Whether you know them separately as Capt. PlannedIT and DJ ProBono or as the DJ-duo Calvin and Wobbez, seniors Jason Karikas and Paul Bonasera are mixing up the DJ scene.
“There’s often a discrepancy between most DJs, and we’re trying to kill that stereotype,” Karikas said. “We all just love to rage.”
To most people, DJs are those guys remixing the popular music at a club or house party. They work independently, rarely collaborate and stick within
one genre, be it hip-hop, glitch hop, dubstep or house music. Karikas and Bonasera defy that perception.
Not only do the two DJs produce a webcast every Tuesday evening as Calvin and Wobbez, but tomorrow night they will bring two more DJs into the mix for Tha Get Down at Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
“We’re kind of marketing it as a ‘2 v. 2 DJ battle,’ but it’s not so much a battle as a way for us to bring DJs together in a different and more interesting way,” Karikas said. “Generally, one DJ will play, and then there’s a break as they have to set up for the next guy. We’re all just going to play off each other.”
Calvin and Wobbez will be performing “against” DJs AA and Trophy Life (Alex Amerio and Ben Gibbs, respectively).
“I guess at the end of the night, we’ll know who did better by the crowd reaction and how we personally feel,” Karikas said. “But we’re not actually declaring a winner.”
Karikas and Bonasera both said that DJing as a duo allows them the opportunity to play off of each other.
“We have similar music tastes, and we’re both just goofy, and doing this together lets us be weird,” Karikas said. “I mean, we’ve got Charlie Sheen samples, Ying Yang Twins and Three 6 Mafia samples, our own original remixes and tracks. We just play off of each other really well.”
The duo works parties during weekends, but every Tuesday it produces a webcast showcasing new material at www.stickam.com/calvinandwobbez.
“Paul (Bonasera) knew some people and a lot of people do it, so we worked on it, and on our first night, we had over 100 people tuned in,” Karikas said. “We
hope it just kind of becomes something people do on a Tuesday night before they go out or something; it’ll just be a regular thing for them.”
Karikas read Calvin and Hobbes comic strips as a kid and said it just stuck with him as an adult. It seemed like a good name for the duo, he said.
“And it’s catchy,” Bonasera said.
In addition, Karikas said the name allows the duo to dress up for its shows.
“It’s a great excuse to wear stripes and paint my face like a cat,” Karikas said. “So yeah, I’ll paint my face for Friday’s show.”
IF YOU GO
-WHAT: Calvin and Wobbez presents: Tha Get Down with DJ AA and DJ Trophy Life
-WHEN: 9 tomorrow night
-WHERE: Jackie O’s Pub and Brewery, 24 W. Union St.
-ADMISSION: $2
nb360409@ohiou.edu
@ThePostCulture
