By Jackie Lopez

On a recent evening, Bay Area turntable superstar Teeko sat down with us for a cuppa tea at Starbucks (the man doesn't drink coffee) to talk about a plethora of recent projects and his new love, a DJ's dream instrument he helped design in Japan, the Controller One.

How long have you been DJing for?

Since ’98. About a decade.

How did you get into it?

My uncle used to own a record label called Tandem Records. My dad was a jazz piano player. In the 2nd grade, I used to turn his records backwards because I was always curious about sound. I got into mobile DJing with a group called Divide and Conquer. Majestic Chris, Steve Aldea and Jaeson V were among the other members. Then one day they signed me up for a battle…

How did 4OneFunk get started?

Every month, down at Haight and Fillmore at Zebra Records, there would be a DJ battle. B Cause was the DJ there and Max Kane, Mista B and I all started hanging out and we’d always battle each other. B Cause came up with the name. From 4OneFunk we started a few live band projects, the Dollar Bin Quintet, then 4 One Phonics with Max Kane, Colli Brown, Austin Bohlman and later, Ian McDonald. After that, we added P Dub of the Jazz Mafia. Now it’s me, Max Kane, Colin Brown and Pdub performing as the 4onefunk band.

Tell me about this Controller One all the DJs are talking about.

It’s like a monophonic keyboard-turntable hybrid. You can scratch the sound and it has mini capabilities. It’s a completely new instrument. When was the last new instrument? I can only think of the synthesizer, and that was a long time ago. [Controller One] is only available in Japan right now. Only a few of us have it. I played it in New York and it blew the crowd away. People were trippin' out and saying it was overwhelming. This instrument lets me express myself in ways I couldn’t with a turntable.

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(Davis at center.)

Shaun Davis a.k.a. “Muscles from Brussels”
Head Security at Poleng Lounge

By Jackie Lopez

Shaun Davis and his crew of five guard Poleng Lounge from the all too familiar hotheads of the Bay Area every night. On a recent evening, we chatted him up about life on the job...

When did you start?

In 2002. I did Gravity, Dolce, Apt 24, the Velvet Lounge, Cigar Bar, 443 Broadway, Sip Lounge, Fluid and now Poleng.

And how did you get started?

I’ve done this for six years now. I needed extra money and got offered a job; I thought it was good money while I was still in school. It still is.

What’s your biggest pet peeve, being a bouncer?

Drunk people, anxious people, “I didn’t know there was a line,” or “Is the line gonna move?” or “Seriously, you're gonna check my ID?” Oh, and people who don’t leave. Man, they need to leave when its done.

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By Kirsty Evans

I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about interviewing Sugizo, because big rock stars tend to have equally big egos and that can make them a little hard to deal with. In this case though, I was pleasantly surprised; in person the Luna Sea guitar legend is charming, polite and disconcertingly unassuming. It’s rare to see anyone wear massive stardom so well –it tends to go to even the most level of heads after a while– but Sugizo manages to carry it gracefully. Watching him tidy up his own gear and patiently greet the people who gathered at the front of the stage after the show, I was more than a little impressed, and given how blasé I am about celebrities it’s not often that happens. What a genuinely lovely man.

Brief history: Sugizo started out as the lead guitar player of Luna Sea, a massively successful band with a string of hit albums that had a huge impact on the Japanese music scene. The child of two professional musicians (both of his parents were in the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra), he was trained as a musician at the age of three, starting out as a violinist. A brilliant guitarist, he has legions of devoted fans, including many of the younger generation of Japanese rock bands. All of the former Luna Sea members have gone on to have successful music careers, but Sugizo’s has been perhaps the most interesting and unexpected.

This interview took place backstage at The Independent on September 23rd a couple of hours before his show with Juno Reactor....

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(Photo via the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds MySpace page)

Into My Cave
By Hiya Swanhuyser

I interviewed Nick Cave! It was amazing! The Australian garage-goth composer/baritone is everything you want him to be, and everything you've heard he is: debonair, interesting, covered in meaningful-looking jewelry, and sharp as a hatchet. He wears beautiful clothes and is very slightly frightening. As you will see, he's smarter than I am, which I really enjoyed. In the title track of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' new, award-winning, critically raved-about record, Dig! Lazarus Dig!, Cave gives a big world-class shout out to a group I like to think I belong to, so that's where I started.

Hiya Swanhuyser: I'd like to thank you on behalf of all the "sweet little San Franciscan girls."

Nick Cave: (laughs) It could have gone either way, really, but I was pretty proud of that line, myself, actually.

HS: So is this record kind of the first one you've produced entirely with the new schedule I've been reading so much about?

NC: What schedule would that be?

HS: Uh, the going to your office regularly?

NC: I've had an office for about 25 years, so it ain't that new.

HS: Oh! Apologies. I guess I was fooled by all the interviews.

NC: People keep writing about it as if I'm engaged in this sort of freakish, sort of pathological, deviant exercise of going to the office and working. All it is is that I just made a place to go and work. Like anybody else who does a job that requires a certain amount of concentration, usually, you have to be on your own to do it. To me, I've always done it that way. Within rock and roll, it's considered to be perverse. Work, hard work, in rock and roll is...

HS: (Interrupting. Why!?) One doesn't have the impression that a lot of musicians...

NC: Work. Because rock musicians, the last thing they ever envisaged themselves doing when they joined a band was work. That was what they were trying not to do. But I wanted to be a painter, I went to art school, and you know, you have to stand there and do the work.

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DJ Cali loves Oakland. You can tell from reading our Q&A with the guy below, or you can tell from the name of the party he works most: The People Oakland. It's a unique event that mixes music (Cali spins tracks with heavy Latin and African flavor), art, good cooking, and, of course, plenty of dancing. He has three different events (and one KALX show) coming up in the next couple weeks, and to get a sense of the man behind the decks, check out our DJ Q&A with Cali below. -- Jennifer Maerz

Name: Cali (Relevant Sound/the People Oakland)

Club night: The People jumps off every 4th Saturday at the Oasis, 135 12th Street, Oakland CA, 9PM -3AM

Style(s) of music you spin: Well let's see, it's got to have soul. But anything jazzy with a Latin flavor or African rhythm with beautiful vocals, that's my style. But let's be a little more specific. I play soul, house, nujazz, Latin, broken beat, Afrobeat, Brazilian flavors, jazz, jazz dance, hip-hop. Anything that makes you want to move. I like to call it good music......

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By Peter Rugg

These are familiar times. In May 2003, early hype was going around that Metallica’s St. Anger was a return to form after a decade of mediocrity. Then the album came out and took a shit on everybody’s chest. These past few weeks have been the same, except it looks like the band’s new album, Death Magnetic, might actually be good. Phil Towle said this would happen.

Towle was Metallica’s performance coach during St.Anger’s recording. The footage of their excruciatingly awkward therapy sessions would later be the most fascinating part of 2004’s Some Kind of Monster. The documentary of the band’s near-implosion was better reviewed than the resulting album.

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Stereo Steve is one of my favorite DJs on one of my favorite radio stations -- the community run and supported, always eclectic KUSF. Of course that local cornerstone has a number of great hosts on the air, but Steve's show is especially cool because a) it's on Fridays, a reminder that the weekend is mere hours away and b) if you dig the heavy, the noisy, the punk, the psych, the out jazz, and everything in between, he'll probably spin it at some point on his show.

Today is, of course, Friday, which means starting at noon you can tune into Steve's show and hear his selection for yourself (it's on the air at 90.3 FM or streaming online here). On a break from the microphone, though, Steve gave us the lowdown on spinning records with Thurston Moore and keeping the FCC happy. -- Jennifer Maerz

Name: Stereo Steve

When/where we can hear you DJ: You can hear the Stereo Steve Show on 90.3 KUSF on Fridays from Noon to 3pm with the Guest DJ Hour immediately following from 3 to 4pm.

Styles of music you play on your show: Like most KUSF DJs, I play a pretty eclectic mix. I'll play current station favorites in the indie arena, including some local bands and noise artists, along with old jazz, funk, 60's psychedelic, and random oddball items from my personal vinyl stash. Depending on what mood I'm in you could hear some metal, classic rock, foreign psychedelia, or old songs from the 20's and 30's - sometimes all in the same set.

____________________________

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By Tamara Palmer

Rap star Nelly has some very public love affairs. He loves to make and sell millions of records, he loves him some Apple Bottoms and he definitely loves to represent his hometown of St. Louis. But he’s also quite the fan of our Bay Area rap scene, a movement he insists is worth supporting even when some of the locals just don’t anymore. And until it gets more love here, Nelly’s sharing it with “The Bay.” The song, produced by E-40’s son Droop-E, is rife with references to lyrics by 40 and Too $hort, bounces to our regionally specialized beat and even makes a cameo in the season premiere of Entourage.

We called Nelly to talk about his love of the Yay Area, and found him to be full of energy and inspiration—the textbook of what hyphy really is—and genuinely interested in discussing the topic rather than pushing his latest product (the album Brass Knuckles, which comes out next Tuesday). He makes a rare S.F. appearance to perform on Saturday, September 13 at Mezzanine.

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Say DJ MyKill's name fast and you get where the guy got his moniker (hint: his real name is Michael). The Phoenix transplant has been making a name for himself getting revelers drunk and dancing on Sunday nights with a big ol' French Kiss at the Mission club Pink. Below MyKill spills more than the pastel-hued shots, including the lowdown on one dude who displayed his naughty bits a little too close to the turntables.

Name: Michael Clark (DJ MyKill)

Club night(s): I do a weekly party at Pink with my good friend Forever 21 called French Kiss. The night started in Phoenix a few years ago and I brought the concept with me when I moved to the city in 2007. I'm also a part time resident at Beauty Bar and play there when they need me. My time is usually spent DJing in and around the Bay Area with the occasional out of town show.

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(Photo by Joseph Durham)

This week our guest DJ is Bus Station John, a droll club vet who is so old school he started out DJing with cassette tapes (read his hilarious story on that situation below). BSJ is well known within the queer dance scene by the kids who like a little grit in their kicks. As the man himself explains, "you don't have to have a gruesomely over-defined, tortoise shell-like abdomen" to be a guest at his club nights -- although he also reminds folks that the (literally) well-heeled can upchuck elsewhere. He hosts parties in the city's dive-y underbelly, and his nights, from the Tubesteak Connection to Trash and Double Dutch Disco (R.I.P.) are the stuff of legend. Below Bus Station John takes a minute to extrapolate the life of an intrepid promoter, and take it from us, his words of wisdom make for good reading.

Name: DJ Bus Station John

Club nights: The Tubesteak Connection; The ROD; MANQUAKE!

Style(s) of music you spin: Lost Disco, Hi-NRG, Italo/Eurodisco, Boogie, R&B/Funk, Electro-funk, New/No-Wave...basically late 70's/early 80's dance music that you would've heard in gay bars, bathhouses & discos of the day, from the Trocadero Transfer to the Paradise Garage and beyond....

How and when did you first get your foot in the club scene in San Francisco? I started out making cassette tapes incorporating these delightful genres for house parties in the mid-90's, after having been an avid fan and collector of the music since it first came out. Then, eight years ago, I did my very first gig in the space that is now Deco Lounge, where I throw The ROD.

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As far as the Friday DJ Q&A series goes, we are on a soul roll. Last week we interviewed Special Lord B. from Saturday Night Soul Party, and this week we have Senator Soul, who officiates at the Monday night club Black Gold, and is also involved in 45 Club and Congress. He's also the moderator of the sfsoulscene blog, so dude knows a thing or two about the genre and its impact on the city. (p.s. You can read Clubs Editor John Graham's writeup of Black Gold here.)

Name: Jonathan Hirsch (Senator Soul)

Club night: Black Gold at Koko Cocktails

Style of music you spin: 60's, soul, & RnB

Who are the soul legends, dead or alive, you'd most like to meet? I've been fascinated for some time with the lives of a number of soul musicians, many of whom died rather inauspiciously. I'd say of all the soul greats, I would have liked to meet Sam Cooke. I would like to know about his process, why he chose such sparing arrangements for the majority of his work, and what the hell happened that night he was murdered in a hotel room in Los Angeles. It would have been cool to have Lee Dorsey replace my radiator, and to stay up all night with Irma Thomas listening to slow jams.

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Name: Paul Costuros aka Paul Paul a.k.a. Special Lord B.

Club nights: Saturday Night Soul Party, Club Internationale', Girl Groups Night, Lost & Found, Ska War.

Style of music you spin: 60's Soul, R&B, Oldies, International Soul/Funk/Disco/Pop/Go-go/Jazz/garage/Rock-n-Roll/, Girl Groups, Jamaican/2tone ska, Rocksteady, among others.

As a soul DJ, we should ask, what's your reaction to Isaac Hayes' death?

We are all in debt to him for all he did for soul music, independent labels and for musicians in the the 60's and 70's and of course he was an incredible songwriter and performer. It sucks he died, though I'm sure he's in a better place doing whatever it is Scientologists do after they die, he will likely be reincarnated i think, perhaps into a celebrity baby. He was also great as The Duke in the hit film "Escape From New York."

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By Kirsty Evans

During his recent show at Slim’s, I had the chance to sit down with Wednesday himself and ask him a few questions (he proved to be just as funny as you would expect). This interview took place backstage at Slim’s just before the show. Read on…

How’s the tour going?

Wednesday: Very well, it’s over halfway done. This tour ends August 23rd, so… We’ve been out since June 26th, in America, then we did Europe for three and a half weeks as well.

You’ve had a lot of line-up changes. Can you please introduce the current band?

Everything’s great, this is like my favorite line-up that I’ve ever had, and I’ve definitely had members come and go for many different reasons over the years, and not all have – it kind of sucks because every time you get a different band member , it’s way beyond crazy a lot of the guys that I’ve played with are guys that are front men of their own bands and they want to break up -- which has been, I would say 90% of the cases with most of the guys I play with who no longer play with me anymore -- to do their own thing.

Right now, the longest-lasting member in our band who’s still in the band now is Nate on bass. We have Jason on guitar, and Johnny on drums. We’re back to a four-piece because I’m playing guitar again, ‘cause my collarbone is healed from my accident last year. I had to give it up there for awhile. I had a car accident last September, flipped my car five times and broke my collarbone, so… we were always a four-piece and I always played guitar, but I had four solid months where I had all these tours booked, and I went on tour and it never healed up, so I had to have an extra member come and play guitar and I just had to be the front man for awhile.

Are you all healed up now?

Yeah.

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Aaron Axelsen is one DJ who has been around the S.F. club scene longer than I've been able to legally enter it. The guy has an unparalleled talent for picking up on acts right before they're about to break, and he spins those bands on his various club nights (Popscene, Leisure) and as a DJ on Live 105. He's also booked acts at Popscene before mainstream America even knew who they were -- everyone from the Killers to Amy Winehouse to the Klaxons and beyond first hit his stage in this city. Axelsen not only has an ear to what's gonna be hot in the indie/pop world, he also has endless reserves of enthusiasm about new music. Here's a guy who just never seems to get jaded on the music world. Axelsen is spinning at a party for the Owl mag tonight at the Independent, so to highlight both the event and his years of experience, Aaron Axelsen is our DJ of the week. -- Jennifer Maerz

Name: Aaron Axelsen

Club night: Popscene/Leisure/Radio Soundcheck (on Live 105)

Style of music you spin: indie/britpop/electro/60s soul/post-punk/synthpop/downtempo/new shit

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Certain DJs claim to have paid their dues, but few turntable artists can claim to have gotten their start in the '60s. DJ Cheb i Sabbah first took to the decks in Paris in 1964, where the DJ didn't own his music, but he did get a month's paid vacation. Sabbah is based in San Francisco, where he spins every week at Bollyhood Café and he continues bringing the Asian Massive sound that he helped coin to the masses. Tonight Cheb i Sabbah celebrates "The Return of the Asian Massive" at 1015 Folsom, but before he hits the club, he gave us a little rundown on a life spent with an ear to the globe.

Name: Cheb i Sabbah

Club night(s): Every Thursday at Bollyhood Café (3372 19th Street @ Mission, San Francisco,
CA).

Style of music you spin: Global Electronica.

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Vinroc may be stoked to have grabbed a single from reggae icon John Holt out of the vinyl bins, but the soul fiend isn't content to just spin other people's classics. The DJ is busy running his own record label, and is about to release his debut full-length. We caught up with the Otis/Milk mainstay for a quick Friday Q&A.

Name: DJ Vinroc

Club night(s) where we can see you spin: Step @ Otis Lounge; Flavor of the Month @ MILK on Haight

Style of music you spin: neo soul, hip hop, soulful house, classics

Other music projects you're involved with: The So Much Soul mix cd series and my first full length album, The Revealing

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Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist is one busy dude. When he's not DJing at his residencies on both sides of the Bay, he's opening for everyone from Dizzee Rascal to Grandmaster Flash. And when he's not doing that, he's running True Skool, a promotion and marketing outfit that recently branched out to become a social networking site. Ren stepped away from the vinyl for a moment to answer a couple questions as part of our weekly DJ Q&A series.

Name: Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist

Club night(s) where you DJ: Thursdays & Saturdays at Ivy Room, Albany (East Bay) and one-off events around the city

Style of music you spin: Soul, funk, hip hop, electro, breaks, house, trip hop and anything funky.

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(photo by Chris Brennan)

This week's Friday DJ Q&A is with Jamie Jams, a dude who loves his '90s icons, from Nirvana to the Pixies and R.E.M. What with Sub Pop turning 20, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" showing up on DJ playlists again, there's a big old flannel flashback going down. Crystal Akins interviews Jamie, who rock 'n' rolls all night and fights the power every day.

Name: Jamie Jams

Club night: Debaser - 90s alternative party at the Knockout.

Style of music you spin: I used to play everything. Now I play strictly American underground indie rock.

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