STARING UP INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM ALL THE STARS ARE FIXED UP IN THE SKY

"Oh, no, I would never claim to be an actual DJ..."

Had another excuse to spin records and type up my best approximation of what I played and post it here! Friday night was the birthday of Patrick Tape Fleming, of local bands the Poison Control Center, Gloom Balloon, and Dickweed, among probably others, and the Vaudeville Mews put together an evening to celebrate. Tony Galloro aka DJ Tone Zone kindly brought (and shared) his turntables, and we both spun at the venue's outdoor "PBR" bar. I DJed the earlier shift, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., so we could get home before too late for the babysitter. That in mind, I mostly brought a bunch of scrappy indie records I thought Patrick might like, but it turned out my tweeted promise to play "Work It" got around to our friends, so I ended up leaving a lot in the crate and focusing on records to keep a few of 'em dancing. My iPhone notes always get a little sketchy -- I'm gonna blame AutoCorrect -- but I think this is pretty close to what I played. Thanks to Tony, Ladd, Patrick, Joe, John, Clint, Brandon, and everyone who helped! And huge thanks to everyone who came out! I caught awesome sets beforehand by Wolves in the Attic, Pure Gut, and A Quick Piss -- thanks to those guys, too. I guess I'll be DJing a full set again on September 28 so let's hope it's not too cold or rainy or Oktoberfest-y? (Oh also I should mention it was brutally hot this night.)



Pure Ecstasy - You're In It Now
George Jackson - Aretha, Sing One for Me
Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?
Laura Marling - Master Hunter
Sly & the Family Stone - Higher (Mono Single Master)
Missy Elliott - Work It
Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody?
Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble
David Bowie - Fame
Kleenex Girl Wonder - Migration Scripts
Life Without Buildings - The Leanover
TLC - No Scrubs
Paramore - Ain't It Fun
No Doubt - Hella Good > No Doubt - Hey Baby
R. Kelly - Feelin' on Yo Booty (Dirty South Mix)
Free Energy - Something in Common
Pulp - After You
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken
Whitney Houston - How Will I Know?
Muuy Biien - Another Degradation
Delorean - Deli (or another track from this EP)
Dom - Living in America
Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin Beats
Beyonce - Upgrade U (probably) and Ring the Alarm (possibly)
The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me

Tony and me

Dance-party photo stolen from Tony's Instagram

BE THERE AND BE SQUARE

With DJ Tone Zone / Photos via Instagram

Last night was GDP, an annual festival downtown here showcasing local music.

A bunch of groups were playing, and one of the more talked-about shows was packed gig by reunited band House of Large Sizes at Vaudeville Mews. I managed to catch continuously game-raising young rock'n'rollers the Seed of Something once again, plus I finally saw all-around nice dude Dustin Smith and his group the Sunday Silos -- they had an outdoors free-stage crowd eating from their hands with a deftly played set of old-fashioned soul. Heard a bit of perennial noise-rock favorites Wolves in the Attic over at Vaudeville Mews, too, but did I mention that place was packed?

Anyway, over at local bar the Lift, which this month has art on the walls from our friend Ashley Tape Fleming, the Des Moines Music Coalition had organized a series of DJs. Another pal, Tony Galloro, kindly offered up his turntables for the night, and a bunch of us got to spin for an hour each, including former Pavement auxiliary drummer and my New Year's Eve DJing partner Bob Nastanovich. My wife and I showed up around 5 p.m. for the too-modestly named DJs Pretty Good and Pretty Bad, and then somehow my old waking-up-early self needed to stay alert until midnight for my own set.

So eventually I spun a few records. Here's what I played:

Hello Saferide - The Quiz
Deerhunter - Wash Off
Frank Ocean - Lost
CFCF - Cometrue (feat. the late Jason Molina)
Blur - Tender (Cornelius Remix)
Chromatics - Kill for Love
Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
Das Racist - Rainbow in the Dark
LOL Boys - Changes (feat. Heart Streets)
Vondelpark - Hipbone
Sade - By Your Side (Neptunes Remix)
D'Angelo - The Root
John Mayer - Who Says
Solange - Losing You
Air France - No Way Down

With DJ Bob Nastanovich

With DJs Pretty Bad and Pretty Good

MAKE YOU WANNA HOLLER HI-DE-HO

Professional and everything.

So last night Bob and I spun records at Vaudeville Mews.Thanks to Ladd, Bradie, Patrick, Dustin and everybody who came out to ring in 2013 with us. Here's what we played: