Phoenix Music Blog

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Mere hours from now, the 32-year-old DJ/producer/scenester/ fashion plate/eagle scout will be staging the "official" re-launch of his long-absent fauxShow Friday Nights gig at Sanctum. Less then 24 hours later, he'll then welcome NYC disco-punk superstars of The Juan MacLean to his weekly Cheap Thrills night at Blackforest Mill.

Despite his packed sked, Alan took time out for an interview for the DJ Dossier, providing the lowdown on his feelings about dance music and the local scene. He seemed somewhat modest and ingratiating for a cat who pretty much sparked off the PHX's electro dance party craze and is arguably the hippest mixmaster in our 'berg, right down to his v-necked tee shirt.

Name: Jared Alan

Current club night(s): fauxShow Friday Nights at Sanctum, and Cheap Trills on Saturday at Blackforest Mill.

Preferred genre(s): I guess anything that falls into the category of ahead-of-the-curve or left-of-center. Not that I don't like it, but I veer away from Top 40 or even indie music that's overplayed. I have a hard time with definitions. I guess I'd say electro, techno, house, rock 'n' roll, disco punk, Goth, and everything in between. I have a pretty broad taste in music, which is pretty obvious if you look at some of the bands I've brought to town. The whole electro genre I have a hard time with because, to me, electro is a completely different kind of music and not that dirty French/chainsaw house stuff that's really popular now.

How did you get started as a DJ? I started in my bedroom making sorta musique concrete, like left-field experimental electronic stuff, and just fooling around with software and I did that for six or seven years before I started playing with DJ software and getting into DJing. I started with that and just going out to club nights and sorta being disappointed with most of the stuff I heard is what gave me the push to start DJing out in public in 2006. It was never a career I had in mind, it just was kinda the logical extension of what I was doing in my bedroom. And I realized there was a hole to fill in Phoenix and I thought I'd give it a shot and it took off pretty quick.

​There's absolutely no doubt that Smite is a definite rarity amongst P-Town's glutted DJ/dance community. First, there's the 31-year-old's absolute passion for vinyl that's second only to other record-loving freakazoids like his cohorts Djentrification and Johnny D. Serato ain't a word that's currently in Smite's vocabulary (although he admits he might have to eventually break down and buy a laptop and a copy of said scratching software).

Then there's the fact he's something of an outsider to the usual club circuit. You won't catch him pulling any shifts in Scottsdale anytime soon, as the cat prefers spinning his platters in a more eclectic locales, like the Rose & Crown or downtown Phoenix art hangouts.

Whether you wanna call him Smite, Sir Smeezy, or by his actual Christian name (which he won't divulge outta fear of getting collared by the cops for his prior graf art exploits), there's one term you'll never use to describe him: run of the mill.

Name: Sir Smeezy

AKA: DJ Smite

Current club night(s): Every first and third Friday I DJ at Rose & Crown in downtown Phoenix. It's free and you won't get anything like it anywhere else.

Preferred genre(s): All types of heavy Latin funky shit. Afro-Colombian funk, cumbia, salsa dura, psych, funk, soul, disco, post-punk, dub, early '80s electro, boogie and slept-on rap.

Where have been your favorite places to spin at in the PHX? House parties. My favorite lounge. After-hours at Quincy's. The puppet theatre. Fate. B-boy battles back in the day.

How did you get your start as a DJ? Back in sixth grade my best friend Ron claimed it was "all bout having the sickest cassingle and custom embroidered hat collection" which he did. His first two drawers in his dresser were nothing but cassette singles and full lengths lined up immaculately. By eighth grade when there were little parties, my more low-profile Filipino homie Dennis would DJ with a gang of tapes. He rocked off of a dual cassette deck with an extra deck he'd bring along to get all the songs cued up on point in his headphones. I would lay back in the cut with him and shot call. I was into making pause tapes. By the time Juice came out I was sold.

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More than five years ago the 32-year-old launched Shake!, a "motherfucking dance party" that has become a bigger hipster shindig than its predecessor Hot Pink! and went on to help inspire such current hipster-friendly affairs as Party Foul! at Homme Lounge and Cheap Thrills at Blackforest Mill. Sadly, Reed felt five years was enough for Shake! and is sending the event out in style with a fabbo fete tomorrow night at the Rogue Bar.

The well-dressed cat took time out of his busy spinster schedule to provide some insight into why he pulled the plug and what he'll be doing in the coming weeks and months.

Name: William Reed

AKA: William Fucking Reed

Club night(s): Fridays I'm working with Jen Deveroux on a brand new thing called HARL♥T at the Mondrian which kicks off tomorrow. On November 7, I'm gonna team up Shake! with fauxShow to present Cheap Thrills on Saturdays. I'm also helping out my buddies with something at the Sidebar called Loose Lips, which is gonna be a Sunday chill thing.

Preferred genre(s): That's tough. When you're a DJ, its different from the music I listen to at the house sometimes, because you're always going through tracks you can potentially mix together and get the dance floor going. I love '77 punk and post-punk, The Clash is my favorite band. Plus, New Wave, rock 'n' roll, especially '60s garage rock. I also love electronic music, including ambient. Everything from Boards of Canada to Aphex Twin and even more of the electro stuff I'm playing today. It's so wide and varied, I could never who my favorite band was, maybe my top 20.

Joi Carey

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Next weekend's event should be quite a memorable experience, as the group is pulling out all the stops for Satan's Diesel Dicked 666* Circus, an outrageous extravaganza on Halloween night (natch) over at Chasers in Scottsdale.

Sadisco* has been a major part of the PHX's alt-cultural scene since debuting back in 2003, having presented whacked-out debaucherous wingdings designed around a pop-culturish theme each and every month over the past six years. (Some of our favorites were the fetes aping Charlie Manson or Clockwork Orange).

One of the main creative forces behind the group has been the dope dreadlocked DJ known as Squalor, who's served as the leader to his band of misfit mixmasters (including 5arah, Blonde NOize, ///she///, and $&M).

And while many a P-Town party monster might be forlorn that they won't have a Sadisco* to look forward to every few weeks, Squalor isn't exactly shedding any tears over the change. When we spoke to the 34-year-old for this interview, he seems somewhat relieved that he'll won't have to conjure up new themes month after month.

Find out what else is up with Sadisco* by perusing his answers below.

Name: Toby Heidebrink

AKA: Squalor

Preferred genre(s): Anything. If it's loud and mean and fun, I'll play it.

How long have you been a DJ? As long as there's been a Sadisco, since about five years ago. I started because I wanted to hear the songs I wanted to hear when I went to the clubs.

Why did you start Sadisco? There was absolutely nothing going on in this town in 2003. And this town was deader than ever. Other than Hot Pink there wasn't much of anything. There wasn't any Tranz, Club Freedom was dead, and it sucked. We started it because it was the kinda thing you wanted to go to but never got to go to because it didn't exist.

Did y'all know at 17 what you wanted to be when you grew up? Not many people do, fumbling around different career paths until they decided (or settle) on a job.

Sol Martinez was not one of those types.

A year before he became legal to vote, Martinez decided he wanted to be a knob-twisting, level-adjusting mixmaster and took whatever steps were necessary to make that happen. And it's worked out pretty well for the dood. Considered by many to be one of the best house jocks this 'berg has to offer, the 28-year-old has plenty of skills when it comes to the beat-mixing biz. He even won our annual DJ Spin Off two year ago and earned a trip to Florida and a gig at the annual Winter Music Conference in Miami.

These days he runs the weekly FUSE Fridays fete at Bar Smith in downtown Phoenix, where he spins alongside such Valley EDM veterans as Mara and Substation. Read on for his opinions on how the local scene has changed over the past decade.

​Name: Dominic Martinez

AKA: DJ Sol Martinez

Current club night(s): FUSE Friday at Bar Smith is my main night right now. I'm gonna be opening up at Cream Stereo Lounge for Giant Wednesdays starting next week on the 21st.

How did you get your start? When I was in high school, I first got introduced to house music. There was these all ages events during those years in the summertime where they'd bring in house DJs from LA and Chicago, like Bad boy Bill. I saw all these DJs spinning and influencing what people were doing on the dance floor and having a great time. It wasn't like something I'd seen with a guitar beat or a band or anything else.

So I decided, wow, that's really cool, I want to do that. So I saved up and bought some turn tables and a mixer, practiced with my friends, mixed tapes, and finally gave one DJ Shy who was running that all ages club. And he said, "You know what, I like your tape, you can play the 9 p.m. slot." From then she ran a house music radio show on Power and so I got to spin after hours with him, from 1 to 3 a.m. on Saturday Nights and it just took off from there.

Where have you spun in the past: You name it. I used to play at Myst, I used to play more at Solstice. Almost any club in Scottsdale and Phoenix. My most successful night is what's going on right now. I've had more time in the past couple of years to dedicate to the game, to push towards it and get my own events started. Before I was just a guest DJ at Myst or at Six. Now I like starting something on my own. And this past year I have been able to get things going and make it something special.

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In fact, for folks like DJ Slippe it's been something of a boon. As more and more drinkers and urbanites spend less and less of their money at Valley nightclubs, some club owners have turned to the underage crowd to help keep themselves in the black.

Enter DJ Slippe, who operates two of the most popular 18-and-over dance nights at Myst in Scottsdale and Tempe's Cherry Lounge and Pit and is making bank with his promotions company Platinum Nightlife.

Name: Steve Lueder

AKA: DJ Slippe

Preferred genre(s): I can't really say that I have a preferred genre. In general you hear everything from The Police's "Roxanne" to Michael Jackson all the way to some Fall Out Boy tracks. Then there's some Top 40 and electro. That's what people want to hear at the clubs. I generally put everything into a set and don't really tie myself down to one genre.

Club night(s): I own Platinum Nightlife and we do a lot of different events, sometimes I'll spin but sometimes I'll just be in the background and my other DJs will be spinning for me. Right now we've got Tuesdays at Cherry Lounge on Mill Avenue, that's an 18-plus night. Then there's Twist Thursdays at Myst, which has been going strong for about almost eight months. I'm also at Martini Ranch in Scottsdale up in the Shaker Room on Fridays.

How did you get your start: I came out here to Arizona when I was 18. I was in the military at Luke Air Force Base. I had always been into music, playing guitars & bands, that kind of stuff when I was younger. A friend took me to a rave when I was 18, about to leave for the military. I saw the DJ doing his thing and I was like, 'That might be something that I would be into,' because I liked the idea of it. The idea of being a single person there as opposed to just playing in bands.

In case you hadn't heard, this year's Best of Phoenix issue should be on newsstands everywhere. (We say "should be" because those babies are getting snatched up like hotcakes.) 

And inside this 300-plus page monster is an award for Chromatest J. Pantsmaker, one of the outrageous organizers of the Arizona chapter of the Cacophony Society. As a member of this countercultural cadre of kooksters, Chromatest has been known to cause stares from Valley urbanites as he tromps dressed as a superhero or a blushing bride, races shopping carts, or just generally causes a scene.

But besides his participation in the Cacophony Society, Chromatest is also a skilled spinster who used to drop their breakbeat sounds every week at Fat Tuesdays in Tempe and now a regular part of the Valley's desert party scene. Along with his fellow members of such DJ collectives as the Salacious Beat Slingers and Warsaw Pact Entertainment, Chromatest will set up a generator and turntables at remote locations out in the Arizona desert, spinning glitch-hop and other bodacious beats until the sun peeks over the horizon.

Party on, Mr. Pantsmaker. We promise not to tip off the cops.

Name: Ben Overbaugh

AKA: DJ Chromatest

Preferred genre(s): It's currently is a little known genre called glitch-hop. As far as I know I'm the few DJs in Arizona that's into this style of music. I'm still getting a lot of requests at gigs to spin breakbeats though.

Where have you spun in the past: Fat Tuesdays is about it. Then I've also done lots of different house parties and desert raves.

How did you get your start: I started out mixing records in 1997/1998 in my bedroom. I was doing stuff like a club DJ would, mixing records, blending them, beatmatching and all that fun stuff, rather than just hitting play on the CD player. I was also going to ASU, working as a radio DJing at The Blaze and before that at Syracuse University's radio station.

While you won't ever witness Noah Wylie on the television performing emergency tracheotomies or amputating bloody limbs (a la the ER actor he shares his name with), you can definitely catch the 27-year-old DJ in action at a few North Scottsdale nightspots every weekend.

Besides his moniker, Wylie also shares something else with a boob tube star. Just like George Jefferson, he's moved on up from his days at the Hidden House spinning alongside Al Page in favor of rocking the record decks at joints like the Stone Rose Lounge and Blue Martini.

Name: Noah Wylie

Club night(s): On Fridays I'm at the Stone Rose Lounge out in Scottsdale. That's a little more laidback, more of a lounge thing where I do everything from classic rock, deep house, soul music and stuff like that. I definitely try to keep that a little classy. On Saturdays, I'm at Blue Martini at City North in Scottsdale, which is the busiest night I play. I go there to dance and party and do all the electro-house remixes of classic songs everybody knows and all the new stuff coming out. And I'll be at Wicked Wednesdays at Club Red in Tempe starting on September 30.

Preferred genre(s): When I first started it was definitely more of underground hip-hop, downtempo, jazz influenced stuff, and punk. Now that I'm playing in more of the trendy clubs, I definitely prefer the electro-house remixes, the up-tempo, and anything with high energy that makes people dance.

Do you ever get shit over your name? Not really. I just get interesting reactions from people who see my name and they say, "I know you", and they think they've heard of me before. I met some guys one time who thought that I chose that as a DJ name just because it was kinda an off-the-wall thing, but I said, 'No, that's actually my name."

How did you get your start as a DJ: Back in high school I was just a music collector and started doing my high school dances. I actually got out DJing for awhile when I went to college. Then I moved out to LA and met some DJs like the Soul Science Crew, DJ Destro, Ben Diggins, and Inca One. They're pretty big out there, but no one out here has heard of them. Played with them for awhile and they turned me back on to DJing so when I came back to Phoenix it was my main goal. The Hidden House gave me my first opportunity to get back into the DJing game here, just playing there and hustling, that's really how I got to be where I'm at right now.

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In fact, the Jamaican-born musician and platter jock has been a regular fixture at the monthly art walk, "spreading the vibe" by broadcasting irie music from his expansive collection in front of Afida's Hair Culture (which is run by his missus) adjacent to Carly's Bistro over the past three years.

Culture also spends a significant amount of time creating Jamaican-flavored jams with other local reggae musicians since moving to Arizona more than a decade ago. In that time he's seen the popularity of the genre ebb and flow throughout the Valley's small-but-growing reggae scene.

Name: Edmond Anthony Hendrix

AKA: Tony Culture

Regular gigs: I only spin reggae music on a regular basis here right now on First Friday, that is because it's my wife's place. It's my place as well, so I spread the vibe and keep my love for the music alive.

Preferred genre(s): Anywhere from dub to rockers to steppers to lovers rock to toots, though I try to stay away from disrespectful kind of tunes from personal bias because you don't have to play those to really get things going. Also R&B, I do that too. My love for music and my country is so vast that people will be surprised. Reggae is my forte of course, I was born and grew up into it but I like many of the different types and styles of music.

How do you draw a crowd on First Friday? I serve up a bunch of vibes. You might hear a couple of country songs, you might hear a couple of rock songs, a couple of R&B songs, a couple of hip-hop songs, some lovers reggae, some roots reggae, or a couple of dubs. It's a variety.

While he doesn't dress in monk-like robes (like Qui-Gon Jinn) or offer advice in backwards fashion (à la Yoda), Rob Wegner is most definitely served as a Jedi Master to DJs across the PHX for most of the last decade. He's taught many a Padawan how to spin up a song in that time, including MCB and J. Alan over at Axis/Radius, Dirty Pretty's Jon Amaral, and Adrian Diaz at Sandbar).

In 2001, Wegner launched a class dedicated to the ins and outs of the DJ biz over at Scottsdale Community College, the first of its kind in the Valley (which got some ink in the pages of the Wall Street Journal). It's since expanded to three separate courses that cover such turntablism skill sets as scratching, mixing, and song selection. (There's even an actual associates degree in the works). 

Each an every semester, Wegner spends 16 weeks laying down the science to a fresh crop of wanna-be wax workers, passing on the knowledge he acquired from working the local club circuit since the days of the old Zazoo.

Spots are still available for the fall semester (click here for more info), but check out some of Wegner's answers to our questions to get an inking of what subjects will be covered.

Name: DJ Rob Wegner

Club night(s): I was a resident DJ at Barcelona for seven years until it closed at the end of June.I will supposedly return when it reopens as something else in November 2009.

Preferred genre(s): I like progressive house, disco-house, electro-house, disco, some rock, old school hip hop, mashups, and some Latin/tribal house.I played progressive house when I mixed for Sirius Satellite radio's "Remix" channel from May 2003 to May 2005.

How did you get started as a DJ: When I was young, I was a rather good drummer. I was in school and rock bands and really wanted to become the next Neil Peart. In 1982, when I was 18, a high-profile club in Charlotte, NC -- that was experiencing declining sales (perhaps because disco was dying?) -- called me to find out if I wanted a job drumming on top of their DJ's. They felt a live drummer would give them a "live band feel" and could potentially improve sales. My hands would bleed after drumming 5 hours a night.I asked the DJ's to teach me and they did, but they also told me that I was expected to teach DJ's when I got older. I never imagined that in the future I would be doing just that at a college.

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Back in the day (specifically, the late '90s) he was a hand-picked protégé of the renowned Z-Trip, who worked such bygone venues as Tempe's Green Room and the old Nita's Hideaway. He was also a big part of the formative years of the Blunt Club back in the early part of this decade, digging through crates and spinning up hot hip-hop tracks for the masses.

In more recent years, Tricky has been a part of the boffo Pinky Ring affair every Wednesday and many other nights around town. He's also teamed up with Universatile Music's Pickster One for their joint effort TPMD, which stands for "Tricky and Pickster Makin' Dollars."

Not only has the pair been raking in the scrilla, they've also been making local music fans get their ass on the dance floor and have a somewhat secretive Sunday night party in the works that undoubtedly will bring in the masses.

Name: Tom Laurie

AKA: Tricky T

Club gig(s): Right now I do Pinky Ring. It's been at Bar Smith for years but we're moving to PCL in Scottsdale in like two weeks. On Fridays I am now at Party Foul at Homme Lounge. Saturdays, I am at Cherry Lounge on Mill Avenue in Tempe. And I also have a Sunday project that we are working on.

Preferred genre(s): I play all kinds of stuff. Everything from soul, James Brown and stuff, to hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest, to rap music, Litttle John type of stuff to electro, house music, and all kinds of shit. Pretty much everything except country.

Weapon(s) of choice: I use two Technics 1200 turntables, a Rand 56, my Mac laptop and Seratto Scratch Live.

Describe how you got started as a DJ: I grew up in this town outside of Philadelphia listening to the DJs on the radio, which got me very interested in it. Then I moved out here to Arizona in '95 and met Z-Trip, who showed me the ropes. I wasn't really doing clubs at first, mainly practicing at home for two years. I got really lucky and got involved with Ty Carter, who was throwing the really big shows at that time. I was 20 years old and opening up for The Roots, Outkast, and Nas. Z-Trip and I started doing this night at the old Green Room in Tempe in '98, but we left there and started another night at Nita's Hideaway called Funky Cornbread with DJ Tige.

​Like many DJs around the PHX, Bobby Musselman wields a laptop and utilizes a voluminous library of music to pump up a crowd. But that's where the similarities end.

When the 34-year-old drops his tracks, it isn't happening inside some bourgie-looking DJ booth at an Old Town Scottsdale club like Martini Ranch or Axis/Radius for a couple thousand peeps. Nope, his chosen venue is a wee bit larger. Namely, Chase Field in downtown Phoenix, where an average of 25,000 Arizona Diamondbacks fans have gathered this season to watch our hometown heroes struggle through one of their most frustrating years to date.

Musselman has served as one of the team's official DJs, where his duties include booting up each players' theme songs as they step up to bat (like MGMT's "Kids," which is the anthem of pitching ace Dan Haren). Along with co-worker Eric Hanson, the one-time club DJ is also responsible for broadcasting the various songs fans hear during batting practice, between innings, and throughout the game, ranging from Dean Martin's "That's Amore" during the "Kiss Cam" segment to a particularly punchy rock or hip-hop track to get things going when the chips are down.

But it ain't just some cushy job pushing buttons for nine straight innings, as Musselman works just as hard as your average turntablist as he mixes up aptly-timed tidbits of songs in reaction to what's taking place on the field.

Plus he also works the mixers at a slew of weddings during his off hours for his Mobile DJ company Millennium Entertainment, to boot.

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There are countless reasons why folks move to the PHX: new jobs, lower cost of living, uh...hotter women.

DJ mig50 came here because of the Shizz. The 26-year-old musician became a die-hard member of the local music discussion board while living in Missouri and decided to relocate to Phoenix in 2006 because of both his Shizz friends and since "there was a lot of cool stuff happening [here]." (He'd already spent some serious scrilla flying to the Valley to check out some huge shows).

Besides bringing his eclectic music tastes and ample record collection, Cameron also brought a wry sense of humor that's helped him conjure up such unforgettable DJ nights like the bygone Yacht Rock night at the Ruby Room (where he played cheesy 80s soft rock whilst wearing a captain's hat). Then there's his current bi-weekly shindig NOVA at Tempe's Yucca Tap Room where it's all about disco and other spacy music. He's also a part of tomorrow night's "Fresh" at the Ice House Tavern that's being put on by Emperors of Japan frontman Tony Poer. The pair are planning to pump out old school hip-hop while dressing in tracksuits and other gear that's straight outta a Run DMC video.

 

Name: DJ JonnY Rogers

AKA: Jonathan Rogers

Club night(s): Thursdays at Crush Lounge (next to Christopher's at the Biltmore), Fridays and Saturdays at Olive & Ivy in Scottsdale, and every Sunday you can find me at Hanny's. I also do some weekends at AZ88 in Scottsdale occasionally depending on P-Body's schedule.

Preferred genre(s): I love downtempo, lounge, trip-hop, world beat. Those are the things I really enjoy and also because I do a lot of these upscale restaurants and bars. I get into indie, disco-op, and the different forms of house.

Weapon(s) of choice: I've got some Technics 1200 M3D turntables and also go off the Pioneer DJM 600 with Serato Scratch Live on a MacBook Pro. Sometimes I also have a handful of records and I like to put them on, switching from line to phono and still have that kind of vibe.

How did you get started as a DJ: It was at WOXY in Cincinnati where I started as an intern and they got me on this midnight to 2 a.m. 97 Xtra Beats show and it was all electronic music. All these 12-inch or CD singles that would come in and I'd get to pick and choose and come up with a mix every Saturday. When I came out here after I finished up at the University of Cincinnati, I'd had a mutual friend of P-Body's and he needed somebody to fill in at AZ88. After he saw all the music that I had, which was really inline with everything he plays, he gave me a shot and it all grew from there.

As you read this, DJ Fashen is getting ready to drop some high-energy dance cuts for club kids in our nation's capital. Then he'll spend the next few weeks bouncing around North America like some bald-headed pinball, flying between Boston, San Diego, Alberta, and even down to Florida. But somewhere in this cross-continent whirlwind of non-stop travel, Fashen will be making two appearances back here in his hometown.

Unfortunately for local EDM fans, these gigs will be his last in the Valley for the foreseeable future. As we reported earlier this past week, the 38-year-old superstar spinster is getting the eff outta Phoenix in favor of living it up in El Lay.

But before Fashen puts P-Town in his rearview mirror, we though we'd offer up a special edition of DJ Dossier to provide some more in-depth explanations as to why the former Power 98.3 jock was bidding adios to AZ. He's also putting the Scottsdale club scene on blast on his way out.

Name: DJ Fashen

A.K.A.: Daniel Kutz

Club gig(s): Next Friday at Suede is like my once a month appearance at Suede, and then my basically my final day playing in the Valley is next Tuesday, August 28, at Dirty Pretty and that's pretty much it.

Preferred genre(s): I'm all over the place and it's a mixture of just about everything. Basically any kind of dance music. I've been there long enough to train the crowds somewhat at my club nights. They definitely want to hear the hits Top 40 hits, but at Dirty Pretty I've been able to go out of the box a bit with that crowd. I think it says something on the MySpace page about "grungy disco, electro goth hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip, then remixed dub style," if that makes sense.

How did you start out: In the early 90s I started out doing fraternity parties at ASU and then the first club I DJ'd at was at Club 411 in 1992. I've pretty much done every place in this town: Club Tribeca, Cage, The Buzz, and even Jetz/Stix a couple times when those were was still around. It just built from there.

Name: Rani "g"

A.K.A.: Rani Gharfeh.

Club night(s): Thursdays at Bomberos Cafe & Wine Bar, first and third Fridays at Incognito, and I'm the resident DJ at Desert Botanical Garden.

Preferred genre(s): It could involve anything from global soul, good house music, deep house music. That may mean some Afro-tech or some avant-garde stuff, or world music. It goes everywhere, it's whatever I'm feeling at the moment. Every place I play I tailor my set to my mood in that exact spot, going from house to jazz to remixes to oldies.

Weapon(s) of choice: I have Pioneers, when I play clubs I use the 1000s. I like the Rain Rotary, too. I don't have one yet because I'm saving the money.

Where do you get your music: I used to buy through Beatport, Dancetracks Digital, or Juno Downloads. But now I get music from producers sending me original stuff just to preview, like my man Boddhi Satva, Master Kev, or different producers I've networked with. Jay Trip Wire sent me a lot of his music.

Bound for glory: DJs Bigie (left) and Epidemic.

DJ Bigie is a rotund, foul-mouthed party animal who knows his way around both a turntable and copy of Photoshop. Meanwhile, his partner DJ Epidemic is a wiry mixmaster with a taste for Red Bull and exotic beats.

Together they comprise Glory Hole, the Mutt and Jeff of Phoenix's electro club scene and specialize in providing a one-two punch of hot spins at and cool music at Party Foul!, the hipster Valhalla held every Friday evening at downtown Phoenix's Homme Lounge.

Since the night's one-year anniversary is just around the corner, we thought it was the perfect time to interview the DJ duo about their experiences, which date back to their days of dropping the hotness at bygone CenPho dive Glam.

Name: Bigie and Epidemic

A.K.A.: Shaun Cheney and Joel Davis (respectively)

Club night(s): Party Foul! every Friday at Homme Lounge, Best Friends Forever on the first Saturday of the month at Club Red in Tempe on the first Saturday of the month. Bigie's over at Pinky Ring on Wednesdays at Bar Smith,

Preferred genre(s): I'm really about playing party rockers, mash-ups, some electro, some glitchy stuff and hard shit. And hip-hop, of course, and even some old-school rock and punk stuff, we'll play whatever. (Shaun Cheney)

I use a lot of B'More, Kuduro, Baile funk, disco, or 80s 12-inch cuts. I also like Miami bass, anything with heavy bass and backbeat, or anything that's Latin or African-influenced with its rhythms. (Joel Davis)

Weapon(s) of choice: We pretty much are like any other DJs and use Serato. There are a lot of vinyl DJs, but there's no way of getting a lot of the exclusive tracks that we get on vinyl anymore. (SC)

How did you start out: I used to DJ at church events when I was younger for five or six years. They'd have B-boy battles and dance competitions and whatnot, so I would play a lot of old school funk and breaks. I pretty much had to quit when I was 18 and sold all my records because I went broke. I started up again around four years ago at places like Camus, and me and Epidemic eventually started up Word Up! At Glam with Kevin the Makeout Bandit. (SC)

I used to play bass in punk bands like The Banned and Bob Orgasmo and the Climax Kids, but when I realized I had no musical talent I gave it up and went out and bought some turntables. I still loved music and had grown up around a lot of records because of my dad. (JD)

Yes, you read that right.

Sounding just like some Weekly World News potboiler, this raven-haired Brazilian beauty swears her was conception was as a result of her birth mother's close encounter of a more lurid kind. While there's no way to verify her parentage (short of phoning up E.T. for a DNA sample), it might explain her otherworldly talents for spinning up entrancing sets of deep house, funk, and other soulful grooves at joints like the old Paper Heart way back when or at her current weekend gig at Barcelona in Scottsdale. 

Name: DJ Brazilia

A.K.A.: Claudia Oliveira

Club night(s): Thursday through Saturdays at Barcelona in Scottsdale I play with a cover band called Generation, providing the backing beats and spinning between songs. I get to rap with the band too.

Where can you be found when you're not spinning: I'm usually chilling at Lola Coffee, which is my new favorite place.

Preferred genre(s): Usually its been a lot of deep house, neo-soul, funk, disco house, and jazz. With the band lately I also play a lot of newer stuff, like Rihanna and Top 40.

Weapon(s) of choice: Two turntables and a microphone, usually a pair of Technics and a Serato. I also use Reason on my Mac.

Big Latin is aptly named, and not just because he's rocks some 3XL threads. The affable, Oakland-born DJ has been living large as a star of PHX's Latin scene for as long as we can remember. Over the past six years he's been in the mix at various discotecas and dance nights across the Valley, from Club Rain in Scottsdale to La Perla in Glendale, or promoting gigs by such big-timers as the Kumbia All Starz.

These days you can find Big Latin blasting out the BPMs for hundreds at a few downtown Phoenix hotspots ever Friday and Saturday until the wee hours, enticing chicas to shake their culos to cumbias, salsa music, and other muy caliente tracks.

His skills as a party instigator is just one of the reasons why we tapped him to star in the debut edition of DJ Dossier, where every week we'll give y'all the 411 on the numerous spinsters and turntablists populating the Valley's nightlife landscape. And it won't be just another rundown of where and when they'll be working the wheels of steel, but rather a lowdown into who they are and what they do, as well as dropping some juicy stories.

For instance, Big Latin's got a humorous yarn about working at a club in Old Town Scottsdale, where Latin nights are few and far between.

But you'll have to git the jump to get the skinny.

Name: DJ Big Latin

A.K.A.: Andy Herrera

Club night(s): Fiesta Fridays at Macayo's and Saturdays on the back patio at Club DWNTWN.

Preferred genre(s): I pretty much love all Latin music. Cumbias, reggaeton, bachata, a little bit of salsa, and lots of hip-hop. I've learned to blend everything together.

Weapon(s) of choice: Two Pioneer CDJ-1000 digital turntables. I'll be honest, I'm not doing the Serato thing just yet because I'm old school. I get six or seven CDs with a whole bunch of MP3s and just mix 'em all together. I like the feeling of grabbing a CD and putting it inside, instead of looking at a computer and hoping it doesn't crash.

Z-Trip: Coming soon to your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

We've got some stellar news for anyone who's a fan of local-DJ-made-good Zach Sciacca (a.k.a. Z-Trip): Thanks to the joystick Jedi at Activision and its developer FreeStyleGames, the 38-year-old superstar turntablist (and former Valley resident) will be a playable character in the upcoming DJ Hero video game, which is set for release in October. 

Read on for more info on the game and his involvement, as well as some footage of the game itself.