Pay close attention to the second listing on the second ad herein. Note the details and make sure you come down because I've got the music and you've got the dancing feet.

Years ago, I ended up in a mosh pit. Descendents had just reformed and the fact that a bunch of kids who were too young to see the band before Milo went to college was a big deal. Actually, make that a huge deal. However, as much as I liked the band, I almost didn't go. Since my early teens, I have had an aversion to punk shows, mostly on account of the fact that there is no such thing as a punk show without a mosh pit and, even back when the term alternated between "mosh pit" and "slam pit," I thought this to be the most asinine excuse for getting the shit kicked out of you possible. Additionally, I must admit to being an utter wuss. I spent my after school hours in ballet class, not AYSO, and dressed like a Twin Peaks teen. If I went to a punk show, I was basically begging to get pummeled.
One of my friends coerced me into going to the show with her. I really didn't put up much of a fight because that would mean that I must admit to my wussiness. When you're nineteen and part of a college radio station, there is no greater fear than the thought that someone might realize that you just aren't that punk rock. So, I headed down to the Whiskey with her and backed myself up against a wall while clutching onto the handle of my Esprit Kelly bag, prepared to watch Milo, Ph.D. sing about food from a safe distance. The friend wanted to go towards the front. I said okay, expecting her to go to the front of the sold-out crowd by herself. She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me towards the stage. No more than five minutes later, I learned that the only thing more degrading than feeling a Doc Marten sole up against your face is falling over the person in front of you while this happens, as the back hem of your pleated skirt meets with your ear.
I tell you this because, tonight, Megan and I ended up on assignment together at the Troubadour, covering the fourth installment of Rise Against's totally-sold-old five-night stint at the club, where we managed to observe the pit from the safe distance of the loft (me) and the back corner of the stage (her). The pit was fairly mellow until the singer from opening band Ignite made some comment that there would be no violence tonight and "if you want to fight, go outside." This statement proved to be about as useful as one of those "talk to your kids about drugs" commercials. Right as he went into the next song, the pit erupted, with guys flinging their bodies into one another and the occasional flailing fist meeting with an unsuspecting face. The dance continued throughout Ignite's set and only grew in size and intensity once Rise Against took to the stage. As we walked out of the club after the lights brightened, Megan and I could feel sweat-mists against our faces. It was hotter on that club floor than a Coachella dance tent at 3 in the afternoon and some of those folks looked as though they had gotten into a brawl while trying to run a marathon. I then realized that even when a show is excellent, as this one was, and even when I'm far removed from the action, I still loathe mosh pits.

Yesterday's post about the true significance of New Order's "Blue Monday," brought in more emails from friends and readers than any post up here yet. Some, who were either DJs or friends of mine who had to guard the DJ booth numerous times, knew about the secret history of "Blue Monday" already. Others sent me notes saying, "So, that's why!"
With this in mind, I'm opening up the email lines for your pressing club questions. Remember that I'm based in Los Angeles, so I can't really answer questions about other cities. While I have experience as both a club-fanatic (11 years!) and DJ (9.5 years!) in various local scenes (particularly goth, Britpop/indie, electro/techno, 80s), I really know nothing about hip-hop or drum'n'bass, so you are better off not asking about such things. If you send me something, I will post the answer on this blog. Also, let me know if you want to keep it anonymous or if you want a plug for your blog or band's site or whatever.

Liz's Email: lizziegolightly@gmail.com

Sitting in the Tower parking lot, I started up the car and popped out a Ladytron cd with the intent of replacing it with Gnarls Barkley. In the two seconds that elapsed as I put the Witching Hour disc inside its case, however, I had a change of heart, thanks to Jack F.M. and the opening strains of Blue Oyster Cult's 1981 hit, "Burnin' for You."
If I were in a band, I would cover this song. It would be one of only two songs that my band would ever reinterpret (the other being ABBA's "Give Me, Give Me, Give Me A Man After Midnight" mixed with bits of "Hung Up"). "Burnin' for You" is by no means my favorite song ("Don't Fear the Reaper," however, is in my Top 5), but it feels like it would lend itself to a good cover. Every time I hear this song, I think about how my imaginary band could redesign, how we could keep the hooks and rough it up to make it a bit more threatening. I did this again, today, sitting through the three lights that it takes to get past the intersection between Tower and the Northridge Mall.
Out of the corner of my oversized sunglasses, I noticed a guy at the corner. He stood next to a bus stop in front of a gas station clad in yellow. Canary shirt. Banana shorts. Lemon hat. Against the yellow shirt, he pressed a bubble-gum pink plastic guitar. He headbanged across the corner, his blonde hair flying back as the baseball cap slid off his head. He moved completely out-of-sync with the BOC song on the radio, which made me lose my focus. Was I supposed to be concentrating on the song in the car and the light ahead of me or the guy on the corner? I kept wondering why he was there. He didn't look like any of the usual West Valley characters, the people my friends and I grew up seeing engaged in odd street corner antics. Judging from the coordinated outfit, the presence of the guitar and the fact that people were going up to talk to him in a neighborhood where nobody chit-chats with strangers, my guess was that the stunt was premeditated. Did someone dare him? Was he just sitting around with his friends smoking a bowl and listening to AC/DC when someone said, "Dude, wouldn't it be totally cool if you stood out on a street corner dressed in yellow and carrying a pink guitar and then you busted out some Angus Young moves?" Did he answer, "Yeah, dude, that would be sweet?" I kind of hope so.

There was this post going around on My Space about DJs (see below) and when I reposted it, one of my friends mentioned that she always wondered how DJs dealt with the need to pee. I told her the secret and, no, it does not involve Depends.
If you DJ regularly at a club with a bathroom attendant, you generally get to know the attendant fairly well and this person will always let you cut because he/she realizes that if you don't get in and out of that bathroom quickly, there will be dead air. Now, if there is no bathroom attendant, you have to figure out your own way to get to the front of the line. Fortunately, people tend to appreciate the DJ enough to let this person jump to the head of the line. Sometimes, this doesn't happen, and the DJ must get fierce and explain, "Look, unless you want the music to stop, you will let me go in the bathroom first." Generally, this works.
While you are taking care of business, you need to have your ass covered in the booth. Your friends, appreciative of the fact that you managed to get them into the club for free, are always willing to stand guard at the DJ booth. However, unless your friends are also DJs, these people have no idea what to do when the record ends. This is where "Blue Monday" comes in.
Trust me on this, if you ever DJ, do not leave the house without a copy of "Blue Monday" in your crate. This song is a guaranteed floor-filler. You can play it at virtually any type of club and people will dance. This makes it perfect for a bathroom break as you do not have to worry about cuing up another song quickly in case it bombs. It just won't. As a bonus, it is eight minutes long, if not a bit longer, which gives you enough time to run to the bathroom and fight your way to the front of the line. Now, dear readers, you know why "Blue Monday" is always played at clubs. Or, at least, you know why I play it.

WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT DJs! Taken from Candy

10. Condoms required when hooking up with a DJ. Yes, it's true. He's kind of scruffy, totally absorbed in music, and hasn't talked to a girl all night. You've watched him for 3 hours. You're 10 times better looking than him, but he's the one making the whole room dance. You pick him up, thinking you're the first hottie this guy has ever gone home with. Well, you're wrong. He hasn't talked to anyone there because he's busy. And why bother, when hotties just like you come and jump into the boat on their own? That DJ you're about to pick up has had sex after every gig for the last 5 years. With girls just as hot as you. To quote my friend Spaceman "They shouldn't be called DJs. They should be called DVs- Disease Vectors." (never had..D

9. It's a DJ Booth. Not a place to rest your drink. I mean, come on! The turntables are 500 bucks a pop, that mixer costs a grand. The amplifier is about $1,100 bucks, and you're casually going to set your pina colada on the table? In front of 500 dancers? Use your brain, people. It's your party too! What do you think happens when all that gear shorts out? That's right. Party over. Finish your drink, and throw it away properly.

8. That song the DJ is playing cost ten bucks. Each song a DJ plays usually costs anywhere from 8 to 15 dollars. Many of my best tracks I bought and had shipped from London, for about 18 dollars a pop. So when you see me roll into a party with a case that holds 100 records, I'm tugging about $1,500 dollars worth of tunes for your listening pleasure.

7. If you must corrupt a DJ with toxins, do it after his set, not before. If you get the DJ high before his set, you're on your own. Remember he's the captain of the ship, and if he's too stoned, his set will sound like tennis shoes in the drier, instead of dance music. Thunk thunk, pause, Bump, thunk thunk pause, bump, thunk thunk thunk pause pause, screeeeetch... You get the picture. One time I watched a DJ playing for 20 minutes, listening to his headphones and everything, nodding his head - before he noticed that his headphones weren't even plugged in.

6. The DJ is not your personal jukebox. Nor would you want him to be. Would you go to your surgeon, while he's giving you stitches in the face, and go ,"Hey, do you have number 3 sinew instead of number 6? I sure love that number 3 sinew." No. Why? Because a surgeon knows what he's doing. So does the DJ. If you're able to get out of your "programmed by clear channel" force-fed crap music, and just LISTEN to what the DJ is blending, building, and releasing, you'll be in for a great night of new music that you've never heard, presented lovingly for you. If you go up and request a song that you've already heard, you've completely missed the point. Let the music change you. Don't change the music.

5. When you call your DJ friend one hour before the gig and ask to be put on a list, you're a jerk. No. Really. He loves you, you're his best friend, and yes, you DID run back into the dorm room in college when it was burning and dragged him to safety. But you're still a jerk for calling an hour before the gig. Why? Because guestlists need to be turned in at least a day early, so they can be organized, alphabetized, printed out, and brought to the gig. By the time you're calling, the list is done, turned in, and already at the door. How do you expect your DJ friend to get you on the list now? By going back in time with your last-minute name? No. Here's how he gets you on the list. He calls up the promoter, who is now annoyed, and begs the guy to hand write your name at the bottom. Then the promoter has his girlfriend stop decorating, and takes the phone to get your friend's name. Then she stops the sound guy, to borrow a pen, to write your lame ass name down. Now, all of these people are preparing for the gig an hour beforehand. The last thing any of them needs to be doing is menial crap like that. Leave the DJ alone to practice, pay the 20 bucks to get in, and support the system.

4.If you're at an illegal warehouse party, always watch the DJ closely. Why is that? Because a DJs record boxes cost thousands of dollars (see number 6) and when the cops roll in, the DJ is the first person to see them. Your back is usually to the door. The DJ faces you, and the entrance. So when you see a DJ hastily grab his record box and run for it, you know to follow him so you don't get arrested. The last time I was at a Do Labs Party, I suddenly noticed a commotion near the front door. I grabbed my girl and headed for the side door. Sure enough, there were a line of 12 cops and about 20 firemen outside the party, just about to roll in and bust the place. We were the last ones out before the hammer fell.

3. The DJ is not an information booth.
The DJ is there to play music. And to do that properly, he needs his ears and his concentration, not your questions. "where's the bathroom?" "Have you seen Jimmy the promoter?" " Can I put my jacket and purse behind the booth?"I'll tell you the one question you are always allowed to ask a DJ. Are you ready? Here it is. "Hey, do you need a drink?"

2. If you're dating a DJ, the day of the week tells you how important you are. That's right. One of my fellow DJs even goes so far as to put the day of the week next to the girl's name in his cell phone. Veronica is the girl he calls on Mondays, Cindy is Tuesday, Janice is Wednesday, and so on. The other day he tells me "I just lost my Thursday. So, I'm looking for a hot girl here to be my new Thursday." It's a good system for him- only problem is, of course, it caps out at a mere seven women

1. What do DJs think about when playing music? In no particular order, here are the things DJs think about while spinning.

"That Bitch better not be cheating on me in the other room"
"Don't let that drunk bitch get near my turntables?"
"Jesus that's a big crotch."
"When's the next DJ coming, I need to hook up"
"Where's my new drink?"
"Shoot. Which one was my Vodka Tonic (models drink too)..."
"Ugh - I have to pee SO BAD"
"God I hate that bitch (waives)"

My friend Matt passed this along. It's a song called "Do It with Madonna" by the Androids and features other pop chanteuses in the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GemwsucYb9A&search=Madonna

My latest letter from Los Angeles is up now at Music Truth. Check it out under the Truth Tales section.

Also, being something of a Current 93 fan, I found this article on Popmatters to be really interesting. I used to be a really big Current 93 fan, but the habit got too expensive and I had to quit cold turkey. Anyhow, if you are going to check out Current 93, I suggest seeking out Island, which was released somewhere in the midst of the acid-house craze. There is actually nothing acid-house about it, even though it is a bit more electronic than other records. It was recorded in Iceland throughout the late-1980s and this chick named Bjork Gudmundsdottir sings backup on one of the songs. Plus, it's the album that contains "Crowleymass," although in a different form than the 12" single version that was a staple at Helter Skelter when my friends and I were regulars. It also contains "Christopher Robin," a song that actually gave me nightmares (seriously, try not to listen to this when you are falling asleep). I don't know how hard it is to get the album now, but back in the mid-1990s (pre-Ebay, pre-download), I had to order this at Record Trader (RIP), which fortunately had a bunch of Helter regulars on staff who knew what I was talking about when I said, "I need 'Crowleymass,' help me!" The cd showed up somewhere between three and six months after that and it was worth every minute of the wait.

The Hollywood Bowl, (in)conveniently located right off the 101 freeway always hits me with an elegant indie/eclectic curve ball. The following are concert dates I urge everyone to attend:

July 6 - Belle & Sebastian - The group will be performing with a full orchestra; opening duties by The Shins; hosted by KCRW's Nic Harcourt.

July 23 - The Flaming Lips - Opening duties by progressive trip-hop duo Thievery Corporation and the infamous Brazilians known as Os Mutantes; hosted by KCRW's Nic Harcourt.

September 21 - VIdeo Games Live! 2006 - The Bowl Orchestra performs video game music from popular contemporary games plus old classics. And, of course, laser lights!!!

September 24 - Massive Attack - Coachella was just the beginning! Opening duties by TV On The Radio.

Last week, I spent three hours a day, ever day listening to KROQ and writing down songs. I have to turn in my findings next week. I'm not really sure if I found anything.
Fifteen years ago, I would have been in heaven if a teacher told me I could get class credit for listening to the radio all afternoon. I would have had findings, too, in the form of a fifteen-page paper on why Liz needs to run off to Manchester (Reason #1: The Smiths; Reason #2: New Order; Reason #3: Stone Roses; Reason #4: Happy Mondays; Reason #5: James etc.). It would have been the best fifteen-page paper on why an L.A. kid should run off to the industrial north of England ever. But, it didn't happen.
Instead, I ended up listening to the radio every afternoon where any song that I find remotely interesting is juxtaposed with Linkin Park, who I humbly submit is one of the worst bands to ever get a recording contract. Now, one thing that I did notice is that KROQ seems to play a lot of requests. At least that's what I gather by the amount of songs on the most requested chart that are played once every three hours or so. Given that I heard Linkin Park at least once a day, more often twice during a three-hour stretch, I would presume that there a lot of people requesting Linkin Park. Why? Is there some sort of beauty in "Numb" or "Crawling" that I just can't grasp? I'm pretty sure that there isn't, but just humor me regardless.
As the week went on, I began to notice other things, such as the intro for "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor." Good song, terrible intro. It sounds like 311 with its weird, quasi-punk drum solo.
Then there is "The Adventure" by Angels and Airwaves. You might recognize this as being the side project of Tom DeLonge from Blink 182. I never liked Blink 182, and that's putting it nicely. I didn't even like them when they were called Blink and they were this band from San Diego that were somehow connected to these girls that Estelle and I kind of were friends with until we got pissed them (maybe for blathering on about Blink so much) or they got pissed at us (maybe for making fun of their Blink obsession) or whatever (I don't really remember, ask Estelle). Anyhow, I flat-out love "The Adventure." I love the Cure guitars and the Kid A-style rock-meets-Warp Records electronics. The production on this song is filled with such stubble-raising intensity that it makes me forget how whiny DeLonge's voice can be (although, he has toned it down some).

No real posts until Liz turns in her thesis proposal tonight. In the meantime, check out the *best* video New Order ever made, as posted by a kind soul on You Tube.

Last night, Carlos was going on about how the guy who had complimented my set at the end of the night was from Culture Clash. I was all, "Huh?" So, then Carlos explained Culture Clash to me and I thought, damn, that sounds cool, I want to see one of the performances. Then, I talked to my mom today and she exclaimed,"Culture Clash!"
I said, "Yeah, you know about Culture Clash?"
She responded, "Yeah, I've seen their stuff on HBO a bunch of times. That's really cool."
My pop culture knowledge is sorely deficient in areas not concerning music.
Here's last night's set, or, at least, what I think was last night's set. I was mixing in an out of stuff so quickly for some reason that I didn't get to write anything down.
Basement Jaxx-- Romeo
Goldfrapp-- Ooh La La (Tiefschwarz Dub)
Cassius-- The Sound of Violence (Two Minute Warning Club Mix by Narcotic Thrust)
Playgroup-- Behind the Wheel (DJ Kicks Electroca$h Mix)
Cutting Crew-- I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight (The Full Embrace Mix)
Duran Duran-- Planet Earth (Night Version)
Jay Harker-- Bela Lugosi's Dead
Human League-- Sound of the Crowd (Trisco's PopClash Mix)
Kylie Minogue-- Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head
Lords of Acid-- I Sit On Acid (Soulwax Remix)
Prodigy-- Charly
KLF-- 3AM Eternal (Live @ the SSL)
Technotronic-- Pump Up the Jam (Vocal Attack)
Masters at Work-- I Can't Get No Sleep (Ken/Lou 12" Mix)
Lil Louis-- French Kiss (The Songbird Sings)
Moloko-- Sing it Back (Tee's Freeze Mix)
Green Velvet-- Genedefekt (Cajmere Mix)
Madonna-- Let It Will Be (Paper Faces Mix)
Air-- Kelly Watch the Stars
Felix da Housecat-- Silver Screen, Shower Scene (Malibu Mix)
Pet Shop Boys-- What Have I Done to Deserve This (Disco Mix)
New Order-- Bizarre Love Triangle
Daft Punk-- Aerodynamite
Depeche Mode-- A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques La Cont Mix)
Audio Bullys-- Shot You Down (Lee Cabrera Lower East Side Mix)
Shocking Blue-- Venus (White Label Mix)
Digitalism-- Digitalism in Cairo
Dot Allison-- Substance (Felix da Housecat Mix)
Telepopmusic-- Love Can Damage Your Health (Sorry for 82 Mix by Sascha Funke)
Stardust-- Music Sounds Better With You
Eurythmics-- Sweet Dreams (White Label Mix)
Golden Boy feat. Miss Kittin-- Rippin' Kittin (Ellen Allien Mix)