BE THERE AND BE SQUARE

With DJ Tone Zone / Photos via Instagram

Last night was GDP, an annual festival downtown here showcasing local music.

A bunch of groups were playing, and one of the more talked-about shows was packed gig by reunited band House of Large Sizes at Vaudeville Mews. I managed to catch continuously game-raising young rock'n'rollers the Seed of Something once again, plus I finally saw all-around nice dude Dustin Smith and his group the Sunday Silos -- they had an outdoors free-stage crowd eating from their hands with a deftly played set of old-fashioned soul. Heard a bit of perennial noise-rock favorites Wolves in the Attic over at Vaudeville Mews, too, but did I mention that place was packed?

Anyway, over at local bar the Lift, which this month has art on the walls from our friend Ashley Tape Fleming, the Des Moines Music Coalition had organized a series of DJs. Another pal, Tony Galloro, kindly offered up his turntables for the night, and a bunch of us got to spin for an hour each, including former Pavement auxiliary drummer and my New Year's Eve DJing partner Bob Nastanovich. My wife and I showed up around 5 p.m. for the too-modestly named DJs Pretty Good and Pretty Bad, and then somehow my old waking-up-early self needed to stay alert until midnight for my own set.

So eventually I spun a few records. Here's what I played:

Hello Saferide - The Quiz
Deerhunter - Wash Off
Frank Ocean - Lost
CFCF - Cometrue (feat. the late Jason Molina)
Blur - Tender (Cornelius Remix)
Chromatics - Kill for Love
Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
Das Racist - Rainbow in the Dark
LOL Boys - Changes (feat. Heart Streets)
Vondelpark - Hipbone
Sade - By Your Side (Neptunes Remix)
D'Angelo - The Root
John Mayer - Who Says
Solange - Losing You
Air France - No Way Down

With DJ Bob Nastanovich

With DJs Pretty Bad and Pretty Good

MAKE YOU WANNA HOLLER HI-DE-HO

Professional and everything.

So last night Bob and I spun records at Vaudeville Mews.Thanks to Ladd, Bradie, Patrick, Dustin and everybody who came out to ring in 2013 with us. Here's what we played:

YEAR OF THE GLAD

These guys listen to music.

So I've been putting together a little online radio station for eMusic the past few months. (If you don't know eMusic, it's a subscription music discovery service, and I'm honored to contribute alongside all of the super-knowledgeable critics who write there.) While I don't necessarily expect anyone to want to trawl through all of my playlists, I figured I might as well share the songs I've added so far.

Maybe bands will Google themselves and see I'm not a big jerk all of the time? Maybe you'll skim the names and either nod your head in agreement or spit out your coffee in frustration, wondering why I put x on my list but not y? Maybe nobody will ever see this? Who cares!

P.S. If you're in town, please don't forget, Bob Nastanovich and I will be spinning records until we fall down over at Vaudeville Mews on New Year's Eve.

AND TO MY RIGHT, A PERFECT 10...

Sleigh Bells' best song of 2012: "End of the Line"

ALBUMS

1. Frank Ocean: channel ORANGE

2. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

3. Beach House: Bloom

4. Chromatics: Kill for Love

5. Allo Darlin': Europe

6. Jens Lekman: I Know What Love Isn't

7. Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music

8. Japandroids: Celebration Rock

9. Lotus Plaza: Spooky Action at a Distance

10. TNGHT: TNGHT EP

TRACKS

1. Solange: "Losing You"

2. Cassie: "King of Hearts (Richard X Remix Edit)" (related)

3. Frank Ocean: "Bad Religion"

4. Usher: "Climax"

5. Japandroids: "The House That Heaven Built"

6. Bat for Lashes: "Laura"

7. R. Kelly: "Share My Love"

8. Titus Andronicus: "In a Big City"

9. Sky Ferreira: "Everything Is Embarrassing"

10. BenZel & Jessie Ware: "If You Love Me"

Elite Gymnastics: "Andreja 4-ever"

THE WORLD MOVES ON

That's me facing away from the camera, talking to my friend's ex-boyfriend.

Today, eMusic published an interview I did recently with Jens Lekman, along with a review I wrote of his new album, I Know What Love Isn't. I last interviewed him and reviewed his album five years ago for Pitchfork, when he put out Night Falls Over Kortedala. So this was sort of a big moment for me. Although I was at first resistant to the appeal of this Swedish singer, songwriter, and producer, he has turned out to be one of the musicians whose work has meant the most to me over the past five years.

Still, when I saw him at New York City's Webster Hall in April 2008, and then headed back to my Brooklyn neighborhood for the nearby house show posted above, I remember already wondering how he would ever top Kortedala. It was more than an album for me; it captured a moment, a moment that might've been as naive and idealistic as the presidential campaign themes that fall can seem after four years of polarized gridlock. You can always make another album, but moments are out of our hands.

I tried to mention this to Jens, but it didn't really come out in the form of a question, and I'm not sure what I said made sense. Toward the end of our interview, though, I was able to bring up the small but significant role he played in my current whereabouts: As my wife was suggesting we move from Brooklyn to downtown Des Moines, she used local venue Vaudeville Mews' recent and upcoming shows as a lure, and I was thrilled to see had played here.

"I remember that show in Des Moines," Jens told me, in a portion of the interview it didn't make sense to file for eMusic. "It was really fun. Like, there was a big crowd, and everyone was really excited. It seemed like a really cool town, actually." After I talked a bit about how nice it is to see performers away from situations where they know their every move might be dissected by the blogs and media, he said in agreement, "Those shows are just so much more fun, to be honest."

So there you have it. Lekman seemingly remembers playing Des Moines -- his description of the show definitely matches what I heard about it, though maybe every stop in his tour was that way. And while I'm not sure his current album of low-key heartbreak will be embraced in the same way Kortedala was five years ago, to me it's an even better album, of a piece with recent records by Tracey Thorn and Jonathan Richman. Lekman and I are in different places now, different moments, but his music still has a power over me I can't quite explain. I'm looking forward to sticking with it for another four or five years.

see also: "I was a seapunk when I was 12"

channel HOGSTYLE

Lotus Plaza plays at Wooly's in Des Moines' East Village.

So I DJed again on Saturday night at Vaudeville Mews' outdoor PBR Bar. Or at least, played records -- someday I really ought to figure out the whole beat-matching/mixing thing, but at this point I still have enough trouble remembering which discs are 45 RPM and which are 33 RPM. And that's even after I've cued my records up with my headphones. Go figure.

We're in the midst of what officials say is the hottest July in this state since the Dust Bowl, so it wasn't my most crowded DJing gig ever. For most of the night, then, I basically just played what I wanted to play. No matter how soggy-muggy it is out there, though, after midnight you get random drunk people wandering over to dance, so you play what you think might keep them moving.

Thank you so much to Ladd for booking me (under the hey-Marc-you-should-really-think-up-a-DJ-name name of DJ Hogstyle, hence my Frank Ocean-inspired post title), to Kyler for helping me get set up and keeping me from getting too thirsty and just generally putting up with me, to Derek for getting me squared away sound-wise, and to Patrick and Ashley for helping me haul my turntables and crate of records home again.

Once again, I tried to keep a running notepad entry on my phone with the names of the tracks I was playing. I did pretty well until the end, when I have one line that says "Wgotne" (did I play Whitney Houston again? I think I'd remember that) and another line that says, simply, "Bwy" (Sade's "By Your Side"? SWV? More TLC? LCD Soundsystem?). Without further stupid ado:

PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL LIGHT

A new friend begs to hear Meatloaf, though
I'm not sure if she had the title quite right.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the Vaudeville Mews' back bar on Saturday night! I had a total blast spinning records again. Despite a needle that broke on the way to the venue, I felt like the night went off almost without a hitch, and I was super excited to see so many friends' faces out there.

As promised, here's what I played.

THIS JUST IN: I'll be back DJing again on Saturday, July 21. Mark your calendars, save some Pitchfork-festival-weekend sweat, keep being awesome.