Thursday, February 19, 2009
12 Artists I Wanna Play Tonight
I still need to post my Yankee Stadium wrap-up (saving it for the start of this season)...my best of '08 list...and I haven't written about the great experience I had DJing at Lisa Loeb's wedding a couple weeks back...but I have a cool NYC gig tonight, so I'm adapting a Facebook meme (I know, I know) and posting this up.
So I've got me this big little rock & roll DJ gig tonight at Motor City Bar, one of the coolest bars in downtown NYC. And you know that's saying something, 'cause there are more than a few of those types of establishments around.
When you're DJing, you never know what any given night might bring. A safe bet for tonight, though, is a whole lotta rock and a whole lotta fun with a hint of Detroit edge. I certainly can't give away the playlist before it happens--especially because I don't work from a set playlist. But here, in no particular order, are 12 totally kick-ass artists who I wanna play--and who, odds are, I will play tonight.
1. Ramones
It begins and ends with them. Not the set list in any literal sense. And chronologically, obviously not. But no one really ever rocked more, or better. Gabba gabba hey.
2. Electric Six
As Chuck Klosterman said of their debut, "You will like this album if you like the notion of Van Halen more than you liked any of their actual albums." And they've only gotten better. Probably the most unique-sounding band of the last decade, and not in any highfalutin, pretentious way; they just rock. Bonus: from Detroit!
3. David Bowie
More than anyone, a rock & roll man for all seasons.
4. Devo
Punker than you might remember.
5. The Donnas
They started as Ramones wannabes, morphed into a female Kiss/Mötley Crüe kinda deal, and they do the best covers (Priest, Kiss, Billy Idol) in the known universe.
6. AC/DC
It's a rock night, so it's almost certain that Bon Scott will be in the house.
7. Little Richard
The only artist Bob Dylan thanked by name at his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is one of the architects of the genre, and his raucous recordings rock just as much now as they did 50+ years ago.
8. Thin Lizzy
As the brilliant Hamell On Trial quipped, "Tonight there's not gonna be a jailbreak SOMEWHERE in the town...it's gonna be at the JAIL!"
9. The Gaslight Anthem
Keeping alive an unforgettable fire lit by everyone from Miles Davis to Bruce Springsteen, while sounding like a more literate Soul Asylum, they made THE rock album of 2008. And they're from my college town of New Brunswick, N.J. to boot.
10. The Supremes
Of all the Motown groups of the '60s, no one's songs sound fresher, sharper--more swinging, more sexy--than these original divas.
11. The Raconteurs
With more than a little help from his friends, Detroit's Jack White has been reinventing himself on records that seem to give more--and rock more--every time you hear 'em.
12. The Stooges
A tip of the cap to the Detroit combo--and their recently deceased guitarist Ron Asheton--who took rock to a whole new level of scary and great.
DJ Mike C.
Tonight! Thursday, February 19
10 p.m. till late
at Motor City Bar
127 Ludlow St. (at Delancey St.)
NYC
F train to Delancey St.
no cover
21+
Rock!
