What’s good what’s good what’s goooooood.
Real quiet over here since the last mix, but rest assured exciting things are actually in the works, not least of which is a remix I did a while back that you will be hearing more about shortly. Super stoked for this.
Also in the planning stages for a project with THE man, Mike Baker the Bike Maker. It’s bound to be a real good time too. (make sure you stay on top of dude’s tumblr also..and mine too, it’s where I’m at most of the time…and twitter.)
Other than that, yr boy is just livin the life trying to find that balance between this music and my other passion, education (which fortunately I am involved with as the day job. It’s real good.).
(scroll all the way down for the link to the audio download)
The Do Over, held by many to be LA’s best party (definitely top contender for me..only Funkmosphere competes), and just having gotten another LA times write-up, is one of those aspirational gigs. The party that you always go to and be like “damn I REALLY want a chance to get to play here.” The cool thing is that it’s not on some “I want to spin here cause I could do better”-tip, cause that is definitely not the case-they only book ill DJs, it’s just that the venue, crowd, and resident DJs are so dope that you just really want the shot to see what you could do.
So I feel dumb fortunate to have had the opportunity to do a set with my man Lambo today.
Gigs like this can be a little weird to think about beforehand; with so much freedom, you really have to focus your thinking. I never really prepare sets or anything, so I just huddled with Lambo a few days ago (found out that we could get put on for today on wednesday) and we agreed that we were gonna try and play really what we would want to hear: you get booked at the do over NOT to do a frat party set (cliched to “play what you want to hear” but it’s easy as a dj to cater and pander.)
Anyway, we had an early slot, 3-5, with doors opening at 2 (and the line getting unruly by 4). Early sets are awesome for a couple of reasons, for 1, less pressure, but mostly, it’s up to you to shape what’s gonna happen. All the sets were recorded and hopefully I’ll get to post it soon, but suffice to say, I’m still excited about what we played. In no way the most obscure or technical set or whatever, just something I’m proud of as a mood setter/party escalator.
What really got me was the responses after: people were so generous with praise and just so hyped on certain songs that I honestly didn’t think would get such a reaction. Guy from Chicago scolded me for playing the Danny Krivit version of “Strings of Life” but still gave props.
Was blown away by the girl from England who pulled me over and said I made her birthday with Starvue’s “Body Fusion” cause it was a big party jam when she was younger.
And of course the dude who was super amped on Bar-a-thym.
Again, not exactly obscure tracks, but songs that you might not always connect with folks in LA or in that setting on.
So while I had to leave the party early on account of my 6:46 AM bus into downtown LA and my other life, I’m still riding high, experiencing the opposite of sunday scaries…and just happy that this set, which will probably be my last for a while, is the one freshest in my memory.
No doubt i’ll be back with pics and hopefully the audio. Thanks to Jamie Strong and Haycock for the chance to do the set and to Lambo for being an awesome maniac.
Next sunday? Headed to Boston for a week long conference for work. Not quite as exciting.
Anyway, moral: Go to the do over whenever you can. Amazing music, but mostly just go for the folks!
EDIT 1: And here is the audio! Download: zshare. A note about the set: Levels get a little wonky and it seems quiet and a lady whacked the turntable midway through “rock steady” and there are a lot of iffy mixes. Hell, the whole thing might not make a lot of sense away from the blazing sunshine and sangria. There is really no doubt that this a live mix (some yikes moments) But if anything, try just letting it play out cause it’ll make much LESS sense if you skip around. In any case, the vibe kinda goes from reggae (after transitioning out of Jamie Strong’s song), to some soul, to some hip-hop, to a lil r and b moment up through some boogie and disco into housier territories. We were just moving with the crowd and the weather and by the end, the party was moving pretty damn proper! Make sure you check out the other dope mixes from Inka one and DJ Jedi who also djed that day over at the do over blog.
Great night at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum last night for First Friday. As always, Dam Funk was inspiring. Live renditions of Killdat and Burn Rubber with Computer Jay and J1 were right on.
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From her 1978 album of the same name, this joint is one of those slow deep disco burners that just never gets old for me. The string arrangement on this is bonkers and at 8 minutes it leaves lots of room for Donna to moan and make it, uh, last forever. The album, produced by Patrick Adams and Gregg Carmichael (it was on Carmichael’s “Red Greg” label) features “It Ain’t No Big Thing” which is a classic, but for my money, this is the cut (of course, with Adams on arrangement there are gonna be nuff bangers).
splendor grrrl.
The Micronauts – The Jag
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Now to veer from Devil’s Pie territory, in 1998 “Make It Last Forever” was sampled by the Micronauts for “The Jag,” a kinda groggy joint used in Gregg Araki’s Splendor (you know, that boring threeway movie) with an equally cliched tripped out pansexual rave-ish drug store video for the song (stay away if you’ve got heteronormative hang-ups…but come on, watch it and spill the L U L Z with the rave fashion, and it’s the guy from GO!). Highlight of “The Jag” is the voice getting pitched up and the stabs of “Make It Last Forever.” It’d be kind of impossible to not make a sexy-ish song from the sample material, but it’s one I listened to on repeat in high school (is that weird? my brother had passed it on to me along with all manner of musical madness). But enough of the rave-aside: “Make It Last Forever” is one in a long tradition of over the top beautiful disco songs with production values that should make a lot of people jealous.
p.s. when uploading the track, I realized that acronymified, “Make It Last Forever,” is MILF. LATE PASS! Also, two Greggs in one post.
DESSERT
Dobash (Hawai’i)/Doberge (NOLA)(?) /Dobosch Torte (Viennese) (?)
All I know for sure is that back in Hawai’i this joint is dobash and next to some guava cake, it is one of the few desserts i will fux with (i see you too malasadas! what’s good my portuguese (a-hem potagee) fam?). Anyway, the dobash i like has super rich but thin pudding-y layers of filling between super spongy cake, all chocolate. Looking at recipes, they call for at least 7 eggs, so can i get protein from this? Whatever: it’s the bomb and smooth like the strings in “Make It Last Forever” I don’t get all “OMG YUMMMM MMM UMMMM ohhh OHHHH” with pastry usually, but a good dobash is fer sure on the road to bonerville. Aside: When we moved from HI, my mom was craving the cake so she went to the nearby bakery and of course they had no clue as to what she referred, the only thing they came back with was “divorce cake???” HELL YEAH IT IS.
(note: you can get passable dobash in southern california at King’s.
a bottle of ….. It’s Thanksgiving and aside from being thankful for the strength of indigenous folks around the world and my ancestors for giving a giant middle finger to much of the world and creating weird mixed race people, I am thankful for ridiculous clubs and minimal techno…and lots of other stuff…but claude von stroke at watergate ranks up there. Be well everyone.
-Unrelated: Forgot to mention a fat shoutout to Endo for having me spin at Tangier on last Saturday. It was a blast. Endo, Roza, and I definitely did some damage for a super up for it group of birthday revelers.
-I had an intrvw yesterday that I felt pretty good about. Amazing team of folks got to question me. Job or no job…good to see a dope organization. Finger stay crossed till next week.
