Blow Your Head Vol. 2 : Dave Nada Presents Moombahton

I've been known for making some not great choices in life.

Take, for instance, the year I spent at the University of Maryland back around the turn of the millenium. I transferred in, all full of piss and vinegar, ready to "forge my own path" by moving from north of Baltimore to north of DC. I broke up with a girl who I think genuinely loved me, left a town where I could probably be described as a big fish, and moved to a place where I knew no one...all because they had a college radio station where I could DJ at 6 in the morning. In retrospect, it's a miracle I made it 9 months before crawling back to Bel Air.

I did meet a bunch of cool people, though. Like Dave Villegas, who was in a couple of great punk bands when I met him and was as close to a welcome wagon during my time in College Park. We'd run into each other on the regular even after I moved back above Charm City, whether at house shows or at the record store or in clubs in Baltimore. We'd clink beers and share stories and play catch up. Eventually, I'd get married and move back to the suburbs, while I saw Dave getting more into DJing clubs; not just parties, but bona-fide nightclubs, where people came to spend money to dance. He was running with the likes of Diplo, forging his own path with this mix of house music and reggaeton he called moombahton. And then fuckin' Justin Bieber adopted the sound for "Sorry", which, I'M SORRY, is definitely a straight up bop, and a helluva Lydia Loveless cover.

Flash foward to a couple weeks ago, when this came up for bid on the Electronic Bay for a penny, and of course I had to cop it. When it arrived, it had Dave's signature on the front, just above the left boob. It was a nice bonus, a kind reminder that success doesn't elude us all, and the forebearer of some righteous jams.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Change The Beat

The subtitle here is "14 Tracks From Madonna's New York Scene", which, if it's not a good selling point for ya, then, homey, you've come to the wrong place.

Herein is a sampling of what you might find playing in the DJ booth at Danceteria, back when Ms. Ciccone was still modeling and working through demos of her first record. My pockets are a bit light and my septum a bit fragile for the sort of pharmaceutical intake these jams call for, but I'm not certain that's even necessary to appreciate the likes of ESG, Delta 5, Judy Nylon, and Funkadelic all showing up to the same party.

It's just good jams for 68 minutes. And who amongst us is having too great a life to want that?

Cool cover photo, too.

Discogs

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various artists - I Like It Like That

I forgot to plug in my laptop, which means I forgot until 20 after midnight to start writing, which is probably residual from the ol' rectal clean-out I undertook last weekend. Regardless, you're not getting the usual top notch trenchant insights you come here for bi-weekly.

I found this, as I do so many other awesome weirdness, on a shelf at one of my local haunts, for the usual buck or two. It comes from Fania Records, the home of boogaloo, salsa, and a shitton of incredible Latin beats. One disc is a grip of remixed Fania classics; the second disc features the originals. If this is a world you're unfamiliar with (and if you're a cracker-ass white boi like yrs truly, you probably aren't familiar), then this serves as a pretty cool sampler of the 3,000+ releases on this landmark label.

The remixes, you could take or leave. But it's getting cooler out, so some hot jams are quite welcome.

Discogs

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various artists - Scion CD Sampler V. 24: Discobelle

I found this in a "Friends Of The Library" 25cent bin, so I decided to cop a 13-year-old electronic/dance sampler promoting a defunct car brand.

I continue to stand impressed at the marketing team that managed to talk Toyota into funding a record label for a decade plus.

Discogs

Click here to download.