TVD’s DC Record Fair Preview and DJ Showcase: Lipstick, An Evolution

I was going to write this in the first person, but that just sounds stupid. DJ Jennder (aka TVD’s own Jenn Bress) and I, DJ William Alberque (I “write” for BYT and have the least creative DJ name in the business), share a dance night (Lipstick) and a love for inspired amateurism. In other words, neither of us can DJ per se. Sure, we show up at our DJ nights with tons of 7”s, 12”s, cds, and mp3 files, overload our mixer, and send music pulsating over the PA, but we can’t beatmatch to save our lives.

Jennder

Yeah, I never pretended to even try to beat match. I guess it doesn’t really work with the music I play out (punk / indie / elecro / glam / metal) etc. Besides, I’m all over the place. I usually don’t plan my set and play according to my mood and try to adapt to the crowd. So, William will tell you, I usually bring WAY too much music and have trouble honing in on a genre, because, I guess I view my Djing from an abstract expressionistic approach, a rebellious process that emphasizes spontaneity and mood.

Over time I’ve learned to reel myself, but for Lipstick, I think drawing from many genres to synthesize a hyper dance frenzy works well for the night.

William

That’s true – she brings music to DJ nights the way heiresses pack for weekend getaways. Except I’m the nightporter. You know, I verged on knowing how to beatmatch, once, when I DJ’d a night called Filler at the Blue Room (now Bourbon) at the turn of the century. It was a fantastic evening of leftfield electronica (e.g., Andrea Parker, Ellen Allien, Aphex Twin, KLF trance b-sides, Main, Seefeel) and compelling visuals, and the other DJs there – Richard, George, and Milo – were so absurdly good at what they did that I felt compelled to keep up. I never could, though.

Before Filler, Richard and I did an electro revival night – this was the ’90s, mind you – at Pharmacy called Protosynthesis. Clever, I know. We got people excited about bands like the Normal and Chris and Cosey and Fad Gadget and Severed Heads in ways that anticipated today’s cold wave bands like Cosmetics and Austra and Soft Metals and Selebrities. But it was the two of us, standing in the corner over the mixer, geeking out over the sounds we loved.

Jennder

And now I just geek out to new music William brings to every Lipstick. We usually spend the first half hour or so when it’s pretty slow playing new stuff for each other. So, does anyone remember Uh, Huh? It was in the basement of St. Ex and it was a rock and roll night, and it was sweaty and dingy and fun, and I had a crush on the DJ so I’d go all the time. Well, one night my dear friend Alleigh and I were playing that nerdy game where you name a band and then yhe person after you has to name another band or artist with the last letter of the band you just named. And you do this rapid-fire while you drink your drink.

Well, I guess it impressed the DJ because he was like “damn, you ladies should just probably guest DJ here one night.” I was smitten, and he planted a seed. So we did it and it was awful. We had a blast but were all over the place and the CDs skipped, and I knew I had to do better next time because I’m really competitive, so we decided to give it a try as a dynamic duo. We called ourselves A Pair of Fancy Pants DJs; we didn’t take ourselves too seriously. It was mostly about having fun and playing music for our friends, at first. We scored a DJ night at Galaxy Hut and that’s when I got hooked. Apparently, William also got his start at Hump Night.

William

Well, that’s true, I got my start – my real start, we’ll skip a disastrous first effort at DJing at Un Chien Andalou (on U Street with the melting clocks) with none of the right equipment and absolutely no knowledge of how to operate it – at the aforementioned Hump Night at the Hut. Hump Night was designed to get amateurs DJing, and do so surrounded by your friends. It worked, got me hooked, and I went on to Bardo (another long-missed institution) and the Metro Café before founding Confusion at the Black Cat with DJ Serpico (Caroline Hostetler). Confusion was the model for what we’re doing now – indie disco, mutant punk, cheese-pop, and electro funk, played for our friends with complete abandon.

Then came the Britpop-infused Razzmatazz with DJ Reddaj (Amanda Carroll), also at the Cat. Inspired, of course, by Jarvis Cocker, another great mucker who I would like to think appreciates a bit of semi-enlightened amateurism. I guested from time to time at DC9’s fantastic Liberation Dance Party, but I think that was *just* outside my skill level. There, you have to master two CD players, two turntables, your mp3 player and two DVD players, keeping songs and videos queued up, all while playing the newest of the new (you get a packet of music videos ripped to DVD to play upon arrival) whether you’ve heard it or not.

Doing it well was never really an option for me, and how Bill and Matt and Shannon the other regulars do it to such perfection has always eluded me.

Jennder

I certainly tried to dabble in tightening my skills. Galaxy Hut lead Alleigh and me to the First Ladies DJ Collective, which we absolutely had to be a part of, because I admired the ladies that actually could mix beats. It was empowering to be a part of FLDC because as a lady DJ, it can be a bit frustrating sometimes when dudes want to show you how to work the equipment or come up and tweak knobs on the mixer. “Um, hey, yeah, I get it, adjust the gain so it’s not in the red, you can just talk to my hand and stop looking down my shirt now.”

Eventually Alleigh and I somehow scored at night in Hell, below Heaven when ’80s night used to actually be popular. We were there to play the alternative synth and New Wave that we secretly wanted to hear upstairs but due to an intense crowd comprised of bachelorette and birthday parties, the set was a fine rotation of ’80s dance classics, always fun when you’re drunk.

We had a blast DJing in Hell.

William

There was a time when I tried to inspire others to DJ, as well – Noise Academy and Champagne Socialism. The latter was an effort with DJ Victoryrose (Carri Farrand) to play beautiful music during brunch. Fantastic – because I could wheel out ANYTHING and play it – slow, achingly beautiful shoegaze classics, pre-dub-step electronica, trip-hop, classical – anything.

People were eating, not dancing, so anything went. And, THE safest, easiest way for an aspiring DJ to get over the hump. We indoctrinated many, giving dozens of folks their first taste of how easy it is to smash two songs together up in the booth, behind the decks. Again, not that we taught anyone anything other than anyone could do it – if we could, certainly anyone else could, and probably better.

The former, Noise Academy, was my effort with Cale and Svetlana and Corey and Carri to build something a little more substantial and lasting than just your average DJ night. Based at Cosmos, we would have a rotating cast of DJs and guests and build a massive collective (think the Borg, but not quite that geeky a reference) of friends and acquaintances that would play better music at clubs all over the city. It didn’t quite work out that way, though Svetlana’s Flickr page would end up becoming popular enough to spawn a regular website, which went on to become an events/entertainment/DC-boosting juggernaut that we know as www.brightestyoungthings.com. Not that I can take credit for it, but still, I’m going to fold my arms now with a smug look on my face.

Of course, that’s in part because I’m not going to mention my failed nights like Temptation, Loveless, Music Is Shit, Lipgloss, or Laundry. But hey, like I said, I’m an amateur. Trying, failing – that’s what I DO.

Jennder

I actually was one of the DJ’s inspired by Carri and William at both Champagne Socialism and Noise Academy, and where William got a taste of my power. Haha, I think being a part of those collective DJ efforts did enlighten William and me on how much we have in common musically and ultimately lead us on the path to DJ together. I took about 2 years off of DJing and eventually came back around to picking up a show at Radio CPR, for which I stole the name Noise Academy, so in a sense the collective still lives on. I should probably host a reunion show at some point.

I too have hand many failed DJ nights, including a German electro inspired night with departed (to Berlin, not heaven) Cory aka “The Peoples Champion,” a kick ass night with Matt Brown and beloved bartender Chuck called “Cutting the Cheese” that just played nothing but cheesy dance music, and so many others. I also think it’s funny that I’ve come full circle and now DJ a kick ass glam/punk/garage/rock and roll party called Funbags, subtly paying homage to Uh, Huh, the rock and roll night where I got my start.

I think that William and I have extracted the best elements from all our DJ efforts, learning from those that failed and those that kicked ass, to craft Lipstick into a balls-to-the-walls indie dance night that doesn’t have any boundaries and main purpose is to get people to dance. We play a little bit of everything and aren’t scared to throw in something cheesy. We also don’t really split the night into sets, we do a really good job of vibing off each other and use more of a tag-team effort to craft the night. So, we both come with an idea of songs we want to play but there is a level of spontaneity that usually launches the night into a direction we both never expect and are usually really stoked on for days after.