It's December, the holidays, that special time of year when...we're all running around like crazy people because we're all so busy. Here at DJMC HQ, we understand that. And we suggest you shake off your holiday angst by rocking with us.
As my 10th anniversary year as a DJ winds down, I do declare it's been a strange and eventful year. My seven-year residency at The Goldhawk ended when the bar closed down in July. As fall approached, the timing was perfect to start a new residency, and it's been a great first few months at Northern Soul. The place is cozy, and it's fun to watch the transformation as it becomes a local music destination spot. Thursdays now feature live music booked by Dave Entwistle, host of that former staple of The Goldhawk and now Maxwell's, The Peoples' Open Mic.Rob Nicholas, Dave Calamonari, and Karyn Kuhl--all Hoboken favorites--are playing at Northern Soul tonight, starting at 8:30.
I'll carry so many amazing memories of 2009: spinning big bashes for Broadway's "Rock Of Ages," DJing Lisa Loeb's wedding, producing and releasing an '80s compilation, writing liner notes for two Elvis Presley box sets, finally seeing Leonard Cohen and the Pixies, and being at Yankee Stadium when my beloved Evil Empire won the championship. It's actually hard to believe there are still three weeks left in this calendar year, not to mention this decade of the '00s, which we never did come up with a name for before it ended. Strange days indeed.
I appreciate all of you for your support. Seriously. It's humbling. Thank you. I'll keep slinging tunes as long as you all want to hear them. I will send one more reminder to local peeps about New Year's a few days prior. To anyone I don't get to see, have a fun holiday season, and let's rock in 2010!
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Beat Surrender Friday nights at Northern Soul
DJ Mike C. spins '80s '90s indie oldies punk glam groovy rock & soul & more
10 p.m. till late
This Friday, December 11 Next Friday, December 18 Thursday, December 31 - New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve: champagne toast, party favors, and rockin' tunes to ring in the new. Advance tickets available at the bar. $15 each, group discounts available.
Northern Soul 557 First St. Hoboken, U.S.A. no cover, 21+
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Previously on Beat Surrender
We closed it with a tribute to Eric Woolfson, lead singer of The Alan Parsons Project, who died earlier in the week. It was a very solid Friday at Northern Soul, to the tune of...
10:00 Shake Appeal - IGGY & THE STOOGES All's Quiet On The Eastern Front - RAMONES Pumping (My Heart) - PATTI SMITH Spanish Bombs - THE CLASH Pretty Green - THE JAM Pretty Girls - JOE JACKSON 6' 1" - LIZ PHAIR Rudderless - LEMONHEADS Holy War - MATTHEW SWEET Fuckin' Up - NEIL YOUNG Refugee - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS When My Baby's Beside Me - BIG STAR Substitute - THE WHO Good Enough - DODGY Somethin' Hot - THE AFGHAN WHIGS I.O.U. - THE REPLACEMENTS
11:00 Juicebox - THE STROKES Hash Pipe - WEEZER Uprising - MUSE Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND Animal - MIIKE SNOW Soft Shock - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS Malibu - HOLE My Party - KINGS OF LEON Wolf Like Me - TV ON THE RADIO Where Did All The Love Go? - KASABIAN No Cars Go - THE ARCADE FIRE Spread Your Love - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE BLUB Morning Glory - OASIS Death - WHITE LIES
12:00 Spaceman - THE KILLERS That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS 1901 - PHOENIX North American Scum - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Enola Gay - ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK Space Age Love Song - A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE Atomic - BLONDIE Message In A Bottle - THE POLICE 11th Dimension - JULIAN CASABLANCAS Bulletproof - LA ROUX Kids - MGMT Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - DAFT PUNK
1:00 DARE - GORILLAZ Once In A Lifetime - TALKING HEADS He's A Whore - CHEAP TRICK Candy-O - THE CARS Charmer - KINGS OF LEON She Sells Sanctuary - THE CULT Dominoes - THE BIG PINK Night By Night - CHROMEO The Fear - LILY ALLEN Strangelove - DEPECHE MODE Lips Like Sugar - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before - THE SMITHS A-Punk - VAMPIRE WEEKEND Daylight - MATT & KIM Lust For Life - GIRLS Lust For Life - IGGY POP Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES
2:00 Houses Of The Holy - LED ZEPPELIN Hush - DEEP PURPLE Magic Carpet Ride - STEPPENWOLF A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS Wonderwall - OASIS Crazy Little Thing Called Love - QUEEN Do Ya - ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA Da Doo Ron Ron - THE CRYSTALS I Only Want To Be With You - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD Happy Together - THE TURTLES Don't Answer Me - THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT
They put a parking lot on a piece of land Where the supermarket used to stand Before that they put up a bowling alley On the site that used to be the local palais That's where the big bands used to come and play My sister went there on a Saturday
Come dancing All her boyfriends used to come and call Why not come dancing It's only natural
Most venues have a life cycle. For every Carnegie Hall or McSorley's, places that continue to thrive while barely changing after more than a century in business, countless more music halls and bars open up, do well for a while if they're lucky and they know what they're doing, and eventually close or evolve into something completely different.
The Goldhawk was both a bar and a live venue. After eight years in business, its reputation was firmly established on both counts. As a venue, it was home to the coziest, most inviting back room performance space and lounge that I've ever known, and I've been to a few. As a bar, it was Cheers to many regulars, with an eclectic crowd. Business was a little off during this time of economic downturn, as it has been at most places, but to most people who frequented the place and knew it well, it did not seem like The Goldhawk was done.
That's probably why the bar's closing hurts so much. When CBGB closed after more than thirty years, it was the end of an era, but the place was long past its prime. The club wisely prolonged its closing into a seemingly never-ending marketing event that both burnished its reputation and made them quite a bit of dough while they already had one foot out the door.
The Goldhawk Bar & Lounge did not at all seem to be on its last legs when it was announced on June 11 that it would close up shop in exactly thirty days. To the owners' credit, that month's notice was appreciated by all who were affected by the impending closing. Many of the key artists who had performed there often did farewell shows during the final weeks. The last several days were a blur: the weekly Tuesday open-mic night was jammed beyond capacity, the live bands had great crowds all week, and virtually every person I talked to there expressed a bit of sadness and disbelief that a place so vibrant and unique was about to disappear.
So the place lasted a hair more than eight years, and I was a resident DJ there for all but the first 10 months of that time. I'm proud to have been associated with such a special place for so long. I'm humbled that owners who really, really know their music entrusted me with the tunes for so many special occasions. Thank you Fran, Al, and Mike for the opportunity.
And I'm thankful I got to run the party at what may go down as the greatest event in the history of The Goldhawk, its closing night. Kerry, Butch, Justin, Andy, and especially Margaret kept the bar working smoothly all night long, despite an alcohol stock that was rapidly depleting. There was a fun but bittersweet vibe in the air. A little like New Year's Eve, except that the moment we were anxious about was not midnight, but last call.
The day they knocked down the palais My sister stood and cried The day they knocked down the palais Part of my childhood died, just died
When last call came, I had time for two more songs. Of course I knew in advance what they would be. The Specials' "Enjoy Yourself" was one of the bar's unofficial theme songs from the start, and its advice to "Enjoy yourself--it's later than you think" was all too appropriate. To close it out, in the town of Frank Sinatra's birth, and the bar run by the singer of Skanatra, it was practically preordained that it had to end with "My Way."
There's more I want to write about the place, and hopefully soon I will have time to share some other memories. Keep a look out on my home page for future gigs at new and different venues. For now, enjoy the playlist. Goldhawk, we miss you already.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
9:00 Rock And Roll Music - THE BEATLES You Only Live Once - THE STROKES When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around - THE POLICE My Ever-Changing Moods - THE STYLE COUNCIL Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE Oliver's Army - ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS Don't Do Me Like That - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS Don't Look Back - THE REMAINS Good Times Bad Times - LED ZEPPELIN Summertime Blues - THE WHO Vehicle - IDES OF MARCH Rockin' In The Free World - NEIL YOUNG Salute Your Solution - THE RACONTEURS 4 Songs & A Fight - THE SOUNDS We Are All Made Of Stars - MOBY Take Me, I'm Yours - SQUEEZE Roll With It - OASIS Radiation Vibe - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
10:00 Pop Song 89 - R.E.M. There's No Other Way - BLUR Atomic - BLONDIE Heads Will Roll - THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS Head On - PIXIES Good Enough - DODGY Just Got Lucky - JOBOXERS Sole Salvation - THE ENGLISH BEAT Sherry Darling - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN The Bulrushes - THE BONGOS Black And White - THE dB'S Starry Eyes - THE RECORDS Mr. Brightside - THE KILLERS The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS Way Down Now - WORLD PARTY Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES
11:00 I'm A Man - THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP Move On Up - CURTIS MAYFIELD That Lady (Part 1 & 2) - THE ISLEY BROTHERS Doing It To Death - JAMES BROWN Don't Stop Till You Get Enough - MICHAEL JACKSON 1999 - PRINCE Mercy - DUFFY Girls & Boys - BLUR Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE Time To Pretend - MGMT Daylight - MATT & KIM Young Folks - PETER, BJORN & JOHN Monday Morning - THE FUNDAMENTALS
12:00 Is It Any Wonder? - KEANE Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night In The Week) - FRANK SINATRA United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH Surrender - CHEAP TRICK We're An American Band - GRAND FUNK RAILROAD Roadrunner - MODERN LOVERS Vacation - THE GO-GO'S Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - RAMONES This Charming Man - THE SMITHS Inbetween Days - THE CURE Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC DARE - GORILLAZ The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEATURING CODY CHESNUTT The Way You Move - OUTKAST (BIG BOI) FEATURING SLEEPY BROWN Sir Duke - STEVIE WONDER Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin) - SLY & THE FAMILY STONE
1:00 Twenty-Five Miles - EDWIN STARR Love Child - SUPREMES Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) - THE JACKSONS Low Rider - WAR Give It To Me Baby - RICK JAMES Let's Go - THE CARS Your Love - THE OUTFIELD Rock The Casbah - THE CLASH Faith - GEORGE MICHAEL Breakout - SWING OUT SISTER Surfin' Bird - THE TRASHMEN You Never Can Tell - CHUCK BERRY Burning Love - ELVIS PRESLEY Right Back Where We Started From - MAXINE NIGHTINGALE More Today Than Yesterday - SPIRAL STARECASE Car Wash - CHRISTINA AGUILERA & MISSY ELLIOTT SexyBack - JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
2:00 Changes - 2PAC Regulate - WARREN G. FEATURING NATE DOGG Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta - GETO BOYS Superstition - STEVIE WONDER Freedom 90 - GEORGE MICHAEL * Matt Azzarto speech: "We raised the bar" * Ooh La La - FACES Baba O'Riley - THE WHO Silly Love Songs - WINGS Our House - MADNESS Come Dancing - THE KINKS Town Called Malice - THE JAM Enjoy Yourself - THE SPECIALS My Way - FRANK SINATRA
It was ten years plus one day since my first-ever public DJ gig--I add the word "public" because, hey, I'd been playing DJ at home since around age four--and I wanted to make sure the music was great.
Even for a good DJ, this can be harder than it sounds. For all your good intentions, so many factors can derail your plans: if you don't get your usual crowd, or it's more crowded than expected, or less crowded than expected, or equipment doesn't cooperate, or...anything. Spinning for a crowd is completely different than on the radio or the net, of course. In most live situations, the worst thing a DJ can do is plan a full set and stubbornly stick to it. The best way to DJ for a crowd is to go in with a plan, but to be ready to chuck that plan, or at least large portions of it, as needed.
I DJ all over the place, but for the past seven years, my home base has been my a tremendous local bar in my neighborhood, The Goldhawk. I've DJed more than 500 gigs--maybe closer to 600--and this comfy two-room bar/lounge run by true music lovers has been home to probably more than 50 percent of them. Yet each night brings something new in terms of crowd, vibe, and surprises. Though no dance parties broke out on this last Friday before Memorial Day weekend, many of those in attendance seemed enthusiastic about my choices.
I started an hour early, at 9 p.m., since my first gig ten years ago had also been a 9:00 start. This gave me an extra hour to get my ya-yas out, and in that first hour I didn't play anything newer than 1999, to approximate an hour of what could have been a set I'd played a decade ago. In that first hour and throughout the night, I sprinkled in some of my favorite segues I've ever come up with (I'll leave you all to guess which ones) and as many songs and artists that were important to me as I could.
Even with an extra hour, there was a lot I wish I'd gotten to in the course of the night. Really wanted to play "Praise You" because it was the biggest song going around the time I started DJing; it woulda fit in around midnight when I was playing the likes of Stereo MC's and Deee-Lite, but I didn't want people walking in at the peak of the night to think that we were playing a mix tape from 1999. Meant to throw on "Buffalo Stance" because I remember it being a hit at my first gig. Wanted to play Elvis Presley but didn't. The list goes on.
New stuff was pretty well represented, with Phoenix, Metric, Matt & Kim, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Lies, and a fine new Green Day album--less than a day old!--all supplying great energy toward the middle of the evening. Love T. Rex, but wouldn't have predicted they'd be the only band I'd play twice this particular night--there was a "Jeepster" request after 1 a.m. and even though I'd already played "20th Century Boy" a couple hours earlier, there was no reason to say no. (Sticklers will note that I played both New Order and Joy Division as well, also hours apart.) Wish I played The Stooges, but at least I got to The Dictators and The Damned; those who remember my Neat Neat Neat nights at Manitoba's a few years ago can connect the dots there. Didn't get into a proper '60s/'70s soul set either; James Brown, Sly, Stevie, and The Supremes all shoulda been in there. Oh well. As Steven Wright said: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"
Why did I close with "With A Little Help From My Friends" by Joe Cocker? So many reasons. Because in ten years of slinging discs, I'm pretty sure I'd never played it before. Because it was written and originated by my favorite band of all time, and in some ways echoes the nearly two years early on in my career when I closed nearly every night with "Hey Jude." Because it was lyrically and thematically appropriate. Because it was performed by a group of high-school kids in some sort of show during evening rush hour at the Port Authority Bus Terminal the day before, and their performance was good enough to make me stop in my tracks and listen. Oh, and because it kicks ass.
So this is how my second decade of DJing began. Many set lists don't look as good on paper as they sounded in person, but I couldn't be happier with the way this one sounded and how it looks.
Thanks to all the bartenders, barbacks, doormen, managers, owners, promoters, and everyone else in the nightclub world for so much support over the years. And of course, special thanks to anyone who's ever called themselves a fan. Lots more to come, of course. Upcoming dates at both The Goldhawk and NYC's Motor City Bar will be announced soon. Check the home page for details as they become available.
9:00 I'd Love To Change The World - TEN YEARS AFTER A Hard Day's Night - THE BEATLES Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere - THE WHO Local Girls - GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR Girls Talk - DAVE EDMUNDS All Of The Good Ones Are Taken - IAN HUNTER Talk Of The Town - PRETENDERS Regret - NEW ORDER Awful - HOLE The Emperor's New Clothes - SINEAD O'CONNOR Ladyfingers - LUSCIOUS JACKSON You Get What You Give - NEW RADICALS A Girl Like You - EDWYN COLLINS Babies - PULP The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get - MORRISSEY Becoming More Like Alfie - THE DIVINE COMEDY I've Got A Flair - FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE
10:00 Better Things - THE KINKS The Static Age - GREEN DAY Them Kids - SAM ROBERTS Every Summer (Remix) - U.S. ROYALTY Island In The Sun - WEEZER You Only Live Once - THE STROKES Head On - PIXIES Stay With Me - THE DICTATORS Gates Of The West - THE CLASH 20th Century Boy - T. REX Stay Positive - THE HOLD STEADY The '59 Sound - THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM Alex Chilton - THE REPLACEMENTS Desire - U2 Cruel To Be Kind - NICK LOWE Superman - R.E.M. Use Somebody - KINGS OF LEON Death - WHITE LIES
11:00 The Step And The Walk - THE DUKE SPIRIT Lights Out - SANTOGOLD I'm Shakin' - ROONEY Vacation - THE GO-GO'S Ever Fallen In Love? - THE BUZZCOCKS Neat, Neat, Neat - THE DAMNED Mirror In The Bathroom - THE ENGLISH BEAT Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 - IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS Heaven For The Weather - THE STREETS Crying - TV ON THE RADIO Girlfriend - PHOENIX Daylight - MATT & KIM Sugalumps - FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS Time To Pretend - MGMT Sick Muse - METRIC Heads Will Roll - YEAH YEAH YEAHS The Look Of Love (Part 1) - ABC Friday I'm In Love - THE CURE
12:00 1999 - PRINCE Get Myself Into It - THE RAPTURE Groove Is In The Heart - DEEE-LITE Step It Up - STEREO MC'S Lucid Dreams - FRANZ FERDINAND Beggin' (Pilooski Edit) - THE FOUR SEASONS Groovy Train - THE FARM Only Love Can Break Your Heart - SAINT ETIENNE Ms. Jackson - OUTKAST Heartless - KANYE WEST The Seed (2.0) - THE ROOTS FEAT. CODY CHESNUTT Paper Planes - M.I.A.
1:00 That's Not My Name - THE TING TINGS Love Will Tear Us Apart - JOY DIVISION Don't You Want Me - THE HUMAN LEAGUE Somebody Told Me - THE KILLERS Crimson And Clover - JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS Unchained - VAN HALEN I Wanna Rock - TWISTED SISTER Highway To Hell - AC/DC Sympathy For The Devil - THE ROLLING STONES Jeepster - T. REX The Jean Genie - DAVID BOWIE Rockaway Beach - RAMONES United States Of Whatever - LIAM LYNCH Any Way You Want It - JOURNEY Surrender - CHEAP TRICK Somebody To Shove - SOUL ASYLUM Girlfriend - MATTHEW SWEET Your Love - THE OUTFIELD
2:00 Heat Of The Moment - ASIA 867-5309/Jenny - TOMMY TUTONE Jessie's Girl - RICK SPRINGFIELD Steal My Sunshine - LEN Cruel Summer - BANANARAMA Touch Me - THE DOORS Daydream Believer - THE MONKEES Spirit In The Night (Live 1975-85 version) - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND With A Little Help From My Friends - JOE COCKER
Hey, I'm celebrating my first ten years of DJing with five big nights of rock & roll!
The world-famous legend of DJ Mike C. started at an Irish pub in Hoboken on Friday, May 14, 1999. It was a seasonable spring night. iPods and YouTube didn't exist. Fatboy Slim and Moby were huge, and Len's "Steal My Sunshine" was poised to become the hit of the summer. The Yankees were reigning World Series champs and about to win two more in a row. These were simpler, better times.
The first song I played was The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night," and it went off without a hitch. But I didn't properly cue up the second song I wanted to play, The Kinks' "Till The End Of The Day," so I ended up with "You Really Got Me." First oops. The first request was "She's A Beauty" by The Tubes--an '80s MTV hit I've always dug, but which I didn't even have at the time. Second oops. Nothing terrible resulted, of course, but within the first three minutes I'd learned that, to be a great DJ, I'd always have to stay on my toes. I've lived, I've learned, and what can I say, I think I've rocked.
Ten years and more than 500 gigs later, the beat goes on. Thanks to everyone for your support during this first decade. If you've ever heard me spin, thank you for being there. Even if you never have, or haven't in a long time, it's gratifying to know so many people appreciate the rock & roll I provide for the community. Because, yes, I do this for the community.
In the past six months, I've DJed at the opening night cast party for the new hit Broadway musical "Rock Of Ages" (soon to be a major motion picture from New Line Cinema), singer/songwriter/reality TV star Lisa Loeb's wedding (as seen in People), and Lucky magazine's Lucky Shops event (as seen on Style Network). It's been a good year, and I'm gonna keep it going.
To mark the end of my first decade and the start of my second, there are no places I'd rather celebrate at than two of my favorite local bars. Please join me at one of these five cool nights in May. There's a big Thursday at NYC's Motor City Bar. And there are four fun weekend nights at my local, The Goldhawk in Hoboken--including a 10th Anniversary Show where, yes, we're gonna party like it's 1999. Don't you wanna go?
DJ Mike C. 10 Years Of Rock, 5 Big Nights!
NYC:
at Motor City Bar 127 Ludlow St. between Delancey St. & Rivington St.
1. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends (Capitol)
2. SANTOGOLD - Santogold (Downtown)
3. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)
4. THE ALUMINUM GROUP - Little Happyness (Minty Fresh)
5. TV ON THE RADIO - Dear Science (DGC/Interscope)
6. THE KILLERS - Day & Age (Island)
7. KINGS OF LEON - Only By The Night (RCA)
8. ESTELLE - Shine (Atlantic)
9. THE HOLD STEADY - Stay Positive (Vagrant)
10. FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - Flight Of The Conchords (Sub Pop)
Top 10 Songs
1. THE KILLERS - Human (Island)
2. COLDPLAY - Viva La Vida (Capitol)
3. ESTELLE FEATURING KANYE WEST - American Boy (Atlantic)
4. THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - The '59 Sound (Side One Dummy)
5. SANTOGOLD - L.E.S. Artistes (Downtown)
6. CHRIS BROWN - Forever (Jive)
7. NE-YO - Miss Independent (Def Jam)
8. DUFFY - Mercy (Mercury)
9. DAVID BYRNE & BRIAN ENO - Strange Overtones (Todo Mundo)
10. STUDENTS OF THE RON CLARK ACADEMY - You Can Vote However You Like (no label)
I know, I know. Coldplay. Freakin' Coldplay. Surely you think I've gone crazy, or worse, soft.
First off, I never bothered to acquire the band's third album X&Y and still don't have it. Second, I resisted Viva for most of the year. Didn't buy it until the special Prospekt's March version came out during the holiday buying season. I was indifferent to the title track at first, but over time in this historic election year, its resonance was unshakable.
U2 is a band I like as much as the next guy, but they never were among my favorites. So it's odd that this Eno-produced ersatz U2 would ring true to me. But in one of the most unpredictable and wild years of my life--professionally, politically, personally--it was this band, Coldplay, the band whose "Yellow" was the first song I ever possessed in MP3 form, that somehow crafted the best album I heard all year.
It must be noted that, as a result of vast changes in my life, I didn't hear as much new music in 2008 as I would have liked to. Didn't dig as deep as I usually do this past year; time and professional circumstances just didn't allow it. These lists are always fluid over time, anyway, so I'm less afraid of what I might have missed than I might have been in previous years, when I fretted a good deal more over whether a particular album merited, say, a placing at number seven or number eight.
I still maintain that every year is a good year for music. The more time that goes by, the more 2008 music I'll find that I missed during the 366 particular days that comprised the actual year. The future's so bright...
One other note. These lists are me with my "critic's hat" on. They're not much of a reflection on what I play when I DJ out at bars and clubs, and certainly not at private events. Sure, I've been playing The Gaslight Anthem like crazy for months, and some of the more Top 40ish material has gotten spins when warranted by the crowd on certain nights. But a playlist consisting of just these artists probably would sound like a train wreck. Hail hail rock and roll!
I still need to post my Yankee Stadium wrap-up (saving it for the start of this season)...my best of '08 list...and I haven't written about the great experience I had DJing at Lisa Loeb's wedding a couple weeks back...but I have a cool NYC gig tonight, so I'm adapting a Facebook meme (I know, I know) and posting this up.
So I've got me this big little rock & roll DJ gig tonight at Motor City Bar, one of the coolest bars in downtown NYC. And you know that's saying something, 'cause there are more than a few of those types of establishments around.
When you're DJing, you never know what any given night might bring. A safe bet for tonight, though, is a whole lotta rock and a whole lotta fun with a hint of Detroit edge. I certainly can't give away the playlist before it happens--especially because I don't work from a set playlist. But here, in no particular order, are 12 totally kick-ass artists who I wanna play--and who, odds are, I will play tonight.
1. Ramones It begins and ends with them. Not the set list in any literal sense. And chronologically, obviously not. But no one really ever rocked more, or better. Gabba gabba hey.
2. Electric Six As Chuck Klosterman said of their debut, "You will like this album if you like the notion of Van Halen more than you liked any of their actual albums." And they've only gotten better. Probably the most unique-sounding band of the last decade, and not in any highfalutin, pretentious way; they just rock. Bonus: from Detroit!
3. David Bowie More than anyone, a rock & roll man for all seasons.
4. Devo Punker than you might remember.
5. The Donnas They started as Ramones wannabes, morphed into a female Kiss/Mötley Crüe kinda deal, and they do the best covers (Priest, Kiss, Billy Idol) in the known universe.
6. AC/DC It's a rock night, so it's almost certain that Bon Scott will be in the house.
7. Little Richard The only artist Bob Dylan thanked by name at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is one of the architects of the genre, and his raucous recordings rock just as much now as they did 50+ years ago.
8. Thin Lizzy As the brilliant Hamell On Trial quipped, "Tonight there's not gonna be a jailbreak SOMEWHERE in the town...it's gonna be at the JAIL!"
9. The Gaslight Anthem Keeping alive an unforgettable fire lit by everyone from Miles Davis to Bruce Springsteen, while sounding like a more literate Soul Asylum, they made THE rock album of 2008. And they're from my college town of New Brunswick, N.J. to boot.
10. The Supremes Of all the Motown groups of the '60s, no one's songs sound fresher, sharper--more swinging, more sexy--than these original divas.
11. The Raconteurs With more than a little help from his friends, Detroit's Jack White has been reinventing himself on records that seem to give more--and rock more--every time you hear 'em.
12. The Stooges A tip of the cap to the Detroit combo--and their recently deceased guitarist Ron Asheton--who took rock to a whole new level of scary and great.
DJ Mike C. Tonight! Thursday, February 19 10 p.m. till late
at Motor City Bar 127 Ludlow St. (at Delancey St.) NYC
Years end a lot earlier than they used to. End-of-year retrospectives are such a marketable hook for a story that every media outlet, from the major networks to your friend's Twitter feed, wants to stake its claim to importance by declaring what was best this past year, thus proclaiming the still-breathing year to be dead.
At the risk of congratulating myself too heartily, I will continue my campaign to resist this trend. There are 21 days left in 2008, and they all count. Sure, when the topic is best albums and songs released during the year, it's possible to look at release schedules and see there almost everything that's seeing a 2008 release is already out. Hell, Chinese Democracy even has seen the light of day--an event so unlikely that it did manage to delay itself until after this country had first elected an African-American president. This is unlike the news media's abhorrent choosing of the year's most compelling news stories when the year has several weeks to go, a practice that really bit every news organization in the ass in 2004, when the deadly Indian Ocean earthquake struck on December 26. The stakes are lower when it comes to music, which makes it all the more ridiculous that we rush to stick a fork in the year when there's still plenty of time left on the clock.
It still pains me a little to turn in my top 10 albums and singles of the year to The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll while the year is still living and breathing. Ballots are due Christmas Eve. I get it; it takes a long time to compile the votes and create compelling features that make sense of them. All credit where credit is due for the hard work they do. It's just a shame that these decisions have to finalized in the midst of December madness, when everyone's scrambling to finish holiday plans and purchases, when the airwaves are dominated by Christmas music (which I love, in a measured way), and when the year is still living and breathing.
Per custom, my picks will appear here about a month into the new year. They probably won't be as detailed as my 2004 or even 2006 summaries, but last year's quick line listing was an anomaly. A lot did go down this year, and I don't just mean electorally--although, let's face it, that has to figure in the analysis. There's a lot to say, and I'll be saying it. Until then, I'll be sneaking in listens to Captain Sensible's "One Christmas Catalogue" between spins of albums and songs in the running for my top tens; I'll finish the lists (from numbers 11 on) in January.
There's plenty of year left. Get out and enjoy it.
It was a total bummer when news broke this week that Steve Foley died of an apparent accidental overdose on prescription drugs. He was 49.
The Replacements introduced me, sideways, if you will, to punk. The first time I saw The Replacements, they were opening up for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford. It was the summer of 1989, I'd just gotten my driver's license and I was on a major arena-concert jag. I was two years away from discovering the pleasures of small club shows (thank you, Fishbone at the Palladium), so I spent some special nights that summer seeing some of my classic rock idols at the two Meadowlands venues and the Garden State Arts Center. Petty didn't quite earn idol status, but I was a fan. The fact that the opener was The Replacements, about whom I'd read enough good stuff that I'd bought their new album Don't Tell A Soul, was a huge bonus.
So much for that; they sucked. Sure, it was cool to see them--I was 17, and it was cool to see anyone I liked live--but they were sloppy. This was their reputation, sand you just had to go with it. I did, although most of the rest of the audience was less than impressed. I was sufficiently sold on the band's 'tude and tunes to investigate further, buying the previous album Pleased To Meet Me a few months later. That was a couple days before New Year's, and I remember it was the last CD I bought during the '80s.
Pleased pleased me enough to that I officially considered myself a full-fledged fan. By early '91, I'd acquired their new one, All Shook Down, and when it was announced the band was coming to play a gig at the College Avenue Gym, just a five-minute walk from my dorm room, I dove into the back catalog to prepare. The show was on a Saturday night, and my 19th birthday to boot, and I couldn't have been more pumped.
The show was everything the arena appearance wasn't: generous, focused, reasonably tight. The set list was great, as were the ad libs. I recall a verse and chorus of "All Right Now" for no good reasonre. A friend of a friend remarked, "They were drunk, but they weren't that drunk," and it seemed like they'd struck the right balance. Still one of the best shows I've ever seen, and for sentimental reasons, in my many ways, my favorite ever.
Before that final Replacements tour started, founding drummer Chris Mars left the band. I'm glad I saw the 'Mats with Mars once, even if it was at that Petty performance. I became a fan--probably one of the biggest fans, in fact--of Chris Mars' subsequent solo work, sending one of the few fan letters I ever wrote to him after the release of his fine 1992 debut Horseshoes And Hand Grenades. He responded with a nice note scrawled on a small publicity pic. After four albums, Mars decided he was done with music and has concentrated on painting. Every once in a while, a postcard promoting one Chris' art shows will show up in my parents' mailbox.
At the Rutgers show, it was replacement Replacement Steve Foley keeping a solid beat behind the kit. It would be a lie to say the bespectacled Foley was a magnetic presence on stage. But for a band notoriously unable to keep itself together in a live setting, it was satisfying to watch them do just that. And anyone who's ever picked up a pair of sticks knows how crucial the drummer is to such an endeavor. The new guy seemed to fit in just fine.
The band played their last show ever a few months later in Chicago's Grant Park, and that was that. Foley was part of Tommy Stinson's solid but short-lived post-'Mats band Bash & Pop, but he was inexplicably not included when Stinson and Paul Westerberg recorded two new tracks for a compilation a couple years ago. It's especially odd in light of the fact that Mars, though on friendly terms and willing to participate, could and/or would not play drums, so session pro Josh Freese was used. Foley did keep busy with other musical projects post-Replacements, though Rolling Stone notes he also logged some time selling cars.
Bob Seger's wrong; sometimes rock & roll does forget. Here's one small voice noting for the record that there are those who will always remember.
My Razr was old. No, it wasn't just old, it was pathetic and slow. I'd managed to resist the BlackBerry all this time, but I knew I wanted and needed mobile email. Leaving Verizon, the only mobile provider I'd ever had, wasn't a proposition I looked forward to, but as an Apple loyalist, the writing was on the wall: my next phone had to be an iPhone.
Being first on your block is fine, as long as that oh-so-lofty status comes easily. (The Dead Kennedys said it best: give me convenience or give me death!) If it means camping out with a lawn chair and the complete works of J.K. Rowling to pass the time, don't you know that you can count me out. Plus, it was virtually guaranteed there would be a few technical glitches out of the box, and it turned out there were. So I waited till the hailed new device had been on the market for about 12 days, and only then did I finally go to Apple's Fifth Avenue store to make my move.
At that point, the store had a new system that--true to the company's usual form--worked. Instead of making everyone wait on a seemingly endless line, you could stop by and get a voucher stamped with a time of day to come back and get on line. On a Tuesday, I swung in around 12:30 p.m. and got a voucher for 5 p.m. Perfect. I waited about 45 minutes on a line inside the store, and then the purchase and transfer of my phone number took another 20 minutes. I was in business. Now it's been a month and here's what how my iPhone has been treating me.
WHAT'S GREAT: • The App Store. Nicely complimenting the built-in programs like the surprisingly great Maps are the add-ons available at the iTunes store. Though there are at least as many misses as hits, such handy free downloadables as Urbanspoon (for restaurant suggestions), Baseball (stats for every pro team for every year since the late 1800's), and a simple Spanish phrasebook are incalculably cool. On the paid side, the iTrans PATH application which tells you when the next train is coming in each direction at each station--truly a quality-of-life issue when it's late and the trains are few and far, far between--is probably the best $4 any Hoboken or Jersey City resident could spend. • The on-screen keyboard. What seemed like a potential downside has actually proved to be one of the easiest features to use. It only took a couple days to get used to the little QWERTY keys that pop up. • Voicemail. Can't beat the convenience of choosing which voicemails to listen to and in which order.
WHAT'S SO-SO: • The camera. Takes quick and good quality snaps, but there's no zoom or flash. • Push email. Great if it works for you. Not-so-great for my main email account, for which I had no idea I'd need to switch to a new provider in order to get push email. • The iPod. Oh yeah, it has an iPod. • AT&T. More bars in more places my ass.
WHAT'S SO HORRENDOUSLY AWFUL, TO THE POINT WHERE IT BOGGLES THE MIND THAT THERE HASN'T BEEN A WORLDWIDE INVESTIGATION: • Text messaging. It's so scandalously bad it's hard to know where to begin. Other than the lack of picture messaging, I knew nothing about the iPhone's SMS limitations when I signed up for this thing, and they are legion: in addition to the lack of picture messaging, you can't send a text to multiple recipients, you can't forward a text, and you can't save a text in draft. I mean, it's 2008. There is no excuse.
THE VERDICT:
It's a great device. Once the text messaging debacle is fixed, it will be the ultimate device. For now, it's still a major upgrade from my old phone.
P.S. Regarding a recent blog post, looks like I'm already back to using Oxford commas...
Monday, August 18, 2008
We haven't had that spirit here since 1956 Moose gives up three runs in the first inning and you're instantly deflated; the Yanks come back and score 10 runs before making four outs (for the first time since 1956, I learned afterward) and you're on your way to a rollicking good time at the stadium. Jerry Stiller looked like hell when he pulled the countdown clock lever with his son Ben--when did he become elderly?--but it was a fine summer day and another Yankee win in what's now an improbable 11-1 season at the stadium for me.
