Paradise Backyard
For Juan's birthday, someone (Juan, Carlos , I don't know) came up with the Paradise Backyard theme. This theme is based on the legendary club Paradise Garage, a club that none of us ever attended on account us being children in Los Angeles at it's peak. We knew the club's greatest hits thanks to a list in the back of Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (a must-read). Carlos, Nelson and I took the hit list and went through our own collections. I think that between the lot of us, we had most of the tracks. (None of us, though, had Klien & MBO "Dirty Talk," which I have been looking for on vinyl for years.)
Carlos, aka DJ Kid Charlemagne, made us all scream when he did a spot-on mix of Kraftwerk's "The Robots" and Yazoo's "Situation."
I didn't get any photos of Nelson DJing, but I did shoot him getting all pensive by the bonfire.
Fire photos were the popular last night.
Since I've essentially retired from DJing, I was backup last night. This was my set.
Stevie Nicks "Stand Back"
Alexander Robotnick "Problems D'amour"
Yello "Bostich"
Donna Summer "I Feel Love" (Patrick Cowley mix)
Yoko Ono "Walking on Thin Ice"
Chicago "Street Player"
Dinosaur L "Go Bang"
It was fun. I do miss DJing sometimes, but I don't know if or when I would ever play a club again, mostly because of severe time restraints (like, last night, I had to leave at 11 because I had to be up this morning for an 8 a.m. phoner with someone in the Netherlands). But also, I guess that part of it is that I feel disconnected from what's popular right now. Like, I just can't get into the whole things-that-try-to-sound-like-Daft Punk movement, despite my love DP. Nor can I relate to the Serato phenomenon. The more people tell me how easy it is or how many things you can do with it, the more I don't want to use it. I like vinyl because it has clear technical limitations. For example, you have a relatively small range in which you can adjust the pitch. Because of those limitations, though, there is great room for creativity. It's a challenge and you have to push yourself in terms of selection and technical precision to make the set work, but there's no better feeling than meeting a challenge.
Labels: Parties
posted by liz o. at
10:56 AM
1 Comments:
Don't worry about what's popular now. Like always, most of it is shit. Besides, you have enough great records that people will dance to without caring who made it or when.
Yes, it is rather disheartening that the LA club scene today is infested with stupid club photographers, Aoki stagediving, and DJs who stand behind their laptops with their whole crew playing banger after banger which all sound the same with their high-pitched kick drums and distorted leads. Even more disheartening is that there are people turning 18/21 who are just starting to go out and think that's what it's all about.
It's really all about getting your new haircut shown off on as many party pic sites as possible.
With a few exceptions, there aren't many clubs I feel like going to these days. Of those that I like, nearly all of them take place on worknights. Random one-off parties seem to be where it's at for the time being, until things either get better or I give up on listening to dance music and take up some sort of a hobby.
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