Diplo and Switch kill the crowd with 'Major Lazer,' AutoTune baby, but not guns
At 10 p.m. Wednesday night, the line snaking around Bar Marmont was 50 people deep, each seething with jealousy every time the door would flap open and some starlet would come stumbling out. The lepidopteran-themed bar, home to countless scandalous affairs including, most recently, the LiLo-snubbing Ronson soiree, was hosting Diplo and Switch’s release party for “Major Lazer," the boiling pot of Caribbean that's given birth to new subgenres -- bandanna jah, dancehall spaz -- and everyone wanted inside.
The two DJs, who are best known for supplying M.I.A. with killer-cold backdrops on "Kala " (including, in Diplo's case, her mega-hit "Paper Planes"), set up behind a modest table in the bar's side chamber. They busted out with a tight, quick set culled from the new record that features the contributions of Santigold and dancehall DJ Vybz Kartel, to name a couple. Model-types in hooded dresses and the dudes who love them stomped on the tiled floor, spilling the tidal wave of free drinks that would not stop coming from the Marmont's obsequious bar staff.