sound is integral to the underground resurgence of deep funk in L.A.’s live music scene. After making waves on the west side, this Venice-based quartet is bringing their infectious, booty movin’ bayou grooves to swamp-funk fans throughout the southland and beyond. Dedicated to musicianship and rooted in the traditions of jazz, funk, soul and reggae, The Gumbo Brothers have a wide appeal and an electrifying live show.
Renfey -  www.renfey.com
Imagine the Troubadours coming to town to bring music and song; imagine the minstrels strumming their exotic instruments from far away lands; imagine a band of gypsies with fire and drums; imagine a poet songstress, a musician and their Court of passions… now fast forward a few hundred years and let The Renfey Realm play for you – a musical ensemble where acoustic meets electronic in a haunting and melodious cauldron of song
Tragic Tantrium -  www.tragictantrum.com
With z0e's theatrical training and Zeph's background in visual arts and music theory the pair composes, writes and directs a musical spectacle that transports the audience into their world of dark cabaret. It was agreed early on that Tragic Tantrum should aim to create an experience that engages all of the senses.  At Tragic Tantrum shows, it has become a common sight to see the audience dressed in costume, adding their own individual hues to the painting as a whole. With shows incorporating photographers, film makers, painters, dancers, stilt-walkers, living statues, and/or performance artists, Tragic Tantrum has quickly and gracefully transcended being "just another band"... No small feat, given that the band is more or less a mere one year old.
TurtleFuzz - www.turtlefuzz.com
Two dudes...one DJ/musician dude and one video dude. Clay mixes some music and plays sax at the same fuggin time. Ben mixes video clips live to the music while dancing erratically. See www.turtlefuzz.com to get hip.

 

 

 

 

The Performers

 

Phoenix Project - www.phoenixprojekt.net  
From the creative fires of the tribal underground a tribe of Flame and Feather is born: The Phoenix Projekt, a stunning blend of the styles of the Peking Opera, the old Silk Road, and contemporary tribal fusion. Combining fire dance, kung fu, wushu, bellydance, breathtaking aerial and floor acrobatics, hip hop, and Chinese lion dance, plus much more, the PhoenixProjekt is a unique magical synergy which awakens the imagination and arouses the senses with a fiery kiss...
UniFier -  www.myfiredancers.com
From the creators of "Equilibrium" and "The Sorceress' Demise"
Comes a new tale of magic…..
 
Unifier Collective Presents:
Chapter 14
Phantasmagoria
Zirk UbZ presents Mucca Pazza Returns -  www.zirkubu.com
Since their last appearance at Elysium, the Mucca Pazza family has been on a milk spinning tour with their bovine prophet performing at rave parties and seedy nightclubs. Fame
and fortune have begun to take its toll on the absurdist circus arts troupe and the lures of a false deity may be too much for their fragile spirits.

 

 

 

The DJs:

 

20meat:6fry -  www.20meat6fry.com
Infusing the analogue bass lines of Electro House & the drum-centric rhythm of Nu Skool Breakbeat, their discrete musical influences compliment one another to create an effect greater than just the sum of two individuals, merging the music with the people and creating an atmosphere.  The abstract fusion of these elements yields one conception, 20meat:6fry.
Blackass  -  website
I am Blackass from the "Swiv Tackle Circus".  I am here to save the world and I will do it with the help of my talented friends and the wisdom of all whom have the faith, to out-create the negative forces of the world with the complete possibility of clever-creation.  I stand for the unknown and don't fall victim to ordinary routine and cliché.

"Swiv Tackle Circus...  Giving The World A Reason To Swiv"!
FatFinger - (Project Alma)   www.projectalma.org
FatFinger has been rocking dancefloors for over 15 years with his energetic DJ sets of banging electro, funky house, mash-ups, chunky breaks and groovy techno. FatFinger produces fat dancefloor house, bass-oozing glitchy dub, and jazz house in collaboration with live stand-up bass and keyboards. FatFinger (aka Travis Lea) has also produced countless club nights, concerts and festivals with his company Project Alma in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. For ten years he's besieged Black Rock City with beats, theme camps and related artistic folly, and has produced several stages for LA Decom.  He's a charismatic, playful performer, and a down-to-earth guy
J Cush - (Pocket Underground)  www.pocketunderground.com
As a purveyor of fine rhythms, grimy basslines, and chunky melodies, J.Cush is constantly looking for fresh sounds to fill his timeslots. He is an experienced conductor of electronic music, plying his love for nearly a decade. His tastes draw from techno synths, dirty electro basslines, chunky tech house layering, and gooey minimal deepness.
Diddling knobs for over 10 years, J. Cush (aka Mr. Such, aka Jonny Fortune) will bring a unique blend of tones and booms to Elysium. On his special night, he will be performing a chunky, techie set of pinball minimal. Bells and whistles are encouraged.
Jesse Wright - (Pocket Underground)  www.pocketunderground.com
10 years ago, Jesse Wright scored his first residency at the Nova Express Cafe on Fairfax.  For those that don't know, that place was a tripped out, Sci-Fi Black-lit place that would be open till 4am.  Every Friday it was just him playing from about 9pm till 4am.  It was a struggle but it was done with love and with that he developed his legendary mixing and programming skills.  From then till now, we've seen his style run from Progressive Trance, through everything dance floor and finally ending up with a smooth, liquidy blend of Tech House with a little of that progressive tripoutedness layered on top.
Mark Zabala  - (Ninja Skillz)  www.ninjaskillz.net
Mark Zabala plays a wide variety of styles, but he tends towards dirty, driving, techy and psychedelic sounds mixed in with a good dose of percussive, glitched-out funk.  His earliest musical memories involved listening to his mother's cassette tape of Kraftwerk's album "Computer World." When he wasn't mimicking the robotic voices or the blips and beeps of that album, electronic noises were still working their way into his subconscious as he spent hours in front of the latest videogames or chaotically jamming with his Yamaha keyboard.
Red Sonya - (Lady Lush) www.djredsonya.com
Red Sonya can't be missed, with her mane of red hair, and her piercing blue eyes, this scarlet diva is packing them in wherever she is. She is the queen of San Diego's house music scene, doing everything she can to have fun and have her music heard. From djing, to hosting events, from partying, to promoting, she's a one person army pounding the dance floor with infectious beats.
Rhines - (DJ Culture, Innerflight)  www.ninjaskillz.net
Why Not? Something different. The sound is new, yet familiar.
Mixing various tones of audio pigment to paint a soundscape on an aural canvas.
Roll a spliff. Cut the tempo in half. Double the echo.
Drop some reverb. Multi-layer the Tracks.
Add a lot of space and atmosphere.
Close your eyes. Listen closely. Smile.
Sammy Bliss - (Pocket Underground)  www.pocketunderground.com
Once upon a time in a land far, far away, in a place that the locals simply called "The West-side," lived a boy with golden locks, a shiny set of headphones and a penchant for dirty beats. As the years passed he amassed a veritable cornucopia of noise machines and became the thrower of grand parties all throughout the land. With an arsenal of sound and a crew of unequivocally talented beat junkies, a new vibe was born forcing asses to shake from coast to coast. Together they created a new land, that of the Pocket Underground, where the beats are sweet, clothing is optional and excess is barely enough.
Saynt - (Ninja Skillz)  www.ninjaskillz.net
The idea of genre used to mean something to me. The convenient little way we compartmentalize and categorize our audio artistry to be packaged for mass consumption. I think of things now in terms of the image it puts in my head. I'm an afternoon pool party with a cold beer and a loose dress code. I'm tribal drums banging in a desert as night tucks the sun into bed. I'm a airy windswept beach in Mexico. I'm the frantic energy of a hypnotic beat at midnight. Doesn't that make more sense?
T.W Monk
Breakfast with the Heathens: featuring the music mixing of T.W. Monk! 

Join T.W. and the Miscellaneous Heathens for some early morning raucous and revelry come sunrise Sunday. Pancakes, bacon, and mimosas will be served along with an eclectic mix of music and live performance. Blankies and stuffed animals encouraged!
Yona
 No affiliations, just Yona.

Blazing Glitch Hop to Breakcore, no genre specifics here. Yona is bringing his style and energy to awaken the dance in even the most lead footed out there. With Yona vs. Fluid Sound's new sound system, you will feel the Bass on this set.