Weekend Music Preview: Andrew Butler, Gadjo Disko!, & Dance-a-thon

Image provided by Learning Secrets

Learning Secrets, a local booking and management agency, celebrates its Five Year Anniversary on Saturday at Beauty Bar. The unending dance party will be powered by many a DJ set. Learning Secrets’ own Ian Orth and Jeramy Neugent get things rolling before making way for Pat Mahoney (LCD Soundsystem). It all culminates with Hercules and Love Affair mastermind Andrew Butler at the helm. Hercules and Love Affair’s self-titled release was arguably THE dance record of 2008. The album featured luminaries such as Antony Hegarty and Nomi Ruiz, contained the brilliant single “Blind,” and captured the imagination of critics and dance-floor-dwellers all around the globe. Prototype Vintage Design is remodeling Beauty Bar’s interior for this show; our beloved Annie Ray will have her photo-booth set up to take those hilarious pictures you’ll be enjoying on your friends’ Facebook pages next week. (RSVP here.)

The latest edition of Gadjo Disko! takes place this Saturday at The Cockpit. Curated by Angeliska Polacheck, Mack Henson, Chesley Allen (DJ Chicken Kiev), and Sarah King (DJ Organgrinder), the first Gadjo Disko! event occurred in April 2008. We spoke with Austin native Angeliska Polacheck this week and learned that she spent some time in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, helping put on events and creating what the team calls a “unique environment, a temporary autonomous zone for people to interact in” at her place of employment, Z'otz Coffeeshop (owned by Henson and Allen). Once back in Austin, they decided to bring the concept to the Texas Capital and establish a “somewherelseistan” (perhaps easier to read as some-where-else-i-stan) -- “A no place, where you can step outside of yourself for awhile and dance your ass off wearing a fabulously elaborate ensemble”.

The group believes that residents here don’t always have an opportunity to enjoy music from different parts of Europe and Asia, and proudly assert that “We play music from about 15 different countries - Balkan Beats, Immigrant Punk, Slavic Hip Hop, Kuduro, Baile Funk, Klezmer Khaos, Dirty Euro, Ethnotekno Diskoteka!”