New Mix by Dr. Sleep

DrIslandFever-LateOctober2010 by drsleep

New Mix

I recorded a mix in preparation for the Dirty Talk party on Saturday night. It's an hour of house, nu & classic disco, plus a Herbie Hancock track for good measure.

Listen & download.

DrDirtyTalk-October2010 by drsleep

Tracklist:
stand on the word - joubert singers (larry levan mix)
is the word - ron basejam
won't let go - hot toddy
trouble is a friend - lenka (eli escobar disco mix)
dr. burner - tiger & woods
i am dead - juri hulkkonen (hercules & love affair mix)
acid burn - beatmasters
tipologia - gui borotto (stickroth & ercolino remix)
erucu mast - jermaine jackson (ac re-edit)
stay the night - billy ocean
it's better than a good time - gladys knight (walter gibbons mix)
tell everybody - herbie hancock
sun sun sun - jakki (walter gibbons mix)
any time is right - archie bell (dj apt one mix)
put your body in it - stephanie mills (gigamesh mix)
our love - donna summer
reckless with your love - azari & iii
beam me up - midnight magic (jacques renault mix)
lost in music - gay marvine

Folsom Weekend, San Francisco

It's the Folsom Street Fair this weekend in San Francisco, and, every bear and fetishist in the Lower 48 will be converging on a several-block radius wearing assless chaps and little else. As long as I can remember, no matter what the weather has been like for the weeks leading up to the festival, inevitably Folsom Weekend will be hotter than blazes. It appears this weekend is no exception. This makes for a lot of sweaty leather daddies and furries getting flogged by red-hot paddles. I'm not really interested in the street fair anymore, but, there are a few amazing music events in the evening to coincide with the debauchery.

On Saturday, the LEGENDARY Bob Mould performs at Slim's as part of The Blowoff, his electronic/dj duo (in case you didn't know, after Husker Du and Sugar, he released solo albums - and still does - but, then also got really into electronic music. And, bears. In case you didn't know Part II, Bob went to Macalaster in St. Paul, where every cool person I've ever known from MN went). I saw him spin at Homo-A-Gogo in 2006(?) and it was amazing. And, it was techno. Like ecstacy glo stick techno. I danced for hours! Here's hoping The Blowoff will be cut from the same cloth, but, I don't exactly know what to expect - besides the bears.

On Sunday, a new club in the Mission District, Public Works, will be hosting a 9-hr dance party called The House of Black Leather curated by the brilliant local SF dance party, Honey Soundsystem, and headlined by Horse Meat Disco. HORSE MEAT DISCO is the UK's best disco party. I am REALLY excited.

To get in the mood for Horse Meat, I've been listening to podcasts from the "electronic music bears" (believe it). They've been posting mixes from the various dj's that will be performing over the course of the evening. Here's the Horse Meat episode. The rest of the podcasts are here .

Honey Soundsystem made a promo video for the event on Sunday:

HOUSE OF BLACK LEATHER :: FOLSOM AFTERPARTY 2010 :: 9/26 SAN FRANCISCO from Honey Soundsystem on Vimeo.

Take Two of These and Call Me in the Morning

I LOVE the classic, "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley & Company. The man in the video below is clearly on drugs. I think I should just have a blog dedicated to hilarious YouTube videos because this is VISUAL GOLD. Coke? Poppers? Speed? Any guesses? According to the YouTube comments, the guy in the video is not the original singer, so, maybe he is nervous and snorted various things to get over it (this was pre Rescue Remedy, after all).

I would also like to comment on the male vocal style in this song and how it's basically yelling - not singing. It works, but, can be tad bit jarring. It reminds me of Alicia Keys and how she can't hit those high notes and just yells 'em out. You just go ahead and listen to her songs - "LET'S HEAR IT FOR NEWWWW YORRRRRRK" - and get back to me. From where I'm sitting, that is called yelling.

Shame, Shame, Shame gets cut off before the end, so, I've included the entire version below.


Full version of this song with no visuals. Unfortunately.

DJ Bobby Viteritti & The Trocadero Transfer

San Francisco's Trocadero Transfer was THE city's disco venue in the 70s and 80s. It was of the caliber of the large New York disco clubs (Studio 54, Paradise Garage), but, because it was in SF, it had a more bohemian "anything goes" vibe (maybe less coke, more poppers and shrooms?) with a choreographed light show to add to the journey. The venue and its cast of characters shaped gay dance culture in SF and across the country. Icons like Sylvester, Cheryl Lynn & Martha Wash performed at "The Troc" and the stories of what went down on a typical weekend night are legendary. As with any successful nightclub, The Troc had its share of successful dj's, and, I've become enamored with one in particular, Bobby Viteritti. Viteritti was an East Coast transplant who could mix his way through a 5-hr set so seamlessly, you couldn't tell when one song ends and the next one begins. Viteritti has talked in interviews about how he would start a song in the middle, play it til the end, maybe go to a new track then start the old track from the beginning just to mess with the crowd, to throw off their expectation of what was coming next. He was also known for using rotary knobs instead of faders, and, considering the mastery of his mixes and the equipment he was working with completely blows my mind.

I've tried in vain to find mp3's or cds of Viteritti's mixes, and, it looks like his website is under construction with promises of samples in the near future. In the meantime, the following blogs have posted his work: Discoworkout posted this absolutely mind-blowing 1st hour of a 5-hour 1979 Trocadero set; and, one of my favorite blogs, Beat Electric, posted this 1980 set.

If you love dance music or disco, gay culture, or San Francisco history, check out all you can on Viteritti.

**9/18/10 UPDATE: I JUST FOUND SOME DISCO MIX GOooooOOOLD! BAM!

Tommie Sunshine Tackles Urban Sprawl with the Arcade Fire

The new Arcade Fire album, The Suburbs, just came out and I haven't given it proper attention yet, other than the iTunes snippets. I HAVE listened (and listened and listened) to Tommie Sunshine's disco remix of one of the stand-out tracks, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), and, he absolutely nailed it. It's a gorgeous epic with pulsating disco beats that tie the laces of your favorite dancin' shoes, and, might even buy you a drink if you bat your eyelashes. If you're a real music person, I also recommend listening to this in headphones. On his Soundcloud page, Sunshine says he "heard the disco in it" and I can't think of a better way to put it. There IS disco in the original song, and, Sunshine coaxes it out of its dark hole for everyone to hear. What I like about the original song is it doesn't sound like an Arcade Fire tune - it's straight-up electro, and, God bless 'em for it! What Sunshine did with his remix, however, absolutely floors me. It's soooo beautiful. And, that bass? Come on. Sunshine proves once again he is the true master of midi and he remade this song into something all his own, and, in my opinion, it surpasses the sound of the original.

Download Tommie Sunshine's remix FOR FREE here.

UPDATE: Tommie gave us a little shout out on his soundcloud page. i can die now.

Candi

She always hits the spot. That voice. This song makes me feel crazy in a very good way. Love you, Candi!