Ellen's got the power!

The Friday before last turned out to be a night of epic going out proportions as I paraded myself from the East Village to Gowanus and eventually to Greenpoint's Studio B.

We stopped by one of my favorite new venues, The Bell House, for the record release party of Brooklyn's Obits. I thought they played a solid set but some people in my crew longed for their smaller previous performances and found the sound problematic.

Studio B boasted a killer lineup featuring Gui Boratto, whose last album Take My Breath Away I highly recommend, and label owner, clothing designer, producer extraordinaire and general badass DJ, Ellen Allien.

Gui went on shortly after we got there. His set lasted well over an hour, almost 90 minutes in fact, and while it was good, it got a little old.

Ellen opened up with a Burial-esque number called "Rusty Nails" by Moderat (Modeselektor and Apparat) whose self-titled first album will be released on her Bpitch Control label later this month. (Catch Modeselektor in one of their few North American dates at Webster Hall next month.)

She proceeded to play real, actual records for the next two hours. It was refreshing to watch someone dig through crates, beat match by ear and mix just like in the old days - with no computer in sight!

My only complaint is that she played one song twice. And it wasn't a filler record but a rather memorable number that sampled Snap!'s "The Power" in big buildup, blowup style. Maybe the raver bouncing around behind her throughout her entire set in the DJ booth distracted her?

We also saw a girl get kicked out for climbing on a speaker. Twice. Oh Studio B... Good times!