stuff you've been DJing

sylvain

Ikon Class
Joined
May 31, 2011
any Djs on this list ? Not that I'm one myself, but I'm spinning some 60s-00s garage / beat/ freakbeat once or twice a year in clubs in town. I'm not of the integrist mod-kind, I'm Djing for large audiences not always aware of the 60s underground sounds, and I just don't care if what I spin is on *original* (sigh) 7''s or not, LPs, reissues or whatever, as long as the sound quality is good enough (nobody cares neither in the audience !), and the dance-floor is packed. I usually mix original 60s sounds with neo garage or punk stuff..Would love to share your floor-fillers with mine !
 
The only real DJ stuff I do that involves a listening audience and dancing is soul. A subset of Northern Soul. If anyone's interested I can post some of those.

I did a couple of garage DJ sets a few years ago. I remember a few of the records I played:
Richard and the Young Lions - You can make it
N Group - Keep on running
Buccaneers - Oop Poo Pah Doo
Shy Ones - 12 Months later
Muffets - Dance Dance Dance
Ronnie King and the Passions - Girl Break Away
Skip Drinkwater - Silly Sally (pitched down!)
Thee Deuces - You Gotta Try
Guess Who - Believe Me
Oscar and the Majestics - Gotta Have Your Lovin'
Wailers - Out Of My Tree

I had no idea what I was going to play and went through my collection and figured on what would be danceable. Turned out really well.
 
i dj maybe once a month. and it's a mix of garage r&b and some soul. but predominantly on the rocknroll vein. most of the places are small divey bars with a small space for dancing.

some of the records i spun last week.

the marauders - hi di hi di hi di (coulee)
thee midniters - i found a peanut
screaming lord sutch - dont you just know it
mighty hannibal - fishin' pole
midknights - pain
bobby fuller - shakedown
shapes of things - so mystifying
benny easley - danger signals
dave caflan - you came to me
the unknown - shake a tail feather
king rock and the knights - send di
andy and the live wires - maggie
 
I used to DJ in bars, but now almost exclusively on the radio which is a much different thing. Anyone in the Hudson Valley area is welcome to join me on WGXC 10-midnight on Wednesday nights to play whatever genre you like. Just PM me.
 
Thanx guys. Keep the lists coming.
Spinning in bars and for dance-floors is indeed something totally different. Filling a dance-floor with non-garage heads but with garage sounds only is the challenge. You have to select immediate killers only, but by killers I mean something that can shake even the most techno / anti rock guy or current R&B chick
Which is why, IMO, your lists above are great, but efficient only towards a dedicated 60s crew only.

Here are some of the tracks that are usually falutless to make everybody happy:

Barons – Now you’re mine
Preachers – Who do you love
Exotics – I was alone
Noblemen – Short Time
Rocky & The Riddlers – Flash & Crash
Oscar & Majestics – Got to have your livin
Oscar & Majestics – I feel good
Oscar & Majestics – Can’t explain
Kingsmen – Louie Louie
Trashmen – Surfin Bird
Remains – All day & all the night
Remains – Hang on Sloopy
Moving Sidewalks – Need Me
Music Machine – Trouble
Sonics – Shot down
Chocolate Watch Band – Sweet Young Thing
Swinging Machine – Do you have to ask
Renegades – 13th Women
Emperors – I want my woman
Split Ends – Rich with nothing
The Haunted – 1-2-5
? The Mysterians – Upside
? & The Mysterians – Do something to me
Sheep – Hide & Seek
Jerry & Jeff – Voodoo Medicine Man
Los Buenos – Woovy Groovy
Paul Revere – Louise
Music Machine – Taxman
Music Machine – People in me
Remains – Mercy
Chocolate Watch Band – Come On
etc....

Freakbeat / beat wise:
Brian Diamond : Shake shout & go
Bluestars – Social End Product
Creation – Makin Time
D-Coys - Bad Times
Pretty Things - Buzz the jerk
Thane Russel – Security
etc...

mixed with a lot of neo garage killers such as
Gravedigger V – Spooky
Monsters – Rock around the tombstone
Satelliters – I need you
Space Cakes – Hey hey Girl
Primates – Ain’t like you
Cynics . Waste of time / No friend of mine
etc...

and in a more heavy vein:
Motorhead – I’ll be your sister
Stooges – Shake appeal
Beatles - Helter Skelter
etc

I usually open parties with either
Cramps - Human Fly
Fleshtones - the Drag
or Creation - Making Time
....warmers all garanteed to fill the floor immediatly
 
the major problem with 60s US garage when you wanna make people dance are the bloody breaks that cut the beat in the middle of the song. Like in "psychotic reaction" or Evil Enc Group' "hey you". You can only use those tracks at the end of the night when people are drunk.
A couple of 70s punk tracks that do well as well for garage nights:
Modern Lovers – She cracked
Snivelling Shits – Is Godaman (demo version)
Olivensteins – Fier de ne rien faire
Gun Club – Sex Beat
....
 
I got so sick of playing songs you could dance to I just stopped and instead played whatever I felt like. Worked like a charm anyhoot. It is a limit to how many times you can stand to hear Alligator or Shake or whatever.

Sure. That's my very same problem with Strychnine ;) But there's however so much stuff I just can't get tired of, even after thousands of repeats, like Lyres' Help you Ann or Mickey Finn's Garden of my mind, that DJing is still a total pleasure for me.
 
Guaranteed, with a few drinks, to fill a floor with thee ungaraged up.

Monkey Man - Baby Heuy
Night-time - Strangeloves
gloria's Dream - Belfast Gypsys
You can Make it - Richard & the Young Lions
Jump, Jive and Harmonize - Thee Midniters
Buzz The Jerk - The Pretty Things
daddy Rolling Stone - The wHO^
The Trip - Kim Fowley
Tell Her One More Time - The Reasons Why - Amy (under rated groover in my opinion)
- Any Diddley Beaters

I used to DJ college radio show till I got fired up and fired - swearing over the airwaves - "Fuck Michael Jackson, what about Sky Saxon?" I started my Sky/Seeds tribute show (they died the same week). The radio waves you could get away playing most any obscure crap.

The College Garage Weekly show took it out to thee bar. The other DJ's had a hard time filling the floor, too obscure and inaccessible for an E generation college crowd. Me, I took 50 great beatyfull 45's in a box, they looked at me like I was crazy. "That's all I need" and I was right. After the end of my set an Indian guy who danced asked - "what was that music? I never heard it before but it sounded so familiar" That is the trick, a good beat and not too out there.

#edit#

Mark Markham & the Jesters - Marlboro Country (I could dance to this all night on repeat, it is so irresistible)
 
Now I haven't actually DJed, but these seem like good set tracks.

Lyrics - So What!!
Wig-Wags - I'm On My Way Down The Road
Opus IV - Mess Around
Blues Company - Experiment in Color
Iveys - Daddy's A Millionaire
Beatstalkers - Better Get A Better Hold On
Score - Please Please Me
 
i'm currently in Mexico I have a couple of dj gigs my friend set up. the resident dj plays a constant mix of animals, mysterians, monkees and some mexican 60's mostly covers of rolling stones in spanish, 60 percent of the crowd is non garage non soul oriented heads.
when my time was up the first disc i spun was gino washington "come and monkey with me" they went nuts! followed by a couple of midniters tunes and even janglers and ballads.
i also played swamp rats "no friend of mine" and there were a bunch of people singing.

so i guess a couple of movers and shakers and alcohol make for a fun dance party.
 
i remember playing suzy creamcheese by teddy & the patches, then fancy pants by bobby duvall and the swami by the william penn five. i played one whole side of the jim messina & the jesters-the dragsters lp & one whole side of a hawaiian surf battle after somebody wanted to hear some surf music
 
i play what i like not what some stupid colledge crowd wants to hear. the other dj can spin gay 80's new wave later in the night
I'd hate to see your dance floor. Unless of course there is no dance floor, then F it. Sky's the limit.