Bar DJing

So basically you're saying "I want to look cool and score dates and sex and not have to work hard for it"? Congratulations! You're already a DJ!

You say that like it's a bad thing to want ...

:(

.

wonder how it went for phil

Poor Phil. I used to DJ stuff like this in a Buddha Bar/18th Street Lounge knockoff in the 90s. I actually would have listened to Phil's mixes had I seen this thread.

haha I did not realize there's a separate thread for this.

my playlist from last Sunday:
julie london - june in january
woob - 1433
Rickie Lee Jones - pink flamingos
kevin ayers - whatevershebringswesing
les paul/mary ford - I’m forever blowing bubbles
michael hurley - this
opal - fell from the sun
gabor szabo - sunshine superman
Jefferson Airplane - comin’ back to me
peter jefferies - on an unknown beach
the jazz butcher - affection
john sebastian - welcome back
dan lissvik - practice
A Mountain Of One - Brown Piano (Studio remake)
lonnie liston smith - cosmic echo A2-A5
duke ellington - blue light (transbluency)
the the - uncertain smile
camper van beethoven - border ska
julie london - i’ve got you under my skin
coltrane/hartman - dedicated to you
17 pygmies - waiting to arrive
fleetwood mac - hypnotized
sarah vaughan - misty
espers - flaming telepaths
sun ra - sleeping beauty
eno/cale - spinning away
tom verlaine - breakin’ my heart
the howling hex - rock-a-doodle-doo
konstruktivits - new york
dan lissviek - Fwfw
the rivieras - california sun
b-52s - ain’t it a shame
beck - deadweight
donna summer - bad girls
prince - purple music
debbie harry - in love with love (dubapella mix)
boredoms- 77777
sergio mendes - night and day
rahsaan roland kirk - the entertaiiner (done in the style of the blues)
stevie wonder - angie girl
idjut boys - whoktish
tom tom club - genius of love
shriekback - hand on my heart (12” mix)
man parrish - six simple synthesizers
severed heads - dead eyes opened (extended)
new order - the perfect kiss (extended 12” remix)
jorge ben - ponta de lanca africano (um-babarauma)
lou reed - doin’ the things that we want to
sonic youth - unwind
the necks - causeway

Now that's a proper bar dj set list. Nice work

killer!

Whoa--that'd def be a treat to nurse a beverage to. Do you ever post sets/radio shows on Mixcloud, sleeve?

no, I probably should? tips welcome!

highlight of the evening was the bar owner asking a guy "how was everything?" and the guy said "it was great, especially the Sun Ra and Brian Eno"

<3

bar owner told them about my weekly public radio show, win-win

I’d have stayed at the bar all night wondering what’s coming next!

Cool set!

Not a bar but I’ve been invited to spin a set of new wave for two hours at a record store in March. I haven’t dj’d anywhere in a few years so I’m really looking forward to it.

thx Craig!

https://www.mixcloud.com/Forest_Of_No_Return/party-bar-early-set-2026-01-04/
https://www.mixcloud.com/Forest_Of_No_Return/party-bar-late-set-2026-01-04/

Right on! Favorited and followed.

got to do this last night and it was AWESOME. it was basically a 'vinyl night' where anyone could bring whatever records they wanted and I'd try to fit it in somewhere. I mean my whole style of DJing is 'all over the place' so this works for me. anyway its at this brewery which draws pretty big crowds when stuff is happening but it's pretty dead otherwise, so I was nervous nobody was gonna show, but we wound up getting like 100 people, including five who brought their own records. most importantly a lot of people were asking when I'm coming back and the lady who runs events there says she wants to make it a monthly thing, I'm real stoked about that since it would be so nice to have a regular gig :)

setlist I think somewhat resembles what sleeve posted above...none of the same songs but the same sorta thing. most fun part was Robert Wyatts "Heaps of Sheeps" into Kraftwerk "Neon Lights" into Cluster's "Soweisoso" with a record called "Instant Insanity Drugs" playing on the other turntable - one of those spoken word, anti-drug records which was a lot of fun to mess with in real time

awesome <3

r u on mixcloud frogbs?

I have my next night coming up soon, delaying it until the 15th though for a couple of reasons.

don't use Mixcloud much but I do post stuff on my YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/@ratboyslim

that's great frogbs!

had another one last night...went pretty well except for one thing...at certain points the volume on the PA system started flagging, like there was a short somewhere. it didn't last long though, maybe 3-4 times for about 15-20 seconds each. I thought maybe a loose connection but everything looked solid. could maybe be a power issue? I had everything plugged into the same power strip, including some stuff that wasn't there last time (a projector and some house lights), maybe I should look for another outlet? curious if anyone's experienced that before.

that is very odd and sounds to me like it's an actual amp failure within the PA itself

I wasn't as happy with my set this month, so I'm not posting it. idk just didn't cohere like I wanted.

I play a large bar once a month. It's usually not too busy as it's mostly frequented by students who tend to sit out in the large courtyard. But occasionally, like last weekend I managed to get a nice dancefloor going.

It was fun. And even if no one dances it keeps me in practice, as well as forces me to renew the tunes on my USB on the reg. I tend to record the sets and listen back, whcih gives me a good few hours of listening

but I'm thinking of turning them down next time it comes to renewing for a few reasons:

- Their kit is jank. I've been telling them for months that the play button on one of the decks is sticky and they still haven't fixed it. Might sound like a small complaint but missing the cue on literally every other track ends up making me look sloppy and unprofessional, and it's a frustrating experience all round

- the pay was always pretty poor (£25 an hour), but a 5-hour set and a few free drinks made it almost worth giving up my Saturday night (not to mention preparing on Friday night and recovering on Sunday) for. Sadly theyve now changed it to just 4 hours, which mean I still have to give up my plans but get paid less.

I dunno. Part of me thinks it's good to have a frequent open format DJ set. Another part thinks it's a waste of time.

Twin Cities New Wave Day playlist

Jocko Homo - Devo
Red Light - Wall of Voodoo
Take Me I’m Yours - Squeeze
Dreaming of Me - Depeche Mode
Repeat Repeat - Peter Baumann
Auto Music - Our Daughter’s Wedding
Manhattan Boogie Woogie - Landscape
Nothing To Do With The Dog - Krisma
Quiche Lorraine - B-52s
Shimmy Shimmy Koko Bop - Urban Guerillas
I Adore It - E Brown
Drinking With an Angel - The Suburbs
What Does Sex Mean To Me? - Human Sexual Response
M Train - Pylon
Party Train - Love Tractor
I Know What Boys Like - The Waitresses
Lucky Number - Lena Lovich
White Mouse Disco - The Mo-Dettes
Ghosts - Comateens
I Want To - The Wallets
Gotta Go To Bed - Swinging Combo
Look Around - Bite Like A Kitty
Man With the Four Way Hips - Tom Tom Club
I Could Be Happy - Altered Images
Girls Just Wannna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Private World - The Vels
Put Your Back To It - November Group
Fire - Lizzy Mercier Descloux
Please Don’t Leave Me This Way - Communards