Fly Away

This is not in my vinyl collection but I'm looking for it. Because it's so good. This is the b-side to the 1983 White Horse 12" by the Danish group Laid Back.

Download Fly Away/Walking in the Sunshine

Computer Game

So I went to nvision2008 today where a Guiness Book world record was set for longest continuous LAN party: 203 gamers for 36 hours. When I got home I ripped in this 45. Then I went to Smile Sushi with Vao. Now I'm home posting this and realizing that it all pretty much works out.

This is Yellow Magic Orchestra's single from their first album in 1978. The A and B side.
Download Computer Game (Theme From the Circus)
Download Yellow Fever (Tong Poo)

el jefe mixes redux, Part Deuce

Here's another. Recorded for the EOM Sessions on Pulse Radio, which was hosted by my friend Paul Leath. You will hear his golden voice at the end of the set. My set came right after my then-black-door-partner-in-crime Cole, who recently shaved off his handlebar mustache.

Download el jefe on Pulse Radio

Related: Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century

el jefe mixes redux, Part 1

In May 1998 I took a trip out to New York to meet up with my friend Anthony. We started out in NYC for a couple days, passed through Saratoga Springs and Hector, to finally arrive in Mecklenburg, where Anthony was moving into a little farm house. Mecklenburg is almost directly in between Ithaca on Cayuga Lake and Watkins Glen on Seneca Lake. We set up the turntables and I recorded a mix tape. It was the only mix that I actually made copies of (maybe 30) and sold or gave away. People seemed to like it and I would hear stories about it for a years afterwards. Here it is in it's original cassette format. No playlist is available right now, but eventually (this could be an understatement) I will post it.

Download Side A
Download Side B

Konk

I first heard the track Konk Party on a DJ Thomas mix tape that was probably made around 1990ish. Never knew who the band was but years later I was out in NYC with my friend Manny and we spent a day or two with Thomas. I asked him about this track. He told me he had just seen a Konk album the day before at a street market and he'd see if it was there the next time he went by. Well, sure enough, he comes back with the album Jams.

Fast forward a year or two. I'm in Brussels cruising around and come across one of those antique-type shops that has comic books and records in a little upstairs room. Digging through a box I come across the Konk album Yo!. Then a few minutes later come across the original Konk Party 12". Both were a couple dollars. I held on to those things with my life for the next week until I came back home. Yo! is an amazing album. Released about five years before Jams, it's not quite as electronic and much more of a complete album. I wanted to play tracks from this album all the time at the bars and clubs, but tried to exercise some discretion, knowing what a needle can do to a record. The track "Baby Dee" turned up on some compilations, but the two I've included here are my favorites.

So I have to thank Thomas for, once again, turning me on to some great music. And for teaching me some invaluable DJ lessons. The most important: once you learn to beat-match and mix, the party really starts when you don't feel the need to do it all the time. Many DJs become stuck in that black vinyl prison of beat-matching and mixing every single track every single time. And boring us all to death. It's fine to get into a groove for a while, but it seems more fun to get out of a groove and get into another one, often and at the right time.

Download Suave y Caliente
Download Cool Out Gar

The Magic Flute Smurf

By far one of the strangest records I have. Smurfing Beer is a favorite, The Smurf Song went to #1 in 16 countries, and Do Smurfs Cry is something I still ask myself to this very day, but The Magic Flute Smurf will make you crazy within two minutes.

Related: Another great beard: Lysander Spooner.

Download The Magic Flute Smurf

Ranchero-Hop

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