“I love playing bad and incorrect music at people for my own amusement”

February 6, 2018 10:42 PM

Resident Advisor Podcast 610, a mix by DJ Bus Replacement Service (Show Notes)

Track List and footnotes (extracted from show notes above)

1. Ivor Cutler – “I Believe in Bugs” [Virgin]
2. M.C. Fosty & Livin’ C. – “When Doves Cry Rapp (Pt. II)” [Rappers Rapp Disco Co.]
3. Roxanne – “Boys In Black Cars” [Coconut]
4. Sir Mix-A-Lot – “Posse On Broadway” [Nastymix Records]¹
5. KMFDM – “Piggybank” [Wax Trax! Records]²
6. Einstürzende Neubauten – “Die Interimsliebenden” [Mute]
7. 2NE1 – “MTBD (??) (CL Solo)” [YG Entertainment]³
8. M.C. Latina – “Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend” [Heat Wave Records]⁴
9. Cover Girls – “Show Me” [Fever Records]
10. MC Mr. Napkins – “Mussolini Miscellany” [Comedy Central Records]⁵
11. Minupren – “Fickende Eichhörnchen [Minupren Records Digital]
12. AnD – “Fierce” [Perc Trax]
13. Charlie The Hamster with Floyd Robinson – “The B-I-B-L-E” [Singcord]
14. James Vincent – “‘Roxanne’ by The Police but every time they say ‘Roxanne’ it gets faster” [the Internet]
15. Riverside Community College Marching Band – “Personal Jesus” [from the documentary The Posters Came From The Walls (ed. note: yt)]⁶
16. Synth Pop Isn’t Coool – “Alan Charles Wilder Is Never Coming Back To Depeche Mode” [LOL Records]⁷
17. Rene Bendaly Family – “Tanki Tanki (Rabih Beaini Edit)” [Strut]
18. Karl O’ Connor|Peter Sutton – “Join Us In Paradise” [Tresor]
19. Queen Latifah – “Come Into My House” [Tommy Boy]
20. Debbie Gibson – “Electric Youth (House Mix)” [Atlantic]⁸
21. The Little Dabs – “E.T. (Every Time)” [Musicworks]⁹
22. “Young Rick” – “Over The Rainbow” [The Annoying Music Show Records]¹⁰
23. USA Freedom Kids – “Freedom’s Call” [USA Freedom Kids]¹¹
24. Johnny Violent – “North Korea Goes Bang” [Earache]¹²
25. North Korean newsreader, circa August/September 2010¹³
26. Ghost In The Machine – “Hold My Drink” [Perc Trax]¹⁴
27. Deadlift Lolita – “Muscle Cocktail” [Opalus Records]
28. Ethel Merman – “There’s No Business Like Show Business” [A&M Records]
29. Shitmat – “There’s No Business Like Propa’ Rungleclotted Mashup Bizznizz” [Planet Mu]¹⁵
30. “Weird Al” Yankovic – “Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung” [Scotti Brothers]¹⁶

1. Several tracks at the front of this mix made it here thanks to my early 1990s diet of watching caller-requested music videos from a UHF TV channel “The Box”. Sadly, Charlie the Hamster didn’t feature.
2. Big ups to the person that bought KMFDM’s Naïve and other industrial/electronic music for the Indianapolis Central Library in the early 1990s.
3. Putting this track in this mix will hold me over until I finally see a drag queen lip sync to a CL rap track.
4. See also “Mentirosa” by Mellow Man Ace.
5. I wouldn’t have come across MC Mr. Napkins if I didn’t start listening to Dr. Demento again last year. He now records under his real name Zach Sherwin; one highlight is a trilogy about his quest to re-home an aggressive duck. (ed. note: “Duck 1 (Discovered)”, “Duck 2 (Defended)”, “Duck 3 (Delivered)”)
6. I wished that my time murdering music in my high school marching band was as amazing as this.
7. I’m gonna say it: Alan Wilder leaving DM was a bigger shock to me than when Dave Gahan nearly died or when they confined Fletch to clapping his hands at their shows.
8. If you hear this Shep Pettibone remix in its entirety, you’ll come close to discovering what a big bag of money and a kitchen sink sounds like.
9. My incorrect/outsider music collection started from AM/mediumwave radio, and much of it still comes from Internet radio today. This nugget was discovered on Horse Meat Disco’s Rinse FM show and it was apparently Artwork who introduced it to them.
10. When [Chicago NPR station] WBEZ’s Jim Nayder passed away in 2013, he took everything else he knew about Young Rick with him.
11. In the interest of balance, USA Freedom people of other age groups singing about the Dotard/Shithead-in-Chief are also available.
12. My husband likes reminding me every so often that Mick Harris made Johnny Violent cry once.
13. Although Ri Chun-hee is the best-known North Korean newsreader, my recording is more likely from this woman whose name eludes me.
14. This strapline that I just made up: “It’s not a DJ BRS mix unless there's at least one AnD or Perc Trax number in it” is probably going to haunt me.
15. I chose this track to give props to Shitmat (as well as linking the horror of Ethel Merman disco). It was a revelation when I first heard it on John Peel’s show, so to see Shitmat mentioning me in an interview about meeting Peel was amazing. Here’s a photo of us playing together many years ago before I settled on my current aesthetic. And through Shitmat, I started collaborating with DJ Detweiler and Chin Stroke Records. I’m still undefeated in Chin Stroke Soundclashes, by the way.
16. I love me all sorts of “Weird Al,” so here is what I think is his most sinister track.

posted by Going To Maine (26 comments total)

I've long suspected that Dr. Demento has a hipster son, and this confirms it.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:06 PM on February 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

(daughter)
posted by Going To Maine at 11:17 PM on February 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I AM OFFENDED TEKNO IS SRS BZNSS
posted by jcruelty at 11:35 PM on February 6, 2018

I love the mental image of her and her legendary techno DJ husband casually playing insane b2b sets in the kitchen, taking turns playing bangers/ridiculous troll songs and stirring the goulash or whatever
posted by thedaniel at 2:10 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Meanwhile, psychotronic/plunderphonic collagists The Bran Flakes released a new album last year.

It's good to see that that culture didn't die out with photocopied zines/community cable TV and such. Perhaps there is a generational shift, with GenXers preferring ironic juxtaposition of kitsch and snake people eschewing the armour of irony for a sort of melancholic reverie (i.e., vaporwave and dead-format nostalgia). Or perhaps the old tropes will make the generational leap, merely updating kitsch reference points (i.e., lounge music is replaced by yacht rock/new jack swing/&c., rubber-suit monster movies with Reagan-era VHS vigilante films, and so on)
posted by acb at 2:58 AM on February 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

Opening with Ivor Cutler is all I needed to know. Thanks!
posted by ardgedee at 3:01 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hooray! I've been a fan of DJ Bus Replacement Service (don't miss her SoundCloud) since 2016 and I'm ecstatic that she's blowing up. I'm also beyond happy that for the first - and very possibly last - time I'm ahead of the curve regarding something vaguely dance related. Couldn't have happened at a more opportune moment. Go go DJ Bus Replacement Service go!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 6:02 AM on February 7, 2018

hi, is DJ Bus Replacement Service white and, if so, what's up with the weird, Kim Jong Un-ish yellowface schtick she's got going on? is it supposed to be funny? ironic? irreverent? is it qualitatively different than, say, a Seth Rogen film about S. Korea except with Seth Rogen doing an impression of KJU? so like the Team America, racist-accented version of Kim Jong-Il?
posted by runt at 7:02 AM on February 7, 2018

I think Kim Jong Un is the world's Most Eligible Fuckhead Dictator at the moment, in terms of recognizability and cultural currency. I find use of the trope troubling, because I think the guy actually sort of gets off on being part of the global culture and not giving him that is one of the few things that someone here in the US can actually do to not empower his regime, but it's admittedly very indirect, and saying he's off-limits to ridicule strikes me as pretty weird; that's like saying that only Italians could make fun of Mussolini in 1940. Though an artist, particularly a white artist, would be wise to be really cautious not to make their KJU satire (i.e. of a particular individual) a generic Korean or Asian stereotype-fest, though, and there's certainly an argument to be had over whether a particular performance crosses that line. (And if we were having this conversation in 1940, I'd hope that the similar rule would be "people should be cautious not to make their Mussolini satire into generic Italian stereotypes".)
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:31 AM on February 7, 2018

Doris Woo is an American, presumably of Korean descent. To quote the show notes…

Tell us about the origin of DJ Bus Replacement Service. What first compelled you to don a mask and play all this absurd music?

The mask is an extension of my interest in North Korean pop music, which started from one unnamed sample of a song I heard on a Sublime Frequencies compilation. I eventually tracked it down as Ri Kyong Suk's "Don't Ask My Name," which led me down to a rabbit hole of gathering everything I could find by the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble.

May I also point out that you've not mentioned my matching Mao jacket? I like to think my preference for wearing sweatpants and colourful trainers at gigs completes the look on the basis that Kim Jong-Un is a millennial and is in the correct demographic for athleisurewear.

[THE SLIGHTLY MORE SERIOUS REASON FOR WEARING THE MASK HAS BEEN REDACTED]

posted by Going To Maine at 7:32 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m guessing the slightly more serious reason for the mask mentioned is that she has a legal career and doesn’t want people to connect her real name and career to her DJ life.
posted by thedaniel at 7:40 AM on February 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

As a card-carrying member of the "DJing requires hefty fuckery" school, I'm 29 seconds into this and I'm really into this. Thanks!
posted by whuppy at 7:45 AM on February 7, 2018

I’m guessing the slightly more serious reason for the mask mentioned is that she has a legal career and doesn’t want people to connect her real name and career to her DJ life.

This is possible, but if you Google her name you can find her LinkedIn page. It includes both her job title and a mention that she's a DJ of obscure weirdness.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:00 AM on February 7, 2018

There's a direct through line between this and Neil Cicierega's Mouth Sounds/Silence/Moods albums. It's kinda eye opening to me that a mix can be simultaneously so bad and good. I'm into it.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:45 AM on February 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's weird listening to a well made mix of songs chosen to be terrible. I mean even the Einsturzende Neubauten she chose is, um, not their strongest effort. But she's managed to elevate it.
posted by Nelson at 10:19 AM on February 7, 2018

This was not the mix that I wanted, but it was the mix that I needed. Thank you for posting this.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 10:20 AM on February 7, 2018

As a music fan and long-time opponent of this kind of thing (which I think of as Dada), I'm going to listen to this before crapping on it.
posted by rhizome at 10:39 AM on February 7, 2018

I can't believe I didn't know about Doris Woo! This is what I've been missing since I stopped obsessively following the world of DJs about 10 years ago and oh it's beautiful. I also can't believe I didn't know there is a new Bran Flakes album oh today is a good day
posted by capricorn at 12:20 PM on February 7, 2018

Also if you like this sort of thing and want more, see April Winchell's website and the now sadly defunct WFMU blog and the 365 Days project.
posted by capricorn at 12:23 PM on February 7, 2018

Ohhh that transition from the Mussolini rap into the squeaky-toy Liverpool warehouse techno track is [100% emoji]
posted by capricorn at 1:16 PM on February 7, 2018

Anyone care to explain the joke?
posted by grobstein at 3:22 PM on February 7, 2018

Yaaaaay! I'm too close to DJ BRS to make an FPP out of this myself, but I'm so glad someone else did. Thanks, Going to Maine!

PROTIP: please enjoy the transition from 'Fickende Eichhörnchen' [Fucking Squirrels] to the Christian Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks-knockoff track about the B-I-B-L-E.

Flashback to her set at Freerotation2017: Working As a Waitress In A Cocktail Bar
posted by LMGM at 3:29 PM on February 7, 2018 [1 favorite]

You've not seen a DJ fuck with a dancefloor till you've seen James Lavelle throw The Green Man into the middle of a full-on techno set.
posted by Hogshead at 4:33 PM on February 7, 2018

Any mention of DJ BRS causes me to wonder to myself whether or not it should actually be called a train replacement service, and then I wind up with a Half Man Half Biscuit earworm.

(This is a magnificent set!)
posted by doop at 12:18 AM on February 8, 2018 [1 favorite]

For those who are still checking in on this thread, here's a brief response & thanks from DJ BRS:

Many thanks [to OP GoingToMaine] for reformatting the tracklist and footnotes so that it's easy on the eyes, and mentioning the Zach Sherwin's duck trilogy tracks.

Also thank you [to acb] for mentioning the Bran Flakes; I must check them out. I can confirm [to capricorn] there is a direct bloodline between Otis Fodder and me via Incorrect Music and the 365 Days Project.

[MODS: I checked the FAQ and couldn't find any guidance re: posting something on behalf of a non-member. In this case, the message comes from the subject of the FPP, and as a response it is cordial/informative. If this contravenes the rules, though, please accept my apologies & delete/edit as necessary.]
posted by LMGM at 9:59 AM on February 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

I am inordinately happy to have played a small part in promoting this good great mix. Hooray! The Freerotation and Sonar sets are also wonderful, 100% freak bangerzzz. (Plus that very earnest mention of things going wrong during a brief moment at Sonar which is itself.) LMGM, you’ll have to post whenever a FabricLive mix comes out.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:06 PM on February 14, 2018 [2 favorites]