In which we enter a symbiotic relationship with our inner 7 year old and an actual 7 year old

Oh heck yes ya’ll! We had an ACTUAL 7 YEAR OLD at DDPP on Thanksgiving eve! And she taught us a thing or two about what it means to really release your inner child. She pretty much owned our fabulous lava-projector machine (speaking of thanks-giving – thanks for the extended loan on that machine from the lovely Liz Mason

We took turns scissor kicking while she darted between the shadows of our perilous calves. Speaking of perilous calves, I believe that will be the name of my next band.

This mind-blowing 7 year old got me thinking… what was it like to be that age? I can barely remember anything from that time period other than being a TOTAL bad ass:

Yep. That’s me (JB) on a three-wheeler in stonewashed jeans, aquasocks, the tag on my shirt hanging out, tortoise shell oversized specs and a certifiable mullet. My posture has not changed, sadly.

But what the hell was going through my 7 year old mind? I consulted the wise internet to see what it had to say about this tender, tender age:

“Parents can help their seven year old stay in control by ensuring that she is allowed time to finish what she is doing before insisting that she do something else, for instance – like ripping through a forest with her pals on a three-wheeler or dancing like a maniac on a group of strange women for an hour.

In addition to posting a daily schedule for the family, parents can help seven through the day with simple strategies such as introducing seven to novel experiences, like new foods, new experiences, off-roading and international dance moves.

Speaking of bedtime, seven is often afraid of the dark. One recommendation is to get a lava projector involved in front of which she can freak out until she’s beyond exhaustion.”

WOW – thank you wise internets! This all so intuitively right-feeling. Even from my 29 year old vantage point.

The woman who provided the juice for the severely inspiring evening is none other than DJ S-Pop. And holy moses, it was her first mix…and she knocked it outta the park. Beholdeth the musique:

1)  Black & Gold  – Sam Sparro                3:40
2)  Walking on the Moon – The Dream       4:15
3)  Faster – Janelle Monae                       3:20
4)  Baby I’m a Star – Prince                      4:24
5)  If I had you – Adam Lambert                 3:47

6) Cherry Lips – Garbage                          3:13

7) Precious – The Pretenders                    3:36
8)  Meet Super – Fay Ann Lyons               3:13

9) Que hiciste (remix) Jennifer Lopez        4:38

10) Emboscada Vico C                            4:22

11) Lose Control – Missy Elliot                 3:49

12) Touch – Amerie                                  3:31
13) Crash & burn girl – Robyn                    3:37
14) Gimme more – Britney Spears            4:13
15) Deeper & Deeper – Madonna              4:56

16) The moon and the sky – Sade            4:27

In closing, we offer you a peek into the psyche of yet another other incredible 7 year old… “I want to do it because it’s fun. It’s fun to do bad things.”

May you get in touch with *your* inner 7 year old this holiday weekend. And no – not like that. Yeah – more like that.

Just What We Needed

Ladies, a picture is worth a thousand words (and this one better end up on facebook):

Behold, DJ Slap!Chop! in all her glory!  And if you were with us on the dancefloor this afternoon, then you know that DJ Slap!Chop! not only brought the threads, she brought the tunes to back them up.  Today’s mix paid homage to the punk, glam, and new wave movements of the 70s (by the way, whoever said that the 70s were a throwaway decade clearly never got beyond disco–this shit was RAD.  Or wait, what’s 70s for rad?).  DJ Slap!Chop! worried that her high school and college survival jams would date her, but this mix, and these songs, were as classic and timeless as DJ Slap!Chop! herself.

Fellow fun-loving women, it’s the time of year to take inventory.  Thanksgiving is all about thanks, after all.  Well, it begins today.  Thank you DJ Slap!Chop! for yet another stellar mix!  Thank you fabulous females–especially all you first timers!–for coming out and getting cuh-razy with us!  Thank you Jenns for birthing this magical love child we call DDPP Chicago!  Mix after mix may feature the songs that got us through adolescence, but week by week they are becoming the songs that get us through, well, life.  And man, that makes me feel all Norman-Rockwelly inside…if Norman Rockwell were an anarchist:

So, without further ado, the mix that would have inspired Norman to legally change his name to Punk-Rockwell, pierce his eyebrow with a safety pin, and start shooting heroin:

Thankfully all it made us want to do was get down!  God save you DJ Slap!Chop!, because you are the queen of punk.  We love you woman!  We will miss you while you take a break to get your bum knee fixed, we’ll be sending healing thoughts your way, and we’ll be counting down the days until you are back on the dancefloor doing this:

Note: We WILL have class this Wednesday (11/24), but no class next Sunday (11/28).

Why Yes, These ARE Space Pants…

Holy hell–where do I even begin?  Last night started off with DDPP as usual.  Yours truly brought the tunes as DJ Cosmic Assmaster: Assmaster of the Universe, and I hate writing about my own mixes.  It makes me feel like a total goob.  Let me just say I hope all you ladies had as much fun dancing to it as I had putting it together, and that today your butts feel planetarily aligned:

Like I said, I don’t want to toot my own horn, so I’ll go ahead and let you infer how hot this one was by the Brandel Steam Scale:

What?!  Looks like at least a 6.8!

Okay, now here comes the good part.  After class a group of fun-loving, kick ass ladies converged upon the Horseshoe and pretty much took over the place.  We were THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE, and it was frickin’ amazing!   We literally moved the dance party from one location to another, added french fries, well drinks, and a microphone, and this happened:

 

And then this:

 

 

Look how much fun we were having!

 

 

 

 

At some point (once my limbs are fully functioning again), I will de-red eye these bad boys and get the whole photo story up on flickr (and DDPP facebook!).  I might even, if the ladies agree to it, post VIDEOS.  Until then, I leave you with my favorite shot:

 

See that guy in the background?  He walked in while Anna was singing “Believe” (oh yeah, by Cher), and we were dancing like maniacs.  He stayed for about thirty seconds–then he made a run for it.  Poor bastard, he had no idea what he was in for.

So, to sum it up: we will be doing this again.

xo,

DJ Cosmic Assmaster

Merci Beaucoup!

Time for a little French lesson:  Rendezvous from rendez, second person plural of se rendre (“to go (to)”) + vous (“you”).  DJ Rendezvous, last night we learned that we can go to you any time we need to get crazy sweaty!

Ladies, this mix was Stefani style b.a.n.a.n.a.s.  The hits kept coming, and the set packed such a punch that we might have to change DJ Rendezvous’ name. I honorarily christen thee…DJ Kid Dynamite!

Seriously though, I did not want to get out of bed this morning.

But it was totally worth it!  I don’t think I have ever witnessed such an enthusiastic dancefloor karaoke-ing as I did on song number 8–the whole studio was singing!  Come to think of it, the whole studio was singing every single song.  I’d hate to be the DJ that has to follow up this masterpiece (mostly because I AM that DJ!)

DJ Rendezvous, your power is discombobulatingly devastating–straight up.  You turned us all into maniacs!  And for that we love you, unmistakably.

And-and, if you want to see yours truly attempt to follow up this behemoth boogie fest, come to class this Wednesday!  Afterward we will be heading to the Horseshoe for some cold beer, BBQ, and karaoke off the dancefloor.

Totale Originale

DJ Michelle Leslie Brown, the prolific, the terrific, master DJ who’s graced us with an original mix of music once monthly for um, years(!) did it again tonight! The woman somehow manages to tweeze out amazing dance tunes from between the cracks of the thousands of songs that have been jammed down to at the DDPP studios.

So in honor of this DJ’s fierce originality, I present to you a visual tour of other original favorites. Consider it a curation of curiosities…

And fitting right in is Dj Michelle Leslie Brown’s playlist…

The Power of Dance Compels You

This week DJ Kling-On had a devil inside…a devil by the name of INXS.  Luckily we had the cure: a few high kicks, some good vibes, and that devil was exorcised (and we were exercised!)  It was a…

Pudding Pops not included.

The house was packed, and there wasn’t nearly enough time to jump around–don’t believe me?  Ask the lady from DDPP-PDX (Portland, they sometimes go for 2 hours!) who traveled over 2,000 miles to boogie with us (or probably to visit some friends or family, but hey, we like to think we’re special).  No matter, the music pushed us on. From pantomime-driving to wacky gnome dancing, DJ Kling-On was in the middle of it all rocking out like there was no tomorrow! She was the master of kicking ass, and we were her servants.  While we’re just regular folks, there was nothing common about this mix:

Ah DJ Kling-On, if only you’d been able to make time stop for the 17 of us.  Since you couldn’t, you gave us the next best thing: a holy f*ck sensation to carry us throughout the week!  You can bring those demons to the dancefloor any time.  In honor of that, I leave you with something truly wicked:

 

Celebrity DJ! Introducing… Shamu Pancakes.

Pre-foreward… apologies about the delay in posting last Wednesday’s playlist. It’s tough when  your DJ isn’t actually able to attend DDPP – not only because the DJ is a boy (Jenn Brandel’s brother Todd), but also because the DJ is an orca whale. And orca’s are worse than Italians at telling time and caring about punctuality. Ahem. And now for a peek inside the mind of a man-whale DJ.

DDPP caught up with DJ Shamu Pancakes during his winter migration from northern British Columbia to the tropical shore waters of Mexico. As one of a shrinking population of electronic dance-music loving killer whales, DJ SP was flattered by the opportunity to provide a soundtrack for DDPP. We asked him for a rundown of his chosen tracks and why, and after cleaning his teeth with a walrus tusk, he was happy to oblige:

TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY – Justice

Jenn B told me I had to open the set with a warm-up jam, and I figured what better to warm up a roomful of chicks than a slow-ish jam featuring a chick rap-talking about the crazy shit she’s gonna into that night with her chick friends? If I was a chick, I’d think that was cool.

Cooler Couleur (Junkie XL Remix) – Crookers featuring Yelle

This 7 minute funkfest sets the mood for what’s about to happen. You’re gonna “work out”, your head is gonna be filled with some throbbing beats, and you’re not gonna know what decade it is.

Dreams (feat. Stevie Nicks) – Deep Dish

These Iranians can work the knobs.  I don’t know if that’s good or bad for US-Iranian relations. All I know is Stevie can heal international wounds.

Happy Up Here – Royksopp

This song makes me happy up here in Mexico, especially the breakdown. If you couldn’t tell, I like high-pitched tings in my beats. You might assume it’s because I hear with SONAR. You’d be wrong. I just like tings.

I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ – Scissor Sisters

I put this on here so you’d wonder whether I was gay.

Little Secrets – Passion Pit

This one features the PS22 chorus, a kids group from New York that might be some kind of weird melting pot school experiment. If you check them out on YouTube, you’ll hear some cool interpretations and probably think they’re adorable. I think they look delicious.

Baby Can’t Stop – Lindstrom & Christabelle

My cousin Gustaf Pancakes turned me on to this Norweigan DJ. Perfect music for hunting Chinook in cold waters. You know, when your tail is burning and you don’t know whether you can go another minute, and then those horns come on and it kinda sounds like Michael Jackson and you say to yourself “that Chinook isn’t gonna catch and eat itself!”, you know?

The Girls Say – Groove Armada

For my money, the hardcoreness of the beats in this one make up for the not-too-subtle misogyny of the lyrics.

Dirt Off Your Android – Jaydiohead

In my oceanic world, sometimes mashups work, and more often they don’t. For instance, if one more whale tells me how awesome Girl Talk is, I’m gonna stab my own blowhole. Girl Talk fucking blows, ok? Jaydiohead, on the other hand, does not.

Dance Wiv Me – Dizzee Rascal

Something about a British rapper who you can still totally tell is black is awesome. I mean, really awesome. I’m pretty sure there’s some cockney being thrown down in this one, but I’m usually way too hammered to figure out what he’s saying.

Lights & Music – Cut Copy

Pitchfork loved this album, and I’m a slave to hipster music snobbery. It also vaguely reminds me of Duran Duran, which I like and discredits the previous sentence. Deal with it.

Electric Feel (Justice Remix) – MGMT

A near mixtape faux pas with the second Justice tune. I allow an exception because 1) this is technically a Justice remix (for which they won a grammy, btw); and 2) Justice is the fucking balls and if there’s one band I don’t mind repeating, it’s these two French geniuses.

Erotic City – Prince

I like watching the cows in our pod dance to this. Always have. Ever since college. The lyrics are so raw, yet the rawness is covered up by their polish. If this doesn’t move your hips, you don’t have a soul.

Psychic City (Classixxx Remix) – YACHT

A worthy closer – quirky, a little slow, full of bleeps and honks, plays on the “city” theme established by Prince, and reminds me of the rich assholes on yachts I spook every day.

Hope y’all enjoyed my attempt at DJing your dance (dance) party (party). Now I’m gonna go find a family of seals to snack on.

the land of 1,000 dances

One day long, long ago and metaphorically speaking… there were these two nekkid people, a dude named Adam and a lady named summer’s Eve. They frolicked and played and braided each other’s under-hairs and generally had no semblance of the emotion of shame. Were they shameless? No. Not even knowing shame is quite different than just repressing or denying it.

It is a truth we don’t talk about often, but right now seems like a good time to let this information out of the closet… Adam and Eve were the first Dance Dance Party Partiers. Carefreely, they moved their bodies hither and thither, feeling joy, feeling freedom, they didn’t focus on who had what body part or how big or small each was – they just grooved…in a magical land… a land of 1,000 dances, and kittens and bunnies and lego tulips.

And they did all this with neither booze nor judgment! (we’ll let the “no boys” rule of DDPP slide here because all the baggage with post-apple-eating knowledge doesn’t apply… yet). It was bliss. Until one dusky evening when Adam and summer’s Eve were teaching the electric boogaloo to a neighborhood muskrat, a certain DJ came by. A DJ by the name of Ssssnake.

This here Ssssnake had on her a bright and special apple (an iPod, to be exact), and within this apple was contained a universe of sonic knowledge. See Adam and Eve had never heard actual music, no sounds organized beyond the yowling yips of the gibbons, or the cackles of the cockatoos. But once this DJ Ssssnake tempted them with smokin beats that could not and WOULD not quit and the promise of an hour-long euphoria they could repeat whenever they wished, Adam and Eve’s world changed in an instant, and forever.

In a flash, they were expelled from the ignorance of plain not knowing what it felt like to truly dance or how hot their tushies looked when they backed that ass up. And then this here monkey put on a robe and became king of the land of 1,000 dances while pitying how white Adam and Eve suddenly realized their dance moves were.

Dear reader, if you’ve stayed with me for this long, then you might care to know that this timeless story of ignorance and knowledge, of apple products and sophistication, and monkeys looking down on human rhythm, pretty much was all repeated moment for moment last Wednesday when DJ Ssssnake illuminated the room with her sinfully awesome mix. Bravo DJ! We thank you for removing the veil of ignorance that kept us from a mix like yours for so long. If knowledge like this is wrong, we don’t want to be right.

(I’ll let ya’ll connect the dots here, but within an hour after DJ Ssssnake’s mix here, we got an email from Next Generation Condoms to see if DDPP wanted to host a glow in the dark condom party. They must have known that suddenly all us gals were on guard for all things slithering, all things snake-like, and all things that like hiding in the bushes.)

190 North Segment is Online!

If you crashed before 10:30 on Sunday (no judgment!), forgot to set your DVR, or just plain don’t own a TV, you can still watch us on 190 North!  The episode is currently on their website.  Not bad, eh?

If Tricks Are For Kids…

Treats must be for ladies, because we got a (metaphorical) pillowcase full yesterday!  The dispenser was none other than DJ U.N.I.T.Y., who showed up with one of the best costumes I have ever seen:

No, your eyes do not deceive you–the song playing on that monster iPod is in fact U.N.I.T.Y. by Queen Latifah and YES, the screen LIGHTS UP!  Dear denmother writing this post, yeah you, the one with the last minute “Billy Elliot” costume: step up your game.

Along with a killer costume, DJ U.N.I.T.Y. brought magic, and with a wave of her giant ear buds…poof!  A room full of super freaks!  One good thing about a Billy Elliot costume is that it allows for sweating–which there was plenty of.  There were also plenty of tunes ideal for zombie shuffling, 80s stripper grinding, and twirling of light strands lasso-style.  Thankfully no one lost an eye, so it remained all fun and games.

Ladies, take a gander at the playlist you would gladly cash in all your candy for:

DJ U.N.I.T.Y., there is nothing strange about our love for you.  You are at your most beautiful dancing your butt off!  You can pour your sugar on us anytime (which was, by the way song #14).