PETER DRAGONTAIL DBJ EXCLUSIVE

Dragontail's back and he's out done himself this time! Seven minutes in electro heaven with an unexpected track from Tilly and the Wall that will shake the girls' pants off.

Tilly and the Wall - Beat Control (Peter Dragontail Remix)
Media Fire | YSI | 320 kbps

CHECK OUT PETER DRAGONTAIL LIVE THIS SATURDAY AT HURRAH!!!

Happy House

I lost my shit when I heard this last night at Pi Lam.


Jump - Funkatarium
Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps

We Dare You

Gripped this joint up not so long ago when I randomly encountered a dude on 40th Street sitting on the bumper of a U-Haul full of 12 inches.



Pointer Sisters - Dare Me | Divshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Anyway, tonight is a big night in the city of Brotherly Love, especially for the DBJ crew.



Mike Tee and Billy's got the big ol' Delta Phi Disco party (Featuring DBJ Mixseries hero Josh Dunn, my doppelganger Ron Morelli, Lovefingers and more). Massive lineup, runs all night. 39th and Spruce, West Philly. Fuckin A.



I'll be at Medusa Lounge with Stereofaith, doing the Cream party. No cover, grimy booze-addled sexual preamble. You know the deal. 21st and Chestnut.

Go to both, we dare you.

P.S.

Congratulations to Medusa Lounge, which many of our DBJ bloggers call home for our monthly gigs. Medusa, Bleached Black and Philadelphyinz got some shine in this month's Spin Magazine.

San Francisco

Ready for a subtle discolation of the norm???

Tuxedo Moon - No Tears | Zshare | YSI |320 kbps

Units - The Right Man | Zshare | YSI |320 kbps

Units - The Right Mix | Zshare | YSI |320 kbps

Summer Groove

Very obscure, funky disco from The Joneses. Other than one album (predictably titled, Keep Up With The Joneses), this is one of only two singles the group ever released.

A couple of self-serving plugs:

1. Mike Tee and I are back at the Medusa Lounge this Friday for our disco and house monthly, Robotique.

2. I play modern soul, boogie, disco and proto-hip hop every Saturday night at a brand new spot in Philly called The Institute. The beer list is nuts and the venue will eventually grow into a two-floor restaurant/bar/lounge with a roof deck. Come check it out.



The Joneses - Summer Groove | ZShare | YSI | 211 kbps

Hot Summer Night

Here's to an endless summer!

Vicki Sue Robinson - Hot Version | Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Hot Summer Nights

Here's to getting sweaty in the city tonight.

"It's so warm outside."
"And you're so warm inside."

Love Club - Hot Summer Nights (vocal)
Zshare | YSI | 192 kbps

Str8 Tantric Motherfuckers

Philadelphyinz is at Medusa this Saturday.

Oh and there's gonna be mustache cupcakes. Yeah, it's like that.

New joint for the upcoming weekend -



Still Going - Still Going Theme (Apt One Remix)
Divshare | YSI (320 kbps)

Keep It Cosmic

If you're familiar with the Bombers' classic "Don't Stop The Music", you'll appreciate "Supermax", an LP-only cosmic obscurity that disco heads love, but many people sleep on.

Bombers was one of many studio projects that Pat Deserio blessed with his production skills. Gino Soccio was a fan and Pat's list of credits includes the Kebekelektrik LP, Rational Youth singles and a host of others.

Bombers - Supermax | ZShare | YSI | 320 kbps

Afrobeat gone electro...

Nairobi - Funky Soul Makossa | Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps




Manu Dibango - Abele Dance | Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Baltimore's Finest: Mark Brown

Baltimore's Mark Brown was kind enough to give DBJ an interview & a new mix to warm us up for his Hurrah appearance tonight at Medusa Lounge:

Mark Brown - Infinite Whave

1) Ttwance Cop - Infinite Rave
2) Double 99 - Rip Groove
3) Richard Dolby - The Anonymous Track
4) Adele - Cold Shoulder (Rusko Rremix)
5) The Prodigy - Out of Space (Celestial Bodies Mix)
6) Snap! - The Power (Kanji Kinetic Remix)
7) Wedlock - Didgeridoo (Pyramoods Nigerian Hair Edit)
8) Kromestar - Quicktime

When and how did you come up with the idea to start AREWENOTMEN?!? Can you describe what you consider the night to be all about, and how that's evolved over the course of its existence? Is it true that the last one ever in Baltimore was on June 1? If so, what was the reason for stopping?

AWNM!? got started in December of 2005 when my friends Taylor Fimbrez, Michelle Nolan and I got the idea to start a queer dance party in Baltimore without the "gay bar" vibe. The party eventually evolved into more of a dance party with bands, hosting The Deathset, Dan Deacon, Girl Talk, The Ed Schrader Show, Ed Schrader, Twance Cop, Shams, Butt Stomach, etc.

Taylor and Michelle moved to Seattle after about a year into the parties lifespan resulting in taking on a lot more stress of organizing and promoting the party than I had anticipated. I've recently shifted my focus towards art making, live performances, and working with more of the underground warehouse / basement spots in Baltimore like SCarey Studios & The Comfort Dome. AWNM?! is definitely over @ The Depot, but the spirit will live on in future endeavors and projects.

Do you currently play out anywhere else on a regular basis? Do you have any plans to curate another night in Baltimore?

Mostly warehouse parties, sometimes @ The Ottobar for Emily Rabbit's world famous Tensday, TaxLo, etc. My friend Adam (DJ Gonzo) and I are working out the details right now of a new monthly at a new spot called the Wind Up Space that's slated to take off in August. I'm also working with Wham City to get a new venue off the ground and will hopefully be doing some form of party / art oriented events there starting this fall.

In an interview with the Baltimore City Paper, you talked about your fondness for the tight-knit music scene in Baltimore, and how that sense of immediacy really drives the people within it to do some pretty creative things...has the scene continued to flourish in that regard? Is there at all a sense (like I get from Philly) that there's an oversaturation of DJ nights (guilty as charged, here), or do you feel that it's basically at an equilibrium?

It seems like Baltimore's been overwhelmed recently with new venues and spaces putting on shows / parties, yet I still feel the scene is just as tight, if not tighter. More people seem to be branching out, crossing over, and working together than before.

You are (or were, not sure if you've graduated) an art student at MICA; what is/was your focus there? Do you see a correlation between your interests and goals as an artist and those as a musician?

I graduated from the Interactive Media department at MICA May of 2007 with a concentration in Video. Definitely a correlation. MICA has quite a strong influence on the music scene in Baltimore, possibly stronger than the influence on the local art scene.

When did you first start DJing, and how did you get into it? What's your personal DJ setup?

The first party I DJd was a house party with my friend Alex Dondero, there were about 60 kids crammed into this tiny living room going insane, I was pretty much hooked from there on. I played mostly warehouse parties until AWNM?! started to take off. I currently use M-Audio's Torq with a mid controller, sometimes using Live. I also do live visuals with early 90s video mixers and a projector while I play.

Have you ever tried your hand at any production? If so, what techniques did you use and what were the results?

I've been making these ambient mixes (BONE TRANCE) using Ableton live which has lead me to producing remixes and a few original tracks. You can check em out on my website, http://www.mcbrown.info

Where is your favorite place to dig for records (that you're willing to reveal)? Do you do a lot of shoping at digital stores (i.e. Beatport, Traxsource, etc)?

Jason Urick (WZT Hearts) used to have a store in Baltimore called Once.Twice.Sound where you could find the most amazing records. When I can afford to buy them, I generally go to Own Guru or True Vine, both excellent shops in Baltimore. I do a lot of blog surfing and will sometimes hit up turntable lab when I find something truly critical.

What are some of your favorite contemporary producers and labels at the moment? Of all time?

I've been getting really into the current bassline scene and have been loving the output of Egyptrixx from Tornonto. There's this guy Etan from Boston who's been killing it recently, be sure to check out his recent Death Set remix. I've always loved the output from Cock Rock Disco, Jason Forrest melts my brain in the best way.

What's the best dollar bin jam you've ever scored?

I recently found two Prodigy singles from 1992 in a box left in the lobby of the space where I live.

-Interview By Dave Tat

Happy Fourth of July!

Agent Orange - America | Zshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Ramblings of a Lunatic

If you wanna hear me wax eloquent about records, record culture, record digging and the time I went digging with Peanut Butter Wolf, head over to Heavy In the Streets. Homie Sorce-1 interviewed me for a series called "Can You Dig It" where he interviews DJs from around the country. Most of the other DJs he has interviewed are cats that I have a great deal of respect for so I'm pretty flattered to be included in that group.

Oh, and while you're there (if you've got time to kill), he also interviewed all the members of the TV show The State.

Check the interview out HERE.

Hypno House

This is seriously a dollar bin 12". Most of the mixes aren't good, but then the Deep Dub's awesome keyboards & killer breaks come to the rescue. It has a more interesting structure than most other old house tracks too.

Nitro Deluxe - Hypno House (Deep Dub) | ZShare | YSI | 320 kbps

Let The Music Play

One day, I should write an entry devoted to jazz artists who purposely or inadvertently created disco heat. For the most part, we can thank David Mancuso for originally breaking a lot of these records back at the time of their release.

Appropriately, today's featured Dollar Bin Jam was/is a big Loft record. On his stormer "Let The Music Play", Charles Earland beats the crap out of the dancefloor with nothing short of fierce saxophone and organ work. A certified classic that was only issued as a 12" single in the UK in 1978. Enjoy.

Charles Earland - Let The Music Play (12" Version)
ZShare | YSI | 320 kbps

R-9

I found this a few years ago at True Vine in Baltimore. Every time I listen to it, I'm surprised it isn't a more popular Electro or Techno classic.

Cybotron - R-9 (Instrumental) | ZShare | YSI | 320 kbps

Robotism

Here is a nice slab of incredibly rare cosmic disco provided by the obscure Krautrock unit, Methusalem. As far as I can tell, the band released one album called Journey Into The Unknown and a couple of singles. Of those, "Robotism" was their only 12" release. Good luck finding an OG copy of either.

I am always blown away by the 1970's view of the future and/or outer space. For the most part, Dexter Wansel had that shit on lock. But don't sleep on Methusalem's Dali-inspired airbrushed vision of robot insanity:



If you absolutely must have this track on vinyl (which is obviously the case), it was reissued on the excellent third volume of the Disco Galaxia compilation series and was also on the tenth installment of the Automan Edit 12"es.

Methusalem - Robotism | DivShare | YSI | 320 kbps

Speaking of robots, Mike Tee and I return to the Medusa Lounge turntables tonight for the June edition of Robotique. It's the first day of summer, so come sweat with us.

Break it up break it up break it up

Been a minute, I know. So I figured I'd come back with rips of the two most important and canonical works of Western Music. Well, not really, but they both have great breaks, and both are certified "Dollar Bin Jams." You will find both of these records out there for a dollar as long as you don't shop at those bullshit stores where they seem think that "ubiquitous record" futures are tied to the oil markets. Tell your friends not to fuck with stores that gouge you on Sharon Redd records, such stores are the enemies of freedom.



One of the great classics from Prelude, and one of the Monster Jams of Modern Soul (yes, Modern Soul has Monster Jams, but not like truck rallies). Sharon Redd's also got some good advice for all of us in this shitty economy- Beat the Street, because Stagflation -> Reaganomics -> Crack Epidemic was crap, but at least they didn't have a war on. Hustle people, hustle!



Sharon Redd - Beat the Street
Divshare | YSI | 320 kbps



Can You Get It is a song about a jawn named Suzy Caesar whose name not only rhymes with "teaser," but not coincidentally, she is a teaser herself. Dudes in Mandrill are tryin to hit that, but they wear fucking Mandrill masks, which creeps girls out real bad. I'd let them in on the news, but I think they've sorted this out since 1977.

Either way, dudes know how to throw together a conga/tambourine/handclap break.



Mandrill - Can You Get It
Divshare | YSI | 320 kbps

Oh, and while I have your attention, all you Philadelphia-area Dollar Bin Jammers gotta get your asses to the Riverdeck to see the king of the classics, Cosmo Baker come through the Block Party this Wednesday:

Began Cekic

Began Cekic had two prominent disco projects, Brooklyn Express and Common Sense, both of which excelled at cover songs. Common Sense are best remembered for their version of The Police's "Voices Inside My Head", which can be found on the first "Disco Not Disco" compilation. While Brooklyn Express' "Sixty-Nine" and "Change Position" are clearly based on Jimmy Bo Horne's "Spank", I'm not sure if "Back In Time" is a cover or an original. With the above covers though, I prefer Began's versions over the originals.

While Googling Mr. Cekic, I came across the following interview on a Geocities page:

Daniel Wang: "Who was Began Cekic? And what was the deal with those grungy little One Way Records that you mixed? He made that version of Love Is the Message where he seems to be playing the keyboards himself...."

Tee Scott:" Began Cekic was a real case. He was a Yugoslavian guy with this little record company - One Way was a subsidiary of his main label, B.C. Recards, which he eventually changed to One Way. He was the king of the copiers. He got a hold of me, and he treated me to all kinds of baubles (laughter); he bought me two huge 1500's, or 1520 tapedecks, the model they used in the studio with a "Store" feature and the extra sections for your tone generators, which were built-in; it cost about $4000. And then he bought me the 1506, which was a 4-track recorder. These were all gifts for doing those records for him."

Daniel Wang:So he was the original bootlegger, so to say? Did he make money?

Tee Scott:"He made a lot of money on those! He did Love Is the Message, Sixty-Nine (Spank), Eighty-Eight, Beyond the Clouds, Relight My Fire (Let's Get Horny), Computer Games, all of those... He took me to Florida, too. Of course he did cover records, really because he didn't sample anybody else's records - it wasn`t possible then,-- he just did things that sounded close to them. And after a while, he started getting involved in stuff that I felt I should back out of. He started getting really ridiculous and stepping over the line with a lot of stuff. I lost touch with him after a while."


Brooklyn Express - Sixty-Nine
Mediafire | YSI won't upload the file, probably because they think it's porn | 320 kbps

Brooklyn Express - Change Position (88)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Brooklyn Express - Back In Time
Mediafire | YSI | 192 kbps

Bonus:

Common Sense - Voices Inside My Head
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Do It, Fluid

Nice sleazy slow burner here from funk legends The Blackbyrds ... right in time for Philly's oppressive 100-degree heatwave.

The Blackbyrds - Do It, Fluid | DivShare | YSI | 320 kbps

From what I gather, everyone is much happier when the Dominatrix sleeps.

Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (Dominant Mix)
Mediafire | YSI | 320 kbps

Synergy

XO f/ Cee-Cee - Grind Baby | Divshare | YSI | 320 kbps

It's not really that exciting or notable than XO, of Paper Route Recordz flipped Weezer's "Say It Ain't So." Had it happened in 1996, it would have been a cross-cultural oddity and a smash hit, but now that rock bands are looking for assists from Timbaland and our next president very well may be black, "Grind Baby" is just another really solid track about working hard from the mind-bogglingly good scene down in Huntsville, Alabama.

What is notable is how well the lick from "Say It Ain't So" fits under a country rap tune like this one. Producers have been building tracks over their own Skynyrd-inspired riffs for a minute down south. Reworking the other guitar lick as an auxiliary synth line sounds perfectly natural. Someone who didn't spend middle school moping and playing drums in suburbia like me could miss the sample entirely. So rather than reflecting on racial harmony in America, I am just reminded that there is absolutely nothing new under the sun ever anywhere period. Rivers Cuomo probably came up listening to arena rock just like Texas rap production legend Mike Dean, who gets his guitar on in a bunch of his tracks for the Geto Boys and Devin the Dude.

In conclusion, there is no such thing as original idea. The only way to get ahead in this world is to steal something first.

Knife Slits Water

A Certain Ratio - Kether Hot Knives
Mediafire | 320 kbps

A Certain Ratio - Knife Slits Water
Mediafire | 320 kbps

Rock Beats Scissors...

Strictly Marvelous

While waiting for a taping of The Colbert Report to start at the Annenberg Center a couple weeks ago, I wandered over to The Marvelous and cleaned them out of all the Strictly Rhythm I could find, at two bucks apiece. Here's the one I got from Physique, aka Ogi B, a "Serbian composer, keyboardist and house DJ living in London," according to Discogs.

There's just one mix of the first side (which Shawn Ryan is already threatening to edit in order to cut out the vocals), and I only included the superior version from the flip.




Physique - Superman (Space Disco mix) | DivShare | YSI | 320 kbps




Physique - Such a Joy (Deep Joy Sex Ride) | DivShare | YSI | 320 kbps

Trip To Your Mind

Mancuso played this at The Loft on Sunday and it's been stuck in my head ever since. An underrated and scarce classic.

Hudson People - Trip To Your Mind | DivShare | YSI | 192 kbps