PRIME TIME NEW YEARS EVE WITH ITALIANS DO IT BETTER & GANG GANG DANCE

Prime Time returns to Santa's Party House for a special NYE edition next week. We're very happy to be presenting an Italians Do It Better special with label boss, and awesome DJ, Mike Simonetti on the 1s and 2s and the superb Invisible Conga People playing live with your trusty residents Eamon Harkin & James F!@.$%^ Friedman. Upstairs at Santa's there's tons of great bands playing including Gang Gang Dance, who released one the records of the year in our opinion, and the inimitable Andrew WK.

Its becoming a little bit of a tradition on this blog to catch up with Prime Time guests ahead of the upcoming shindig and in this case Mike kindly answered a few of our queries and provided a link to a mix he recorded a few weeks back.

So....growing up, did you always want to be a DJ and label owner? Tell us a little about how Mike Simonetti ended up where he is today.

--i have 2 record labels. italians do it better stemmed out of my other rock label called troubleman. ive been doing troubleman for 15 years. ive been djing for almost 10 years. i had weekly parties around NYC since 1999.. but these days i travel more than play local.

It's been a big year for Italians Do It Better and from what I can see you've been on the road a lot DJing. What have the high-lights been?

--i think releasing after dark was the biggest highlight. playing moscow was pretty awesome. but the biggest highlight was the birth of my son in may.

You're an avid collector of vinyl. How do view vinyl as a medium for music in this day and age?

--its the same for me. i play cds as well. i collect punk records and have been forever. so ive always been into records.

We've got Invisible Conga Band playing with us on NYE at Santos. Can you take us through the process of discovering and signing the band to the label?

--i've known justin for over 15 years through his old punk band of the the early 90s. we go way back in the NJ hardcore scene. im excited he is still doing relevant music. his punk bands were always forward thinking as well.

What's in the works for Mike and the label in '09?
the label is releasing tons of new 12"s, a vinyl version of Chromatics NITE DRIVE, a follow up to AFTER DARK, a Farah lp, as well as some other secret new bands!

Mike Simonetti Prime Time Mix