GUSH (1)

Friday, October 22nd, 2010.
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For as big as this night was I can recall remarkably few details about it or the lead up to it. Anticipation was high for the maiden voyage of my retarded love child and extensive work had been done on fliers and fliering. Our first real fliers, pictured above. I tend to be a high-concept individual, but also a fan of the very stripped-down. I imagined GUSH being both. As much or as little as anyone wants it to be.

By this time, four nights in, I felt like an old hand at this. I felt confident in what I wanted to do and how. This was my first experience DJing from the actual designated DJ area on the other side of the bar, rather than behind the bar on the service island. So I felt a lot less in the way. It was like having a little office. People could come over and chat and sit down and say Hi and make requests. I liked it. By this time I pretty much felt like I'd got a knack for pacing my evening, carving it out into general four hour blocks of ideas and then whatever after that. All individual compartmentalized cells, able to be expanded or contracted or changed on the fly to accommodate whoever is in the room and how it feels. I was particularly excited to showcase "Shiela Take A Bow" and "Let's Make Out", as they had been my choices for flier slogans. Pretty sure no one noticed. Oh well. No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead.

This night got officially big. The room filled up and the dancefloor filled up and it got pretty hype. I was excited. It was the kind of night where all of your ideas and maybes had to be thrown aside because the place was jumpin' jumpin' and the hit had to keep coming. Matt was especially funny this night. He was there the whole time, which is unusual, and he was doing a lot of running around and every now 20 minutes or so he would run up to the DJ booth and make a request or a vague request. It was cute.

This was also the first night I DJed using DJ software. Up until this point, much to the shit-talk of some of the haterz out there, I was just making do with mixing on iTunes. In case you're wondering, DJs that use vinyl think that anyone that DJs with computers or CDs is "cheating" or somehow ripping people off, or are just somehow lame in general. And of course, in general, some people are just haterz, and they are gonna hate no matter what you do. So I got curious about a more adaptable live mixing format. I did a little research and experimentation and ended up with the program I use. It's one of those ones that's set up to look just like two turntables and a mixer. It operates in exactly the same way. You access your music and drop a song on each turntable and off you go, crossfade, pitch, beat match, etc... It's pretty fun. And that's the thing. In the end it wasn't about haterz or anything. It was about having more logic control and more thought put into it. It was just more fun.

The whole vinyl purist DJ hater thing reminds me of one of my most favorite experiences ever. Once upon a time, on a visit to LA, I, by chance, had the opportunity to have dinner with Peter Hook, bass player for, ahem NEW ORDER. And I tell this story for it's entertainment value and relevance, not to make a lame attempt at a name drop. Right? Ok so, all that being said, fucking PETER HOOK. I was nervous, to say the least and I didn't talk much and his accent wa so heavy that I barely understood what he was saying and I forget where we ate dinner, somewhere in Echo Park I think.

So, following dinner we were invited to some club where he was doing a DJ set that night. Again I forget the club, who was there or where exactly it was (somewhere not all that far from Astroburger I feel like). The club was large and dark and full of all manner of people. Eventually Hooky took the stage and set about his work, which was awesome. I was on this balcony up above him and I could see his terminal and what he was up to. He was DJing, I think exclusively, from CDs on a couple players and a mixer. Pulling them from a huge booklet of CDs. It sounded good. However, at some point in the middle of the set this guy, this, forgive me for generalizing here, Eastern European D-bag type, came sauntering up to me at the railing with a plastic cup of God-knows-what in his hand (it is worth noting that for various reasons I was not drunk the whole night, and was bitterly regretting it during this story). He looks over the railing for a few seconds at Peter and then turns to me and kinda gives me this "hey look at this shit" hit on the shoulder and says (in his general Eastern European douchebag accent) something to the effect of "Do you see this, man? HE'S USING FUCKING CDS!!??" And it was loud in there, mind you, so he's screaming this in my ear. "Fucking CDS!!!?? It's bullshit man!" At this point he leaned over the railing, looking down at Peter and gave him the finger, with his free hand and said "FUUUUUUUCK YOOOOU, right?" he looked over at me for back up. I was kind of shocked and offended to be honest and sober and had no idea how to deal with this shithead. So I did what anyone would have done, I smiled and nodded, safe in the knowledge that only he were in on this conversation. He wandered off to whatever expensive automobile and expensive club sluts were in his near future and I resumed my place at the railing feeling angry.

And the point of the story is this. No matter what you do, how you do it, or WHO YOU ARE, someone out there is going to hate on you. Someone out there i going to misunderstand or not have a clue or not know who you are or what you're doing and they're going to talk shit and rip you down and hate. I mean, for God's sake, this is Peter fucking Hook. This man was in the room at the literal birth of DJ culture. At the actual moment that it happened. This man is part of the reason it happened, one of the fathers of this retarded love child. I mean, I'm not sure if you've ever heard "Blue Monday" but it's only one of the biggest selling UK singles of all time and pretty much defines, to this day, dance culture, hipster culture and whole since-spawned genres of music. There is a famous story about how the royalties Nirvana's "Nevermind" album basically saved Sub Pop Records from going bankrupt and single-handedly sustained the label for years and years afterwards. "Blue Monday" was Factory Records' "Nevermind". New Order is pretty much personally, accidentally responsible for the huge and amazing legacy of Factory Records. And this is the man who wrote all of their bass lines. Fuck you, stranger in the club. Fuck you, DJ haterz. At the end of the day all that matters in the club or in any music-playing scenario is are you getting a good ride? Are you enjoying what you're hearing, does it make sense, does it make you want to dance, does it make you want to get up, does it make you want to hang out, stay late, keep talking, keep drinking. Does it make you stop in the middle of telling a story and say, oh shit, hold on, so that you can sing along to a part in a song. Does it make you put your hands up and yell "YESSS!" or "WOOOOOO" when it starts playing. (I am told, by friends in the crowd, that there were many, many moments like this throughout the evening, many times when stories had to be stopped to sing, and many, if not most, songs that solicited a serious WOOO from someone in the bar.) In the end, to the people listening to the music in the bar, in the car, on the radio, on the mixtape, it all sounds the same, no matter what the source format is. It's going to sound the same if I'm playing these songs from records as computers as CDs. And really, mot people in the place probably aren't aware of where the sound is coming from anyway.

The moral of the story is, just do you, do your best and if you know something is working and is awesome then go with it, follow it where it wants to go, believe in yourself and your ideas and your inspiration. Get crucial, get justified, get awesome, get awesomer. Don't worry about what anyone has to say about it. Fuck yeah.


SO, that being said
if memory serves, it went like this...







The Charming Man-The Smiths
Boys Don’t Cry-The Cure
The Guns Of Brixton-The Clash
Wave Of Mutilation-Pixies
No Action-Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Me And Mia-Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Merchandise-Fugazi
God Bless The S.O.S.-The Explosion
Hybrid Moments-The Misfits
Judy Is A Punk-The Ramones
Police Truck-Dead Kennedys
Sound System-Operation Ivy
Damaged Goods-Gang Of Four
Line In The Sand-Q And Not U
Contort Yourself-James White & The Blacks
We Got Cold Coughed And Forgot Things-Liars
Give It Up-LCD Soundsystem
Why Bother-Weezer
Shoulder To The Wheel-Saves The Day
Dancing With Myself-Billy Idol
Working For The Weekend-Loverboy
The Warrior-Skandal
My Sharona-The Knack
Take On Me-A-ha
Morning Glory-Oasis
A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State…-Los Campesinos
Weight Of The World-Tarkio
Giving Up On Love-Slow Club
Heartbeat Song-The Futureheads
Happy As Can Be-Cut Off Your Hands
Let The Right One Slip In-Morrissey
10,000 Nights Of Thunder-Alphabeat
In The Sun-She & Him
I Saw Her Standing There-The Beatles
Don’t Start Crying Now-Them
Sheila Take A Bow-The Smiths
If You Leave-Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark
Head Over Heels-Tears For Fears
Bizarre Love Triangle-New Order
The Sign-Ace Of Base
Hey Ya!-Outkast
Toxic-Britney Spears
Pop-NSYNC
Spiderwebs-No Doubt
Feeling This-Blink 182
Semi-Charmed Life-Third Eye Blind
This Is How We Do It-Montell Jordan
Motownphilly-Boyz II Men
Poison-Bell Biv Devoe
O.P.P.-Naughty By Nature
Jump-Kris Kross
Heartbeats-The Knife
Polaroids And Red Wine-Jaguar Love
Let’s Make Out-Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Blood On Our Hands-Death From Above 1979
Connection-Elastica
Bring Em Out-T.I.
Dance Yrself Clean/All Talk (Mash Edit)-LCD Soundsystem/Kid Cudi
Shutterbugg-Big Boi
Yeah-Usher
P.Y.T.-Michael Jackson
Good Life-Kanye West
Since U Been Gone-Kelly Clarkson
Groove Is In The Heart-Deee Lite
Bye Bye Bye-NSYNC
Helicopter-Bloc Party
Telephone-Lady Gaga
Kiss, Kiss-Chris Brown
Time To Pretend-MGMT
Shut Up And Let Me Go-Ting Tings
New In Town-Little Boots
Song 2-Blur
Ask-The Smiths
Tenderoni-Kele
Deceptacon-Le Tigre
Sippin’ 40z-Gravy Train
Lump-The Presidents Of The United States Of America
Raindrops-Basement Jaxx
Bad Spell-Judi Chicago
Mercury-Bloc Party
Rock The Casbah-The Clash




































it is 5:29 am
this is the seance.















































xx





















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