“CREATIVE CULTIVATION: dublab’s summer 2011 fundraiser dinner”

Tuesday, July 19th / 7-11pm
L.A. based non-profit DJ collective, dublab is hosting their summer 2011 “Creative Cultivation” fundraiser dinner on July 19^th at JF Chen Loft,  featuring live music by Lucky Dragons, and Devandra Banhart, alongside DJ sets by dublab board member Peanut Butter Wolf and more. dublab DJs can often be heard at museum events, performing at the Natural History Museum, MOCA, and LACMA amongst others, on top of sets at Low End Theory, on their weekly KPFK radio show, and their own online broadcast station. The $100 tax deductible ticket will get you into the event, where you can enjoy the aforementioned live music performances, enjoy complimentary drinks from Barefoot Bubbly & Wine, Lagunitas Beer and a coffee & tea bar by Intelligentsia, as well as a dinner, and of course the warm fuzzy feeling that comes along with doing your part to maintain the longevity of a valuable Los Angeles cultural institution. Johnson Trading Gallery, which resides within the JF Chen Loft in Hollywood, will also be exhibiting a group show, “Superba” of installation work mostly centered around an interior design motif. Last year’s event featured performances by Flying Lotus and (recent LA Record cover feature) Daedalus, and this summer’s event should be no less impressive with the promise of a  “site-specific musical surprise” from Devandra Banhart. The event kicks off at 7pm, and tickets can be purchased at dublab.com, and right here. Full details below.
FOOD:
An abundant offering of seasonal, culinary creations from Bread&Wine Catering.

COMPLIMENTARY DRINKS:
Barefoot Bubbly & Wine, Lagunitas Beer and a coffee & tea bar by Intelligentsia.

MUSIC:
Live, intimate sets by some of dublab’s favorite musicians including the lush strings of Quartetto Fantastico and interactive energy from Lucky Dragons. Stones Throw founder and dublab board member Peanut Butter Wolf will dj a live video mix, dublab resident djs will create wide soundscapes and Devendra Banhart will share a site-specific musical surprise.

ART:
Now located within JF Chen, Johnson Trading Gallery presents “Superba” an eclectic mix of futuristic, primitive, modern sculpture, furniture and installations featuring Matthew Sullivan, Aranda/Lasch, Michael Wilson, Simon Toparovsky, Kwangho Lee, Simon Hasan, JoAnn Patterson, Greg Lynn, Max Lamb, Yassi, Eddy Sykes, and Mary Brogger. You can see photos here, but being in the presence of this art is a transcendent experience.

PHOTO BOOTH:
A self-serve stop motion photo booth by Grace Oh & Theo Jemison with an art explosion by Kiel Johnson. Check out the photos from last year’s dinner by clicking here and watch the video here.

PLANTSCAPES:
Rare, exotic, tropical, unique plants and trees provided by the Tropics.

GIFTS:
Visit the Incase gifting station to choose an iPhone 4 case.

SPACE:
JF CHEN LOFT
941 North Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038

TICKETS: $100 each
A limited quantity of tickets are available now. Click here to buy yours! All proceeds benefit dublab, a creative 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. A portion of your ticket donation is tax-deductible.

Matt Bauer “Blacklight Horses”

Bauer plays Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles. 06.24.11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Tommy’s House (pop-up loft show) w/ Dana Falconberry & 06.25.11 – Los Angeles, CA @ house show w/ Dana Falconberry

—Daiana Feuer

Check out the video for “Wild.” The baby doll dress is an appropriate cue for the era we’re transported to as we listen to this song.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE0BWA5LZYc

—Daiana Feuer

For fourteen years, Reverend Dan Bueler’s “Music for Nimrods” has been bridging the gap between the freeform FM radio shows of the Sixties and Seventies and the anything-goes looseness of college radio. An old anti-drug PSA might be followed by a radio spot for a Fifties sci-fi movie, followed by a skit from a vintage comedy record, followed by an interview with the Mau Maus or your friend’s power pop band, culminating in a half-hour set of uninterrupted music, and yet somehow, he’s still allowed to do it–even if he did get fired from KPFK ten years ago and had to move to the sanctuary of Loyola Marymount’s KXLU. He speaks now, belligerently, to Janet Housden.

How long have you been doing Music for Nimrods?
Fourteen years. I got the first show January of ’96 at KPFK, and I was there during the most problematic years. There was a lot of political infighting going on with the station, people trying to turn it this direction, that direction, and here I’ve got this goofy Rock and Roll show at three in the morning…I realized I’d been on the air for four years because they’d never heard the show. The day they finally heard it was the day they cancelled me. I had five transsexual porn stars on…I found out how far left you could go on KPFK.
So how’d you end up on KXLU?
Stella, who just celebrated 30 years at KXLU, was the one who championed me over there. I’ve been there since 2000.
You’ve described yourself as a “teenage radio geek.” Why did you want to be on the radio so bad
The Real Don Steele. He used to do that dance party show on Saturday afternoons, and he was a maniac. He’d smash things and crash things, he looked cool, he had the New York Dolls on…I just thought, “this is the job for me.” And ever since probably eleven or twelve years old, Dr. Demento was a big influence on me, as soon as Rodney hit in ’75 or ’76 I was listening to all that, just trying to find the music that didn’t suck.
Are you a real Reverend? Can you marry people and stuff?
I can marry people. I am ordained with the Universal Life Church like any other crackpot. I’ve done several renewals, but I’ve not yet done an actual ceremony. Stella wanted to marry an Oster percolator from the ‘60’s that she was in love with, so I did do a ceremony for Stella and the percolator. It was a very, very touching ceremony.
Who’s this Ronald X. Sensor guy?
I don’t know Ronald X. Sensor. Here’s the deal: When I had the show on KPFK, I used to let everybody get on the air. One day, this Nixon-voiced person came on and said (does Nixon impression), “Dan, this is Ronald X. Sensor from the Federal Communications Commission. You played a song with the lyric ‘I’ve got a Wiggle Stick Mama.’ This is not going to look good in my report.” And ever since then, if I played an offensive song, with a dirty word or something, he would call in. I’ve made him a
part of the show but I’ve still never met the fellow. We’ve never talked outside the show, he’s always in character. He has many characters – he’s got Hadji the 7-11 owner, he’s got the Vampire Gardener…sometimes it’s rambling, sometimes it goes nowhere, but it’s still fun for me.
Do you think Rock and Roll has lost something now that it’s no longer the music of choice for juvenile delinquents?
I don’t think Rock and Roll is the music of degenerates. Bad pop music is the music of degenerates.
But don’t you think it’s kind of sad that modern delinquents don’t listen to Rock and Roll?
They never liked Rock and Roll.
Oh, come on! All those movies I used to see on late-night TV were lies? You know, the Cool and the Crazy, High School Confidential, Blackboard Jungle? Rock and Roll was hoodlum music! I thought that’s why people were so up in arms about it when it first got popular…
No, I think that was just racism. “Ugh, it’s that jungle music, it’s infecting our kids.”
That’s what my dad called it. I could never tell if he was joking…but even when we were teenagers, being really into Rock and Roll, people thought you were a freak.
When my younger sister started dating her now-husband, I would come back from my job at Tower Records wearing my boots and my punk shirts, and I would scare him. I did have that effect at one time.
We all did, and I kind of miss it in a way. I mean, I don’t miss being harassed by the police, I don’t miss having people try to beat me up on the street, no one’s throwing bottles out of cars…
“Hey Devo!”
Yeah, this was a daily occurrence. “Devo fag!” I don’t really miss that, but it’s kind of like something’s missing. Rock and Roll is totally the music for the good kids now. You see little kids with their rock shirts and they’re going to their lessons at the Silverlake Conservatory with their moms…
Yeah, there shouldn’t be Ramones onesies, should there?
I’ve actually seen entire families decked out in Ramones-wear.
But do they listen? I think they just shop at Hot Topic…’cuz I think we’d be hearing the Ramones a lot more often…
Well, that’s another question I had…the first time I heard “Blitzkrieg Bop”, my life was completely changed in two minutes, it was a really heavy moment, and yesterday I was in Von’s and they were playing “Blitzkrieg Bop” in the store. I ran into a friend of mine and we were like “does this mean we won? Or does this mean we’re so old and irrelevant that the music we liked as kids is now Muzak?” It’s gone from people literally wanting to kill you for liking this band, to background music for grocery shopping.
But you still don’t hear it on the radio…
You hear it in commercials.
You get great music on commercials, you get great music in supermarkets these days…across the way there’s a Superior Food Warehouse, and the music in there is never less than interesting. It’s shocking how hip it is in there.
What do you think that means? That Rock and Roll is totally safe now?
If it was it would be in more places. We find it in little niches. It hasn’t been mainstreamed yet, it’s just that the people who like it and are able to put in places are doing so. But usually when I hear music in public places it’s the worst music I’ve ever heard in my life.
That’s one of the reasons I avoid public places. Some of that so-called R&B stuff sounds like a bad day at the vivisection lab.
What kills me is that someone is getting paid to program that music and it’s not me. This guy is getting paid to select crap, just like every radio programmer in Los Angeles – they get good money to play what the record companies tell them to play. There’s no other reason for what they play.
Your show’s on in the middle of the night. You must get some random people calling in. What’s the weirdest call you ever got?
On KXLU the calls aren’t that weird.
You’d think there would at least be some random tweakers. You’ve never had a Play Misty For Me type of stalker?
I had a guy who wanted to find out everything about me, which was kind of creepy. He called himself Wormwood, and he’d want to get into these long discussions about the songs I’d play. He found my unlisted number, so I changed the number the next day.
You did have a Play Misty For Me kind of stalker! That’s awesome! He wanted to talk about the songs?
Yeah, “what does this mean? Why are you playing this?” ‘Cuz it’s got a good beat! Shut up! I don’t like to explain songs much when I’m on the air, normally I don’t even want to say what year a song was made, because I think all songs are viable. I’ll play an unknown band, someone famous, it doesn’t matter. The songs work, and that’s all I really care about.
That’s kind of unusual. It seems some of the kids on KXLU just try to top each other with the most obscure or unlistenable thing they can come up with.
Some of the noise fans on KXLU at very dedicated. And I don’t know why they’re on during the day, but…
Sometimes I just don’t tune in because I get really tired of just clicking and beeping and thumping sounds. I wonder if they really like the way it sounds, or what?
Well, kids who are in college right now, they’ve spent the last ten years listening to the worst music of all time. So the fact that they’ve been able to find anything is kind of impressive.
Some people can’t wrap their heads around why anyone would put so much time and effort into something that’s not going to make them rich or famous, and here you stay up all night playing obscure records for God knows who…explain to these people why you do it.
Stella and I had this talk…some people have jobs, some people are drawn to a vocation, and we are drawn to being radio people. We’ve always been the kind of people that want to go to radio transmitters just to feel the electromagnetic vibrations in the air. We were the people who actually spent time listening – “who’s a good DJ? Who’s picking good songs?” It’s what we do. We have to do it. That’s why we do it for so many years for no pay, because it just brings us joy. The cover of Donald Fagen’s album Nightfly captures radio for me. It’s a very romantic image of radio – just a guy, alone at night, with the turntable and the microphone…just a guy in a room playing great songs for people. That’s all it should be. It’s just a very pure thing. And when I heard people like Rodney just playing music…and you know Rodney has no radio skills whatsoever, but he does have absolute love for the music.
Yeah, and you can hear it. And that’s what’s different with you guys. It seems like a lot of people I hear on commercial radio, they’re there for their “Radio Careers,” not because they love music.
They don’t care what they play. It just saddens me. They’d better be well paid, because if I had to play the crap they play I would be in psychotherapy. I don’t even think they listen to what they’re playing. I’m very envious of people on commercial radio stations, because they get to eat, but…
If someone offered you a drivetime slot, and enough money to live on, but you had to play what they told you to, what would you do? Do you love the radio enough to do that?
No. I wouldn’t be able to do it for any real length of time. But if radio is willing to hire people with asshole opinions like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and all these people, why not hire someone for their musical opinion as well?

Download: Daedelus – Order of the Golden Dawn

(off Righteous Fists of Harmony coming soon from Brainfeeder)

Demolisten sends out the following to alert people that it’s time to donate and deserves a few bucks just for brutal personality. (“I grew up Catholic and can hold a grudge for a long time…”) Please listen and donate if you can.

Dear friends, family, bands, fans, listeners, volunteers and stragglers of KXLU:

This coming Friday, KXLU will begin its annual fundraiser.

Donate between the hours of 6 and 8pm PST by calling (310) 338-5958.

It is really important for you to donate to this fine, non-profit radio station.

If you are my friend, you will donate to help a friend out.

If you are in a band that Demolisten plays on the radio, you should donate because you understand the impact that having your music played on the radio can have on your music.

If you are in a band that Demolisten does NOT play on the radio, you should donate because you understand the importance of having a place to SEND your music to.

If you are a fan of Demolisten you should donate because you are receiving a “free” radio show that is a service to the music community of both Los Angeles and the World. Nothing in this world is free, and if you listen to KXLU without donating to it, you are STEALING.

If you are a volunteer at KXLU, you should donate because KXLU gives you a really fun place to donate your time, mind, and energy to that also makes a difference in the musical world that you obviously care so much about.

If you are a straggler of KXLU, you should donate because if you do NOT I will hunt you down and ….?

I don’t care if your donation is $5 or $50.

Donating to KXLU will get you a Demolisten T-shirt or a “Grab-Bag” of demo CDs that we play on Demolisten.

KXLU lives on about $100,000 a year. This means that even the smallest of donations matter.

Almost all of the staff at KXLU are unpaid volunteers. Think about the other “community” or “college” radio stations in town or in the world, and realize what a special place KXLU is.

You will not hear a corporate underwriting, promotion or commercial on KXLU rock programming. Think about that. Sure, you will hear weird Quizno’s sandwich commercials during the basketball games, but remember that basketball gets the bills paid.

If KXLU means anything to you, you will donate to Demolisten this Friday between 6 and 8pm PST.

I have a list of people that I expect donations from. If I do not see your donation pass in front of me this Friday, you will not hear from me for a very long time. I grew up Catholic and can hold a grudge for a long time and dish out more passive aggressive guilt than you have ever experienced in your life.

I have plenty of friends that DO care, I don’t need your un-donating, stealing, lame, jerk-off, hipster, I’m a DJ, and live in Silverlake, I have a beard and don’t wear shoes, I hate LA, filmmaker, there’s no good music in LA, indie 103 was cool, Henry Rollins is cool, punker than thou attitude, I listen to jazz, indie is a genre, I been listen’ to that station for years, I recognize your voice, IVOR is a genius, I’m a dude who listens to McAllister, Is Lydia hot?, I only listen to records, vinyl is better, artist, I don’t have a Facebook, Neil Young is God, I listen to the ????’s but only the early stuff, my parents were at Woodstock, my uncle was in the the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video, I saw Beck at the Onyx, what happened to The Blues Hotel?, I’m friends with Stella, Uncle Tim represented me for my DUI, who the fuck is Octavius, do the Part-Time Punks listen to anything made outside of a 4 year period?, can Alma Del Barrio get any better?, can Pat Murphy’s shorts get any shorter?, I listen to world music who is Big Red?, I love KXLU! Have you ever donated? No., I’m in a band but we don’t record, here’s my lame flyer, how come you didn’t play my demo?, you talk too much on the radio but you’re really funny, do you want me to fuck you?, I love Jake, I’ll never sell-out, it’s about the music man, we’re playing at the Echo, Spaceland and the Silverlake Lounge, how do i get a show at the Smell or Pehr Space?, recycling, voting, can you get me signed to Sub-Pop?, I have daddy issues, Quentin Tarantino is a god but is a little derivative, sober, “almost” vegan, unemployed, we got a show at the Good Hurt, can you get me a show at the Cinema in Culver CIty?, are you Amerika76 on GTA IV?, why don’t you play that weird intro anymore?, I’m gonna kick your ass and not show up, my girlfriend pays my bills, stoner, I love the Nuggets compilations, I’m into photography but I’m not a photographer, I used to go to Gazzari’s and the Club With No Name, isn’t LMU a religious school?, we have a girl bass player, we’re recording soon, I play the drums, some of the music you play on the radio is really weird, where is the Alligator Lounge?, Jawbreaker at Jabberjaw, I party with L7 and the smell is …..eh, I’m really into 80′s Bollywood, where is Jenny Quitter?, I went to school with Mike Nardone, Jason Bentley sucked my dick in the Greyhound station men’s room that used to be at 6th and L.A. (see Welcome to the Jungle by Guns & Roses (a Demolisten band!)), you’re going straight to hell for that one, I was at the Sonic Youth / Mudhoney show at Castaic Lake when Kurt sang the Leadbelly song My Girl while Courtney looked on 10 months pregnant, I bought my KXLU t-shirt at a thrift store, I saw Nation of Ulysses in the KXLU “vegan” house garage, I’m looking for a roommate, I live in my van in Venice, what year are you?, I’m an english major, I’m as old as your dad, I’m not that drunk, your mom is a man, big in Japan, the tour is going to be great, if it’s yellow it’s mellow if it’s brown flush it down, architecture in L.A.?, L.A. has no culture, volvo station wagon, you’re my first, I’m going to the track, hey I’m looking for a job. what kind of work? anything. Wanna take care of my poop? No., can you announce my benefit show? I collect old doll parts, I don’t really want a girlfriend right now, do you guys have a dolly? no., can you play this on the radio right now?, I’m on the pill, I’m on pills, lo-fi, punk-ass, loser.

KXLU 88.9 FM Demolisten
Friday Nites 6-8pm PST
One L.M.U. Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 338-KXLU
demolisten@yahoo.com

http://www.demolisten.org
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(from Radio out now on Plug Research)

Exile produced with Ghostface (on his Dirty Science album for Sound In Color) and Mobb Deep and made a trending-classic record with Blu called Below The Heavens in 2007. His newest is an instrumental album called Radio, sampled completely from Los Angeles-area FM and AM and out now on Plug Research.

Where on the radio did you find the ‘uneducated rapper’?
I wanted to incorporate historic L.A. radio shows, so that was from KDAY—definitely one of the radio stations responsible for getting me into hip-hop. Old recordings of KDAY. I think I pretty much touched everything on the radio. Aside from some AM stations, but I’d use AM as well. All the frequency sounds in the first song—that I got in key with the beat—that’s all from AM.
What kinds of unexpected things did you discover after a year of listening to L.A. radio?
I’ve always been a big fan of Alan Watts—when the Alan Watts speech came up I was really excited for that. I just recorded the whole thing. There were a lot of speeches and poetry that I heard that were really amazing. It’s really deceiving. When we think of radio, we think of the bullshit and the mainstream. But to make this album—there’s an even balance between the commercialism and consumerism and bullshit, which is shared evenly with love and spirituality and politics. If you really take your time with your radio, you’ll find everything you need. It represents humanity—represents what humans think. It’s all there—from good to evil. You’re able to tap into the minds of all different people. When you’re looking for radio on the Internet, you’re really searching for your own bias. Radio offers it all—perspectives you may not be searching for. I got some crazy Christian right-wing speeches and some real liberal things on humanity.
How long did this take to assemble?
2007 to 2008. There was a point when I thought the record was done, and Plug Research wanted to put out the instrumental record with beats they already had. Polished beats that didn’t have the handicap of just being sampled from the radio. They liked the other beats better, and I was like, ‘What? Lemme step back in the lab!’ Always everything had to be from the radio. I wouldn’t cheat. Couldn’t cheat. I got 808s from the bass records that are constantly playing. I’m really glad there was doubt in the beginning. It made me make it what it is now. This is the record I wanted to make. I always wanted to make an instrumental album, and I wanted to make it different. I didn’t wanna just display my skills as a beatmaker—‘Yo, I’m ill! Check my ill-ass beats!’ I wanted a voice to communicate what I’ve learned. So manipulating speeches I agreed with or didn’t to convey a message—convey the evil and the good, and make it apparent those are both there in radio and both there in the world. Everything I’d made in the past had a vocalist, so they were able to communicate what they had learned. I wanted to do that with an instrumental project. The girl on one song—‘Population Control’—is like, ‘Oh my gosh, where did you get those shoes?’ And the sample says, ‘People everywhere…’ Kind of communicates the anxiety of being surrounded by fake-ass people with nowhere to go. And ‘The Machine’—it’s a guy telling the story of being a victim of the Patriot Act. The machine—war, capitalism, all that. And after is ‘It’s Coming Down,’ to kind of battle that. The answer to that. There’s a large spiritual message that I received in there—from a gospel station in Compton. I’m definitely more spiritual than religious, but I’m able to take the spirituality of someone religious and have it communicate what I’ve been through.
So you were sampling sentiment as much as sound?
That’s what I think is dope about an instrumental record. If you listen to an instrumental jazz record, there’s an intellect there that does not have words. You’re able to draw conclusions and feelings. With this record, I kind of have a little phrase that’ll push you in a certain direction of thought. With hip-hop—especially intellectual hip-hop—someone does all the thinking for you. You’re just taken for the ride. With an instrumental record, I have a dialogue with the listener. They’re allowed to converse with me with their own thoughts without me being there.
I thought you’d take a rest after Dirty Science. This seems even more ambitious.
The last one was showing my beat skills, first off, and showing how I can produce a song with other artists—my songmaking capabilities. And showing how I can work with all these artists and make a coherent album. I wanted to make sure it was one coherent piece. I made it exactly how I wanted it made, but I don’t think it made the impact I hoped. But I was able to do that with Blu and Exile for sure. The label is at fault for a lot of things. The Blu and Exile record was sold out for a really long time—selling on Amazon for like $35 and I don’t know why they’re not repressing it. There was a lot of weird stuff going on back then. It was a huge learning experience. Basically we had someone great for giving us a place to record and being really supportive of the whole creative side. But there were a lot of lies as far as the business was concerned. We suffered in a lot of weird ways.
How do you feel about this new movement of L.A. beatmakers?
I love all Lotus’ stuff. I love all the new L.A. beatheads. I’m part of that as well. But I was definitely looking at it like I’d been doing it a lot longer and some of the cats were getting a way bigger shine than me. And I had to transform any seeds of jealousy into inspiration. I had to really sit back and be thankful that these artists exist for the art form. That’s how I look at it now—be thankful for all these artists in L.A. that are really pushing the envelope, and giving me inspiration to do the same. There was actually a time Lotus was asking me about Sound In Color. He was gonna do 1983 with them. Now I’m trying to surround myself with people I really trust. Hopefully I have the right type of—not judgment, but insight.
How does it feel to watch young Exile on the DJ Dusk’s Root Down Soundclash DVD?
I love it! I love that I’m on that—happy to be part of a wonderful piece of history. I’m trying to take my live set to another level. Equal parts live stuff to stuff that is not live.
Does that explain your recent series of MPC acrobatics videos?
I come from a pretty long lineage of musicians and I’m trying to do what I think my father would want me to do. Trying to figure out how to make the MPC a live instrument. I play drums and all that—I plan on making live records in my lifetime. Sooner if not later. That’s what’s missing from what I do—the live aspect. When you’re at a show, that energy is communicated to the audience. They can feel it and I can feel it. Basically it’s a rebirth for hip-hop music to me—connecting on a live level. I’ve been practicing with the MPC as far as freestyle-type jams. I’m using it basically like a percussion instrument but also with knowledge of notes and where notes fit. And DJ Day is playing it like a straight-up piano. It’s a mix of being a musician and a beat juggler—some of it is like back-in-the-day DMC videos with the X-Men. But we’re trying to make it something people can still dance to—or they could sit and watch.
What’s your favorite mistake you’ve ever made?
On my MPC—before I even started making the Radio album—I always get these weird Spanish evangelical people yelling. And the radio isn’t even turned on! One time a song was playing really distorted, and I decided to sample it. It’s the outro of the song ‘In Tune.’ ‘Static,’ and that’s what that song is—radio frequencies that magically came through my MPC.
Is there still that magical aspect to radio?
Definitely. I listen to an interview of Chico Hamilton speak from his heart about music—I’ll tell you this—I pray and I’m not a real religious person. I pray for spiritual things. I prayed I’d be able to communicate the message of love or whatever quote-unquote God is through this album. I’d sit and listen to Chico Hamilton speak his heart about what music is to him and I’d definitely have spiritual moments just listening to the radio and manipulating it. ‘The Sound Is God’—I cried tears when I made that song. It’s an amazing thing, especially for non-live music. I really shared a moment through the radio and the MPC with that song. Listening to an artist speak their mind is wonderful. I had great experiences.
What kind of things do you think your dad would have liked to see in your music?
As a youth he played in a band called the Lost and Found—they released a record in Phoenix. I can’t find it anywhere. I always had music around me. He was experimenting with drugs a lot so he wasn’t in my life, but just enough to show me his love for music. He taught music at a little shop—Al Manfredi Guitar and Drum studio in Garden Grove. A lot of my ancestors were artistic—my father and grandfather—and it does pass down to me through blood and spirituality in some magical way. I also have painters in my family tree, and I’m a graffiti painter. It’s wild how it came to me. On my mom’s side—I found out I have Mexican blood in me. Family in Agua Caliente. Some of my ancestors went down there and had some kids. One of my great grandfathers lied his way into royalty. He was caught stealing money at the post office and his father disowned him. ‘Ok, I’ll change my name’—my mom has his name to this day—‘and become a great man and you won’t get any credit!’ So he charmed his way into meeting all kinds of royalty from India to Africa. He had all the weapons he got from these journeys. He got knighted! There’s a whole museum dedicated to him in Australia. Sir Oliver Bainbridge. I should find the name he used in Australia.
What’s the best thing you ever lied your way into?
I can sneak into the movies with Jedi powers. I walked up to the ticketer and just pointed and walked in without saying anything. I snuck in my mom before, too. I’m good at sneaking in. And I can do pizza scams. ‘I got a pizza and it’s overcooked.’ And boom—a new pizza just appears!
What did you think when Mobb Deep asked for one of your beats?
Blu was there when I was making that beat. It was still during the Dirty Science part of my career, and we were like, ‘We should get Jeru on this!’ I have to give Blu credit for getting that project together. He had an idea of how to flip the sample. He sang it out. I just had that beat for a while, and Aloe had sung to it before, and eventually Mobb Deep just hit me up.
A childhood dream fulfilled?
Definitely. I used to practice scratching and I’d set up a daydream in my head where KRS-ONE was on stage and Kenny Parker—his DJ at the time—was sick. ‘Is anybody out there who can scratch?’ ‘I can, sir!’ And then I’d start practicing scratching as if I were on stage with KRS-ONE. Later I made a few songs with him. I’ve been on stage with him. I almost DJed with him. Blu got on stage and KRS-ONE shouted my name. My daydream in 8th grade and it manifested to some degree in my late twenties!
Who is the speaker monk and where does he come from?
This is probably a larger story than you want. I have a video I directed for Radio—a stop-animation video! I always had the image of the speaker cross tied in for the cover. So I have a video where I’m sitting around making beats and I hear a knock at the door, and a speaker peeks its head in. I tell it to come in and twenty speakers gather around me, and I start making a beat and I accidentally blow a speaker! And they get scared and run—‘No, come back! I didn’t mean to!’ They’re outside and the TV comes up and tries to use their fear of me to join them in getting revenge on me. So they join him—and you see the speaker cross built in the video. It rises and has the TV in the middle. He’s the manipulator. So the monks try to get me to praise this cross and I’m fighting. I break free and grab the radio and it put it over the TV, and all these electric rays shoot at the monks, and then I’m willing to praise the cross once the speaker is attached to it. That doesn’t answer your question but the speaker monks are just like mysterious monks from a mysterious planet who worship radio and sound. That’s the best way I can describe it!

EXILE WITH GUESTS TBA PLUS DADDY KEV, NOBODY, D-STYLES AND GASLAMP KILLER WITH NOCANDO AND MEAR ONE ON WED., JAN. 21, AT LOW END THEORY AT THE AIRLINER, 2419 N. BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES. 10 PM / $5-$10 / 18+. LOWENDTHEORYCLUB.COM. AND WITH BLU, WALE AND U-N-I ON THUR., JAN. 29, AT THE KEY CLUB, 9039 W. SUNSET BLVD., HOLLYWOOD. 8 PM / $15-$20 / 15+. KEYCLUB.COM. EXILE’S RADIO IS OUT NOW ON PLUG RESEARCH. VISIT EXILE AT DJEXILE.COM OR MYSPACE.COM/ALEXILE.

Roky Erickson is playing the El Rey on Halloween with a new backing band—the Black Angels!—and new songs in the set list! So far we have heard that “May The Circle Be Unbroken,” “Reverberation,” “Don’t Fall Down” and “Rollercoaster” are all likely candidates. But we have made the below podcast of our favorite alternate and seldom-played Roky classics just in case they find their way into his set!

“Mine Mine Mind” from The Evil One
“Don’t Slander Me” from Don’t Slander Me
“For You” (live) from Casting The Runes
“The Damn Thing” from Don’t Slander Me
“Sweet Honey Pie” (live) from Gremlins Have Pictures
“Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play” from Gremlins Have Pictures
“Haunt” from Don’t Slander Me
“Can’t Be Brought Down” from Don’t Slander Me
“Wake Up To Rock ‘n’ Roll” (live) from Halloween: Live ’79-’81
“Right Track Now” from Epitaph For A Legend

Much excellent Roky discography info at this website. Tickets for Roky are available here and we will see you Friday!

We are DJing at Cha Cha Wednesday night for the next installment of our acclaimed “Something Sh!t” series and we are following up last month’s Heavy Sh!t with the logical next step: Pretty Sh!t. (Let’s also call this an Eagle Rock Music Fest pre-party!) It’s free to everyone to come see us and guests from Gangi and hopefully Sian Alice Group (if they’re in town) DJ the most purtiest lovelies we can pry out of our library. A little sniff above.

Tracklist:

01. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses”
02. Stone Poneys “Different Drum”
03. Sid Selvidge “Miss Eleana”
04. Nirvana “Rainbow Chaser”
05. The Bee Gees “Red Chair, Fade Away”
06. Daughters of Albion “Hey, You, Wait, Stay”
07. JK & Co. “Fly”
08. The Millennium “The Island”
09. Rogerio Duprat “Honey / Summer Rain”
10. Bonnie Dobson “I Got Stung”
11. Soft Boys “Positive Vibrations”
12. Os Mutantes “Panis Et Circenses” (Reprise)

Thavius Beck “L.A. RECORD Theme Song”
Eddie Kendricks “Date With The Rain”
Dawson Smith “I Don’t Know If I Can Make It”
Juan Pablo Torres “Son A Propulsion”
Arnold Blair “Tryin’ To Get Next To You”
Ann Sexton “You Can’t Lose With The Stuff I Use”
Ted Taylor “Somebody’s Gettin’ It”
Final Solution “Never Coming Back Again”
Ken Boothe “Let’s Get It On”
James Brown “Grits”
Fabulous Counts “Get Down People”
Dyke And The Blazers “Runaway People”
Thavius Beck “L.A. RECORD Theme Song (Redux)”

Dennis Owens co-founded Long Beach soul/funk club the Good Foot in 1998 and will be celebrating its tenth anniversary tonight at Que Sera. Complete versions of this mix will be available at the club. Thanks to Thavius Beck for our new theme song!

Where are you from?
Born at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Lomita, California. Spent my first six days of existence there. Spent most of my life after that in Long Beach, California.
Where do you live now?
Currently in Lakewood. Soon to be back in Long Beach.
Are you digital or vinyl?
Vinyl, but not anti-digital in the least bit.
What mixer are you using?
DJ Zanz’s Behringer DJX700 4-channel mixer.
What needles are you using?
Shure M447s.
What are your turntables of choice?
Technics 1200s!
First time you ever DJed?
I don’t remember. I DO remember the second time, though. It was at the very first Good Foot on Sept. 11th, 1998. Total “trial by fire” scenario.
Weirdest DJ gig?
I don’t remember the weirdest gig, but I remember the weirdest request. I was DJing at the District Lounge in Orange, CA, a number of years ago. An attractive young women approached me and asked if I had any Lisa Loeb. Being that I was spinning, you know, DANCE music, I politely informed her that I didn’t have any Lisa Loeb records, but if she had any other requests, I’d be happy to fill them. She gave me the once-over, cocked her head back, and asked in a very appalled tone, ‘You don’t have any Lisa Loeb records?! What kind of DJ doesn’t have any Lisa LOEB in their crates?!?!’ I guess I’m that kind of DJ.
What are you playing in your set right now?
Funky music.
What are you listening to in your car?
KFWB (mainly for traffic reports), KUSC, KJAZ, silence, etc.
Last record you bought and where?
High Priestess of Soul by Nina Simone at Bagatelle Records.
Best record you scored for $1?
Maybe LP by the Mystic Zephyrs 4. It’s for sale. Anybody interested?

DENNIS OWENS PLUS NOBODY, SCOTT WEAVER, ABEL, RAMONA, SONIC DRED, MIGUEL, FRANKIE THE FACE, RILEY MORE, ZANS AND CHRIS ZIEGLER ON FRI., SEPT. 12, AT THE GOOD FOOT TENTH ANNIVERSARY AT QUE SERA, 1923 E. 7TH ST., LONG BEACH. 9 PM / $5 / 21+. GOODFOOT.ORG.