DJ Jonathan Toubin and photographer Mike De Leon are plowing through the US for the next month, documenting the New York Night Train Soul Clap and Dance-Off U.S. tour for Noisey. The Soul Clap is a New York party institution where the all-night dancing to the DJ's infinite barrage of unknown sixties soul screeches to a halt so that fifty folks can freak out. Toubin and De Leon will not only bring you the party, contestants, and judges, but behind the scenes madness, people and places, and all kinds of other roadkill.Jonathan: Mike asked me for a ride to Cleveland but its becoming more and more apparent to me that he's sticking around for the next 25 days. When I realized this, I tried to ditch him at an Ohio Turnpike stop near Sandusky when he went in for Starbucks - but he turned up in Detroit before I even got here.Mike: Jonathan spun by my Brooklyn apartment Saturday morning. He had worked all night and it was obvious he hadn't slept. We were already late but for some reason he took a detour to give a loving goodbye to his Yemeni deli guy. Then, instead of taking me to the highway, he took me to the Lower East Side, where he loaded Lit bartender, DJ, and cartoonist Nate Turbow into the car. The inevitable New York coffee discussion concluded when Nate refused to go to the Roasting Plant because he got shot with coffee beans when one of the coffee tubes exploded over his head. While the caffeine mission was unnecessarily sluggish, we burned through New Jersey faster than a…J: I got pulled over for speeding in New Jersey and the fact that I quickly undid a couple of buttons on my blouse didn't prevent me from getting a ticket.
Nate Turbow picks a spandex-banded item from a wide selection of eyewear.M: After seven hours of enduring Jonathan and Nate's uninterrupted dialogue about how Thrift Stores aren't good anymore, something is wrong with people who make their own fondue, and the failure of Industrial capitalism, we finally pulled up to Cleveland's Beachland.
J: New Bomb Turks' Eric Davidson recently described the Beachland to me as "the best club in America". And why not? The drinks are strong, the sound is good, there's a killer record/vintage store downstairs, plus friendly folks all around. DJ Hot Trash of WCSB opened – turning a lot of my favorite spins – closing with Pretty Boy's insane "Bip Bop Bip". The dancers pretty much hit the floor right away and knew what they were doing.
DJ Hot TrashM: A radiant beauty named Hadiya won the cash pot with her graceful shimmy and the second-place dancer got a gift certificate to Blue Arrow Records down the street… When of the patrons tried to convince Jonathan to go to his house after and tell everybody to come along, the DJ sent him to Nate who declined, explaining: "When a 65 year-old man in khaki pants wants the DJ to get on the mic and announce the afterparty at his place, it means that he wants to play rubber ducky and give sponge-baths." After the contest they turned the lights down and everyone went at it hard – not letting Jonathan stop… When he finally went off long after closing time, a girl convinced the club to let him come back and play a last one for a soul train.
Poster in the Beachland backstage
Dancers at the Beachland
Our host Brandon
Cleveland Dance-Off winner HadivaJ: I jumped down from the stage to get in on the soul train and literally danced the heel off my shoe!M: We wound up staying up late listening to music with Nate's highschool friends Brandon and Jeff, in the morning ate a top notch bloody mary brunch at Jeff's work Luxe, and wondered at an antiquated bank next door where Nate explained "you could lose your money in the crash of 1929" before saying goodbye.J: It was really sad to see Nate go… The bastard…M: We then popped by artist Jeff Chiplis' house. Jonathan wanted to check out his jukeboxes and 45s but we were surprised to also get a tour of his impressive neon art workshop, elaborate carrot shrine, and a house that is a broad museum of posters, technological relics, and other curios.




M: We then hit the highway. Jonathan insisted that we pull off to hit the Rutherford B. Hayes presidential site for some reason. And by 9PM were feasting at Amani's restaurant.
J: There are few things that bring me more comfort than a Middle Eastern meal in Dearborn. Today I'm excited to spend all of my money and time at my favorite record store in the world, People's Records and do the Clap at PJ's Lager House with the Gories' Danny Kroha and a bunch of interesting local judges and Motown dancers…M: Read about that and more Detroit excitement here in our next post Wednesday…
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