Yoyoyo sons and daughters, sorry I haven't been too active blog-wise this week, I had a surprisingly busy week putting together a new issue of my comics and cleaning out my iTunes... Gotta get those genres correct for fast, in-the-moment DJing, son!
So going through my library (and trying to pare everything down to a manageable 4500 songs or so), yielded a couple gems that I totally forgot about, some of which I hope to bust out on Sunday night. Here's a few:
Konk ~ Your Life
The breakdown at around the 2 minute mark is still one of my favorite all time percussive breaks. It's a combo of those heavy 80s drums with the congas and the "THAT'S RIGHT!" over and over again... (in skateboarder voice) siiiiiiickkkk/cruuuucial/eeeeepiiiicccc
Miss Kittin & The Hacker ~ Frank Sinatra
I remember first hearing this when I moved to NY and the whole electroclash thing was happening... that was when I first heard Peaches and ARE Weapons and you know what? I did not hate them. This track specifically was always super fun to me, I had never really heard the ice queen detached vocals thing in any major capacity and the absurdity of the lyrics were also a bonus... "suck my dick. lick my ass." In fact, I started filing mp3s under the genre heading "sass" pretty much directly because of this song:
Also, I like how there are songs I keep in my library in the "just in case" section. Is there literally any reason whatsoever I would ever play "Kill You" by Eminem out anywhere? Seriously? (I really like that song) Or the "Zelda - Underground Level" by the Advantage? I remember once I played Shelley Duvall's "He Needs Me" as the last song at a bar and the bouncer gave me the wtf look.
ps-everyone in the world go attend Lloyd's bday at Love on Sunday night, where every DJ in the universe will be:
Wait, what?
*via Michna
While in Hawaii I saw Tropic Thunder... pretty hit or miss with the exception of Tom Cruise and RoDown Jr. However I will say it had great usage of this song:
Creedence ~ Run Through The Jungle
If you read the wiki on this song there's some interesting facts that come up:
*It's Tom Fogerty's fave CCR song
*John Foges got sued later by CCR b/c one of his solo jams sounded basically exactly the same as this (presumably not Centerfield, which only can be accused of sounding like God/angels singing)
*not actually about the Vietnam war, but about gun control in the states
*Foges plays the harmonica solo
*the format of the song is essentially the same instrumental loop over and over again with slight flourishes that make it seem like it's changing when it's not (a la Dreams)
While watching this, I figured there should be a rule that certain songs must never be used in film again. Here's a few off the top of my head:
James Brown "I Feel Good"
There should be a moratorium on this song in any movie preview starting from now until forever. It's always one of those 2-part previews, where the first half is some elaborate set-up, and then the "tension" is broken when the Preview guy goes "now, they've got 24 hours..." and this song starts. For some reason I see Martin Lawrence teamed up with Matthew Mcconaughey and Martin Lawrence is in drag and they're handcuffed to each other.
Any Rolling Stones song
ever, in any movie with either Al Pacino or Robert Deniro. Everything from England's Newest Hitmakers to a Bigger Bang is all OFF LIMITS. It's the Scorsese rule, it applies in the same way you can't have some crazed angry maniac beating someone to death while there's a Phil Spector girl group song in the background. Of course this abomination breaks the rule x infinity because it gets both Deniro AND Pacino in there, AND it puts in one of the biggest Stones songs ever. They should just have the director and music supervisor crawling on the bottom of the screen going "Are you witnessing this ICONIC MOMENT? We have two ICONIC ACTORS in one film! With an ICONIC ROLLING STONES song playing! We are BASICALLY Martin Scorsese right now!"
Creedence "Fortunate Son"
during any sequence in Vietnam. This should be obvious. In fact, the reason it should stop is because it IS so obvious. There's really something to be said for choosing music that is commenting in a way-too-literal way on the action you're viewing. Call it the Real World rule (shot of guy sad because he cheated on his girlfriend, meanwhile a shitty unsigned LA band plays in the background "It's a mistake... I'm not happy with" (I am not making this up)
Just got back from Hawaii, good thing I'm blogging immediately? Christ. Very touristy but tons of fun. When I used to DJ at Vig bar I would always cater out some lowest common denominator shit for the drunk masses... I thought I was pandering? In Hawaii there's a cover band every 14 feet, and if I ever hear the following songs again it will be too soon:
Van Morrison "Brown Eyed Girl"
Tom Petty "Free Fallin"
The Band "The Weight"
John Lennon "Imagine"
Despite the fact that literally over 2 decades have passed since these songs have been out, everywhere we went seemed intent on hammering out yet another rendition. In fact, the only song of the last 10 years I heard was this one:
Kid Rock "That Horrible, Horrible Summer Song That Would Make Ztrip Proud"
UGH
WTF is going on down there is there something in the water? Dj Laz and T-Pain somehow wound up making a new version on Esa Morena (one of the best songs that ever came out of Miami). Why did this even happen? And why did I have to find out that Uncle Al is dead in that song? I had no idea he died. Apparently he was shot on Sept 10,2001 but it got no attention for obvious reasons. RIP. And then a day later I discover Pitbull rapping over Cream! Best weekend ever. I am wondering when Pitbull is going to start rapping over drum and bass anthems. He is halfway there.
Morena- Dj Laz,Tpain and Lil' Jon
Crazy-Pitbull
Esa Morena-DJ Laz
Cream-Fredrico Franchi
It sounded good but this is from a few years after 92. This mix brings me back big time and I hope you enjoy.
Bassbin Twins vs. Dj Haze
I'm off to Hawaii for a few days so updating may be kind of sparse. Here's a couple tracks burned from vinyl to hold you over til my return... For some reason they're all hip-hop tracks? Realness is making a resurgence, apparently:
OutKast ft. Slick Rick ~ Art Of Storytellin Pt. 1
This was one of the first hip-hop 12s I ever got... I remember it also being one of the first times where I was like "whoa if you get the vinyl single you'll get all sorts of nerdy bonus shit you can't get on the album!"
Mike Jones ~ Still Tippin (Uptempo Crate Savers Mix)
This was from that "Crate Savers" series from the West Coast where they just put up a bunch of current club tracks with an 8 bar intro so DJs can be lazy and mix easily. I dunno who actually made this remix but gets super classy when the guitars come in, its kind of DJ Assaultish actually.
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo ~ Death Wish
Kyle turned me onto this record when we were at the Lab together. Aside from Channel Live and Chali 2Na, I'm pretty sure Kool G Rap was like his favorite MC of all time. Hearing this like a decade late did nothing to mitigate its mind-shatteringness.
...and while we're at it, I might as well throw up my favorite Pharcyde remix ever... fuck you Jay Dee fans it's the one by Matt Dike! Y'heard it correck!!! I first heard it on some DJ's mixtape in college, and for a long time I thought the DJ who made the tape made a custom remix for it, because after searching for like 3 years I never found the right version. There's a drillion versions of Ya Mama and they're all called like "Funky Remix," "Cosby Re-Mix," "Alt Mix" etc etc so when I found this one labeled innocuously as simply "Ya Mama (Remix)" I was like "OK fat chance..." and of course it's the one!
"oh my goodness I'm in the act of giving the gift away!"
-Shelley "The Machine" Levene
Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday night at Trophy... It was superfun. Leave it to Michna to organize an impromptu dance-off. I can't believe I actually waved a $100 bill around promising it to the winner. Good thing he took me aside and said something to the extent of "have you lost your fucking mind? $10 is more than enough to placate these people." I will confess that much of the evening was a blur, but I do remember playing the only Streets song I like at one point, and getting really excited because I went from the B52s to the English Beat... take THAT, dorkiness!
The Streets ~ Fit But You Know It
B52s ~ Private Idaho
ps- oh yeah and apparently at one point when I played "Thriller" Brian came up to me and demanded I played the Monster Mash... which I did! That cleared the floor pretty quickly. Amazing.
I have a present for you
Digital Cable-Tim Dolla
New mix! Tons of house, all from vinyl, recorded mostly live...
ALWAYS BE CLOSING
40 minutes of house & abuse
hosted by alec baldwin
trax:
ecstasy ~ don't play me raw
m people ~ movin on up
kraftwerk ~ tour de france
kraftwerk ~ we are the robots
2 of china ~ los niños del parque
2 men, a drum machine & a trumpet ~ tired of getting pushed around
dj duke ~ like this
cano bros ~ deeper
hardrive ~ deep inside rmx
dj pierre ~ drive me in my car
daft punk ~ revolution 909
carl craig ~ throw
fog ~ been a long time
A little while ago I posted up the Hollies' "Draggin My Heels" but it was just the regular old album version that lasted a paltry 3:40... Barely enough time for the geniuses who wrote "Saturday Night" to stretch out their 70s bellbottoms and do any damage.
I've tried finding the 12" for this track but it's always either never on eBay or goes for like $150, and the only reason I even knew about the track was from Louie Vega's 12x12 from an early issue of Wax Poetics (it does exist on one of the Loft Classics series tho).
Big yay to Andy for burning the track for me when I went to his crib a few weeks ago, enjoy!
The Hollies ~ Draggin My Heels (12" Mix)
Clowned off the blog! Not that it will do any good. Andy seems convinced it should remain on here to "stand as a reminder that your a cock knobler [sic]".
Once a week I go on Juno and Beatport and a few other sights to see what new Dubstep has come out. I am not very involved in that scene and have no way of keeping track of what's going on. A few weeks ago I stumbled across this song and it was one of the best finds ever. I was SO excited I found something new that I did not already know about. Anyways I love the lyrics to this song. And I love what Oliver $ did to it. And yeah.....this song just RULES. Enjoy.
RQM- Ms. Pacman(Oliver $ Remix)
Anyone who's not deaf and who's stood within earshot of me within the last year has heard me go on and on about how great Tusk is, specifically how brilliant LINDSEY FUCKING BUCKINGHAM is.
Well, the reason is because it's totes obvs the greatest album of all time (nerd hint: Tusk is in fact the perfect make-out album if you make it a playlist and take out "Not That Funny").
In the same way that I totally didn't "get" why Rumours was so amazing until I saw the Classic Albums DVD on it, so too was my appreciation for Tusk magnified a thousand-fold when I finally saw the VHS/Laserdisc-only documentary made for it. For a long time I simply just watched the version they have online at veoh, but that version is super-annoying because it's broken up into segments, you have to get their player to download the video, there's VHS fuck-ups, etc.
Cut to Eli buying the VHS on eBay and then ripping me a DVD of it! Holy shit! Here's just a small sampling of the pure, blinding God-light you will witness:
Mick Fleetwood, wandering around his beautiful estate with his sun-dappled children, made epically more tragic by the fact that he ultimately lost pretty much all connection with his wife/kids when he started shtupping Stevie Nicks
Lindsey Buckingham strutting around like a goddamn peacock, dressed to the nines in his women's designer power-suits/eye make-up, clearly thinking to himself "I'm dragging this dinosaur kicking and screaming into the 20th fucking century"
Mick Fleetwood, barely breathing through his nose because all the cocaine has fossilized in his nasal cavities, smashing like a simian maniac on some congos for like 5 minutes, his face getting ever more schizophrenic like he's having a baby/taking a shit/winning the lottery/finding out his son is dead/an understudy for Tim Curry in Legend:
Stevie Nicks trying to talk like a normal human being to the camera, explaining the minutiae of studio work but coming off like an alien
Lindsey Buckingham taking complete control in the studio barking orders at John McVie, but trying to act all democratic like he isn't a studio nazi because the cameras are there
An AWESOME version of Angel, where Stevie Nicks sings acapella in the studio, then does it live and has Lindsey be like "why are you singing at a 4? There's cameras rolling you wiccan" and gets her to sing the last verse like Janis Joplin (and does a super cute suburban white mom dance in her ridiculous Snow White outfit)
Christine McVie finding solace in her boat (not unlike Kirk Hammett and his horses in Some Kind Of Monster)
Live versions of The Chain, Sara, etc etc
My God, find this VHS/Laserdisc now and watch it immediately.
(just in case you don't even have this:)
*TUSK ~ Deluxe Edition CD
ps-More shit to obsess about
UPDATE (from Nerdkiller):
Here's a creepy lady who made a stevie nicks inspired barbie:
1
2
In anticipation of my gig on the 16th with Michna, here's an extended version of the Pointer Sisters/Diamond remix we did from Metal on Metal... I did it super-quick/dirty in Ableton, and Adrian burned the record wrong, which is why there's little bass hiccups and a fucking hum on the Jump instrumental... but as the bard once said, "imperfections make it fresha!"
Diamond/Pointer Sisters ~ Jump/Bankhead Bounce (Extended)
Devo ~ (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
So roboty/good! I got this 12 at Gimme Gimme... it's one of those records I never even knew there was a 12 for (like "Go Your Own Way") and I picked it up b/c I heard it on that Scorsese movie Goodfellas 2: Grimmer, Longer, Higher Production Value.
Here's a list off the top of my head of songs that I wish I could find at the rokes:
r kelly ~ feelin on your booty, real talk
modest mouse ~ polar opposites
space ~ female of the species
morrissey ~ sing your life
toadies ~ backslider
jay-z & r kelly ~ honey
skatt brothers ~ life at the outpost
geto boys ~ I'm not a gentleman
little mermaid ~ poor unfortunate soul
commuter ~ young hearts
stan bush ~ dare
joy division ~ digital
biggie ~ live from msg freestyle
phoenix ~ if I ever feel better
pulp ~ like a friend
shins ~ saint simon
smiths ~ hand in glove
weezer ~ waiting on you
yeah yeah yeahs ~ date with the night
zombies ~ friend of mine
violent femmes ~ prove my love
pixies ~ mr grieves
nofx ~ bleeding heart disease
jim santi & his orchestra ~ meet me at foxwood's
Christ what a hangover I have. I feel like grim grim Death itself would not come and take me now. My ambitious plan for today is to drink water and moan. And maybe watch a Hollywood Summer blockbuster, preferably one based on a comic book.
Last night I went to Japas 38 for my belated Birthday karaoke extravaganza. It's not that cheap, and is missing some key karaoke jams (Candlebox "Far Behind," Melissa Etheridge, Toadies), but what it lacks it makes up for with four songs from Pinkerton. El Scorcho really does remain as possibly the greatest karaoke song ever, even rivaling Say It Ain't So in terms of pure screeching-alonging.
I love you, drunk singing!
ps- nobody's registered reggaejesus.com yet, I think it needs to happen.
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