dance music news: friday

-A while back we wrote about rumors that the makers of hit videogame Guitar Hero reportedly trademarked the name DJ Hero. Perhaps it wasn't soon enough. Genius Products Inc. and Genco Interactive have partnered with 7 Studios and hip-hop producer Quincy Jones III's QD3 Entertainment to develop and unleash what is being touted as the DJ equivalent of Guitar Hero - Stratch: The Ultimate DJ. The hip-hop oriented, multi-platform game will feature some kind of turntable controller and promises to contain original material from top rap acts. It's set to hit retailers in June.

"With the recent success of music-driven videogames and the dominance of urban culture in the youth market, the potential for Scratch is endless," Jones, the son of legendary producer Quincy Jones, states.

-Sebastian Tellier's Sexuality, produced by Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, gets released stateside Oct. 21.

-What were we talking about? Oh, yeah, according to a British research paper, also due Oct. 21, whether you take one pill or more of ecstasy doesn't much matter: Either way, your memory is going to be diminished. According to a Science Daily preview: "... The amount of ecstasy consumed is largely irrelevant. Indeed, taking the drug even just once may cause significant short and long-term memory loss. Professor Laws findings are based on the largest analysis of memory data derived from 26 studies of 600 ecstasy users ... "

-If you care (and I don't expect you to), here's an example of the kind of stuff I'm doing at my new gig at Entrepreneur magazine.