- DJ Keoki
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Superstar DJ Keoki 
Background information Birth name Keoki Franconi Born October 23, 1966 Origin New York Club Kid scene Genres Electronic Music Occupations Musician, producer, DJ Years active 1980s–present Notable instruments Turntables Superstar DJ Keoki (born October 23, 1966 as Keoki Franconi) is an Electronic music,among other genres DJ. Born in El Salvador and raised in Hawaii, Keoki reached 'Superstar' status shortly after moving to New York City.[1]
Contents
Bio
Keoki Franconi was born in El Salvador but moved to Kihei, Maui, when he was 8.[1] After graduating from Kailua High School he moved to the mainland to study at an airline school in California. Franconi enjoyed a brief career with several airline operations in New York, among them the now defunct Trans World Airlines,[2] while also being a busboy at the city's trendy Danceteria club.[1] It was at Danceteria that he got his start:
“ I kept bugging a nearby club's manager to, please, please, please let me DJ there. I told him I knew how to do it, even though I only had a small collection of records and one turntable at home. He let me play a lounge gig on some of the slower nights. He told me to 'play whatever the fuck you want, so long as they stay,' words I've continued to live by to this day. ” Club Kids and Michael Alig
Main article: Michael AligWhile in New York City he met and began a romance with Michael Alig.[3] Alig rose to international notability as the head of "the Club Kids" gang, a group of diverse partygoers who would dress in costumes each night and form parties in New York and all over the United States.
Dance music writer Jennifer Warner remembers,
“ I was marking the side of a mile-high stack of party invites with a huge purple pen and this body appeared, covered in silver glitter, wearing what looked like a diaper and dragging a boy [Michael Alig], also sporting a falling-off diaper, minus the glitter but made up like a clown. ” While DJing at Disco 2000, Alig's party night at the Limelight, Franconi was alleged to have passed out on the turntables while performing a set. He has completely denied the urban legend, supposedly stating "I guarantee you that never fucking happened".[4]
Superstar
Franconi had a successful career during the late 1990s and early 2000s as Superstar DJ Keoki, releasing a number of CDs over that decade and he was hired to play for thousands of people at massive rave dances. In 2006 and 2007, he toured, dressed extravagantly, wearing makeup, and sporting a number of tattoos, in the United States and Europe on the Club Party Monster Tour, a tribute to both the film Party Monster as well as a nod to the Club Kid scene that shot him into stardom.
After Partymonster
Franconi still tours, performing at venues such as The Viper Room in Los Angeles, California, Shag in Denver, Colorado, Tantra in Tampa, Florida, and Hard Rock Cafe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also makes annual appearances in Moscow at the Gaudi Fest during Halloween. He has played at the Love Parade in Berlin, Germany.
He is currently managed by the Los Angeles company [AMP] (www.AmpTheAgency.com). As of 2009 he relocated his home to Denver, Colorado.
Discography
2010- Talking to Yourself
2004 - The Great Soundclash Swindle
2003 - Kill The DJ
2002 - Misdirected Jealousy: The Remix Album
2002 - Keokiclash
2001 - Jealousy (also released in a Limited Edition 2XCD version with bonus CD w/ exclusive remixes)
2000 - djmixed.com/keoki
1998 - Altered Ego Trip (The Remix Album)
1998 - Inevitable Alien Nation
1997 - Ego Trip
1996 - Disco Death Race 2000
1996 - The Transatlantic Move
1995 - All Mixed Up
1995 - We Are One
1994 - Journeys By DJPopular Media
- He is written about in James St. James' book, Disco Bloodbath:James St. James. Disco Bloodbath: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland (August 11, 1999 ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 2222. ISBN 0684857642.
- He was portrayed by Wilmer Valderrama in Party Monster, a biopic about James St. James and Michael Alig
- Interviewed in Better Living Through Circuitry, a 1999 documentary about Electronic dance music culture
- His song "Caterpillar" was featured in The Simpsons episode "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish".
References
- ^ a b c Gary C. W. Chun (December 7, 2001). "Superstar DJ Keoki keeps the party going". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. http://starbulletin.com/2001/12/07/features/story1.html. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ "Keoki Biography". famousdjs. 2007. http://www.famousdjs.com/biographies/keoki.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-25.
- ^ Michael Musto (March 26, 2002). "NYC Life". villagevoice. http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0213,musto,33375,15.html. Retrieved 2008-03-22. "Alig and his then boyfriend, Keoki,"
- ^ DJ Keoki (2007). "DJ Keoki". djkeoki.net. http://www.djkeoki.net/. Retrieved 2008-03-25. "The "I passed out on the turntable" story that I have heard forever that never happened. I guarantee you that never fu*kin' happened."
External links
Categories:- 1966 births
- Living people
- Salvadoran emigrants to the United States
- American people of Salvadoran descent
- Club DJs
- Club Kids
- LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people
- American dance musicians
- LGBT musicians from the United States
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