Have you heard this breezy Major Lazer track featuring Amber of the Dirty Projectors yet?

If you haven’t, check out this subtly badass music video before continuing on to the rest of this post (my personal favorite is the part with the T-Rex skeleton)

How about this awesome mashup  between Major Lazer and N.C. rapper J. Cole producer and DJ Diplo posted to Facebook this week?

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/61416261" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff0400" width="100%" height="81" iframe="false" /]

Photo by Nicole Palko

Major Lazer’s North Carolina tour stop this past Tuesday at Cat’s Cradle proved to be one sweaty, non-stop dance party.

Sleigh Bells opened the show with a mix of loud, distorted guitar, blasted beats, and the yelping, chanting vocals of singer Alexis Krauss. The duo did a fine job warming up the crowd for what was to be a night of non-stop dancing and mayhem. They played a mix of blog favorites including as “A/B Machines” and “Crown on the Ground” and new tracks likely to appear on their debut album due out later this year.

Immediately after Sleigh Bells closed out their set, British dubstep artist Rusko took the stage to the sounds of a bass-maxed-out version of Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up”. From there, he cruised through crowd-pleasing remixes of Kid Cudi’s “Day ‘n’ Nite” and Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek”, in addition to original tracks such as “Woo Boost” and the Tupac-sampling “Da Cali Anthem”.

Photo by Nicole Palko

Following a brief intermission at the end of Rusko‘s set, Major Lazer main men Diplo and Switch took to a table of CDJ’s and laptops at the back of the stage. The lazer lights came on and the party wouldn’t let up for another hour-plus. With hype-man/MC Skerrit Bwoy bouncing around the stage in his colorful mohawk and a bikini-clad dancer pulling moves that looked like something a gymnast might do in a strip club, the crowd went absolutely insane. People were bouncing. People were dancing. The whole crowd was swaying. Foam lazer-guns were thrown into the crowd. As the duo mixed their way effortlessly from Major Lazer hits “Pon De Floor” and “Keep It Goin’ Louder” into tracks they’ve produced individually, Skerrit Bwoy and the dancer took to pulling off moves straight out of the “Pon De Floor” video (warning: NSFW). The chemistry between the two was obvious, both wearing ear-to-ear grins the entire time.

I had heard that the show was supposed to run until 2 a.m., but was cut short after a guy fell and busted his head open , which was evident due to the pool of blood near the back of the room. Regardless of whether or not the show was supposed to go on for another two hours or not, Major Lazer brought what is likely to be one of the best-remembered dance parties the Cradle has ever seen.

Here are the top 10 albums for our Afterhours format from the past week, compiled by Afterhours Music Director Sean McKee:

Felix da House Cat

1. Felix da House Cat – He Was King
2. Tiga – Ciao!
3. Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do
4. Amanda Blank – I Might Like You Better Ep
5. Clark – Totems Flair
6. The Crystal Method – Divided By Night
7. Miss Kitten & The Hacker – Two
8. Kleerup - Kleerup
9. Josh One – Tolerence
10. Data Rock – Red