secrets of a dj

Music: Van She: Self-titled E.P. (2006)

Getting prepared for Dead-a-licious 2006, our annual costume party here in Austin. I've picked up a nice little trophy to honor tonight's best dressed. I assure you, it will not be me. Owing to my costume, however, I fully intend to get my fill of lap dances (stay tuned for lurid photos).

Since I'm DJ-ing the event (hopefully with some help from Roger here and there), I often resort to the dirty little secret of DJ-ing: premixing. Because when you DJ you're pretty much tied to the rig every three to five minutes, you become a prisoner back there and cannot dance or mingle or enjoy the party. So, I do what a lot of club DJs do to make sure they have time to smoke a fag or take a pee: I mix three or four songs together into a fifteen minute "block," then I burn the block onto a CD of other blocks. This way, I get to throw on a block and go mingle.

The premixing technique is often annoying if you are not the DJ, I realize. Ever been to club and requested a song, only to never hear it or, if you do hear your tune, it's like an hour later? There are two reasons: either you requested something terrible (as William put it after class last week, "can you play frrrreeeeeeeeebiiiirrrrrrrddddd!??!"), or the DJ is premixing it. In fact, I hear the current trend among a number of the more famous DJs is to premix down to an i-Pod, and then to "rent" the i-Pod to a club for that night.

Currently I'm mixing down an extended version of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" (for Brooke, of course) into Van She's "Kelly," fronted by Bow-Wow-Wow's "I Want Candy." Fun stuff. I also thought I would share one of my coveted premixed blocks to play at your Halloween party! Here it is in mp3 form. The tracklisting is as follows:

• Bobby Pickett: "Monster Mash"
• Spektrum: "Alchemy and Music"
• Michael Jackson: "Thriller [original]," then two "White Label" remixes
• John Lord Fonda: "Personal Jesus"

Been fighting the blues again this week (what else is new?), so a good party is definitely in order. Talking to folks last night at the department happy hour ("Afterwords," as it's called), it seemed like many are super-ready to blow off steam. Let's go!