All Together Now: BIFF! BANG! POW!

My DJ sets @ Blue State, the Black Cat, Washington DC

Set 1: Spank Rock “Sweet Talk” / Edu K “Bundalele Baile Jean” / Peaches “Two Guys” / Robyn “Konichiwa Bitches” / Junior Senior “Take My Time” / Prince “U Got The Look” / Maxi Geil & Playcolt “Makin’ Love in the Sunshine” / The Slits “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” / Girls Aloud “Models” / DAT Politics “Turn My Brain Off”

Set 2: The Silures “21 Ghosts” / The Knife “We Share Our Mothers’ Health” / CSS “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” / Vanessinha & Alessandra “Gira” / Christina Aguilera “Ain’t No Other Man” / Ludus “Breaking The Rules” / Cristina “Mamma Mia” / Out Hud “It’s For You” / Gene Serene & John Downfall “U Want Me” / Scissor Sisters “Music Is The Victim” / The Make Up “Pow! To The People”

The Make Up “Pow! To The People” – Though I did not get to go on the full walking tour of my past that I had hoped I would have been able to make time for on my trip, my impression of Washington DC over this weekend was that it was exactly the same but totally different from how it was when I lived there about nine years ago. But then again, so am I, so who knows. Though I found out when I was there that this was not in fact the same Black Cat that I knew when I was there (they moved into a new building), it was still a bit of a weird thrill to get people to dance to Christina Aguilera and Girls Aloud in a venue which I remember as being a minefield of hyper-indie passive aggression. Of course, indie has changed so much from the 90s to now that it’s not exactly shocking that a lot of the old breed have either disappeared or changed over to some strain of 00s popism. Still, I had to pay my respect to that old scene by ending on The Make Up’s classic “Pow! To The People,” which got a pretty intense reaction from the dudes dancing up front. Other songs that went over well: “We Share Our Mothers’ Health” (big shout out to the smallish girl in the green t-shirt who totally flipped out when this came on, you totally made my day!), “Gira,” “Music Is The Victim,” “Grapevine.” I wasn’t super happy with my flow on these sets — I wasn’t able to use my laptop for this, and had to use cds, and on top of that, only one of the two cd decks played cd-rs, so I was under a lot of limitations. I would have followed up “Mothers’ Health” with something faster if it had been a real option for me. Anyway, thanks to Blue State and to everyone who came and danced, and especially to everyone who came over and said hi. It was very nice to meet you. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Also: If you live in NYC, you should come to the Insound Siren fest party at Supreme Trading on Thursday. I’ll be DJing with the Creature guys, and Oh No! Oh My!, The Big Sleep, and Professor Murder will be performing live.