Brightest Young Things

As we venture into the tricky realms of a weekly BYT Recommends column, we were worried that maybe, just maybe there would not be enough stuff to be fully, truly PSYCHED about every single week. And then...then.... PARTY BROS happenned.
A love child of Gavin Holland (XMU's "In deed", Nouveau Riche, guests spots on everything from Garutachi to Noise Academy to...) and Chris Burns (of Disco City, Deep...), the seminally titled night makes it debut This Friday at Selam. No cover, cheap beers, cheap liquor and promises of unheard of before dance magic, prompted us to:

a. take this amazing photo with them (courtesy of Joel and kingpinphoto.com)
b. talk to them about how the idea came to be
and
c. have them make us this intro MP3 (which we suspect was not created in perfectly sober conditions, as any Party Bros MP3 worth its salt shouldn't), free for all of you to download and die of joy to:

partybros.mp3

...and now....for the story behind the Friday:

How did you guys meet?
Chris:I think Gavin and I met about the time I started Disco City last summer (when it was at the glorious but ill-managed Cosmo). He was super in to what I was doing with that and became a fixture at our night. And since he was getting his DJing stuff off the ground here in D.C. around then as well, I would go and support him and we just became friends through that.

Gavin: Exactly -- I came up to this dude at Disco City. I'd seen the flyer for their night, and I was interested right off the bat. Most people think of disco as a Bee Gees thing, but I could tell from the enormous head of hair on the flyer loosely spelling "DISCO CITY" that they were going to be playing "real" disco, the choice underground cuts, dance music that's all about pleasure. I walked in and I was immediately blown away by the sound. The guy at the turntable was working the EQs and doing wild shoulder moves, and that was Chris Burns.

…and end up here?

Chris How did we end up here? Well both of us have done pretty well with our respective DJ nights in the past year, and when we would go and party at Wonderland on a pretty much weekly basis, the topic wouldalways come up about doing something together. The music that we both play at our nights is very different from one another, so we always talked about having a party where we would drink lots of beer and just play whatever the hell we wanted. We definitely didn't want to have a set format or for people to only expect us to play what we each usually play. It's all about just LOUD, fisting-pumping party music. It also gives us a chance to bring out the inner-fratboy that both of us put in retirement after graduating college.

Gavin:Yep. Partying every week at the Wonderland, getting drunk and formulating a master plan. This plan, as Chris alludes to, always seemed to involve drinking a lot, being brotherly, and playing some pumping party music the likes of which haven't really been heard in DC before.

....Why at Selam?

Gavin: What, do you hate Eritreans or something?

Chris: I think Gavin asked around at a couple of other places and no one really had any nights that were free. I definitely was not going to try to start something in the middle of the week because people definitely don't rage as hard when they know in the back of their mind that they have to get up at 8am for that Babylon job/class/etc. I do the bookings at Selam and we happened to have a night that was open. The family who runs Selam is also totally awesome and always are hands off when it comes to programming the music. Plus they have really cheap drinks and Beth has the heaviest hand in the city. We are debuting the party this month on a Friday, but thereafter it is going to be on the First Saturdays.

Why that particular (amazing) name?

Chris: I think I came up with the name Party Bros., but I am not entirely sure. I think we were drinking alot of High Life at Wonderland a few weeks ago and I just blurted it out because it made sense about what we are about. I'm sure Gavin can give you some more philosophical musings on the meaning of the name...

Gavin: Thank you, it is amazing. Chris definitely came up with it -- I have the gchat transcript to prove it. I supported it hard because it's so perfect... I've actually wanted to have a dance night with the name "party" in it for a while. It directly addresses its own subject matter, like Fellini's film-about-a-film 8½, or a painting that says "ART" on it.
"Bros." also has a significant meaning to me. It's a semi-nebulous term that my friends and I would use to describe certain kinds of guys. You can use it in the lightly mocking sense -- say a bunch of beefy guys show up to a party, they're not hip to what's going on but they definitely want to get drunk and have a good time -- you might say, "wow, those are some bros." Depending on the situation, calling some people "a bunch of bros" can either be a little mocking, a little endearing, or both at the same time. Bros are a bit annoying and drunk, but you like it, because they're gonna get the party going somehow. By the end of the night, you'll all be friends. There you have it. Party Bros.

What can the masses expect on Friday?

Chris: Expect the unexpected. I mean we will definitely play lots of hard hitting party rock, but I'm sure some late 90's hip hop from our high school youth is going to get thrown in as well. I did just raid my parents' record collection so expect some goodies from that.
Honestly, I don't know or have a plan for what is going to happen, which is why this is going to be AWESOME. Don't expect any fancy mixing or turntablism though, this night is focused strictly on PARTYING. I want to rage and dance as hard as everyone else.

Gavin: It's going to sound wild and loud, constantly. I told Chris that in the idealized version of this party, every single dance song we play would have a prominent guitar solo in it. We may not be able to achieve that, but we'll aim for it. I'm definitely going to play "Tell It To My Heart" by Taylor Dane. I'll play The Stooges and I'll play N.W.A. I'll probably play the song that goes "Girl, I'll house you" at least five times. (It's called "I'll House You" by the Jungle Brothers... see how the name "brothers" equates to "having a really awesome time"?)

Is there a dress code (bcse looking at that photo, we think there definetly should be one)

Chris: Wear your best party shirt, everyone has one. Don't be ironic because no one is too jaded to PARTY.

Gavin: Here, Chris is wrong. There is definitely a dress code, but it's secret, and if you get it wrong, I'll pour a beer on your head and turn up the music so loud you cry. I'm just kidding. I could care less what people wear to this thing.

and in case you missed it on top...here it is again:partybros.mp3

Previously in Downloads:

• 1/27: Download: Axel F 1 Yeah Anniversary Mix
• 1/20: Download: Fatback Mix XXXIX
• 8/22: Download: Ferris Presents; School's out 4EVER!
• 8/19: Download: FATBACK MIX #33
• 8/17: Download: QUE SERA Slaughterhouse Mix
• 8/4: DOWNLOAD: A Busy Season for DAWES
• 7/25: Download: HELL IS FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, Denman Summer Mix
• 6/17: Download: FATBACK MIX 3.3
• 3/17: Download: Fatback Mix #30
• 2/22: Download! Stereo Faith & Micah Vellian "Fr33k3rs"