Invisible Scratch Pickles, Murs, P.O.S, Peanut Butter Wolf, Pickster One, THE BLUNT CLUB
Downtown Phoenix
03/11/2017 07:00 PM MST
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Murs
Murs first appeared as a solo artist in 2003, after nearly a decade of working with various groups in the underground. Based in Los Angeles, his first single was released in 1993, and came from a self-released album by his first group, 3 Melancholy Gypsies. The track barely made a dent, but it did catch the attention of indie hip-hop fans in the area. Through time, the group members became friends with Mystik Journeymen, who... asked 3MG (their shortened name) to join him when he started the Living Legends collective in 1996.
Between both 3MG and the Living Legends, Murs rapped on several influential indie rap albums, appearing on more than 20 records, EPs, and singles within a seven-year period. When El-P started to pull together his Def Jux label, Murs contacted the producer and told him he would release his solo record for the company once he had the opportunity. His commitments to both the Legends and 3MG often kept him from working on the album, but after a few years of slowly putting together tracks, Murs finally delivered The End of the Beginning in the spring of 2003.
The rapper returned to solo work with Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition, a collaboration with producer 9th Wonder, in 2004. Murs is also part of a punk fusion band called The Invincibles with Jacksonville, Florida's Whole Wheat Bread as lead vocalist.
P.O.S
Doomtree co-founder, punk philosopher and lyrical bomb-thrower Stefon Alexander, aka P.O.S makes tight, declamatory music that builds on the Minneapolis-bred rapper and producer's penchant for grinding beats and radical lyrics. Known for welding hip-hop with guitar squalls, screamed vocals, and futuristic beats fit for a Berlin nightclub, P.O.S steps even further into genre-blurring territory with "sleepdrone/superposition," a nearly nine-minute-long sprawling masterpiece that touches on "being black, beefs, loves, hurts, victories, pride and the future" all while reflecting over the past two years since a kidney surgery sidelined him from making music. It's never felt better to have him back in action.
Pickster One
Arizona-based DJ and music producer Pickster One has been making waves on the Tempe and Phoenix scene since his arrival in 1998. With his forward-thinking and highly innovative DJ sets, he has put himself into a genre all his own and has developed an incredibly diverse fan base. Pickster One takes influences from a broad scope of musical genres including Hip-hop, Electro, Dubstep, and countless other experimental, electronic genres to form a new-school, high-energy set that rocks the party and keeps the dance floor packed.
Pickster One, a.k.a. Dusty Hickman, born to Jerry and Mercy Hickman of small town Prundale, California, population 7,000 just outside of Monterey. With limited access to entertainment and music as a child, Pickster recorded music off the television onto his boom-box, listening to it over and over again on his headphones, sometimes late into the night while others slept. A natural-born music selector and collector, Pickster quickly began adapting his musical tastes to the booming Boom Bap style of the hip-hop culture in the late 80’s early 90’s.
Post high school, Pickster left the sleepy town to pursue and receive a degree in culinary arts from Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale, Arizona. He made the move with his long time pal, Ricardo, and it allowed him to quickly jump into the DJ scene to further develop his skills as a blooming Hip Hop and Scratch DJ. Pickster quickly began cultivating his skill while rubbing elbows with Phoenix and Tempe heavy-hitters.
As a leader in innovative style, Pickster quickly began to form one of the first ever “turntable bands” entitled Morse Code in the late 1990′s. Made up of 4 DJ’s, the bands concept was to create the individual sounds of a traditional band through scratch composition and sampled beat patterns which ultimately evolved into a perfect musical backdrop for MC’s to rap or sing on. Morse Code blew away the competition with its truly revolutionary rhythmic sounds—the first of its kind. Performing constantly around the nation, Morse Code quickly became an international act as they were asked to perform at the Disco Mixing Challenge (DMC Battle) USA Finals in 2004. Morse Code performed as featured special artist, performing a tribute set to legendary Jamaster Jay of Run DMC at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, in front of a sold out theatre.
Pickster also got the opportunity to play alongside the 8 piece live Hip-Hop band called, “Drunken Immortals”. 8 years, 3 Full length albums, Multiple National US Tours, and a few run down RV’s, Pickster developed his ear and skills to be able to play along with live musicians as a DJ/Turntablist. No longer with the group. Pickster continues to collaborate and work with all the members of the band, Including Dumperfoo and Scott White which are in Crusher Sound System.
In 2008 Pickster was inducted into the world renowned “Furious Styles Crew”. FSC known for their world class B-Boy crew wining compitions all over the world since 1993. Joining the ranks of legendary Arizona DJ’s such as DJ Z-Trip, DJ Element, DJ Radar, DJ Senbad and more.
Pickster earned his stripes as a solo artist through the highly competitive AZ rave, warehouse, and club party scenes throughout the 2000’s. At the time, Arizona was notorious for its DJ’s, who sometimes literally pushed others off stage during their set performance, if the DJ so much as took too long to change records mid-set. Surviving massive competition during this time, Pickster One persevered and was further able to develop an even wider spectrum of music to pull from. Today, he can rock any kind of party at any given time.
In 2005, Pickster began touring the United States on a much larger scale, doing fifteen tours as a solo act playing clubs, festivals, and warehouses, and often as the house DJ for touring Hip-Hop Acts . Some of these tours included “We Book Our Own Tour” with Los Angeles-based MC 2Mex that reached fifty US cities in sixty days. In 2009, Pickster took his career overseas to Europe DJing with Crusher Sound System, in Paris, St. Etienne, Lyon, Nancy, and Le Mans, France. He performed in Grenada, Barcelona, Malaga, and Seville, Spain as well as Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland, Praug, Czech Republic, Dresden and Berlin, Germany, and Athens, Greece. Pickster also performed at the infamous SXSW music festival in 2009 on the “Strange Famous Records” stage with 2mex, Free Moral Agents and Sage Francis. The performance was such a success, he was quickly booked to make widely successful 2009 Strange Famous Megamix, a Record Label Sampler that was officially put out by XLR8R magazine. To date the colorful musician has over twenty full-length mix CD’s under his belt as a turntable-artist.
Over the past 10 years, Pickster has taken on numerous weekly and monthly club events including the longest-running Arizona Hip-Hop club night, The Legendary Blunt Club. Other events include the newly-spawned dance night, Move Somethin, Solstice, Downtime, Ill-Matic, and many other nights. In 2009, Pickster revamped his creative style and hit the electronic music scene like a Cat 5 hurricane. Playing hundreds of rave events and festivals, Pickster continues to tear up the Phoenix Electro and House dance scenes with his Hip-Hop/Scratch roots to party rock, pop wheelies and often brings something new to keep his fan base strong in the ever-changing electronic dance scene. Just this past year, Pickster shared the stage with Z-Trip, Bassnectar, Glitchmob, A-Trak, Diplo, Santigold, and Rusko, to name a few.
In 2007, Pickster began his latest side-project group, entitled Crusher Sound System, which gained widespread acclaim in 2009. Crusher is a DJ-based outfit which delivers centrally as DJ based turntable beats, mixed with live drumming, keys, samplers, and drum machines while keeping it fresh with live canvas painting on stage. Crusher Sound System has certainly hit the ground running with instant local success, selling out their first handful of shows in Arizona. The band has seen their fan base literally double each time they have played, even before having an official album release. Be sure to check them out in 2010.
Pickster One, a revolutionary beyond his years, never misses a chance to lead others into new sounds and musical genres with his kaleidoscopic range of musical taste and innovation. Pulling from a variety of musical backgrounds and genres, Pickster fully embraces the high speed and physto-ADD attention span of his listeners while adhering to the challenges and bends of a changing market in a tumultuous and rampant musical scene. The big pay-off to him is not only a successful show or a good time, but the essential DJ experience of creating a scintillating playground for senses, while controlling the vibes of the bumping crowd. With his eye on the future, Pickster One is heading into 2010 running, hitting the club, electro, bar, rave and music festival scene with never-ending positivity, mold-ability, creative light, and changing approach to rock electronic-based dance music like it has never been rocked before. With open ears and eyes this DJ is certainly one who will be making waves, and we can’t wait to watch, listen, and respect.
Venue Information
Downtown Phoenix
Central and Washington
Phoenix, AZ 85003