Spin the Deejay - Damian Cote

Providence native, Williamsburg resident Damian Cote (pronounced like “Nestle,” in case you were wondering) has been having quite the 2010 – and if you’ve been hanging out in any of the city’s more recession-friendly establishments, chances are you’ve heard his delicious blend of leftfield, scuzzy rock, pop and electro. Just a few months ago, he played for the approximately 9000 hirsute revelers who shoved into Julius’s for the latest Pinups issue launch, and his party Buddies (Tuesdays at Nowhere) remains a friendly destination for the facial hair set.

How do you organize your music collection? Depends on the medium. CDs are mostly alphabetical by artist, with maybe the 50 most recently played on top of the others until I get to realphabetizing. Vinyl and cassettes are completely randomized, while the iTunes is sorted according to my needs at the time.

What are the top five tracks in your iTunes, all time?

1. Pylon – “Cool” (24 plays)
2. Richard Hell and the Voidoids – “Love Comes In Spurts” (20 plays)
   
3. Modern English – “Someone’s Calling” (17 plays)
4. Severed Heads – “Lonestar” (17 plays)
   
5. [TIE] Clan of Xymox – “Muscoviet Mosquito”, Peaches - "I Feel Cream” (16 plays each) 

Sounds about right.

What's your current typical tech set up for playing out? At home? Out, it's almost always a Numark CD mixer of some sort. The NYC standard. I spin a combination of iPhone and CD mixes created at home. They are randomized mixes of all the genres I play, sourced from other CDs, vinyl, cassettes, and digital downloads. I always have at least 50 with me out of the 250+ I have amassed to date. At home, I have the laptop with headphones or some small desktop speakers, or my mostly Technics stereo. I have had this receiver, turntable and speakers since 1988. The cassette and CD players were purchased within the past 6 to 10 years.

What requests won't you take? If I don't have it with me, of course I don't play it. If I have it, and can find it amid the tracklists on the CDs, I will play it, almost unconditionally. Unless I just played or am currently playing (you would be surprised how insanely often this actually happens) said artist, at which point I might ask for a backup. If a person starts asking for something that is completely different from the general sound I'm giving, I tell them that there's nothing that I can do to help them, aside from expand their horizons. These people usually ask for the same 3 artists. If they ask for Gaga while I'm playing, say, The Damned, I tell them to go to a bodega, because if one of her songs isn't on in there right now it will be within a few minutes.

You're bombing. What's the next track? If you mean 'bombing' as in the dancefloor is empty, then it's an N/A. I'm not concerned with people dancing. When I'm not personally happy with what's happening, it is B-52's or maybe Tom Tom Club. Palate cleansers. BTW, if I have a song stuck in my head that I need banished, I conjure TTC's 'Genius of Love'. It bulldozes every other song into the ground, then fades away itself shortly after. So I can hear the birds.

Who should play your funeral? Get that pipa player on the 4-5-6 platform at Union Square, mike him up, and everybody get completely obliterated at Nowhere Bar. Or have Blixa Bargeld do one of those cool digital-delay-based talks he gives in Europe. No, no, I know. A silent procession around the big fountain in the Carre St-Louis in Montréal. For 23 days. 

What are you when you're not a DJ? Usually I'm enjoying taking part in one or more of 3 of the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth.

You're trapped on a desert island. Which diva have you brought along to eat? Leigh Bowery and Divine, when they were alive.

Damian's current top ten, in no particular order:

• The Damned – “Melody Lee”
  
• Japan – “Adolescent Sex”
  
• Bo’Tox – “Blue Steel”
  
• Buzzcocks – “Boredom”
  
• Cabaret Voltaire – “Sensoria (12’’ Mix)”
  
• Shout Out Out Out Out – “Dude You Feel Electrical”
  
• Annie – “Heartbeat (Phones Maximo Remix)”
  
• Newcleus – “Computer Age”
  
• Marina and the Diamonds – “I Am Not a Robot (Penguin Prison remix)”
  
• Coil – “Anal Staircase”

This weekend, you can catch Mister Cote playing dance music at Large Hardon Collider on Saturday night at Stonewall [full disclosure – the same goes for your intrepid correspondent]. Buddies keeps packin’ them in on Tuesdays at Nowhere, and he’s also an occasional fill-in at Lovedolls Superstar (Mondays at Beauty Bar) and Rockbar.

Mister Dave Hughes has lived in Chinatown, the East Village, Tribeca, Long Island City, and Harlem, and he currently hangs his hat in Williamsburg. He likes politics, disco and whiskey. His writing has also appeared in Slant, New York, and other fine publications.