Disco Shawn is Dead -- Long Live Shawn Reynaldo

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Disco Shawn, that scion of the S.F. beat scene, founder of such popular local parties as Icee Hot and Tormenta Tropical, is dead.

Dead.

As in, R.I.P. Disco Shawn.

No, no, not the dude himself. Shawn Reynaldo, the human behind Disco Shawn, the DJ, is very much alive. But after 11-12 years of rockin' the Disco Shawn name, Reynaldo decided recently to kill it.

Turns out he wasn't a huge fan of the name. As Reynaldo tells us:

The fact is, I've hated Disco Shawn for years. I didn't make it up in the first place, it was actually an inside joke that [Live 105 music director] Aaron Axelsen bestowed upon me when I was 19 years old and I was a fresh-faced kid working at Live 105. Once I started DJing at KALX shortly after and subsequently, out in the world, I figured that some people knew me as Disco Shawn so I just stuck with it.

I've actually been talking about changing it for years, especially after all the confusion it's caused (I don't play disco) and all of the times that I had to explain that it was not a reference to Disco Stu from The Simpsons.

...I'm a pretty serious, low-key guy and I make a point not to rely on goofball antics to get attention or draw a crowd. I prefer to let the music I play and the parties that I throw speak for themselves, so I figured that DJing under my own name would be more in that spirit.

The response so far has been mixed, as some people are lamenting the loss of Disco Shawn, but at least I didn't invent a different name like DJ Cobra Pants or something.

To mark the death of his longtime stage name, Reynaldo even made an R.I.P. Disco Shawn mix, his first mix in a while. Check it out:



So now you know. Don't go looking for places to see Disco Shawn perform. He's dead. You're looking for Shawn Reynaldo now. And  you can see him this Saturday at the one-year anniversary of his Icee Hot party, where Reynaldo will be dropping beats with Low Limit (of Lazer Sword fame), big-whoop Brit DJ Kode9, and others.

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