Sunday, July 4, 2010

Blog #3 Trent Reznor-Nine Inch Nails


With the recent announcements of retirement for Trent Reznor, I got nostalgic and started to think back at the years I've been listening to his music. I looked thru my Nine Inch Nails collection and thought, "hey, let me do a mixdown of my favorite NIN". Here is some of my favorite remixes, meltdowns and down the spiral hard core music from this musical genius.

His music cover all depths of human emotion and even goes to thoses dark place that some of care not to look but still do. It's just our nature. Like a car accident at the edge of the road. Nobody wants somebody to be hurt, but it does make a great story to the neighbors. Trent takes on some of his own phobias, rage, and perversions and makes it into a uncontrolable industrial beat that makes you want to move your body to the pulsating sounds of steam, pipe, and human screams. He carves a soundscape out of dreams or to some nightmares.
Dj Bolt's NIN Mixdown


Click Above to hear Mixdown

Monday, May 24, 2010

Blog #2 The death of Disco and beginning of “New Wave”

CBGBs NYC


When I was young New Yorker living on Long Island, I used to love to listen to dance music or as we called it…”Disco”. The hard core “Rockers” hated “Disco” so much that a campaign was formed to actually get rid of disco. They burnt albums, exploded crateful of 12” lps and disco balls were used as targets to shotguns, rifles and yes machine guns. I was pushed in the hallways of school, called “Disco Boy” and made fun of my hair. I bore though those days and when I was out of HS, disco was almost dead. A faint beat was left. From that beat, a new form of music came forth from the ash of disco albums and the weak beginnings of punk. This music was called, “New Wave”. Groups like “Eurythmics”,”The Vapors”, “B-52’s”, “Art of Noise”, “ABC”, and “Yaz” broke thru the wall of punk and gave it a dance beat. Music with a hidden message, yet not mindless chanting with passionate breathing on a drone beat, which is always fun to dance to at a dark club.


At this time of my life, I was a dancer and manager of adult exotic follies called “The Show Palace”. As a manager, I was responsible for the music being played. I was excited to hear this new sound and played it at the theatre. “Thompson Twins” and “Sparks” were some of the groups that hit the turntables for the dancers. Of course “Sweet Dreams”, was becoming the standard to place what direction the next phase of this “New Wave” had to offer. That was androgyny. Men were able to become a bit more feminine and it took it to all different levels. The straight community had a hard time with it, due to over testosterone of Rock and Heavy Metal. Even some straight men into “New Wave” had their own closets to bare and sneaked out late at night to “Malibu’s”, “Spies” and in the city it was the “Lime Light”. Of course we all pay homage to “CBGBs” and the “Mudd Club” for starting the alternative dance clubs. My favorite home was the “Mudd Club”, which brought it class with a high tech look. The Mudd Club offered a gay night which was on Fridays. I used to see Andy Warhol, Keith Herring, David Bowie and Grace Jones roam thru the upstairs lounge area of the Mudd club. They had their usual people on the scene such as Nomi, Arias and Nina Hagen.
Mudd Club
Named after the Doctor who patched up John Wilkes Booth


Weekends started on Thursday, which was “Studio 54” gay night, Friday’s was “Mudd Club” and Saturday was my choice of gay club, from “The Saint”, “Alex in Wonderland”, “Limelight”, “Palladium”, “Tunnel Club” and the “Cock Ring”. Sunday the parties continued in the wee morning hours from Saturday night in what they called “After, After Hour Club”. For all those who were too high to go home or just didn’t get their dance on, went to “Moon Shadows”.


New Wave, eventually turned into electro dance or what we now call Techno. Please, I know there is many fractions to the directions of dance music. If I missed those, please forgive me, but will list them at a later date.


Click "Play" arrow below to hear
"Dj BoLt's New Wave Dance Mix"

New Wave Dance Mix




Friday, May 21, 2010

Blog #1 Remembering the 80's


For those who havent' met me, my Dj tag is Dj Bolt. I've been around since the 80's as a Dj in the NYC/Long Island area. I worked at the Anvil, Greenwich Village in 1983 on Tuesday night, which was "New Wave" night. The gig was a part time thing and I eventually moved to Virginia only after doing the gig for about 6 months.

Lot stuff going around when you are up there Djing. From having to handle the Drag Show that suppose to happen at 12 midnight (usually 1:00 a.m. drag queens midnight). Even from a drag queen that wasn't a man. Yeah, a woman who had a lip sync act. Some of us thought she was a tranny (full done). I later had a good talk to her and she was married and had a kid. She used the show to help her acting career. My friend Gus and I used to give her flowers before we found out she was a real woman. The other drag star was this Afro-american man who loved Grace Jones. He made a custom out of a parking cone and 2 small "wet floor" cones. Very out there, but fit the genre of the night. From Depeche to Devo, we made it rock at the Anvil in 1983.

Here is a taste of the music from the Anvil's New Wave Tuesday Night.
Click the arrow to play,
 "Anvil's New Wave Tuesday Night"!