The Saturday night before last, I had the treat of spinning some records with Eli Clark and Bob Nastanovich over at local Belgian beer bar the Red Monk. The last time I was part of a DJing gig at the Monk, we each did a couple of 30-minute sets. This time we switched off after basically every song, so you'll have imagine some excellent tunes from Eli helping smooth out the transition from, say, Franklin Bruno to Lana Del Rey. Anyway, here's what I played, followed by a Spotify approximation (the most interesting stuff on here isn't on there, though). Thank you for listening.
Better late than never, right? Here's what I played with Bob and Tony a couple of weekends ago. Bob showed up after his work, right before my second set, and played a batch of stunning obscurities — records I don't think I'd heard before, but which were all perfect. Polynesian music, country I think, surf, whatever else. Didn't know how to follow but luckily there was a wedding party there, so even though Bob and Tony probably had the better sets, my pop-oriented picks seemed to be "crowd"-pleasers. Too loud? Maybe.
Cheerfully turning your local Belgian beer bar into a space worthy of earplugs:
Bob Nastanovich and I had the great honor of ringing in the New Year this year for the fourth straight time here in Des Moines. Usually we do it at my favorite local music venue, Vaudeville Mews, but this year we did it a couple of doors up at the Lift, a bar with a rotating selection of works on the wall by local artists. Here's what my notes tell me we played, with a Spotify playlist (when the tracks were available on Spotify, that is... which was a lot less often than you might think!).
A few favorites from Bob's selection: Roberta Flack's Leonard Cohen cover "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," current British garage-punks' shout-along "I Wanna Get Out of Here But I Can't Take You Anywhere," and Richmond, Virginia-based second-wave ska band the Good Guys' protest song aimed at the then-Secretary of the Interior, "(The Ballad of) James Watt," with its endlessly quotable line, "Stop James Watt / If you wanna keep the trees you got."
Thank you so much to Amedeo for having us, to John and Clint for getting us set up and putting up with us at their bar, to Dustin for making the Lift idea happen, and to all of our friends who made it out on a cold night that's famously terrible for being on the road. We always have a blast and hope you did, too!
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