Did Book Slam's event as part of the Camden Crawl festival yesterday - filling in the gaps between the excellent array of spoken word, comedy and music. Here's what I played...
Beck - Tropicalia
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven Can Wait
The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
The Virgins - Teen Lovers
Friendly Fires - In The Hospital
Phoenix - 1901
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Mariachi El Bronx - Cell Mates
Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone
Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
Born Ruffians - Badonkadonkey
Ladyhawke - Dusk Till Dawn
Goldfrapp - Ooh La La
Bob Dylan - Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
The Feelies - Let's Go
Television - See No Evil
The Clash - Train In Vain
Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London
Showing posts with label Book Slam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Slam. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Friday, 26 February 2010
Book Slam at The Tabernacle
Last night was the first time I'd DJ'd at The Tabernacle, the home of Book Slam for the past year or so. There were just three performers last night - Scottish poet Robin Robertson, whose poems were sombre stuff, but he had a great way of finding some wicked humour in it, musician Tawiah (below), who channelled a lot of good old psych rock in her music I thought, and my personal favourite of the night, US author Joshua Ferris (below, below). He was there reading from his new book, The Unnamed, and from the extracts he gave us, it's definitely one to read. And I had a chat with him afterwards while asking to him to sign a book for me, and he seemed like a lovely bloke to boot.
Oh, and not forgetting, I got a great compliment from a couple at the end of the night who thought my set was great, and who said it was great that I "got the tone of the evening just right". Hoorah!
I did the usual Book Slam thing of filling in the gaps between acts and always enjoy that. Worth pointing out that the setlist below didn't run exactly like that because there were gaps in it when the performers were onstage. Great for me because it allows me to switch things up a little. So right at the end, I thought I'd re-start with a bit of cool American alt stuff. So in case you're looking at what's below and thinking that to go from Bobby Womack to Vampire Weekend sounds like a challenge, that's not what I did. I'm sure some DJs are clever enough to pull that off, but that ain't me I'm afraid.
Grant Green - Sookie Sookie
Carmen McRae - The Sound Of Silence
Odetta Gordon - Hit Or Miss
Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out
Candi Staton - I'd Rather Be An Old Man's Sweetheart
Professor Longhair - Big Chief
Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard
Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - Tracks Of My Tears
Muddy Waters - I Just Want To Make Love To You
Edwin Starr - 25 Miles
Dangerdoom - Old School Rules
The Slickers - Johnny Too Bad
Idris Muhammad - Express Yourself
Aretha Franklin - The Weight
Erick Sermon Feat Marvin Gaye - Music
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell - Baby Dontcha Worry
Brother Jack McDuff - The Vibrator
Herbie Hancock - Wiggle Waggle
Big Daddy Kane - I'll Take You There
Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Beck - Guero
Jamie T - Chaka Demus
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Book Slam @ Shoreditch Town Hall
Great night last night at Shoreditch Town Hall for Book Slam, with me DJing.
It was part of Red Bull's Music Academy so there were some little twists on a normal Book Slam night, not least my position on the stage next to the performers, which gave me a bit of a start when I first saw it.
Thankfully though there was a strip light on top of my decks that was great for lighting the turntables (below), and had the added bonus of making sight beyond the decks virtually impossible. Hopefully the crowd liked the mix of funk, soul and reggae that I put on between the acts anyway though.
There were a ton of great acts, including author Dreda Say Mitchell, poet Kate Tempest, and grime MCs Wariko, Rinse and P Money (all of whom performed accapella, which allowed their rhymes to really stand out). Highlights for me though were rapper-turned-comedian Doc Brown, whose schtick about being a failed hip hop star was very good. And the night was closed by Sui Zhen, who is a solo performer (at least night anyway) and played an electric guitar while singing beautiful lyrics. And the whole lot was hosted by a top bloke called Charlie Dark.
And in between all that, here's what I played...
Baby Huey Long - Listen To Me
The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - Conga
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - Bongolia
Shuggie Otis - Ice Cold Daydream
The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Brown Sugar
The Harmonettes - Shame Shame Shame
Byron Lee & The Dragonaires - Express Yourself
Ike & Tine Turner - Bold Soul Sister
Archie Bell & The Drells - Knock On Wood
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day & John Coltrane
Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady
The Mohawks - Pepsi
Otis Redding - Hard To Handle
Freddie Scott - You Got What I Need
24 Carat Black - Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth
Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead
The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing
Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up (Pt. 1)
The Detroit Spinners - The Rubberband Man (Pt. 1)
Little Sister - You're The One (Pt. 1)
Commodores - Machine Gun
John Kongos - He's Gonna Step On You Again
Jimmy Cliff - Thank You
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
Dillinger - Cokane In My Brain
Toots & The Maytals - Funky Kingston
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come
Marley Marl And The Juice Crew All-Stars - Symphony
There you go - hope to see you at another one soon.
It was part of Red Bull's Music Academy so there were some little twists on a normal Book Slam night, not least my position on the stage next to the performers, which gave me a bit of a start when I first saw it.
Thankfully though there was a strip light on top of my decks that was great for lighting the turntables (below), and had the added bonus of making sight beyond the decks virtually impossible. Hopefully the crowd liked the mix of funk, soul and reggae that I put on between the acts anyway though.
There were a ton of great acts, including author Dreda Say Mitchell, poet Kate Tempest, and grime MCs Wariko, Rinse and P Money (all of whom performed accapella, which allowed their rhymes to really stand out). Highlights for me though were rapper-turned-comedian Doc Brown, whose schtick about being a failed hip hop star was very good. And the night was closed by Sui Zhen, who is a solo performer (at least night anyway) and played an electric guitar while singing beautiful lyrics. And the whole lot was hosted by a top bloke called Charlie Dark.
And in between all that, here's what I played...
Baby Huey Long - Listen To Me
The Lafayette Afro Rock Band - Conga
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - Bongolia
Shuggie Otis - Ice Cold Daydream
The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Brown Sugar
The Harmonettes - Shame Shame Shame
Byron Lee & The Dragonaires - Express Yourself
Ike & Tine Turner - Bold Soul Sister
Archie Bell & The Drells - Knock On Wood
Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day & John Coltrane
Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady
The Mohawks - Pepsi
Otis Redding - Hard To Handle
Freddie Scott - You Got What I Need
24 Carat Black - Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth
Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead
The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing
Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up (Pt. 1)
The Detroit Spinners - The Rubberband Man (Pt. 1)
Little Sister - You're The One (Pt. 1)
Commodores - Machine Gun
John Kongos - He's Gonna Step On You Again
Jimmy Cliff - Thank You
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
Dillinger - Cokane In My Brain
Toots & The Maytals - Funky Kingston
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
Jimmy Cliff - The Harder They Come
Marley Marl And The Juice Crew All-Stars - Symphony
There you go - hope to see you at another one soon.
Friday, 8 May 2009
Book Slam
Thanks a lot to Book Slam for welcoming me with opening arms to my first official 'gig' for them last night.
After DJing at their Camden Crawl afternoon at the Jazz Cafe, I must have got something right and was invited to DJ last night as their regular guy wasn't available.
It's such a fun night - the performers are always compelling and the vibe is distinctly relaxed and friendly, which you can't always say about every London club night.
Scroobius Pip was on fine form as usual last night, and Tim Clare was reading from his excellent sounding upcoming book, We Can't All Be Astronauts. Kenny, the host, was a great gentleman and may have convinced me finally to get a tattoo. The live band was The Safires and they had something about them, with vocals that had a touch of the Tracy Chapman about them, and a solid trio of musicians which included a guy providing percussion solely through his mouth - sounds gimmicky on paper, but honestly, they were good.
Between performances I played a relatively safe set, it being my first time and all, and so these all made it on the decks (not in this order)...
The Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man
Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Aretha Franklin - The Weight
The Commodores - Machine Gun
Dilated Peoples - Work The Angles
Prince - Alphabet Street
Beck - Black Tambourine
Rodriguez - Establishment Blues
Jay-Z - Lucifer
Beastie Boys - Professor Booty
EPMD - I'm Housin
The Harmonettes - Shame Shame Shame
Dangerdoom - Old School feat Talib Kweli
The Mohawks - The Champ
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
Link Wray - Juke Box Mama
The Standells - Dirty Water
Bo Diddley - Nursery Rhyme
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
Idris Muhammad - Super Bad
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
The Roots - Don't Feel Right
Shinehead - Billy Jean
Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well Part 1
Tenor Saw - Pumpkin Belly
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
The whole evening was loosely themed around festivals, and so Bestival founder and Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank was there to plug his new book, Rob Da Bank's A-Z Of Festivals, and to play a set after the performers which took his book title as its lead. I was chatting to him and I'm proud to say he used my ipod for a couple of tracks that came to him after he'd packed his CDs, and roughly speaking this is who he played (didn't have time to scribble down all the exact tracks, so we'll have to make do with just the artists).
Aphex Twin
Beastie Boys
Beck
Daft Punk
Echo and the Bunnymen
Flaming Lips
Gogol Bordello
Hot Chip
The Jam
Jimi Hendrix
The Kinks
Leftfield
Led Zeppelin
Madness
MGMT
The Pixies
Primal Scream
Radiohead
Rage Against The Machine
The Specials
The Undertones
White Stripes
Sex Pistols (because it had an 'x' in it)
He didn't quite get to Z but it was sterling set that got the crowd moving.
And the very final track of the evening was something that I'll write a bit more about when I get hold of it on MP3. By a guy called MC Nobody, I think, who may or may not be quite a well known UK MC, and it was like a drum n bass-y, grimey take on the hymn Jerusalem. It sounds like a head-scratcher but by that time I'd had enough beers and too little food to care, so to my ears I thought it was fricking brilliant. It was written to tie in with a forthcoming book by Book Slam founder and all round great man, Patrick Neate, again more of which when I know more.
A brilliant night all in - one that wasn't even tainted by going on to a rubbish bar in Soho that had possibly the most wasted, most useless, most annoying DJ I've ever heard. The show tunes and obscure rave and pop b-sides might just have been stomachable in a daft kind of a way if the twat hadn't been fading them out at his will and then taking thirty seconds to start the next shit tune.
Still, like I say, last night was all about Book Slam, so I hope to see you down there soon.
After DJing at their Camden Crawl afternoon at the Jazz Cafe, I must have got something right and was invited to DJ last night as their regular guy wasn't available.
It's such a fun night - the performers are always compelling and the vibe is distinctly relaxed and friendly, which you can't always say about every London club night.
Scroobius Pip was on fine form as usual last night, and Tim Clare was reading from his excellent sounding upcoming book, We Can't All Be Astronauts. Kenny, the host, was a great gentleman and may have convinced me finally to get a tattoo. The live band was The Safires and they had something about them, with vocals that had a touch of the Tracy Chapman about them, and a solid trio of musicians which included a guy providing percussion solely through his mouth - sounds gimmicky on paper, but honestly, they were good.
Between performances I played a relatively safe set, it being my first time and all, and so these all made it on the decks (not in this order)...
The Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man
Toots & The Maytals - Pressure Drop
Aretha Franklin - The Weight
The Commodores - Machine Gun
Dilated Peoples - Work The Angles
Prince - Alphabet Street
Beck - Black Tambourine
Rodriguez - Establishment Blues
Jay-Z - Lucifer
Beastie Boys - Professor Booty
EPMD - I'm Housin
The Harmonettes - Shame Shame Shame
Dangerdoom - Old School feat Talib Kweli
The Mohawks - The Champ
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
Link Wray - Juke Box Mama
The Standells - Dirty Water
Bo Diddley - Nursery Rhyme
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
Idris Muhammad - Super Bad
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
The Roots - Don't Feel Right
Shinehead - Billy Jean
Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well Part 1
Tenor Saw - Pumpkin Belly
Ini Kamoze - World A Music
The whole evening was loosely themed around festivals, and so Bestival founder and Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank was there to plug his new book, Rob Da Bank's A-Z Of Festivals, and to play a set after the performers which took his book title as its lead. I was chatting to him and I'm proud to say he used my ipod for a couple of tracks that came to him after he'd packed his CDs, and roughly speaking this is who he played (didn't have time to scribble down all the exact tracks, so we'll have to make do with just the artists).
Aphex Twin
Beastie Boys
Beck
Daft Punk
Echo and the Bunnymen
Flaming Lips
Gogol Bordello
Hot Chip
The Jam
Jimi Hendrix
The Kinks
Leftfield
Led Zeppelin
Madness
MGMT
The Pixies
Primal Scream
Radiohead
Rage Against The Machine
The Specials
The Undertones
White Stripes
Sex Pistols (because it had an 'x' in it)
He didn't quite get to Z but it was sterling set that got the crowd moving.
And the very final track of the evening was something that I'll write a bit more about when I get hold of it on MP3. By a guy called MC Nobody, I think, who may or may not be quite a well known UK MC, and it was like a drum n bass-y, grimey take on the hymn Jerusalem. It sounds like a head-scratcher but by that time I'd had enough beers and too little food to care, so to my ears I thought it was fricking brilliant. It was written to tie in with a forthcoming book by Book Slam founder and all round great man, Patrick Neate, again more of which when I know more.
A brilliant night all in - one that wasn't even tainted by going on to a rubbish bar in Soho that had possibly the most wasted, most useless, most annoying DJ I've ever heard. The show tunes and obscure rave and pop b-sides might just have been stomachable in a daft kind of a way if the twat hadn't been fading them out at his will and then taking thirty seconds to start the next shit tune.
Still, like I say, last night was all about Book Slam, so I hope to see you down there soon.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Book Slam @ Camden Crawl
A friend, the author Patrick Neate, runs this cool club called Book Slam, which showcases lots of spoken word artists, and they held an afternoon at the Jazz Cafe as part of Camden Crawl yesterday. I'm not a regular on the decks for them but was asked to have a go at filling the gaps between artists. After thinking about it for less than a second, I agreed, even though it was the day after I'd moved - far too good an offer to pass up on.
It was a great afternoon, very relaxed, and with an array of really interesting performers, which is what Book Slam's known for. Patrick started with a brilliant piece about getting slowed down in London - easy to relate to for all the crowd. Good comedy from Dan Antopolski (loved his chart of statistical probability of laughing certain body parts off), compelling turns from Scroobius Pip and Dockers MC, and readings from their books by Joe Stretch (Friction), John Niven (Kill Your Friends) and Howard Marks (Mr Nice). Oh, and some very endearing acoustic stuff from London lady Lail Arad.
So in between, these are the tracks I put on, which didn't seem to drive anyone away, and that's about the best thing you can hope for at a time when no-one's there for you.
The Very Best - Kamphopo
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
M.I.A. - Jimmy
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
Neon Neon - Dream Cars
Lykke Li - I'm Good I'm Gone
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
Goldfrapp - Happiness
Metric - Help I'm Alive
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock
TV On The Radio - Crying
Bat For Lashes - Daniel
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
The Soft Pack - Right And Wrong
Television - See No Evil
Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem Pour Un Con
Toots & The Maytals - 54-46
Dillinger - Cokane In My Brain
Aretha Franklin - The Weight
John Barry - Midnight Cowboy
It was a great afternoon, very relaxed, and with an array of really interesting performers, which is what Book Slam's known for. Patrick started with a brilliant piece about getting slowed down in London - easy to relate to for all the crowd. Good comedy from Dan Antopolski (loved his chart of statistical probability of laughing certain body parts off), compelling turns from Scroobius Pip and Dockers MC, and readings from their books by Joe Stretch (Friction), John Niven (Kill Your Friends) and Howard Marks (Mr Nice). Oh, and some very endearing acoustic stuff from London lady Lail Arad.
So in between, these are the tracks I put on, which didn't seem to drive anyone away, and that's about the best thing you can hope for at a time when no-one's there for you.
The Very Best - Kamphopo
Passion Pit - Sleepyhead
M.I.A. - Jimmy
Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
Neon Neon - Dream Cars
Lykke Li - I'm Good I'm Gone
Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
Hot Chip - Ready For The Floor
Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream
Goldfrapp - Happiness
Metric - Help I'm Alive
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Soft Shock
TV On The Radio - Crying
Bat For Lashes - Daniel
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
The Soft Pack - Right And Wrong
Television - See No Evil
Serge Gainsbourg - Requiem Pour Un Con
Toots & The Maytals - 54-46
Dillinger - Cokane In My Brain
Aretha Franklin - The Weight
John Barry - Midnight Cowboy
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