July and August 09 Top 10 Trance Picks

I love me some trance and progressive house, here's my top 10 picks for July & August.

July and August 09 Top House Picks

My top pics are back -- this time you can listen to them right from the player. Lots of good stuff for the ears and dancefloor.

I Survived Light Rail

Yesterday was the grand opening for Valley Metro's new light rail service here in the Valley. It's a project that's been years in the making. My dad and I decided to head to downtown Phoenix to catch an exhibit at the Arizona Science Center and we figured that it would be a great opportunity to check out the new light rail system. We headed down to the Apache & Dorsey station because it was designated as a "Park & Ride" stop. We were greeted with a carnival-like atmosphere as there were a number of celebrations going on at several stations.

While I anticipated that people would come out on the first day, I hadn't realized that turnout would be as heavy as it was. While I heard reports of 2.5 hour waits, we managed to get the first train that stopped. That said, we were greeted with a train that was absolutely packed. It was a very un-Phoenix-like experience. Still, the riders seemed to be in good spirits -- the conductor would announce that he was closing the doors and would count down from 5 to 1 and the riders began counting down with him. The high point was crossing Tempe Town Lake and hearing the oohs and ahs as we glided over the water. Once we crossed into Phoenix, it became an actual clown car experience, as a clown made her way onto our already overcrowded car. I overheard a few passengers around me wishing physical violence on the wayward clown.

The trip back was a little more trying. I had hoped that perhaps things would settle down later in the day. I miscalculated. We headed for the 1st Avenue and Washington station after lunch. There were many more people than at the Apache & Dorsey station. The first train came and was full, I overheard some riders saying that they had seen several trains come and go and hadn't been able to get on. Officials at the station said that there was another train following in 5 or 10 minutes, but it ended up being around 20 minutes to the next train. Valley Metro was also running special buses along the light rail route for those who didn't want to wait, but as we saw those buses pass us by, they seemed as crowded as the light rail cars.

Fortunately, we were able to get on the second train, as I was determined to push my way on and make the trip back home. The trip back was less comfortable than the first -- the cars were more crowded on the way back, it seemed like everyone was tired and ready to get back home. I remember someone remarking that we were being herded like cattle, but I reminded him that because of a recent initiative passed, farm animals are required to have much more space for them to move.

Overall, I was very pleased with the experience. I'm glad they had so many people come out in support and I hope that people use it. I'm interested in seeing what the ridership is like once regular service starts. I'm also hoping they come to their senses and extend service on Friday and Saturday nights for people who want to hit the bars. I'm also interested in seeing how the areas around the line develop -- I'd have to believe that the land use around it is going to change quite a bit. It was a great start and I'm looking forward to seeing how things come together.

Bad Kitty?

I've stumbled across some of the craziest shit I've seen in a while... a whole website of videos enacting Garfield cartoons: LasagnaCat. Some of them are really quite well done -- they're all styled as "tributes" to Jim Davis and yet for a tribute, they sure manage to point out just how inane these things are... see for yourself.


And I can't help but remember that as a kid, I used to love them.

Reefer Madness

While Phoenix isn't known for it's art scene, this year I've made it a point to seek out more cultural experiences in town. The latest is Nearly Naked Theatre's production of Reefer Madness: The Musical. This was the second of NNT's I've seen -- the last being their production of As Bees In Honey Drown.

NNT stages their production in the Phoenix Little Theatre -- located in the Phoenix Art Museum complex, the Phoenix Little Theatre is a small, intimate space that puts the audience almost on top of the actors. Seating a little under 150, I was pleased to find out that the weekend's shows were sold out.

Reefer Madness is a perfect show for NNT - it's campy and goofy, which lends itself to a relatively inexperienced cast. NNT is clearly a labor of love an Phoenix can use more of those.

It Depends pt. 3

Track 4 - Love & Cuddles (Original Mix) - Nacho Chapado feat. Micky Forteza

I ended my last post with the title track of the disc and a distinct electro vibe. As I've mentioned before, I'm not really a big fan of electro but in some ways I've felt like I've been forcing myself to follow the trend simply because it's the trend. With this track I was trying to bridge the gap between the trend and introducing the elements of what I really want to do. Overall I felt like the contrast between the noisy quality of the electro style and the pretty aspect of the guitar really worked well. Once again, I feel like it's just a metaphor for the process I've been going through in my life for a while -- learning to be willing to start putting more of myself out there in the hope that things can work. Oh, and "Love & Cuddles" is a cool name for a track.

Track 5 - Canta Conmigo (Funky Junction Spanish Vocal Mix) - Blue Man Group

"Si te invito a jugar, no vas a negar, tu verás que inseguro soy, igual que los demás. / If I invite you to play, you won't be able to deny it, you'll see I'm insecure like everyone else."

I love this track; I blogged about it a few months ago. Along with the overall sound I've been aiming for, the lyrics of this track are really at the heart of things -- Si yo canto así, ¿te unirás a mí o cantando solo, sigo, desde aquí? / If I sing like this, will you join me or will I keep on singing by myself?"

I guess that's the fundamental issue I've run into as a DJ (and as a person) -- bumping into people who essentially say, "Who are you to play what you want instead of what I want you to play?" In my waning days at Miami, the owner pulled me aside and told me he had gotten a couple of nasty emails saying that the DJ (me) sucked because he wasn't playing all the music they wanted to hear and that maybe they'd enjoy the music if it was from "somebody" like an out of town big name DJ, but since I was just a nobody Phoenix DJ, I should play what they like.

Standing back, it's easy to say, "Screw them, they don't matter." Of course, I've also had others tell me that it's just as important to satisfy the market that's out there. I'm not famous, I don't have piles of money, so yeah, who am I to want to do what I want to do? What sets me apart from all the other poor schmoes out there? Si yo canto así, ¿te unirás a mí o cantando solo, sigo, desde aquí?

Track 6 - Shine On Me (DJ Wady & Patrick M Bedroom Mix) -
J. Louis, Ferran & Tikaro feat. Clarence

"Yesterday's gone, lost in the past, try to hang on, but it's fading fast..."

This track does break with the particular sound of the past couple of tracks but I chose it because it's the best answer to the question from the last track. Honestly, for most of my life I was content to try and please people, though it never really worked. In some ways, I've tried to cling on to some of that past because it's familiar. But like the song says, it's fading fast. And while the process hasn't always been smooth, learning to follow my heart just feels too good to ignore. "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide when you shine on me..."

Welcome to Wonderfalls

A couple of months ago, I was spending the day with Alex, who was recovering from some minor surgery. He had recently got a short-lived TV series on DVD, called Wonderfalls. It never made it past the first 4 or 5 episodes and I had never even known it existed. I'm figuring that most of America hasn't either.

It took me a few episodes to finally get into it -- I missed the first couple of episodes, so there was a lot of "WTF?" Once I got past that, I found that I really resonated with the underlying story.

Wonderfalls centers on a young twentysomething living in Niagra Falls, named Jaye. She's got an Ivy League education, works in a dead end job at a local gift shop and lives in a trailer. The series includes a lot of her incredibly odd and dysfunctional family, and while at first she's painted as this pathetic slacker with no ambition, the show goes to great pains to make you understand that she's always been the outcast and that she's trying to choose a different path from her family: her right wing, George W. Bush loving (and still surprisingly lovable) doctor that is her father; her mother, who is a neurotic, well-known author; closeted lesbian-immigration attorney sister; and brother who happens to be a Ph.D. student in Theology and an atheist.

The crux of the show is that one day at work, Jaye is outside at lunch and chokes -- while she manages to dislodge the food, when she returns to work, suddenly things are different -- a wax lion from the vending machine in her store speaks to her. We're not talking Joan of Arcadia, "Yes, Joan, this is God, and listen to me while I pontificate..." Instead, the wax lion tells her not to give a customer her money back.

There's a lot more that I love about this show and I plan on talking about it more, just because there are so many different aspects that I love. But at it's core, it's a story about a very intelligent, talented girl who's grown up choosing to withdraw from the world, keeping most everyone at a distance. The stories Wonderfalls presents are about how the Universe finally starts to push Jaye in a different direction, one where she's forced to interact with the world in new ways and open up to those around her, despite the fact that all the while she's afraid that she's going crazy... and despite the fact that she's usually trying to fight the whole process.

Not only is she's worried she's going crazy, she's also dealing with the chemistry with the charming, emotionally available, though on the rebound Eric, played by the adorable Tyron Leitso.

While I don't live in a trailer, I can't help but see a lot of myself in Jaye and the struggle she's going through. In the first episode she explains her basic worldview: "Well, just look at them. They all work really hard everyday and they're dissatisfied. I mean, I can be dissatisfied without hardly working at all." I guess I've hit that point as well... and I haven't quite found a better solution... except for the insistent nudges the Universe keeps giving me, sending me in directions that don't necessarily feel like the direction I think I want to go and yet somehow always seem to work out in ways I don't really expect.

Refocus

"I don't know how to get close to you, Marc."

Not really sure how many people have said that to me before. I suppose I'm always a little thrown when someone says that to me because in my mind, I don't think it's really that hard... but deep down, I think I forget just how much I decide to hold back... then I wonder why I can't quite understand why people don't really "get" me. I'm not sure where it all came about, perhaps it's my Scorpio-ness, or growing up gay, or something else, I can't really put my finger on it.

All I know is that very early in my life, one morning I woke up and realized that I was different. It's like hearing that old Sesame Street song: "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong..." and realizing, "Holy shit, they're talking about me." For a long time I figured that if I just tried hard enough, if I was just nice enough, if I can just figure out what they want, they won't notice. Yeah, I was pretty much fucked from the start. It only took me a good 27 years to finally realize just how pointless that was. It's taking a while longer to figure out a better way of going about life.

Yesterday was the most recent time I've had someone tell me they don't know how to get close to me -- specifically, the wise and unique Elsa P. I suppose the best way, in my own mind, is through the music I love. I feel like that's the truest way I know of understanding me -- it's really the only way I know that I can try to help someone feel what it's like to be me.

At the same time, after talking with Elsa, it became quite clear that it's a little too much to expect the world to understand what I'm doing off the bat, because it's like a code that nobody knows but me. The only way around that is to get off my ass and to actually talk about the things that are important to me -- a lot of that is going to be my music (how and why I do what I do) but a lot of the things to which I'm feeling some kind of connection. So while you'll still see beeves, haiku and assorted other stuff here on the blog (because I really do care about that stuff too), expect things around here to go in a little different direction.

In the back of my head, there's that little voice asking, "Why would you do that? Who are you to use this voice of yours?" What I'm learning to accept is that only one answer really makes any sense to me: "Because it's important to me. That has to be enough."

Intro to Club Music - Part 3

I've gone through a quick, bare bones history of dance music and some of the basic characteristics that sets it apart from other forms. One of the essential elements I've left until now is perhaps the most important -- the DJ.

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At a basic level, DJing is deceptively simple -- you're playing a bunch of songs, one after another. For some, a DJ is like a human jukebox, or an extension of the radio: judged by whether he or she plays the song you want at the time you want to hear it. There's a place for that, I suppose. No disrespect intended, but this is the type of DJ I'd hire for a wedding or a bar mitzvahs, its not what I want in a club.

As I explained earlier, dance music is designed to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle... or like LEGOs. Taking that analogy a step further, that raises three basic questions: 1) How well do the pieces fit together; 2) How good is the person at putting together the pieces; and 3) what have you made when you put it all together?

Track Selection
So the first issue is what makes a good track? My rule #1 is that a good track must be interesting. That can mean a lot of things and part of it is a matter of taste. For some, "interesting" can mean that its the dance version of the latest pop hit or a something new from a particular artist (or remixer). The downside is that a trendy song can be like bell bottoms -- they were in style once, but when you look at them now you wonder why the hell you ever wore them. There are tracks that were overplayed SO badly that the mention of them make my ears bleed.

The easiest way for me to explain why I find a track interesting is to have you listen to one and I can explain what I like about it.

G Minor (Original Mix) by Exhibit A

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This is a relatively simple track with a very strong disco feel. So my tastes come into the equation from the start -- I like disco. You start out with a catchy bass hook, slowly layers on a great string part and build until you get to the first breakdown. The first two elements slowly fade back in with the vocals added. You've got a couple of buildups and breakdowns in the song.

So what do I love about this track? The pieces fit together well, I like the style, its a generally pretty track, but besides that, what really sparks my interest? I'll be clear about my biases up front -- my relationship with songs is usually emotional. This song evokes a clear feeling for me, a definite sense of melancholy, starting with the bass line like a drumming at the bass of your stomach and building to a peak before being squelched. It comes back with the vocals added, building relatively quickly until it finally makes its way to the front of your consciousness... There's beauty and pain wrapped up together, along with some remembrance. Ah, the double edged sword of nostalgia.

In the end, this track ends up being much more than the sum of its parts for me. Just a relatively simple track that I'm able to connect with on a very basic level, and that's what makes a track worth listening to in my book.

Intro to Club Music - Part 2

The Basics
So let's take another look at part of Adam's comment: "It all sounds the same to me, pots and pans clanging..."

Adam has identified one of the essential elements of modern dance music. By and large, its much more bass or rhythm driven instead of melody driven. The beat, the groove, the funk -- dance music's essential quality is that its meant to inspire you to dance.

That's not to say that melody isn't important but it usually takes a backseat in dance music. There are some styles (usually tribal) where melody is all but absent and unless its done VERY well, IMO, that can get real old real fast.

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The other part of Adam's comment - "It all sounds the same to me..." Repetition. Yes, there's a lot more repetition in dance music. Part of that goes back to its purpose -- you need a recognizable, somewhat repetitive rhythm in order to be able to dance. Beyond the basic logistics of it, I feel like the repetition helps you get out of your head. Dance music is meant to be felt, to be experienced. The rhythm and repetition give you that somewhat hypnotic effect that help you move beyond your head and into your body and heart, which is where the magic is. Good dance music is intended to surround you, to move through you.

Another part of that is also the general format of house music -- unlike other styles where you finish one song, stop and then start another, house music is designed to flow from one song to another without stopping, much like interlocking pieces of a puzzle. In order to do that, each song has the same 4/4 meter that allows a DJ to mix them together.

Finally, Adam mentions club music featuring "some unintelligible Diva voice." House music has a range of styles, some with vocals, some without. You can trace the origin of the Diva phenomenon back to house's disco roots - think Donna Summer or Thelma Houston... part of that comes from disco's gospel, blues and soul roots. Part of it is also a quirk of one of house music's core audiences: gay men. The diva has played a big part in the culture of gay men, whether its iconic screen actresses to opera to torch song idols. Its no surprise that the diva figures prominently in house music. I think you'll find less of the diva style when you listen to house music aimed at a straight audience.

That covers the things Adam mentioned in his original comment. In the next entry I'll start talking about what drew me to dance music, what I look for in good dance tracks and what makes a good set.

Intro to Club Music - Part 1

Last night Adam from This Boy Elroy left this comment on Twitter:

"I'm fascinated by people who are into club music. It all sounds the same to me, pots and pans clanging and some unintelligible Diva voice."

Of course, my first reaction was that I really can't expect too much out of Adam -- after all, he went to U of A, so he's just not that bright. And while that's true (I kid, I kid), I suppose that answer is the easy way out. My impression is that there are a lot of people out there who haven't had the opportunity to hear great club music and just don't get what its about. Add on top of it the reality that just like anything else, there's a range of quality when it comes to DJs and club music... kind of like food. There's fast food, gourmet cuisine and everything in between, as well as countless different styles. And so it is with club music.

The Beginning

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Obviously, music has been around for ages and people have been dancing to it for just as long. Modern dance music traces its roots back to the 70s, New York and disco... but not the sort of stuff you'll find on a cheap "Disco Hits" compilation. Disco fused a number of influences -- latin, soul, funk, gospel, blues -- and at its core was gay and underground. Disco collapsed after the major record labels got ahold of it and turned it into a parody of itself, much like they've done with hip hop. Despite its collapse, disco was essentially reborn in Chicago in the 80s as "house" music, which forms the core of most mainstream dance music. House spawned a number of other styles and sub-genres: techno, trance, and progressive being the most well known. Most modern club music (with the exception of hip hop) is some variation of house.

Voices

Every once in a while you run across a bit of news that makes you stop and smile... not that this world isn't as mixed up as ever, but for a moment you can feel like everything is moving in the right direction. Students at Wilton High School in Wilton, CT had written a play, entitled Voices in Conflict, about the Iraq war featuring first-person accounts of soldiers serving there. Predictably, the play had upset some members of the community and school officials banned them from performing it, despite the students' attempts to revise the script to address the presented concerns. Nonetheless, the students were able to perform at an off-Broadway theatre in New York City, before a standing room only audience.

My point isn't to rant about the war -- regardless of my personal views, I understand that reasonable people can come to a variety of conclusions on the subject. I can also understand why families with brothers, sisters, sons and daughters serving in Iraq would have a tough time swallowing this. At the same time, I'm encouraged that a group of young people who were trying to give a voice to those they felt weren't being heard were able to find a voice of their own... despite the attempts to squelch them. Instead of merely accepting what other people told them to think about a controversial subject -- whether those voices were in support or against, they went out, explored the issue and formed their own opinions... and that is a very encouraging thing.

Curves of Steel

Alex and I went to the Curves of Steel exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum. I hadn't been to the PAM in a few years and they had already undergone another major expansion. I know that "Phoenix" and "art" aren't words that one immediately puts together, so I am quite pleased that the city has been putting in money and effort to raise the level of the museum to become appropriate for the 5th largest city in the country. Any improvement in culture in this town is to be applauded. To boot, according to the PAM's website, "Curves of Steel, organized by Phoenix Art Museum, is the first exhibition in an art museum to explore the impact and influence of streamlining on American and European automobile design in the 20^th century." Nice to know we're ahead of the curve on something...

The Curves of Steel exhibit was interesting - although I'm not a huge car aficionado, some of the designs were absolutely breathtaking, from the shape and form of the cars themselves to the use of color. I found this to be a sharp and refreshing contrast to the cars of today... well, except for the Mini, of course, which is near and dear to my heart.

Anyway, the exhibit itself was like PAM's other major exhibits -- a great concept, but a bit stretched. Most of the designs were from the 30s and 40s, which would have been fine had they confined the exhibit to that. Instead, you jumped from the 40s to a monstrous design from the 80s, a shimmery blue car from the 90s that seemed out of place, and an odd airplane surplus design from the 50s. It felt tacked on -- like an essay written for class that was too short, so you had to throw some filler in at the end that doesn't quite fit. You need to either flesh out the later years of the exhibit or cut out the filler. One or the other.

After the rather short exhibit, Alex and I decided to make use of the $14 admission fee and explore the rest of the museum. As we wandered through some of the older pieces, I realized that what this museum needed was a little updating. Taking the cue from lolcats, loltrek, and lolbeeves, I knew the art should reflect the comments we all make in our minds as we walk through the gallery. As such, I present: lolart.