Electro hip-hoppers Silver Medallion shine in Valley club scene
by Nicki Escudero - Aug. 11, 2008 12:13 PM
Special for The Arizona Republic
It seems like an average night at the massive Old Town Scottsdale club Axis/Radius - beautiful people dance, mingle and sip cocktails.
Then in walk two more, Oren Schauble, a thin, hip young man from Hawaii with long blonde locks, and his buddy, Abay Lattin, an Arizona native with a fro-hawk and thickly rimmed glasses.
They initially blend into the crowd, but looking closely, they seem more trendsetters than followers, in bandanas, bright jackets, skinny jeans and huge sneakers.
Minutes later, they hop on stage and become Silver Medallion, the "hero-pop" group building buzz in the Valley.
During this set, like all others they play in the nation's "most livable city," they lay down their biggest hit, one that pokes fun at the very audience members who eat it up. Scottsdale.
Sample lyrics include, "Things aren't the same in Hollywood, so we move to Scottsdale where the coke is good," and the song touches on drugs, rich kids and sex in Catholic school.
"There's just so much funny stuff that goes on (in Scottsdale)," Schauble, 22, said. "One of the things (Lattin) and I do have in common is that we just watch people. If you do that in Scottsdale, it's crazy."
Whether they're in on the joke, or too clueless to realize they're being made fun of, the audience members scream along to the track and cheer wildly.
Schauble, aka Oren J., and Lattin, aka MC Carnegie, only have two songs tonight to win over the crowd, so they sell the performance, running around on stage, doing choreographed dance moves, shouting out to audience members and, the most Scottsdale-ish thing of all, drinking loads of alcohol.
Schauble and Lattin met through mutual friends in the Valley music scene, when Schauble was deejaying and attending Arizona State University in Tempe. Lattin had been a fixture with the Valley's hip-hop crowd since he was 15, battling other rappers and befriending guys like G-Unit-signed Young Hot Rod and Willy Northpole, a Def Jam recordings artist.
After Lattin and Schauble met, they started to record together and also hit it off as friends. They posted tracks on MySpace and started booking gigs.
Just as Silver Medallion's music, a mix between hip-hop, electro, rock and pop (thus the "hero-pop" moniker), sounds like something new, their touring schedule looks fresh, too. The duo is just as likely to play the Scottsdale house music mega-club Myst as it is Tempe's divey Yucca Tap Room because they appeal as much to the club set as they do to rock hipsters.
Even though he runs an elegant nightspot, Old Town Scottsdale's Lyte Lounge & Bistro's Jason Slocum felt like the duo was right for his club because they bring the laid-back spot a high-energy vibe.
"They're the Napoleon Dynamite of hip-hop," Slocum, 34, said. "They're doing something different from everybody else."
Now Silver Medallion is launching Socialyte Tuesday, a weekly event at Lyte, during which they'll perform, DJ and host guests DJs. The band also has a bi-weekly Sunday show at the upscale Italian lounge Furio, and will be opening up for fellow alternative hip-hop act Shwayze Sept. 18 at Venue of Scottsdale. You can also hear Silver Medallion's music played on Power 98.3 (KKFR) in the Valley.
It's a lot for a band that's only been playing together since April. But they've had help.
Silver Medallion has found a mentor in local rap-rock Phunk Junkeez vocalist Joe Valiente, aka DJ Soulman. He's helped them book gigs, though he's not officially the band's manager. Valiente said Silver Medallion reminds him of the Phunk Junkeez when they started and thinks the duo has what it takes to be successful.
"There's so many rappers in town, that it's tough to stand out in the Valley," Valiente, 37, said. "You have to be different. Silver Medallion is cutting-edge, for sure. I think they're on their way to great things."
The unsigned band is working on two recording projects, a full-length album called The Last of the Pop Stars, which they hope to put out with the help of a major label this fall (they're in talks with several), and a Scottsdale-themed mix tape, Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, available at myspace.com/silvermedallion.
"We both had periods of time where we were trying to find ourselves musically," Lattin, 22, said. "With the Silver Medallion project, I think we both found what we were working towards."
