Is today. I hadn’t actually been to one of these before. I am in record stores a lot so the idea of fighting crowds didn’t really appeal to me. But my favorite shop in town, Laurie’s Planet of Sound, asked me to DJ for an hour as part of their festivities, and it was great fun. The store was packed and I really like everyone who works in the shop a lot (I am in there several times a week—it’s a block from my apartment). DJing, esp. when the pressure of getting people to dance is removed, is one of my favorite things in life. At one point my hands were shaking a little because I was so excited and happy. That was weird. Glad they asked me.
I thought of pulling some kind of theme together for my hour, but in the end I just played a bunch of songs that I love. Some I’ve discussed here recently. My guiding principal was, “What would I be excited to hear playing when I walk into a record store?” Here are my answers.
Uilab - St. Elmo’s Fire
Erykah Badu - Turn Me Away (Get Munny)
3LW - Playas Gon’ Play
ESG - ESG (live)
Bow Wow Wow - Jungle Boy
Neutral Milk Hotel - Up and Over (from the 1994 Cher Doll 7”—brought a number of “What is this?” questions)
Pastels - One Wild Moment (Cornelius Remix)
Bill Callahan - Sycamore
T. Rex - Raw Ramp/Electric Boogie
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
Joni Mitchell - Carey
The Orkustra - Bombay Calling
Judy Henske - Little Bit of Rain
Neil Young - Don’t Be Denied
Belle & Sebastian - Boy With the Arab Strap
Kraftwerk - Franz Schubert/Endless Endless
(Had a brief problem w/ skipping and couldn’t play Schneider TM’s “The Light 3000” or Sukpatch’s “Stolen Chrome”.)
And hey, while I have you on the line, I wrote a Resonant Frequency that ran yesterday called “Some Kind of Trip”. It’s about disco and sound quality as a spiritual pursuit and I also mention Bill Callahan and Destroyer.
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