Alright. At this point I've been out to dozens of AZ clubs, spent hundreds of nights dancing etc. etc. and come to a few conclusions about the dj scene. When we were interviewed for AZ in the Mix magazine we gave a lot of props to the local djs that played our music and tried to talk about letting more style infiltrate our rather bland club dj scene. Nothing much has changes lol.
Here are a few exceptions to the general trend of wack djing around town, in no particular order.
Favorite Hip Hop/ R&B DJ- Kid Vicious
There are two Kid Vicious' in this town, we're talking about the lil asian homie, who honestly has consistently thrown down some of the best old school and hip hop sets I've heard. He's got custom mixes, throws in plenty of funk, and just keeps the dance floors moving with some serious soul. Standout moment for me was a Tuesday at PHX when he was spinning Flashing Lights by Kanye into Common's The Light ("flashing lights" (female voice) "there is a light" sample etc). Then just last night he had some kind of early funk megamix that consistently blew my mind until he dropped Kanye's Robocop at peak time (ballsy). And final props go to whenever I stumble into a club he's spinning if he's had a few shots Gravity will be on before I even make it to the dj booth. Check him out every week at Upscale Saturdays at Lyte.
Favorite Diverse (Electro/Old School/Funk Dance) Party DJ- DJ Epidemic
So when I first got to AZ from NY me and the people really wanted to check out Phoenix, I was dying to hear electro after dancing all night every night to it in NY, and my boy Tyler was talking about this Spanglish electro night in Phoenix called Panico. So we came like 10 deep, me, my man Mike, two of his girls, my boy dreadlocked Jon and his girl, Carnegie, one of my girls and a few more and the place was completely empty (Homme Lounge upstairs) and downstairs was an industrial gay night (trenchcoats, lots of trenchcoats) but the dancefloor was so small it was like a party anyway just with us and this young white dude behind the ones and twos was making us go crazy on the dancefloor, after two hours of electro he ended the night with old school R&B bangers (which got the girls very ready) and we all left happy, and clutching an orange business card that read DJ Epidemic in graffiti.
A while passed and we were at Glam damn near every weekend night, and Epidemic would just KILL Word UP with ridiculous electro sets. By the end of this time he became our official dj for Silver Medallion, and it would blow our mind at shows because suddenly Apache would be playing under Gravity and everyone would be freaking out, his style is damn near impeccable.
My favorite moment with Epidemic was at Adult Swim at the Hotel San Carlos when he spun an all vinyl old school set that blew my mind on every possible level and cemented him in my mind as "AZ DJ who should be touring the world ASAP". You can catch him most Fridays at Party Foul at Homme (the new crack!) and Wednesday's for In and Out at Coach and Willies.
Favorite Celebrity DJ- DJ Fashen:
I remember when Fashen was DJing hip hop at NEXT before the inevitable shutdown, and really really killing it. Since then he's been across the world, doing nights with Aoki, AM etc etc, and he's the man as far as djs in AZ go. Whenever I walk into Dirty Pretty on a Tuesday, where he has a frequent residency, his set is so obnoxious I have to laugh. The LA Fitness/Ed Hardy crowd at Dirty Pretty wants to say they're going to see DJ Fashen, but they don't want to really see a dj, they want top 40 hip hop. I was in there one time (I ussually leave Dirty Pretty within 5 minutes due to general terrible quality of music, shout out to Diesel for occasionally playing us or Sinden...and thats a rarity but deserves props nonetheless) and I believe Fashen played Lil Jon to Bubba Sparxx to Lil Jon to Bubba Sparxx (I could be wrong) and I think it's his way of making fun of the night and it's crowd, because they loved it and after seeing some of his sets a. in other states and b. at electro nights, I know this is nothing about that could be enjoyable to him whatsoever.
Standout moment with Fashen: He opened for Diplo at the Clubhouse back when I was still deep into electro dance djing and did a set without playing a single record I'd heard before (essentially a blogless set), much props, and then he put on a Dead Prez remix which pretty much took the whole night to the next level before Diplo came on. You can catch DJ Fashen djing Halloween for Party Foul at Homme Lounge with Silver Medallion performing!
Favorite white/old people dj: DJ Soulman
Now this isn't to say he can't rock any crowd, but when you're sitting on a bunch of 30 year old rockers or aging yuppies (oxymoron?) Soulman is the man to call. I've seen him put the funk into many an event where people with ties begin to do the white man one foot moving dance followed quickly by removal of ties, addition of shots and getting grooves on. Case in point he's the resident at The W on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, where he's killing em softly and being tipped $50 to play Tiesto. My favorite moment with Soulman was at Iguana Macks in Chandler when he played some kind of rock mashup into Chromeo and inspired us to grab a group of 30 year old women and take full advantage of our bar tab for about 15 minutes while doing a drunken electro version of the two step on the dancefloor.
If you can get in, catch Soulman Saturday's at the W, for a set more to his personal liking, Tuesday's at Chronic Taco's on Mill he brings the rock.
Best House DJ- DJ Tranzit
Alright, house music in this town has never really caught on in the way it has in most club scenes, sometimes Tiesto will come to town and all the ASU kids that like Exstacy too much will come join aging real estate agents taking Exstacy to impress their younger girlfriends for a party of miserable proportions, but the real voice of house music in AZ is Tranzit. Favorite moment with Tranzit was walking into PCL on a Wednesday when they first started house nights there, so I was expecting the usual terrible hip hop they play (exception, JR on a Sunday for Urban Night, PCL becomes the only place in town hood enough for the dj to play Mobb Deep into Biggie into MOP, and I love it, except for the gangbangers flashing rags looking awkwardly at me wilding out to "Gimme the Loot") but instead I have Justin Gurian pooring me a quick half dozen shots, Tranzit tossing on his Scottsdale remix, and me dancing like a damn fool with a bunch of house kids for about an hour while he tears the dance floor to pieces, standing on top of a table scratching a cd-j while the lights go bananas. Good times, especially for a Wendesday.
You can catch Tranzit every Wednesday for Switch at PCL. Got to the bar, ask for Justin, and tell him to give you free drinks for cutting Silver Medallion from Furio for being too black. :) Don't forget to tip him.
Special shout outs go to others who have made me dance (Kevin MOB (electro), William Reed (indie rock/electro), 85 Fresh (his Jay-Z megamix is HOT), whatever promoter brought Pase Rock to Dirty Pretty that one night, Gable's rarely seen electro set, MCB for playing Heartless at 12:30 at Suede the other night (you're a beast for that), and anyone I've forgotten.
