CMJ may be drawing to a close, but there’s still time to gain entry to an exclusive party this weekend. On Saturday, October 22, Crystal Castles, the Rapture, and A-Trak will be performing as part of Flip Out: A Never Hide Concert. The 21+ event, sponsored by SPIN and Ray-Ban, will take place at an undisclosed location in the city.

There are three ways to get in:

1. Head to a participating Optyx location and purchase an item from the Ray-Ban Flip Out Sun Collection or Ray-Ban Polarized Frames by Saturday; wristbands will be distributed while supplies last. The participating locations are 2384 Broadway, 1076 Third Avenue, 228 Second Avenue, 599 Lexington Avenue, 2009 Broadway, 1225 Lexington Avenue, 655 Sixth Avenue, and 862 Lexington Avenue.
2. Look for wild postings on the streets of SoHo and LES and enter for a chance to win when you take a photo of the mobile code.
3. Follow @SPINmagazine on Twitter to see clues of where wristbands will be distributed.

For “fashionable fans in-the-know,” fear not, wristbands are being handed out “around college campuses, downtown hotspots, and concert lines,” according to the announcement from SPIN. Some CMJ badge holders will be granted admission, subject to capacity. For everyone else, good luck!

Crystal Castles, Thursday, September 15th, Good Units:
Smoke & Mirrors is your favorite new party, brought to you by RCRD LBL. Smoke & Mirrors brings big names to small rooms. Be prepared to get lost in the music and enjoy some smoky surprises. This event is free for RCRD LBL Subscribers with RSVP. Come early, stay late. We will be cutting off RSVPs once the demand is wildly out of control. This is a small room for big talent. Once the room is filled, all others will be turned away. Good Units (Beneath the Hudson Hotel), 356 W 58th Street (Between 8th and 9th Ave) RSVP

The Official Launch of VICE.COM, Thursday, September 15th, One Hanson Place, Brooklyn:
Following years of hard work, arm wrestling over domain names, and a little bit of high-tech stuff that we can’t even begin to understand, we’re proud to announce that VICE.COM is here. We’ve combined VBS.TV and Viceland.com to create a super dupe one-stop-content-shop for all the videos and words you’ve come to expect from VICE. Being that we’re VICE, we decided to throw a party to celebrate our new URL with our best friends, like you and Rick Ross. RSVP is now open, details and flier below. Space will be limited. Performances by Rick Ross, A-Trak, and Death From Above 1979. Skylight One Hanson, One Hanson Place, Brooklyn, 9PM-3AM. General Public can RSVP (space will be limited 21): RSVP

Trouble and Bass, 5th Anniversary Party, Friday, September 16th, Webster Hall:
Trouble & Bass is the sound of staying up all night and getting wild in the streets, sweat dripping off the walls and speakers pounding in your face. For the last four years, these rowdy ravers have brought raw energy back to the world’s dancefloors by effortlessly flipping bass music in all its forms. Taking influences from house, electro, dubstep, drum & bass, metal, and hip-hop, T&B has created an entirely new genre known simply as “heavy bass.” Purchase Tickets

Blkmarket Membership, Friday, September 16th, TBA:
Blkmarket Membership is back from vacation on Friday 16th September as we commence our fall lineups which we are very excited to announce. Kicking things off we bring you Planetary Assault Systems (aka Luke Slater), Barem, Kollektiv Turmstrasse live, Taimur & Fahad and Zach Rosenberg. Purchase Tickets

Ghostland Observatory, Saturday, September 17th, Terminal 5:
Ghostland Observatory is the duo of frontman Aaron Behrens and producer/drummer Thomas Turner. Behrens’ vocal style and stage performances are unique and uncompromising, and he has drawn early comparisons to Freddie Mercury and Prince. Turner is heavily influenced by electronic artists such as Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier and Green Velvet, as well as rockers such as The Animals, David Bowie, and The Clash. With their spectral blend of electronics, drums, guitar and vocals, they have emerged with a sound that is the culmination of past influence and present inspiration, and can only be described as BALLSY. Purchase Tickets

Last Saturday, HARD Summer Tour hit New York City’s Terminal 5 as the second to last stop on their nationwide journey bringing dance music to the masses. Terminal 5, whose capacity is set at 3,000 heads, was completely sold out; packed wall to wall on every level with enthusiastic partygoers who were nearly bursting at the seams with energetic excitement. New Yorkers JDH & Dave P started off the night with an opening set of disco tinged house music, which provided the perfect appetizer for Destructo’s heavily electro influenced set, heating the dancefloor up in earnest. By the time Sinden took the stage, the crowd had been reduced to one heaving organism that was pressed up against the barrier as he spun a set of solid bass music, bring in elements of house, dubstep, and garage. Canadians Crystal Castles closed out the night with their explosive performance of experimental electronic music created through the use of a live band.

Thanks to our good friends over at URB Magazine, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to sit down and chat with UK producer/DJ Sinden who has revitalized the club scene with his own brand of forward thinking remixes and productions, clever mash ups, and genre-melting DJ sets. Although Sinden’s sound is associated with different forms of house music, his original influences while growing up stemmed from hardcore hip-hop, the kind that you have to be over 16 to purchase (in the UK), and that your parents would confiscate and destroy if the records were ever found. He sights Public Enemy and N.W.A. as primary influences, which then lead him to branch into the discovery of electronic music through jungle and garage. Pulp Fiction’s “Alex Reece”, which he describes as soulful, sparse, quirky, minimal, and different, fundamentally changed his perception of electronic music and inspired him to truly embrace dance music.

His new label, Grizzly, is in many ways set to reflect Sinden’s own eclectic taste and his desire to keep things fresh and constantly pushing forward. Although house has always been the unifying focal point for the music Sinden has been involved in with regards to both his own production and DJ sets, Grizzly in many ways represents a move away from the traditional 4×4, and an attempt to create and experiment with new patterns and ways of looking at club music.The direction that the label will take is still very fluid, with Sinden’s own innate sense for sound acting as the primary compass – certainly nothing to complain about. Sinden’s own transition into UK Funky and more cutting edge sound has mostly stemmed from a boredom with the over-saturation of generic basslines, which stirred up a desire to move forward and keep things interesting, through tapping into unique micro scenes from all around the world, such as guarachero and old go-go rhythms. In this sense, he has never been much of a “genre” artist, preferring to dabble in many different areas and switch up his production, keeping us hanging on his every release.

Sinden will head back to the studio at the end of this year to work on some solo material, but there’s plenty from Grizzly to keep your dancing shoes moving until then. You can look forward to the release of a collaborative record between Felix Buxton of Basement Jaxx’s disco alias Jon Gionvanni and Sinden, as well as new material from Bassanova (Grahmzilla and Jess Jubilee’s project). You should also keep your ears peaked for Sinden’s remix of Lone’s “Once in a While”, which is sure to be a killer track, and as always, future releases from his role as one half of The Count & Sinden.

Check out the full photo gallery from this edition of HARD Summer HERE.

This summer, Hard is going bigger than ever, with not one, but TWO New York City visits from the LA-based party machine.

On July 24, Hard will carry on one of NYC’s favorite summer pastimes with an outdoor concert at Governor’s Island. Headliner M.I.A. will be joined by fellow Creators Project alums Die Antwoord and Sleigh Bells, along with Skream, Benga, Rye Rye, Theophilus London, Borgore, Destructo, 12th Planet, Nguzunguze and Ninjasonik, all coming together for an evening of music you won’t want to miss. [tickets + info]

This August, Hard will also hit the road for their first tour, stopping in 12 cities across the US and Canada. Crystal Castles, Sinden and Destructo will take over NYC’s Terminal 5 on August 21, with more performers to be announced at a later date. [tickets + info]

To prepare you for the madness, the good folks at Hard released a promotional mix featuring artists that will perform at Hard this summer. Though the mix is geared towards the L.A. events, the mix is not only free, but also good, so who are we to complain? Listen to the mix below, or CLICK HERE download. Peep the tracklist after the jump…

Hard Promo Mix (Produced by Nitrus)

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This HiFi Cartel’s very own Music Monday. While our weekly music picks may not always be up-to-the-minute “brand new,” it’s what we’re into at the moment. This week’s selections bring a taste of global music, with albums by Dorean (non traditionally Basque), New York Pony Club (British), Alcoholic Faith Mission (Danish), Gogol Bordello (New York), Balkan Beat Box (New York), and Crystal Castles (Ontarian).

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We just caught a glimpse of the initial line-up for CMJ’s annual Music Marathon, and our heads are still spinning. The marathon, which takes place from October 20-24 in NYC, features up and coming artists in venues all over the city.

Last year, we went to a few shows during the marathon, including The Cool Kids, Crystal Castles and the Fool’s Gold Showcase. This year’s long list of artists – with hundreds more to be announced – includes Adam Tensta, Fool’s Gold, Hank and Cupcakes, Mickey Factz, Tommie Sunshine and Z-Trip. Kosha Dillz and Adam Deitch, who both made cameos during Matisyahu’s July concert in NYC, are also on the roster.

The registration badge gives you access to all CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival events, including the concerts (on a space-available basis) and over 60 panel discussions centering on the music industry. Tickets are also available to individual concerts. For more information or to register, visit the official website.

Crystal Castles is not for the faint-hearted.  With a large strobe light swinging in hand, Alice Glass was a storm on the stage. Their intense and light-heavy performance was charged by Alice’s energetic and swift movements as she climbed the amplifiers to excite an audience that was already in a frenzy.

From All Points West, the duo will head to Montreal for the Osheaga Music Festival, which also ends today. They will be joined by other performers from All Points West, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, The Ting Tings  and the Honey Brothers.

As we didn’t already have enough going on this weekend with All Points West, Antics is hosting the official after parties at the Red Bull Space in SoHo. If you’re missing the festival, this is your chance to catch DJ sets by some of the artists on the roster. On Friday night, Crystal Castles will be spinning with Maggie Horn, and Tokyo Police Club will be manning the decks with LA Riots on Saturday. RSVP for free entry and drinks.

Don’t forget, A-Trak will be at Webster Hall on Friday night with Treasure Fingers and Theophilus London. It’s $1 admission and $1 drinks until midnight, so make sure you RSVP.