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Though Catamount Bar & Grille can be a jock jam at times, weekend nights find the upstairs transformed for fans of hip-hop, funk and dancing. And even amid uncertainty, Friday Night Funk with DJ A'ight and Sole Food with Your Boy Re-Flex are growing in popularity.
Rumors about the Catamount closing its doors and moving into the former Railyard Restaurant & Saloon's space are rumbling about town, but nothing is finalized.
"Details are up in the air for the moment, but we'll continue with music on weekends," manager Kathi McKenna tells SFR.
At least through the rest of this month, check out these DJs at the C-Mount. Go thither armed with background knowledge from this: “Know Your DJs VIII”!
Name: Felix Cordova
DJ Handle: Your Boy Re-Flex
Affiliations: Sir Loin’s Hump Day, Sole Food
Origin: “I wasn’t always so social growing up, and I was listening to soul and oldies with my mom in the car. When hip-hop started sampling these things, it was really natural for me to transition to that.”
Story: Your Boy Re-Flex doesn’t refer to himself as a DJ.
"I didn't want to be disrespectful to the actual DJs I know who have spent so much time working on their craft," he tells SFR. "I'm just a guy with a lot of music who plays whatever the crowd is feeling."
With this modest attitude and a quietly friendly nature, Re-Flex has slowly built a name for himself as a first-rate party facilitator. He began as an emcee, performing guest vocals on albums for the likes of La Junta and Circumference, then made the time-honored jump to the decks.
"I spin any and everything," he says. "Not enough hip-hop to cock-block myself, but enough to let people know that I know my stuff and know what I'm doing."
Re-Flex plans to release an album of original material sometime this year, and has events planned at El Paseo throughout the winter and spring.
Name: Guadalupe Vargas
DJ Handle: DJ A’ight (aka Parish One)
Affiliation: Friday Night Funk
Origin: “My mother and father were both in a Mexican music group, so music has been a part of my world my whole life. I’ve loved hip-hop since I was 5 years old. I’ve been an emcee and a b-boy for as long as I can remember, and the dancing kind of made way for the DJ stuff. If you’ve got rhythm, you can spin.”
Story: Originally from Los Angeles, Calif., A’ight says, “I may not have been born here, but I am a New Mexican. I love it too much.”
For the past several months, A'ight has gotten behind the decks on Friday nights to provide Catamount's faithful with lessons in hip-hop, as well as funk and soul.
"The Catamount used to be the bar you would go to before you went out, y'know?" he says. "But I've definitely noticed that we've been keeping the crowd more and more…crazy bachelor or bachelorette parties or b-boys or whatever. It's been getting crazy!"
Even when he's not in front of crowds, he's still behind decks. A'ight hosts an ongoing DJ workshop at Santa Fe Art Institute. For the future, A'ight hopes to bring local and national hip-hop acts together for huge monthly parties.
“Whatever I’m doing, I’m just trying to have fun and play some records,” he says. “I love to work, even though I guess I can’t call it work.”
Follow SFR music news on Twitter: @SFRsA_Sharp
Santa Fe Reporter