Thursday, July 15, 2010

SPIN IT! : Q&A part 2: DJ Dus

We heard of DJ DUS from a friend of a friend of a bunch of friends, which made us be so eager to see him play live so when we actually got to check him out at SXSW '09 at Creekside we were so happy that he did not only meet our expectations but went beyond and blew our minds. Blending Hip hop with Cumbia and making it appealing to any crowd! The Kinetic Crew asked him some questions and here are his answers.


K: Why DJ Dus?
D: My name is dusty and i've never been one for fancy stage names.. even tho now i wish i could add a T to the end.. i unno 

K: Have you always used that as your alias?
D: yup, since i was born. 

K: Your hood:
D: downtown corpitos texas 

K: Projects worked on:
D: Did a remix for los kumbia kings back in the day, produced paula deanda's album for arista records and sold like 400,000 records, did some stuff for dj kane's albums, produced and wrote for LA CONQUISTA an all girl band from monterrey, and now im doing my own label AMERICANO and am working with hip hop and alternative latin groups from TEXAS 

K: What kinda music do we jam to when you’re spinning?
D: electro cumbia and club hip hop.. crunk i guess 

K: How old where you when you started spinning?
D: 12 

K: Are you on a record label?
D: AMERICANO. 

K: What do you use when you dj (Serato, Diital dj, Ableton, Tracktor, etc.)?
D: serato itch and ableton 7 

K: Why do you use that?
D: cus i can add beats to the songs im playing live on ableton and skratch and mix with serato all at the same time 

K: Where can we see you spin?
D: with the peligrosa crew in austin texas. or at a neighborhood bar in corpus christi! 

K: Where can we catch you next?
D: ill be up for peligrosa in august 

K: Name of a must have track on your set:
D: enemigo publico #1 

K: Who’s coming up with crazy power jams right now?
D: thats easy: toy selectah, dj orion, and dj panik 

K: Partner you’d love to work with:
D: toy selectah! 

K: How has producing music evolved since you first began doing it?
D: i used to make beats strictly on my mpc2000, i would have to sample the records into the mpc, chop them up and then play them to the tempo on the mpc, bounce those tracks to a recorder, then layer it, then go to a big studio and record the artist, go to another studio to mix and master.. now i can do it all in my laptop. 

K: What has been your biggest challenge as a dj/producer so far?
D: not being shy about my music and actually playing it out instead of just making it for my ipod.

K: Favorite dj experience of all times so far?
D: mmm sxsw was cool but i didnt get any good time slots really... pachanga fest in austin was fun as hell, i did that set like a band would, i even stopped the set a few times and talked to the crowd, it was fun. cinco de mayo here in corpus was freaking nuts 

K: Worst request ever:
D: lady gaga "telephone"

K: Most cliché track played by djs right now? 
D: "my chick bad" by ludacris, freakin banger! haha i love it tho

K: What’s the advice you would give young upcoming dj producers who are barely steping into the music business?
D: drop as much music as u can, dont hold back ur bangers cus noone will ever hear them. I had the best unsigned band ever and we never showed anyone our stuff, and then we disbanded and noone ever will (el sancho)

K: Where do we get your music?

K: Anything you’d like to add?
D: support anything local.  

Catch DJ Dus at Club Deville 900 Red River st. Austin, TX $3 21+

For more on Dus check out:
www.djdus.com
http://www.myspace.com/dustyoliveira
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-DUS/106184423128
http://twitter.com/djdus

The Must See: Titan Arum

BY: Z

Titan Arum is town!



What is Titan Arum? Titan Arum (believe it or not it means “ugly penis” o.O) but besides that it’s a flower and belongs to the group of the largest flowers in the world!!  Even though you can find it in many botanic gardens in the around the globe, it belongs to the Tropical forests of Sumatra only.  She’s known as the “Stinky Flower” or “The Corpse Flower” due to its smell.


















The Corpse Flower is 7 to 10ft tall and from 5 to 6ft in circumference when it blooms, its bract or outer leaf is green and has the shape of a loaf French bread, when it booms its stretch is hollow and purple-ish.
Houston has it’s very own Stinky Flower at Houston Museum of Natural Science, they’ve named her Lois and for the next week you can see and smell for yourself one of the slinkiest flowers in the world, first explorers say this was a “Man Eating Plant”, the HMNS  will keep The Cockrell Butterfly Center open 24 when she blooms, Louis was expected to be in full bloom on the weekend of July 9-11th but this flower is totally unpredictable, so keep an eye on her because it will only bloom once in a lifetime.









“We’ve had ours for over six years now and this is the first time it has bloomed, we’re very lucky. She might be the largest, smelliest flower in the world but its beauty is unparallel” said Dr. Nancy Greig.
Don’t miss out on checking out one of the rarest flowers in the world brought to you. The HMNS will be open around the clock for you to come have a look at this beauty, tickets are $8 and discounts may apply so no excuses! Schedule your visit here http://store.hmns.org/Default.aspx?dspgrp=5


See you guys there.