First off, my review of Alchemist's new record was published today at Pitchfork.

Party on Saturday went really well ... thanks to everyone who came out & danced til 4AM "til the cops came knocking" (per Maxwell). We'll be doing another one very soon, and this time the headliner is gonna be a pretty amazing DJ, so hit me up if you're in Chicago & interested in dancing the nite away....

Also special thanks to Max Read of Disco Horror who I approached to write some notes on the mix Brett & I put together. I think they came out very nicely. Read the full piece after the jump:

When David Drake first approached me—a noted scholar and influential bloggist—about his "Summer Luau Luv Mix" a few years ago, the first thing I said was, Is this some kind of gay thing, because, maybe. But when I realized he wanted me to write an introduction to his mix--to his masterpiece (or should I say, mixterpiece)--I was unsure. What do you say to someone who asks you to paint the wind, to sing the sea, to dance the mountains? How do you respond?

Let me put it this way:

If I asked you what your favorite thing about music is, what would you say? Would you say, rhythm? Would say, melody? Would you say, I don’t understand the question, like, what does it actually even mean, and also, who are you?

What do you think David Drake would say?

Most of us don’t think about music much. We put it on when we’re driving our cars or cleaning our privates (balls and dick), while we cook our breakfasts or think sadly about, what if we get cancer, and no one cares. Most Americans couldn’t even name one song, and if they can, it’s usually that one Beatles song about "Piña Coladas in the rain."

Not David Drake.

David Drake can name more than one song. In fact, David Drake can probably name six or seven, from “The Nameless Street” by U2, to “In the Names of Love,” by U2, to other songs by U2. And U2 is a foreign band. While the rest of us listen to manufactured pop bands like The Jonas Brothers and The Naked Brothers and The Radiohead Brothers, tugging at our soft little wieners, imagining what it would be like to see Katy Perry's "pubes," David Drake is on the front lines of the music “scene,” spending hours arguing on the internet with British people and having thoughts about stuff, like, what does it mean, if a white person raps.

In fact: David Drake is music. There, I said it.

And "Summer Luau Luv Mix" is his only child (Christ figure). What words can I use to describe it? What about "masterful" ("performed or performing very skillfully")? Or "groundbreaking" ("breaking new ground")? Or "eclectic" ("of, worked by, charged with, or producing electricity")? What if no words at all can describe it? Some things, like the Grand Canyon, or Epcot, are so monumental ("great in importance, extent, or size"), so breathtaking ("astonishing or awe-inspiring in quality, so as to take one's breath away"), that no set of synonyms in Microsoft Word's built-in thesaurus could describe them.

"Summer Luau Luv Mix" is one of those things.

What if I told you that the King of Pop, Janet Jackson, is on this mix? Or rapper, pimp, and bon vivant Suga Free? What if I said, there is a track with famous autistic person and bike enthusiast David Byrne, performing with a "band" called "The Thievery Inc.," who are probably European and sort of jerky, if you met them in real life, which David Drake almost certainly has?

Here is the "rub": all of these musicians appear on this mix, "Summer Luau Luv Mix."

There are British people on this mix, performing in a genre called "funky house," which is the kind of thing that sounds fun if you live in Britain and have never seen the sun. There is a song by Nas's husband Kelis. There is at least one song in a foreign language, probably Spanish or Latin. There is even a part where a man asks a lady if she "masturbates," which is very salacious.

In other words: this mix has everything.

So: when David Drake, the Indisputable Greatest DJ Of All Time, Even Before There Were DJs, asked me to write about his mix, the "Summer Luau Luv Mix," what do you think I said?

I said, How much will you pay me.

And the rest, as they say, is history.