The Incredible Blog

Balkan Beat Box were scheduled to play our September MusicfestNW edition of Atlas, but they have had to cancel. This is a bummer, but we still have Balkano Gitano DJ extraordinaire, Joro-Boro, coming from NYC to play our August 11th Atlas night at Holocene. Joro-Boro blew Anjali and I away when we had the chance to play with him in NYC. We are really looking forward to playing with him in Portland. You all are in for a treat. And Balkan Beat Box even has a song named after Joro-Boro on their new album, so it all comes around in the end.

IK

Third Coast by Roni Sarig is a freaking great book. I picked it up primarily out of interest in the Virginia scene, Missy, Timbaland, Neptunes, etc., and got so much more than I bargained for. A very different history of hip-hop that asserts the primacy of the South, both from a hip-hop origins stance, but also from a popular music stance. Since the last several years, the popularity of Southern hip-hop has been clear from listening to commercial hip-hop radio, but this book does so much to show how much popular hip-hop music has been coming out of the South from the beginning. So many connections are drawn, both from the earlier eras of funk and soul to the hip-hop present, but also from one hip-hop project to another, all linked through the involvement of particular individuals. Very compelling attempt to create an entirely new hip-hop narrative contrasting with every other hip-hop history book’s New York-centric approach.

I so rarely write about any of the books that I read. Even if they are interesting enough to finish, I rarely feel like I have anything worthwhile or intelligent to say about them. I haven’t accomplished that with this book either, but I’ve been enjoying this one so much I had to share. I have a much greater sense of how certain people stay active in the music industry for decades, possibly out of the public eye, and yet responsible for so many different musical projects over the years.
IK

7/16/07

Thanks to everyone who came out and danced and sweated with us on Saturday. We’ve got several exciting guests lined up for the next months’ Atlas events, so it will be a while before it is just the three of us DJing again. We’re very excited to have Joro-Boro in August, Ori from Balkan Beat Box in September, and possibly Maga Bo returning in October. We only like to have guests a few times a year, but we are excited to have this level of talent gracing our night.

One of my big challenges as a DJ is managing to play all the music I am so excited about at home, once I get up on stage. I am frustrated that month after month, so much great music in my collection never gets played for the dancers that come to our nights. I always bring hundreds of hours worth of selections, not sure where I or the crowd are going to want to go. I want this freedom of choice, but then I often don’t play all the latest, hottest stuff I am most excited about. Many times the pressure and time-crunch of being on stage in front of an audience means I reach for more comfortable and familiar selections rather than the totally new. I am generally happier with my sets, the more I play things that are new for me, and the dancers. That may not be what the dancers are looking for, but that is what is personally more artistically satisfying for me.

Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to only bring the newest material I am excited about, to guarantee that it gets played. However, the dance floor is not always on the same page as I am, and a DJ often has to revise their plans on stage if they have any desire to effectively connect with the crowd. Despite all my at-home listening to reggaeton, I rarely drop more than a few songs in my Atlas sets, and they are often (disappointingly to me) the same ones. I could play dozens of hours of non-stop reggaeton from my collection, if the opportunity were to arise, but when I am only playing a few tracks, I don’t vary my selections as much as I would like. It often comes down to the crucible of the stage, when I reach for my trusted and reliable tools, rather than something new and untried. It is frustrating and a source of personal dissatisfaction.

My friend Alissa has been kind enough to share with me a bunch of Kuduro CDs she picked up in Angola while filming a documentary about two Angolan boys. The CDs are great, and I was very excited about them as I listened to them the week of Atlas, but no songs from them made it into my set. There is a great comp that has been out for six months called “Urban Africa Club.” It is the best collection of Afrcan club music I have heard. I’ve been turning other people on to it, but it doesn’t get featured in my sets the way I’d like. I’ve been listening to a lot of Brazilian music lately, but I didn’t feature any batucada selections in my Atlas sets on Saturday. I’ve been stockpiling Balkan music like nobody’s business, but only a few tracks manage to make it into my sets. The list goes on and on. Often I’m covering five or six genres in an hour set, and I’m down on myself that I didn’t include five or six more.

The one that really gets to me though, is reggaeton. Despite a lot of recent critical interest that has been directed at the earliest manifestations of reggaeton, I have found the last three years to be the most exciting period in the development of this music for my own interests. There are so many songs I like so much, and I never play most of them out. I really want to change this.

We have a regular rotation at Atlas, but due to outside events in the lives of Anjali and E3, my headlining slot turned into an opening slot. I wasn’t prepared to open, and didn’t bring any of the downtempo sounds that I would want to bring for an opening set. I had to improvise. Jorge Ben, Ruben Blades, Brazilian electronica, “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom,” French hip-hop, “Kamjaraf” from the new Bombay to Goa soundtrack (it sounds totally ripped off from another song, but I can’t place it yet), Orishas, but some Balkan action actually got some people on the floor, despite how early it was, and how few people were at the club. This is the danger of the opening set. While I might be playing rhythmically enticing songs, I’m not really shooting for a dance floor, because of how early it is. Invariably, half-way through some song, people will start dancing, and by that time, I already have the next song lined up, and it was not chosen to maintain a dance floor, so, unless I have time to do a quick switch, the dance floor is cleared after one song. Which is what happened when I went into an odd track off the new Mala Rodriguez after the Balkan track. Eventually E3 and Anjali showed up, and E3 went on next.

E3 sounded great, but unfortunately his sets are the only time Anjali and I have to hang out during Atlas, so I regret that I do not focus more on what E3 plays. I heard some Balkan Beat Box, French hip-hop, Rai, etc. Good stuff.

When Anjali went on she started out with a New Flesh song and then went into a dancehall set that the crowd was really not feeling. She will often rebel against what she feels is expected of her, regardless of the crowd’s response. She played the Cham remix of “This Is Why I’m Hot,” and this brought a bunch of people to the floor. Eventually she was playing Panjabi beats, and this is what really got people going. I was not feeling up for going back on when it was my turn. It had snuck up on me. I had been futzing with the soundboard all night, but I still wasn’t sure I was happy with the sound. Things had been sounding fried-out and distorted, and I didn’t want that to happen during my set when I was dropping heavy beats.

I started with reggaeton, the Fergie remix of “Impacto” which has been stuck in my head for weeks, so I guess Daddy Yankee knew what he was doing when he dropped it as the first single off his new album. I felt totally unprepared to be on stage. I spent my whole set looking through my reams of music having trouble finding what I was looking for, and what I had been so excited to hear at home. Frantically I put on LDA’s “Ooh Aah,” which I LOVE, but I feel like I have been playing it every month for a long time. I played some Yomo and I may be forgetting something, but I played another version of “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.” From here I went into “Para De Gracinha (Euro Crunk Mix). This is my favorite 12” in the Man Recordings series, but I felt it was a little too hardcore electronic for the Atlas crowd.

I went into spazz mode with some kuduro, speed Klezmer, chutney soca, and merengue on crack. I really pushed the crowd to the point where very few were willing to keep up with my spazz fit. I managed to end with a mad dance floor by playing “Sajanaji Vaari Vaari” and a J-Skillz-produced bhangra finale two-fer. There was quite a lot of applause at the end of my set, which felt really good, especially after I forced my audio perversity on the crowd to such an extent.

E3 was up next with a set that sounded great. I especially liked his playing some berimbau Funk action. I really wish I could have studied his set more closely, but I was enjoying my downtime. Anjali finished out the night with a mostly Desi Beats set, some Sean Paul (including his duet with Beyonce), ending up with some old filmi. Another night at Atlas wrapped up. Thanks to everyone who made the night such a success.

IK

PS The only request I got all night was for “Dhoom 2” aka “Dhoom Again.”

7/16/07

Growing up I found eye pillows weird and disturbing. I didn’t like how they looked on other people (especially with open eyes painted on them) and I didn’t like the feeling of the pillow pressing against my eyes when I would try one on. I never thought I would ever use them. One point several years ago I was trying to take a nap at Anjali’s sister’s very brightly-lit apartment. I borrowed her eye pillow, and discovered, surprise, that it did a good job of cutting out the light and helping me sleep. As an adult I have become very conscious of the brightness of my sleeping room, and especially since I am often sleeping through daylight hours, I go to great lengths to seal out all light. I realized that an eye pillow really helps seal out light. I have used different eye pillows in the last few years, and have found them especially useful for sleeping on planes. Upon debarking in New York on our last trip I saw a $40 Tempur-Pedic Swedish eye pillow in one of the Newark airport shops. I decided that was what I needed. Ironically, after leaving the airport, I realized I had left my eye pillow on the plane, and so I knew I would be looking to replace it when I returned to the airport.

According to the Tempur-Pedic eye pillow product package hype it is “made of a unique open cell, visco-elastic material that uses your body heat to mold to the countours of your face and seal out light.” It seals out ALL light. It is amazing. No matter how brightly-lit the room, it is pitch black once you put on the eye pillow. No cracks of light around the edges, nothing. This worked so much better than any other eye pillow design I have tried, that I was an instant convert. I am usually wary of what I call “chemical nuclear death” and although I had some concerns about this space-age material, I wagered that it was safe.

My DJing lifestyle results in large, dark circles under my eyes. Upon returning from NYC I noticed that my eye skin looked even worse than usual,  the dryness and texture resembled lizard skin,  and there were even raised rash areas. I started using moisturizer, which I rarely do, but it got worse every day, not better.  Eventually I noticed that although this discoloration and dryness was concentrated underneath my eyes, there was a radiation-burn pattern all around my eyes in the shape of the pillow. Yikes! I immediately stopped using the pillow. I don’t know how many people have this reaction to the product, but it really scared me. As much as I am convinced about how effectively the Tempur-Pedic pillow keeps out light, it’s not worth the severe skin reactions. No thanks, Swedes, I guess I’m going back to silk, or some other time-tested natural material.

IK

7/14/07

Flew out to NYC Friday night and flew back Monday morning. The Monday morning flight was so early that the earliest bus to Newark wouldn’t work, so we had to catch the latest, and then spend four hours at the airport in the middle of the night when everything is closed. I neeeeed my sleep, and two nights with barely any sleep in one weekend, really wiped me out. Straight back to work after that. It’s funny, because in the Spring of 2000 when I started getting really serious about DJing as a career, my goal was to be flown around internationally, DJing from one end of the globe to the other. Now that I am just making baby steps towards that goal, playing on the other coast, I question whether this is really the lifestyle that I want. I need sleep. Eight to ten hours a day. I used to be able to sleep through all flights, and now I have much more trouble with that. I don’t like playing a gig the day I arrive in town with no sleep. Then again, it is difficult for me to relax and enjoy a “vacation” when I know I have a gig to perform in a few days. I’m also paranoid about trying to keep all my music safe in another city.

The more “successful” I get as a DJ, the more I question whether the goals I set for myself seven years ago will really make me happy. In concept, I like the idea of flying all over the world and DJing, but the more I’m on planes (coach, natch) the more I realize I don’t like to fly. I know I don’t like to lose sleep and mess with my sleep schedule. Flying internationally will only exacerbate those things. Most of my adult life I’ve avoided having any kind of plan, goals, etc., figuring that there are few things worse than getting what you want. Lately I’ve certainly been questioning whether what I’ve wished for is really what I want for my life.

Playing our own party on the other side of the country, as opposed to being a guest at someone else’s, presents quite a challenge. Anjali and I feel like we only do a partially-decent job of promoting our parties in Portland, and we live here. Trying to promote a party from 3000 miles away is something with which we have little experience. We are not there to flyer or poster. We don’t know what websites are effective places to post our parties. There might be very important email newsletters to become a part of, but we don’t know what those are. There are probably distribution lists to tap into, but we don’t know what those are. We are really lost. From my first visits to NYC when I saw club flyer messes at the front of record shops, I thought “I would sure never want to promote a party in New York!” Too much competition, too much area to cover, too many establishments to visit, too big a populace to effectively reach. We feel like we barely scratch the surface in Portland of all the avenues to promote ourselves, and NYC magnifies that task to an extraordinary degree.

We did what we could, but I had no expectations for our first night at the Knitting Factory. The club had never printed any flyers or posters, which could come down to our taking a week to get all our info to them, as we needed time to come up with a concept and a focus for the party. I sent out press releases, which apparently went ignored. Our names were printed in the TimeOut, but that was it, and over in the live music and not the DJ section of the magazine.

The Knitting Factory will often have early shows and late shows every night on all three of their floors. We knew there was an early rock show on our floor, and we were scheduled to go on at 11pm. We were supposed to load-in at 10:45pm, which hardly provides time to set up and do a soundcheck by 11pm. We were running late, and yet when we got to our room, the band’s equipment was still on stage, the band were still taking down their equipment, and there was no sign of a DJ setup. The soundperson, Alex, was very nice, as he tried to get the bands to hurry up and move their stuff. The DJ equipment was not in the room yet, and he went searching for it, bringing it back piece by piece. Because 99.9% of all international music is not available on vinyl, we had made clear to the production manager two weeks before the show that we needed CD players in addition to turntables. At one point it looked like no CD players had been set aside for us. A group of production employees (the manager was not around this night) came to us to break the bad news. We explained that the production manager had bought new equipment just for this night, and after further searching, two CD players were located and brought down. Unfortunately, there was no sign of any RCA cables to connect the CD players to the mixer. An RCA cable, so central to home electronics, and DJ setups, is not a very common cable at a rock club. Alex spent quite a bit of time searching the club for some. At this point it was so late, that our guests began arriving, and we got to hang out while we looked at our unconnected DJ equipment sitting on the stage. Of course Anjali and I have dozens of RCA cables at home, but didn’t think to bring them 3000 miles to our gig, since we were told all the equipment would be provided. It started to look like for want of RCA cables, the show would be lost. Finally Alex showed up with the necessary cables, and by the time everything was hooked up, it was now 11:50pm, 50 minutes after our performance was scheduled to start.

I put on the new M.I.A. track “Boyz” to make sure everything was working. I knew the single was out in New York when I went looking for it in Portland the week before the gig, but as I expected, we had to pick it up in NYC the day of the gig. Anjali decided to go on first, and she had the awkward job of playing to a small group of people sitting and listening, staring at the stage. She played a mix of South Asian hip-hop, grime, bhangra, a Funk Carioca instrumental and another (unreleased) M.I.A. track. She did a good job under very frustrating circumstances. People were slowly filtering in, but it was still a very small group that came to check out the debut of our new night. I went on and started playing Balkan music, when a dance floor started. I played several Balkan tracks but then wanted to go on to something else rather than stick with that sound. I played some Edu-K metal funk and Anjali promptly came up and informed me that sticking with the Balkan music was a good idea. I was feeling contrary and played French hip-hop, eventually making my way to bhangra and Bollywood selections, much to the approval of the mostly Desi crowd. Eventually it felt a lot like I was playing a Desi party, and I thought it funny that we were attempting to do something that wasn’t strictly a Desi party, but that is who showed up. The people in attendance were very enthusiastic and supportive, all promising to return to our gig in August. Since Anjali already had a wedding booked on the East Coast for Saturday the 4th, we will be playing the Knitting Factory Sunday, August 5th for our August show.

Towards the end of the night the general manager of the Knitting Factory came down to check out the show and talk a great deal about his vision for the night with me. Shay is a British Desi who moved to the United States twelve years ago to manage the Skatalites US tours. He has spent most of his life in the dub, punk and ska scenes, and is now looking to do something exciting and cutting edge with Indian music. He has some very interesting ideas for alternative Indian festivals and the like. He is now Talvin Singh’s tour manager in the US, and talked to us about our playing with Talvin in the Fall., hopefully tied into our night at the Knitting Factory. Even though what Talvin does is very different than what we do, and we have often been frustrated by people assuming that we play Talvin Singh when we say we play Indian music (we don’t), he is still the biggest South Asian electronics artist in the world. I don’t even count chicks when they are hatched at my feet, so I am currently detachedly amused about this very large carrot dangling in front of us.

Thanks to everyone who came and danced. It would have been very depressing without you. Your happiness and enthusiasm makes it all worthwhile.

IK

Despite alll my prior ragging on the English lyrics to “Dhoom Again” there are plenty of other songs with cheeezy English lyrics that I do play quite frequently in my sets. In fact, many of my favorite artists prominently feature dumb-ass lyrics in their work, such as my long-time favorites: The Jesus and Mary Chain. So why do I happily play songs like “Where’s the Party Tonight” and “It’s the Time to Disco” while dissing “Dhoom Again?” Well, it goes back to an earlier post about the subjectivity of taste. I might like something that has a million suspect elements, but none of those elements interfere with my enjoyment of it. They may even enhance my enjoyment, like when Jim Reid sings “feels like, feels like, pain . . .to my brain.” Or how about “don’t know why, don’t know why, things vaporize and rise to the sky.” Or how about “get your lips around a cool black pepsi coke.” While I fully understand that such lyrics might inspire revulsion in others, I derive enjoyment from them. No doubt like some people derive enjoyment from the lyrics of “Dhoom Again.” Not me, however. I re-listened to the track the other day and realized that even with wildly-soloing guitars, I don’t have any problem with the instrumental to the track, it’s just the awful lyrics. Maybe they could re-do it in Hindi, and with my limited language ability, no matter how bad the lyrics were, they wouldn’t bother me.

That is one thing of which I am all too aware. Since I am only fluent in one language, I don’t fully understand the lyrics to most of the songs that I play. Even with my knowledge of Spanish, I can hardly penetrate the linguistic intricacies of most Reggaeton tracks, due to my ignorance of the peculiarities of Puerto Rican slang and pronunciation. –I bought a book specifically on Puerto Rican Spanish. The gringo author claimed that he had lived in several Spanish-speaking countries and believed he was fully fluent, but after moving to Puerto Rico, had to practically learn a whole new language.– Because of my limited language abilities, I am very possibly playing dumb-ass (or highly-offensive) lyrics all the time, that would offend my sensibilities a great deal, were they in English.  In my ignorance, I play them happily.  In fact, when one is not fluent in a language, simple lyrics are great, because you can understand them.  –Hey, the singer is saying “I love you, Baby, tonight,” that’s great!–  Whenever there is a popular song in another language, if the beat doesn’t grab me, I assume there has to be something in the lyrics that is meaningful to native speakers.

When I criticize a song for cheezy lyrics I am not making any objective claims about the content of the song.  I am merely making a strongly-worded personal judgement. I don’t pretend that my tastes have any validity outside my own nervous system.  In fact, with my years of dance floor-clearing experience, I know my taste has no validity outside my own nervous system.   It’s not that the songs I play have “better” cheezy English lyrics, they just don’t bother me as much, for whatever reason.  You can have your “Dhoom Again” and I’ll gladly take New Order, all Mark Robinson projects, The Ramones, and the Reid brothers.

IK

7/5/07

Anjali and I are leaving for NYC again tomorrow, and I haven’t even written about our trip two weeks ago. We took a red-eye to NYC and arrived Thursday morning, June 21st, the day of Anjali’s gig at Basement Bhangra with DJ Rekha. Anjali began the night early, before Rekha even showed up, around 7:30pm. Anjali played a lot of British Asian hip-hop, and at least one person came up to complement her on featuring music that never gets played at Basement Bhangra. When Rekha did show, Anjali had a dance floor grooving to ragga-style Bollywood remixes. Rekha got on the mic to greet everyone, and in addition to shouting out Anjali, she even shouted out myself, lounging in the corner. That’s the first time I’ve had the honor of being shouted out at a night at which I wasn’t even playing. Up next was the Bhangra dance lesson, which Reena conducted. She had the crowd hyped! She took them through all sorts of challenging routines and the crowd was excited and cheering the whole time. It was quite a performance.

This edition of Basement Bhangra featured the desi rock band Jungli. Their sound was a far cry from the Bhangra sound that usually rules the night. Lots of guitar and angry female vocals. They covered Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” and played a final song that was a fast hardcore-styled number that had Dave Sharma going wild on the drum kit. I hadn’t seen him play on a standard drum kit before, and he really impressed me with his energetic attack. Unfortunately we weren’t able to bring him to Portland this summer (in his Sharmaji guise) but it will happen some day.

Rekha and Anjali alternated playing short sets for the rest of the night. Anjali had planned on playing all her newest and hottest stuff, but the crowd wasn’t exactly feeling it. People seemed largely unfamiliar with her songs, and people kept coming to the DJ booth asking for more “familiar” stuff. People knew “Sanehvaal Chounk,” which Rekha played, but no one seemed to know anything off Specialist and Tru-Skool’s second album. They weren’t familiar with PJD either. Of all the tracks Anjali played “Aaj Me Peeni” seemed to go off the most. Even when Anjali was trying to cater to people who wanted more “familiar” material, she played things like “Tharti Hilde” which didn’t seem to register much with the crowd. Rekha showed that she knows her crowd more than anyone when she played the biggest song of the night, which ended up being “Mundian To Bach Ke.” Nine years after its initial release, it is still ruling New York. The one thing that Rekha and Anjali’s sets had in common was Lehmber, Lehmber, Lehmber. It was a Lehmber love fest all night.

Rekha had her exclusives as well. She played the Basement Bhangra theme song, and a Gunjan exclusive off her forthcoming Basement Bhangra album. Sounded great. Rekha did take a break from vocal tracks to drop our favorite dhol instrumental by Aman Hayer. She played a lot of current hip hop and dancehall tracks along with the bhangra, and later in the night dropped oldies by A Tribe Called Quest and Black Sheep. Her final songs were several tracks by the Police, whose reunion show she is eagerly anticipating.

Late in the night Juggy D and Tina “Tabla Girl” Sugandh come up to Anjali looking for Rekha. This is the second time Anjali has played for for Juggy D in just six months. He was at Basement Bhangra along with Ameet Chana, who had both been in New York for Bibi magazine’s Sexy South Asian man event. Ameet was very sweet and gracious. He swore they would all come to our Mehanata gig on Saturday, along with Raghav, who they would be paling around with, but unfortunately we never saw them that night.

We had Friday night off, and I swore I wouldn’t do what I usually do when we stay in Queens, which is to blow off every cool-sounding show. Well, it happened. I didn’t go to Turntables on the Hudson, didn’t go to a drum’n’bass gig recommended by Sharmaji, didn’t go to an electronic Brazilian night, and didn’t check out Joro-Boro’s night at Mehanata, which we would be playing on Saturday.

When we did make it to Mehanata on Saturday night we were running late, but neither Joro-Boro or the owner Alex seemed concerned. They set us up in the downstairs bar, where Joro usually plays, and he set up upstairs. I started with a set that managed to be entirely international, while avoiding a single Indian or Latin song, which is quite a feat for me. French hip-hop, Arabic hip-hop, Rai, and things of that nature. People were very complimentary from my first songs, and when Anjali took over I already had a dance floor. She played a mostly Bhangra set, which surprised me, given the latitude we had at the night. It went over really well, and the dance floor was really cooking. I went upstairs to check on Joro-Boro and he was playing the new Specialist & Tru-Skool, so even if the Panjabis at Basement Bhangra don’t know it, somebody is repping it in NYC. I felt bad because he was playing all this great stuff, and everyone was downstairs. Well, he got the last laugh. Anjali played Deep Da 1, and the crowd was NOT feeling the hip-hop, Panjabi or not. People began migrating to the upstairs bar. She played some reggaeton tracks after that, and the migration upstairs continued.

When I began my second set there were only a few dancers left. I played a lot of Arabic sounds. Because Mehanata has such a reputation for Balkan and Gypsy music I thought those would be the type of requests I would get. Instead, my only requests were for “salsa” (I hadn’t brought any, so I played a lot of salsaton and salsa-hop instead) and “Youm Wara Youm” which I hadn’t brought either. Anjali met Ori from Balkan Beat Box, who was in attendance, and he confirmed that he will be playing our September Musicfest edition of Atlas. He was very nice and had a Balkan Beat Box baby-tee for Anjali and some stickers for me (guess he wasn’t hitting the clubs with the Extra-Large tee in tow). During my set there were plenty of people at the downstairs bar, but only a few dancers. I decided to play some Balkan music to see if that was what people were waiting for. I put on “Que Dolor” by Fanfare Ciocarlia and EVERY SINGLE PERSON at the bar gets up and goes upstairs. Wow, I guess that wasn’t what they were waiting for. At this point I figure, “fuck it” and play a bunch of punta rock to an empty room. Ori remains and is very complimentary, but it sucks to come to New York to play to an empty dance floor. Occasionally someone would come downstairs and pop their head in, but when they realized the party was upstairs, they would turn right around and head back up. Eventually the owner comes down and tells us that unfortunately it looks like the party is upstairs this time, and we should just pack up. We were supposed to have stopped at 4am, and that was still hours away. Oh well. We trudge upstairs with our bags to watch Joro-Boro inspire hours of frenzied dancing. As depressing as it was to have our dance party sputter out early, it ended up being for the best, since we got to watch Joro-Boro in action. He played Bhangra, Funk Carioca, M.I.A., Balkan Beat Box, and a shit-ton of hyperspeed Eastern European stuff that was awesome, which I didn’t know. The party at Mehanata that night doubled as the Golem after-party, and the crowd did not want to go home. At one point the guitarist from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs walks through the dance floor and I remember I’m in New York City. It seemed like Joro played last song after last song. Manic, crazed, Gypsy madness, and Joro was the calm, cool and collected center of the hurricane. He kept playing and playing, and even after the lights were turned on, and it was 4:30am, people still did not want to leave. Joro impressed me as much, if not more, than any DJ of international music I have ever seen. He will definitely be making an appearance at Atlas, hopefully as early as this August. After he was done we were treated to a video of a transvestite performing “Choli Ke Peeche.” Joro invited us to the Manu Chao after-parties occurring at Mehanata later in the week, but I continued my streak of blowing everything off, including the Funk Carioca party: NY Loves Baile.

Anjali and I did see “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” at the Imaginasian Theater in midtown. It was so bad in its first half (even knowing that it was a set-up) that I seriously considered leaving at the intermission. Somehow we ended up enjoying it by the end, even if I think there was only one good song (albeit repeated over and over). –Anjali likes “Halke Halke” as well.– There was a brief blip of Kais’ “Mundeya De Dil Hilgaye” at one point, which I found amusing. Towards the end of the film Ameet Chana makes a cameo, which was a trip, having just interacted with him the other night. He pretty much seemed just like he was in the film. Anjali’s favorite author, Meera Syal, also had a cameo. There were two kisses in the film! Including one at the end with Abhishek and Preity, where Abhishek says, “Let’s do something we’ve never done before,” which seemed to be coming from the actor as much as the character, as far as I’m concerned. (Is there something I don’t know about their prior onscreen kissing experience?) There was also a lot of cussing in Hindi, but such is my lack of knowledge, I only recognized one cuss word. It was my first movie with Bobby Deol, who really creeped me out, with his awful lightened poodle top. Didn’t care for his overly-broad and repetitive acting either.

Delhi Palace is still our favorite place to eat in Jackson Heights by far. Saffron custard, yum! At one point I was forced to go to Jackson Diner, and it was just as sub-mediocre as I remember. Went to a new-to-me Indo-Chinese place on Curry Hill called Indo Wok, which was good, if not mind-blowing.

Found the new location of Barrio Music Shop in Spanish Harlem, which was closed on Sunday during my last NYC trip. It had only moved a few blocks, fortunately. I went to quite a few music shops in El Barrio, but didn’t even find a single new and exciting release. As always, the best place to buy contemporary international music in the United States is the Virgin Megastore. Where else can you find a wide selection of contemporary Balkan music, French hip-hop, Middle Eastern pop, Batucada, Funk Carioca, Samba-hop, Samba’n’Bass, Rai, Reggaeton, Dancehall, Soca, Merengue, etc., all in one place? Let’s hope they don’t close like all the other chains.

The flight home ended up being far more epic than we ever could have imagined. We were traveling with Anju’s five-year-old niece, and her brother-in-law’s cat. I was just focused on getting past security, figuring the rest of the trip would be easy sailing. Yeah, right. The flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30pm, and we got to the airport after 3pm. After many hours on the tarmac and occasional updates from the pilot, he said we were five minutes from departure. Then he said, “Never mind, we have to go back for refueling.” Apparently there were thunder storms up and down the East Coast, and new flight plans taking into account the dramatic weather were continually being entered into the plane’s computer. Every time a flight plan had been entered, it became outdated, and a new one had to be entered. Eventually the flight plan involved flying so far out of our way to avoid the storms that more fuel was necessary. After several more hours back at the gate they announce that all connecting flights have already been missed, so all connecting passengers (us) would have to exit and try again tomorrow. Our stuff would be waiting at baggage claim. –No, change of plans, the luggage would go to Denver, and then it would be returned to New York and we should provide a New York address the luggage would be shipped to. That’s not gonna work. What about the cat? What about the thousand dollars of new music in my luggage I couldn’t carry on, because I already had all my DJ music with me? Arrrgggh. We decided to stay with the luggage. There was a de-planing so people could eat something at the food vendors in the airport, and then a re-planing, and then an eventual departure after midnight, surrounded by lightning, and accompanied by desperate applause. At one point during our ordeal the pilot complained about the outmoded traffic control system at use in the United States that is causing all the problems. Outside the plane I heard him say that he would rather fly in the Middle-East than the United States.

We landed in Denver with a sleeping 5-year-old at 2:30am. Anjali worked on getting us a flight to Portland. Either spend all day in Denver waiting for the next open direct flight, or fly to Seattle, then Portland, at 6:30am. Sure, add a leg, why don’t you. The airport was filled with sleeping bodies in every corner. We weren’t alone. The only thing that saved me was Robert Anton Wilson’s final collection, Email to the Universe. –I am so thankful for his influence on my life. The lucidity of his writing brings me so much joy. I hope that wherever he is, in whatever form, he is enjoying himself.– We waited bleary-eyed for our morning flight, after having to wait in yet more lines. We finally made it back to Portland the next afternoon, more than 24 hours after we had left for the airport in New York. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen this weekend when we fly out to play our first night at the Knitting Factory. Thanks, Chantelle!

IK

So I was thinking back on my performance at the Brazilian community radio station benefit and realized that I went too easy on myself in my description of my set. I claimed that I kept the dance floor full all night, but I neglected to mention one exception. If you remember one of my prior posts in the “Memorable Dance Floors I Have Cleared” series you may remember the merengue-house version of Kelly Rowland and Nelly’s “Dilemma” by Papi Sanchez. This song is responsible for my most-notorious (to my mind) floor-clearing episode in the history of Atlas. So why oh why would I ever bring, much yet play, this song? Well, despite hating the original song, I have a perverse soft spot for the merengue version. Here I am, DJing an all-Latin and Brazilian set, to an appreciative audience, and I figure that this will probably be one of my only chances to play this song again and see if I can get a positive response.

I played it during a merengue set.

It didn’t work.

Now, I’m not saying I cleared the floor ENTIRELY, but there was only a dancer or two left. There you have it. The unvarnished truth about my performance. Sorry for the priorly-posted uncharacteristically positive review of my performance on that night. It probably won’t happen again.
IK

Almost slept in and missed Andaz this Saturday. After our return trip to New York ended up being a 25-hour odyssey, with only a few hours of sleep on one of three flights, we spent several days in a groggy fog. We decided to take a nap Saturday afternoon, without setting an alarm, and barely made it to Andaz in advance of paying guests. I think at least one individual was treated to my sound check. I started out with old Bollywood funk and rock’n’roll numbers and then Anjali took over for her first Bhangramuffin-leaning set. When I took over again I notched it up with some fast-paced bhangra (including one of the J-Skillz produced tracks off the “Special Edition” of the last Gippy Grewal album) before moving into electro-bhangra classic “Desi Rock” and “Akhiyan Udeek Diyan” off the Jinx album. It was a largely gora crowd at this point, and people seemed into it. I decided if I didn’t have that many Hindi-speakers to please I could get away with some of the newer Bollywood-house numbers I am into that aren’t necessarily big hits, or familiar to people who only know the biggest Bollywood songs, which judging from the requests, seems to be most of our Hindi-speaking audience in Portland. Because our non-desi crowd at Andaz is primarily into the dhol beats, the newer Bollywood-house stuff usually doesn’t go over so well with the goreh, but I think I managed to pull it off, after playing one of the four versions of “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” off the movie soundtrack of the same name. (I knew I was going to play the hell out of that track during the night, since it has my vote for next song to be fucking massive forever.) I felt pretty good about my set, which is a rarity these days.

Anjali must have figured the faster tempo was working because she began her set very uncharacteristically with several house numbers including an RDB number and the 2k6 Dance Mix of “Dil Nai Lagda.” She was well into an all-Panjabi set when I went in the booth to check on her. She was very frustrated by all the aggressive requests for Hindi songs. One individual who I had the pleasure of dealing with later was in her face three separate times during her set. Since I had spent a lot of time before the gig absorbing the dozen most absolute-fresh-off-the-presses soundtracks that had just arrived in New York, I was eager to see what songs had been requested. I was hoping they would be for something new and exciting. Nope. –Borrrrring. Either oldy-moldy cheezy pop bhangra, the same-old, same-old Hindi songs, or newish songs that are absolutely abominable like “Dhoom Again.” Ugggh. Someone always requests that absolutely heinous song, which admittedly has a fun beginning, and an effectively histrionic chorus, but has anyone listened to the absolutely god-awful English verses on that song? (I did a google search typing in “Dhoom Again sucks” and found a lyric site with dozens of comments on the song calling the lyrics the most brilliant ever composed, etc. Aarrggggh. Right after the atrocious lyrics themselves. Mind-boggling.) I like some songs on Pritam’s (mostly ripped-off) soundtracks, but even the original “Dhoom Machale” was so cheezy it took me half a year before I could bring myself to play it. –I get all the soundtracks when they come out, but I will often not play things for awhile unless I am really impressed by them, or curious how they will go over (see my floor-clearing antics with “Assalaam Vaalekum” later in the evening). Most of the Portland Hindi-speaking crowd that make requests at our night is so behind the times, that I never even got a request for the original “Dhoom” in that six months, but a year after it came out, and ever since, it has always remained in demand. When I first started playing it I would cut it before the cheezy English lyrics, only to have desis in my face complaining that I cut it early. Whooops. Now I will gladly play it to get away from having to play the horrendous new version. I have only broken down and played it once at Andaz and I was so ashamed I hid the whole time I did it. Often if I play something that felt embarrassing while I did it, I will re-listen to the song at home to see if it is as bad as it seemed. Often it will be a great song that got a poor crowd response, and re-listening to it will only confirm how great it is, and I’ll just blame it on the crowd. When I replayed “Dhoom Again” at home I was even more mortified than I had been at the time, and the song seemed a thousand times more awful. Terribly popular, however.

The problem with terrible Hindi songs with cheezy English lyrics is that desi Bollywood lovers will think the songs are awesome and not realize how horribly horribly cheezy the songs sound to just about anyone else. If desi Bollywood lovers were the majority at our parties, it would hardly matter, but they are only a minority faction most of the time. Now some times I will play cheezy cheezy shit for my own amusement, like later on in the night when I played the “Eye of the Tiger”-remake “Ankiya Teriya Ve” from the Kaal soundtrack and Anjali wanted me fired on the spot. (Hey, I didn’t lose the whole dance floor! –Leave that to the latest Himesh starring vehicle.)

When Hindi-speakers start getting aggresive about their requests, it only emboldens Anjali to play even more Bhangra. She did eventually drop “Where’s the Party Tonight” and “Say Na, Say Na” among others, but for some people it was very possibly too little, too late. When I take over from Anjali I usually feel like I have to immediately start pleasing the Hindi-speakers, to try to compensate for Anjali’s invariably Bhangra-heavy sets –despite the fact that I have lots of my own Bhangra selections that I would love to play, that aren’t among the tracks that Anjali tends to play, like all the Bhangra from the Punjab I’ve been exploring lately. Somehow I found myself opening my next set with Bhangra anyway. Another J-Skillz produced Gippy Grewal track, A.S. Kang’s “Aish Karo” (which Anjali plays so much I tend to avoid it, but after it sounded so good at Basement Bhangra last week, and I got a request, I was inspired to play it) and Jazzy B and Shinda’s “Oh Na Kuri Labdi.”

At this point a very agitated man arrives at the booth explaining that it has been an hour since his wife made some requests and that we still had not played them. I had never laid eyes on this man before, and had no idea that he had been in Anjali’s face so many times during her set. I explained to him that on the request board it says “No Promises!” He didn’t seem to get it, so I showed the board to him and pointed out the “No Promises” emblazoned across the top of the board. He still didn’t get it. Now unfortunately, people like this individual seem to think that my job is getting involved in lengthy discussions about their desires while I am trying to DJ. No, sorry, my job is to DJ a great dance party, which may or may not have anything to do with playing something you personally want to hear. The man then brings his wife over to the booth, with what aim I have no idea, but it is hard to hear anyone over the monitors and so eventually I just had to give up, and returned to picking out my next song.

The joke about the request board is that it wouldn’t even exist if it were up to Anjali. I insist on having one, because I am open-minded enough to believe that I might learn about a good song I don’t already know. 90% or more of requests are entirely predictable, but once in a while I will learn about a cool old song, or a newer song with which I am not yet familiar. Rare, but it happens. The funny thing is that when people approach us with the most lame, predictable requests, they seem to think that we are ignorant of the songs/artists/soundtracks, because only ignorance could excuse our not playing these songs. Um, actually we are far too painfully aware of these songs and actively avoid them at our night. Sorry for the harsh reality. There is some stuff we just don’t touch with a ten-foot pole, or only really late at night when everyone is drunk and we are feeling charitable. The exception is private parties where for a thousand bucks you can pretty much hear what you want. As financially-struggling artists, Anjali and I have entertained the notion of charging $20 to $100 for requests, but I don’t see why our crowd should be punished by people with more money than taste.

I was eventually feeling magnanimous enough to play the “Chunnari Chunnari” (which IS a great song) request, especially since Johnny Mozzerella and Irina were in the house. I don’t know if the complaining couple lasted long enough to hear it, or if they just left in an angry huff. Hindi-speakers at our night have to be patient. Patience is rewarded, pushiness just results in more Panjabi music, especially if you get in Anjali’s face. Later in the night I even played the new “Main Hoon Don” by request, which never seems to go off when I play it, despite the requests, and sure enough it didn’t seem to go over too well. Maybe all the requesters were gone by the time I played it. I squeezed in the more techno version of “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” in my middle set, only to get a request for the version I had played earlier. At least it is a song we can all agree on. As for the three songs on the soundtrack that aren’t some version of “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” . . . When Anjali and I saw Jhoom Barabar Jhoom in NYC and “Ticket to Hollywood” was playing, she was revulsed, while I predicted it would be a big hit. When Anjali cringes at a new Hindi song, that is a pretty good indicator that it will be a huge hit, see “Just Chill” and “My Dil goes Mmm.” Sure enough “Ticket to Hollywood” is currently in the top ten for Hindi radio stations in India.

I succumb too easily to factionalism at Andaz. I am far too aware of whether a song is in Hindi or Panjabi, and whether it will appeal to a primarily gora or desi audience. I played “Dhoom Machale” and “Main Hoon Don” for the desis, and Kais’ ” Mundeya De Dil Hilgaye” and Manak-E’s “Billy Jean”-jacking “Dhoor” for the goreh, and didn’t feel good about any of it. I am very conscious when I am playing a Jazzy B or Dil-jit song, exactly who I am playing it for. If I only played what I wanted to hear I don’t think many desis would be very happy, since I would play a lot of Bollywood and Bhangra songs that either nobody cares about, nobody knows, or everybody hates. For instance, one of my favorite Anand Raj Anand tracks is “Nassa Nassa” off the Kaal soundtrack. I love this song (except for the far-too-common-in-filmi-these-days lame English rap), and just found the following online review written by a desi: “If I have to describe this song in one word it will be TORTURE. It makes me wonder what the makers had in their mind while composing this track, it a mix of bhangra, bollywood tune and overdose of English lyrics. Unlike Tauba Tauba this experiment flops. Vocals from the singers are equally bad. Don’t want to experience 5.07 minutes of torture again. Skip!” “TORTURE” would probably describe many desis’ response to a set comprised entirely of Indian songs I love.

So eventually it is my turn to play the last set of the evening. I play a version of “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” because it was my mission to get everyone else to have that song stuck in their head as well. After that I feel like, “Fuck everyone, I’m going to play all new Bollywood songs I want to hear, and clear everyone, and I don’t care.” I put on “Assalaam Vaalekum” from the new Himesh Reshammiya-starring Aap Kaa Surroor. Anjali comes into the booth and tells me that every desi just cleared the dance floor. I called that one. The soundtrack is HUGE in India right now, but not on my dance floor. At least not that track, which is my current favorite. Having done what I said I wanted to do, I now felt contrite and wanted to get the desis back. I played “Salaam-e-Ishq” and sure enough some come back to dance. Thanks for that, because even when I continued to play filmi favorites from the last five years no one bothers to stick around. What sucks is that a group of Tibetans and Nepalis were in the house until I dropped the Himesh track, and I would have been happy to have catered to them, were they to have stuck around.

I’m bound to be disappointed when I put so much effort keeping up with the latest-latest when most people want to hear the comfortable and familiar. Thank you to everyone who came out and danced, and especially to Caleb and JC for the Voodoo Donuts!
IK

6/28/07

Wiped.  Journey back from NYC with a 5-year old and a kitty took over 24 hours.  Six and half-hours on the tarmac, deplaning, additional leg added, up all night at the airport, ailrine computer shut-downs and printer shut-downs at ticket counters.  You’ll get more of an update about our gigs  in NYC after I get some sleep.  Hope to see you all at Andaz this Saturday.  Got a mound of new bhangra, Bollywood, and desi beat action in Jackson Heights. Now I have to absorb it.

Later.

IK