Photo: Christopher Sprowls
Gordy “Gordy G” Greenawalt (left) and J. Malls (right) during a Title Town event at Spirit
“I've got like, 30 boxes of 45s just lined up in this hallway outside of my bathroom,” J. Malls tells Pittsburgh City Paper about the situation in his Braddock home.
The duo shares their vast collections with the public through Title Town, a monthly throwback dance party that marks its 15th anniversary this year. Launched in 2009 at the former Shadow Lounge club in East Liberty, the event showcases soul, funk, disco, and other genres recorded primarily between the 1960s and the early 1980s.
Not satisfied with being one of the longest-running theme nights in the city, Greenawalt and J. Malls pride themselves in creating what they believe is the city's only DJ event that still uses original 45s, a vinyl format popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Title Town — the name of which appropriately honors the many sports titles Pittsburgh has won — returns on Sat., Oct. 5 with a big anniversary bash at Spirit, which the party has called home for several years. The night promises more of what a press release describes as a “cocktail of rare soul and deep funk; hedonism and perfectionism; Motown, disco and flagrant disregard for social norms,” and a robust lineup of local and national guest DJs.
With Pittsburgh’s themed dance parties, the focus varies widely from the trap stylings of Slappers N Bangers to decade-specific celebrations, to “versus” nights, where DJs keep crowds moving by switching between artists like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, plus many others. While Title Town may seem restricted by genre and decades, Greenawalt believes the party’s continued success lies in their ability to introduce crowds to something new each night.
“I'm surprised it lasted this long,” Greenawalt tells City Paper. “But on the other hand, the music we play, it's so timeless, and the crowd and our audience, it really spans all generations … And we absolutely try to add new material into the mix every month. We're constantly finding new records … It's very much not a retro party.”
Greenawalt says they even surprise each other, adding that J. Malls might play something he never heard before. “I’m hearing a new record that J. may drop and I see how the dancefloor responds to it, and that’s what keeps it exciting for me.”
“There's definitely plenty of instances over the night where I'm like, ‘Hey, you ever hear this one?’” J. Malls says. “But I don't really have too much of a game plan going in, aside from, maybe I added a half a dozen or so new records and I want to make sure I play those, or I just went through the records I already have and picked out a bunch of things I haven't played in a while.”
Before Title Town, Greenawalt and J. Malls hosted different regular events throughout the city — Greenawalt ran Viper Soul Club at Shadow Lounge with fellow DJ Justin Hopper, while J. Malls and Omar-Abdul did The Big Throwback at Brillobox in Bloomfield. Greenawalt says Title Town allowed them to merge their love of bygone music eras, combining the soul, R&B, Motown, and Northern Soul of Viper with the predominantly funk sounds of The Big Throwback.
Even as DJs have become more reliant on digital formats, using mixing software and delivering sets on laptops, Title Town continues to stay true to 45s. Greenawalt and J. Malls believe this allows them to introduce crowds to rare or obscure music unavailable on other formats or online. This includes Northern Soul, a term used to describe a specific era in the 1970s when American soul music became popular in England. As Greenawalt explains, while English DJs bought up this music and made it popular overseas, much of it remains obscure in its country of origin.
Title Town also allows them to honor music produced in Pittsburgh — Greenawalt cites one of his favorites, Those Lonely Nights by the Soul Communicators, a 1968 Northern Soul record by Chuck Corby, who grew up in the city’s Hays neighborhood.
The 15th-anniversary celebration at Spirit will not only highlight the work of Title Town but that of other DJs working in similar genres and eras, including locals Buscrates, Dini Daddy, and Jarrett Tebbets of Hot Mass, Spaghetti Disco, and Disco Sunday Disco. The night also features DJ Andy Smith, who worked with the British trip-hop band Portishead and created The Document, touted as the first multi-genre mix album released on a major label.
Looking ahead, J. Malls and Greenawalt agree they will take a if-it-ain't-broke- don't-fix-it approach to Title Town, as the formula has continually attracted hundreds of people to the dance floor each month.
“The great thing about Title Town is we play everything from late ’50s rhythm and blues, all the way through ’60s soul, obviously Motown, Northern Soul. We can get into deep funk, and then, lately, a lot of disco, a lot of boogie,” says Greenawalt. “So we really cover that all throughout the five hours of an event, right? ... We do our best to take the crowd on that journey. And I think that's what people like about it.”
Title Town Soul and Funk Party 15th Anniversary Celebration. 8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 5. Spirit, 242 51st St., Lawrenceville. $10 in advance, $20 at the door. 21 and over. spiritpgh.com
