Are You Scared to Get Sad?

I am aware that so many of my posts have been dublab related lately. That has much to do with the fact that dublab has been occupying a great deal of my time, and thought lately. There have been other things as well, but more on them later...

Dublab has a "Give Up," season wherein which two of the dublab founders Mark "Frosty" McNeil, and Jimmy Tamborello put on sad, slowdance nights. The season was shortened this year, but that did not detract from it's impact. Team Hungry Beat! had a blast a few Sundays ago reliving our teenage years, or for others, creating the teenage years that we only wish we could have experienced.

I was asked to contribute a set to a live "Give Up" Tuesday Transmission during the month of February. As it happens, I put more thought into this particular session than I ever have to any other DJ set that I have ever composed. Oddly enough, composing this set of sad songs was really fun.

It was my initial plan to bring together the most devastating, heart-breaking downers that I could find, but then this article on the Tangents archive made me slightly re-think that plan. I'd heard the Peggy Lee song that came in at number ten maybe once before seeing it on that list. "Oh that would be perfect!" I thought. I found a copy of the record of the same name, Is That All There Is?, at Record Surplus the very next day. Thus my new plan for the set was in motion. The characters in this set bemoan apathy, and ponder the state they are in. They watch trains go down the tracks wishing they were somewhere else, and they watch the tide roll away as they are wasting time. They contemplate similarly minded friends who "sit alone for hours, thinking only of flowers." Relationships are dreamed of, but never attained. They struggle to put together in their minds what exactly it is that people do all day, and surely everyone of them has at some point asked the question, "Is that all there is?"

And of course if it is, then we should all most definitely keep dancing.

You can download the session, and view the tracklisting here.