DJ

It’s been about 48 hours since I’ve downloaded Madonna’s new album, “Confessions On A Dance Floor.” I’ve downloaded both the non-stop and the traditional versions of the CD and have had the non-stop version loaded into the Acura stereo since Tuesday night.

I can not stop listening to this CD. This album is fscking awesome!

While I can’t find a weak track in the bunch, I do have my favorites. I love the ‘smooth’ sound of “Get Together”, I really enjoy “Sorry” (rumoured to be the next single) and I’m diggin’ the trance-disco sound of “Jump”.

It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve thoroughly enjoyed an entire album from an artist, the last one being BT’s ECSM in 1996. I long ago lost faith in pop music and today’s artists, figuring that a pop album with an adult, yet dance appeal was a thing of the past.

I’m happy to say that Madonna proved me wrong.

“Confessions On A Dance Floor” is not sugary but it is full of energy. There’s no anger or rage on this album, just good, melodic, musically complete tracks. If you like good dance music and haven’t added this album to your collection, what are you waiting for?

Welcome home, Madge.

What kind of club DJ would I be if I didn’t go out and get the new Madonna album today? Actually, through the miracles of modern technology, I didn’t have to go out anywhere, I simply logged into iTunes and downloaded myself a copy of the album. There’s actually two versions available, a standard CD with individual tracks, and a non-stop version, with everything segued together into one long continuous mix.

It’s been a long while since I’ve enjoyed a Madonna album. Probably since “Erotica” came out, to be exact. But I’d heard all the rumbles about Madonna embracing dance music once again and I am happy to say that I found the album nothing short of awesome.

I’ve only listened to the entire album once so far. To give it the acid test, I listened to it on my car stereo while driving the New York Thruway at around 70 MPH.

The album feels like Madonna has gone back to her roots, in a 21st century way, and will have you bumping and boppin’ to the way dance music should be, fun, upbeat and hooky.

Go get yourself a copy!

During my last air shift on Top 40 radio back in 2001, I made the radio station I worked for my personal jukebox for an hour and played the “J.P. Top 10”, my Top 10 favorite dance tracks of all time. Unfortunately, I’ve since lost the list. However, as I was driving back from lunch today, I began formulating my Top 5 favorite dance tracks of all time, updated for 2005. I thought I would share.

1. “Remember”, B.T. feat. Jan Johnston, 1996.
2. “I Can’t Wait”, Nu Shooz, 1986.
3. “Save Me”, Lisa Fischer, 1991.
4. “Get Up, Stand Up”, Stellar Project, 2004.
5. “Coming Out Of Hiding”, Pamala Stanley, 1980.

Surpisingly, there’s only one relatively new song in the Top 5 now with Stellar Project bumping out Exposé’s 1987 hit “Point of No Return”. Oh, what the heck, I’ll list the bottom half of the Top 10 as well. Note I can’t make up my mind about number 9, so it’s a tie.

6. “Point Of No Return”, Exposé, 1987. (The version with Jeanette Jurado on the leads, not the original)
7. “Come Rain, Come Shine”, Jenn Cuneta, 2005.
8. “Vogue (unreleased Ultimix remix)”, Madonna, 1990. (“But how do you know about an unreleased remix?”, says the crowd.)
9. “Don’t Make Me Wait”, Loveland feat. Rachel MacFarlane, 1995.
9. “I’m Gonna Luv U”, Summer Junkies, 1997.
10. “Heart Like A Wheel”, The Human League, 1990.

In all honesty, it’s difficult to restrict my favorite tunes to a Top 10 list, but these are definitely the top 10 that I would never become bored with. I’d provide links to mp3 files of these songs but the RIAA or some other acronym happy group would probably sue me for a couple of million.

Madonna’s new single, “Hung Up”, officially began radio airplay today. Knowing the radio business like I do, this is the week they went for “adds” so that they could get it to debut as far up the charts as possible. Record companies like that whole saturation thing.

If you haven’t heard the single, it has a sample of Abba’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” in it. It’s only the second time that Abba has consented to one of their songs being sampled and the writing credits include “B. Ulvaeus and B. Andersson”. Madonna + Abba = trés gay, correct? Yes it is a nice combination, but honestly, this single doesn’t move me like I thought it would. It doesn’t have as strong of a hook that you’d find in a classic Madonna dance track. I’d still rather spin up “Holiday”, “Express Yourself” or “Deeper and Deeper” before playing this song. It did make me wish that Abba would get back together and do something, anything, even if it’s a one night show to raise money for a charity or something. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Nevertheless, I’m sure “Hung Up” is going to top the charts, as well as the album it’s from, “Confessions On A Dance Floor”, coming out in November. If you pre-order the album on iTunes, you get “Hung Up” for free.

I have to make a confession. During the past year or two, Paul Oakenfeld’s remix of Elvis Presley’s “Rubberneckin'” has torn up dance floors across the country and probably half of Europe. I must admit though that I really don’t care for that version of the song. Confessing this may cost me a gay point or two, but I have to finally come clean on this.

I really like the original version from 1972. My mother had the album with this song and I used to crank it up on her GE “Wildcat” record player. This record player was a birthday gift from my grandmother and was your typical early 70s high fidelity unit. The turntable folded up into the speakers to form a convenient carrying case. It could be loaded with as many as six albums at once so you could program your party music ahead of time. It had the adapter for 45s so you didn’t have to put that little yellow adapter in the middle to play your singles.

It was wicked cool. And it played “Rubberneckin'”. A lot.

I remember dancing like a fool in my first grade classroom, having brought the record to show and tell. My teacher, Miss Kania, found my fondness for the track amusing and she told me that she liked the song very much. Now that I think about it, I usually monopolized the record player in first grade during the play time before school actually started, when kids were arriving for the day. I’d play favorites for the class including “Free To Be You And Me” from that Marlo Thomas record, some Three Dog Night song that I would occasionally liven up by playing it at 78 RPM and of course “Rubberneckin'” would round out the set. Then the bell would ring and we’d have to sit at our desks ready to learn how to spell or do math. How I was preparing for the impending disco era!

I found Elvis’s original “Rubberneckin'” on iTunes today. I danced like a fool once again.

Disco Bunny Proud.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Oh my goodness. I thought I had lost this 12-inch single when I quit spinning at the local bar a couple of years ago. It’s my limited edition copy of Reba McEntire’s “You Keep Me Hanging On”, on pink vinyl! It has a “limited edition” serial number and everything.

I remember purchasing this single when Earl and I were first together. Earl and I were in Boston buying music and were looking for the cover of this song we had heard at Hillside Campground the week before. Being the cocky DJ that I was, I couldn’t lower myself to ask “DJ Mediocrity” (that how I referred to him) who the artist of that track was, so we looked around the bins at Tower Records and figured out who it was.

I love this record! I’m going to record it into my iTunes collection.

No gig this week, but here’s the top of my iPod selections this week:

1. “Pure Imagination (Wonka Trance Edit)”, Ford.
2. “Proud”, Heather Small. (formerly of M-People)
3. “Love On My Mind”, Freemasons.
4. “Listen To Your Heart”, B.H.T.
5. “Come Rain, Come Shine”, Jenn Cuneta.

• Honorable Mention: “Be My World”, Milky.

Well I’m recovering from a night of spinning in a Buffalo bar last night. It was the Buffalo Bears night “on the road” as their normal bar is in the process of moving to a new location. So the Bears invaded the Century Grill and held their “Rodeo Night” there.

If you’re in Buffalo and looking for a good place to eat, check out the Century Grill, 320 Pearl St., across from the Hyatt downtown.

Since it was “Rodeo Night”, I played quite a selection of country music spiced in with my usual DJ fare, some 70s, a lot of 80s and early 90s and some current music. It’s a good thing I worked at a country radio station for a while there towards the end of my radio career, it made selecting appropriate line dancing music that much easier!

I was able to be “geek proud” last night as I played a lot of my music off my PowerBook using a program called Megaseg. The logo on my PowerBook shined beautifully in the darkened DJ booth, quite a few people complimented me on being a Maccie. A bunch of people came up and told me how much they were enjoying the music. It’s a nice pat on the back to hear that sort of thing and it just solidifies how much I really enjoy getting a crowd going with club music.

I’ve adopted a new club DJ name. I’m now known as “DJ PiperCub”. There’s a bunch of reasons for this… I love the look of the PiperCub logo, in fact I have it on a t-shirt. (The teddy bear looks so cuddly and happy). In the gay bear vocabulary, I’m more cub than bear (if I keep eating like I have been though, I’ll out grow that status!) Plus, I’m going to be a private pilot some day and I’d love to fly a Piper J-3 Cub. My father had a Piper J-5 Cub Cruiser that we used to fly around in. And if that’s not enough, my favorite witch on Charmed is Piper.

I’ve sort of lost touch with dance music over the past couple of years but this past week I’ve immersed myself back in the genre. So, for the first time since I’ve had a blog, here’s my Top 5 Dance Tunes of the week.

1. “Pure Imagination (Oompa Loompa Breakbeat Mix)”, Ford
2. “Freek U (Full Intention Club Mix)”, Bon Garçon
3. “Love On My Mind (Club Mix)”, Freemasons
4. “Listen To Your Heart”, D.H.T.
5. “Come Rain, Come Shine”, Jenn Cuneta