Midweek Mix: DJ Billy Pfeiffer

Get your hump night humping with this exclusive JMG soulful house mix from NYC's DJ Billy Pfeiffer. Setlist. Podcasts. Facebook.

UPCOMING GIGS: DJ Billy Pfeiffer's Body Rock! party at Manhattan's Rockbar turns three this Friday. Catch Billy this Friday at Body Rock! - 3 YRS, at one of the upcoming Honey! - Urban Bear NYC dance parties, and every Sunday at Rockbar's beer blast.

HomoQuotable - Rich Juzwiak

"Frankie Knuckles kept the disco in house before 'disco house' or any of the mass sub-genre-ization of house was a thing. The racist and homophobic Disco Demolition Night, held July 12, 1979, largely killed disco's mainstream cool, but Knuckles stuck with it, riding it through the '70s and well into the '90s and beyond. A maligned people had their maligned genre, and from there it grew to become a global phenomenon. Knuckles called house 'disco's revenge.'

"Today, plenty of people listen to house music (whether via EDM or otherwise) without recognizing its roots as gay black music for gay black people. But that is what it is, and that it came to prominence at a time in which the gay community was being ravaged by AIDS, is a triumph. It's but one of several examples of the gays knowing something it would take years for the rest of the world to discover. And it might not have happened without Frankie Knuckles, certainly not in the way it did. He was one of the handful of people who've been on this earth that we could point to and say, 'There. That man changed culture.'" - Rich Juzwiak, writing for Gawker.

RELATED: During last night's Tonight Show, house band The Roots played The Whistle Song in tribute to Frankie Knuckles. Roots percussionist Frank Knuckles takes his name from the late Godfather Of House. My remembrance of Frankie Knuckles is here.  Rolling Stone has published a lengthy retrospective of Knuckles' career and influence.

The World's Highest Paid DJs

From Forbes' just-released 2013 rankings:

1. Calvin Harris ($46 million)
2. Tiesto ($32 million)
3. David Guetta ($30 million)
4. Swedish House Mafia ($25 million)
5. Deadmau5 ($21 million)
6. Avicii ($20 million)
7. Afrojack ($18 million)
8. Armin van Buuren ($17 million)
9 (tie). Skrillex ($16 million)
9 (tie). Kaskade ($16 million)
11. Steve Aoki ($14 million)
12. DJ Pauly D ($13 million)
13. Diplo ($13 million)

Keep in mind that these guys make the bulk of their money not at nightclubs, but at gigantic dance festivals and "concert" events that can draw up to 100,000 attendees. Several months ago I went to the Swedish House Mafia's sold out show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center. (My friend works for the label, so free tickets, plus I wanted to see the new arena.) Aside from the fact that we were pretty much the oldest audience members there by three decades or more, I quite enjoyed it, especially the truly astounding visual effects.  The clip below will give you a sense of where all these millions come from.

Boy George: I Am A DJ

Boy George explains his 30+ year progression from pop star to a DJ who plays massive events all over the world.

Weekend Mix: DJ Dave Huge

Keep your weekend rolling with this eclectic smooth electro mix from NYC's DJ Dave Huge. Setlist. Facebook. Website. Twitter.

UPCOMING GIGS: Dave is playing in Philadelphia next Saturday night at Gear Up, Get Out at the Bikestop. His NYC residency Collider takes over the upstairs at Stonewall on the first Saturday of every month.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG THIS YEAR: DJ Bill Pfeiffer. DJ Shane Stiel. DJ Jerry Bonham. DJ Michael Fierman. DJ Sin Morera. DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the 35th in the occasional JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. Previous installments include mixes from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names to come.

Belgium's Tomorrowland 2012

A giant straight version of a circuit party: "More than 180,000 visitors attended one of the most beautiful and talked about festivals in world. The 8th edition of Tomorrowland was one that would never be forgotten. An amazing festival, a magic location, wonderful decor, more than 400 artists and by far the best public in the world!" Wikipedia claims that all 180K tickets sold out in one day, leaving two million people on waiting lists.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

Weekend Mix - DJ Billy Pfeiffer

Get your weekend jumping with this great soulful house mix from NYC's DJ Billy Pfeiffer. Setlist. Podcasts. Facebook.

UPCOMING GIGS: This mix was recorded live at Body Rock, Billy's occasional Saturday night house party for men of all shapes and sizes. Body Rock 7 - The Heat Is On goes off next Saturday, August 25th at Rockbar (formerly Dugout) NYC. You can also catch Billy every Sunday at Rockbar's infamous Beer Blast.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG THIS YEAR: DJ Shane Stiel. DJ Jerry Bonham. DJ Michael Fierman. DJ Sin Morera. DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the 34th in the occasional JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. Previous installments include mixes from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names to come.

DJs For Obama

The Obama campaign goes for more cool cred.

30 Richest DJs In The World

Via Celebrity Net Worth:

If you are a fan of electronic music, you will probably recognize the names on this list but we think you’ll be very surprised and impressed at just how rich and highly paid the top DJs are. These DJs put out their own albums and produce songs for other mainstream artists like Madonna and Britney Spears, but their main bread and butter still comes from private shows. If you’re one of the top ranked DJs in the world, you can earn hundreds of thousands and possibly even millions for a single concert depending on the date and location. A private birthday party at a Saudi Prince’s palace in Dubai or one Vegas New Years Eve show can earn a top DJ more money than most people will earn in a lifetime.

I don't know what it says about me that at even in my clubbing dotage, I recognize and probably have tracks by all but a handful of these guys. And Tiesto at the top? A few good ones from him, but his style is so recognizable that all his tracks begin to sound the same. Also, as far as I know, there's not one gay DJ on that list. (Tipped by JMG reader Michael)

Weekend Mix - DJ Shane Stiel

Get on down with your bad self with this exclusive JMG mix by San Diego's hot DJ Shane Stiel. Setlist Twitter. Podcasts. Facebook. Interview. Beefcake.

UPCOMING GIGS: The Jungle @ Rich's San Diego, Tonight. Vancouver Pride, Oasis Lounge, LL Bear @ Rich's San Diego.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Jerry Bonham. DJ Michael Fierman. DJ Sin Morera. DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the seventh in the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names coming in 2012!

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of the Saint At Large, this week's Swag Tuesday prize is a ticket to this Saturday's 33rd annual Black Party, the longest-running and most famous leather dance party in the world, which this year stars DJ Satashi Tomie and DJs Chus + Ceballos, and which once again takes place at the legendary Roseland Ballroom in Times Square.

We also have two tickets to giveaway for the special $50 early morning after-hours set by DJ Hector Romero, which begins admitting new Roseland patrons at 9am on Sunday. Advance tickets are on sale here. Also on sale are tickets for the two Saint events that bookend the Black Party, Friday and Saturday's Black Party Expo and Sunday night's closing event at Santos Party House.

Enter to win tickets by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. Entries close at midnight on Wednesday, west coast time. If you cannot be in NYC on the day of the event, your winning entry is transferable to your favorite leather man or gal. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

Weekend Mix - DJ Bill Pfeiffer

Get your big game on with this special super jam from hot NYC DJ Bill Pfeiffer! Setlist. Podcasts. Facebook.

UPCOMING GIGS: This mix was recorded live at Friday’s Sugar Daddy one-off party at Union Fridays at Monster. Catch Billy at his occasional “Body Rock” party at Rockbar and check Billy's other mixes and tracks on his Urban Gardens, Inc. labels’s Soundcloud site.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Sin Morera. DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the fifth in the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names coming in 2012!

Weekend Mix - DJ Sin Morera

Jump-start your weekend with this kicking Latin-tinged vocal house mix from New York's Sin Morera! Setlist. Facebook. Twitter.

UPCOMING GIGS: Winter Music Conference, Miami (March 16th) Club Taboo, Singapore (April) Life Ball, Vienna (May 20th),

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Herbie James. DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the fourth in the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names coming in 2012!

UPDATE: Sin Morera's latest single Heartbeat is now available for download on Beatport and at iTunes.

Weekend Mix - DJ Herbie James

Shake off the snow and ice with this hot vocal house mix by Fort Lauderdale's popular DJ Herbie James. Setlist. Website. Podcasts.

UPCOMING GIGS: Fridays & Saturdays @ Ramrod.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Paul Ferrer. DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the third in the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, David Knapp, Paul Goodyear, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great names coming in 2012!

Weekend Mix - DJ Paul Ferrer

Turn up the volume on your weekend with this pumping disco-house vocal mix from popular NYC DJ Paul Ferrer. Setlist. Website. Podcasts. Facebook.

RESIDENCY: The NYC Eagle every Sunday from 5pm to 10pm. On the roof in the summertime or down and dirty on the first floor when weather doesn't permit.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: DJ Dave Huge.

NOTE: This is the second of the revived JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, Herbie James, David Knapp, Ted Eiel, and many others. Lots of great stuff to come in 2012!

Weekend Mix - DJ Dave Huge

Kick off your weekend with this eclectic electro mix from NYC's DJ Dave Huge. Setlist. Facebook. Website. Twitter.

Upcoming gigs: Collider, First Saturdays at Stonewall Inn. Body Rock, January 21st at Rockbar. Bassment, January 26th at Monster. Union, January 27th at Monster.

NOTE: With this post we revive the JMG Weekend Mix series in which we highlight major national and up-and-coming DJ talent. This series ran for 28 installments in 2010 with entries from such well-known names as Susan Morabito, Corey Craig, Herbie James, David Knapp, Ted Eiel, and many others.

LAUNCHED: DJ Neil Lewis Podcasts

My pal Leif Wauters is spearheading an effort to post the sets of the late and legendary DJ Neil Lewis, whose epic work is considered by many to represent a pinnacle of San Francisco nightlife.

Welcome to the premier podcast of Neil's recorded sets from his nights at Pleasuredome. Each release represents both sides of an audio cassette tape recording that has recently been digitised. Although I'm not an audio engineer, I have done my best to remove any gaps and to generally beef up with quality of the recordings but some unavoidable warbling and glitches remain. Please allow these imperfections to remind you that this is simply an attempt to share the joy of Neil Lewis' music what was adored by dancers, flaggers and other DJs around the world until he took his life in 2004. Please share these podcasts far and wide as they represent what some would consider the best of a golden age in dance music. There will be a new release roughly every couple of weeks until the collection has been completely shared. If you enjoy what you hear, please consider making a donation to San Francisco Suicide Prevention as a "Friend of Neil Lewis" so they can continue the critical work of keeping our troubled loved-ones amongst us.

I made most of my San Francisco friends on Neil's dance floor and even just a few minutes into this podcast, I'm flashing back to people I haven't thought about in many years. Appropriately, this first posting begins with Chicane, the gloriously serene trance act that came to represent Neil's unique style. Bookmarked.

Pogo - Joburg Jam

From his coming World Remix project.

RIP Technics SL-1200

The Technics analog turntable, the most beloved and widely-used machine in the history of nightclubs, is no more. Sigh. If I had back all the time I've spent within earshot of a pair of SL-1200s, I'd still be in my 30s. I am not kidding.

Winter Party 2009: Spend Your Money Where It Does Our Community Good

About twenty years ago, gay pride in major cities and the circuit party scene began to explode from single-day events to a stamina-testing series of parties stretched over long weekends, as glinty-eyed promoters swooped in to take advantage of a captive and restless audience.

While the unprecedented successes of these events offered attendees a long menu of party destinations on each day, attendance often suffered at the very namesake event for which these thousands of revelers had ostensibly traveled. How could you get up for the pride parade when you'd only left the club at 10am? Why would you actually go to the Magic Kingdom during Gay Days and stand in lines for rides when there were half a dozen mammoth pool parties at nearby host hotels? I think I first observed this phenomenon in the late 80's when it became apparent how few attendees of the Hotlanta River Expo actually made it to the banks of the Chattahoochee.

This has always been an annoyance to me, not only for the illogic of flying thousands of miles to not attend the namesake event, but also (and much more importantly), because that title event is often a benefit for a vital LGBT charity which then suffers because outside promoters have descended with big name DJs and performers to siphon away the business. At this month's Winter Party Festival in Miami Beach, the daytime title event on the beach is happily unchallenged, other than by the fatigue of attendees who were out late the night before. Yay!

But the WPF's benefit closing party later that night, which is a huge source of revenue for the organizers, is facing a rival for-profit event with a curious history.

Via Steve Rothaus at the Miami Herald:

Popular DJ Peter Rauhofer enraged local gay activists last fall when he produced a South Beach "Main Event" dance party in direct competition with White Party Week's Noche Blanca AIDS fundraiser. Now, national gay activists are angry with Rauhofer: He is reprising his Main Event party at Mansion on March 1 opposite the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Winter Party Orbit fundraiser at Cameo. "It hurts the community. That's what it comes down to,'' said Chad Richter of Miami Beach, festival chairman of this year's Winter Party. "We have volunteers who are working hard all year long. To have someone who is also gay and is doing a competing event, it's almost hard for a lot of people to believe."

While this practicing of dropping monster unofficial parties into an existing event has gone on for at least two decades, this one really pisses me off even though it doesn't compete with the title event. Peter Rauhofer, who is arguably the most popular DJ in the country, is going up against the fundraiser closing party with a for-profit event that may leech an enormous amount of money away the Winter Party's beneficiary, the Dade Community Foundation's GLBT Community Project Fund.

Last year the Winter Party Festival, which is run by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, contributed $180,000 to the fund, money that went to local LGBT youth services and to SAVE, Miami-Dade County's gay rights group. Even the name of Rauhofer's party, "The Main Event", seem designed to confuse attendees into thinking they are contributing to the cause.

And just to add some alleged shadiness to the Rauhofer story, some are saying that while his event throttled attendance at the AIDS fundraiser for Care Resource last fall during the White Party, he did it with flyers claiming that his event was sanctioned by and would be making a donation to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. From a letter to the South Florida Blade:

Dear Editor,

There was a fundraiser for the Elton John AIDS Foundation during White Party Weekend, at the nightclub Mansion in South Beach. Peter Rauhofer and Tracy Moran were DJs. I heard it was not a fundraiser—they were just using the Elton John AIDS Foundation name to compete with The White Party, a fundraiser for Care Resource. My friends went to the party because they thought it was for charity. Do you have information on this situation?

Editor’s note: It is true Peter Rauhofer planned a party, called “The Main Event,” the same weekend as The White Party. On his MySpace blog, he voiced grievances with Care Resource, but said he was producing the event at Mansion “with no malicious intent.” He also said he would “donate proceeds” to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, in as his party was in competition with another AIDS fundraiser. However, EJAF representatives say they did not agree to participating in this event, and they did not have an agreement on donations from Peter Rauhofer. They would not choose to compete with a fundraising event for a local HIV/AIDS organization such as Care Resource, and they did not authorize the use of their name in advertisements for Rauhofer’s party. Blade staff attempted to contact Rauhofer for a statement, but he did not respond.

If the above is true, I'd say that's fucking unforgivable. And I say that not only as a devoted attendee of the Winter Party Festival and as a friend of many of its tireless volunteers, but as a very longtime fan of Peter Rauhofer himself. I probably own more than a dozen of his CDs and have patronized many of his parties.

So please, if you're traveling to Miami Beach at the end of the month to soak up some well-deserved sun and enjoy the wide variety of events offered by the Winter Party Festival, DO PAY ATTENTION to who is behind that party you are interested in. The official, volunteer-run, 100% benefit event on Sunday night is at Orbit (also known as the Cameo Theater), where world famous DJs Tony Moran and Chus & Ceballos will rock the house from 8pm - 5am. Spend your hard-earned money where it does the community good. That, gentle readers, is the true "main event."