Spaced Invaders

Hailing from New York, Scott Debus moved to Charleston, SC three years ago and opened a gallery that showed his art as well as others on Bogard St. Debus is the Co-curator and co-organizer of Kulture Klash, the bi-annual multi-disciplinary contemporary art event in North Charleston that incorporates his New York persona.

Various paintings that Debus creates start as pure color and they morph into characters that become faces and figures. The artist describes his process of the new original painting, “UPtake” in the simplest form: “it’s like staring at clouds and pulling pictures out of them.” The superhero and ancient religious idol influenced painting, “I Don’t Believe in UP”, actually has the faces of local artists that Debus has collaborated with recently. They are all  flying over the slums and dump while a McMansion is perched up above on a pile of dirt.

Artwork on view from Sept. 4th - 29th
Scoop Studios
57 1/2 Broad St.
Charleston, SC 29401
843.577.3292

It’s the beginning of a new week and Kulture Klash 4 has come and passed. Kulture Klash this time around was a total blast. (Even if it did feel like a blur to me.) Our projections blew our minds away and more importantly blew the minds of all the people standing in line for beer and port-o-potties. I shouldn’t say it like that. In fact we had a huge number of people outside partying with us.

The numbers I really couldn’t say, but just taking a guess I’d say there was close to 800 at any given time. However, the best thing was everyone was getting down to the classics. Scruchyface Flatbroke took a commanding presence on the decks, and totally melted the crowds faces. It surprised me when he dropped William DeVaughn’s “Just Be Thankful For What You Got.” And the whole crowd was just grooving and grinding. Even though I was running video and fixing the technical stuff, (like plugging projectors back in after jerks unplugged them.) I got the crowd going with a side to side arm wave during Leon Haywood’s “I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You.” Which I think made both Scrunchyface Flatbroke and Birdflu get into the groove some more.

Speaking of that I forgot to mention Birdflu from the Bubbleguts Brothers was there with us cutting it up. If you ever get a chance you need to check him and his boy JectWon out. Strictly vinyl, crazy ass cutting, straight dope. It was great to have him up there to add his vinyl manipulation expertise. I’m sure you will see more of both crews preforming together in the near future.

I did not get a chance to check out much of the artwork. Okay, i didn’t get a chance to check out any of the artwork or see anything else that was going on besides what we were doing. But from what I have been reading and seeing, it looks like Kulture Klash 4 was a success.

Big thanks goes out to everyone who invited the Spaced Invaders out there, Gus, Scott, Ambergre, Suite Sole, (I heard we were getting paid in shoes this time around.) Big Hair and the rest of the Dub Island Crew, (Lord knows if it weren’t for you there would not have been any show at all.) To all the party goers that got down to the groove, especially to that kid who took a handful of stickers and said he’d put them up all over downtown.

All I can say is that it will take some work for the Spaced Invaders to out do themselves this time around. But hey we have already done that…just wait for the concert at the Customs House during Spoletto 09.

Kulture Klash 4 is coming up on April 14th. The Spaced Invaders have been asked back to perform. This time in a larger venue. Gustavo Serrano, one of the people who puts this together says that the venue will be much larger and will have even more areas for us to project on. I’ll keep you all posted.

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I did hear this from the owner before it hit the papers, but it still saddens me to hear that B’Zar is shutting its doors. B’zar was a lot more than just a clothing store. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to miss the most. Maybe it’s the chic styles they had and the attitudes that it embraced, maybe it was owners Gustavo and Andrea Serrano’s way they made you feel when you entered the store, maybe it’s the way that B’Zar stood out from many shops in Charleston. I’m not entirely sure. But what I do know is we need more shops like this in town.

As stated above and from my point of view B’Zar was not just a clothing store. B’Zar was a place that you could go to get a different taste of something not entirely Charleston. It was a place that you could go there and really find out when and where all the great parties and shows were taken place. You could pick up the latest mixtapes from local bedroom DJs or underground DJs. (Thanks to them doing that for me I made some really good friends out of it and met some great new people.) Local visual artists hung out there. Gustavo let his dog Roxy run free in there. New under the radar music was always a topic of discussion. And in the end it just so happens that they sold clothing there as well. I got a different feeling when I walked into B’Zar. It was personal, unlike places like American Apparel where you were always greeted with the same cookie cutter store greeting. With rows and rows of the same cookie cutter merchandise that tried to portray originality with its overstock of designs with plentiful quantities hanging from the racks.

B’Zar was the first place that I ever brought a pair of designer Nikes or even spent $65 for a shirt to dress up in. I still get complimented on all the clothes I bought from there. What can I say, chicks dig clothes from B’Zar.

I hope that with B’Zar closing down, that it’s not the end of all the great things that came from the owners of B’Zar. I’m talking about fashion shows, Kulture Klash, and the like. Gustavo and Andrea had their hands in a lot of Charleston happenings. They are even a sponsor of our Stone Groove events.

Well I am sad to see them go and I will still rock my B’Zar shirt when I’m doing shows. I hope this is not the last we see from Gustavo and Andrea Serrano.

I’m going to get kind of nostalgic with this post but it’s the New Year once again. Time for everyone to start their resolutions for the year only to forget them in about three weeks. Time for everyone to reflect on the last year and see how they can make themselves better in 2009. Well in retrospect, I’d say 2008 was a great year for the Spaced Invaders and me as a DJ.

First off 2008 had a lot of great shows for the Spaced Invaders. The College of Charleston Red Event (Which started it all), Kulture Klash 2, The Future Sound of Breaks World Tour Stop in Charleston, The Side Show Fashion Show, Dr. King’s Skinful Halloween and certainly last but not least, our Stone Groove events. All the shows that we did last year just totally blow my mind away. Already in the first year that the Spaced Invaders formed we have performed in front of thousands. I can’t be more thankful than that.

In addition to the shows we made a lot of good friends along the way and have met some really great people as well. People who are really helping us out and believe in what we do. Mad thanks to the folks at Camel and Redbull for hooking us up with shows and calling us back for more. Same thing to CofC Radio. Also, another thanks to Torch for letting me have a weekly gig at your place, and most of all letting me be free to play what I feel. There’s just so many people to thank that I’ll have to spend all day writing. So please don’t be upset that I don’t get to you in this. (After all this is just a blog post)

I also am going to market the Stone Groove podcast and live show very hard this year. Flatbroke and I moved the party to the Daily Dose on James Island and the party within two months have become a huge hit. Most of all, it became very Charlestonian in doing this. Somehow moving the party out of downtown into this very chill, vibey spot just seems right. Our friends are out there and each show we make new ones. It’s really just turned into this great time. I think this year the Stone Groove will be so huge in when the weather warms up and more people spread the word. Duffy, you have been great about helping us out in that way.

Lastly, this brings up the Stone Groove as a whole. I just can’t believe this. In November the podcast had over 8000 listens. Speaking of that, the Spaced Invaders are still the only DJs in Charleston with mixtapes on iTunes. (At least at the time of this posting. And that I know of.) The Stone Groove and the ideas behind it have really brought out a new aspect of DJing in me. I’m back to digging again. You know trying to find those tunes that are just great. I’m back to practicing on the decks. I’m back to producing music and beats once again. And I’m back to sticking to my guns and not selling out to the Top 40 BS. And I owe a great deal of this to Flatbroke, he just keeps upping his skills and just his keeps digging and digging and digging. Throughout day one he’s been a sort of mentor in all of this just sort of fine tuning the direction of the Stone Groove and making sure it never loses steam. I couldn’t ask for somebody better to work with on this Stone Groove funk mothership.

Anyway, I have to run and make it look like I do something for a living. I leave you with this parting shot from the last Stone Groove event. It is a picture of Duffy’s son Boogie Down (Yep that’s his real name) as our guest DJ at the Stone Groove.