"Laugha while you can monkeyboy."

OG underground club and party promoter. Known for regularly lugging a portable Denon DAT recorder to clubs and raves "back in the day", recording events large and small from the End Up, Funky Tekno Tribe/Organic, Wicked Full Moon, and Spundae, The Rage, Oogä Boogä and Plush.

I was Introduced to House? Techno? by my CSUS roomate James Presley, a founding member of Sound Mob in Sac. I remember getting a flat on my beloved '85 Rx-7 parking under the causeway at one of their "raves".  James happened to be mentoring under DJ Jenö of Wicked in'91.  I ended up loving it all, first for the community, but ultimately for the music which always was a driving force in my life.

Driving home from a Wicked Full Moon at Bonnie Doon Beach in Santa Cruz, listening to the DAT I was allowed to record of that night's DJ sets with my ears still ringing and my body buzzing was an inspiration.  Later as a promoter I would consciously book DJs based on what I wanted to listen to in my car next week.  Heady stuff.  Also pretty fucking privileged, right?

Summer of '92.  The very first party...  I threw.  Images of future friends dancing hard on the bronzed Great Seal of California, embedded in the concrete at the foot of the Capitol steps, seared into many's memory.   Hollywood Dog's lasers blasting on the Capitol's freshly restored white face while Jan Cooley, Jellybear, Jenö, Ramon Ramon, and John Williams amongst others made us shake our butts for the local tv news crews covering us.  Called L.A.D.S., it stood for Legalize Afterhours Dancing in Sacramento. It was a public protest party.

I was a recent CSUS graduate, having  interned with Assemblyman Bob Campbell, D. 11th district, Contra Costa County.  I learned then that to use the Capitol or its grounds for any reason, all that was required was a "Member" to sponsor you, an Assemblyman or Senator.   Bob kindly did.  Approved for all-night music, at the last minute Capitol Security got cold feet and someone pulled my after-hours permission. Our gear was allowed to remain allowing us to continue the next morning.  

To fill the gap, some of the originally scheduled DJs now without a time-slot got to perform at a nearby renegade warehouse party.  Organized through the effort of many, especially my soon-to-be friends and partners Frank Gomez and DJ Chris Burkes.  Within months the three of us would form the core of Pretty Phatt Productions, which next year dropped Oogä Boogä Frydaze into the basement of the Capital Plaza Towers, an art-deco downtown skyscraper with a spring-loaded dance floor and doorways to mysterious tunnels that allowed you to wander underground amongst original 19th century street-level building entrances - if you knew.  All of Sacramento's downtown was raised a whole floor to avoid flooding long ago.  Epic shit.  

Years later as Half-Phatt Productions, I started club Plush in the Paddlewheel Saloon on the Delta King in Old Sac.  Eventually booted from that barely floating hotel for literally "rocking the boat" too hard every Thursday night, Plush moved to the most premier Sacramento nightclub, Harlow's, for almost a decade.  Thank you Peter and Danny Torza!   

I eventually left my large adopted family of friends in Sacramento moving to Oakland in the early 2000's to start a new "grow" store, East Bay Hydrogarden, on 57th and Telegraph Ave.   While still successful I sold it after my dad's first stroke in order to move back home, Santa Rosa, to care for both of my ailing parents until they eventually passed.

Living in Sonoma County and still keeping on keeping on.

I still love music.  

And pot. 

 A lot.

We're not the best, but we're pretty good.

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Eric Hedford is a musician, engineer, producer, and disk jockey (DJ Aquaman) based in Portland, Oregon.

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