Clayton Le Panda

Sex Panther

See Also:

*Boys Noize Talks New Album, Working With Snoop Dogg and Skrillex

*Singularity Highlights the M in EDM

*Audrey Napoleon, EDM's Electro Queen, Went From Performing in Malls to Producing Her Own Clothing Line

Before embarking on their semi-erotic EDM duo Sex Panther, Ryan Fontana and Aaron Cool were just two regular guys who loved music. They both played guitars and Cool had played the piano as a child. They were fans of electronic dance music attending every show and festival they could. Fontana, a Hawaii bred entrepreneur moved to Orange County to attend Chapman University with an emphasis in film production. While working for the Gotta Dance Dirty music blog on some video projects early last year, he found out that they ran the side room at the infamous club Avalon in Hollywood.

"I asked 'dude, what's deal with that booking could I play there some time," says Fontana. "Jonah [the GDD Founder] was like 'yeah play there on Friday, can you play on CDJs?'" Fontana had no idea how to use CDJs. Those two days leading up to the show he went to Guitar Center for hours to teach himself. Then Newport Beach native, Cool came into the store and they started chatting. "I was like 'I'll give you some drink tickets if you come to Avalon Friday," he says. They exchanged info, but Aaron never made it to the show. They did however, run into each other a couple months later. "We never had the specific intent of starting a DJ duo," says Ryan. Yet here they are, touring all over the world as Sex Panther a little over a year later.

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Matt Oliver / OC Weekly

Audrey Napoleon

See Also:
*Eric Prydz & Audrey Napoleon - Yost Theater - 8/16/2012
*Being Underrepresented, Female DJs Say There's No Crying in EDM
*Slideshow: Identity Festival 2011 - The Crystal Method, Jason Bentley, Pretty Lights, Steve Aoki & More

The LA-based DJ/producer Audrey Napoleon is one of the few females on the Identity Festival roster and in the electronic dance music scene today. Following the release of her debut EP Ornamental Egos in July, Audrey has been on tour for the past four-and-a -half weeks playing the album for fans and bringing her underground pop sound to the stage. She played at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana right before the legendary Eric Prydz took over OC on Wednesday evening. We caught up with her backstage before the show to talk about the tour, her fans and future projects.

"Art came to me as a child," says Napoleon. "I grew up in a very creative environment. My dad plays trumpet and drums." She used to sing and do performances at the mall and it was only natural for her to continue into performing and becoming an artist. "I grew up listening to Depeche Mode, The Cure and Kraftwerk," says Audrey. She explored progressive dance music, minimal and many other genres before arriving at her signature sound. "Underground Pop is the dark side of techno that I really love and everything I love about pop music fused together," explains Napoleon.

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Bruce Karlsson and Nick Sember, aka Norin & Rad

See Also:

Above & Beyond's Tony McGuinness Shares Why He Loves SoCal

Above & Beyond - The Shrine Auditorium - 5/18/12

Armin Van Buuren - Sutra - 5/28/12

Before joining Norin & Rad, Bruce Karlsson had been dabbling in producing and other music projects while Nick Sember started spinning hip-hop before transitioning into electronic music. The two met through mutual friends and quickly realized they had a common interest in electronic music. Naturally, they joined forces. But what they created was a bit of a surprise considering their musical backgrounds--an inventive, icy-clean brand of trance that banged inside clubs all over OC. They captured the birth of their sound well in 2010, releasing their Pandemonium/Varuna EP.  Lately, big things are happening fast.

After garnering attention on Markus Schulz' Global DJ Broadcast, they were suddenly hailed as the "Breakthrough DJs/Producers of 2011" by  English trance heroes Above & Beyond with a remix of their song "Hellion." This weekend these Orange County locals join Jaytech at Insomniac's new "Awakening Fridays" at Exchange LA for a special Anjunabeats Night Session edition. We caught up with Nick, aka "Rad," from the group and talked about his transition from a Huntington Beach boy to a touring member of the Anjunabeats family.

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Deke Dickerson, the lightning-throwing roots-rock guitarist and champion of those old honky-tonking tunes your grandfather boogied to, plays tomorrow night at Big's Grill in Fullerton.
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Zuleica Zepeda

May Day SanTana

​As tomorrow marks International Women's Day, a new photography exhibit Now This is SanTana is set to open in the city's downtown at El Centro Cultural de Mexico.

Through the lens of a camera, Zuleica Zepeda, a local award-winning Xicana indigenous artist and photographer, has collected a series of images over the course of the past four years highlighting SanTana as an Orange County epicenter for art, youth and immigrant social movements.

"It tells the story of the people of Santa Ana," says Zepeda of her first solo exhibit. Zepeda is also co-founder of the Seeds of Resistance women's art collective in the city.

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Olivier Ciappa

​When I hear the term "Broadway," I think of lots of things, but mostly I think of New York City, bright lights, people wearing pea coats, taxis and how bummed I am that I never got a chance to see those failed "Spider-Man" previews. However, thanks to Saturday's Long Beach Symphony POPS! concert, I can now add "Seal Beach" to that list as Susan Egan, a Seal Beach native and current Orange County resident, is one of three singers featured at the event.

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​On Saturday the Acrobatics Everyday crew throws on another inspired concert at UC Irvine, with Old Time Relijun member Arrington de Dionyso making another appearance after coming through 2010's edition of the Open Melody festival. 

De Dionyso's tour partner is the powerful Larkin Grimm, whose third album Parplar we reviewed a few years back.  Her latest, the self-released Soul Retrieval, is another lovely effort -- featuring among other guests legendary producer Tony Visconti -- and we caught up with her on the road by phone, with background interjections from her young son Otis:More »

​It's that time of year again when Anaheim transforms into NAMMaheim. The trade show hosted by the National Association of Music Merchants has already descended upon the city's Convention Center with numerous in-house stage performances and after parties promised in the days to come. For musician Fadia Mosri, it will be a prime opportunity to highlight her upcoming debut solo album when she performs tomorrow night. The former member of Taller Sur and collaborator with Mujeres Cantando is teaming up with Peace Drums & Percussion sponsored artist Homero Chavez for a special concert at the Sheraton Park Hotel Stage.More »

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Surely you've heard of U2, which means I don't need to tell you who they are. If you don't, there's this thing called Google. Give it a shot.

Anyway, this band U2 is playing tonight and Saturday at Angel Stadium of Anaheim and lots of yuppies who go to one concert every four years are very excited. So excited, in fact, that they've been in line for a long frickin' time. People such as myself, aka people who like good music, aren't going to see U2.

And because I'm a nice guy, I'm here to offer some tips on things to do instead of wasting hundreds of dollars on tickets (and overpriced beers and parking) and time trying to see a group that, let's face it, sucks.

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In the last two years, Bedouin Soundclash started their own record label, left long time label SideOneDummy, lost and gained a drummer, went on a hiatus, released their own album and celebrated their one decade anniversary. The Canadian rock reggae trio have come out on the other side refreshed as a band and excited for what may come next. 

Singer and guitarist Jay Malinowski talks with the Weekly about the challenges of running your own label, the most surreal moment of his career and the difference between Canadian hockey and American hockey.  

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