It was good to get over to my dad’s record shop, Back Beats, in Rantoul. Always try to get over there when I’m visiting. There is a nice write up about the place here. Stumbled upon some good records, as I always do. The one that stands out to me as I write this is a nice jazz-funk album by Karma called Celebration. Be sure to click on that link now, a sweet tune awaits. Perfect for a day like this.
Ahhhhh. The never ending world of used records. (Segue….)
Speaking of — Saturday’s set at Exile On Main St. (Diggin’ in Exile 2) was a blast. Me and Mertz rifled through the supply of used wax on hand to find our selections. About 800 dance records from the early 90s had come in so we had a lot to work with between that and the normal assortment of soul, disco, rock, funk, and miscellaneous oddities that you can find at Exile. Super nice weather inspired us to take things outside and people dug it. Or maybe they just came by for the free pizza. Doing a gig like that is a bit electric as you aren’t using your own material. In some cases, you have time to preview a track but in others there really isn’t much time to do anything but throw it in. As you can guess there can be some “oh man this is really bad” moments, which are always hilarious, or some real treasures and happy accidents that would of never happened otherwise. I’m going to work on getting a link to the mix (we recorded) so you can enjoy it from the comfort of your own bathroom!
Later that night, I played at Redstar with Belly. A decent crowd came through for the first Saturday after graduation (usually really dead). Redstar seems to have found its niche with Wednesday and Thursday from what I understand. Wonder why that’s the case. The weekend is Champaign time? Belly did his thing which was good. I havn’t heard him play much since I moved. I knew he was part of the infamous Dubstep Massacre collective so I have heard the dubstep side of him via mixes and his own dope productions. It was cool to listen to him in person again as he was putting classic material together with newer, fresher instrumentation in ways I hadn’t come across just yet. He was
dope. I played a lot of stuff I had been holding onto tightly for the last few months back home. Stuff by artists like SBTRKT, Addison Groove, Seiji, and others. More electronic. More varied. Gotta say what up to the Automatic Champion and Reece T for gracing us with their presence!
Ok, tonight will be a GREAT mid week gig to make an effort to check out. All Detroit music all night at Mike N Molly’s!! Classic Motown sounds, funky George Clinton, White Stripes, the snap of Dilla snares and much more for the massively popular to obscure forgotten gems. Bonus: I think I will be djing from a table amongst everyone instead of up in the birds nest. Come hang out and shoot the shit with me!