DJ Centipede claims the distinct honor of having really brought down the dance floor. Literally. As the dude tells it, he was DJing a party in Oakland a decade back and the entire floor collapsed from people bouncing on it. Talk about dropping some bass.

You can catch Centipede on Tuesdays (when he's giving funk from around the world an extra bit of grit at Madrone), or you can look for his alter ego Mophono (his electronic act that uses all live instrumentation) at other events around town.  This week he's spinning at 111 Minna's big Bass Camp bash on Thursday, March 19. They better make sure the support for those floorboards is in working order.  

Name: DJ Centipede of Mophono

Club night(s): I do a weekly Tuesday night, Change The Beat, with Citizen Ten and special guest live electronic music acts like Flying Lotus, SamIYam, Dibiase, Gaslamp Killer, Frite Nite, and hella dope local DJ and producers at Madrone, 500 Divisadero st. at Fell.

Style(s) of music you spin: Thug Jazz and Riot Funk, Psyche Madness and Funk Rock, Mixed with Dirty Instrumental and Dub Beats from around the world.

Name of a track you can't get out of your head: Music is stuck in my head all the time --and not just songs. I hear sounds and rhythms, and am surrounded by the pulse of the city.  Where I stay, in the Lower Haight, I'm a few blocks away from some of the illest record stores on the planet like Groove Merchant and Rooky Ricardo's 45 shop.


What can you tell us about the label you work with, CB Records? I love being a part of CB Records and its major support from the Bay Area and huge fan base around the world. We all really believe in the sound we are creating, and the record release parties go off. All the info is at www.cbrecords.com

Describe your live electronic project, Mophono, and what sort of high tech advances you guys incorporate?  Mophono is one of the only live electronic bands on stage to incorporate five instruments all at once and have only one member and to use no lap top computers.

My DJ skills are used in the Mophono project strictly for song development. For the live act, and our newest releases, we are using a new technology we call Skip on Beat. Skip on Beat means no matter where you drop the needle, the record stays on beat.

Musical mantra: "You do your dance and I'll do mine, and we'll all dance along to the same base line"  --Whodini

Favorite DJ experience: There's been so many good ones, but the best and worst one was a super packed party in Oakland in 1998. It was like a reunion of party people that used to put on raves in the '90s. I was playing Souls of Mischief and Kraftwerk. The floor was packed and everyone was dancing. They all jumped when I dropped the beat and the entire floor collapsed.  It was completely insane

Worst request:  An extremely square old white dude asking me to play 50 Cent. That was horrible. I thought he was going to make me look naive; instead he made our whole species look bad.

Most treasured vinyl score: A Eugene Blacknell 45 for 25 cents. It's hard as F%ck and then I found out it's worth $250.00

Any other music-related projects are you currently working on? We are finishing up a compilation that represents the Change the Beat Party. It's going to be huge.

Next time we can see you spin: I will be DJing at the next Bass Camp party at 111 Minna on Thursday, March 19th with Ras G, Odd Nosdam, Salva, Mike Slott and more!

I will be opening up for Mr. Lif at the Bottom of the Hill on Friday, April 24th .

I will also be opening up for Mr. Scruff at Mighty on Friday May 29th .