Poptimism

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Because I was away the last few days we never had a proper Poptimism follow-up post!

If you came, thankyou for coming - I enjoyed it a lot at any rate. Here is the tracklist of the free CD, if you haven't seen it:

1 TURISAS - “To Holmgard And Beyond” (from the album The Varangian Way)
2 TRASH YOURSELF AND THE TOXIC AVENGER - “Song 2″ (source unknown)
3 ENRIQUE IGLESIAS - “Tired Of Being Sorry (Remix)” (original from the album Insomniac)
4 FEIST - “1234 (Van She Technologic Remix)” (original from the album The Reminder)
5 SALLY SHAPIRO - “Anorak Christmas” (from the album Disco Romance)
6 CASSIE - “Turn The Lights Off” (from forthcoming album)
7 GUDRUN GUT - “Move Me” (from the album I Put A Record On)
8 YOUNG CHANG MC - “Sexy Gwada” (single)
9 DUDE N NEM - “Watch My Feet” (single)
10 THE GOSSIP - “Careless Whisper” (from the compilation album Established 1967)
11 WIR SIND HELDEN - “Einlich Ein Grund Zur Panik” (from the album Soundso)
12 CHROMEO - “Bonafide Lovin’ (Tough Guys)” (from the album Fancy Footwork)
13 INFERNAL - “Vienna” (from the album From Paris To Berlin)

And now - a question! If there is a grebt new track coming out, and we want to play it at Poptimism, but not many people know it yet, should we try and get it on this community first, or should we just play it? I've been making a specific effort the last couple of months to play newer things and not just stuff that we always play, but of course the return on this is often thinner dancefloors! Do people prefer Poptimism when it sticks to the hits?

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I can't possibly give a fair answer to the question, cos the answer is "both!".

I love dancing to stuff I know, but I also like to sit down and listen to a track I haven't heard before. Sadly, this makes it look like I'm not enjoying myself. I really am, I'm just getting my head round New Song.

Ta much for CD and tracklist, will be listening to it later today once I find where I put it down...

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Thank you to everyone for the lovely time I had at Poptimism on Saturday, and also for the free CD!

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Seconded. It was my first time and I had a bloody great time. CD is ace too.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Oh bloody hell, we should start making name badges. I'd have loved to have met you!

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I shall say hello next time. I did introduce myself to a few people. And no matter how many times I have done it for various internet meet-ups, it still feels silly saying my LJ name. Should have chosen something like, er, my actual name.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes it was nice meeting you!

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I am pro 'play big tunes and stick to the hits, but be maybe a bit more creative with the choice of hits'. You did very well on 'secret weapons' on Saturday.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Early on, of course, play whatever. I like the old model where songs would slowly work their way up the pecking order and develop from early evening curio to late doors unstoppable dancefloor monster - cf 'Cobrastyle'.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The problem is that now we've moved to Saturdays a) the night starts a lot later so the 'dancing threshold' is sooner into it and b) people arrive later so they miss the early sets.

Obviously in pretty much every other way Saturday nights are a brilliant time to be doing it.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'I like the old model where songs would slowly work their way up the pecking order and develop from early evening curio to late doors unstoppable dancefloor monster'

Has anything done this this year? Maybe the RTD mix of 'Tony The Beat' but I guess that had some LJ buzz already.

I think using Poptimists LJ to break and build new tunes in this way may be good.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes, I mean these things are relative, I am not advocating the use of poptimism to take anyone on a musical journey into sound.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

what secret weapons did I miss?

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Bring The Noise and Pussy'ole and Son of a Gun by JX and something else I've forgotten.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ditto - I like dancing to stuff I don't know but Poptimism doesn't feel like the right context. But of course songs I don't know are still good, one needs to go to the bar, sit down, chat etc. And the songs I do know, but hadn't thought about in aeons, can be some of the best! Like my colleague just started randomly singing 'Inner City Life' just now and I was like omg so amazing, haven't thought of that song in years.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I am a ho for dancing and will strut my stuff to pretty much anything after 3 pints of Pride, but I think the tried/tested regular clubnite formula of '%hits > %new stuff' after the guest djs are done is a good one to follow.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I tend to go the other way - if I hear something for the third Poptimism in a row or something that's been played 3 times out of the last 5 or whatever I get really sick of it and don't dance. There are a lot of early 90s dance hits I now never want to hear ever again! But I'm in the minority.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I am in agreement with Steve on this :)

Cansei de Ser Sorry

[koganbot]

I misread the title of the Enrique tune.

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

Ooh Chromeo. Fabulous.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

They played Chromeo at our Indiesoc the other week. I was not sure what I thought of that.

That said, they did play Dr. Dre the week before so, y'know.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I am not sure what I think of Chromeo in general! I'm not even sure I like the track I put on the CD, but I did think it was the sort of thing Poptimists would be interested in hearing, if they hadn't already - and it went nicely into Vienna.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I'm never totally sure what I think of them. They seem to have potential but there also seems to be a bit of 'this sounds like the eighties, you like pop music, you must want a bit of this' about it that never quite gets into 'actually good' rather than 'sounding like it possibly could be.'

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's exactly it. With that track in particular there's actually quite a lot of venom and tension in the songwriting (for all that it's a basic "yr man is rubbish try me instead" brag) and the me-so-80s production detracts from that somehow.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I so called your Chromeo ambivalence. I listen to them like I might listen to Electric Six, as a novelty band first and a "tension," "venom," etc. band a distant second. But the one-the-noseness/in-your-faceness of their 80s vibe is a little offputting. Prefer MSTRKRFT as far as that goes, I guess, though I'm not sure if they're totally comparable.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

(Generally I think E6 do tension/venom/etc. a lot better than Chromeo do, so it's not so distant a second. And I should probably listen to more of them.)

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

I've only been once so can't comment on Poptimism as such and I'm not big on dancing anyway, but I like hearing new stuff at clubs in general. Even if it's one of those occasions where the person DJing is obviously thinking "Ha! I have a promo of this thing that is not out for ages!"

If I've heard the same song in the same place a few times I tend to be less bothered and (even) less likely to dance, unless it's something I've only got to know properly recently. If that makes any sense.