Hello World

Back in the day when John used to work at Golden Oldies in lovely downtown Olympia, WA, USA (a city ordinance requires this specific nomenclature, downtown Oly's not really that lovely), he had a theory that the music I loved most was by female artists, denoted only by their first name, singing bubblegum dance pop.

This could be true. I'm not without certain obsessions.

But the theory quickly falls apart when I DJ. Case in point, Madonna. She is my nemesis, as I am perhaps the only DJ in the world who can clear a dance floor by playing her music. Someone says, "Play some Madonna, fer chissakes!" I begrudging comply with "Cherish" thinking there's a tune by her they probably haven't heard in awhile. Everybody leaves the dance floor. "Not that Madonna!" How does that old song go? "You gotta please yourself..."

(As a side note, Madonna does have the distinction of having the only song I will not play under any circumstances: "Material Girl." Cheap attempt at Reagan era cynicism made worse, like the film Star Wars, of being lovingly embraced by the masses. Consider my refusal a first step towards a more enlightened future when the majority opinion will be, "Gee, what a shitty song.")

Let's not even get into Beyoncé. Outside that tune she did with Sean Paul, what's the point?

"Well," you might be saying "we've all got problems, kid, what is this music you actually like?" Ah, well how about Chandra:

Chandra: Concentraction (1980)

This little ditty came from the KAOS vinyl library, a collection someone should invest the time to digitize and distribute for it's cultural value. Hey, I do my part when I'm in town. Like the above tune. It comes from a three song EP issued in 1980. Not having the album before me, I can't tell you much more, except I remember she looked about 12 in her album photo and I think it was on a label out of England.

The net hasn't been of much use to me in finding info about her. One name artists may be a nice little sub-genre for collectors, but one is more apt to find out about Sheila Chandra than poor old (or, rather, young) Chandra. Any info you may have would make my day.

I might just play some of her stuff on Wednesday (April 13) down at OPA (9 rue Biscornet - 75012 PARIS Métro: Bastille - sortie rue de Lyon) between 20h and 2h. The singer/actress Alexandra Roos is the feature (she goes on at 9, I'll mix before and after), so I might lay down a poppy chansony sorta set, though if the kids start dancing, I won't do anything to interrupt the vibe.

Unless they request "Material Girl."