May 1 2021

David Byrne Radio Presents: My Old School Dance Party

By Todomundo

Song Artist Purchase
Mama I Gotta Brand New Thing (Don't Say No) Jackson 5
Watching You Slave
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites Skrillex
Call Your Girlfriend Robyn
Dancing On My Own Robyn
Yum Yum The Fatback Band
Give up the Funk (Tear the Roof fff the Sucker) Parliament
Flash Light Parliament
Skin Tight Ohio Players
Word up! Cameo
Give It To Me Baby Rick James
The Glamorous Life Sheila E.
More Bounce to the Ounce Zapp & Roger
Doo Wa Ditty Zapp & Roger
You Dropped a Bomb On Me The Gap Band
Ffun Con Funk Shun
Cissy Strut The Meters
Africa The Meters
It don't mean a thing - If It don't have the Go Go Swing Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers
Overnight Scenario Rare Essence
Take Me Out To See Junkyard Junkyard Band
People, I've been sad Christine and the Queens
Bussifame Dawn Richard

In the 80s I used to make mixtapes for myself to dance to. Partly for exercise, and partly to see if I happened to fall into some interesting and evocative movement - moves that I might use in a performance eventually. Often I would alternate Celia Cruz songs and Kanda Bongo Man mixtapes, but in this playlist you’ll find a lot of the old school disco funk that set me in motion.

Maybe it’s no surprise that my collaborators and I often drew up this kind of material in creating the Social! Distance Dance Club project that just ran at the NYC Park Ave Armory. Our DJ Natasha Diggs dives into these crates as well. None of the songs on this particular playlist were used in our show, but the ones we used are pretty similar.

Our show at the armory invited about 100 audience members to move and dance for an hour while socially distanced. The photo above is worth 1000 words. My voice over the tracks serves as sometimes instruction and sometimes crazy inspiration (I describe subway surfing in one section, for example).

The chance to move and dance again, with other people, strangers even, despite being distanced - was cathartic, and I have to say quite moving. We weren’t sure it would have that effect, but it did.

We hope other cities with similar large spaces will bring this show - so that more folks can experience this while we’re still ever so slowly emerging back into the world.

-David Byrne



Here are some of the amazing press this show received. People are ready to dance!

Vogue - Vulture - Vanity Fair - Broadway World

Apple Music - Click Here
Spotify - Click Here

May 1 2021

David Byrne Radio Presents: My Old School Dance Party

By Todomundo

Song Artist Purchase
Mama I Gotta Brand New Thing (Don't Say No) Jackson 5
Watching You Slave
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites Skrillex
Call Your Girlfriend Robyn
Dancing On My Own Robyn
Yum Yum The Fatback Band
Give up the Funk (Tear the Roof fff the Sucker) Parliament
Flash Light Parliament
Skin Tight Ohio Players
Word up! Cameo
Give It To Me Baby Rick James
The Glamorous Life Sheila E.
More Bounce to the Ounce Zapp & Roger
Doo Wa Ditty Zapp & Roger
You Dropped a Bomb On Me The Gap Band
Ffun Con Funk Shun
Cissy Strut The Meters
Africa The Meters
It don't mean a thing - If It don't have the Go Go Swing Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers
Overnight Scenario Rare Essence
Take Me Out To See Junkyard Junkyard Band
People, I've been sad Christine and the Queens
Bussifame Dawn Richard

November Radio David Byrne Radio Presents: Scintillating!

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