Snowblind
A man could go mad trying to keep up with music.
I came back from holiday, went to the sorting office to get my packages and the men there laughed heartily as they handed me the SACKful from a mere 10 days away. I get six new albums on a quiet day, some fourteen on Wednesday just gone - plus all the wonky electronic 12"s and mp3 tracks and myspace links I get sent for the experimental page... and I still buy and download stuff. This isn't a complaint - I'm in hog heaven - just an illustration of how thick and fast it all comes. The sackful was the "tipping point" i.e. when I realised it's time to tip some stuff away, and I've spent the last two days solid going through the backlog (3 massive Sainsburys bags-for-life full of CDs) to decide what to keep, what's still forthcoming for possible review and what to tip (most of it), which is where the snowblindness comes in, especially with all the indie bands... with my suburban pub DJ head on I can skip through a dance track or pop record and go yes/no straight away, but on the 15th album of the day that's a bit Talking Heads and a bit Julian Cope and a bit The Jam and a bit Wire and a bit Franz Ferdinand and a bit Pixies and a bit Fall and a bit Sonic Youth and maybe has some Nu Rave keyboard riffs, or the 10th singer who references John Martyn and Nick Drake and Crosby, Stills & Nash and Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, I tend to lose the plot a bit. Thank fukc for freaks like Pop Levi or Duke Garwood - to pick two from today's stacks - who stand out a mile from the indistinguishable stuff and give me some perspective. Nearly done now, though.
Olv and I did a corporate DJ gig on Monday night, for a "creative industry magazine"'s award show at a big Park Lane hotel. It was just like suburban pub DJing - i.e. lots of drunk middle-aged people who wanted to dance to Blondie, Spandau Ballet and 'Hey Ya'. A hilarious stumpy northern woman - think a Yorkshire Ruth Badger minus the understated charm - came up to us on the second song, going "Now look, this isn't working, yer shit. Yer not going to get paid if you keep this up, nobody likes this shit." Not knowing if she was something to do with the event or what, we were very civil and reasonably pointed out that a) the gathered guests had only 5 minutes ago finished their huge dinner b) the tables had barely been cleared from the dancefloor and c) that despite this people had been slowly but steadily starting to dance to the Queen and Chaka Khan records we'd just played which, with all due respect, you couldn't get much more populist than. We asked what she'd prefer to hear, and she said the traditional "anything but this - stuff people know - you know, disco and that". After a lot of assurances she buggered off and we got on with playing slab after slab of fine cheese - the only hiccup being a record-speed dancefloor exodus when I played Moonlight Shadow (we got them back again quick sharp though, and as a far cooler DJ than me once said, the true test of a DJ's art is to be able to fill the floor after clearing it). With everyone fully pissed-up on booze and happily cutting rugs to Jacko and Stevie Wonder and Bon Jovi and whatnot, she returned with "OK look I'm really getting bored of you, nobody likes this." This time I lost patience and said "errrrrrrrr, they all look like they like it" to which her awesome reply was "yes, that's because of me!". I looked agog and she explained "you're only playing stuff they like because I told yer you were shit". Surmising that she was mad, I treated her accordingly and soothingly, repeatedly going "look! everyone's having a nice time! it's all OK! why don't you go and have a dance with them?" til her glower softened to confusion and she slunk off. Still this is standard occurence - some people just have to try and feel like they have some input*, no matter how mental it is (I still can't believe the number of other DJs I know who have been asked for "something funky" when they're playing, say, James Brown) - and as we got drunk and paid, still had most of the partygoers pogoing and singing to 'Live & Let Die' at the end, and have been told we'll be used again for such events, it wasn't a bad night. The fact we ended up drinking Scotch at home til 6am, I entirely blame on
_moggy_.
I have two records coming out this month. OK, I don't, but both MDK and Misnoma are putting out records to which I contributed squiggly noises and beats respectively to. It's gratifying in a tiny little way, and might - just might - encourage me to make some more music.
*NOT that there is anything wrong with this per se - we're paid to help people have a good time, and we dealt with every request (lots) no matter how drunk or repetitive with smiles and receptiveness, provided it wasn't preceded by "yer SHIT".
I came back from holiday, went to the sorting office to get my packages and the men there laughed heartily as they handed me the SACKful from a mere 10 days away. I get six new albums on a quiet day, some fourteen on Wednesday just gone - plus all the wonky electronic 12"s and mp3 tracks and myspace links I get sent for the experimental page... and I still buy and download stuff. This isn't a complaint - I'm in hog heaven - just an illustration of how thick and fast it all comes. The sackful was the "tipping point" i.e. when I realised it's time to tip some stuff away, and I've spent the last two days solid going through the backlog (3 massive Sainsburys bags-for-life full of CDs) to decide what to keep, what's still forthcoming for possible review and what to tip (most of it), which is where the snowblindness comes in, especially with all the indie bands... with my suburban pub DJ head on I can skip through a dance track or pop record and go yes/no straight away, but on the 15th album of the day that's a bit Talking Heads and a bit Julian Cope and a bit The Jam and a bit Wire and a bit Franz Ferdinand and a bit Pixies and a bit Fall and a bit Sonic Youth and maybe has some Nu Rave keyboard riffs, or the 10th singer who references John Martyn and Nick Drake and Crosby, Stills & Nash and Tim Hardin and Tim Buckley, I tend to lose the plot a bit. Thank fukc for freaks like Pop Levi or Duke Garwood - to pick two from today's stacks - who stand out a mile from the indistinguishable stuff and give me some perspective. Nearly done now, though.
Olv and I did a corporate DJ gig on Monday night, for a "creative industry magazine"'s award show at a big Park Lane hotel. It was just like suburban pub DJing - i.e. lots of drunk middle-aged people who wanted to dance to Blondie, Spandau Ballet and 'Hey Ya'. A hilarious stumpy northern woman - think a Yorkshire Ruth Badger minus the understated charm - came up to us on the second song, going "Now look, this isn't working, yer shit. Yer not going to get paid if you keep this up, nobody likes this shit." Not knowing if she was something to do with the event or what, we were very civil and reasonably pointed out that a) the gathered guests had only 5 minutes ago finished their huge dinner b) the tables had barely been cleared from the dancefloor and c) that despite this people had been slowly but steadily starting to dance to the Queen and Chaka Khan records we'd just played which, with all due respect, you couldn't get much more populist than. We asked what she'd prefer to hear, and she said the traditional "anything but this - stuff people know - you know, disco and that". After a lot of assurances she buggered off and we got on with playing slab after slab of fine cheese - the only hiccup being a record-speed dancefloor exodus when I played Moonlight Shadow (we got them back again quick sharp though, and as a far cooler DJ than me once said, the true test of a DJ's art is to be able to fill the floor after clearing it). With everyone fully pissed-up on booze and happily cutting rugs to Jacko and Stevie Wonder and Bon Jovi and whatnot, she returned with "OK look I'm really getting bored of you, nobody likes this." This time I lost patience and said "errrrrrrrr, they all look like they like it" to which her awesome reply was "yes, that's because of me!". I looked agog and she explained "you're only playing stuff they like because I told yer you were shit". Surmising that she was mad, I treated her accordingly and soothingly, repeatedly going "look! everyone's having a nice time! it's all OK! why don't you go and have a dance with them?" til her glower softened to confusion and she slunk off. Still this is standard occurence - some people just have to try and feel like they have some input*, no matter how mental it is (I still can't believe the number of other DJs I know who have been asked for "something funky" when they're playing, say, James Brown) - and as we got drunk and paid, still had most of the partygoers pogoing and singing to 'Live & Let Die' at the end, and have been told we'll be used again for such events, it wasn't a bad night. The fact we ended up drinking Scotch at home til 6am, I entirely blame on
_moggy_.
I have two records coming out this month. OK, I don't, but both MDK and Misnoma are putting out records to which I contributed squiggly noises and beats respectively to. It's gratifying in a tiny little way, and might - just might - encourage me to make some more music.
*NOT that there is anything wrong with this per se - we're paid to help people have a good time, and we dealt with every request (lots) no matter how drunk or repetitive with smiles and receptiveness, provided it wasn't preceded by "yer SHIT".