Saturday, January 23, 2010

The lost art of DJ'ing

When I was in college, I was obsessed with Drum and Bass and DJ'ing. I would drive an hour to buy records the day they came out, begging the record store employees to stash new tunes and white labels for me and then come home and play my beloved gems on turntables, beatmatching every transition with the use of my very own ears.

These days, it's quite a different story.

Peep the guy in the picture above "DJ'ing" between acts at Brooklyn's Glasslands last Saturday -- with his iPod. He probably illegally downloaded everything on there too. Good thing his friend is helping him out because this is clearly a two man job. The chin stroking Asian guy in the glasses appears to be deep in thought over this mind boggling showmanship of contemporary DJ'ing. I can't blame him. I was too.

Rock on modern day DJ's!

4 comments:

CC5 said...

So I was just sent a link to your blog from Yvonne Miller- your old Hello Kitty store mate- and I gloriously love that this is the first post I read. It is with distinct disappointment and a slacked jaw that I watch these ipod "djs". What happened to the skill? The crates and train cases?

Le sigh. And mad ups to your dnb love, listening to Danny Byrd as I type this. Yvonne gave me your blog as a guidebook to ny as I'll be there Friday for a week, for work. Anything cool and beat-ridden happening Saturday night? Or Friday? Or whenever, for that matter.

aurelie_bot said...

i'm not sure what's going on tonight but i will probably hit up the big up 6 launch party and a cassette nyc party tomorrow night.

welcome to the city!

tom_bot said...

soooo true. i think we left that rag of a party before you got there because i was gobsmacked from the crowd being in such awe from the simplified, overly bass-heavy versions of 90's pop tunes (reveling in "their newness") that i just........eww. it doesn't bother me that "dj's" sample. i just wish the whole transaction between performer and attendant was more obviously referenced. and can we even call them "dj's" anymore? there are absences of actual discs. although, playing with cd's wasn't much more interesting either.

Robert said...

i just hooked my turntable back up and dug all the records I -didn't- sell out of storage. Something happening here...