New year New Place

It is time for a change, and we have decided to relocate to Stick’em in midtown Memphis (next to the BBQshop). We did our end-of-year 2023 show there due to an issue with Canvas, and we got a great response. We decided to make a move and see how it worked out. Space is a different layout and mgmt very open to what we are doing… so here we are. We have the next few shows lined up and we’ll see how it develops. Come check us out for the first show on Saturday, Feb 3rd. We hope to see you there, and please, let us know what you think. T4L!

Meet me at the “Crossroads”

This weekend’s next EXILE show will be another Resident Night with Mirdo, McConnell, and myself. Per usual, it is guaranteed to be a great time. The following week I’ll be playing with a bunch of folks from TN, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and more. Will get to hang with some long-time buds as well. The show is titled “Crossroads Music Festival” and will be at Lake Sara in Effingham, IL. You can check out the details on FB here.

Pack your bag and head to IL early on Friday if you can go. The party starts at sundown and goes on until Sunday morning. The shenanigans will be in full effect. If you can’t go, you won’t have to worry. Exile returns in Aug on the 26th with guest Freewill from MDHT. This will be his raincheck show from earlier this year, which he had to cancel for personal reasons. He played last week at Soul in the City and put in a techno set as a preview. He is sure to bring the heat. So, we’ll see you one way or another!

*Keep your eyes and ears peeled for a new mix coming your way!

Exile Holiday Hangout

Just a little update – coming up at Canvas in Memphis on November 12th, The last of the SITC – Exile series and now Justin’s vs. Brian’s with the MDHT crew. The last time we got the J’s and B’s on the decks was at Growlers several years back. It was a blast and I’m sure this one will be just as rowdy! I hope to see my Memphis peeps out for this. On the travel front, I’ll be playing at No Requests in Portland, Or on Nov. 17th with Gabriel Dellous and Erik Jones. I’ve been through but never stopped in Portland. Finally, getting to see some long-time friends and play some tunes. It should be fun. I’ll be there the whole weekend so who knows where else you might find me. Make sure to come out if you are in the area.

In December, getting the stream gang back together for the ‘holidaze’ and doing a little hangout at Casa de Fist. Mike and Mirdo will join me for a broadcast from 8 til’ who knows when, and we will broadcast on the exiledjs page on twitch. I highly recommend that you make some plans to join the broadcast and hang out with us. We’ll be playing some tunes and making sure some shenanigans are happening.

Super not-so-secret news, EXILE will return on the regular in 2023 with full force. We are working out the details, but as soon as we have the info, I’ll be sure to share it with all of you crazy folks. Also, be on the lookout for BACKLOG 2 very shortly. If you missed the first one, you can check it out in the player on the right-side menu or hop over to my Mixcloud for a selection of other mixes you might want to throw down. Until the next update…

I still have a website?

Whaaaa?I can’t believe I still have this thing. I was cleaning up my links/bookmarks and realized I haven’t logged in to this thing in a bit. I think this is starting to be a common occurrence. It’s now 2022 and we are still living in a pandemic. We have gone through two variants now and Omicron is the most current, which sounds like a rave group from the 90’s – oh wait it is, and “Whaler” is a great track… I digress. I suppose the good news is we bought a new home in the UoM area. We spent our Xmas holiday moving and finally have all the boxes and such out of the old place. Now the fixer-up activities begin. Fun times.

The new place is great and the studio area is coming along nicely. If you have seen the recent broadcast, you most likely caught a glimpse of the new setup. Still, a little tidying up to do but yeah, almost there. With the new year comes new resolutions and getting a more steady stream rolling is one of those items, for both techno and chillout – maybe for some gaming as well!. I’ll be updating things here a little more often (*hopefully) and if this covid situation dies down a bit, we might be back to doing regular gigs again, since by circumstance the dates for the end of ’21 were both on turkey day and Xmas for Canvas shows and they didn’t happen. Keep checking back for updates in that area. I also want to get back to getting some mixes out there again. It’s been some time since I’ve done that and I need to be more consistent, right? OK… stay tuned.

… now what?

..and now we return you to your regular scheduled program, ish. It’s March 21′ and im another year older, another wiser, or so the saying goes. Wiser about what? How to wear a mask? How to avoid people? How to keep my hands away from my face more so than normal? How to ration hand sanitizer? Where to buy TP in bulk? How to find the cheapest backyard adult kiddie pool? The list goes on and on. It’s march 21′ and i’m first shot down on the Pfizer vaccine. I wasn’t even sure it would come. I dare say things are looking up. The orangutang is out of office and grandpa Joe is manning the fort (not the grandpa I wanted but he’ll do in a pinch) with the first ever female african-american VP. It’s a wonderful thing. Seems things are looking up. (*i’m knocking on a piece of mahogany, as I type) I will be scheduling my second shot soon and then, after a week or two, I’ll be able to visit a friend and hang out with a couple, masks off and even a hug or two. I just hope I don’t burst into tears or start laughing hysterically. Might seem a bit weird. I wonder when Mike and I will have the discussion on booking a gig again for EXILE. We’ve been doing the Quarantined show on EXILEDJS.com for the last year and it will seem strange to say the least. Im eager and hopeful that we get to return to that soon, very soon.

Have you been EXILEd lately?

EXILEDJS.COM

Since the lockdown began in March and club/bar gigs stopped, it’s been lonesome playing at home. Mike and I decided to turn EXILE into a streaming event. It started just as a facebook broadcast, then on to TWITCH. Now, we run our own server and broadcast weekly as well as other random shows during the week. Tried and true though, EXILE Friday nights are what we live for. The last couple of months we have been branching out and trying to incorporate diverse guests from all over the country with only one major requirement – techno. We have had some old school names as well as plenty of new talent, or at least to the us. We hope to develop friendships and relationships since its much easier to DJ and broadcast from our individual locations. We have a unique streaming method that we use to blend multiple streams into a single feed. This way the viewer has a smooth transition between sets, and never has to worry about moving from server to server or stream to stream. Plus, each week we find new graphics, visuals and other silly ways to make the stream more interesting. The chat is also where we like to keep things moving. It’s great to reconnect with friends and hangout. Making new friends with our guests is really the gravy here. When EXILE does return to the nightlife in person, we will have an onslaught of guests to bring live and direct. Until then, visit us on our server ETV (https://exiledjs.com) for EXILE QUARANTINED each Friday starting at 8pm CDT. Tonights guest will be streaming from Minneapolis, the one and only DEVILGIRL. Don’t miss it.

Safer at Home… fo’ real!

Protests to bring justice on the police officer and accomplices who murdered George Floyd

Well, the Safer at Home executive order has been lifted, giving flight to the city/county/state cuckoos. They have flown the coup to return to whatever sort of normalcy there is, and this is why our numbers day-to-day have doubled. The governor of TN , Bill Lee, lost his balls and decided to open way too early. Nothing has changed and the confirmed cases number still goes up. I definitely feel safer at home and don’t plan to join the crazies out in public.

Now lets add on rising racial tensions mixed with cops who think they are above the law, killing black men while on video. This isn’t the first time either. Now because peaceful protest incite fear and hate from police, so much so, law enforcement instigate aggressive behavior, turning protests to riots. Sanity has left this place, and I find that the ones who are of the right mind are now the minority. Black, White, whatever color. I can only attempt to empathize with fellow black humans. On a daily basis, I am becoming aware of other white acquaintances and their hidden bigotry, xenophobia and racism. I call them that because I can no longer call them friends. I speak of this to my wife all the time. It’s about core values, the things that govern your decisions in life, the things that direct you in your views and the things that justify your actions and how you treat the world and others around you. It breaks my heart. I’m no angel either. I’m still coming to grips with my own privilege and how I can use it help those who don’t have it. I have miles to go.

The officer who murdered George Floyd: Derek Chauvin

In recent light of the murder of George Floyd, You think you know someone… I find it hard to understand others who don’t hold love for their fellow man, the intrinsic value of life, above all else… it’s a core value I can’t over look. Especially those in a position of power to protect others. I hurts me to know, as I recently looked up that courts have repeatedly proven that police have no obligation to protect you unless you are in custody. WTF? Then where did the motto “to serve and protect” come from? Why even suggest that were the case? Law enforcement code of ethics states:

As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve the community; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional rights of all to liberty, equality, and justice.

I know no black person wants to hear my admiration or cares if I feel for them, but I do. I feel love and compassion for anyone that has to endure the cruelty and subjugation of those they give their trust to for protection. To be held to the ground, and suffocated by the knee of a police officer, the one who you revere as your protector, is the ultimate terrorist attack on one’s trust. I’m losing my faith in humanity, and I really don’t know what to do, so I want to express my upmost admiration and respect to those who endure and stand up to continuous hate and oppression, especially from white men in position of power.

I have trouble finding the words to how I feel about living in a time when I would have to say “Black Lives Matter.” All lives do matter and that’s exactly why Black Lives Matter. I read a shared post from a friend about what white people need to do to help in response. Also, a recent speech from Killer Mike to the Atlanta community shared the same suggestion. If you can’t protest, help those who can or support the efforts already started that support the black community.

QUARANTINED

Well shit… I haven’t been here in over a year. I can’t believe i’ve been away soooo long. Since most of the world is on lock down and i’m working from home, figured I should make a post. It seems surreal that we are all here at the house, in different rooms all working on laptops. I took a break from the meetings and start going through some older bookmarks, doing clean up and came across some older LFORADIO stuff that I haven’t seen in years. I miss the station, parties and djs. We had some good times. Although, there were plenty of hurdles and issues, the station grew to be a well oiled machine in the end. If it wasn’t so expensive to run, I would have kept it up. With all the djs at home right now, the shows would be doing great right about now, i’m sure. I wish I still had all the files – just upload and start again. *sigh. Most of the services that I used are still actively updating and even have new features that I wish I had back then. Video seems to be the way to go these days. Chew.tv was go to for a little bit. Mike and I even did a number of broadcasts from the new CANVAS events. It’s now “bandlab“. I haven’t had a chance to broadcast on it yet but seems pretty easy. With events being cancelled, maybe there is no better time than the present (post work) to put together a broadcast. I need to update some of the plugins as well first. I guess I need to get to work on it.

44+

Another year has begun and now that we are past March 4th, another year older. Got some gigs coming up. Check the gigs section for more details. CANVAS and MOLLIE’s are on the bill. Who know what else might be coming up. St. Patty’s day is right around the corner… my liver is not ready.

Anthem on the xbox is already finished. They need to hurry up and come out with some sort of story line update. If anyone is looking for a late bday prez, METRO EXODUS for XBOX would be a good one.

Well, just keeping this thing current. I’ll be sure and post something interesting soon. I have pics from the last few CANVAS events that I need to put up. SOON.

SUMMER.

BeachTime

Memphis Summer is here… sweltering temps, humidity that makes the air thick enough to slice with a knife and bugs the size of small birds. I am NOT a heat person. I would much rather be on a ski slope or a breezy chill night in a hoodie, thats what i’m all about, 95 degress with 110% humidity, I am not. I would, however, like to be on a beach, at sunset in a place where the temps are low 70’s – upper 60’s when the sun goes down. That I could learn to love. With the summer comes pools, bikinis, and lots of drinking. So it’s not all too bad. BBQfest and Movement started the heat off in the right direction. I’m still semi-high from Detroit (*although that wont last for too long) and started up ExilE again. First show was good and the Memphis gang from Detroit showed up, all of us still beaming from a great time which made it even better. Will I make it next year… that remains to be seen. As Shelley says, a family vacation to Europe is going to take the stage before that happens, i’m pretty sure. There might be a Scandinavian adventure in my future… possibly?

I’m heading off to Chicago this weekend to take Shelley and Noah to LegoLand plus see the Aquarium and the Sciene and Technology Museum – they have a Pixar exhibit that I think Shelley is going to love. Then it’s off to take Noah to his grandparents for his annual summer bday party and vacation stay. When I return it will be time for Exile #2 with Andy Redrum as our guest and it should be a good show! Then on the 28th – Justin’s VERSUS Brian’s – showdown between house and techno veterans – this will be a Growlers on Poplar – first time playing at this location since it was the hitone. We are combining sound systems for this one so it’s going to be loud and crazy!!!! Hope to see all the heads and alot of new folks mingling at this one. Then… EXILE returns on August 4th with special guest WILL AZADA – my cohost from the first iteration of Exile returns for a special set that i’m sure will be a treat. Fun stuff planned for the next couple of weeks which def makes this years summer heat somewhat bearable. See you guys soon!