CLASH Fridays ft Felix Da Housecat
What: CLASH Fridays ft Felix Da Housecat
When: -
Where: Rain Nightclub at Palms Resort & Casino (4321 West Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas, NV)
Minimum Age: 21+
Type: Indoor - Club
Promoters: N9NE Group
Genres: House
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$ 40.00 |
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Includes admission to Rain Nightclub, Ghostbar, Playboy Club, & Moon Nightclub. Must pick up wristband at Will Call inside the STUFF Store next door to Rain between 8pm-12:45am day of event.
Felix Da Housecat
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Over the course of 20 years his determination and willingness to re-invent himself have led him to a point that has now included a Grammy nomination, remix work for artists such as Madonna, Garbage, New Order and Giorgio Moroder; to DJ gigs at the world’s most prestigious music festivals. Born in Detroit in 1971 and raised in Park Forrest, outside Chicago, Felix Stallings, Jr.'s earliest influence was his father, a saxophonist who turned him on to classic '70s funk and soul by artists like Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire.
His next major musical epiphany came about when Purple Rain dropped and he became the keyboardist for Shades of Blue, a band that covered Prince & the Revolution songs. In Chicago during the early '80s, the House music revolution grabbed Felix’s attention. For Felix, it centered around Chicago's 102.7 and the pioneering Hot Mix DJs. "I remember listening to Farley ‘Jack Master’ Funk, Mike ‘Hitman’ Wilson, Micky ‘Mixin'’ Oliver, and Kenny ‘Jamming’ Jason," Felix says rattling off the city's House pioneers.
By 14 he too was recording house music on his four-track. A school friend introduced him to DJ Pierre who he collaborated with on their classic house track "Phantasy Girl". But Felix's tastes weren't limited to a single genre. His senior year he played in Uncut, a band with an R&B-like vibe. After graduation he enrolled at Alabama State and began making hip-hop. After two years in the Deep South (an experience he compares to “prison") he flunked out.
In 1991, Felix moved into his parents' basement, studied audio engineering at Columbia College and worked at Eduardo's pizzeria. "It was rough," he says. "I hated those ovens and I kept thinking something's got to give." What finally gave was Pierre’s once-in-a-lifetime offer. "Once I got to London and saw all those punk rockers," Felix says, "I thought `this is where it's going to happen.'" Armed with a box of DATs, Felix made the rounds. "It was crazy," he says, "I'd walk into a label cold, play a track, and they'd sign it!" He quickly sold "What's Love About" to Freetown Inc and "Thee Dawn" to William Orbit's Guerilla label and returned to the states with more money then he'd ever seen.
In 1992 "Thee Dawn" became a European smash and Felix blew-up overseas. "I was producing a track a week for different labels," he says. The next year, the success of "Thee Underground Made Me Do It," and "In Thee Dark We Live," helped further cement his fame. The latter track, released under Aphrohead, was just one of Felix's many production aliases which would come to include Wonderboy, Rocketmann, Outerrealm, Thee Glitz and Thee Maddkatt Courtship. Felix scored an album deal with Deep Distraxion in 1993 and dropped By Dawns Early Lite, one of the first full-length dance music artist albums ever. Unlike other dance artists, Felix didn't start DJing until midway through his career. "My first DJ gig was in London in 1994 and it was horrible," he says laughing. "I was train-wrecking all over the place." (Now, of course, with DJ of the year honors from Spin and Urb it's a different story.)
