DJing in a bar problem

And as far as transitioning hip-hop and house, hip-hop inspired house like Todd Terry, Pal Joey, Renegade Soundwave make it work.

And for italo, there's the Emergency style italo records which are slower and funkier and pretty electro-funk, like Kano or whatever, that works with hip-hop electro-funk, and funky New Wave like Heaven 17, Human League, Confusion/Blue Monday New Order, Wide Boy Awake's Slang Teacher or Quando Quango's Love Tempo all transition between electro, house, italo, new wave etc real well. And lots of these get crowd's psyched. Fascination by Human League is so great and you can mix into any italo after that and not lose a soul...

I've said it before, I think some DJs are too obscure/elitist and some are two populist and some are blandly middle of the road, I think go from one pole to the other. It's fun that way.

I've been really scared, like at one loft party going on after a DJ playing nothing by 90s bling-bling hip-hop, and I had brought none...I started with straight classic electro like West Street Mob's Break Dance Electric Boogie or Planet Rock or Jam On It and worked my way towards italo/new wave, which is what I had brought, and while there was definately a shift in the makeup of the crowd, the energy never dropped. On that tip, any classic Beats and Breaks kind of stuff is a good transition from hip-hop, play Apache then play straight disco or even post-punk ACR or Delta 5 or something.

just my 2 dollars.

Or do the lazy hstencil thing and dj minimalism tracks. That way you can spend more time at the bar while the same Steve Reich track is banging away.

Dan tempts me to add my own two cents and say "every self-respecting DJ owes it to themselves and their crowd to play A Certain Ratio's 'Shack Up'" but then I realize that would be pompous and oh I guess 'rockist' as they say, and in any case, of minimal help.

On the DVD of Grafitti Rock, in the bonus stuff, there's this amazing footage of Futura 2000 painting in a gallery while DJ High Priest cuts up the Shack Up break slowed down. Awesome.

Yeah I figure nobody will pay that much attention but my friends will be there and they probably will!

as for dan's quote - "I've said it before, I think some DJs are too obscure/elitist and some are two populist and some are blandly middle of the road".

exactamundo! that's precisely why i hate 99% of all djs.

ps - i have never heard 'do the du' played anywhere, ever.

All I can say is I'm glad I missed that. Almost every time I've been to Bowery Ballroom for any show, I've heard "Do the Du" (it reminds me of Eno more than anything).

Stirmonster, have you played Do the Du at your party? The last few times I've played it I've been totally suprised by the response.

And for Once in a Lifetime, I do this stupid thing where I have all the bass turned off for the first verse of the song. Everyone recognizes it immediately and is already excited so they start screaming, then when the chorus kicks in after "well, how did I get here?" I slam in the bass and everyone has simultaneous orgasms. That's pretty great. At Plant Bar I once mixed from it into Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy by Kid Creole and the Cocoanuts and my friend Michelle said "I was loving the music untill it went all gay carribean cruise music"!

Which I thought was a pretty accurate description...

i.e. a friend "He's put on Janis Joplin and THEY'RE LOVING IT!"

Bonus dis: "I think I'm pretty good at being pretty eclectic." No comment.

EPMD "You gots to chill" is your secret weapon: YGTC -> More bounce -> Kano "I am ready" and you're away...

Alternatively Whodini - "friends" works really well also, especially if pitched up to 45, because then it mixes into house tempo.

But, yeah, you're warming up in a bar, so play stuff you don't really expect people to dance much to. The only reason anyone would is "ooh, I love this song" and without going totally pop, that's pretty hard to plan for.

And Matos...you don't really believe that, do you?

Part of what I was trying to hint at with my post way back upthread was how seemingly unknowingly hypocritical Dan was being. Pompous about his own "eclectiveness" and yet accusing other D.J.'s of "elitism". Perhaps this all goes without saying, but just incase.

If I happen to find myself recommending a song such as Aerosmith and Run D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way", that very much comes out of the fact that I can't stand hip hop and any D.J. who says they play or want to play "hip hop" is just a phenomenon I can't personally even imagine, let alone relate to.

And how that statement makes my hypocritical when, after I state that I think i'm pretty good at mixing cool obscure stuff with obvious favorites and classics, I mention that many DJs will refuse to play anything even remotely popular, is lost on me.

Still the night went well.

Djing is wierd. One night, I was playing afrobeat, old school hip hop and funk, and tribal/Afro house and I the only complaint I got was when I played Vicki Anderson's "Super Good" for the ladies??? When JB family material is the night's worst selection, you know you're on fire.

Here's some of my summer 04 heaters I recommend checking for the DJ's:

G.A.M.M. 12's:
Red Astaire, "Rollin' Stone" (E. Badu, Outkast, bossadub mashup, women LOVE it)
Red Astaire, "Follow Me" (D'Angelo + Method & Red, cheeky bossa with asslappin' beats, ALWAYS has worked) & the flip "The Wildstyle" is JB & Bambaata mashed w/ a Latin jazz piano loop DOPE DOPE DOPE

G.A.M.M. is a sublabel for Sweden's Raw Fusion. They are well worth tracking down.

Italowise- check that Black Devil Disco Club shiz that is the nuts!

I've had people say the most incredibly rude things to me, and it strikes me as odd, especially when a club/bar books me because they want me to play me music.

Black Devil Disco Club is great, as is Morgan Geist's homage, the Jersey Devil Social Club. Also, Metro Area 5 is out now and amazing, the b-side is beautiful.

I played your Contort Yourself at the after-party for the opening of Kill Your Idols, a new movie about "the nyc no wave scene". Didn't see the movie yet though.

thanks for playing 'contort yourself' - the payola is in the post! the movie sounds intriguing.

hey, did you see my reply to you on the rsw thread?

Contort Yourself is becoming a real good transition record for me. It can take a set from slamming new club stuff to classic punk-funk or vice versa, real nice.

You seriously played that, Chuck? I'd happily lob a full bottle of Rheingold at the turntable if someone dared spin that vile slab of shrill offal.

where did you hide their corpses?

most loved at the moment is seymour bits' free, which invariably gets people asking what's playing, though its breakneck tempo makes it rather tricky to find anything to beatmatch with.

yes, christ, i had exactly the same thing last time i played, having switched from the safe territory of 80s hiphop to some fairly funky dnb. the bar in question normally attracts a very openminded crowd, but this particular evening had brought in some unattractive and drunken thirtysomethings, who sat leering near to the dj booth. after the above comment, i did a similar record-digging ploy, but couldn't escape their gaze so stuck on the extended version of i feel love and went for a beer.