Pittsburgh Electronic Music Festival

The first annual
Pittsburgh Electronic Music Festival
is at Stage AE’s outdoor facility this 4th of July Weekend. Full lineup and information about the free after parties has been announced!

Tickets

$30.00 advance / $35.00 day of show.

A limited number of no service fees advance tickets are available at the Opus One Box Office, or at the box office during any show at Mr. Smalls Theatre, Club Café, and Brillobox.

Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster.

Music starts at 5:00pm.

Stage AE is located on Pittsburgh’s North Shore at
400 North Shore Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15212

There are a plenty of public parking lots within walking distance of the venue.

“We tried to make ‘festival weapons,’ so when we play them, it’s like throwing a million hatchets into the audience,” explains Jesse F. Keeler, one half of DJ/production duo MSTRKRFT, describing the songs from the upcoming album, Fist Of God (to be released 3/17 on Dim Mak/Downtown). “When we play our own records, they need to be big.” Indeed, when it came to following up their acclaimed debut, 2006’s The Looks, MSTRKRFT looked to their experience behind the decks, spinning everywhere from packed, sweaty clubs to major festivals like the World Electronic Music Festival and Bonnaroo. “When we made The Looks, we hadn’t started DJ-ing professionally,” says Al Puodziukas, the other half of MSTRKRFT better known as Al-P. “This record is more like what we’d play out in our sets.” “Making The Looks was a debauched time,” Jesse adds. “We’d go out and party every single night, then come to the studio at 1:00 pm. We’re still going out every night, but around the world, which is a very different experience. It may sound arrogant, but from our DJ experience we’ve developed ideas about what people should be listening to.” That’s demonstrated by Fist of God’s sonic evolution. Not only are the beats fatter than ever this time around, they also represent Al-P and Jesse’s mutation of today’s best urban music into MSTRKRFT’s distinctively brutal club grooves. Throughout Fist, slamming cameos from the likes of John Legend, N.O.R.E., Ghostface Killah, E-40, Freeway, and Isis of Thunderheist all get MSTRKRFTED. “It wasn’t a conscious decision to incorporate more of those sounds,” Jesse clarifies. “It’s just a reflection of where our heads are at.”

The name itself presents a terrifying image- a mangled, forced extraction, quite literally “removal by cutting”. It should come as no surprise that the sounds behind this name are just as filthy, brutal, and unforgiving as the namesake suggests.

Excision shows are like no other- a virtual apocalypse of twisting and morphing sounds turn massive crowds into a frenzy, as virtual walls of bass are relentlessly impaled time and time again upon their fragile bodies and ears. Your ears will ring and your eyes will roll into the back of your head as you are suspended in what can only be called a true sensory overload. Bass will rain down from above for hours as Excision’s skills as a DJ and producer shine like an unholy light from the underworld.

The true champion of bass music, Excision hails from Kelowna, British Columbia. The founder of the ROTTUN label, a bass music conglomerate that has shaped the sound of modern Bass music, Excision has created a vast roster of allies that has only bolstered his spot as a warrior of bass music. Armed with a library of destruction and filth, Excision has time and time again tested the limits of electronic music with vastly different sets that encompass a full range of genres. The things you see and hear during the precious time you are engaged by Excision’s sounds will eclipse your mind for a lifetime, as you are constantly enlightened by the true fervor and energy that only an Excision set can provide.

To see more, go to Excision.ca

Ask the DJ/production duo DESIGNER DRUGS how many air miles they've logged over the past year and the answer requires more than a bit of calculating. "Over 300,000," Michael Vincent Patrick referencing numerous spots around the world where the group has performed. "I have a really nice apartment in New York City, but I've only been there three days this month."

It's a testament both to the duo's popularity and work ethic that that number may become the annual norm. After nearly 50 remixes for everyone from Mariah Carey to Annie to Thieves Like Us, the diverse electronic group, comprised of Patrick and Theodore Paul Nelson, is set to release their debut album HARDCORE/SOFTCORE on Ultra Records in February 2011.

“I know it’s electronic music,” Brian Lindgren says, “but sometimes I feel like an old-timey traveling musician with an M-Audio Trigger Finger instead of a guitar.” As Mux Mool, Lindgren has been criss-crossing the country by himself for years, collecting records, loops, and samples, and rocking parties in towns both large and boondock-small. Lindgren is a self-confessed nerd to the bone, an incurable doodler, a Star Trek: The Next Generation fan; he lives on energy drinks and barely sleeps, spending his days working on music and his nights absorbing Internet memes by the hard-drive load. Mux Mool’s homespun electro hip-hop is the product of an introverted mind, an extroverted imagination, and a bottomless cultural appetite.

Bird Petersen with Assassins, DJ Clever

When one thinks of hot rhythms, swervin'  basslines, and dance wizardry, the name Bird Peterson surfaces again and again. He is the boy genius who has tickled the hearts of every club, DJ, mixtape, radio show, and blog that he has been in contact with. A true hero, Mr. Peterson is here to remind the world that there are still many fresh and vibrant new acts in dance music, his being of main focus. The so called "Wizard of the Dance Scene", Mr. Peterson, or Andrew Hoke as he is sometimes known, is a beacon of hope in a world filled with aimless basslines, distorted synths, improperly used acapellas, and thin kicks. His sound is as majestic as the horse he rode in on, complete with dazzling saddle and urban flintcraw. 

LAZERCRUNK featuring Chrissy Murderbot, Cutups and Keebs

Chrissy Murderbot: Since the mid 90s, Murderbot has been mashing it up on the decks with an eclectic mix of styles. World-wide touring, running two labels, and recently releasing his first full length album, “ Women’s Studies,” on the Planet-Mu label, make him one busy fellow. He’ll be bringing his encyclopedic knowledge of all things rave, as well as the flavors of juke & footwork that are the staples of his new Loose Squares club night. Get ready to bang!

Cutups and Keebs: On this 4th of July weekend, your Lazercrunk residents Cutups and Keeb$ plan to channel the spirits of great Americans like Ben Franklin, Shaquille “Kazaam” O’Neal, Jack Bauer, and Dimebag Darrel to bring you an intensely inspirational mix of all-American party jams that will crack your skull open wider than the Liberty Bell.