May 13, 2013 – On Memorial Day weekend, 1996, electronic music history was made on a muddy, rain-soaked Wisconsin campground. Two young humans known together as Daft Punk — who ultimately would become far more famous in robot guises — played their first American show. The soggy, chaotic setting was the 1996 Even Furthur, the third installment of the infamous Furthur outdoor festival and campout series thrown by Milwaukee rave producers Drop Bass Network. Daft Punk touched down at Eagle Cave Campground not only before their debut Homework was released the following year, but before anyone in the Midwest aside from a few DJs knew who they were at all. Drop Bass leader Kurt Eckes — along with his Furthur promoting partners, Minneapolis' Woody McBride and Chicago's David J.

October 24, 2011 – Nobody in the audience wore sunglasses at SPIN's Flip Out showcase at CMJ on Saturday, but they didn't need to. The event at lower Manhattan's DCTV Firehouse was a see-and-be-seen kind of place — fitting the strong lineup, announced only a week earlier. (The party was presented by SPIN and Ray-Ban and sponsored by Kanon Organic Vodka.) Fire in the disco! Photos from SPIN's CMJ bash. DJ A-Trak looked very George Michael in his black leather bomber jacket and neatly trimmed beard.

October 1, 2004 – WILEYTreddin on Thin IceXL "Watch this place / I'm setting the pace like Dizzee," U.K. grime's number-two man brags on his debut's title track. But producer/MC Wiley actually mentored the pre-fame Rascal, and here he matches him, sing-song hook for wobbling keyboard line. "Pies" is both an ultramodern nursery-rhyme rewrite and the best sex-as-baked-goods metaphor since Warrant's heyday. And on "Special Girl" and "Next Level," he rewires '80s R&B as lustily as Kanye West or MF Doom. Who'd have figured we'd get two great U.K. hip-hop albums in a year? Grade: A-