Archive for the neo tag

A new chapter for Atomic

As of next Thursday, I will be quitting my residency at Neo. Along with me goes Atomic. This wasn't an easy decision to make, and Kamar and I are not really happy about it, but circumstances being what they are, it's for the best.

Looking into the future:
• Kamar will continue his residency at Neo on Thursdays under a different name.
• This blog will remain and continue to be updated.
• There will still be Atomic events, though they will be less frequent and at alternate venues.

In other words, not a whole lot is changing, aside from me not being in the booth on Thursdays. If you go to Atomic, I encourage you to continue to go to Neo on Thursdays to support Kamar, and if you read the blog, then keep reading the blog. Join our facebook group to be invited to future Atomic events, one of which I'll be posting about soon.

I've been at Neo for over four years, and it's been a great time. I've made a lot of new friends and learned a lot about the place, the music, and the people, and I'll carry that with me as I leave. Thanks to everyone who came and drank and danced, not just at Atomic but at all of my gigs at Neo over the years. I hope to see your faces again on my next dance floor.

-Qbot

Blondie: Hanging On The Telephone / Deborah Harry’s Birthday

Tonight, July 1st, we're celebrating Debbie Harry's birthday. In lieu of my own story, I'd like to share someone else's. As Suzanne Shelton wrote on our facebook event page:

This is more appropriate than you know: Blondie was playing at ParkWest the night we opened Neo - everyone from the show turned up to make the club an immediate success. And "Hanging on the Telephone" was one on the first songs I played that night.

Ok I knew that story, but for those who don't know, Suzanne was the very first resident dj at Neo, and she's referring to its opening night on July 25, 1979. She's also responsible for convincing the owners to let her play a new kind of music called "new wave". I am occasionally blown away (and sometimes despaired by) the realization that this music has been played in this club for 31 years. That said, the early days of Neo were much different than they are today, as the club's focus has gone from punk, ska, and mod to goth and industrial to synthpop and EBM.

I feel like we're celebrating more than just Debbie Harry's birthday at the start of this Independence Day weekend. We're celebrating Blondie, we're celebrating Neo, and a country where an underground nightclub can exist for three decades.

From the 1978 classic Parallel Lines, available on amazon.com
official website

Panic! 4 year anniversary / Aztec Camera: Good Morning Britain + The Smiths: Panic

Tonight, Panic! celebrates their fourth anniversary at Darkroom. I don't even remember how Kamar and I met Pogo and Arturo, but it's no surprise that the new wave djs with the Blondie-named night and the Britpop djs with the Smiths-named night were fast friends. I don't think Debbie Harry and Morrissey ever hooked up, but if Atomic was a girl, Panic would be our quirky British boyfriend. We're there almost every month -sometimes in the booth- and Arturo is one of our favorite regulars and guest djs at Neo. In either case, it's always a good time, and we're glad to help them celebrate their fourth anniversary.
In honor of Panic, I've chosen the oft-overlooked Aztec Camera single "Good Morning Britain", featuring vocals from Mick Jones of The Clash, from their 1990 release Stray. And of course this post wouldn't be complete without "Panic" by The Smiths. See you tonight!

Arturo, Kamar, Qbot, & Pogo

Buy Stray on Amazon
Aztec Camera on MySpace

Buy The Smiths on Amazon

Atomic’s 2 year anniversary / Cut Copy: Sands of Time

Join us tonight to celebrate two years of the best new wave party in Chicago with special guests Dark Wave Disco.
facebook event page

How time flies...
People ask me sometimes how we get so many people to come out to Neo on Thursday nights. There's a lot of factors involved (remnants of a built in crowd, people really like Depeche Mode, Neo's new wave-steeped history), but the short answer is that Kamar and I knew what we wanted to do; we had a good idea, we executed it, and it worked. We've never gotten a whiff of press coverage. We're more likely to pluck our guest djs off of our own dance floor than book a big name. At the end of the night, what brings people back every week is the energy of the music and the crowd, the feeling that everyone is welcome, and that anyone can be and dance how they want.

The first thing we decided, and the one thing we've very much stuck to our guns about, is that it's not an "'80s night". We've all been to '80s nights. There's nothing special about most of them and we've all heard more than enough cheesy pop for our lifetimes. It's not what Atomic is about. There is an astonishing number of current acts in the new wave/synthpop/new romantic genres, and the best way to keep the music -and the crowd- fresh week after week is to include that.

The one band that matches our style perfectly, hands down, is Cut Copy. Their New Order-reincarnate sound has been a staple every week for the last two years, right in there with all the Soft Cell and Human League where it belongs. Now if they would just get a little more prolific...

official site
"Sands of Time" is unreleased; buy Cut Copy on Amazon

30 Years of The Cure

Robert Smith's tips to sustaining a long career:

• Write good songs: "I could write songs as bad as Wham's if I really felt the urge to, but what's the point?"

• Don't worry about status: "I'm not going to worry about the Cure slipping down into the second division; it doesn't bother me because I never expected to be in the first division anyway."

• Don't do it for the money: "I've never wanted a group to ever fall out about money. It's not important. We earn far more than we should anyway."

• Be inspired and love what you do: "I do a job I really, really love and I kind of have fun with. People think you can't be grown up unless you're moaning about your job."

• Do things in moderation: “I think the rock'n'roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap.”

• Don't worry about what people say or think about you: " Most of the time I'm a professional idiot. I really don't care about what other people think, which can be a bad thing."

• Know when to quit: "If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately."

The Cure on Amazon.com
band website: www.thecure.com