Blog Entries

Pressing Vinyl

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I just thought I would post this great article about pressing up vinyl. It has some great information on the process for getting your tunes to vinyl properly, how to get a distributor, and names of pressing plants thoughout the world. We at Tothedisco.com want to promote any new music coming out on vinyl so please send us anything you may have. You can email us at info@tothedisco.com for f [...]

Isaac Hayes RIP

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It has been a long few months with many great legends passing away. Most recently Isaac Hayes passed away and I know this is a little late but I wanted to share this great tribute mix for Mr. Hayes I found from DJ Premiere.

DJ Premiere's Isaac Hayes Tribute Aug. 15th

Also below is an excerpt from the last interview Isaac Hayes gave to the LA [...]

Frankie Knuckles Interview

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The folks over at djhistory.com have allowed us to post this interview with the master of disco and inventor of house, DJ Fankie Knuckles from 1995.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of dancefloor history knows Frankie Knuckles respectfully as the ‘Godfather of House’. Together with his childhood friend Larry Levan he ran wild on the early disco scene: his first job was s [...]

Barry Lederer RIP 1944-2008

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We at Tothedisco.com apologize for not posting anything about Barry Lederer's passing until now but we just heard the news over the weekend. Barry passed away on May 31 of natural causes. It's such a shame that Barry has passed away. He was a kind and generous person from the few times that I spoke with him on the phone.

Barry came onto the Disco/DJ scene from early on i [...]

Spend a Day with Gilles Peterson

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Defected Records has put together a nice little documentary following legendary DJ and label head Gilles Peterson around. The doc follows Gilles from presenting at a Cinematic Orchestra concert, to DJing at Southport Weekender. and finally to the goldmine that is Gilles treasure trove of records at Brownswood Studios. The salivation will be on your lips as you see Gilles' many [...]

Digging Lessons with DJ Kon and Amir

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XLR8R brings us a great look into the proper way to go crate digging in Manhattan's Lower East Side or LES for people in the know. Go to Kon's blog for video at Playin 4 Keeps.

Also don't forget to check out their "Off Track" mix album featuring all the great rare afro funk and disco tracks they are know for digging from [...]

Afro Juice and Tothedisco.com

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Tothedisco.com is sponsoring a new night in Boston called Afro Juice. Afro Juice is a combination of DJs and live music with the jazz, funk, soul , disco asthetic in mind. Coming up on July 13th is local guest DJ Joseph Colbourne. Colbourne was recently featured on the legendary Ebony Cuts radio show out of Sweden.

Check out mix section for an e [...]

How to Mix

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I just wanted to draw attention to this great blog entry about mixing varied tempos and musical genres. Over at the Cosmic Boogie Collective blog they posted an intertested article on how to mix disco. I thought it was quite interesting as over the years I've been switching from spinning the more typical house club music towards deep disco, funk, and soul. The author has some gerat ideas, escpecially on "chop mixing." Enjoy!

Lost Classic - Arnie Love and the Lovettes

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Here is the super rare track "We Had Enough" by Arnie Love and the Lovettes reissued by the Numero Group on the Recording Tap compilation. Arranged by Gene Redd with backing vocals from the "Lovettes" (Roberta Bivers and Linda Green) this track reminds me of UNiversal Robot Band's "Barely Breaking Even" for some reason. Perhaps its the subject matter of [...]

Afro Disco - Buari

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It's one of those great genres that is recently getting a lot of exposure at moment with many have been compilations released recently. One great artist of this genre is Buari, who grew up in Ghana and is a a singer, dancer, percussionist, composer and co-arranger. The track from the album we've picked is "Advice from Father" which features heavy drums from legendary drumm [...]

Godfather of Disco

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The documentary by filmmaker Gene Graham has finally made it's way to Boston via the premiere at the 24th Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. I've been anticipating this film for months now and to see it along with fellow Paradise Garage and West End Records enthusiasts was amazing.

For those who aren't familiar with this film, it's about the life of Mel Cheren, based on his autobiography "My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep On Danc [...]

Theo Parrish at the Red Bull Music Academy

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If you haven't checked out this great lecture from the Theo Parrish at Red Bull Music Academy then check it out below. Theo sends a strong message about the importance of DJs taking time to gain the knowledge and experience of music through digging for records rather than just downloading thousands of files of music.

Theo Parrish Lecture

Recent Classics: Different Gear vs. the Police

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I decided to start a new column I will feature regularly called "Recent Classics." These of course, are recent records that in my mind have become classics.

Different Gear's remake of "When the World is Running Down (You Can't Go Wrong) was played by everyone at the Miami conference from DJ Sneak to Lil' Louie Vega before it was even cleare [...]

Portishead - Third

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Portishead is not really dance music by any means but I've been a huge fan of them since my college days and in America today is the official release of the album. So it's finally time to get excited about an album release again. I know it's been a while. And the album isn't to bad either. It's hard to live up to hype of waiting ten years. Tracks like "Hunter" and "Plastic" are classic atmospheric. brooding Portishead tracks [...]

Curtis Vodka - Thriller

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Here is a great italo techy cover of MJ's Thriller by the next genre mashing dude, Curtis Vodka. Born Spencer Shroyer there isn't much info on Mr. Vodka yet but his mixes have been circulating the web via Blentwell and the Hype Machine.

Curtis Vodka - Thriller

Record Day April 19th

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This Saturday throughout the U,S. of A is officially Record Store Day. The major indie store organizations such as AIMS and CIMS are putting together events in every city including performances by Metallica, the Dresden Dolls, and many others. This is all great and everything but I don't see any of my local favorite stores particapting. I don't know if this is the fault of the organizers or the stores but it just doesn't motivate me to go out. But as Shelby Lynne is quoted [...]

GW Edit of Adriano Celentano

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Here is a press release of the new Greg Wilson Edit Series "GW Ruff Edits" the first of which is a re edit of the Italian cult classic "Prisencolinensinainciusol" by Adriano Celentano:

RUFF EDITS #1
To launch this new series, edits don Greg Wilson extends a somewhat forgotten Italian cult club classic with a mad as toast title, which was originally issu [...]

Fela In Performance

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Thanks to Youtube we can see this great performance by Fela Kuti from 1971 at the Luna Nite Club. This was supposedly shot by Ginger Baker when he was visiting in Calabar, Nigeria.

Fela on Youtube

Uncovered Gem - Leaf

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I love these interesting stories about how rare records are uncovered years after the fact and the strange things that come with them. It really has a real level of history about vinyl that the mainstream culture doesn't understand. The band was called Leaf and hails from the streets of Baltimore. You can check out the full story about this obscure funk outfit in an a [...]

Joe Gibbs - RIP

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The great Joe GIbbs pasted away on February 21, 2008. Here is a press release from legendary reggae label VP Records:

VP Records sends its sincerest condolences for one of the greatest losses in reggae history. The legendary producer Joe Gibbs (born Joel A. Gibson) has passed away at the age of 65.

This influential man behind and in front of the boards was a major pioneering [...]