musing on music

I've spent the last 2 hours listening to old dance vinyl I have from my days as a techno/trance dj, and man do I realize how much I miss this stuff. For various reasons, although I love electronic dance music, when I do go out, I mostly go to a local goth-industrial club. I've started wandering to some of the other local clubs and am struck with how out-of-touch with the scene I have become. Or I'm just old. Or the scene is just crap. I can't find a club that regularly plays electronic music I like and draws a decent crowd. I've been to Club Medusa, and when it was an out-of-town DJ, it rocked. The local DJs, just don't do it for me, and the crown totally turns me off. The Last Supper Club has much better music (upstairs) but the dance floor is tiny and it really seems to be hit or miss whether there is a decent crowd.

Back when I was in college (not here in Seattle), I used to track special events. An odd disadvantage of having a real job is that I don't have to save up for the really good nights... so I just don't track special events at all. Ever since I moved off Capital Hill, it has become almost impossible to pick up a Stranger to look for upcoming events. I'm just adrift with my inadequate information.

Back to my original topic... listening to my old music. I have some 200 or so records, most of which are 8-9 years old, from when I DJed. Although I've had my own turntables for almost 7 years, I haven't really done much with any of that music in years. I recently moved and now have a decent setup for the first time in years... so I'm having fun pulling out my old records for a spin. Mostly, I'm just dropping them on and just letting them play through. It is damn cool to listen to this stuff. I forgot how much better some of this stuff is than what you typically get on some random dj compilation cd. Once I've worked my way through more of my collection, I'm going to start putting together mixes.

That raised an interesting question. Back when I would practice more regularly, I would make mix tapes for me to listen to... only I really have no desire to record to cassette anymore. There are only limited places I can listen to my recordings, and tapes just feel so old. So I was looking at the iRiver PMP-120. Archos has something similar... All I really need is something that can record MP3s, as well as playing them back. Yay! Excuse to buy new toys!