PR.SoundRoom [12_14]: PR Head Curator Christine Renée celebrates her birthday with a rare NY appearance by Dewey Chan coming in from LA presenting an all vinyl set, all night long. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, saw a young Dewey Chan immersed in the mid 80s hotbed of the city’s freshly formed Hip Hop, Electro and House music cultures. His schooling from the age of 13 came over the radio waves and via mixtapes by the likes of Red Alert, Chuck Chillout, Tony Humphries and, the two most pivotal for Dewey, the Funhouse’s John Jellybean Benitez and WKTU’s radio DJ’s the Latin Rascals. By the end of that decade, when the music was starting to go mainstream, his family moved to the West Coast, and Dewey naturally brought with him all he’d absorbed of the music and art of DJing. In Los Angeles he has carved out his path as a DJ via both one-off appearances at warehouse parties and a string of residencies including, for the last 10 years, the beloved after hours party Sunny Side Up. If a sign of the greatest parties and communities they create is non-reliance on guest DJs, Sunny Side Up is surely one of them. It’s held up as an underground institution thanks to the talents and dedication of resident DJs Dewey, Junior Chacon, J Disco and Daddy Differently – while it occasionally welcomes others from outside the city to share the tables, such as Felix Dickinson, DJ Spun and Anthony Mansfield. Dewey is known in the scene as a keeper of the knowledge. His deep research, rare finds and studied selections imply a musicologist’s understanding worthy of an honorary degree. Keeping it strictly vinyl, with a collection filling the top floor of his L.A.-based fortress of solitude, his DJ selections can encompass everything from Psychedelic, Cosmic, Folk Rock, AOR and Japanese City Pop to current House, Techno and leftfield sounds… and more. Chins go unstroked in Dewey’s company. He always brings the party and, like the most highly skilled of DJs, creates a heartfelt dialogue with dancers and friends, throwing out sonic gifts to them during the course of his long sets. In an era when the best DJs can go criminally unsung if they’re not also producers and relentless self-promoters, Dewey represents one of Los Angeles’ best kept secrets for deep listeners and lovers of the groove. This event is free before midnight with RSVP. RSVP does not guarantee entry.