So, I have a laptop that likes to act up occasionally and delete things I’m in the middle of writing, like say the blog post I was just in the middle of composing. Arggh. I’ll recap. I’m quite tired. Anjali and I DJed Andaz on Saturday and I am feeling the 5am bedtime for sure. I learned it is the second day after getting no sleep that is the worst. I’m currently in the midst of listening to a huge stack of Arabic CDs I recently ordered to catch me up on the latest stuff for a Lebanese wedding I will be DJing. My collection of Arabic music is already quite large, but I can be quite obsessed about making sure I have all the latest and greatest for particular gigs. If you are at all interested in Arabic music I highly recommend you check out www.maqam.com. They are the US’s largest distributor of Arabic music and there are sound samples for just about everything. Chadi helped me enormously in putting together my order.
Andaz was as crazy as it always is these days. It’s quite something to get used to more than 500 people showing up at our parties. We weren’t happy with the sound and I was tinkering with it all night so I hope it didn’t interfere with anyone having a good time. I guess the bass is never big enough and the drums never hit hard enough for me. I want the music to HIT. HARD. When I’m playing music that not everyone is familiar with it becomes really important that the sound is heavy enough to move people. The more people are familiar with a song the less important the sound quality is because people can just ride the wave of familiarity and nostalgia.
I had a fun time at the Ghetturista we did at ACME the other week. It was good to hang out with DJ Blackmarks and hear Anjali play nasty things like T. Waters “Throw’d Off.” The sound there is a million times better now that they have the two ENORMOUS bass bins. That soundsystem can now easily handle all my favorite bass-heavy musics. I would love to go back there and drop some more of that low, low stuff.
Anjali and I did another episode of our KBOO show. Since it is on fourth Sundays it often falls on the day after Andaz and we are wiped out and less than optimally coherent. We had a good time but we are still getting used to hosting the show together. It can be tough to talk on the air together without stepping on each other’s toes or leaving awkward silences. It’s not as easy as it might seem from listening to your average blabbing radio hosts.
I went to my first Black Metal show in more than a decade last night. Actually, probably my first any-kind-of-metal show in the last decade. My friend leads L’Acephale and I had the pleasure of checking out their show at the Ash Street Saloon. My ears were already fried from Saturday night when I woke up Sunday and realized that their show was happening in the evening. Well, my ears were fried in all new ways after getting back from their show last night. High-pitched guitar shred creates a very different ear-ringing than a booming dance party. My ears got to experience the whole range of ringing and whooming and screaming. Good show guys. Nice and ceremonial and emotional and intense. And 4-inch spike arm gauntets! Nice.