Tom Stephan - House music, girlfriend - you know what I'm talking about

I'm LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVING for this!

House music, girlfriend - you know what I'm talking about

DJ Chus & Rob Mirage 60'Mix Defected Radioshow Jan2010)

DJChus & Rob Mirage 60'Mix Defected Radioshow Jan2010)  by  DJCHUS
I luv me some DJ Chus! The discofied influence is amazing! For more tribal rhythms, check out his podcast in iTunes. Direct iTunes subscribe link here. The mix for week 50 (live from Moscow) is KRAZY!

(OMG -- I have totally forgot how much fun I had when I used to go out! Hmmm, it's a new year, right?!?)

Done.

From Pic a day

It's finally the end of a crazy week. With the welcome end of the holiday shopping madness at work, now comes the onslaught of the holiday returns and the spring season redesign of the store. Yayy me. Oh yeah -- my car broke down too. At least I was able to go out clubbing with my friend Ferdie last night. DJ Paulo was spinning the closing party of a big Masterbeat party weekend. Although I've had more fun at a lot of his other parties in the past, it was nice to be out and about again. :-)

Freestyle (and then some) flashback.

This was made by @Haushaed, one of my DJ 'net friends. I'm such an 80's music freak, it's not even funny! Most people usually associate me towards the UK bubblegum pop realm, but I was also all about the freestyle and r&b jams too! This mix rocks the f*ck out! LOL.

(I'm also digging the social networking of the Mixcloud sight too...)

Never's Flashback Mix 1 by Haushaed on Mixcloud

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Lord of the Drums.

On the heels of being added to the big NY Pride party this June, DJ Paulo just released Lord of the Drums (Part 2). W-O-W !

If you want some tribal goodness ...



Download here.

When Love Takes Over (Part 2).

EYELUVIT!




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When Love Takes Over.

Wow. I'm not sure what's up with me lately. I'm like ALL ABOUT this 'progressive' sound lately. It just sounds so ... pretty. LOLZ. It's interesting how Kelly Rowland (from Destiny's Child) is involved with this. Well, I guess if Deborah Cox can get in on the game with THIS track why not? Maybe this is the start of the newer black divas singing the club choonz.


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Poke Her Phase.

 

(Download here )

Okay, I think I've been holding out and I've finally succumbed to all that is this performer (well, this remix at least).  I just find it funny how there is supposedly all this furor over her live personal appearance at this year's White Party in Palm Springs.  Apparently, right during peak-time with DJ Manny Lehman , she busts out with a full-on CONCERT STOP complete with piano and ballads!  Buzz kill???  Well, maybe.  Here's a direct quote from the Circuit Party Insanity listserv :

"OMG!  I fell out into a "Lady Gag Show Hole" at WPPS Main Event"

But from all accounts, people had the choice to see what is probably THE hottest act right now in pop music or simply shift to a smaller room where the club and 'circuit sounds' were still being played by Chi Chi LaRue .  She was also a small break in between 5 hours of the opening DJ and about 3 hours of the closing DJ.  Okay, I ain't a Circuit Gurl anymore, but I do appreciate someone's artistic talent whether I like them or not.  That goes for DJ's at clubs too.  There have been many times I've been to parties where I could care less for who's spinning.  My simple response was to just LEAVE or move on or just hang with my friends who may be enjoying it.  To stand there and just complain is to act like a self centered and selfish ass.  I don't think I ever acted like that back then.  If I did, maybe I was high or something.  Oh wait ....        ;-)


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At Night.

Shakedown - "At Night"


This is one of those recurring songs that I have permanently stuck in my head. I've never seen the video before, but has a cute homage to MJ's THRILLER. The video itself is typical of European clubs songs and does not to have the actual artist in it. At least this one just has ONE (sort of) scantily clad woman acting all sexy and things. Most of them have gaggles, but that's neither here nor there. The track was an all-time favorite of mine during my DC/NYC/DC shenanigans and DJ Victor Calderone's EVOLVE parties at Crobar. Ahh - those were the days. :-)

Champions.

You either have to love him or hate him, but DJ Junior Vasquez has an entire set posted up on the Saint-at-Large website. Just go to their 'radio' page, they have it broken down into 5 streaming parts. Sorry, no direct downloads.

I unfortunately have not been able to experience him during his hey days at The Sound Factory and Twilo in New York City. I have, though, heard him in other places in and out of New York. There's a distinct 'New York' sound and vibe around him and it simply is NOT the same when he plays elsewhere.

Yes, he's old [as in grandpa old]! Yes, he can be moody and play all kinds of crazy shit during a night. And yes, he's been noted to pull a 'diva' act or two or three or ... a hundred! But you cannot deny the amazing artistry he pulls behind those decks in the dj booth. If you listen really carefully you can hear the layering he does with the music. His mixing of new vocal tracks with old disco tunes to tribal craziness is simply amazing! [okay, there's a few train wrecks in the mix, but for some reason, i don't care!]

I wanna go! :-(

I love Miami.

...and Peter Rauhofer too! I just got this in the mail last night. I actually won it in some MySpace contest. It's the 2nd one I won from the label actually. Yayyy!

I've only listened to the first disc so far. It's very true to form and distinctly his style. You either gotta love him or hate him -- either way (even with that "seemingly" obvious photoshop'd head on that surfer cover art), I LOVE IT.

Saturday night shenanigans.

Aside from meeting up with my friend Snowy in WeHo a few weeks ago, this past Saturday was the first time I actually ventured out and experienced some "nightlife" here. My adventure in West Hollywood was only for about an hour just to say hi to a friend who was just visiting -- so I really won't count that as a real night out. This time around, I drove down to Long Beach to catch up with an old friend and we hung out with some other friends who were in town visiting from Fresno. We ended up going to a party called KUB KAMP. LOL. The promoters billed the evening as A SATURDAY NIGHT FRENZY FOR BURLY BEARS, HUSKY HUNKS, BOSS TRUCKERS, CHUBBIES N' CHASERS, GEN-X-BEARS, TRAILER TRASH... Yes, all of the above and then some. It was actually kinda cute. It was a bona fide dancing bear party! Back from where I'm from -- you don't see a lot of that. Dancing bears, that is. The music was more or less top 40 though. There was a lot of Madonna and a lot of Fergie and more than enough hip-hop I personally needed to hear. It was definitely a departure from what I'm used to hearing out at a club for sure. I still had fun nonetheless. I even got a little drunk. WOW. Now, that was something that I haven't done in a long while! Not that it should be amazing or surprising, but it's coming onto 2+ months since I've dabbled into the party 'favors'. A good thing, right?

Meanwhile, I was missing DJ Paulo and Alexander in downtown LA that same night. It's all good. There will be a time soon for all of that. Life isn't all about the party. :-)

Mashups, cut-ups, and re-edits.

Just got a link about a certain California DJ from a MySpace bulliten today. He's done some cool remixes of 80's classics and then some that AREN'T cheezey. Bootleg city!!! LOL.

http://shaunslaughter.blogspot.com/

WTF !!! (one more thing)

[Life wouldn't be complete if I don't make a MySpace reference in a blog ...]

I collect a lot of the mixshows and dj sets. I generally get them through direct downloads from their websites or podcasts. Their MySpace pages and bulletins usually advertise them too. Another way DJ's share them is through online file-sharing sites like YouSendIt -- most likely due to their large size and bandwidths. Anyway, I received this random email yesterday directly from one of these services that linked to an original music track. From the sender's address I identified him as a MySpace 'friend' who happens to be a DJ. It was cool, but wasn't a full length mix set and I sent him this email response:


hey there! not sure if i ever signed up to be on your email list for these things. either way -- thanks! i like this new track. nice and DARK!

- mike a.


he then replies:

Sorry if you were mailed to by mistake. I will make sure your email is removed. I guess most people like to keep up with the rungs [as] I am climbing to success.


I replied again and said not to remove me. Hours later, I pulled a double-take and said, "What the fuck?!?" I wasn't being negative was I??? I said I liked his song. When I got home, I took another look at his page and read one of his blog entries. In it he went on in BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS all the way through on how some other producers and dj's re-hash and recycle things and ultimately call it their own. He also went on about their own negativity or something. This whole thing went on and on and ultimately became one big tirade against these type of people. I'm like SHEESH, "TEENA needs to calm the fuck down!". I don't know this guy from Jack aside from trolling around and finding his page from some other dj's page. Dude's already got a major chip on his shoulders. He doesn't deserve another response. Meanwhile, I'm just thinking his whole rant just described the nature of the music business today. I mean, what is hip-hop??? One of my all-time favorite dj's does stuff like this. I'm not going to go into specifics in this particular blog, but when I can train-spot obscure early 90's and late 80's samples completely mashed up with a new song and sound amazing AND then calling it his 'own' -- I think it's genius!

Okay, I'm done. No more MySpace today. :-)

Junior, Frankie Knuckles, Robert Owens ...

Someone pointed out a cool link for some classic house mixes circa '90-'91 today. Click here for the link.

Wow. What memories. It was right after college for me and the beginnings of my own club kid days in DC. I remember going to Tracks Nightclub on a regular basis -- sometimes even 3 - 4 nights a week! Thursday was the 'alternative' night that catered to the Goth / Industrial crowd. Friday was the 'mixed' night where there straight boys crept out of their closets for a night. Saturday was full on hi-nrg. Sunday was the house night aka the 'black' night. That places was so massive with 3 dancefloors, one of which was on the outdoor patio right beside the full sized volleyball court, bleachers, and sand! Growing up and coming out to a place like that definitely got me spoiled in the sense of going and clubbing. Aside from the New York super clubs, there was nothing like it around. Us DC children We were definitely spoiled!

The website I noted above has full sets from Junior Vasquez and Frankie Knuckles at The Sound Factory in New York. I was unfortunately not lucky enough to ever visit in its hey day.

Mixshow madness.

Instead of listening to specific music tracks nowadays, I generally like to listen to entire DJ mixshows or sets I download from the internet. Since I'm forever multi-tasking on my laptop, it's just a whole lot easier to listen to these than to make up my own playlists I guess. I was off today and I putzed around on the computer all afternoon. I think I listened to 5 or 6 hour-long mixes today. Aside from downloading directly from Limewire or something, the best place to find these things are on MySpace! (Ha, gotta give my daily props to MySpace!!!). A lot of the DJ's who have a presence there often share direct links to download these. If you're into the whole BitTorrent thing, I found a great place called: TRIBALMIXES.COM.

I think it's amazing how people can manipulate songs into one continuous flow of music. Eh -- it's the frustrated dj in me I guess. LOL. With all of the knowledge about music I have and all, people always ask why I haven't become one myself. TRUST ME, I'VE TRIED! I think my A.D.D. overcomes me and I simply lose patience. I'm slowly overcoming it, though. Hell, I'm actually able to listen to these mixshows straight through without wanting to change over now. Maybe one day ...

I'm such a fan of tribal house music. Most of the really good stuff is coming out of Spain or Portugal. In the US, I usually turn to New York and Los Angeles. As of today, I'm adding the following to my DJ's list to the right:

Boris [WOW!!!!]
Kult of Krameria
David Guetta
D-Formation
Peter Presta
That Kid Chris
Alexander
FC Nond

A folding board frenzy and various other _____.

It's coming upon Christmas time here in sunny southern California. Today's high was in the upper 80's and the holiday decor is already up in the mall. The majority of my work day was spent folding t-shirts and sweaters to BR "standards". My section was amazing! God only knows why I can't keep my own room in such great shape. This part-time gig is only seasonal so far. My coworkers are almost all asian and from what I can tell about half my age at that! It's interesting how this one little white girl is like the minority there. Eh, I still like it though. It's definitely not hard. I'm just beat from standing all day. [Note to self: Remember to put in my shoe orthotics tomorrow.] The vintage (circa 1998) Kenneth Cole double monkstraps were cute, but honey, my lower back is killing me!!! The price you have to pay to get those $80 price killed jeans that just got returned today for a mere $7 after discount(s). Yes, the Asian Republic is open again!

As I'm writing this blog, I'm also watching John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" on the Sundance Channel. Wow. Utterly absurd. Divine just got sent a turd in the mail. Love it!!! Baltimore at it's best. I miss home.

Earlier today I downloaded a mixshow from DJ KioKio. I don't think he gets over to the east coast much so I've never heard him spin before. His style is a little bit fast for my taste, but I'm definitely liking his groove. He sprinkles in some nice classics to keep the flow. I miss going out and dancing in the clubs too! :-(

It's 4:09 AM. I'm up way too late.

The Black Party NYC.

the black party in nyc is touted to be "gaydom's premier underground dance party for more than a quarter of a century." it takes place this weekend for what is officially a 24-hour "dark, heavy, sexually-charged musical odyssey!" (i kid you not -- these are quotes from the official press release). this year's theme: SCHWARZWALD: The Black Forest. I think you're supposed to imagine PETER AND THE WOLF ... on krack! to those not necessarily familiar with the annual event -- think a huge dance party, in a super huge venue, with lots of great music and a tinge of heavy leather and sex! this will be my first time attending the said event. by all accounts, this just seems to be another *gay circuit event* but instead of a series of parties over the course of a weekend or week, it's just one huge and LONG party with a slew of unofficial tagging along before and after. last night (friday) was the SAINTS & SINNERS party aboard the frying pan (an actual sea vessel ship) docked at the Chelsea Piers. DJ Rob Harris from DC spun an amazing set! sunday afternoon at the official after party is junior vasquez @ pacha. later that afternoon is alegria extreme @ crobar. WHAT?!?

i'm sooooo excited for tonight! the main dj's spinning the official party are peter rauhofer and offer nissim. two of my big favorites from the past year. a lot of my clubbing friends from home are coming up to enjoy in the festivities as well. it's going to be an awesome night especially when the DC KR*CKER KREW INVADES NYC! lol. lasting until the very end??? we'll see.

Sick.

It's been a little over a week post my DJ Paulo marathon track to San Francisco and back. A lot has happened...sorta quit my job last Monday. I'll save the details for another posting. I've just been sick pretty much since then. I just got back from the doctor this morning -- I apparently have STREP. So not in the mood to be sick. The bigger slap in the face came when I went to try to fill my prescription after the visit to the medical center. It seems that I've already been cut off from coverage. I dunno -- it's not like I can really call and find out what's going on -- I'VE LOST MY VOICE and am suffering from laryngitis due to the strep. Soooo not cute.