Bassgasm is back for its ninth offering -- the second and final installment of 2013 -- on July 13. The five-stage electronic music event takes over every inch of First Avenue with 70-plus acts to keep those in fuzzy boots and fuzzier moods occupied with nine hours of intestine-rattling action!

The headliners this year include U.K. drum and bass and jungle legend pioneer Goldie, a colorful figure with teeth to match his name and an acting career that landed him in Snatch and Bond film The World is Not Enough. Add New York's dub techno expert Beat Pharmacy, and San Francisco dubstepper Mochipet, who proudly tours in a purple godzilla suit and loves cute cats. As expected, it's a varied lineup with an abundance of local enticements, as well. Check below to see the entire Bassgasm 9 lineup.

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Slideshow: Awesome people of Bassgasm 8 at First Avenue
Slideshow: Awesome people of Bassgasm 7 at First Avenue
Slideshow: Awesome people of Bassgasm 6 at First Avenue
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Photo by Flash B

One of the oldest DJ photos of Woody McBride I could find

Dance music is nostalgic, from its disco beginnings all the way to the present when old school patrons talk about "back in the day." Raves occurred in old, decrepit shipping warehouses, and even arriving was an adventure thanks to decoy map points put in place by paranoid party promoters to filter out the cops. Cute raver chicks wore more than underwear and glitter to express themselves  -- rocking tiny-wasted pants with humungous leg openings, grayed with rave filth from hours of dancing. And the music was rough around the edges; it was new and rebellious. 

So when an old raver says "those were the days," they really mean it, though many would frown at the idea that they've reached an age to warrant such a cliche. They might still go out and dance at Too Much Love or attend a techno show at the Bolt Underground or even brave a dubstep gig at the Skyway -- but things are not the same. And really, they shouldn't be.

But that's where Woody McBride's Bassgasm events come into play.


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Bassgasm 8 lineup announced
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Photo by Denis Jeong Plaster

The eighth installment of Bassgasm and first of two expected in 2013 is sneaking around the corner with its nunhuck glowsticks ready to take names and challenge decibel levels. It seems like just yesterday promoter Woody McBride deafeningly tested out his rave-in-a-club experiment at First Avenue, but we're going on three years now -- to the point artists are even coming back for more. True masochists, those ravers.

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Bassgasm archives
Photos: Bassgasm 3 (with Reid Speed)

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Photo by Nick Patton for City Pages

Bassgasm time

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House music veteran DJ Dan is coming to Bassgasm

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Bassgasm 7 lineup announced

Artists will forever rail against pigeonholing, but genre classifications provide immediacy, saleability, and ultimately a fanbase. They're a sonic roadmap for the EDM world, so when pop-dance artists like Swedish House Mafia and AVICII rise to a bewildering level of acclaim as "house music" performers, it understandably has angered veteran house DJs who claim they're not using this genre just as a buzzword.

There's been some miseducation surrounding the house music genre for several years now. Longtime house vets like Sneak, Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, Paul Johnson, and DJ Dan, who came up in house's early days under soul and disco, have taken a backseat to the glossy European superproducers of the world a la David Guetta. Even artists like Kaskade and Bob Sinclar shed their roots to some degree in order to pack arenas with kids salivating for synth stabs.
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Photo by Ed Neaton

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Slideshow: Bassgasm 6 at First Avenue
Bassgasm 6 lineup announced

Bassgasm at First Avenue is the closest legal alternative to a legitimate rave. For two years and across six mega events, international techno man of mystery Woody McBride has taken his three decades of experience promoting and playing parties and infused them into the club that first hosted him as a DJ.

This September, the seventh incarnation of Bassgasm again loosely follows the idea of merging both the new and veteran artists within the electronic music genre. This time, McBride brings it back to millennial house and breaks with headliners DJ Dan and DJ Icey.

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Photo by Dave Eckblad

Promoter/DJ Woody McBride at BG5

​ To those of us who know what a Bassgasm looks and feels like (OK, now that just sounds dirty), the thought of six of them might seem exhausting. It's a good thing they're spread out over a year --  two annually at First Avenue since Woody McBride launched them in the winter of 2010.

Well, now is not the time for fatigue, friends. The pseudo-rave planning must begin soon. We have 7 pair of tickets to give away in what will be two big giveaways until take-off on March 23.

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Photo by Dave Eckblad

Woody McBride DJing at Bassgasm 5

​Like an unstoppable comet fueled by glowstick fluid, Bassgasm 6 is sprinting through time and will be here soon on March 23. Since the inaugural event in February 2010, this is the sixth installment of the rave-in-a-club evening at First Avenue, and our own Midwest techno legend ESP Woody McBride is at the helm.

As we have the last five parties, City Pages is sponsoring the giant neon gala and we're happy to announce the lineup now. Once again it merges electronic artists from varied points of dance music history, but this time gives a bigger nod to those who McBride thinks are making waves today.

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DJ Shortee keeping things raw

​The other day we were hipped to a pretty shameless new campaign MTV and Dove created where they're exploiti--er, promoting 'fresh' new female DJ talent around the country. One look at the hilarious "Look! I'm a lady DJ!" poses by the inductees on the site and it's painfully clear someone's in need of a reality check. Perhaps they should have had DJ Shortee on their committee.

Gritty and raw with real talent behind the DJ booth over the last 15 years, Shortee is lauded as the world's premier female DJ, an awesome feat we'd like to imagine leaves a trail of glitter, fishnet, furry boots, fake tits, bad mixes and other such club carnage behind in her wake. 

Paired up with DJ Faust back when a rave was actually a rave, the duo called Faust & Shortee ripped through the '00s with their drum n' bass sounds complete with turntablism tricks. Now re-booted as Urban Assault, the pair are coming to Minneapolis to refresh us with that back-in-the-day spirit but also remind us why they're still a force on the scene.

Shortee took time out to talk to us about the Urban Assault project, her new label, the dubstep craze, and even shared a promoter nightmare story from years past. 

Want to win tixx to see her at Bassgasm on Friday? Check out how to win at the end of this post.
 
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Get your ears ready

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