There’s something magical with just DJing from records that you’ve found at a thrift store sometimes.
"There’s something magical with just DJing from records that you’ve found at a thrift store sometimes." Jim Yeager

DJ MADMAX WALLACE (Snap! 90s Dance Party; Swayze! 80s Dance Party)

Current top 5 tracks:

Prince, "Money Don’t Matter 2 Night" (Paisley Park/Warner Bros.)

ESG, "UFO" (99)

The Lafayette Afro Rock Band, "Darkest Light" (America)

Willie Bobo, "Fried Neck Bones and Some Fries" (Verve)

Ronnie Foster, "Mystic Brew" (Blue Note)

Styles played: "Hiphop, jazz, soul, funk, new wave, post-punk, disco, breaks, psych, prog, world… The majority of the music I play is over 20 years old, at least. I like to collect samples from the classic hiphop era, and pretty much anything that has a good looped groove to it, recorded well, or weird enough to be interesting."

Events organized: "Snap 90s, Swayze 80s, Wednesday Rotation at Nacho Borracho."

DJing Philosophy: "DJing is different than just record-collecting or hoarding music, because you are relating to a room of people with music you’ve found and are choosing to blend with etc., and making choices based off of how people are responding in the room. Connecting with a room full of strangers and have them be pleasantly surprised with the joy of sound; seeing them connect positively with different people they’ve never met. A near perfect set can change peoples lives, introduce them to a future spouse, open them up to positive possibilities, change their outlook on having a negative work week. It’s honoring and humbling to be at the helm of that ship. Take them on a journey that they don’t know they want to be on—or yourself, for that matter. Approach the the wheels of steel with love and respect and they’ll give you that back and more. I always talk myself into a positive mood before I start spinning records, so I can bring people up. Music is an ancient river of vibrations that were there before all of us and will be there long after. Might as well wade in water and enjoy; it’s there for us."

Format: "Vinyl, but I use Serato, too, or whatever format the track I want is to be found on. When I first started DJing, I had a weekly gig with two CDJs, two turntables, a sampler, effects, and I’d try to get everything going at once with kids records, hiphop instrumentals, jazz, dub. Keep it eclectic. There’s no wrong format, everything has its pluses and minuses. There’s something magical with just DJing from records that you’ve found at a thrift store sometimes."

Worst request: “'Play some rock & roll, country-western... you know, SHIT PEOPLE KNOW!' a balding, middle-aged man yelled at me after hitting the needles off my records/turntables at a Christmas party at the Holiday Inn in SeaTac. His friend with mustache, mullet, missing a tooth, and a flowered shirt waved a buck knife at me. 'Yeah, you need to cut it and play shit we know!' I was playing James Brown and Boards of Canada records for a bunch of NASCAR fans from SeaTac, and so my friend brought in a crate of country records and classic-rock records and it went over better. This was Christmas, 2000."

Upcoming events:
8/31 Snap! 90s Dance Party at Holocene, Portland

Snap! 90s Dance Party 9/15 at Lo-Fi

Swayze! 80s Dance Party
9/21 at Nacho Borracho
9/22 at Lo-Fi