dj ShmeeJay‘s Ain’t No Big Thing radio show, live on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month from 8pm – 10pm (PST) / 11pm – 1am (EST) on BoxFrequency.fm, and with a podcast syndicated on iTunes.
This show I host Nelson, British Columbia based deejay, producer, and rabblerouser The SugarBear. Robert E. Livingood, also known as The SugarBear, was made in Detroit in the 1970s. Soul music and rebellious Rock & Roll were everywhere. Back then even the lullabies were sung to the tune of Barry White and the MC5 so his ear was trained accordingly. His mother was an opera singer who ended up working in an auto factory, his sister was the token white girl in a disco band, and his brother in law partied heavily with Iggy. By age 10, he had already seen KISS on their Destroyer tour and was a member of The Midnight Funk Association, presided over by legendary Detroit DJ, The Electrifying Mojo. As a teenager he started promoting music at the 404 Willis, an infamous underground after hours collective space in Detroit’s rough and radical Cass Corridor neighborhood. Robert also ran the Hopscotch record label and watched techno being born from the filthy kitchen window of the Majestic Theater where he passed falafels and hummus to hungry first wave ravers. He left Detroit in the 90s, lived on the west coast (San Francisco, Oakland, Olympia), fell in love with the wild, became a Grizzly Bear biologist, moved to Alaska, built a cabin, hunted and gathered, started writing books, then began throwing parties in the land of the midnight sun. Though he gave up science to become a full time writer and sound artist, he still spends considerable time every year in close proximity to grizzlies. When he returns from these far out landscapes he plays dance music. His favorite parties are set in unorthodox places–barns, basements, garages, riverbanks, and on isolated patches of tundra. He loves taking part in moments where something spontaneous and unexpected occurs–like re-claiming a busy intersection with a renegade sound system, then getting down in the middle of the street with a bunch of glitter splattered freaks during rush hour. Following in the footsteps of Mojo, the music he spins is unbound by style or era. He loves playing long sets (five hours in he’s just getting started) where he can explore the territories of soul, funk, jazz, psychedelia, house, new wave, punk, garage rock, experimental, hip hop, and disco. He’ll play where he’s called–whether international music festivals like Shambhala, Basscoast, and Burning Man, or even at a yard sale on the side of the highway where Mojitos are served in Mason jars. In addition to all of this, The SugarBear produces dance music, as well as analog, electronic neo-psychedelic soundscapes under the name Divination and Strategy.
Look for more of The SugarBear on his blog, SoundCloud, YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo.
The SugarBear‘s set is his little secret.
dj ShmeeJay‘s set:
Gotta Hold On Me (Psychemagik Edit) [Psychemagik]
Croatia White [Waffles]
Sister Sledge – Lost In Music (Pete Le Freq It’s a Trap! Rework) [Alpaca Edits]
Natasha Kitty Katt – After The Dance [Masterworks Music] *Forthcoming
Woodhead – Whenever Your Around [Masterworks Music]
Junction – Friends & Strangers [Make Believe Disco]
Ed Wizard & Disco Double Dee – Moonlite [Editorial]
Catch Da Beat (The Owl Re-Do)
Purple Disco Machine – Devil In Me Feat. Joe Killington (Duane Harden Extended Mix) [Sweat It Out]
Session Victim – Almost Midnight [Delusions of Grandeur]
Jay West – Now That You Know [Editorial]
Amadou & Mariam – Coulibaly (Fried Chicken Remix) [Because Music]
If you like this mix, please take the time to go to my Facebook page and ‘like’ me there. I certainly will like that. And if you want a copy of just The SugarBear’s mix feel free to grab it here.
Dulce et ursus,
folO Olof
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