Ed Horch: Completely Nonymous

Matt may be famous now, but there's no name-drop cred with him here in central Jersey. Knowing Matt implies nothing more than you hung out in the clubs (and the record stores) in New Brunswick in the mid 80's.

Back in those days, when he was still at WRSU, he used to DJ these monthly dances at Rutgers. I used to help set up the gear, which was brought by someone else. Well, one night, Matt and the organizers got their signals crossed. I used to bring a few records of my own for tuning up the sound system. The start time came and went, and no Matt. So I played what I had, and sent some people to my house to get more records. So yeah, my first record crate was a laundry basket, but there was enough for me to get through the night, and I was hooked on the DJ thing.

Now Matt's at WRXP (nee CD101.9), and having listened for a bit, I now know what those market-research calls I got over the last several months ago were leading up to.

So Matt, were it not for you, this userpic could never have been taken.

From:	hoops_mccan
Date:	2008-06-05 07:54 pm (UTC)

If I give him the yarn, will he make me one too?

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This is the second time in the last month that you really managed to take me back a few years (the other being the Usenet piece about driving). I remember Matt most vividly for his work at the Melody bar in New Brunswick. This was in the early and mid-eighties. There was a great sense of community back then. It seemed like everyone in the bars in New Brunswick knew each other, and no one was too "cool" to rub elbows with anyone else. Matt certainly lived up to this ideal. He knew volumes about popular music and was (and probably still is) one hell of a nice guy. It makes me feel proud when someone that I knew from NB hits the big time. One of the other regulars from the Melody, Mike Howard, is now a well known artist currently based in New York. These people were long time members of the community and not Rutgers students just passing through.

I never knew this story about your past. I always had the impression that you picked up DJing from going to raves (something I have some trouble imagining Matt getting into, given the material he played at the Melody). I recently came to appreciate the level of skill involved in DJing when I tried to break up a recording of a radio show (Delphine Blue) into chunks that would fit onto CDs. I wanted to stop one segment at the end of a song and start the next at the beginning of the following song. It was impossible. The segueues (sp?) were so tight that I couldn't hear the boundaries between the songs, which were often matched note for note. I finally gave up and just broke up the program into 45 minute segments. I never listened closely enough to notice what was being done and how difficult it must be.

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From:	tish_the_dish38
Date:	2008-06-12 01:13 pm (UTC)

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with my weirdly vivid memory, I remember this stuff like it was yesterday!

and to hoops comment: yes, those of us who "hung out" all knew each other, one way or another. It was a small core group of locals who kept the music scene humming. I sometimes miss it, having left it for many reasons and well before I should have, but there are fond memories nevertheless.

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