31.7.07
Way back in the day when baby Porter was still cutting her teeth DJing for her stuffed animals and her loyal roommate in her apartment, she decided to go to something called "Night Gallery" because some dude named "Wolfie" on the Orangekids list had asked her to come by. It was somewhere called "The Red Loft." So, I went and saw something I'd never quite seen before, something called "The Mutaytor." Now, maybe it was because I was totally swooning over one of their hooper girls, or maybe it was that gritty bassline, but honestly, I was in. Sign me up. I was hooked.Soon after, as I've recounted many, many times, I found myself tangled in an orange web of "temporary fence" that I'd walked straight into because I couldn't stop staring at this totally hot girl holding something on fire and shouting at people to back away from some electrified truck because some guy was doing something with lightning on top of it. Nevermind the guy totally playing with lightning though, right?
Fast forward to 2004 and I found myself gigging out with Wolfie and the Tators a lot. And even more in 2005. Friday night gigs somehow tunred into Saturday morning afterparties fueled by two bottles of Jaguer Meister.....They became like family to me (okay, more like second cousins through marriage but whatever.) Then they got all huge and started touring around the country and stuff, and I got busy with other work and wanted to slow down my DJing so that I actually had a life on the weekends outside of "Play, sleep, eat, repeat."
Somehow it seems I lost track of them, but it was all okay. We were all doing our thing and doing it with flare.
But recently my phone rang. It was Wolfie. "Hey, wanna play the Roxy on Aug 3rd?"
So now it's midway through 2007, and we are returning to the Sunset Strip to rock the roof off of The Roxy on Friday night. I rarely see them, and when I do it's a lot of "We need to hang out more!" but we are all on our own little adventure, so it's rare that we actually DO hang out. But I miss them, and I've been listening to all the music I was playing back then as well as their albums and I'm getting so psyched for Friday night. I mean really, how could I not be stoked with Buck on guitar? Electric Avenue? Helllo?
All I know is that when I walk in on Friday night, I need to do whip out a bottle of Glen Livet for Buck and start taking swigs with him. I want to toast to our past, the gift that is the present that finds Porter, Wolfie and the band together on Sunset Strip for at least one night, and whatever the future holds.
I hope you'll be there to toast with us.
www.djwolfie.com for presale tickets.
This event will, if it hasn't already, sell out.
17.7.07
You know what I hate MOST about Dj's? The fact that if they are not squabbling over "Vinyl vs. CDJs" they are arguing like nerds playing with 12 sided dice about "CDJ's vs. Final Scratch Pro" or "Final Scratch Pro vs. Abelton Live." Put your pocket-protector away, Erckle, and while you're at it, shut the hell up.You would not believe the threads going on for miles about this crap on our DJ emails back and forth to each other. It's like watching the Surreal Life except with DJs in the underground. The only good thing about it is that I have a big ol' DELETE button, ha ha ha.
Here's the backstory: I recently decided I was tired of playing all the same tracks on beatport.com (like it's a big secret where all the L.A. dj's do their shopping anymore) as every other dj in L.A., as well as the fact that FINDING exactly what I wanted meant I had to sift through about 300 or more songs (and still maybe not find what I was looking for.) So, instead of not shopping and therefore NOT having new music to play out, I decided I was FINALLY going to make the leap into production. I figure, "What the hell? I'm only playing the gigs I absolutely WANT to play these days, so why am I not playing the EXACT sound that I WANT to hear/play?" I asked myself, "What would Lindsay Lohan do?"
But then I made the mistake of telling my DJ friends what I decided to buy (Reason.) THEN the discussion really began and I've just spent the last half an hour listening to Saynt on AIM (who does NOT currently produce tracks) tell me that I'll basically be producing on "speak and spell" because I'm doing it on a PC instead of a Mac. I'd also like to stipulate at this time that Saynt is a World of Warcraft addict and still wears floaties in the swimming pool.
It's the same reason people hate HATE burners: they never, ever shut up about it. It's worse than hearing about Paris Hilton in jail. Burningman this and camping this and fuzzy bike that and what it means to them and their experience and epiphanies..... on and on and on for six months out of the year if not more. Don't get me wrong, it's great that people can find something in the middle of nowhere, but must it be like Mormon's on their missions trying to convert? I get it: doing stuff in the middle of nowhere without the outside world bothering you is fun; It's why Britney Spears keeps going to rehab and it's why our troops don't ever want to come home from the middle east.
Don't get me wrong, I am as much a part of the underground community as any artist or promoter or DJ or participant and have been called "a burner who doesn't go to burningman" (which I take as a compliment.) I love my burner friends and I'm glad it makes them happy. Just the same way I am happy when Wolfie told me he was using Logic and learning and producing. Good for him! He smacked down the time and cash to learn and create using Mac-based software Logic, and that's only a good thing (or a bad thing, depending on whether you are listening to his stuff.) I was happy to see DivaDanielle rock out on Serato software because all of the "on the fly" stuff you can throw into a regular DJ set. I am stoked at any new creation, even if it's glitch-breaks (okay, maybe not glitch breaks.)
But arguing over it is like arguing over drinking your "Mystical Elven invisibility potion" before or after heading into the "dungeon of doom" to rescue your "12th level companion dog-minion," except, in my opinion, it's much worse because they are arguing about "what's the better way to create" something. Who fucking cares as long as you're creating?
I have to go to the store now. I promised Saynt I'd get him a brand new set of 12 sided dice for his birthday.
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