Hoboken Rock City - The Official Blog Of DJ Mike C.

I sincerely regret that this space has devolved into little more than a forum for self-promotion over the past couple months. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's more that I'm having trouble making the time to say it.

The Xmas party last week was a bust, due mostly to the transit strike. These things happen. I have higher hopes for the next two gigs, this Saturday's New Year's Eve shindig at The Goldhawk, and next Wednesday's launch of Neat Neat Neat, my new monthly night at Manitoba's.

My annual long-winded take on the music of the past year will appear here in January, just like last year's. In the meantime, enjoy Tris McCall's pithy Pop Music Abstract, Extrawack!'s star-studded year-end roundup from the likes of Alexi Lalas, Esthero, and a guy in a band called The Long Winters (whose statements rubbed me the wrong way, as you'll see in the comments, but it's all good, and I tried to let him have the last word), and the best and worst of everything in 2005, gathered by Fimoculous (a blog I do frequent, but this post was first brought to my attention by Mister Snitch!).

Oh yeah, shameless self-promotional details below.


DJ Mike C. in NJ

NEW YEAR'S EVE
Saturday, Dec. 31
9:30 p.m.

$75 includes:
• Top shelf open bar for five hours, 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.
• Hot/cold buffet dinner
• The obligatory champagne toast at midnight
• Party favors
• Free parking up to 5 hours
• A night of rock & roll fun with DJ Mike C.

Call 201-420-7989 for advance ticket info.

at THE GOLDHAWK
936 Park Ave. at 10th St., Hoboken



DJ Mike C. in NYC

NEAT NEAT NEAT
Wednesday, Jan. 4
10 p.m. till late

Downtown rock & roll kicks. Oldies, newies, and goodies.

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B between 6th & 7th St., NYC

Mike C.'s 4th Annual Xmas Party

Wednesday, Dec. 21
8 p.m. till late
no cover

at MANITOBA'S
99 Avenue B between 6th & 7th St., NYC

Christmas music is an odd beast. It fascinates me to no end that an entire musical genre exists around our culture's most pervasive holiday. There is so much good Christmas music, and the fact that the window to listen to it each year is a fleeting few weeks makes it all the more precious. Many stores and radio stations fire up the Christmas tuneage in mid-November, but I think playing Christmas music before December 1st is just gauche. I'm a huge fan of the genre, yet I don't even really get in the mood to hear the stuff until around December 10th. But when the fever hits me, I go overboard, and no musical holds are barred. That's why I take it to the bars.

For the fourth consecutive year, I am hosting a party at which I will be spinning nothing but holiday tunes. Oh, I've established some wiggle room for myself, widening the boundaries enough in order to play a few tunes that don't include sleigh bells—songs with the words "holiday" or "Jesus" in the title are fair game—but this party is all about good music and the radical juxtaposition thereof. You might hear Julie Andrews and Foghat back to back, or The Dead Kennedys segued into Perry Como. It's unscripted, so the sky—and the audience's tolerance for a spectrum of music ranging from The Mormon Tabernacle Choir to King Diamond—is the proverbial limit.

This year I'm doing something different by bringing the party, which has had a great run the past three years at The Goldhawk in Hoboken, into the rock & roll confines of Manitoba's in Alphabet City. It's gonna be an honor and a privilege to bring some Xmas love to one of the definitive downtown rock & roll joints. Get there early for candy canes and other fun crap; stay late to indulge in the comforting warmth of musical blasphemy.

Those of you who are on my email list received a note today that I have a new email address at a new domain, mikecmusic.com. (Well, anyway, you should have. If you are on my mailing list or would like to be, and you did not receive my change of address note today, drop me a line.)

There will be a new site to go along with that domain, and it will be similar to the existing Hoboken Rock City in many ways. Until mikecmusic.com goes live, you will be auto-forwarded to hobokenrockcity.com when you access mikecmusic.com.

Just want to let everyone know that I'm not going away, and I will continue to have a web presence. It's just that that presence will take a slightly different form. It will certainly be recognizable to anyone who is familiar with me and/or this site.

Those of you nice enough to follow this blog have noticed a dearth of posting to it lately, and there are many reasons for that. Life, work, an unprecedented number dj gigs (6 gigs in 12 days at one point) including some private engagements, a new obsession with Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting," the Giants actually having a good season, and the death of the best cat I've ever known have all been factors, but the retooling of my internet presence has also contributed toward my dereliction of blog duties.

I'm still around. Stay tuned.

Though I didn't quite go back to school Dangerfield style, I did have fun giving my first college lecture last week at the University of Pennsylvania. As a guest speaker in my friend Professor David Grazian's Popular Culture class, the topic for the day was the music business. With the industry in transition in so many ways, it's not an easy lecture to give, but I gave the best overview that I could.

The students in the 300-seat lecture hall asked a lot of questions, which teacher types tell me is a good indicator of attentiveness, and there's already a talk of an encore performance. Unfortunately, if you're a Penn undergrad and want to take the class next semester, you're already shut out if you didn't pre-register; they're moving the class to the university's biggest lecture hall, and still every spot is filled. Thanks to the Penn sociology department, and I look forward to a return engagement. Plus, it'll get me down to Philly, which I don't do often enough.