ΦΡΑΠΕ ΚΑΙ ΛΑΙΚΑ

For my homie, Neraida,

At my wedding, the most important dance for me to do, was a zeimbekiko to the song, “Egw Den Hmouna Alitis”. It was “my” song. When my family had the bouzoukia, the band knew that when I walked in, it was time for them to play it. Later, it’d spill over to the other bouzoukia in Greektown.. all the musicians knew to play it for me. 

Anyway.. So, I’m dancing at my wedding, and a friend brings me a shot of Metaxa. Now, I despise brown liquor, it makes me sick… but I did the shot, and broke the shot glass… another shot comes, again, metaxa. do the shot, break the shot glass.. My thea pops up, mid dance and goes, “ama spasis allo potiri, tha se skotoso!” Annnnd, another shot comes. Now, at this point, mixed with the other stuff I was drinking, I was a litttle tipsy.. ok, a lot. I knew that if I took this shot, I’d get sick.. but I thought, fuck it, since she said that to me.. so I focused all my energy into downing that shot without getting sick.. broke the glass, finished the zeimbekiko…. and then ran to the bathroom to calm myself so I wouldn’t puke. 

As you can see.. I’m verrry stubborn. ha.

Djing last night was really fun.. it was an engagement party that was normal sized for a Greek party, but that just means it’s bigger than most American Weddings. lol

They didn’t stop dancing all night, and the cool part was when I put zeimbekika on, it didn’t kill the vibe. That happened at another party I did a few weeks ago, I played a solid 40 minutes of zeimbekika and everyone was still on the floor, clapping and dancing. I sometimes feel like people assume “oh, zeimbekika are on, time to go..” (well, that is the case, especially in Chicago, because for as long as I can remember, Djs at Greek clubs would throw on the zeimbekika at the end of the night, before the place closed). I always thought that was a stupid formula, you have to do kalamatiana here, syrto, modern stuff, throw on some old school and then end with zeimbekika. It gets boring.. this sounds cliche, but you figure out the crowds vibe and then go with it. I remember once in 03, when Kokkinou had a popular zeimbekiko, I was djing at this club, and week in and week out, it was a given that I play it. One night though, I played the first verse and chorus, then made it sound like I was stopping a record and played Paradise City from Guns N Roses. Guess what? everyone fucking loved it. I had the whole place singing along. The owners of the club got pissed at me, but oh well.

Back to last night and an observation I had.. For the Greeks in the US/Canada, who remembers a CD that came out in 94, called Bouzouki Party Pack? A DJ from Montreal produced the album, got local singers to redo traditional and newer songs (at the time), with a bit of a remix-ey feel to it. The album came out in 94, but it still sounds fresh as hell now. I still use songs from it, most DJs still only rely on that CD alone. It’s the album that has the house remix of Zorba, redone versions of Melisoula and Geitonissa from Kostas Bigalis… It also has this medley of songs, that starts with Glyka Glyka (pre-Kelekidou), goes to Naxa Ekato Kardies, Fige Ki Ase Me and ends with a pretty dope version of Palamakia. I’m certain you guys have heard it at Greek functions. Well, I decided to make a newer edit of those songs, that starts with Kekekidou’s version of Glyka Glyka, and then mix in the rest of the songs. BUT.. you know how the song starts, with the rappy part? It’s 50/50 with people if they like it or not.. sometimes,  they hear it and get pumped and keep dancing.. other times, the crowd gets confused for that 30 seconds and when Kekekidou’s part kicks in, they start dancing again. It’s the oddest thing. 

I find it odd that this song is requested at pretty much every wedding I do, but it’s about going to the Laladika to get a hooker.