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CD Report Card: DJ Dragon – HomeGrown

Dragon, one of Beta's resident DJs, recently orchestrated another Mile High milestone: Homegrown. Compiled by the Triad mascot, Homegrown is a mixed CD consisting primarily of Colorado producers. Pretty Lights, Shawn Astrom, Ty Tek, Venaccio, Satori-C, Entropy, Lea Luna, Sonaris, mLe, Shawn Mitiska, Joman, Sir Thomas, Jquintel, Manufactured Superstars, Dirt Monkey, Savoy, Kostas K, Samples, Jontron and Dragon himself are among the individual artists included.
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You Can Find Me in Da Club–er, Artopia

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I enjoy drinking and I enjoy art, combine the two and I am pretty much guaranteed a good time. But I'm not much of a party boy when it comes to the Denver club scene. That being said, I had a chance to go to...
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Birthday Bash: Johnny Cash

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MTV's program 120 Minutes facilitated my first visual exposure to The Man in Black. “Delia's Gone”, the debut single from Cash's Rick Rubin-masterminded comeback, was set to a black and white and sepia video clip featuring Kate Moss. My curiosity was certainly piqued, but I wasn't sold until he channeled Soundgarden's “Rusty Cage” (with a little from friends Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) on the American Recordings follow-up.
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Aural Pleasure: Tommie Sunshine

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Tommie Sunshine is a DJ for the ADD generation. ADD DJ. Apple’s omnipresent shuffle feature has obviously influenced tastes in an unprecedented way, and a brand new breed of beat matcher is adapting to meet the resulting dance-floor demand. While doctors continue to over-prescribe Ritalin for attention deficit cases, though, music is the only mind-altering substance Sunshine craves these days.
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Movin’ Units: Velcro City Records

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Jason Schlosky has long had a thing for hooks and loops. Velcro City Records, the dance music label he founded with DJ Hero (no relation to the video game of the same name), benefits from nostalgia value associated with the patented “zipperless zipper” system invented by Swiss engineer George de Mestral. Hooks and loops, an idea de Mestral ganked from Mother Nature (burdock burrs, specifically), are the functional foundation for the popular textile technology. They play a similarly essential role in the creation of electronic music. Where would techno and its related electronica genres be without hooks and loops?
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Aural Pleasure: MGMT’s Grammy Nods

Alex Khadiwala deserves credit for first turning me on to MGMT. These days, Khadiwala is one of Beta's Noise Friday resident DJs. At the time, though, he played “Poptronica” on Beta's patio for the Beatport “Pool Parties”. One of his very first Poptronica mix CDs featured the MGMT track “Electric Feel”. I won't pretend that I was immediately blown away, but the tune definitely grew on me over time. Apparently, I wasn't alone.

Aural Pleasure: Mickey Avalon

Mickey Avalon started slinging herb for his mom at the tender, albeit superstitiously unlucky age of thirteen. Although it sounds eerily similar to a plot-line from the brilliantly twisted Showtime dramedy Weeds, art has since imitated life (and not vice versa). When Avalon took the dreaded gateway drug route, though, she cut him off. Translation: mommy fired his @$$ for graduating to smack. Mickey ended up turning tricks for dope in his most desperate years. These days, he turns phrases for dough. And now his old lady works for him…as one of his managers.
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Jazz Hands: Erik Deutsch

If what's left of my memory serves me correctly, Erik Deutsch and I first met in the hallway of Hallet Hall during my freshman year at CU Boulder. Hallet was allegedly named “Biggest Party Dorm in the Nation” by Playboy Magazine around that time, and its residents were determined to retain the title. On an average night, one might encounter a full bar, more than one four-foot bong and even a nitrous tank.
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Aural Pleasure: Eprom

Eprom, shorthand for erasable programmable read-only memory, is the moniker of Bay Area-based Sander Dennis, slated to slay Owsley's Golden Road (2151 Lawrence) this Friday, January 22. Picture Super Mario getting his freak on, a la Missy Elliot, and you'll have an inkling of what to expect from his set.
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Aural Pleasure: Matt Morris

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Immediately following his SNL cherry-popping featuring instant holiday classic “Dick in a Box”, Justin Timberlake was feeling cocky. Pun intended. In the middle of dinner at a Middle Eastern joint in NYC, JT shared plans to launch his own label with longtime pal Matt Morris. That's not all. JT wanted Morris's Hancock on a recording contract.
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Aural Pleasure: Ana Sia

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DJs that don't dance to their own music should be suspect IMO. It's the same “Do as I say, not as I do,” attitude that smoking parents often wield. Talk about setting a pathetic example. Ana will never have that problem. She was a dancer long before being a dance-floor choreographer, and has never been shy about multi-tasking.
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Aural Pleasure: Sydney Blu

Blu has come a long way in her day, gradually surpassing many of her female peers in both the production and performance departments. Inking a deal with Deadmau5 vanity imprint Mau5trap certainly didn't hurt, but Sydney has since launched her own label--Blu Music--and continued to perform well on Beatport.com's virtual stage sans Deadmau5 hand-holding in the studio.