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:

YEAR OF THE GLAD

These guys listen to music.

So I've been putting together a little online radio station for eMusic the past few months. (If you don't know eMusic, it's a subscription music discovery service, and I'm honored to contribute alongside all of the super-knowledgeable critics who write there.) While I don't necessarily expect anyone to want to trawl through all of my playlists, I figured I might as well share the songs I've added so far.

Maybe bands will Google themselves and see I'm not a big jerk all of the time? Maybe you'll skim the names and either nod your head in agreement or spit out your coffee in frustration, wondering why I put x on my list but not y? Maybe nobody will ever see this? Who cares!

P.S. If you're in town, please don't forget, Bob Nastanovich and I will be spinning records until we fall down over at Vaudeville Mews on New Year's Eve.