Shaun Slaughter is a Sacramento DJ, club-night promoter, producer, and flyer designer who became one of the most prominent figures in the city's indie-dance and electronic nightlife scene, best known as co-founder of the long-running dance night Lipstick.[1] Over more than a decade he ran or co-ran a string of Sacramento club nights and parties and was repeatedly described as a local "veteran" who had "held the crown" of the local DJ scene for years.[2]
At a glance
- DJ, promoter, producer, and graphic designer based in Midtown Sacramento.[1]
- Co-founder of Lipstick, an indie dance club night, with Roger Carpio.[1]
- Self-described "kid from the suburbs," indicating a Greater Sacramento origin; grew up attending Del Campo High School in the Sacramento suburbs.[1][3]
- Produced electronic tracks under the project name D.A.M.B., signed to DJs Are Not Rock Stars Records.[1]
- Active across Lipstick, FUCK Fridays/Fuck Friday, Lights Down Low, Heater, and the THIS Midtown block party series.[1][2][4][5]
- Inducted into the Sacramento Area Music Awards (Sammies) Hall of Fame in 2007; won four Sammies for Best DJ, two for Best Club Night, and one Sacramento Magazine Best of recognition.[6][7]
Local status
Slaughter is treated throughout the Submerge corpus as a local Sacramento DJ. He is described as "a kid from the suburbs and barely 21" who was "new to downtown" when he began DJing in the city, indicating he grew up in the Greater Sacramento region rather than relocating from elsewhere.[1] According to a CBS Sacramento profile, Slaughter attended Del Campo High School in the Sacramento suburbs.[3] A 2011 profile of fellow DJ Whores calls Slaughter a "fellow local veteran DJ," and notes that within the small Sacramento scene "he's held the crown for quite a while."[2] Submerge repeatedly frames him as a Sacramento-scene institution and one of "the most talented DJs in Sacramento."[8] Confidence: high.
Early influences
Slaughter's musical formation was shaped by his family and an early encounter with electronic music. According to the CBS Sacramento profile, his mother was into hippie music and his father favored Stax and Motown records, giving him a broad musical foundation at a young age.[3] At age 17, a friend took him to The Amazon, an all-ages dance club in the Sacramento suburbs, where he first heard New Order's "Blue Monday" — an experience that redirected him toward electronic music and self-taught beat-matching, according to the same profile.[3]
Role in the scene
Slaughter functioned primarily as a DJ and club-night promoter, and secondarily as a producer and designer. Submerge characterized him and his collaborators as DJs and promoters who "have their finger on the pulse of what's good in the music and club scenes around the country," noting that Slaughter "frequently travels to other cities to DJ" and brings back ideas to apply to his Sacramento nights.[1] He also handled the graphic design for his own event flyers, and by 2010 was described as making a living from this combined DJ/promoter/producer work.[1]
Lipstick
Lipstick is the indie dance club night that Slaughter is most associated with; in 2010 Submerge marked its 10-year anniversary, placing its founding around 2000.[1] The original lineup consisted of four DJs with differing tastes united by the goal to "make them dance."[1] Slaughter began DJing downtown alongside fellow house enthusiast Chad Nardine; the two cut their teeth at the Press Club before being separately solicited to DJ a Tuesday night at Old Ironsides, which they decided to do together.[1] Their first Tuesday—an all-electronica set—"bombed."[1] Nardine then connected Slaughter with Roger Carpio, who was into Britpop, and Carpio in turn brought in Sean Meyers, a DJ of '60s rock, completing the four-DJ lineup.[1]
The night's first year was at the Press Club, drawing modest crowds of 30 to 40 people.[1] After Nardine moved away and Meyers left, Slaughter and Carpio continued as a duo, settling into a format of "some indie, Britpop and some old stuff" with no guest DJs.[1] By 2010, Lipstick ran Tuesday nights at Old Ironsides and was billed as "one of Sacramento's longest running and most legit dance nights."[1][9] The duo deliberately kept the song selection fresh, crediting their shared habit of constantly digging for new music for the night's longevity.[1] Lipstick threw recurring New Year's Eve parties at Old Ironsides, several in partnership with Submerge.[10][9][11] The Lipstick Weekender at Old Ironsides was nominated in the Dance Night category at the 2012 Sammies.[12][7]
FUCK Fridays / Fuck Friday
Slaughter and Carpio also ran FUCK Fridays at the Townhouse Lounge, described as their "alter egos" where they would "completely let loose" with a "let's lose our shit and go completely crazy" attitude, sometimes performing in costume (e.g., an M&M or a rat costume).[1] Submerge later dated the night's original start to 2004 as a weekly Townhouse event, calling it "an incubator for emerging music" known for elaborate themed parties (e.g., "Circus," "Prom"), guest DJs, DIY lighting, and an uninhibited crowd.[5] A FUCK Fridays / Lipstick joint New Year's Eve party at the Townhouse was held for 2011, with Slaughter in an upstairs "Booty Bass Exxxplosion" room and Carpio downstairs.[13]
By 2011 the night had dissolved, leaving the Townhouse in need of a new Friday event and Slaughter "back on the market."[2] In 2015, Slaughter and Adam Jay—with Requiem Events and That Thing on Friday—resurrected the night as "Fuck Friday," now monthly on second Fridays at Midtown BarFly, starting Feb. 13, 2015.[5] Slaughter described the revival's ethos as "making the dance floor back into a fun place for dance music and not bullshit," promising curated themes, left-of-center guest DJs, live performances, lasers, smoke, and strobes.[5]
Other nights and partnerships
- Lights Down Low: A monthly party that opened April 7, 2011, at Mix Downtown, featuring resident DJs Shaun Slaughter, Adam J, and Alx-T; touring DJ Juan MacLean played the opening night.[14]
- Heater: A once-a-month party at the Townhouse created jointly by Slaughter and DJ Whores after FUCK Fridays dissolved, described as "HUMP with an open format" spanning house, electro, Baltimore, indie, dubstep, and bass. The two debuted it performing separately, then trading off tracks. Whores acknowledged a longstanding "odd tension" with Slaughter rooted in the small-town scene where Slaughter had "held the crown," but said both were mutually supportive.[2]
- THIS (Midtown block party): A free Second Saturday block party series on 20th Street between J and K, by 2015 in its third year; Slaughter was one of the organizers and also performed/DJed, including an after-party DJ set inside LowBrau.[4][15]
- Requiem: Slaughter was among the local DJs (with Adam Jay and Druskee) regularly paired with the out-of-town headliners Requiem brought through Sacramento.[16]
Production: D.A.M.B.
By 2010, Slaughter had begun focusing on production under a new project called D.A.M.B., which was picked up by DJs Are Not Rock Stars Records.[1] His first released track, "Daylight," played with samples of Harry Belafonte's "Day-O" over a tropical house beat; his second, "Waiting," was remixed by the LOL Boys, Mom & Dad, and Wolfie and circulated on high-traffic music blogs.[1] According to CBS Sacramento, "Waiting" also received support from the BBC.[3]
Awards and recognition
Slaughter was inducted into the Sacramento Area Music Awards (Sammies) Hall of Fame in 2007.[6] Across his career he won four Sammies for Best DJ, two Sammies for Best Club Night, one Sammie Hall of Fame award, and one Sacramento Magazine Best of recognition for Best Place to Shake Your Arse off (Lipstick).[7]
Performances
Slaughter performed at the Friday Night Concerts in the Park series at Cesar Chavez Park in 2012—booked that year by the Play Big Sacramento committee rather than longtime promoter Jerry Perry—appearing on both May 4 and June 15 under the genre tag "indie/electro/pop."[8] He DJed numerous New Year's Eve Lipstick parties at Old Ironsides across 2010–2015.[10][9][11]