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As the weather here in the northern hemisphere is starting to get colder, the world’s best electronic artists are gearing up to make the trip below the equator for the winter.  Before they go, many of them are making stops here in the continental United States for one last run at summer.

For yours truly, the party kicks off tonight (9/3) with a slot at Red Maple for the infamous MOOG party thrown by Baltimore’s own, Patrick Turner. Turner, who spent the entire summer spinning abroad and cutting tracks with another local legend, Andrew Grant, has been working hard on this party for a long time, turning it into one of the premiere underground events on the eastern seaboard.

After a quick day off, the party moves up to New York City’s famed Randall’s Island for the first annual ELECTRIC ZOO FESTIVAL.  Whoever still thinks that electronic music was meant to be listened to in the dark of night needs to get up on some daytime raves- because let me tell you, it doesn’t get much better than life in 127 beats per minute under the hot summer sun.  First day headliners include Armin Van Buuren, Deadmau5, Tiga and Benny Benassi… but you’ll find me at the Sunday School stage reliving the magic of Miami in March.

For the more well versed readers- you’ll know that Sunday School for Degenerates is the Winter Music Conference’s 24 hour closing party featuring the best minimal techno in the world.  Saturday sees monsters such as Luciano, Francios K, Marco Carola, and Paco Osuna, just to name a few.  If float-you-on-a-cloud trance or kick-you-in-the-face electro start to get the better of you, you’ll know where to find a friend.

Sunday has me a bit torn as Prins Thomas and Lindstrom take the main stage while Guy Gerber and Heidi get things going over at Sunday School.  As the main stage begins to take a turn for the trancey with Markus Shulz, why not swing over to the Riverside Arena to catch Desyn Masiello (new mix here )  tear it up for an hour before heading over to Sunday School once again to go super.fucking.deep with Steve Bug.  I know a certain DJ trio from Chicago that will most likely be front row center for that.  And while Guetta is headlining the main stage to close out the festival, the real action is across the island in the biggest conflict of the weekend: Richie Hawtin or Special Disco Version.  Its going to be hard for James Murphy to pull this one off, but we’ll make it a game time decision and see how it goes.

Thats an awful lot of music to take in in the first six days of a month, but hey, we’re just getting started.

After a long weekend in NYC, the second week of september starts a bit slow but ends with a bang… no… thats an understatement… lets call it a mushroom cloud.

On the 10th, another one of my favorites from Miami comes through DC to drop layers upon layers of gratuitous grooves on Ultra Bar- the incomparable, Joris Voorn.  Riding the wave of the most successful mix in the Balance series thus far, Voorn and his Rejected label have been on the up in 2009.  He’s scored with remixes for Robert Babicz, Wigald Boning, and Slam, and his own productions, most recently “Dusty House Room 1,” have been staples in sets all over the world.  Even if you hate DC’s sometimes pretentious club scene, I am 100% serious when I say, this is one that you’ll wishing you had gone to if you miss it (remember how pissed you were when you realized you skipped Daft Punk in NY because “they were sweet back in the 90’s?” When you saw the pyramid for the first time on youtube a few months later and everybody caught Daft Punk fever? Well its kind of like that but not as big- I just don’t want to be in a position to tell you “I told you so” again- I hate that).

The following night the Disco Biscuits kick off their fall tour in support of their new album “Planet Anthem” at the Hippodrome in Baltimore.  Here’s hoping that they continue dropping clever samples from the Beastie Boys and get away from that Daft Punk stuff… Really though- that “Root Down” sample during Caves at the OCHO was the hot shit.  I’m sure this site will give this show a ton of coverage… and a few big announcements in the coming days… so I’m going to save a few words and leave that for the Queso.

The party rages on on the 12th as I team up with old friends Orchard Lounge  and Damn Right in support of new friends THE NEW DEAL to turn the unsuspecting Bourbon Street into rage-aholics anonymous for the night.  I even think Rusko is in the building somewhere… which is scary because that much bass in one place is sure to do some kind of structural damage to something… right?  Fuckit- I’m going to tear the roof off the sucka anyway… so we might as well burn it to the ground.  Stay tuned to F5F for the details as they develop.

Man- another sick weekend, thats got to be it… right?

Wrong.

Take a quick rest and make sure you make it down to DC on the 16th to catch Telefon Tel Aviv for what will surely be a welcome change in scenery.  With far and away the darkest themes of the month, TTA will give you a chance to exercise your brain and take you on a more emotional side of electronic music that you might not have experienced yet this month.  Its been a rough year for the franchise, but this event should be a good one for the fans- a brief glimpse into their dark world but more importantly, a sign that life is always moving forward.

Go to sleep, wake up, and drive up to NYC again on the 17th to catch the best producer in the world, Anders Trentemoller, as he makes a rare  North American appearance at Cielo.  I could go on forever talking about all the ins and outs of what goes into a Trentemoller production, but by the time I got done it’d be October first and this article would be irrelevant.  Just know this- He’s the best at what he does.  If you need proof, go find his essential mix (pretty sure its on this site somewhere), put it on some high end speakers or headphones, drown out Pete Tong, and let everything else fade away.

To cap off the month our good, never-pretentious, friends in DC have brought Djuma Soundsystem in on the 25th to lay down some spacey minimal techno on yo ass.  Its probably the perfect end to a perfect month.  If you disagree, tell me that “Les Djinns”  or “Bipolar” weren’t the most ridiculous tracks over the last few years.  Win.

For me, September ends with a run down to New Orleans to do a spot at Prytania with up-and-coming DFA conspirator, Walter Jones.  I can’t think of a better place to end the month.  Lets just hope the weather holds up.

If I make half of these events I’m probably going to be the most contented kid in the world.  I really hope to see a lot of you out- there are very few months in a person’s life that contain this much important music.  The only thing left on the plate is the release of “Speaking in Code,” a documentary about what happens when you get completely lost in music.  Haven’t seen a release date on this project yet but it’s got to be soon.  Check out the trailer on the side bar- this documentary could change your life.

October is going to be another big month- if I’m  not passed out, I’ll be back to set the record straight once again.