When it comes to injecting creativity into the landscape of music, Wesley “Diplo” Pentz can do some pretty extraordinary things. One of the most credible names in music today, Diplo has a penchant for rocking stadium-sized crowds senseless.
720 is on the decks. Round and round the record goes, the party don’t stop and everyone knows.
If the DJ is the heart that pumps life into a club, the emcee on mic-control is that ever-present voice that reminds revelers to go hard or go home. Going hard has never been an issue for Honolulu’s top party hostess with the mostest, Roxy OTM (On the Mic).
The best passions in life are the ones that are expressed and shared to the world. For Ernie Kanekoa, better known in nightlife pantheons as Bernie’s Diction, music serves as his heart, his pulse and the ideal catalyst for expression.
Being that it’s 4/20 weekend, it might be a no-brainer to shine the Spinzone light on DJ Westafa. His dancehall vibrations and versatile music sensibility would be downright foolish to ignore.
Music empowerment will take center stage in its truest form thanks to the weekend arrival of DJ Empress. Hardcore drum and bass, break-beat and dubstep will form a synergistic holy trinity for the one-year anniversary of Slow and Low, the drum and bass monthly event at Lotus Downtown.
Frenzied fans and hands-in-the-sky moments have become somewhat of the norm when DJ Dirty Secret is in the building. Easily one of the most in-demand DJs right now, her recent impact in nightlife circles has been nothing but secretive.
Toss around titles–co-founder of Beatport, founding father of the mixtape and pioneer of the Chicago house sound–and you get just a taste of the DJ-producer legend, Bad Boy Bill. In a career full of groundbreaking achievements, the Chi-Town native’s power-packed sets–whether it’s a mashed up remix or a sickly produced original with ill-timed scratches–are always the main course he offers for audio-consumption.
The late Larry Levan’s soulful disco grooves at the New York City dance club Paradise Garage mark a time in dance music history that essentially helped pave the way for pop music’s current infatuation with electronic beats and superstar DJs. The folks at Thirtyninehotel intend to bring the distinct vibe of Paradise Garage this Friday with a special one-of-a-kind event to celebrate Levan’s legacy and the famed discotheque he called home.
25th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Chinatown Block Party At Murphy’s Bar And Grill, 2 Merchant St., Sat., 3/17, 12pm Byron the Fur should never be compared to a critter- or rodent-like creature as his DJ namesake suggests.
On house music, DJ and producer Marques Wyatt has been quoted saying it’s more than just a musical genre– it’s like “experiencing God.” Nothing blasphemous about his statement when you hear the Santa Monica native reign his club banging beats at Lotus Downtown this weekend as if from the heavens above. The legendary Wyatt, who’s been spinning in LA clubs since the mid-‘80s, was one of the first during the time to start a house music night.
The notion DJ Rayne is an underrated commodity in local DJ circles may be somewhat true but that immediately dissolves into nothingness once the beat thumping begins. Deeply devoted to his craft, Rayne is a staple of why party people flock to SoHo every First Friday.
Take an electronica music mind trip–no map or GPS required–courtesy of Cali underground favorites Zapper and Datgirl. From builds and breakdowns, all creatively loop and layered, the duo kills it using strictly live hardware, nothing prerecorded, no laptop in sight.
DJ Min-One is at his best when the dance party stakes are at their highest. His San Francisco start led to a successful stint in radio in New York City, before settling back in the islands in 2009.
If you appreciate really great DJs, the folks at Red Bull have a doozy of an event for you. The DJ spotlight will shine ever so brightly on SoHo for the Red Bull Thr3estyle DJ battle competition in what’s becoming the premier international DJ contest of its kind with eight of Oahu’s elite who plan on bringing it for a chance to win a spot at the preliminaries in Los Angeles next month.
Living above the trend is rare in today’s bandwagon society and sadly music tends to be the biggest culprit. Not for scene mainstay DJ Errick.
The stars and planets over Honolulu’s night sky will align in harmonious and groovy fashion this weekend courtesy of this audible constellation: New York City DJ-radio host Tim Sweeney. Sweeney plans to share his trademark secrets that took his Beats in Space radio show at New York University from a fledgling Tuesday morning program in 1999 to the Tri-State area’s source for new and groundbreaking music.
Fiends for the hard and edgy sounds of electronica, stop shaking, start dancing and prepare to get your fix. Dubbed as the “2 Year Anniversary of Hard Music in Hawaii,” rockets of energy, packed in dynamite-sized house and techno, will be banging in abundance, spilling into ears with the collective talents of Shin-G and Shusei providing the audible fuel.
Cheers to a new year and the return of an old friend for dance enthused maniacs of the 808. Prepare for some unrealness as Honolulu makes way for the return of DirtyBird Records founder Claude VonStroke.
It was a case of mastery in motion in 2011 for DJ Delve. He holds wreck as one of the deck maestros at The Get Right hump day rage fest at The Manifest.
Warning: Christmas spirit throughout Chinatown is about to increase with a festive dance party courtesy of DJ Wolfram. Well versed in the euro sound, Wolfram comes bearing gifts in the form of beats assembled from a passionate place and mixed to creative perfection.
Power, Unity, Revolution and Energy fuels the heart of DJ EP. It doesn’t have to be the holiday season to get him to give back simply since innovative, top tier electronic dance music is the gift that keeps on giving.
Not all forms of creativity are created equal. The über talented Lopazz wears many hats–from multimedia artist to engineer to music producer.
Individually, they’ve made setting the bar a habit, thanks to an untouchable credibility that all DJs and parties should strive for. That said, it’s practically unfair when the turn-it-out talents of DJs Anit, Compose and Eskae combine.
Fifteen years of hip-hop radio is only half the story of Jimmy Taco’s longstanding contributions to Hawaii boom bap culture. While the crystal anniversary of the historic Mind Tactics Show ([jimmytaco.com]) is unprecedented, the creative output he fashioned is enough to highlight his resume–the Na Hoku nominated producer is respected a hundred times over because his passion and purpose can be summed up in four one-syllable words.
Given the city’s crumbling infrastructure and rail controversy, it’s hard to believe anyone would want to be the next mayor of Honolulu. But a few do want the job, including the incumbent, Mayor Peter Carlisle, the former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney who won a 2010 special election to fill the remainder of Mufi Hannemann’s term.
I’d never been to a Honolulu City Council meeting until a few weeks ago. Features, not politics, was my beat.
Victoria Holt Takamine is a kumu hula, a cultural activist and a teacher and has an impeccable pedigree to back up all these titles. Born of an alii family whose kuleana was in Moanalua, she graduated as a hula teacher under the legendary Auntie Maiki Aiu Lake and taught hundreds of students in her own halau (Pua Alii ‘Ilima) and at the University of Hawaii.
On April 25, a state judge dismissed trespassing charges against a Kauai man after finding that he had been exercising traditional native Hawaiian rights hunting wild pigs on private land. Kui Palama, 28, was arrested on Jan.
The city plans to dish out $3.5 million from its Affordable Housing Fund and either purchase or renovate a structure to provide transitional housing for Honolulu’s special needs homeless population. “Our community has invested considerable effort and resources in addressing homelessness,” Mayor Peter Carlisle said in a statement, “but there remains a population whose disabilities or chronic conditions make it difficult for them to participate in traditional shelter programs.” Carlisle is referring to those homeless with mental illnesses, addictions and physical disabilities.
Makaweli Poi faces an uncertain future after its owner, a corporate subsidiary of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) ordered the West Kauai mill to suspend operations May 23. Mona Bernardino, chief operating officer of the corporation, Hiipoi LLC, says the move to shut down Makaweli Poi was prompted mainly by financial concerns.
A resolution adopted by the City Council will solidify an agreement between the City and County of Honolulu and the University of Hawaii Water Resources Research Center (UH-WRRC) to conduct an analysis of impacts from ocean sewer outfalls on the marine environments off of Oahu. The city will pay UH-WRRC as much as $2.5 million for biological and sediment studies in portions between now and June 30, 2017 .
Along with the deep, verdant growth of spring sprouts an unyielding desire to spend more time in the open air. That’s why it should come as no surprise that National Bike Month falls in the sun-drenched time of May.
Of the many letters you publish against rail, how many offer an alternative that won’t send us into further economic demise? Billions of gallons of oil are imported for us from every oil-producing nation on this planet so that we can buy billions of gallons of gasoline.
TheBus is taking a back seat to rail. At the May 3 Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting, an audience member asked city Transportation Director Wayne Yoshioka when we could expect the bus route cancellations and changes to be reversed.
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