Ok, hello and welcome back to my life. A lot of back-logged blog coming at you in the upcoming days. Last I checked in I was having my second DJ night at Noni's and I was tentatively working myself up to sort of "claiming" it as "my night". Quickly, in the interim space I have pretty much solidified a place once a month on the schedule, though I am still trying very hard to get it cemented to a specific Friday (i.e. every third Friday of the month) since that will help people to identify it and remember it and maybe make a little place in their lives for it. Much, much easier than, "eh, every now and then on Fridays..." But Matt, the owner, has a lot on his mind, so I try to keep my needs to a minimum. I have a wishlist of things I want to get done as far as GUSH goes, ways to make promotion easier and better and that is number one on it at this stage.
Ok so yeah, it is a well acknowledged fact by now that it is my night and it's called GUSH (and I will sometimes be referred to as "the GUSH guy", which is fine I suppose). There will be four post upcoming, this one included. Two for the first two real actual GUSH's and two for last minute fill-in DJ gigs I've done at Noni's.
I've managed to design, what I modestly consider, a pretty iconic flier/aesthetic. It pops I think. The two actual GUSH nights have had them and I (with the help of a few angelic others) have fucking plastered the ATL with them. I think the fliering has gone well and I'm improving my methods each time out. So that's good (now if they would actually bring people in...) My original intention with the fliers was to use the same basic template each month, just changing out the large messages at the tops of them. However, after the lackluster turnout at the last GUSH (which, to be fair could be sue to so many other factors, holidays, out-of-town-ness, school is out and so on), it was observed that it is possible that the fliers are too small and hard to read (been doing 11x7, notebook paper sized ones for fliering, and smaller ones for handbills to bee given directly to people). And also that not changing the template enough might confuse people and lead them to believe that they are still seeing the old fliers for the past nights. Sigh. Next time out they will be bigger and redesigned within the aesthetic parameters.
I've also, in an ambitious jump, designed and gotten manufactured a set of six pins to give out to people to pretty up their lives and promote my thing. Alas, the night of their unveiling was the afore-mentioned lackluster night. So, we'll consider that a soft opening and try again. Once those are all gone I've got some good ideas for future pin outings.
There is also now a GUSH backdrop which is meant to be hung on the wall behind me while I DJ. Just something to create atmosphere, like when bands put up screens and project shit on them while they play. But again, the night I was set to roll it out was lame and so it didn't really get used. It's fine, it's fine, it's that bad time of year, cold and holidays and people are being very, very lame and not going out and not coming through. It's fine, when it finally picks up proper I'll be already armed with all this rad gear.
I am sort of not out and about all that much interacting with people (which is clearly a big part of my problem promoting and getting people to come out. The best way to get people to the bar is to know them and be acquainted and so on, word of mouth.) So I don't always have a good perspective on if anyone is seeing the fliers, if anyone is picking up what I'm putting down. But, there are people in th GUSH family that are out and about and interacting and according to them the fliers are working at least in as much as GUSH is becoming known and recognized as something at least. I've been, second-hand, passed on quotes like "Oh yeah, GUSH, I see those fliers everywhere" and so on. So, yeah, it's out there in the world and slowly getting known, I hope. I'm really kind of being a little overly ambitious and impatient, I mean, in all reality, there have actually only been two GUSH's so far and the first one was seriously huge. It's not like you decide to do something and then the whole world knows about it and shows up. It is clearly something that is built slowly over time, person by person. It's not like THE PILL was what it is today 12 years ago. And man, I have been to some seriously LAME Pill nights in the winter in Boston. So, I'm gonna be optimistic and stop beating myself up and keep doing me and making it awesomer until the world won't wait.
So, so, so....
All that being said, allow me to provide you with the first installment of backlog.
Friday, October 8th, 2010
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Here's how it went down:
GUSH, the first GUSH, the inaugural night, was set to pop off on October 22nd. The fliers were up and the word was out. But one afternoon at Noni's, picking up my check from the last DJ night I did, Matt mentioned that he might have a night in between that he needed someone to fill-in for. I, being the overachiever that I am, offered my services if needed. I mean, what am I not gonna come spin music for four hours if someone asks me to? Matt's only reservation was that I might dilute the GUSH turnout by forcing another invite down people's throats. I assured him that I would promote light and casual so as to bring in some folks but not so much that it would take away from the GUSH launch which was two weeks later.
So, Friday, October 8th, Jenn and I showed up at 9:30. Matt and Tyler were outside hanging out and hellos were said. Matt informed me that he had forgotten his iPod that night and so they had been stuck listening to the same couple of albums over and over again. I set up my shit on the bar and after a little sound cable shuffling we were off and running.
It started out as a pretty slow night but as we progressed it filled up and got good, not off the chain, but good. I actually had my first experience with people getting on the dance floor and dancing. (A side note here: Saturday nights at Noni's are, hands down, THE BIGGEST MOST OFF THE CHAIN DANCE NIGHTS IN ATLANTA, and as a result many of their regulars don't like showing up on weekends because they are sort of sick of dealing with hundreds of d-bags filling up their bar etc... So, as a result, Matt's idea was to try to design Fridays as a way to pull them back in, keep it less crazy, offer free first rounds to regulars etc... The point being this, GUSH, as much as I want people to dance, is not billed as a dance night per se. It is meant to be whatever people want it to be. Come drink, talk, hang out, hook up, and if they want to, to dance etc... But not an outright dance night. This is meant to benefit in two ways, to let people out there that hate dance nights, or hate Saturdays at Noni's know that it's not going to be like Saturday, and if they don't want to go dance that it's going to be ok for that too, to just hang out and be able to talk. All of which I am fine with, but, as a DJ that prefers things upbeat and loves going dancing, I am obviously thrilled when people get on the floor and go for it.)
It was a little more laid back than a regular Friday for me and the bar so I I kept the list loose, took more requests than usual and generally tried to cater to my friends and bartenders as much as I could, culminating, at the end of the night, in a shit ton of Outkast and Ludacris being played for this group of folks that wanted to hear it.
You will note, as these playlist posts go up, that the ends of the nights tend to degrade into nonsense and lots of tracks by single bands, this is usually due to the night winding down and the drinking picking up. Last call and everyone there is tired and over it or wasted and sometimes both. So, if the end seems to fall apart, that's why.
The astute observer will also note the reuse of certain songs, bands, and patterns of tracks over and over again. Some might argue that this is lazy or slack or cheating, but what can I say, when I hit one some shit that works really well I want to hear it again. We all have an internal feeling of universal symmetry and well-roundedness, we know if something sounds right or wrong, and being a DJ or making a mix for someone is all about hooking into that, learning the shapes of sound (if I may get a little pretentious sounding for a moment), and some songs just want to go together. Who are we to argue? We all have our bags of tricks that we go to as DJs and as long as it doesn't get overly self-indulgent, as long as it's enjoyable to the people then why the hell not. I don't believe that a person needs to come up with 3-5 hours of completely different songs and patterns every time they DJ. That's just silly. So yeah, you'll see as we go. I have my little runs that I like to do over and over and my bands that I alway like to lump together.
Ok, ok, enough of all that for now. I'm sure there's more I want to say about all these topics, but for now I'm gonna let it be. I'll get back on it next post.
If memory serves:
Bigmouth Strikes Again-The Smiths
In Between Days-The Cure
I Melt With You-Modern English
Antmusic-Adam & The Ants
Life Begins At The Hop-XTC
In The City-The Jam
Me And Mia-Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Rebel Rebel-David Bowie
Lust For Life-Iggy Pop
Rock The Casbah-The Clash
Argy Bargy-Cock Sparrer
Ever Fallen In Love?-The Buzzcocks
Love Comes In Spurts-Richard Hell & The Voidoids
People Who Died-Jim Carrol Band
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue-The Ramones
Sound System-Operation Ivy
Mirror In The Bathroom-The English Beat
Spiderwebs-No Doubt
The Rock Show-Blink 182
Shoulder To The Wheel-Saves The Day
Thnks Fr The Mmrs-Fall Out Boy
Radio-Rancid
Margin Walker-Fugazi
My Sharona-The Knack
Talking In Your Sleep-The Romantics
Take On Me-A-ha
Bizarre Love Triangle-New Order
Head Over Heels-Tears For Fears
P.Y.T.-Michael Jackson
Good Life-Kanye West
Around The World-Daft Punk
Holiday-Madonna
Ain’t My Type Of Hype-Full Force
Motownphilly- Boyz II Men
Do Me!-Bell Biv Devoe
This Is How We Do It-Montell Jordan
Whoomp! There It Is-Tag Team
A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State…-Los Campesinsos
Giving Up On Love-Slow Club
Let The Right One Slip In-Morrissey
In The Sun-She & Him
I Saw Her Standing There-The Beatles
Please Mr. Postman-The Marvelettes
Baby Please Don’t Go-Them
Happy As Can Be-Cut Off Your Hands
10,000 Nights Of Thunder-Alphabeat
Why Bother-Weezer
Oyster-Jawbreaker
Hyper Enough-Superchunk
See/Saw-Jay Reatard
Your English Is Good-Tokyo Police Club
Charmless Man-Blur
Ex-Girlfriend-No Doubt
Since U Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson
New In Town-Little Boots
Tenderoni-Kele
Heartbeats (Rex The Dog Remix)-The Knife
Raindrops-Basement Jaxx
Shutterbugg-Big Boi
Hella Good-No Doubt
Kiss, Kiss-Chris Brown
Feeling This-Blink 182
Are You That Somebody?-Aaliyah
Sippin’ 40z-Gravy Train
Worked Up So Sexual-The Faint
House Of Jealous Lovers-The Rapture
Emerge-Fischerspooner
Bad Spell-Judi Chicago
Blood On Our Hands-Death From Above 1979
Chelsea-Mannequin
Mercury-Bloc Party
To Live And Die In LA-Tupac
Lost (Main Title)-Michael Giacchino
Gimme Sympathy-Metric
Eat Sun, Son-Gobble Gobble
Indoorsy-Baths
Tom Tom-The Hundreds In The Hands
ATLiens-Outkast
Two Dope Boyz (In A Cadillac)-Outkast
Dance, Dance, Dance-Lykke Li
Simple As…-Kid Cudi
Go Outside-Cults
Good Friday-Kanye West
Close To Me-The Cure
Dance Yrself Clean-LCD Soundsystem
U.R.A. Fever-The Kills
Gasoline Dreams-Outkast
Follow Us-Big Boi
Fantasy-Ludacris
Move Bitch-Ludacris
Roll Out (My Business)-Ludacris
…
Panic-The Smiths
Rusholme Ruffians-The Smiths
What She Said-The Smiths
I Miss You-Blink 182
Penny On The Track-Ben Kweller
Until I Die-Ben Kweller
The Sweater Song-Ben Kweller
it is 4:46 am
this is the seance.
xx
.
