Posts filed under 'DJ Wesley Personal'
New mailing list! Sign-up now! ;-)
In this age of Facebooking and Twittering, maybe it seems a little passé to roll-out a new mailing list, but that’s just what I’ve done. I’ve had a ton of requests from fans who’d like to get my weekly chart in their e-mail in-box (vs. getting a tweet and clicking to the web site), and with the number of new remixes I’ve been doing lately (not to mention the very first of my own tracks coming this quarter), perhaps many of you would like to get notifications by e-mail as soon as things are available.
So, I’m pleased to accommodate… Sign-up now! It takes a few seconds; you get to pick what you want to know about; and you can easily unsubscribe or manage your preferences at any time (there are instructions inside each mailing).
The mailing list is powered by my friends at MailChimp, so everything is compliant with industry best-practices for spam control. (To that end, you’ll need to confirm your subscription by e-mail; after sign-up, check your in-box for instructions.)
Weekly charts will start going out to this list next week, and as for the first newsletter, that’ll happen soon, too. I look forward to keeping you up-to-date the old fashioned way. (Well, I guess that would be a hand-written letter mailed to you in an envelope, but I’m not going quite that far…)
Add comment January 6, 2010
Facebook enhancements for DJ Wesley
OK, so I’m a little slow with some things, but I finally got around to enhancing the old Facebook page for DJ Wesley.
- You can now get to my Facebook page and become a DJ Wesley fan there by going simply to:
http://www.facebook.com/djwesleymusicThis is the same “shortcut” as I use on MySpace.
- For all you texting nuts who have Facebook on your smartphone, you can also become a DJ Wesley fan by texting the message “fan djwesleymusic” to FBOOK (32665).
I’ll be using my Facebook presence more and more to keep people abreast of the exciting things happening in the months ahead, including numerous new remix and production projects (I have no less than four projects underway right now), as well as gig dates and the like, so become a fan today so you can keep up-to-date.
Have a great weekend,
Wes
Add comment November 13, 2009
Mixshow changes starting this week
For nearly a year now, I’ve been doing a live, two-hour mixshow on iDanceRadio.fm. While I enjoy doing it live, it takes a valuable weekend night away from me. It’s also largely prevented me from syndicating the show to other outlets.
Beginning this Friday, October 2nd, the DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party will be trimmed back to one hour (a customary length for mixshows), and I’ll be pre-recording it sometime during the week. I’m sure that most listeners to iDanceRadio.fm will hardly notice the change, but I wanted to give everyone a head’s-up.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you continue to catch the new, shortened show each Friday night, starting at the same time—10 Eastern, 7 Pacific.
Add comment September 27, 2009
Necessary evil
I really do try and keep off-topic posts in this blog to a minimum. The purpose here is to talk about dance music, the dance music industry, DJ stuff, production stuff, and related… Stuff. But hopefully you’ll permit me this opportunity to rant. I promise it won’t happen again. Soon.
These days, social media is a necessary evil. Just like e-mail, just like instant messaging, when your friends, colleagues, fans, associates, family members, neighbors, and others are all Twittering and Facebooking and whatever-else-ing, you feel like a bit of a dork when you’re odd one out, like some sort of technology curmudgeon stuck in the rotary phone era.
So, like many others, I Twitter, I Facebook, and I even still MySpace despite MySpace being the stinky armpit of social networking these days.
Facebook is arguably the most useful of the various social networking services. It’s nowhere near as ugly as MySpace, for a start. And it has some actually somewhat useful features and capabilities. Plus it seems that even my most reluctant friends have caved to peer pressure and have Facebook accounts now.
But all that said, I’m beginning to hate to Facebook. MySpace might well be a metric f*ck ton of ugly right out there on the surface, but Facebook tucks it all away under the hood where you don’t see it at first. Facebook’s “ugly” are the so-called “apps” that are reproducing like rabbits, it seems, along with all the other dingleberries aplenty that go along with them.
It’s all so ugly that if I get one more invitation to from some stupid “app” a friend thought I might find as cute as they did, or one more wall posting from an “app” a friend just interacted with, I think I’m going to go postal.
Dear Facebook friends, let me be clear:
- If you want to kiss me, just kiss me for real, and don’t bother sending me some digital Facebook app version of one.
- I don’t care what city my friends are most suited to live in, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care what five actors my friends most look like, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care which Harry Potter character my friends are most similar to, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t care which ______ my friends most ______, based on a test they took, and I don’t want to see it on my wall.
- I don’t collect hearts, lollipops, Peeps, or any other form of digital tchotchke. (I got over digital tchotchke when my Tamagotchi died.)
- I don’t want to be “poked.” If you want to say hello, say, “Hello!” Really; it’s just six keystrokes and a couple of clicks more effort.
- I don’t want to be a fan of anything or anyone I don’t choose myself, and no, I don’t want to be a part of a group that I haven’t already joined.
Oh, and while I’m at it…
Dear Facebook,
- I do not know why you think I’m interested in being friends with friends of friends, friends of friends I defriended (yes, that happens), fans of people I’m a fan of, other people in a group I belong to, or people in some sort of affiliation I’m in. Just because I share one interest or contact with someone doesn’t mean I know them—or want to.
- Just because a friend became a fan of someone or something, or joined a group, doesn’t mean I want or need to know about it, nor does it mean that I have even potential interest in doing the same, so stop telling me about it. Really. Stop. Please stop.
I like Facebook. I do. Mostly. Sort of.
But all the rest of the crap that comes with it is just a new version of spam. Instead of communicating, or communicating something useful, let’s just send a bunch of digital detritus around and call it communication.
It isn’t.
Just to be very clear as well, if my friends love all this stuff? That’s awesome! Great! Have at it! I’m glad you’re enjoying it, and part of me wishes I did too, but I don’t. But it’s not unlike other areas of life; for example, just because you enjoy eating balut eggs or escamole tacos doesn’t mean I should have to choke them down.
It’ll never happen, but I sorta wish there was a “Block All” button or a “Hide All” button for Facebook apps. They need to get off my wall, out of my “Highlights,” and they need to stay off.
I guess if all this makes me a social networking curmudgeon… Well… I’ve been called worse. Earlier today, in fact. 
Rant complete. The next posting I make will be about dance music. I promise.
Add comment July 17, 2009
Taking the wraps off
I’ve alluded for the past few months about a remix project I’ve been doing, but it’s been a little premature to talk much about it. But today, it’s time to take the wraps off.
Back in May, I started working with Carol Hahn on a new track titled Let Me Go. The remix was pretty well completed, but for a number of reasons, Carol decided in June not to release Let Me Go right now. While I was pleased with my mix, the song is a bit “dark,” and the mix itself ended-up being a bit dark as well. In any case, it’s been shelved for now. Hopefully at some point it’ll see the light of day.
The good news is that last month, Carol wrote a different new song, Take Me and Dance. When I heard her own rough of the track, I fell in love with it immediately, and started work on a remix of the song. It came together quickly, and I think, very nicely. It has a nice sort of grungy element to it that, as Carol said, “has good energy, power, and attitude.” I hope everyone likes it when they hear it.
Also providing remixes on the release are the renowned Lenny B., who I think has remixed just about everyone under the planet, and my British-expat friends from Spain, Jamie Exley and Peter Hayward who are better known as VisionX, and who also did a really strong remix. Between the three mixes, Take Me and Dance covers some broad sonic territory, and I’m stoked about the release. I believe it’s going to be a successful track, so thanks in advance for keeping your eyes open for it and snagging a copy on iTunes or AmazonMP3 once it’s available (sometime in August).
For those anxious to hear, you expect it to show-up in this week’s DJ Wesley Friday Night House Party, and I’ll be posting it to my Facebook and MySpace pages as well soon.
Now that this track is in the can, I’ll be starting a new project here in the next week or so for another artist. I’ll post details about that as soon as I have them.
Add comment July 14, 2009
Facebook’s Achilles Heel (sorry, Facebook friends)
I realize that this posting is pretty off-topic, but here goes… This weekend when I have some time, I’ll be de-friending a pile of people on Facebook. It’s nothing personal; it’s just that Facebook’s Achilles Heel is becoming more and more painful, and it calls for extreme measures.
What the hell am I talking about? Well, bear with.
Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life. That’s what they say, right on their home page. But let’s take a quick inventory of the various types of “people in my life:”
- Best friends
- Casual friends
- Work friends at my current day job
- Work friends from previous day jobs
- DJ friends
- Online friends
- Family friends
- Immediate family members
- Extended family members
- Neighbors
I’m probably missing some of them, but 10 different types of “friends” is probably sufficient to make my point. Which is, do I really want my neighbors or work colleagues to know about the trepidation I’m feeling about my upcoming proctological examination? Do I really want my nieces and nephews to know that I just told a nasty joke about my sister-in-law at work, that my co-workers can’t stop bringing-up? Do I really want my family and boss to hear about how I tied one on at a DJ gig, or to see all the stupid Facebook Mobile photo uploads I made at the time? (For the record, my ass is fine, and I don’t even have a brother. The last example, unfortunately, is true.)
Think I’m wrong about this? The Internet is rife with examples of me being even more right than a simple embarrassment about a doctor’s appointment. Like losing your job over a Facebook posting that the “wrong friends” saw, or having the authorities use photos and comments you’ve posted against you.
Facebook fairly recently started allowing you to group your friends. I have no idea what value this is, considering that once they’re grouped, you get precisely zero control over what happens from there. Want to post something only for your co-workers friends group? Good luck. Want to make sure the ridiculous pictures from the family picnic go only to your family? Yeah, sure. Dream on. Filtering who I see on my home page on-demand isn’t really my idea of control, but it’s the limit of what these groups can deliver.
The stupid assumption that all the people in your life are created equal is laced throughout Facebook, and changing it would require a massive overhaul of the Facebook infrastructure. I’m wagering we’ll never see that overhaul happen. Ever.
So the Achilles Heel… Just like Facebook was a way better MySpace (and what it did to MySpace is suddenly becoming very, very apparent), all it’s going to really take to put Facebook in its place is someone to develop a better mousetrap with a compelling reason to start using it, and for me, that service is that one that does everything Facebook does—while giving me the ability to filter, separate and control my various public and private faces. With technology, and with web-based services specifically, people can be (and are) supremely fickle. The Internet is littered with has-beens and their entrails, and if anyone thinks Facebook, Google, Flickr or anyone else is going to stand on top forever is kidding themselves. They will stay on top only as long as it takes for someone to create a clearly better approach and get a little momentum going. Many people are already trying; most of them will fail miserably. Will it be a long haul? Yes. Is it impossible? Not even a little. And as I said, the first Facebook challenger to do this right? I’m all over it.
So back to Facebook. Apologies in advance to the family members, the co-workers, and others who are going to get tossed from my friends list this weekend. Don’t take it personally. My participation in Facebook is changing to a very narrowly-defined purpose, and anyone on my friends list who doesn’t really fit that is getting deleted. It’s just the way it is. Blame it on Facebook and the fact that they have a seriously flawed concept. And blame it on the fact that, at least for now, I have no interest in maintaining 2, 3, 4, 5, or maybe 6 or more different Facebook profiles so I can limit who gets to hear what; that’s way too much work—and just not worth it.
2 comments June 26, 2009
Do I have to like Hannah Montana?
I’ve said in this blog on several occasions that I’m a sucker for pretty songs. I think I’ve mentioned that while I love dance music, I also love music, period. And what constitutes a “pretty song” can vary between things that are aesthetically pleasing in some way, to those that touch me on some level.
Last night, a good friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video with some lyrics to accompany the song being performed. No, it wasn’t Internet sensation Susan Boyle, it was, of all things, a video of Miley Cyrus’ latest song from the Hannah Montana movie. Honestly, I groaned for a moment or two. Just long enough for her to get the first line or so of lyric out of her mouth, and then I think I started tearing-up a little bit.
The song is titled The Climb, and the reason my good friend sent me the link is that he thought of me when he heard it, and sure enough, the lyrics absolutely speak to me.
The theme is practically universal; maintaining perspective in the pursuit of life, and trying to remember the point that it’s about the journey, not the destination. Suffice it to say that it’s a message I could use to hear right now, which is why it resonated so much for me.
It’s an extremely well-written song on pretty much every single level, and the fact that Cyrus performs it in a pop-friendly, semi-country style takes nothing away from it.
The song was written by veteran songwriters Jon Mabe and Jessi Alexander, both of whom have been very prolific, and while I don’t realize it, I’ve probably heard their respective material before. I didn’t bother to try and find out who wrote which part (music vs. lyrics), but that doesn’t matter either; it’s the whole that counts, and what an amazing job they did putting this one together.
I sort of resent being sucked-in by the Disney entertainment machine and all their factory-produced pap. But just like good food can come both from factories and from small one-man restaurants, Cyrus deserves credit for picking a great song from some great songwriters, performing it well, and touching someone. And isn’t that what music is supposed to be all about?
You can watch the official video on Hollywood Records YouTube channel.
Add comment April 21, 2009
Why do some songs get so old, so fast?
As I was preparing my morning coffee this morning, as usual, I was listening to iDanceRadio.fm. (I don’t have a choice; it broadcasts to every radio in the house that’s turned-on over an ultra low power FM transmitter. Don’t ask; yes, I’m a geek, we knew that already.) The song that was playing, Madison Park and Monodeluxe with Come Out And Play, is one I feel like I’ve heard about 10,000 times, and I wanted to throw the radio in the neighbor’s yard.
I have nothing against the song itself, or Madison Park, I want to be clear. I love DeAnna Cool’s smooth vocals, and I’ve been a fan for years. But there’s just something about her singing, “Why don’t you play with me, under my apple tree,” that after so many plays just grates on my last nerve. I want to go cut her apple tree down and burn it at this point, which in a way is pretty disappointing, because I still think it’s a groovy song.
But it got me thinking… Why does it seem like some song get so old, so quickly? Prematurely, even? While others seems to last and last. Here’s my list, and I may add to this post later if other ideas occur to me. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think it is, and I’ll do a new post to revisit this subject later on.
- Lyrical Variety or Complexity
First, I listen to lyrics, as I like to sing along to songs a lot of times. I know that not everyone does (like my friend Bobby, who says he never pays attention to the lyrics at all). So for some, this might not matter, but for me, if a song has complex lyrics—I don’t know how better to explain it, but basically more than just a couple of verses or a chorus repeated over and over—it seems to hold better.Notable exceptions: Filo & Peri’s Anthem, which in some of the mixes is quite redundant, and Ferry Corsten’s epic Fire where Simon LeBon sings the same small block of lyric over and over. And over. An exception to every rule, I guess.
But if DeAnna Cool didn’t sing about her apple tree about 15 times in a single track, it probably would have lasted longer for me.
- Lack of Novelty
Novelty songs, or songs with a novelty angle, get tired fast for me. Sally Jaxx’s take on 9 to 5 which I blogged about for other reasons a good 18 months ago, is an example of this for me, because it’s a remake that is incredibly close to the original to the point that it sounds like a remix of the original, and not a remake. And hearing something like 9 to 5 remixed is pretty novel to me.Some novelty songs don’t even get off the ground for me in the first place, like amberRose Marie’s Wanna Be a DJ which I mentioned earlier this week.
The “novelty” moniker is subjective, I suppose, but if a song is intended to be “cutesie” or silly, or maybe is even if it’s not intended to be but comes across that way, it won’t last long.
- Sonic Complexity
This is probably the biggest single reason why some songs last and last… I’ve often called this “ear candy” because it describes anything that lets your ear go for a little ride.This complexity can be done any number of ways. If I was talking jazz piano, it’s often achieved with complex, rich chords and chord progressions. With electronic music, it’s usually sophisticated production with layer after layer of synth action, rich percussion, clever use of patches, clever use of filtering, and/or a very defined rises and falls in energy level that give a feeling of anticipation and fulfillment.
It’s not an easy thing to do, and frankly, it’s also what separates an “OK” dance track from a “WOW!!” dance track, and the aforementioned Filo & Peri and Ferry Corsten tracks are good examples of this.
But when a track manages to achieve that complexity, it takes time for it to become familiar, because you keep hearing something new every time you listen to it. I really like songs (or more accurately, I suppose, mixes) that manage to achieve that, and moreover, knowing how difficult it is to achieve it, I appreciate the sheer artistry and craftsmanship that went into it.
So, what did I miss? What do you think gives a track an extended life, vs. those that are tiresome in a week? It’s fascinating for music nuts to ponder in any case.
Add comment March 19, 2009
Going from DJ to producer
The term “DJ” means a lot of things to a lot of people, but as I seem to recall blogging at one point (although I didn’t go looking for the post), in the club DJ realm, I think I see it as a sort of progression in a way. There’s your basic DJ, a DJ/Producer, and what I’ve coined as a “Producing DJ” (which is admittedly not the best term for it).
A DJ just spins records. (OK, well, maybe MP3 files, but anyway.) A DJ/Producer does that, but also produces or remixes music, which in dance music, is basically the same thing; which is to say, actually creating and arranging the music. And the “Producing DJ” is someone like a Tiësto or Armin or whoever, who DJs and produces, but also brings those concepts together in a “DJ” set, manipulating songs on-the-fly, adding loops and effects, and generally giving a musical performance that’s based on the work of others, and themselves.
As I said, it seems that there is some evidence that these three things are a progression of sorts. Regular DJs—not that there is anything wrong at all with being a regular DJ (unless you ask Deadmau5)—tend to want to start producing music. And if you’re a really good DJ and producer, it’s not much of a leap to start doing both at the same time, live.
This is, in fact, exactly the progression track I’m on. The release of my first commercial remix is merely the first publicly visible mile marker of entering the second phase, DJ/Producer, although in fairness to myself, publicly visible is the key phrase there; I’ve actually written and produced dozens of songs (and not just in dance), but they’ve not been particularly visible. Whether I ever become a “Producing DJ” or not, I don’t know; that’s not really a current aspiration.
In any event, other DJs I know are on the same track, although are farther along than I am. My buddy Jeremy Martorano in Phoenix is producing quite a bit these days through his Majik Boys collaboration, and is sounding good. And Mike Bordes, a DJ I know through coordinating his mixshows on iDanceRadio.fm, has been on this track awhile now. (For the record, Jeremy and the Majik Boys also have a mixshow on iDanceRadio.fm.)
In fact, Mike just released a really superb dance track titled Don’t Know What U Got. It’s well-produced, it’s got a nice vocal (provided by Mike’s fellow New Yorker, Angela Severiano), it sounds good, and well, it rocks!
The most recent work I’m aware of from Majik Boys is their remix of amberRose Marie’s new track Wanna Be a DJ. I do like amberRose, and really dig her track from last year titled Destiny. And I do like the production work that Jeremy and team put forth in their mix of Wanna Be a DJ. Unfortunately, however, I just can’t stand the song; in short, I cannot manage to get past the cheesy, gratuitous lyrics. It strikes me as a song written to pander to DJs, as if the thought was, “Oooo, DJs will love this, it’s about them!” Well, I don’t like it, and I don’t like feeling like I’m being pandered to. But that’s nothing against the remixers on the project, or amberRose, whose vocal talents I really do like. I just wish they all had a better composition to work from. But alas, the track is on the Billboard dance charts, so perhaps I’m alone in this. Or, maybe I’m just jealous.
But in any case, as Deadmau5 would say (refer to the link above), I’m just a f***ing c**t, so what do I know? 
Have a good week.
2 comments March 16, 2009
Cool DJ toys
I don’t really write this blog for other DJs, so I guess this post is a little off-topic. But I was struck in an e-mail conversation I had yesterday about how many cool toys there are for DJs these days. I have no idea how big an audience DJs compose as a consumer group, and in this economy, I am even more clueless how many DJs are spending money. But DJs, like musicians, tend to have big aspirations (which is a good thing), and I don’t know about yours, but my local Guitar Center (where both musicians and DJs tend to frequent) still seems to be pretty busy these days.
Anyway, I recently had the chance to play with the Hercules DJ Control Steel pretty extensively so I could write a review of it for it DJ Times. It’s a USB-based DJ controller (i.e., “MIDI control surface” to use the typical parlance) that provides a variety of knobs and sliders and LED indicators to enable better, more accurate control of your DJ software. It has enough of those knobs and sliders to provide direct access to the key aspects of digital DJ’ing, thus freeing you from having to use your computer mouse to manipulate the software. And at around $300, and bundled with DJ software (Virtual DJ), it’s ready-to-use and a steal (bad pun).
You’ll have to wait until the May issue of DJ Times hits the streets to see what else I had to say about it.
As I told the person I was corresponding with by e-mail yesterday, I think what’s cool is that things like the DJ Control Steel even exist. When I started DJ’ing, I started out all-digital, and there were perhaps one or two choices for DJ-specific MIDI controllers at that time. After trying the M-Audio X-Session Pro (which I found to be an overly limited choice, not to mention its cheap, plastic feel; it was truly a toy, not a serious solution), I eventually settled onto using (of all things) an M-Audio Trigger Finger which is actually intended to be a MIDI drum controller. But it served me well for quite some time until my Allen & Heath Xone:3D (and later the 4D) came into my life.
But I digress. The point is that today, there are an increasing number of dedicated controllers already on, or coming onto the market, from Behringer, Vestax, Stanton, and Hercules (among others) at the affordable end that are great for mobile jocks and within reach of even aspiring DJs. And at the higher-end, pro goodies (with price tags to match) from people like the aforementioned Allen & Heath as well as interesting entries from places like Finland’s EKS.
In short, there’s no better time for a DJ to move from the traditional turntable-based approach to the art to the all-digital realm. Great controllers and increasingly great software choices make it way easier, and way more fun, than it was when I started out.
Add comment March 11, 2009
