By William Alberque
This Saturday (6/4) is the DC Record Fair! Brought to you by Som Records, DC Soul Recordings, and The Vinyl District, almost thirty dealers will be taking over the space at vitaminwater® uncapped LIVE near the U Street Corridor, presented by Brightest Young Things, Art Whino, and G40.
As always, we’ll have vendors from up and down the East Coast augmented by our ever-revolving Guest DJs, plus food, drinks, and everything you’ve become accustomed to.
The Washington, DC Record Fair
Saturday, June 4, 2011
vitaminwater® uncapped LIVE
2217 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
11-Noon early bird $5 admission
12-5PM $2 admission
DJ Set Times:
11-12 Lipstick DJs: DJ Jennder (TVD) & William Alberque (BYT)
12-1 Jon Meyers (TVD)
1-2 The Metaphysical (TVD)
2-3 Nitekrawler (DC Soul Recordings)
3-4 DJ Smudge
4-5 DJ Mojo Gogo
All week, the DC Record Fair DJs will be talking up some music and some vinyl to get you ready for the DC Record Fair. BYT’s William Alberque will not only be DJing the Record Fair as part of the dynamic duo Lipstick with our own TVD DC Editor DJ Jennder (Jenn Bress), but the Lipstick DJs will also be dealers at the Record Fair! William took a minute out to give us some insight into what he might spin, sell, and buy.
I am VERY excited about the June 4 Record Fair at the magnificent vitaminwater® uncapped LIVE (at Florida and U Street), sponsored by The Vinyl District, Som Records, and DC Soul Recordings.
I’ve never done a record fair before—I mean, I’ve been to them. Sort of like the saddest Comics Convention ever (at least they have nerdy girls dressing up—we just get overweight dudes in flannel).
Now I’m going to be one of the people behind the tables, with boxes and boxes filled with obscurities and banalities and press my wares on the people. Fantastic. Even better, I get to play records for an hour or so in between haggling with borderline dysfunctional collector scum like me! This is the best part—it’s not a dance night, so I can inflict ANYTHING on the crowd. And, it’s only an hour. Oooh, the possibilities—should I bring a cold-wave set of electro classics? A jangly set of postpunk, protoshoegaze and twee? Or just brand new upcomers like Blouse and Austra and Zola Jesus and Cosmetics and Tamaryn and Echo Lake? ACK!
I have spent a few days looking through my sale list to decide what I want to bring to the Fair. I can’t bring it ALL, obviously; I am still new to this, after all. But I will say all the labels that get me salivating will be there—Creation, Factory, 4ad, Rough Trade, Situation 2, Beggars Banquet, Some Bizarre, Heavenly, Midnight Music, Red Rhino, Fiction, Zoo, and Stiff. And, if I like it, then maybe I will continue to spend my weekends in converted convention centers haggling over Greek represses of Joy Division 7”s!
Someone, hopefully, will walk off with This Mortal Coil’s “Kangaroo” 7”—the B-side instrumental has never been collected on CD. Someone else will get Shox’s “Lying There” 7”—probably the rarest 4ad release, and an electro classic. Adorable’s impossibly out of print EPs will be there (CD singles and 12”s), as well as rarities from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, Crystal Castles, Kosmonautentraum, New Asia, Regina Spektor, Stereolab, Tindersticks, and Friendly Fires.
Of course, there will be many records I will be seeking, and, as always, I will come away disappointed by what I didn’t find and surprised by what I did. I don’t really expect to find Siouxsie’s “Head Cut” 7”, or the Afro Express Asalam Aleikum album (produced by Martin Hannett, no less), or Sods Under en Sort Sol LP, or Radio Dept.’s “Annie Laurie” hand-made CD single.
But you never know.
Besides DJing the DC Record Fair, William Alberque can be seen spinning at Lipstick the last Friday of every month (next show 6/24) at Velvet Lounge with his partner in crime, DJ Jennder. He also DJs at Razzmatazz and is a contributing writer at Brightest Young Things.
Our very own DJ Jennder, Jenn Bress, is The Vinyl District’s DC Editor and spends her non-Lipstick nights DJing at Funbags. She’ll also be DJing Friday, June 17th at the Warchild show at Asylum.
This is the kind of sonic smackdown you should expect to hear from them on Saturday:
