The Hit List

I just uploaded “OTS Radio 2011 Yearmix” to www.mixcloud.com - listen now!

Club Monfiis presents NYE ‘12 with SleeperHit. Welcome the new year with us!

Seems like every track Jochen Miller puts out is a big room anthem, so I put together my 5 favorite tracks of his. Click on the track titles to listen in!

5. Face Value: This was the first track I heard from the Miller Man and it is simply bliss. As soon as I heard it I started searching for more of his tracks and the rest is history.

4. Humanoid: Another huge track with deep sounds and an unbelievable breakdown. If you haven’t heard it yet, what are you waiting for!?!?

3. Lost Connection: Probably the most high energy track of all time. I can have this tune on repeat all day long and not get tired of it. And don’t forget the Mashup with Armin’s In & Out of Love.

2. Rotunda: My favorite collabo of all time! Jochen Miller & Mr. Coldharbour himself Markus Schulz came together to make the biggest of big room anthems out there. Goosebumps everytime!

1. Brace Yourself: WOW. Brace Yourself cuz I don’t have any words to describe this tune. MONSTER!

Hit me up on twitter @SleeperHit & let me know what your top Jochen Miller tracks are!

Time to get controversial & offend some people, but hey if the shoe fits, then hopefully this is a wakeup call for you. I’m going to go off topic on this edition of The Hit List since the topic is unavoidable this time of the year. Happy National “It’s Ok to Dress like a Whore” Day! (a.k.a. Halloween)

Seems like every year our society dives deeper & deeper into degeneration, & I for one, am sick & tired of it. Every costume I see out there seems like it’s an everyday character/occupation with a “slut” in front of it. Slutty cop, slutty nurse, slutty maid, slutty firefighter, slutty little red riding hood, etc. The only costume missing is a slutty slut… o wait, that’s all the girls that give up on the whole costume thing & go out in lingerie.

I want to know what the reasoning is behind wearing these low class costumes. Here are some possibilities:

• Is it because you are so desperate for attention that you’ve come to the conclusion that you need to wear the skimpiest outfit you can find?
• Is it that you have such low self-esteem that wearing next to nothing & having perverted guys stare at you all night long makes you feel better about yourself?
• Or could it be that you have no class, self-control, & integrity?

I personally think it’s all of the above. Turning into a slut for a night is not the way to get noticed. I’m pretty sure the people you’ll be getting attention from are not the people you want or should be getting attention from. No self-respecting, upstanding guy with integrity goes out on Halloween looking for girls who look the sluttiest. In fact, most guys who have class & dignity are probably not out on Halloween. Do you honestly think your “dream guy” wants to be seen in public with the slutty nurse from the other night? Didn’t think so.

Halloween has turned into a free pass for people to make complete fools out of themselves without any repercussions. Well you know what, I’m calling you out. I’m judging you. Why? Because you chose to put yourselves in this position. Wake up & smell the roses, the world doesn’t revolve around you. Stop being such attention whores, get your acts together & grow up!

It was Derby D’Italia day in Serie A today and that meant the long awaited match between Juventus & Inter Milan. The two teams have been at the opposite ends of the table all season, with the Bianconeri atop the Serie A table, while the Nerazurri have been flirting with relegation. Coming off a mid-week win over Fiorentina, Juve looked to keep its unbeaten record on the road at the San Siro.

The match started with both teams going on full attack and it reflected in the pace of play. Both sides were attacking non-stop and this led to some amazing play. Mirco Vucinic started off the scoring with a hard goal off a reflection from an Alessandro Matri shot. Juventus kept the attack going strong and could have easily gone up 3-0 had it not been for some missed opportunities.

This gave Inter hope as Maicon’s equalizer in the 28th minute re-energized Inter. However, this was short lived as their shaky backline succeeded opportunity after opportunity, leading the Marchisio’s game winner in the 33rd minute (off an amazing 1-2 play with Matri).

Inter’s defense needs a lot of work if that team is to make any noise in Serie A this year. Juventus could have been up 5-1 by halftime had they featured clinical striking.

The second half was unfortunately a complete mess. Juventus came out with intent to shut down Inter’s attackers and they were able to do this effortlessly. The Nerazzurri’s strikers failed to show any ambition for a team looking to reverse its fortunes.

Of course, this being the Derby D’Italia, both sides got more and more feisty as the match wore on, resulting in 5 yellows for Juve & 2 for Inter. Once again we saw Inter’s dark side as Sneijder & Lucio were constantly yelling at the referee and continuing with their dirty antics. This became more profused with the introduction of Stankovic. Inter showed that they were out to win without any respect for the game.

Juventus were able to hold down their defensive efforts and came out victorious 2-1. Their first victory against Inter at the San Siro since March of 2008. The Bianconeri sit atop the Serie A standings, alone, for the first time in 5 years & with Antonio Conte at the helm of the squad, Juve looks to carry its unbeaten record next week against Napoli.

Forza JUVE! Send me your thoughts on twitter, I’m @Sleeperhit!

I don’t know if this has happened to you or not, but I decided to write about it since it happens to me a lot. I associate songs with certain events and that link stays with the song forever.

If I’m at an event or something happens while I’m listening to a given song, subconsciously my mind makes a link between the song and what just happened. I don’t realize it immediately, but months or even years later when I’m listening to the song again, I recall the event like it was yesterday.

This can be both a positive & a negative depending on what events I associate with what songs. For example, one of my favorite songs is Ferry Corsten’s “Made of Love” featuring Betsie Larkin. Unfortunately the event my mind linked this song to is a pretty sad one, so every time I listen to it, I go through the same emotions & memories. The worst part is that I have to avoid listening to the song just so I don’t have to go through what happened all over again.

On the other hand, there are some songs that bring back amazing memories so I tend to listen to them over & over. If you look at my iTunes play count, Armin van Buuren pres. Gaia - Tuvan and Ummet Ozcan’s Shamballa have a crazy number of plays. Why? Because they bring back memories of two great events and I’m always trying to relive what happened with those two songs in the background.

So what am I blabbing on about? We have a very powerful mind that has the capability to do things we have no understanding of. I’ve talked to many people who have gone through the same situation so I’m not only talking from my own experience. The power of music is amazing and it has a pretty strong impact on our memory as well.

Do you have any similar experiences? Let me know what you think! I’m on twitter @SleeperHit.

Congratulations David Guetta on taking the number 1 spot in DJ Mag’s 2011 Top 100 DJs poll. Now let’s get on to serious business.

As soon as news got out that Guetta had taken the top spot in this year’s poll the #trancefamily went crazy about the results. Unfortunately, our beloved 4x number 1 DJ Mr. Armin van Buuren has fallen to second place on the annual list of the world’s top DJs.

Why did this happen? Pretty much because Guetta went HYPER mainstream over the past couple of years. His latest album featured pop icons Usher, Black Eyed Peas, Flo Rida, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, etc… He was able to get a ridiculous number of votes by getting votes from fans of these mainstream performers and Armin had no way to combat this massive flood.

This year’s vote included a lot of voters who probably only know Guetta & voted for him just because. Even though Armin van Buuren & the rest of the trance producers had the backing of the #trancefamily, there was no way to defeat the huge marketing clout that came along with Guetta’s new album and world wide mainstream pop presence.

One of the best tweets I read today came from @INDOTRANCE, who tweeted: “If @arminvanbuuren made a vocal mix with Justin Bieber… Lol… He would be #1 #Top100DJs.” I Couldn’t have said it better myself. Top 100 voting has become so commercialized that whoever lands the biggest POP name to collaborate with will have a very good chance at taking a large number of votes.

As always, Armin remained the classy guy he’s always been, congratulating Guetta and giving him a remix of Without You ft. Usher which Guetta later premiered during his set. @dwdechert said it best: “the spirit of #TranceFamily always makes trance #1 no matter what a list says. it can not be broken…”

Bottom line is, real EDM fans know who the true number 1 DJ is and a list will never change that. Armin will continue to make hit after hit without compromising his integrity and the #trancefamily will continue to support our DJs 1000%.

A big congratulations to #1 Armin, #5 Above & Beyond, #8 Dash Berlin, #9 Markus Schulz, #11 Paul van Dyk, #13 Gareth Emery, #16 Sander van Doorn, #18 Ferry Corsten and all the other trance producers who made this year’s list. We will be back better than ever next year. #MOTIVATION!

Let me know what you think on twitter. You can find me @SleeperHit!

I watched the Manchester United / Liverpool match and I have to admit David de Gea is definatly a rising star. I’ve had my doubts about him ever since he moved to Old Trafford, but in today’s match de Gea put in an amazing performance.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw, but without David’s heroics Liverpool could have easily won the match 4-1. He made 3 unbelievable saves that basically ensured United would walk away from the match with at least a point.

Here’s to David de Gea! For a 20 year to walk into Anfield, wearing the Manchester United crest, the biggest game of his career, he put on a show and put his name on the map. I think United have found their keeper for the next 10-15 years. Good eye Sir Alex!

After fearing the worst for a couple of weeks, this morning I woke up to the devastating news. Armin van Buuren announced the cancellation of his Armin ONLY show at Monster Massive in LA on 10.29.11. I want to start off by making it crystal clear that Armin van Buuren & Armada are ABSOLUTELY NOT RESPONSIBLE for Monster Massive going down the drain.

This didn’t come as much of a shock to me, since rumors of the show’s demise had been circulating in industry circles for some time. Go Ventures, the promoter of Monster Massive managed to screw over thousands of Armin fans as well as the entire Electronic Dance Movement (EDM) community with their lies & deception. Here is a breakdown of how everything went down.

Go Ventures started off by trying to book the LA Sports Arena for the show, but the date was already reserved for another event. Next it attempted to book the Port of Los Angeles, again failing to get the venue secured. Now here is where things get good. Early July Armin’s people came to LA to get a tour of the venue for preparation purposes. Go Ventures did not have a venue secured at the time, so what did they do? They gave Armin’s reps a helicopter flyover of the Port of LA, claiming that this was where the venue was going to be. Why didn’t Go Ventures give the reps a walk through you ask? Well because the Port Authority denied them access on their premises since there was no contract in place.

Next, Go Ventures started advertising that Oak Canyon Ranch in Silverado, CA would be the location for the show. Again, as time passed it became evident that this was another lie. Oak Canyon Ranch owner, James Event Productions, posted on its website that Oak Canyon would NOT be hosting the show, that there was no deal with Go Ventures, and no deal was in the works either.

With less that 4 weeks to go until the show, instead of coming clean and admitting that they had no venue secured for Monster, Go Ventures posted on its facebook page that the show would take place at Oak Canyon as planned. They promised to show proof by posting permits from the city, as well as a signed contract with the venue managers. They claimed the James Event Productions’ website was a miss-communication and that the message would be removed from their website within 24 hours.

Of course, 24 hours went by, then 24 more hours, and eventually a week went by without any promised update from Go Ventures. As twitter, facebook, bloggers, and other social media outlets started questioning the legitimacy of Monster Massive and whether Armin Only would actually be happening, Armin’s production team took notice.

This morning, via his facebook page & arminonly.com, Armin pulled out of the show due to “circumstances beyond our control.” Translation, Go Ventures screwed over the entire EDM community, Armin, his production team, his fans, and all the other artists scheduled for the event. Fans from across the world had made travel plans to come to LA to see the last Armin Only show and all their plans went up in smoke with two weeks left to the show.

Armin, being the consummate professional that he is, issued this statement: “Sorry to keep so many of you in the dark regarding my Armin Only event date in LA, but we wanted to be sure of the date before we spoke to you. I understand any anger or upset, but I hope you all understand that I am completely devastated by this cancellation. I’ve never cancelled an Armin Only show before so I’m very upset to have to now. I hope I will see as many of you as possible in the near future.”

Go Venture destroyed the BIGGEST trance event in the history of the country by their deceitful tactics and shady miss-management. By mid-morning, all other headliners of the event cancelled their appearance as well, including Erick Morillo and Moby. The Monster Massive facebook page was inundated with disheartened fans who were cheated out of probably one of the most magical nights of their lives. The offices of Go Ventures did not return any phone calls and they did not post an update about the situation until the news had reached all corners of the world.

Groove Tickets & Go Ventures have both claimed that full refunds will be issued to all ticketholders. Here’s to hope that this promise will actually come to fruition, considering that Go Ventures has done nothing but lie to its patrons for the past 3 months.

The EDM community will bounce back from this loss, and Armin van Buuren will continue to be the number 1 DJ on the planet. True fans know today’s events were all on the hands of Go Ventures and therefore, there will be no hard feelings toward Armin & Armada. Go Ventures on the other hand, has taken a serve hit to its brand and I personally hope they go out of business. They are already promoting Together As One on New Year’s Eve as a show with a stellar lineup (and here’s the best part: no lineup announced). However, after what went down with Monster 2011, I honestly don’t see any reputable artist signing up to do a show with them.

I went out & watched Courageous this weekend, and I have to say it was one of the most moving movies I’ve seen in my life. I won’t give away the plot line because I HIGHLY recommend everyone go out and watch this film; however, I want to touch on some of the movie’s key topics as well as the business end of things.

Theme

Courageous is a Christian movie, and it’s key theme is that of men standing up and taking responsibility for themselves, and their family. This is a theme that is rarely addressed in today’s pop culture so it was very refreshing to see a movie actually touch on the subject so effectively. In a culture were men have been sissified to a point were all that’s expected of us is to sit in front of a TV watching sports & drinking beer, Courageous does an excellent job of showing what REALLY defines manhood.

I would love for all the sissified men to go out and watch this movie, but unfortunately they will be too busy sitting on their couch or my favorite excuse “this movie has no explosions.” Come on now, why don’t you watch something that will help improve who you are rather than wasting two hours on big explosions and loud noises. Courageous shows what men can become if they take God seriously, take their responsibilities seriously, and BE REAL MEN.

Business

From a industry perspective, again the movie’s opening weekend was a huge success. It came in 4th place at the box office with $8.9 million in ticket sales. Considering the movie was made on a $2 million budget this is already a big achievement.

Most big Hollywood releases today have average marketing expenses anywhere between 15%-25% on top of the movie’s production budget. Courageous on the other hand, had virtually no marketing costs and was only shown on about 1160 screen as opposed to the weekend’s other major releases which were shown on upwards of 2500 screens. Again, this shows what an amazing job Sherwood Pictures (production company) was able to do in getting the word about about the movie.

Courageous also hit high marks with CinemaScore audiences rating the movie an A+! To put that in perspective, only 3 other films have gotten a perfect score this year; The Help, Soul Surfer, and Dolphin Tale. Again, this shows what an impactful message Courageous delivers. Not only was the audience engaged with the film throughout, but the message resonated with viewers.

Again, I highly recommend this movie to anyone!