What I don't spin: Cheese just to be "fun", techno that calls itself electro, rap just to be an "ironic hipster", music without vocals or with repetative vocals, everything new just because it's new, remixes that aren't better than the originals... and most aren't. And nothing annoys me more than a remix that removes or otherwise fucks with the vocals.
What I do spin: Music with substance first and style second, songs that are either classics or that have what it takes to become classics (I've been clubbing long enough to recognize them), music that is danceable AND worth listening to outside of a club, and not least... music we BOTH like... I'm not behind the decks to push my own agenda.
Some of my favorites at the moment: REAL METAL (not croaking bullshit generic cookie cutter[monster?] metal), CLASSIC ROCK, Shiny Toy Guns, Manowar, Lily Allen, The Sounds, IAMX, Client, CSS, Blind Guardian, Robots in Disguise...
Some of my favorites of all time: Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, Suede, The Cult, Queensryche, Manowar, Psychedelic Furs, XTC, Fleetwood Mac, Happy Mondays, Jeff Buckley, Skinny Puppy...
Rick Mayall, Jarvis Cocker, Brett Anderson, Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Martin Gore, David Bowie, Robert Smith, Ian Curtis, Elizabeth Frazier, Siouxsie Sioux, Steve Harris/Bruce Dickinson/Adrian Smith, Ian Astbury, Nivek Ogre, Andy Partridge, Daniel Ash, Peter Murphy, Shaun Rider, Daniel Meyer, Damon Albarn, Bernard Sumner, and BEZ!
This profile is for people local to Portland, Oregon. If you are from elsewhere, but interested in DJ Catalyst or his solo music project, "Soviet Radio", please go to:
I grew up on pre-hair band (aka real) metal and matured on goth-industrial, but I've always been open to music of all kinds and I've delved into many different crowds and scenes over the years.
As for my DJing: In the beginning there was rave. But we won't go there...
In the beginning that counts there was Unterzone. This was a Thursday weekly at Panorama, which was Portland's largest dance club at the time. Unterzone later moved to Fridays, also at Panorama, and became Portland's very first 21+ dance night dedicated entirely to industrial. The regular 200+ attendance also makes it the largest to this day. Panorama eventually closed, being an enormous 800 capacity venue in a town increasingly focused on smaller and more diverse club nights. Since then the industrial scene in Portland has grown immensely and today Dementia, with which I'm not affiliated, has become the longest running industrial night, with a far more diverse rotation of superb DJs.
After Unterzone there was Oscillate in 2002. This was another first. Along with DJ Gino Marie (of the Gentry) I attempted to bring the growing phenomenon of electroclash to Portland, mixing it with a heavy dose of britpop and "proto-indie".
2004 brought Invasion, a night focused on britpop, 80s, electro, and the new wave of indie rock that hit that year. The Red Cap Garage, formerly The Brig, became the weekly hangout of a small but diehard crowd of hardcore music lovers, several of whom have since become popular DJs in their own rights.
While Invasion grew I focused on doing tribute parties (Pulp, The Cure, Joy Division), some britpop dance parties at The Fez and Doug Fir, and a pair of jam-packed parties at the Fez called Reunion '89 featuring authentic sets of 80s alternative/synthpop just like you might have heard in the late 80s at clubs like Manhatten, Scoochie's, Confetti's, The Nu Klub, or The City. I also did an Invasion-like night on Tuesdays at Doug Fir with DJ Gregarious during this period.
By 2007 Invasion was gaining more and more popularity as an 80s night, so in an effort to preserve its more diverse musical identity I moved it to another venue on Saturday nights. The new venue closed down only a month later and Invasion ceased to exist... for now. With Invasion on hold I decided to help expand DJ Non's Decadent 80s at Mt Tabor from a monthly to a twice monthly, taking up 3rd Saturdays while DJ Non continued 1st Saturdays. That night has since moved to every week at The Chesterfield with a new name: Manic 80s.
Thursdays at The Red Cap Garage didn't miss a beat though! They are now called Propoganda and, while the focus is more heavily on 80s than Invasion was, there's still a fair amount of diversity when there's good new music to be had; mainly dance-"punk", "indie"-rock, and electro(clash) type stuff... whatever the hell it's being called at the time.
Beyond DJing:
My biggest passion is music... mainly of the alternative sorts. Besides DJing other people's music I also write/sing under the name Soviet Radio.
I do all kinds of game-related programming from full 3D online games in C#, DirectX, XNA, etc. to web apps like you see on MySpace in C#, ASP, AJAX, etc. One such app is coming soon!
I like to travel. I like my food spicy. I keep up on politics and world news.
Noooo.....it's not a *night*....it's a little hipster bar on...4th I think.....near greek cuisina.....but it's named Invasion and they play music that sounds like you and I ran into Kels there by chance
So....the name on the door said "Invasion" and there were gay boys and drinks and 80's Music and even Kels in a *pink* shirt and I thought....hmmmm.....this seems *so* familiar....but there's NO dancefloor and there's NO Catalyst.....*sigh*
Curses, foiled again!
When're you gonna start another night?! .....
I'm waiting all un-patiently and stuff.....don't you know it's bad form to upset a Queen?
how are you doing?! i haven't talked to you in ages!... yep, i'm overseas! i know - weird, huh? i got married to a northern irishman and everything! there's nothing like making some major changes! :)
I noticed you have Blind Guardian on your friends list. Vic Kurtis and I were listening to them on the way to our LOTR party. When we were watching the second lord of the rings, victor and kurtis kept saying "man that's so metal" It was hilarious.
You do that!! They're poaching on your territory the bastards!
