Saturday, June 09, 2007

sometimes the right guys in the right place for the right price don't mean shit

Date: 6/8/07
Location: The Viceroy
DJs: Protman, Alexander Bassett, Pinches Cowboys and more
Drinks: BYOB
Price: FREE!
Things I missed to be there: Chicago Rocks Hip Hop Showcase (Day 1 Sucks); Mister Fuckhead Brass Ensemble, Complicated Horse Emergency, Mucca Pazza, Aloft Loft, and Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship? (Ended before I got out of work); Claremont keg jam with Nightfox, Cophands, and Menowax (busted before I could get out of work)
Reason I went: Easiest party to meet my sig-oth at; most promising as well




A lot of DJing today. Like most Fridays, I started out the day at WZRD, trying to bleed the weirdness out of my systen before working a corporate gig. You can see my setlist immediately below this post. Then I set off to make money. I was spinning at an upscale sushi lounge. They like downtempo, dub, electro, chilloit hip hop and a little bit of 80s and radio R&B. This is the only place I'm spinning for my company that expects me to play my own shit. I'm still figuring out the compromise, and building up my collection. A lot of stuff from Verve Remixed and Motown Remixed. A lot of couple-years' old shit that grazed the mainstream: Ladytron, DFA, M.I.A., Miss Kittin, Lily Allen, Nouvelle Vague, Propellerheads; A lot of hip hop producer shit: RJD2, Ghislain Poirier, Blockhead.

The more I do it, the better I feel about it. Skillbuilding and whatnot.

I was really annoyed this time, though, as four idiot people kept me from getting my party on. In one of my favorite songs right now, R. Kelly chastises motherfuckers of a moderate income for bringing their girls around him when the girl's are very likely "looking for a platinum type of guy." The problem with working a platinum joint is that you've got to deal with platinum motherfuckers with platinum egos who think the world resolves around them. I didn't leave the joint until one in the morning, which isn't at all unreasonable, except for the fact that there was one couple still sitting around at one, forty minutes after the bartender walked around the room extinguishing candles and twenty minutes after he turned on the houselights. They weren't drinking, or eating. They had settled their bill. They just didn't want to leave. Atually, I'm pretty sure thast she did and he didn't. I think she wanted to go out dancing where he just wanted to go home and fuck, so he tried to stall her at the restaurant. Don't be that guy. I will put a mystic cockblocking hex on you like I put a hex on him, and your lifetime sexual batting average will resemble that of the Chicago Cubs after they were hexed some eighty years ago. If you were going to stay someplace, buy things. Tip the bartender (and, er, um, the DJ) and get the fuck out when it's obvious that he or she is no longert interested in keeping the place open for you.

So I finally got free. I'd missed the circus show but dance parties abounded.

When I got to the Viceroy, there were more people outside than there were in, but the music was good. Protman was spinning off cds and a laptop. He was like a much better version of me, playing staples of my weirdier dance sets like The Contortions, Soft ink Truth, and Mr. Oizo, but actually providing a backbeat to match them all into one flow. Protman is often paired up with Mother Hubbard, aka Dangergirl as the Life During Wartime DJs. Somehow, I've never seen them play together even though they're supposed to throw some of the best dance parties on the bar scene. I've seen them each play solo, and considering their solo sets, I'm surprised. Mother Hubbard's sets always had some good gems in them, but overall they were kinda boring. Protman, on the other hand, did a lot of really interesting shit, but his sets were never really so accessible as to get everybody moving. One of my roomates explained that they work really well off each other for that exact reason, and become something more than the sum of their parts. Watching the scene as it grew and grew, and I guess well into the night there were still more people outside than in, I felt kinda jealous and kinda hopeful, that I won't just be able to get it, but I'll actually be able to bring it to the table soon enough.



[I love Flat Eric!! Watch him dance in the Mr. Oizo video for "Flat Beat"]

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Having google automatically scour the internet for you and deliver the results as an rss feed is so entertaining. it's like a time machine.

thanks for posting this stuff.

~protman