Something that happens when I play all-vinyl sets is that I decide on a personal theme that should, theoretically, make it easier for me to narrow down what I pull from my stacks. Take, for example, Saturday night’s Razorcake party at Footsies. My theme for the night was dubby ‘80s, a mishmash of the dub mixes found on 12” singles during that decade and post-punk tunes that are clearly influenced by dub.
But, now matter how often I say to myself, “Liz, stick to theme,” I just can’t do it. In this case, I started out pulling essentials like The Flying Lizards, Tom Tom Club, The League Unlimited Orchestra, Bauhaus and The Clash. Then I came across a copy of Outkast’s album Speakerboxx/The Love Below and was like, ‘when was the last time I listened to this?’ And then I find my copy of “Sally That Girl” and start thinking about how there will totally be people in the bar who haven’t heard that song since a middle school dance in 1990. But, if I’m going to play that, then I really need to bring Cybotron because that might be the only way I can mix out of Gucci Crew, and then I should probably bring Patrick Cowley too, just because I forgot to bring it to Disco Matinee last week.
Long story short, that’s how you end up with set lists like the ones listed below. If this is your jam, you should probably pick up tickets for Disco Matinee: Punk ’n’ Funk Edition on April 7 because it will also be all-vinyl and I know a few of these tracks will end up in my crate for that party as well.
Set One:
Nacho “Da Da Da”
Robin Gibb “Robot”
The Flying Lizards “Money”
Tom Tom Club “Wordy Rappinghood”
Big Audio Dynamite “Sudden Impact”
The League Unlimited Orchestra “Things That Dreams Are Made Of”
Yello “Bostich”
Peter Godwin “Emotional Disguise”
Orange Juice “Flesh of My Flesh”
The Bee Gees “I.O.I.O.”
The Style Council “Shout to the Top”
Fun Boy Three, Bananarama “It’s Ain’t What You Do…”
Madness “House of Fun”
Set Two:
The Clash “The Crooked Beat”
Bobby Velvet “The Martian”
Nina Hagen “New York New York”
Bauhaus “Harry”
Eddy Grant “Telepathy”
Zoot Woman “The Model”
Outkast “Dracula’s Wedding”
Gucci Crew II “Sally That Girl”
Cybotron “Clear”
Patrick Cowley “They Came At Night”
Chaz Jankel “Ai No Corrida”
Musical Youth “Pass the Dutchie”
The Earons “Land of Hunger”
Related:
HERE’S WHAT I PLAYED AT DISCO MATINEE ON MARCH 3, 2024
WHY I KEEP LIVING IN A MAGAZINE BY ZOOT WOMAN IN MY DJ CRATE
THE TIME CHAZ JANKEL’S POST-DISCO JAM “AI NO CORRIDA” TURNED UP AT FINGERPRINTS
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs.