Author Archives: DJ El Toro

Weird At My School: Big Gay Podcast 2012

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 20, 2012

When I program the annual Big Gay Podcast, spotlighting KEXP artists who are members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, I have a couple of goals in the mind. The first is to connect music lovers with a bunch of artists and songs worthy of special consideration. And the second is to doRead more...

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Summer Fundraising Drive: Hood-to-Hood Challenge

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 8, 2012

“Love thy neighbor.” That’s what I chant every time the sound of band practice from the house two doors down spills through my office windows. But the truth is, I rarely find it difficult to love my neighbors. Seattle is a city teeming with diverse, vibrant communities, each with its own charms. I adore livingRead more...

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Summer Fundraising Drive: “A beacon of originality”

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 6, 2012

It isn’t unusual to find Rachel Flotard on KEXP. Her (former) band Visqueen remains one of the KEXP Community’s best-loved Seattle favorites. Her record label, Local 638, has issued stellar full-lengths from Shelby Earl, Cristina Bautista, and Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs.  Go poke around the KEXP Flickr pages, and you’ll find snaps ofRead more...

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Summer Fundraising Drive: Make A Circuit With Me

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 4, 2012

Over Memorial Day weekend, I had lunch and went record shopping with my childhood best friend, who works as an elementary school teacher in Northern Virginia. He mentioned running into our fifth grade science instructor recently, then casually remarked that he couldn’t recall anything in particular we’d studied in her class as children. But IRead more...

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Summer Fundraising Drive: By Land or by Sea with KEXP

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 1, 2012

The Summer Fundraising Drive starts today and I am really looking forward to the KEXP Community sharing stories of why KEXP is important to them. Wade from the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Gulf shared this with us: “...when the Navy gave me a ticket to submarine base Bangor, WA, I was thrust into aRead more...

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Exclusive KEXP Interview: Kate Bush

By DJ El Toro | Published: February 24, 2012

With her theatrical presentation and instantly recognizable voice, British musical innovator Kate Bush caught the world off guard with her 1978 debut “Wuthering Heights” -- and she’s been surprising listeners ever since, balancing UK hit singles (“Babooshka,” “Running Up That Hill”) with critically acclaimed albums worldwide. Three and a half decades later, her influence canRead more...

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Weird At My School: FAC 90.3

By DJ El Toro | Published: October 5, 2011

Inspired by the success of this summer’s “4AD 4VR” theme show (as well as some surprising results in the countdown of the Top 500 songs of all time), tonight my program celebrates Manchester’s seminal Factory Records. From 9PM to 1AM, “FAC 90.3″ will showcase the artists, both legendary and less so, that made this upstartRead more...

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Weird At My School: OMD speak!

By DJ El Toro | Published: September 29, 2011

I geeked out hard about my adoration of UK synth-pop duo Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on the KEXP blog last year, and I was beside myself with joy when they played live for KEXP during the 2011 SXSW music conference. Well, except for the fact that I wasn’t there! Happily, OMD are touring theRead more...

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Weird At My School: Horse Meat Disco III

By DJ El Toro | Published: July 6, 2011

Almost inevitably, when I meet with clients for weddings and other events where I’ve been hired to DJ, and I ask what kind of music they like and dislike, they say “…and no disco.” But after digging a little deeper, what usually comes forth is that they really don’t want to hear the same half-dozenRead more...

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Weird At My School: Big Gay Podcast 2011

By DJ El Toro | Published: June 27, 2011

When I read the opening paragraphs of Frank Bruni’s editorial for the Sunday New York Times, for a moment I thought the Op-Ed contributor had been flipping through my diary: IN the mid-1980s, when I was in college, what concerned and frustrated my peers and me was how few states had basic statutes forbidding discriminationRead more...

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