This Friday, January 26, your friendly neighborhood bowling alley/nightclub, the world-famous Milky Way Lounge and Lanes, transforms into a ’60s wonderland of go-go dancers, wild groove music, and the ubiquitous Brother Cleve. ARI ROSENFIELD, proprietor and main DJ for CHEAP THRILLS A GO-GO, e-mails as follows: “I want to take this music from the 1960s, which all has a very cinematic quality to it, combine it into a ‘wall of sound,’ and add other elements such as go-go dancers, vintage 16mm films, and psychedelic bubble projections. What I’m aiming for is that the sum of these elements will equate to a very visceral experience. . . . A parallel universe in a certain sense.”Rosenfield goes by the BEAT TRAIN and spins a laundry list of superclassics. “While my musical tastes certainly extend far beyond music from the 1960s, I feel especially intrigued by what an innovative, creative, and idealistic time it was in the world of music.” How’s this for a playlist: Os Mutantes, the Namelosers, “untamed movie playlists,” the Shangri-La’s, Edwin Starr, James Brown, “swinging London mod grooves,” Jacques Dutronc, the Sonics, Bo Diddley, “a host of amazing hard-hitting Latin Soul records,” Les Baxter, Davie Allen, the Kinks, the Stones and “completely astounding and unclassifiable records.”
Despite this relentless list, Rosenfield has not always been a DJ — he started at film school. “I came to the realization that I had just wasted the last several years of my life surrounding myself with apathetic, narcissistic film nerds. As the naive filmmaker I was, my goal was always to persuade people to question the status quo and rethink the nature of reality . . . And in a certain sense that’s still my goal.”
Helping to question the downstairs lounge vibe of the Milky Way will be go-go dancers courtesy of Thru the Keyhole Burlesque. And the “Cheap Thrills”? “ ‘Cheap Thrills’ is a reference to the Janis Joplin album that features some really insane cover art done by R. Crumb. For me, combining ‘Cheap Thrills’ and ‘a Go-Go’ conveys this cinematic cartoonish surreal over-the-top alternate universe I’m trying to create.”
There’s a new party on Thursdays — yes, another one. This time, mega campus promo masters 6 ONE 7 PRODUCTIONS are throwing their hat into the ring with TREND at Wonder Bar. They’re bringing the DROP THA BEAT DJ crew into the new downstairs lounge at the Allston nightclub. Expect triple-teamed hip-hop beats from KURTIS RICH, DANGEROS, and KREATION in the confined space, along with a killer crowd of college cuties. 6 One 7 is the veteran college crew in the Hub, with contacts at each campus, so you can count on big-time regional support from Boston College and BU especially.
Don’t sleep on upstairs at Trend Thursdays, either, since that’s where DJ BRAUN JOHNSON holds court. Braun and his tag-team mix partner, 7L, have been passing around their new 11:59 pm New Years Mix CD, and these gents are not slowing down. 7L does his thing, but he folds in new electro anthems like Simian Mobile Disco’s “Hustler,” and Braun just gets nutty. Lifting movie samples from Ron Burgundy, Johnson creates the Braun Bergundy Mix, and it’s packed with sexy raps and ’80s booty jams, rounded out, so to speak, by DJ Assault’s “Ass ’N’ Titties.” They’ll probably have copies with them when they hit Paper on February 1.
