Bustin' Loose

I am joining DJ Jeffro for a little night of music at Staple's this Saturday night in historic Allentown (across from Nietzsche's). Come on down folks! Funk, funk, funk and (mostly) all vinyl, baby.

Doing It To Death

Featuring DJ Jeffro with guest DJ Dr. Wisz of Deja Blu

According to the creator of this funky night, DJ Jeffro:

What is Doing It To Death? Nothing crazy, just a laid back night of hard hitting horns, snares that are mighty tight and alright, and ridiculously raw grooves that are pure dynamite. Aided and abetted by The Funkmaster Generals.... Otis, Stevie, James, Sly, Curtis, Zig, Booker, Maceo and Arlester.

Grooves that are so ON the money that you'll be amazed you got in for NO money.

4+ hours of classic soul & funk music from the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Stax, Motown, Curtom, King, Tamla, Desco, Hi, Daptone, and more.

Saturday, July 26, 2010

11pm- close

100% free, 200% funky

keep on keepin' on.

Sounds of the City

Looking back on an era of acid jazz and the posters that set the scene.

Things have been rather hectic around the OW headquarters and I haven't had much time to sit back and contemplate or even muster enough energy to write about something. So the blog has suffered as you can see...sorry. It has been a busy year. I thought I would spend some time looking back (while cleaning the flat files looking for something) and post some old graphic design work, some rock posters, some DJ flyers and some of the fun things I have completed over the years.

Going back to 1997, when the DJ scene in Buffalo had worn out it's post-rave vibe, all seemed lost on the club scene. Rock & hip-hop ruled the bars and DJs were regulated to the typical Friday and Saturday night slots. A friend of mine opened the Kingsnake Lounge at 112 Chippewa street and a new groove was born for the end of the '90s. DJ Scotty and I took our love of electronic music, early drum and bass, abstrakt hip hop, and a new groove called acid jazz, and created what we called 'deja blu.' We spun records (yes kids, vinyl records...) at the end of the bar on a Tuesday night and created a scene for the chilled out, imported beer and martini drinking set.

The posters and flyers I did for our nights were always changing in order to keep it fresh. Born of the distressed, grunge of the era (late '90s), the posters were often built directly in Photoshop to take advantage of the layers, filters and accidents that made cool & unplanned things happen. A signature look was born to promote a signature DJ night than moved from the weekday stint to the monthly, full house Saturday nights. Often with images of sax players and manipulated jazz icons, I borrowed strongly from the Blue Note graphics of the 1950s and turned it on it's head. Printed after hours at my job at the time, I was limited to one-color on white stock. When my day job bought a color printer, I still worked in a limited color range to keep it simple and stark.

The official deja blu logo is probably the only logo that I have ever designed that doesn't exist in vector format. A layered Photoshop file, the DB logo was a misaligned ghost of an identity, a vibrating, floating logomark that represents the music, the scene and the blurry consumption of too much alcohol. With unnecessary accent marks on the logo, I always wanted us to appear strange and foreign.

Here we have three examples of deja blu flyers, typical of the era. The first one was a 1/2 page, black and white and may have been one of the 1st flyer to promote the deja blu Tuesdays. The official 'deja blu' logo had not been created yet, but the visual aesthetics can be seen in it's infancy.

The other two are from specific Saturday nights at the Kingsnake Lounge and represent the deja blu look at it's top form. The first one from November 28, 1998 includes fuzzy typefaces, fake halftone dots, and a limited color palette (always in blue). The second poster is from a night in 1998 (2-days before x-mas), and it broke away from the norm with a much more balanced, less grunge look. Printed again in a limited palette but on blue paper stock, the yellow glowing deja blu logo hangs on the half-toned, manipulated clip art building like a flag. Other deja blu posters often included Europeans enjoying cigarettes and cocktails or urban landscapes, as with this one. This was a memorable night on the Buffalo club scene with duel slide shows, flashing lights, over-capacity crowds (screw the fire marshall) and people dancing their asses off and flipping up the walls, drinking like it was the end of the world, all over a pumping, jazzy groove that was acid jazz in it's prime. Great flyer, great night!

There will be more to follow, including some early '90s rave/party flyers and some ICON concert posters (where I was the official poster designer in it's heyday). I have to organize them and scan them, so pencil that in as 'coming soon.'

CREDITS: (1) original deja blu logo, (2) deja blu 'The Original" flyer from 1997, (3) "November Twenty Eight Saturday" poster for Kingsnake gig 11/98, and (4) "Sound of the City" poster for Kingsnake gig on Dec. 26th 1998. All designed by Mark Wisz, Wizard Graphics.

The Mirror Conspiracy

Today's Buffalo Snooze essentially re-wrote an ArtVoice story about Buffalo's electronic DJs in the 1990s. See the AV story linked here. Again Scott & I, as "dejablu" were named-checked. It seems a history of this Buffalo DJ scene cannot be written without our influence mentioned. This is very cool and it makes me feel great to not be forgotten! An honor to be remembered, to say the least.

To add to this story: both the Kingsnake, the 658 and the Blu (Osaka) were weekly DJ gigs begun by Scott and I. We were the first DJs at the Kingsnake on Chippewa, the first ones to move to 658 after the original 'Snake closed and we were the opening night DJs at Blu on Main Street. My DJ parner Scott hosted the weekly 'open DJ nights' at Blu that began the careers of a lot of local DJs.

As written in the Buffalo Snooze article:

"Concurrent with these warehouse and loft-space parties, a small but vibrant club scene began to grow in Buffalo — centered around the Chippewa area, but certainly not limited to it. The likes of the Rendezvous, Asbury Alley, the Kingsnake, the Atomic, the Icon (later to be known as Club E), the Opium Lounge, and Osaka's Blu, among others, all featured at least one night of DJ-based music per week....

.... In addition to the Knowmatic Tribe guys, Deja Blu, DJ Zuk, Mike Parker, and the collective responsible for the weekly Baby Steps shows at Broadway Joe's conspired to lay the template for 21st century Buffalo electronic dance music."

This makes me think 2010 is ripe for some dejablu reunion gigs?!?!? Someone call DJ Scotty!!

Buffalo News article: They spin, we dance: DJs draw crowds downtown

Beat Dis

dejablu, Scotty and I, are named-checked in Craig Reynolds piece about Buffalo, NY's DJ history, post 1990. It was very cool to get the little plug as our place in Buffalo DJ-history is noted.

When Scotty and I abandoned our rock-n-roll bar DJ gigs to started spinning records in Oct. 1997 on the corner of the bar at the Kingsnake on Chippewa, we would have never thought a whole scene was going to blow up around us. Delving into, what was later to be known as acid jazz, we played records on a Tuesday night. In our primetime we played such cool spots as the Kingsnake Lounge, 658, Osaka's Blu, O, Off The Wall, old Pink, Rendevous, Calumet Arts Cafe, the Tralf, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Mohawk Place, Daemen College Gallery, WNYBAC, CEPA Gallery, Allen St. Hardware, Third Room, Central Train Terminal, old Burchfield Penny Art Center, many more that I have long forgotten, and had a drink named after us, the dejablu martini!

The older I get, the more I wanna rock! Excerpt from the AV article:

"Atomic Cafe and the Kingsnake Lounge in the early years of the Chippewa Street resurgence were ground zero, attracting fashionistas and Elmwood’s denizens of cool, and later, Club e (formerly the Icon), 658 on Main Street, where the Knowmatic Tribe held residence once the Kingsnake closed, and the Opium Lounge, all opened their doors to electronic music. By now, there was a healthy community of experienced DJs, all pursuing their own personal styles—like DJ Zuk of Deep Soul Plug, who started playing cosmic lounge, and Dr. Wisz and Scotty, who as Deja Blu spun acid jazz."

> Read extensive AV article here.

> Click here for dejablu discography.

The Richest Man In Babylon

ART + MUSIC = LOVE

I am DJing for a silent auction at the CEPA photography gallery tonight (Sat. April 25, 2009). déjà blü has been the CEPA DJs for ages now spinning tunes once a year for various fundrasiers. It is all always a good time, good people, good art and a good vibe all together. Come on out, you don't have to bid on the art, you can just l0ok, have a few drinks, talk and listen to the smoove grooves. Assisting me will by DJ Jill, my awesome wife and collegue. Come on by and wish her a happy anniversary today (#12).... Yeah.

CEPA Gallery Visions of Greater Buffalo 2009 Tonight, Saturday April 25th, 7:00 PM

>> Click here for the online catalog of images

"The Visions of Greater Buffalo benefit event is scheduled for Saturday, April 25 at the historic Market Arcade Building in downtown Buffalo’s Theatre District. An audience of over 200 guests will be present at the event, including the VIPs and other influential business leaders, community members, arts supporters and many others from the Greater Buffalo region.

Admission to the event is $10 per person and includes complimentary hors d’oeuvres catered by Amy McCarthy and Fredi and music by déjà blü; cash bar. The reception begins at 7:00 pm in the Market Arcade; the silent auction takes place from 7:30 to 9:00 pm."

The images are taken by local 'celebrities' who are not necessarily artists.... well some of them are. Heck, we are all artists, aren't we? The image above is by my friend, font-maestro (artist) Rich Kegler. View others here.

Hope to see you all tonight!

Station to Station

My posting has been interrupted by that damn Facebook. I gotta try and stay away and tonight is one of those days when I say 'no more,' and I turn off the computer. This little screen is hurting my eyes. We had some out-of-town guests in town last night and I have plans to spin some tunes tomorrow night at the Mohawk Place. I am listening to the Sabs game and Max A almost got a second goal!?!? When was the last time that guy had 2 goals in one game (but I think it is going to happen tonight).

I think I will get some rest. I can't Twitter, I have too much to say and such a small area to type in.

I was proclaiming my love of all things analog the other day to my intern and I think she was looking at me like I was a little nuts. Hey I am old school true and true. I am Nice Price- all this for $4.99, you have got to be kidding me.

Come out Sunday night, it will be fun!

Free Way

Special DJ Alert!

Spain's POETS IN PROCESS

with DJ Dr. Wisz of deja blu

Sunday, March 15, 2009 @ 8:00pm

Mohawk Place

47 E Mohawk St.

Buffalo, NY

This Sunday, March 15th, I am DJing as the warm up for this indie rock band from Barcelona, Spain called Poets in Process. I think they are flying in to the good ol' USA to play the Canadian Music Week and then the famed SXSW (according to the Mohawk Place weekly email calendar). Luckily Buffalo falls in between those two concert stops. Buffalo has always had the 'quick extra concert stop between concerts on the East Coast thing going for it'... TO, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, NYC... It has been this way for ages, every since bands of any sort-- even big bands, back in the day-- they always stopped in Buffalo when touring the East Coast.

Here is what they sound like: MySpace page Poet In Process and their own site
My favorite song so far is A New Poet in Progess, #5 on the MySpace list.

Rich from P22 and The Western New York Book Arts printed the seventy-four awesome letterpress posters (in the photo above). Each one is unique. Letterpress-- which might undergo the popularity rise the silk screen rock posters had over the past 8-10 years-- is hand setting metal letters, inking blankets and printing the old fashioned way. It is the ANALOG of the print world really.

I think he said this square poster is 6 colors and the starburst is made with strips of lead. Don't forget all the characters are individually handset letters- time comsuming. Awesome skill, very cool. And to see my DJ moniker set in 72 pt Futura Bold metal. Extra cool.

Should be a blast, it's only $5, and it's an early night... you could be home by 11:00-12:00 or so.... you should all come on out!

Here is some more info cribbed from the Mohawk email (for those of you who don't receive it, you should), thanks Marty:

Spain’s Poet in Process, virtually unknown on this side of the Atlantic, are, in the words of their publicist, by way of their translator, a gem to discover, a truthful "nugget". Their compositions, attitude and presence on stage make of them the future of the pop rock scene. The combination of shrilled and ripped guitars with the delicacy and softness of the melodies, invites the voice to create captivating and violent melodies surrounded by a tender and whispering cadence. 


After five years working and performing in a great number of venues and festivals, they have had the opportunity to support bands such as Stereophonics, OK GO, Albert Hammond Jr., Muse and Take That. The song “Why”, from their first LP Free Way has been included in the Guillermo del Toro's film Hellboy II, and several of their songs were featured in the soundtrack of the Spanish soap opera Cuestion de sexo. Four of their songs have been chosen to be playing on the website of the famous Spanish Chef Sergi Arola (www.sergiarola.es ).

Between appearances at Canadian Music Week and SXSW, the band is stopping off in Buffalo, with assistance from P22 fontmeister and The Western New York Book Arts's Rich Kegler.

Clash City Rockers

The Magnificent Seven! 7th Annual Tribute to Joe Strummer and The Clash! Friday, December 26th!

Ring! ring! its 7:00 a.m.!
Move yself to go again
Cold water in the face
Brings you back to this awful place.
-- The Clash

Come on out the day after Christmas for some post holiday cheer and rock!

This friday I will be DJ'ing before, between and after rock band sets during the 7th annual Clash tribute night at the Mohawk place. Join us as we pay tribute to the late, great Joe Strummer.

I love this gig because I get to play really loud punk rock, reggae and dub music... just like Joe would have liked! This is always one of my favorite gigs, especially for the fact that I LOVE spinning discs at the Mohawk Place. For you name droppers, I will be playing tunes by the likes of: The Selector, X-Ray Specs, Special AKA. Stiff Little Finger, Stooges, Mickey Dread, Desmond Dekker, the Exploited, Sex Pistols, Bad Manners, the Damned and more! I better start sifting through the CD collection and get prepared, sort of...

The bands (Rebel Waltz & more) consists of various Buffalo musical greats doing sets of Clash sounds which are usually great! Lotsa fun! Hope to see you there. Drink a Pabst! Musicians include John Lombardo, Chris Malachowski and Jimy Chambers to name a few. 

>> The proceeds benefit STRUMMERVILLE- The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music

>> This is my 7th poster in a row for this event, click here to see them all.

What do we have for entertainment?
Cops kickin' gypsies on the pavement!
-- The Clash