Kirk Degiorgio Goes Disco

[pipecock]

Kirk did an awesome exclusive 2 hour disco mix for us at ISM featuring many rare gems!

http://infinitestatemachine.com/2010/07/19/guest-mix-kirk-degiorgio-goes-disco/

[reese 60615]

recommended. i had a great time listening to this one. best disco set ive heard here, period. the transition were beautiful, there wasnt a instance of eq jacking, none. no effects, etc. awesome job kirk. thanks p/c for posting this one. get it while its hot.

6 beers.

[beemoe44]

I`ve always like Degiorgio....."Epic" is one of the best pieces of dance I`ve ever heard! What ever happened to his chart listing on his website? Make no mistake about Degiorgio knows a lot about music.

[beemoe44]

Are you from Pittsburgh?

[pipecock]

Are you from Pittsburgh?

i am indeed born, bred, and still living in Pittsburgh!

[beemoe44]

I was born there and lived there until 1987. I got my intro. to "The Garage" on WAMO. Believe it or not WAMO used to play most of the "Loft and Garage Classics".

[pipecock]

i'm a bit of a younger cat (i'm only 30 now) so i don't quite remember those days, but i do remember a bit of Sly Jock playing the 80s r&b type garage stuff for sure. not sure if you've heard, but WAMO is gone now. not that it is really missed, they had been pretty horrible since the late 90s at least.

did you go to any clubs here? i know a couple old disco/early house club guys are still around in some form: Beans, Terry Kicks, EZ Lou...

[Oddio]

This guy did an awesome feature on his blog, running down his top 150 (!) disco records.

http://planetary-folklore.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-disco-top-150-1-10.html

[beemoe44]

I remember Sly Jock. I went to the 2001 near Heinz Field (Three Rivers Stadium) back then. I also went to the Fantastic Plastic on Centre at Neville in Oakland.

Is there a complete tracklisting for this mix? I like, I like.

[beemoe44]

I mostly went to college parties and Greek cabarets at Pitt, CMU and Chatham College (real fun!)

[reese 60615]

weekend bump. right for just before the ride to the party tonight.. be safe

[pipecock]

I remember Sly Jock. I went to the 2001 near Heinz Field (Three Rivers Stadium) back then. I also went to the Fantastic Plastic on Centre at Neville in Oakland.

Is there a complete tracklisting for this mix? I like, I like.

we've been compiling one in the comments section of the post on my blog, i'll get Kirk to clue us in to the rest soon!

so if you were going to 2001, that has to be back in the late 70s i would guess? what years are you talking about here? i might like to chat with you on the phone (and record it!) at some point about some of this history if you don't mind. to put it mildly, there are basically zero people in the pittsburgh area who actually made the transition from disco to house. i'd love to be able to get some perspective from someone who has continued to follow this music, since the old disco guys i know that i mentioned for the most part did NOT continue into house music (EZ Lou being the only exception, but he was always a varied deejay as well, weddings, new wave, etc)....

[beemoe44]

Damned Pipecock....."Old Disco Guys".......you`re scarring me! I`m only 49. I`m hardly that old. Hehehehehe

I was going out in Pittsburgh from about 76 to 83 or 84, after that I moved on to NYC. I made the connection on WAMO to the Leroy Burgess sound aka boogie. Fonda Rae, Sharon Brown, Gwen McCrae, Roberta Flack / Donny Hathaway "Back Togheter Again". Some of this is Tee Scott`s sound.

I can remember records like "Go Bang" or "Mi Sabrina Tequana" or "It`s Serious" or "Weekend" or Candido`s "Super City" all were played on WAMO.

[beemoe44]

What ever happened to Cash at "On Top of The Hill" records? Is Stedeford`s still in business?

[beemoe44]

Are you a Chi town disco historian?

[pipecock]

Damned Pipecock....."Old Disco Guys".......you`re scarring me! I`m only 49. I`m hardly that old. Hehehehehe

I was going out in Pittsburgh from about 76 to 83 or 84, after that I moved on to NYC. I made the connection on WAMO to the Leroy Burgess sound aka boogie. Fonda Rae, Sharon Brown, Gwen McCrae, Roberta Flack / Donny Hathaway "Back Togheter Again". Some of this is Tee Scott`s sound.

I can remember records like "Go Bang" or "Mi Sabrina Tequana" or "It`s Serious" or "Weekend" or Candido`s "Super City" all were played on WAMO.

haha i didn't mean to call you old, but i mean to distinguish you from the newer generation of disco obsessives that come from my generation or the one right above me!

that's so crazy, i can't even imagine that! it's weird because when i play tracks like this out, if there are some older black folks around they will be all surprised that i know about it but i am also surprised that they know about it! it seems like that kind of stuff just died in terms of popularity here, which is so sad.


What ever happened to Cash at "On Top of The Hill" records? Is Stedeford`s still in business?

i assume you mean Greg Cash? he had that one pittsburgh house music label that had a couple releases in the early 90s, but then sometime in there he moved to chicago where he runs Bumpin' City now. was "on top of the hill" in the hill district? where and when was this?! i had never even heard of it.

Stedeford's is still there, but has been in the business of newer rap music for a long time. they got busted for selling bootleg CDs a couple years back, the IRS found like 2 million in cash stashed in the owner's house! he had to pay $$$ and do some time over that, but they're still there. i got a bunch of sweet old disco and house there when i first started getting into this about 10 years ago, but they are pretty picked over at this point and aren't getting much new in.


Are you a Chi town disco historian?

i mean, i follow all the old shit. i'm just as into 80s boogie stuff as i am the disco, italo, new wave, etc. Chicago is one place i am pretty obsessed with and i have a bunch of crew out there, but they're still more on the mid-late 30s age as opposed to the older guys. i do a good bit of reading and talking to people about what went down in Detroit and Chicago especially, though i have love for NYC as well!

[reese 60615]

Are you a Chi town disco historian?

yes and no. i think kirk played very well on this one. however, there is a mix by moplen (on the main page) you need to checkout, as well as the terry hunter "classically yours" mix in the forum.

these three mixes are a party together. go get some beer..

[pipecock]

the blog post has been updated with a full tracklist provided by Kirk!

[beemoe44]

Hey Pipecock: What, you find it hard to believe that cuts like Sharon Brown`s "I Specialize In Love" or Fonda Rae`s "Over Like a Fat Rat" or Cameo`s "It`s Serious" were all played on WAMO? That`s where I heard them first! Just like, Young and Company and "Westchester Lady" and Rose Royce`s "Still In Love" (I knew "Still in Love" was a classic the moment I first heard it on WAMO).

[beemoe44]

Where is your blog located?

[beemoe44]

Found the tracklist! Very interesting selection.

[pipecock]

Hey Pipecock: What, you find it hard to believe that cuts like Sharon Brown`s "I Specialize In Love" or Fonda Rae`s "Over Like a Fat Rat" or Cameo`s "It`s Serious" were all played on WAMO? That`s where I heard them first! Just like, Young and Company and "Westchester Lady" and Rose Royce`s "Still In Love" (I knew "Still in Love" was a classic the moment I first heard it on WAMO).

i find it odd because there is as close to ZERO recognition of those types of tracks in Pittsburgh in anything of a mainstream area. i don't know of any deejays playing them aside from a bunch of younger people who were barely alive at the time (if they even were!), and there just isn't a pittsburgh dance culture that has connected from those times to now. this is a very frustrating thing for me! we've had people like Danny Krivit play here recently to a very small (less than 100 heads!) and almost exclusively young crowd....

[beemoe44]

You have to realize that Pittsburgh was virtually cultureless as compared to Philadelphia or New York or San Francisco (that`s why I moved there). There maybe there isn`t a real catalyst in the Pittsburgh scene like The Nuyoricans (MAW) or Berry Gordy or Gamble /Huff / Thom Bell / Earl Young or Juan Atkins or Ron Hardy. You`re going to have to create your scene.

I like what Faze Action / Black Science Orchestra / MAW was doing back in the late nineties. Dance music needs real catalyst types in order to evolve and that doesn`t seem to be happening now (just my opinion).

This is why I asked you and Resse if you two were Chi-Town disco historians. There was obviously not a lot of big-budget disco / orchestral soul / funk productions from The Chi. I think Chicago was way toooooo industrial for it`s own good which preclueded turning out the necessary artists / businesspeople / financiers needed to create major productions. I believe Pittsburgh has / had the same problem.

What do you think about cuts like "Journey To Phoebus" or "Warp Factor II" or "It`s Rough Out Here" or Faze Action`s "Astral Projection"?

[beemoe44]

Hey Pipecock: I can remember Cameo`s "It`s Serious" when it came out on WAMO. It was like a revelation. Funk, disco and jazz all on one record. For a long time my favorite record. I believe Sly Jock was hanging at The Garage. He was playing a lot of the same things that Levan, Tee Scott and Ken Collier were playing at the time.

I really interested in creating my own infrastructure. My own record company, band (with full strings, horns and percussion) a la Curtis Mayfield / Gil Askey producing Linda Clifford circa 1978. "Don`t Give Up" is some kind of a record.