Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A quick side note

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/17/business/yourmoney/17money.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&oref=slogin


The author Michael Pollan offered an elegant seven-word mantra in his best-selling book "In Defense of Food" that provides clarity amid the bounty of choices on supermarket shelves: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Boiling down investing is a similar exercise: Index (mostly). Save a ton. Reallocate infrequently.

Vista Effects

I often have You Tube, deckadance, fruity loops, plus several webpages open at once. If you are looking for Vista effects or an upgraded Alt-Tab, please check out WFlip.

http://tokyodownstairs.blogspot.com/2007/11/winflip.html

Hold down the windows key and tab through. Very useful.

Stone's Throw Records

Indie hip hop heads-Check out Stone's Throw (If you don't already know about it). Is Madvilliany the greatest indie hip-hop record of all time? I can't say. Top 5, easy though. ST is the home of indie smash MF Doom, Madlib, and J. Dilla (rest in peace). Finally, you mix in the fresh James Pants LP, and you have the start of one of the most promising indie labels in recent memory.

Check out the above link for clips, or try here.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Gear/Pratice Run










Here's the gear I'm working with. I run two Numark T200 tables, and a DM 1002 MKII mixer. Great entry-mid level gear. The T200 has fantastic torque (1.7 kg/cm) which is better than the SL 1200 (industry standard table).




You can see a few other photos below of a mix I'm working on of Portishead's "humming" and several different tracks by the Wu Tang Clan. It ends up sounding like a hip hop soundtrack to an abandoned city. I'm going to try to get a cheap recording device to start uploading mixes. For now, just some pictures:


















Monday, May 12, 2008

Billie Jean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKiZBlelIzc&feature=related

Billie Jean is one of my all time favorite dance songs. The above single is off of Thriller 25. Reponses to this remix have been extreme; hate or love. The sound quality isn't the best on the above clip, but turn it up and let me know what you think.

Lollipop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxjsUxDp_z8&feature=related

It's been moving around a lot recently, but easily still one of the biggest singles to drop so far this year (in terms of Itunes sales).

I think you would be hard-pressed to deny the song has a great hook. It rides so smoothly, monster club moment. Lyrically, very poorly put together. I really don't get anything out of the song other than Lil Wayne really enjoys head. Again, who is really going to think about the words to a song on a dance floor. The structure of the song suffers from the song really having no point. You have a very, very basic beat in between the hook which only keeps me waiting for the hook to come back (dead air).

Without getting too into it, I think it's a flash in the pan song to get you ready for summer. Actually, from reading online, this song is a monster in gay bars. Apparently there is a mix floating around out there where all of the "she" have been made into "he". That would be a major contender for the most homoerotic song of the year (maybe of all time?)

3 out of 5. You'll forget about this song by this fall.

Love.

Late Night Cravings

To borrow a played out anology, being a DJ is a lot like being a chef. It reminds me of an episode of Kitchen Confidential where Anthony Bourdain is trying to sell sweetbreads (thymus glands) in his high-end Manhatten restaurant. It may be amazing, but the average person just isn't going to get it (or want to eat it. Seriously).

So it is with DJing. One component I think it is important to remember is alcohol. The smooth talking, well read invidivual will sing out just loud to "Sweet Caroline" as anybody else with a few shots in them.

Going back to the food anology, when substances are introduced into your Friday night and it's late, what do you crave? An apple? A glass a milk? Or a massive, greasy, and sloppy fast food burger?

Same deal with music. Now, I'm not saying you can't try to educate your audience. Slip Justice in with your Hip Hop set. The first Hot Chip single off of their fresh album, Shake a Fist, could easily fit in with a top 40 mix.

It's about knowing your audience too. Here in Des Moines, if you dropped Nelly you might get a posistive response. Try it in a Chicago club and you would be booed off stage. How eduated is your room? How drunk is your room? Who is on the floor?

Would a pitchfork critic be the best DJ? I doubt it. I think they would be unwilling to drop "Gimme More" even though a room would go nuts for it.



I have a new shipment of vinyl coming in this week; photos to follow.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

My Vinyl

Photobucket Album
Breaktionary Vol. 1

Ready for the Floor

I work all of the time. It doesn't matter doing what. What does matter is my passion outside of my career; music. Over the last several months, I have started getting in DJing. I will be posting photos, videos, tracks, and recent vinyl aquisistions.

I'll be pulling together several different things to post in the upcoming week. Most of all, I want this to be a forum to my friends and for my readers (more than likely one and the same).

Till then, let it spin.

Headshot

Headshot

Breaktionary

Breaktionary
Qbert