Playlist for the Vinyl Frontier, 16 December 2008 to follow later when I have computer access. Sorry about the delay; the holidays are driving me crazy. Tune in on Tuesday for a special guest edition featuring DJ Theory holding it down for me. Old school cats will remember Theory as one of the two co-hosts of the 12" Sub before I took over and the show became the Vinyl Frontier.

Update (8:54 CST): playlist below the fold.

Continue reading "playlist [16 December 2008] + return of the 12" Sub" »

Posted by Dennis at 15:04 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Another one of my photos has been included into an electronic travel guide produced by Schmap, but this time it's for Houston. (The last three were from Chicago.) They've chosen a picture I took from the third base side of Minute Maid Park during the 9th inning of a Dodgers-Astros game earlier this year. Just prior to this picture, Kenny Lofton hit a triple off of Brad Lidge, who went on to blow the save.

Posted by Dennis at 12:39 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I don't think I ever announced this. My (mostly) weekly guide to events in Houston, Urban Audio Assault, is now online, with the occasional contribution from Danny Mee. Still working on integrating the album and drink reviews, but at least the show listings are there.

Posted by Dennis at 15:22 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The guy who did the graphic design for the 12" label pictured above is a genius. Even the font is spot on with respect to old Apple promotional material.

Anyway, as you can see, I've begun the redesign of my site. I expect that lots of things will be broken over the next few weeks. Sorry. I'll try to get everything working as quickly as possible. I realize that all of the audio links are probably broken right now. I plan on converting all of my audio archives over to torrents as it'll help me reduce and throttle bandwidth usage, but that is the last thing that I'm going to get around to doing.

Posted by Dennis at 18:08 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Old blue was nearly eight years old, which in electronics years is pretty close to going on 100. She's been put down, er, sent to the farm to frolic with all the other old computers. In the last couple of months she had started to get really temperamental - sometimes causing entire directories to disappear, freezing for no good reason, and refusing on occasion to boot at all. She's been replaced by a newer, sexier thing; a Mac Mini.

It took a little prodding, but the Mini is up and running, and has taken over all the duties of the old machine - webserver, mailserver, Bittorrent tracker. I'm planning on piling one more duty on her as well; running my EyeTV setup. Hopefully my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse will come in soon (they're backordered with no ship date in sight). It's a little ridiculous - ol' blue was a 350 MHz G3 with 384 MiB of RAM and shipped with a 6 GB hard drive. The Mini is a 1.42 GHz G4 with 1 GiB of RAM and shipped with an 80 GB hard drive. Actually, though, I did a tally the other day and found out that I have over 1 TB (terabyte) of drive storage in total.

Anyway, she's up and running, but I've definitely got a lot of bugs to work out with the web software (this is the default template that comes with the stock installation of Movable Type). It's a pretty good excuse to revamp the site's look at the same time, so please bear with me while I get everything up and running...

Posted by Dennis at 16:46 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm having problems with the server. I will fix them as soon as I am capable of doing so; however I am currently in Chicago having decided to bail on Houston in light of hurricane Rita. Vacation by way of evacuation.

Posted by Dennis at 12:48 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

First and foremost, if you can, donate money to the American Red Cross or the Houston Food Bank. Consider donating blood as well, as blood banks are always in short supply and with what amounts to the arrival of an entire city of refugees, many of whom will need medical care, Houston supplies will be strained. Locally, drives for bedding, blankets, clothes, food and other supplies are starting up. The Houston Chronicle has a list of drives and volunteer opportunities currently being conducted or getting started. Housing is also going to be necessary; the Astrodome is near capacity already. To that end, MoveOn.org has started a clearinghouse for people who have rooms to offer to disaster victims at HurricaneHousing.org. Apparently some evacuees will also be transported to arenas in Dallas and San Antonio.

Posted by Dennis at 10:08 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Update: The show is tonight! Come out to Rudyard's (2010 Waugh) to rock out!

For those of you who are in Houston, I helped put together a show that's going to happen in a couple of weeks. The Oranges Band (Lookout! Records) will be playing at Rudyard's on Wednesday, 16 March 2005. That's right before all the showcases start in Austin for SXSW. Also appearing will be The Heavenly States and Taylor Hollingsworth. This should be a pretty rockin' show, so consider showing up.

Posted by Dennis at 16:50 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I had some data corruption on my hard drive the other day, so this site is likely to be up and down over the next few weeks as I try to reconstruct settings, and do some backup work. Just a little advance notice for you.

Posted by Dennis at 11:25 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the interest of facilitating discussion, and to also not feel like I'm just typing into the ether, I'm going to try to bring back comments to this site. I've upgraded the software running the backend, so hopefully I won't have to deal with too much comment spam advertising for porn, pills, or poker. There may be some glitches in the beginning, as I have eliminated much of my css code and modified my templates, so bear with me. To start it off, maybe somebody can explain this sign I saw on a train car the other day...

Posted by Dennis at 15:44 (Central) | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In case anybody cares, tonight I'll be at Taft Street Coffee holding down the turntables. They've started up a weekly turntable night called Caffeine Thursdays (original, huh?) so please come out and support local DJs if you can.

Posted by Dennis at 16:49 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tune in to the Vinyl Frontier (91.7fm in the Houston area; www.ktru.org for internet streaming) tonight between 10pm and 1am. My friend Baby Cee will be up in the house tonight to drop an old school set. Update: We're postponing this a week.

Posted by Dennis at 13:09 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know, I know; why would you volunteer? Well, the volunteer DJs are needed to help run a program for disadvantaged youths here in Houston. The S.A.F.E. Center is a non-profit organization based in Houston's near northside. They used to have a program where the kids were able to learn the basics of DJ-ing (counting beats, beatmatching, scratching, juggling) but the DJ who ran the program moved to New York. This is where the DJ community of Houston could step up. I talked with Anthony Calleo (one of the founders) and Jackie Duron (volunteer director) and they're looking for people to start this off again. This was one of their more popular programs with the kids (ages range from 9 to 18). The program was originally twice per week for about an hour to an hour and a half, but scheduling is flexible, and the class can certainly be team taught. If you're interested, you can leave me a note in the comments, or contact Jackie directly by emailing her at jackie AT [thesafecenter dot org]. I think this could be an interesting program, and by splitting duties multiple ways between 4 or more DJs, would be a minimal time commitment.

Posted by Dennis at 10:22 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Somewhat late to announce it, but I was on KPFT the other day. Craig Lindsey from the Houston Press has a show where he interviews people for 25 minutes or so. So he interviewed me on Monday afternoon. I have a recording of the interview, I'll post it up here later this weekend when I have some time. It was a fun interview; mostly we just talked about the state of hip-hop. Craig also played a small excerpt of esta é verão.

Posted by Dennis at 10:50 (Central)

Well, the Houston Press just gave me the award for Best Hip-Hop Radio Show. I didn't even know that was a category. But thanks, it's an honor, and hopefully I get a few new listeners...

Posted by Dennis at 01:41 (Central) | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm probably going to initiate radio silence until I get my thesis done. (Not that I've been terribly communicative with people lately.) I think I may even clear out my bedroom, pad the walls, and just drop a power tap in and lock myself into a completely austere environment for 10 hours a day to get this done. I'll probably continue to post my playlists, but email and phone are going to go dead for a while.

But before I go, there are some random things I'd like to tell you about. My old flatmate and some other friends who are now in the Bay Area made a CD this summer - As Sequenced By Humans by the Minimal Effort. It's pretty fucking good. I'm not sure if it's available for distribution, but it damn well ought to be, so I'm going to find out for you. The breakout single is clearly "Carpool Lane," but all seven songs are solid. Laura has a disarmingly sweet voice which fits the music perfectly, although clearly she's not a pro. Post-production is pretty good; there are some nice effects thrown in on the instrumentals, along with some slight crispy distortion on the vocals on a couple of songs.

Cory Doctorow has a new book out; it's a collection of some of his short stories, including 0wnz0red which initially appeared at Salon.com and was my first introduction to Doctorow's brand of sci-fi. He's also very cutting edge; you can download a lot of his stories for free; he's experimenting to see how the Internet might actually help his sales. His entire first novel is available for free, and it's pretty good. I'm planning on going out and buying his books and then possibly donating them to the library.

I'd comment on politics and other news events, but that would probably just make me angry. Let me leave you with this: take a look at the first definition of fascism to appear. Except for the dictator part, it sounds like the U.S.A. under Dubya right now, doesn't it? Replace terror with intimidation, and racism with racial profiling and it's exactly where we are...

Posted by Dennis at 11:11 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I just put up my first mix at the Skratching Post. It's also available here (it's esta é verão). But other djs may be interested in signing up to post mixes and receive feedback from other people...

Posted by Dennis at 21:35 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We (the Phonographerz Turntablist crew) are performing tonight at Firestation #3 (1919 Houston). We'll be following a screening of film shorts by Microcinema that begins at 8pm. I expect that we'll be in full swing by 10:30pm, but come by early to check out the films. We're going to be giving away some cds and other stuff tonight, so be sure to come out and support.

Posted by Dennis at 14:05 (Central) | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, Craig Lindsey of the Houston Press did a write-up of my radio show. So if you came here because of the article, welcome to the website. It's a work in progress, with lots of my rambling, information about the show, past playlists, and some audio archives. I hope to get more content up here eventually, like music reviews and photos. In the meantime, you can sign up for my mailing list by dropping me a line (leave a message in the comments). The mailing list is a handpicked list of events in the Houston area that I think are going to be worthwhile to attend. It also usually has a short capsule review of an album and a new drink of the week.

Oh yeah, Dan Kramer of the Houston Press actually managed to get a decent photo of me. I'm not terribly photogenic, but this is a pretty good photo. I look exponentially bad-ass (heh, thanks Delia). Just kidding.

Posted by Dennis at 12:35 (Central) | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The party is tomorrow. This is the list of djs who are bringing records: Baby Cee, Cozmos, Supa Dave, Cee Plus, Leigh, Mondro, Andrew, Brad, Dan, myself, and I think there might be a couple more.

There are still a few last minute preparations to take care of, but I think almost everything else is done. It should be a good party - two turntables inside, three turntables outside. If you're in Houston, drop on by and check it out. I'll try to have a tentative schedule of what djs are on when later today.

Posted by Dennis at 12:42 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got a new toy. That was my first picture. I expect that I'll be taking and posting a lot more pictures in the future. For those who are interested, there will be a party on the 3rd of May at Chaucer House (5615 Chaucer). More info will be forthcoming, as will the flyer. Slated to appear on the turntables are Baby Cee, Cozmos, Supa Dave (all of the Phonographerz), Leigh, Mondro, Andrew, myself, and who knows who else. Two decks inside, three decks outside.

Posted by Dennis at 14:15 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Funniest IM conversation ever.

Posted by Dennis at 19:58 (Central) | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, I'll try to post a playlist, but I'm going to have to trainspot the whole show. This week I had the Phonographerz turntablist crew (of which I am sort of a member) up on the show. Three turntables, tag team style. You can download the three hour set. Baby Cee, Cozmos, and Dave killed it. I tried to help.

Tonight, I'll be hosting the electronic music show on KTRU from 9pm to 11pm. I'll probably be spinning some house, some broken beat, some nu-jazz. Next Friday I'll be hosting as well, and Leigh will be the guest dj, so expect some dope jungle breakbeats...

Posted by Dennis at 15:01 (Central) | Comments (1)

There's a new useless feature on the main page. You can now see what I'm listening to at work thanks to a nifty little program called Kung Tunes. Right now I'm on a rock kick in a big way. This is a result of two independent projects - I'm attempting to mp3 the majority of my CD collection (there are some albums that I'm a little ashamed of that aren't getting ripped) and I'm also trying to teach myself PHP in an attempt to spiffy up my web pages.

Art opening at Lawndale Art Center tonight. Be there or be an equilateral, equiangular, four-sided polygon. Happy Chinese New Year, as well, sucka!

Posted by Dennis at 13:10 (Central)

The Sound Exchange in Austin is closing its doors. Dan and I made a road trip into Austin today to pay our respects - and buy whatever we could find (30% off everything!).

I picked up a lot of random stuff, from blues to jazz to pop to hip-hop and back. But the one cd I picked up on a lark has turned out to be fantastic. It's the newest album by Jenny Toomey, formerly of Tsunami. Titled "Tempting," it's a fine melange of pop, lounge, and more with some amazing guest musicians on it. (Did someone say Calexico?) Anyway, pick it up if you find a copy. It's worth it, I promise.

Posted by Dennis at 02:22 (Central)

I suppose I never mentioned it, but I'm officially part of the Phonographerz Crew now. Baby Cee and Cozmos asked me to join, along with DJ Dave. I'm still not entirely sure why I'm in the crew, because I don't cut or juggle nearly as well as they do. The only things I have going for me are my obscure records, impeccable taste, and blinding good looks, I guess. ;-)

In any case, we had our first performance as a crew last Sunday (the 29th of December) at the Proletariat (yeah, it's kind of a pretentious name for a bar, isn't it?) with absolutely no practice together. It went pretty well, although it was a little odd doing short little sets in between bands. We settled into the groove at the end when we got an hour for ourselves. The weirdest thing, though, was watching my worlds collide. Several of the staff members from the Gingerman and one employee of the Briar Shoppe showed up. It's strange seeing these people, whom I only know from very specific locations in my life, out in a social capacity. I don't mind it, it's just weird. On top of all that, my good friend A. is back in town for a while, and we've been doing way too much drinking.

Perhaps weirder, though, is that I seem to be getting more gigs as a dj now by not trying than I did before when I actively sought them out. Karma, perhaps? Some sort of weird Zen exercise? We'll see how long this lasts...

Posted by Dennis at 00:25 (Central)

My connection has been down for the last few days. Now that I'm back up, I'll get the most recent playlists and some other updates up soon.

Posted by Dennis at 13:40 (Central)

I interviewed Sleep and Onry Ozzborn of Oldominion, plus Qwel of Typical Cats today in the KTRU studio. They're in town on tour; look for the interview to be archived here in a few days. I'll be rebroadcasting it on KTRU on Tuesday during my show; probably around 11pm.

Posted by Dennis at 20:23 (Central)

I've uploaded two more mp3 files, both from past prologue sessions. The first is Baby Cee and Cozmos on 08 June 2002, and the second is myself and Chicken George on 26 July 2002. The first is a 192Kbps stereo mp3, the second is a 160Kbps mono mp3.

• Download Baby Cee and Cozmos' set, 08 June 2002.
• Download my and Chicken George's sets.

Posted by Dennis at 19:00 (Central)

I've just put up three more mp3 mixes; they're promotional mixes that I made in a half-hearted attempt to get gigs. I don't really have the stomach to go pound the pavement and pimp myself out to club owners, though. It's not like my style would really fly in Houston anyway. Chicago, New York, London, San Francisco, yes; Houston, no. Click on the link to the left to get to the main audio archive page.

Posted by Dennis at 01:38 (Central)

I'm making mp3 files of the prologue archives available on the web. Please be kind to my server; I'm only hosting on my cable modem at home. So be patient - the files are encoded at 192Kbps stereo, so considering that I only get upload speeds of around 128Kbps, it should take longer to download the files than the actual length of the sets.

The first two available files are from the most recent session (the first of November). I've got about one hour of Leigh's chill jungle set, and about an hour and a half of Baby Cee and Cozmos' set.

Download Leigh's set.
Download Baby Cee and Cozmos' set.

Posted by Dennis at 02:47 (Central)

Tomorrow is Election Day. I hope you registered, and are planning to vote. A lot of people my age get jaded and feel that their vote doesn't count for anything, but if everyone voted, we would be heard. It's too late to register this year, but next year and the year after that, you should definitely vote.

For those who are here in Houston, and have registered, be sure to get out to vote tomorrow. It doesn't take much time, and it's important to have your vote counted. If you're not sure where your polling place is, or what stances the candidates have, check out these links:

The League of Women Voters has a non-partisan voting guide up. You might still be able to find a hard copy somewhere; they'll let you take it into the voting booth.

The Harris County Clerk's Office has a page up with a form that you can fill in which will then tell you where your polling place is. So there's really no excuse not to vote. Unless you're a felon, under 18, or not a citizen. But let's assume you're not...

Posted by Dennis at 20:58 (Central)

Only two days to get a set together. The current tentative schedule at prologue is this:

• 7pm - 8pm: I DJ as people arrive to see "Halloweird".
• 8pm - 9pm: The film shorts are shown.
• 9pm - 9:30pm: I start prologue off.
• 9:30pm - 11:00pm: Leigh drops a jungle set.
• 11pm - 1am: Baby Cee, Cozmos and Fast 4ward do their thing. Three turntablists on three turntables...
• 1am - 2am: I finish out the night.

Come out and support... it's at Fire Station #3 (1919 Houston Ave.) What else do you have to do?

Posted by Dennis at 11:31 (Central)

I've put up a slightly more informational page about the party here. It's also an experiment into more intricate styles with CSS. Actually, the stylesheet is shamelessly ripped off from Eric Meyer's CSS/Edge. I'll be modifying it to give it my own flavor, but for now, I need the information up...

Posted by Dennis at 14:12 (Central)

The next prologue session is officially announced...

Preceding the music will be film shorts curated by Microcinema International. I think the shorts begin around 8pm. You can check out their website, or Fire Station #3 for more information about that.

Baby Cee and Cozmos have agreed to do another three turntable set, and one of the founding members of the false cognate collective is back and she's going to drop a jungle set. Myself, I'll probably be doing a whole ton of random things; I've got some nu-jazz and brazilian stuff, but I might just drop a mystery set instead...

Get into the groove and come out and chill with us...

Posted by Dennis at 17:46 (Central)

Well, I just installed Movable Type, so bear with me as I reconstruct the site.

In the mean time, old URLs should still work, but here's the one that's probably most often accessed, my playlists for the vinyl frontier...

Posted by Dennis at 22:39 (Central)