I started day 4 of this project by getting a train from Exeter Central to Digby & Sowton (two places, one station) for a conference and I sort of have this thing where I really like to listen to M83 - Saturdays = Youth on train journeys, so without breaking habit, I popped that on. Managed to listen to the whole album by train and foot, and then return to train station post conference, it's great record which sort of tails off a bit in the last couple of songs.
For the short train jouney home, my friend Sam's twitter post mentioning the Dismemberment Plan caught my eye, and so Dismemberment Plan - Change caught my ear, well the first 5 songs of it did anyway.
When I got in I listened to Black Keys - Brothers, it's one of my favourite albums of last year, and considering how sunny it was outside, I just whacked it up loudly, opened my bedroom window and listened to it on the balcony while grabbing some sun.
This evening I went to meet some friends at the White Hart beer garden on South Street, on the way there I was still enjoying the sun and fancied something upbeat so I ended up just hearing the first 3 songs of Delphic - Acolyte.
I have a radio show to present tomorrow evening so I imagine I'm going to have to list a whole load more music then!
Day 3 of this project I needed somthing to wake me up while walking to work and what better than LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening, I actually worked my way through the whole album yesterday after putting my headphones on in the office to block out the background drone and people who are too loud on the phone.
On the way home I opted for Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites. Mew are one of, if not my favourite band, depending on my mood and I hadn't listened to their second album in a while. I'd forgotten just how great it is, from the crushing instrumental opener 'The Circuitry of the Wolf' to the somewhat disco-esque 'Special'.
Following football training I put on the new album by Likke Li - Wounded Rhymes. I recently picked up a NAD cd player and I've really got back into listening to CDs as a result and this album just sounds incredible through it, I listened to pretty much the whole album.
I then popped downstairs for dinner and just put on a couple of songs through my iPod dock while it was getting ready, Warpaint - Undertow and Animal Collective - My Girls.
OK so I was a little tired to post this last night but I kept a record of everything I listened to, so what's the harm in posting this up the following morning?
I didn't actually listen to that much today. I worked from home in the morning but didn't actually listen to anything until I was on my way to work and it was Foals - Total Life Forever which first hit my ears today. I managed to get as far as Spanish Sahara before I got to work, probably my favourite song on the album.
Post work I went to play 6 a side, on the way up to the game and in my friends car, I put on Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth (TEED remix) and a poor quality rip of the new Justice single - Civilization. Once home, I had a listen to the Crystal Fighters album through spotify to decide if I liked it enough to buy it, and I subsequentally ordered the album for amazon. I flicked through the free mp3s on the amazon store as well and also downloaded Playgirl - Ladytron which I then popped on before watching Tottenham get stuffed. A quiet day for music.
Ok so my friend has this idea where we all create a diary of everything we listen to for one week, and consider the wheres, whens, whys and hows of this experience. I won't go into too much detail because he can explain this far better than I can.
So Day 1 of my music diary....
I was running late for work, because it was after all Monday and I'm always running late. I listen to half an album on my way to work, well 6 songs of Gorilla Manor by Local Natives loudly through my headphones.
I guess I chose it as it was a regular favourite of mine about this time last year, actually almost to the week I first bought the Local Natives album, and it was a continual favourite through to last summer. It reminded me of breakups and dancing to Local Natives at Roskilde. It's a great record, full of harmonies and off kilter rhythms.
I listened to the second half of the album on the walk home.
Had my friend Jack around for dinner and to watch a couple of episodes of Boardwalk Empire, while I was cleaning the kitchen and preparing the food (oven roasted veg, cous cous and feta) I played theSuburbs by Arcade Fire, I think I got as far as City With No Children. I've got this little Kef iPod dock in the kitchen connected up to some cheap Eltax speakers but it does the job.
Post food and TV, I've come up to sort my room out and played a few 12"s, I don't have much up here (most is still in boxes at my grandparents) but I plumped for Joy Division - Atmosphere/She's Lost Control on 12". My dad gave it to me when I was younger as a present and it's great music to tidy up to. Strangely following this I opted for In Between Days - The Cure and North American Scum - LCD Soundsystem.
Not much really for a Monday but there you go; more tomorrow.
When people ask me what I do, I normally say one of two things, I do project management in the NHS to which I am the recipient of a blank look and silence, like when I tell people my degree is in Classics and Philosophy. The second answer, I play records, often gets a raised eyebrow, this is normally followed by the line, 'oh I've always wanted to do that, how do I get into it? '.
So looking at one of those responses I give, being a Dj. I started out at the tender age of 18 playing punk/rock/metal at the Cavern on Thursday nights, I think I sort of fell into this because I worked at HMV, so bought a lot of music, and also because I was at the Cavern all the time. I really enjoyed it and continued doing the Thursday nights until 2005.
By 2004 there were less rock kids and more indie kids, as someone who had started out as an indie kid, I was pleased to see this return and decided to start up a night on a Saturday. As part of Exeter's alternative, I, like my peers wanted something to do on a Saturday night, and maybe that punk-rock DIY ethic came through. There was nothing that played the Strokes on a Saturday night in Exeter, so why not start my own? I'd also just started my degree and needed some additional income. I started up doing it with my old school friend Tom, who now is a bar manager at the Cavern, and while I was at uni, I did the Lemon Grove on a Friday night too, my weekend was sorted.
So fast forward to 2011, what has changed? Well not much really, I'm still at the Cavern on Saturdays, where I started out with CDs and vinyl, I now use a Macbook and Traktor. The nights are busier than they have been for years and I look forward to every Saturday night as if it was my first one. Is it easy? Well actually it's not, and people say it's just playing CDs but to me it's so much more than that, I see it as an organic process. I like to respond to the crowd I have in front of me and never plan in advance.
Steve Lamaq once said to me, 'to be a successful Dj, you need to choose a genre of music to play in, and play the most popular songs from that genre', and that in effect is true. Although I enjoy a lot of what I play out, it's really important to keep that distinction between records that are suitable for your bedroom, and those that are suitable for a club floor, a distinction I've seen many fail to make.
A technically good Dj I am not, I've never professed to be, and actually I have little desire to be. What I want to see though is a packed dancefloor, dancing to the music I choose, and when I have that in front of me, I wouldn't change it for the world.
So I was having a conversation with my friend today about my blog while perusing the DVD section of Exeter's Fopp and we started discussing favourite films, so the result of this is me now writing this and thinking off the top of my head about some of the films I enjoy. I've actually decided to do the top 'geeky/nerdy' films I enjoy. When it comes to watching films I tend not to watch too many by myself, I'd rather immerse myself in music. If I'm going to watch a film, I like company, I like to be able to discuss it with whoever I've watched it with afterwards. I don't need to say loads about the films because the trailers sort of do that anyway....
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott's take on Philip K. Dick's novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', is a bleak dystopian take on the future. I might be a little bit of a sci-fi geek at times, but this film has an engrossing story, great characters and leaves you with plenty of unanswered questions. Visually this film was years ahead of its time and I sort of just get lost in Ripley's world everytime I watch it.
Spirited Away
OK it was really hard for me to choose a favourite Studio Ghibli film but this one has a special place as the first I saw. I actually saw this at the Picture House while I was at university and I'd never quite seen anything like it before. The emotion and detailed level of storytelling that Hayao Miyazaki is able to portray through this, and other, films is beyond anything any theatrical film is able to replicate.
Goodbye Lenin
This film is beautiful, from the fantastic casting, story and scripting to Yann Tierson's wonderful soundtrack. The film is really moving, following a young man's journey to try and keep his mother alive at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Part tragedy and part comedy, it manages to keep you gripped throughout at the same time reminding the viewer just how much of a lifestyle change the fall of communism must have been for East Berlin.
Empire Strikes Back
I had to sneak one Star Wars film in there and this one is definitely my favourite. Why? Well because it's the darkest of the original trilogy, the battle of Hoth scene is amazing, Yoda teaches Luke how to be a Jedi and we find out Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers father. Pretty powerful stuff to cram into one film. If people ever ask me the last time I cried at a film I always say this one, I am however joking.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Some people might say I'm being damn right risky to put a film that only came out last year alongside such other gems but that's the sort of live life on the edge sort of man I am. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was without a doubt my favourite film of last year, it was a real breath of fresh air and just plain fun. Scott has to defeat the seven evil ex's of the girl of his dreams, Ramona. If you haven't seen it yet, well you should. Enough said.
So with the weekend looming, as a dj I've been thinking about some of my favourite songs to throw outlandish shapes and bust moves to, I'm ignoring any guitar based bands here. I guess thinking about songs that people dance to is a big part of my Saturday evening, and I really enjoy the buzz of a packed dancefloor. If I was to hit the floor, these would be 5 of my favourites.
Blue Monday - New Order
Without a doubt my favourite song to dance to and one of my all time favourite songs, for me this song will never get old. It still sounds fresh today despite the fact that it is as old as I am. New Order were terrible live, great on record, better being played through a club's P.A.. This song will always remain the biggest selling 12" of all time in this country.
Justic Vs Simian - We are your Friends
This song is always great to dance to and has been filling the floors since it was released. This sort of acted as a platform to help launch both Justice and Simian Mobile Disco (even though this is sampled from a track from their former band Simian). You can always here people shout the words as loudly as they can when it comes on.
Hot Chip - Over and Over
Although Hot Chip are a great live band, I feel the true Hot Chip experience is this song on the dancefloor. As hard as they've tried I don't think they're been able to do anything which tops this. At the time it sort of came out of nowhere and Warning was much more of a dance album than their first effort. . LCD Soundsytem - Daft Punk is playing at my house
Certainly my favourite dance group, LCD produce have produced three consistently good studio albums proper, and all of them are fantastic in their own right. Choosing a favourite song to dance to is harder, today I've gone for this one, tomorrow I would probably give you a different answer.
The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers
Produced by James Murphy off of LCD Soundsystem, this is probably the best dance track of the naughties. Everything about this song was years ahead of it's time and still doesn't really get the recognition it deserves and it probably helped Murphy pull some of his ideas together for LCD. If there was ever a perfect song for me to pull shapes to, this is it, probably because I can't dance.
A few others include
Mylo - Drop The Pressure
DFA 1979 - Romantic Rights
Soulwax - E Talking
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Heads Will Roll (A trak remix)
The Knife - Heartbeats
Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not in love
Metronomy - Heartbreaker
Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler
MGMT - Kids (Soulwax remix)
The Faint - Glass Dance
