This month at DARKROOM: Tasho (Mothership/ Stompy) & Mikebee (KUSF/Amoeba)!

Stap[e returns once again with their monthly installment of DARKROOM. This month's guests are Stompy & Mothership producer Tasho, along w/ Amoeba's resident vinyl librarian Mikebee , in addition to residents Javaight & Fil Latorre.

No cover b4 10pm w/ RSVP, $5 after , and we're going from 9pm-2am.

RSVP HERE

About Tasho:

Tasho is a long time defender of the San Francisco dance community. As a resident of the timeless Stompy club night, Tasho (nee Tasho Nicolopulous) has been bringing jam after jam to Bay-Area clubs for over a decade. Alongside production partner and vocal whiz Monty Luke, his first single for mothership — “Paranoid” — has had trainspotters clamoring for a sneak peak. Expect much more to come.

About Mikebee:

DJ mikebee aka Michelangelo Battaglia has been active in SF's electronic music community since 1994. Raised on a diet of music as a child, Mike studied Opera at Carnegie Mellon University in 1991 before leaving in 1993 to pursue a life of dance music, inspired by his early-90's adventures in the East Coast rave scene. Moving to SF in 1994, Mike immediately reimagined himself as an atmospheric drum'n'bass DJ in the mid-to-late 90's, being involved in countless regular parties, most notably Ikon Massive at 330 Ritch St. (1995-1996) and La Belle Epoque Saturdays at The Top (now Underground SF 1996-2001) where he was a resident. After LBE's demise, Mike and his True Intent crew kept the night going as promoters from 2001 to 2004 playing 2-Step Garage, Broken Beat and more under the names Bottom Heavy (2001-2002), True Intent (2002) and Safe (2002-2004) before The Top's demise in 2004.

Mike has also opened up for the cream of dance music in nearly every venue in town again and again, including LTJ Bukem on the main floor of 1015 Folsom (and in other venues), Grooverider at the now-defunct Justice League, Mark Farina, numerous Sunset and Bulletproof boat parties and campouts and many, many more including regular work for the Blasthaus production crew. Mike also is co-owner of the SF-based atmospheric D&B label True Intent (1999-2003) and has been a regular producer of two different shows on KUSF since 1996: Future Breaks (1996-2002) and The Friday Night Session (2002-present) where he continues to co-produce to this day along with Andrew Jervis (Ubiquity Recordings) and Tomas Palermo (Forward Ever).

In the early part of the decade, mike pioneered the sounds of 2-Step and Broken Beat in SF, being responsible for the first local appearances of many forward-thinking acts like Bugz in the Attic (Afronaught, Daz-I-Kue, Seiji), Domu, Horsepower Productions and Kode 9 at Safe and his massively popular underground Rewind (aka REW) at Tenderloft. His support of the emerging 2-Step scene put him in a place where he was a stalwart and original supporter of then-evolving Dubstep subgenre, now blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon. As a result, the local SF dubstep scene considers mike a sort of elder statesman.

In addition, Mike was a staff writer for XLR8R magazine (1996-2005) writing features and regular reviews, and has been published by the SF Bay Guardian and Urb magazine, where he helmed his own column from 1996-1997 called The Bee's Buzz in addition to writing regular reviews from 1997 through 2000, as well as writing for a slew of now-defunct music magazines like Sweater and Revolution.

Since 2006 Mike has been feeling the sounds of house, disco, techno and downtempo and as a DJ has been concentrating his energy there on the few occasions he does play out (aside from the occasional gig playing classic Drum'n'Bass or 2-Step for the Grime City kids). In 2008, he was featured in the SF Weekly as a "tastemaker" and "music maven" where he was called "a true vanguard in the S.F. music community". (http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-03-12/music/making-a-buzz/) For his day job, Mike works for Amoeba Music (since 1998) as the new product buyer and manager of the electronic/dance section since 2004.

Upcoming projects include a live music venture conducting a 12-piece house music orchestra which includes Jonah Sharp and Warren Huegel of Tussle, podcast mixes for a slew of people including DC Recordings' Samurai FM radio show, and a few upcoming DJ appearances.

About Javaight:

David Javate aka DJ Javaight aka JV8, is a DJ, event promoter and writer for Nitevibe and 365Mag. A veteran DJ from Washington DC and lifelong dance music aficionado, David's love has always been towards the deeper side of house and techno. As is evident in his contributions to SF nightlife with the deep house night, Staple, the ground breaking techno event, Optimal, and the techno happy hour, Killswitch, David continues to showcase deeper styles with a DJ style which acknowledges house and techno's pioneers while also welcoming today's innovators. Showing the diversity of being able to play during different moods of the night, David always strives to take the listener on a journey, and make an audio collage which moves the mind and body.

Originally from Washington DC, and after years of playing at nightclubs and raves around the country and South America, Fil Latorre settled in San Francisco in 1999, and shortly thereafter helped start the party known as Stap[e. Stap[e's focus has always been on deep, quality dance music, what Fil and partner David "dj Javaight" Javate call "Future house and Deep techno". Over the years, Stap[e has featured acts like Layo & Bushwacka!, Stacey Pullen, Kenny Larkin, Dan Bell, Jori Hulkonnen, Common Factor, Mark Ambrose, John Tejada and Alexi Delano, culminating in being awarded "Best House Night" by the SF Bay Guardian. Passionate about music all of his life, Fil currently works as an Audio Engineer, and has been working on his own production work, which he regularly plays in his DJ sets.