Respect to Matt Dike and the Dust Brothers

Chain Reaction- Dance Freak

This is why I love music! I bought a cd a long time ago, a compilation disc by the legendary Danny Krivit b/c I wanted some good rare NYC disco. I only listened to one disc and was kinda swept away by my busy life. About a year and some change later, I put it on at the starsign lounge and this song comes on. Bam, right in your face good disco, and the drums are sick on this!

What the hell?!

I think I'm simultaneously in love with this, yet repelled by its kitsch. kinda bad ass though.



Here's another winning number. The French, gotta love 'em.





This one is sick though. That man looks like someone I've met, but I can't remember who.





Man I wish I knew French. I love this track. "Contacttttttt!"

iTune's Roulette (Don't Be Scared!)

Here are the rules:

1. select your MP3 player of choice (iPod/iTunes/iPhone/Blackberry)
2. Select the Shuffle All Songs option
3. List the next 10 songs and the reason why you have it
4. NO SKIPPING ALLOWED

Yeah dude, I'm doing this. You ready?


1. "Here's the Thing" - Girl Talk (Feed The Animals)



So "here's the thing", I think Girl Talk is really clever with his mixes and they're enjoyable. I grew up on hip hop producers like Prince Paul, Dust Brothers (and Matt Dike), Bomb Squad, Pete Rock, DJ Premier and later got into Coldcut and Steinski. GT reminds me of listening to "Beats and Pieces", but a more updated version.

This particular song samples a lot of wack radio rap, but also samples Chicago's "Saturdays", "96 Tears" by Question Mark and The Mysterians, and Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" (which u2 totally bit for their latest single). I like Pump It Up.

2. "Fire Engine" - Bernard Hermann (Fahrenheit 451 Motion Picture Soundtrack)


Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite movies from the 60's. I love everything about that movie and especially loved the music. I'm a fan of film scores and soundtracks, so yeah. Anyway, everybody should watch this movie. Also of interest for any fans of Ministry, they sampled the dialogue from this movie for the song "Faith Collapsing".

note: I live in Austin and there's a store called Book People, which takes the title from the characters in the Bradbury novel.

3. "Traveling Man" - Stanley Cowell (Deck Safari)



Taken off of an awesome Air mix "CD" called Deck Safari. If I'm not mistaken, this is basically a mix they did for BBC Radio 1 and some jackass made a bootleg of it, which is awesome becasue it's probably one of the best mixes of music I've ever heard (stereogum thinks so too).

Air was one of my favorite bands of the late 90s. They kinda suck now and even Moon Safari wasn't great all the way through, but when it came out in the late 90's, it was a breath of fresh air (damn, I fucking didn't even intend that corny pun, please excuse me) when you measured it up to all the electronic music of that era. Air was making electronic music, but it sounded straight out of 1972, not 1998 (or 1997... I forget). Deck Safari is basically a compilation they put out that where they play some of their favorite jams from their record collections. Excellent comp b/c you can hear exactly how Moon Safari came to be after listening to it, especially its atmosphere.

This song reminds me of the theme from Taxi ("Angela" by Bob James)

4. "Chicken Half" - Sugarman Three (Daptone Sampler)

Way back in the day, we did the very first Scion dj gigs (before the car even came out and no one knew how to pronounce the name). This is one of many samplers I got from them. Basically throwback Stax instrumental R&B. Not my thing, but whatever.

5. "Airbag" - Radiohead (OK Computer)



What can I say, if you don't know this song (or album), um, you fail? yeah, that sums it up. Great song to kick off one of the most influential records of our time.

6. "Slow and Low" - Bits Breaks and Pieces (This is Rong Music)

I first discovered Rong records when I was in Stockholm, Sweden. We were at a very cool bar (that looked like a converted movie theater) and the bartender also happened to be selecting the music, but it was all vinyl. One of the songs he played was an amazing re-edit of some song I'd never heard before and I had to ask him what it was. He was cool, and gave me the title of the record. I bought it at Snickars Records and even tagged my name on the wall next to Kenny Dope's. The record I bought was a very rare promo only re-edit 12" with absolutely no information. I still love that record, all deep disco re-edits.

Rong Records makes some of the best New Disco stuff out there. This is off of a compilation they put out, I highly encourage everyone that likes good deep disco and the Balaeric/Nordic Disco that's been coming out the last few years to look out for anything from Rong (especially Lee Douglas). Also look out for anything on Full Pupp or Bear Ent.

7. "Black Snake" - Ramblin' Jack Elliott (The Essential Ramblin' Jack Elliott)

This is basically a reinterpretation of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Black Snake Moan". I found out about Jack Elliott when I became a fan of Dylan. If you're a Dylan fan, you know Ramblin' Jack. If not, he was Bob Dylan before Bob Dylan was Bob Dylan, meaning he was a jewish kid who wanted to be a cowboy and became a Woody Guthrie disciple and even lived with Woody and the Guthries. Dylan was kinda deflated when heard Elliott because "someone else beat him to it" (to be fair, Jack Elliott was 10 years older than Dylan).

Elliott never moved on passed the whole folk and country roots so his audience is kinda small compared to Dylan's, but he's the link between Guthrie and Dylan, and a damn fine musician, storyteller. One of his cohorts, Derroll Adams, took a young Donovan under his wing which you can see in D.A. Pennebaker's "Don't Look Back." Donovan was kinda shy, Adams was cool in his beard and Dylan was kinda being a dick.

There's a great documentary about Ramblin' Jack called "The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack" that you should see.

8. "Stop Whispering" - Radiohead (Pablo Honey)



Damn, another Radiohad song! God, this album sucks. Even Radiohead hates this record. The only good songs are Lurgee and Blow Out. I even hate that Creep song. I saw this video once in college on the Canadian version of MTV. God I thought Radiohead were a crappy band. Thom Yorke's hair in this video is FUNNY. The whole video is funny. I only bought this album after Kid A came out and I became a full blown Radiohead fan. I bought this record out of respect for them, even though 95% of me thought I was going to hate it. This song is terrible and tries to sound like Dinosaur Jr. at one point. I should delete this song from iTunes right now.

9. "DVNO" - Justice (that album with the cross)



Daetron Vargas gave me this album when he gave me a shitload of mp3s. Justice kinda blows, but I still kinda like them. I could make this music (I think). This song is pretty wack, but the video fucking rules. Remember when people thought Justice was Daft Punk's alter ego?

10. "Rapture Riders" - Go Home Productions



Damn, there's a youtube video for everything these days. I heard someone else playing this song, I think it was Ursula 1000. I thought it was one of the best mashups out because it sounded natural. I downloaded this off of soulseek ages ago. The quality of this mp3 sucks. The song is still cool.

Influences

Been listening to a lot of Spanish pop/rock this afternoon. There was a time when my friend Aldo and my other friend Hugo were playing me all this pop and rock stuff from latin america and spain. Stuff like heroes del silencio, duncan dhu, fobia, caifanes, maldita vecindad, enanintos verdes, but the two that made the most impact on me were soda stereo and cafe tacuba.

Soda Stereo was a band from Argentina that I found out about in the late 80's. I liked their music, it reminded me of U2 bits of british rock/new wave, but with Spanish lyrics. I didn't think too much of the band itself, but I do remember liking their music a lot more than the pop music I was used to hearing from Mexico, which in my opinion was absolute shit. Most of that stuff sounded like Celine Dion or Elton John, but only worse.

Soda's sense of melody made an impact on my ears, the same way The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Smiths did, and to a lesser extent, Depeche Mode. I later came to appreciate just how tuneful and melodic their music was and didn't think I was that influenced by them until I started playing my own music.

Cafe Tacuba was just fun, it's like they took all the regional music of Mexico, stuck it in a blender with the british stuff they liked and actually made it work. Some people like to call them the Mexican Radiohead, but if you think about it, they're really more like the Mexican Flaming Lips.

Since I'm talking about influences, how about a video playist and I'll just shut my trao.

little joy and noah

Starshine - All I Need Is You 12"

My name used to be DJ Starshine until people kept mispronouncing it and called me Starsign instead. That's neither here nor there, but this song is amazing. I can crawl inside a cloud, hang out with the shirt tales, take a trip on the great space coaster and eat a fudge sundae, that's how this song makes me feel. Love it!

Rolling Stones - Metamorphosis

This is a compilation of Stones songs but most of the record is really only Mick singing with music provided by session musicians (and future Led Zeppelin members) Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. A lot of these songs were recorded by other artists, although they were written by Jagger and Richards.

It's a great album although some people consider it to be a collection of "throw away songs".

Halcyon

I used to love this song back in the day. This was back when I didn't care too much for electronic music, but this song was one of a few exceptions.



I found my original copy yesterday (the single edit, not the one on the album, which is the one in most of the videos). I actually like the album version better, but it's cool that I still have the original single version.

It inspired me to remake it on my guitar pedal (it has a loop function). I pulled it off and just for fun, I recorded it. I then added more layers and percussive strokes by beating a bottle with a pencil. Since I have a drum machine that I still haven't read the manual for, I decided to plug the little bastard in and play the beats on it. Here it is in its unquantatized, sloppy, lo-fi glory!

Dudley Moore - The Millionaire

One of the best songs ever recorded, in case you didn't know, Dudley Moore was a hell of a jazz pianist. This song was used on a Meat Beat Manifesto record which is how I found out about it.



Dudley Moore R.I.P.

Steve Reich

I've been a fan of Steve Reich for about 5 years. I accidentally discovered his music via "It's Gonna Rain" when I was reading about the origins of electronic music. This was around the time when I discovered Stockhausen, Terry Riley, Phillip Glass and others.

Reich has been a major source of inspiration from his early phasing compositions to Music for 18 Musicians and my favorite, Electric Counterpoint. I've been composing some music and it's definitely got a Reich feel to it, although not as good.

Here are some of my favorite Reich bits:









If you listen closely to the weekend player's track, you can hear them sample Electric Counterpoint.

girl, you need a change of mind

Seriously, one of my all-time favorite tracks ever. How can a song be this good, this beautiful that it moves your soul so much, you feel overwhelmed and overjoyed. I can't even begin to describe how much I love this track. I don't dance, but if this song comes on, I will be a dancing fool. Probably the best breakdown ever.

So much love and beauty in this track. Eddie Kendricks R.I.P.



The chocolate boy wonder sampled it for the Good Life.

dvd dntst rmx

kinda funny.

vsl acstcs

I really wanna see this!

lvng space: david ling

that bed/waterfall thing is bonkers!

klyons

hero1

Kinda Cool

My Turntable Lab Record Check

Back in 2000 or 2001, I submitted a list of records to Turntable Lab, which back then was a pretty small but hip site for people like me who were into a certain type of records. They put up my post (under the name Parakitachi Crew, the name of the dj collective I started back in 1998).

These were all my picks and I was surprised when they told me they wanted to put it up b/c I had just started making a name for myself as a dj. I had been djing low key up until 2000. I didn't even have a dj name. I was working under a few aliases to see which one stuck. I got feedback from people saying they didn't like some of them b/c they were too corny. At the time, I didn't think more than 20 people would want to listen to me play records, so I just had fun with the names (Frankie Shoeshines, Peace Frog, Faustus Papetti, and The Magic Lesbian were some of the more memorable ones I was considering).

I finally decided on Kool DJ Hollywood Starshine La Rock, the ultimate tribute name to old school hip hop (Kool Herc, DJ Hollywood, DJ Starchild, LA Sunshine, Coke La Rock were all important figures in the pioneering days of hip hop). Again, it was meant to be lighthearted. But when I actually started getting booked, it was a mouthful, so I shortened it to DJ Hollywood Starshine, and eventually down to DJ Starshine.

There, I had a real DJ name. The thing was that the first few times people said my name, they said DJ Starsign instead of DJ Starshine. I got tired of correcting people and it finally became DJ Starsign (but to me it's still Starsign La Rock).

That name was the one that got me the most attention. Since I was making moves, I figured I would promote Parakitachi as a collective and not just me. Parakitachi was originally an idea that I hatched up with my friend Les, the Arubian Boy Wonder, the eyebrow mega Don supreme. He and I were both obsessed with hip hop, funk, new wave, indie rock, indie cinema and photography. Les was also into dancehall and reggae and was way into books. I was getting into house music and disco. We had an idea of just doing our own thing and playing good music/ dope music regardless of rules or genres.

We wanted to play anything and everything that was good. We weren't the best scratch djs or turntablists, but we were good at mixing and blending records. I moved to Houston, Les moved to Fort Worth and we still had big ideas about Parakitachi (a name that was an inside joke to piss of our anime-loving friends) being a dj and art collective. Now I had a chance of actually doing it.

So the dude at turntable lab emails me back and asks me for scans of the records I submitted. Cool, I was real jazzed about it since I was a huge fan of the site and felt honored they thought my selections were worthy. This was right around the time of the funk 45 explosion that happened shortly after DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist came out with Brainfreeze. Nearly every dj I knew started collecting funk 45s, even me. But I realized there was a whole enormous and expensive road ahead, and I didn't like cueing up 45s because they were so small, so I didn't get too caught up in it.

I thought my entries were pretty average. A very young, up and coming dj named Diplodacus had submitted some pretty bizarre records that were on a psychedelic and weirdo vibe. He's now better known as Diplo and is making big moves, spawning a whole bunch fanboys. He's cool though, the dude's got talent.

But back to the Record Check. One of the coolest things about the record check was the descriptions people put up for each record. Diplo's were pretty amusing, especially that McDonald and Giles record. One of my records actually sampled that same record but I didn't know it at the time because I didn't find that record until 2004.

The record checks ended in 2002 and were lost indefinitely. I just found out they put them back up and I wanted to revisit my entry since it had been years since I had seen it and pretty much forgot I even did it. TTL is pretty huge now. They're probably one of the more successful online record stores.

I don't know how I even came across it, but I ended up on Fool's Gold and recognized my Kenny Dope record with the sticker on it. I realized that my Bomb The Bass record was also used. So without further adieu, here it is in all its glory, my TTL Record Check from back in the day.

Note, you have to click #29 to view mine and again, it's not under Starsign, but Parakitachi Crew.

The Record Check
Fool's Gold Blog

Twins?

Remember this dude, Leo Fitzpatrick from Kids (that crazy f@cked up movie about some out of control "kids" from the 90's)? For some reason, he reminds of weedsmoking, weirdmouth super olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, here's a nice oldie for the kids