Interview w/ Disco Hall of Fame DJ Peter Reyes
Donger
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This is just a quick one to promo the next Puddin' party. Go get your learn on:http://secretrendezvousonline.blogspot.com/
Comments
"sleeze format"
Yeah, it is in the Library of Congress. I think it is comprised of the real "working DJs' during the disco era from all over the country that held down serious club residencies, rocking crowds for 15 hours straight every night, etc. The list is somewhere online, I'll see if I can find it.
I'm not so sure what the WTF is about, the spelling or the slang term? I would be surprised if you have never heard of sleaze considering you are a disco record dealer, if I am not mistaken.
Well just in case, here goes:
It is basically a format more so than an actual genre. Think 100 bpm and slower disco and disco-ish tunes. The point is after fiends were rocking on the dance floor for fifteen hours straight on E pills etc., they couldn't just go home yet, because they were still candy flipping hard on all the drugs, however they were most likely way too tired to keep dancing at a frenzied pace as well. So the music had to get slower, and many times this was the sleazy part of the night as well. Think of a room full of drug riddled zombies, barely able to still move because of physical exhaustion, but still a little too wired to sleep. So now the 4/4 tunes are at 100 bpm's or less, and these drug fueled freaks are slowly moving, swaying, bumping and grinding to these slow tempos. Mofos just either wanted to F*ck anything that moved, or finally just OD and collapse so they could just get it over with. The DJs format for those last sketchy 3 hours of the night after a 12 hour set = sleaze.
Yeah, I think you can see the connection.
Peter is a great dude, he has tons of crazy stories from back in the day, and at some point I'll have him share more of them. This was just a couple of quick questions obviously so I can promote the next Puddin' party that he is guest DJ'ing at.
Yeah The Monastery was in an old church in Seattle, owned by the same guy that owned NYC's Galaxy 21, and I think it was open late 70-mid 80 although I don't know the exact dates. The Monastery's resident DJ before Peter Reyes was the one & only Walter Gibbons. Peter took over before Walter came back to NYC to work on that Strafe record. It must have been crazy as shit, as Peter described the vibe at The Monastery as "the last days of Pompeii". Peter played all over the world, and according to him even the clubs in NYC couldn't compare to this place. He rates it above The Paradise Garage, but he could be biased of course.
Puddin' is in NYC. Thursday, June 4th is the next one at APT.
Haha, great story about being in 7th grade and wanting to sneak in, and the club and George Freeman being in the news all the time!
BTW You might find this interesting. We all know that venue owners used to have serious respect for the Disco DJs back in the day. Well, Peter told me that besides having an amazing DJ booth, he had his own fully furnished apartment in the club, behind the DJ booth to hang out in! Lavish furniture, and a real soundsystem. So while the other young dude would be opening for him, Peter had his own Bozak mixer and serious speakers in his back room behind the booth to start programming, warming up etc. I can't even imagine the non-DJ stuff that used to go on back there too.
Hahaha... WORK!
Shit is gonna be ON at APT tonight!!!