This Year Halloween Fell On a Weekend...

I don't usually leave the house on Halloween night. This is due to the simple fact that I live in New York City - where folks really don't need an official excuse to disguise themselves, roam the streets in packs, and act super stupid (both in the Maggot Brain sense and otherwise). Not that things don't seem pretty tame nowadays - what with cops and cameras on every corner. But I still vividly recall a little too much unmonitored chaos from the pre-Guiliani days to take the risk.*

In other words I have to have a really good reason to be out after dark on October 31st. It just so happens that this year I do. My fellow Saturday night gatekeeper over at APT, Monk-One, came up with the concept for a soiree dubbed "Night of the Boogie Monsters," and we combined powers to plan something special. In addition to Em-Uno and myself (Em-Chino?) on the mix rocking the classics all night, we'll have our esteemed colleague, WBAI Underground Railroad's G-Man, co-hosting. We'll also have two very, very special guests performing live, both of them legends of the disco/boogie genre: Mr. Leroy Burgess and Mr. Randy Muller.

I know you're well familiar with the repertoires of these two gentlemen. At least I would hope so since they are responsible (either as performers or songwriters/producers) for some of the greatest recordings in dance music history. On Leroy's side you've got: Black Ivory's "Mainline," Class Action's "Weekend," Convertion's "Let's Do It" and "Sweet Thing," Dazzle's "Reaching" and "Dazzle Me," the Fantastic Aleems'/Aleem's "Hooked On Your Love" and "Get Loose," High Frequency's "Summertime," Logg's "I Know You Will" and "You've Got That Something," Fonda Rae's "Over Like a Fat Rat," Universal Robot Band's "Barely Breaking Even" etc. (virtually all the above compiled here and here).

And on Randy's side you've got: Brass Construction's "Movin'," "Changin'" and "Music Makes You Feel Like Dancing," B.T. Express' "Express" and "Peace Pipe," Raphael Cameron's "Boogie's Gonna Getcha," Charles Earland's "Let the Music Play," "Over and Over" and "I Like It," Tamiko Jones' "Can't Live Without Your Love," Skyy's "High," "Here's to You," "Call Me," and "First Time Around" and so on and so forth (several of these comped here).

Boogie. Monsters.

Anyways, the plan is for our illustrious guests to cherry-pick a few tunes from this abundance of gems, and rock them live in the place - Leroy on vocals (his pipes still sounding velvety after all these years), Randy with his magic flute. Whatever ones they don't perform we'll undoubtedly spin between sets.

On my most recent RBMA show I devoted half the program to a mix of Leroy's and Randy's classics. While the official broadcast hasn't gone live yet, for now I've uploaded the music set sans talk-over here. Enjoy!

If any of this information inspires just one other shook one to make it out of the house this Saturday night, then I've done my job.

* This is, of course, a sign of getting old. The other day while I was pulling records to play on my Spine show it dawned on me that the plot of Halloween With Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids - which I'd long forgotten - is centered around the kids going out trick-or-treat-ing and scaring old people. And I began to feel extraordinarily empathetic towards Mudfoot.