ChicagoPride.com Groove Line:

Club Notes
Last week I was out in the northwest suburbs at Hunters Nightclub for the very fun "MWM" Wednesday night party with resident DJ Ron G. Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Hunters is a spacious and attractive venue featuring a large dance with great sound and lights and an incredible back patio (a definite plus when the weather warms up). There's plenty of eye candy – cute suburban bois every night and hot strippers on Thursdays - and bartenders such as Emil, Sean, Scott, and Juan are as nice as they come. In addition to rising star Ron G's fabulous beats on Wednesdays, DJ Laura B, a Boystown favorite, plies her trade at Hunters on Thursdays and Saturdays. I'll definitely be back out at Hunters on a more regular basis and highly encourage you city dwellers to get on out there to see how much fun our suburban brethren are having.

What a pleasure it was to recently trip on into Cocktail with some friends on a Tuesday night with DJ Michael Serafini in the DJ booth spinning some wicked house beats that you unfortunately hear far too infrequently on Boystown dance floors. Miss Foozie was a most gracious host, bartender Davide was too cute for words, and the Spank Go-Go Boys were HOT HOT HOT! … Sunday nights at Minibar have really taken off thanks in part to the attentive and shirtless cocktail waiters and bartenders (pictured Alex at Minibar). Adding to the festive environment is the energetic club music of resident DJ Chris Eterno and the consistent presence of a gorgeous crowd featuring sexy twinks, hunky men, and the ever affable Bill Pritchard of ChicagoPride.com.

Rhythm & Beats: North of the Border
Superstar DJ/remixer/producer Peter Rauhofer has just released his latest continuous mix CD, I LOVE MONTREAL (Star 69 Records). Fourth in his "I Love …" series, Rauhofer has delivered this new double CD set with a strong package of 24 tracks, representing what he does best: blending progressive, tribal, and electro house with a unique flair that's fun, sexy and energetic.

Included on I LOVE MONTREAL are songs by dance music stalwarts Offer Nissim, Axwell, Hex Hector, Kaskade and Suzanne Palmer. Also featured is Rauhofer's unreleased Trance Anthem Mix of Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right" and Ralphi Rosario's remix of "Make It last" by Dave Aude. Kudos to Rauhofer and Star 69 on another excellent effort.

The Best of 2007
It's the month of January and that means it's time to look back on the best of the best in the previous year. So without any further delay let's get to the 2007 Plez Awards.

Best Dance Compilation CD (House Music): NECTAR, Volume 2 mixed by Chicago legendary DJ Johnny Fiasco. Honorable mention goes to Chuck Love's double-CD set BRING ENOUGH TO SPILL SOME.

Best Dance Compilation CD (Club/Circuit Music): Easily outdistancing the competition was the outstanding THE EVENT mixed by Tony Moran. The next best were GLOBAL GROOVE: LIVE 2 by Roland Belmares & Mike Cruz and NEW YORK CLUB ANTHEMS: VOL.2 by Hector Fonseca.

Best Dance Music Single: "Gimme More" by Britney Spears. I didn't want to like this track but I have to give it and the myriad of fantastic remixes their just due. Honorable mentions include "Don't Stop The Music" by Rihanna, "Shake ‘N Pop" by Green Velvet, "Counting Down The Days" by Sunfreakz featuring Andrea Britton, and "Keep Your Body Wurkin'" by Martha Wash.

Best New Entertainment Thing in Boystown: Hydrate's presentation of comedic drag acts - Miss Richfield, Hedda Lettuce, Cashetta, et al - at the Lakeshore Theatre. A nice addition to Chicago's nightlife menu.

Best Recurring Chicago Event: The new monthly Nitro events at Circuit have helped bring freshness and vitality to the city's dance club scene, featuring national DJs, entertaining stage performances, and impressive themed decorations and ambience executed by Visuwil.

Non-Dance CD of the Year: This was a close call between two British imports. #1A is BACK TO BLACK by Amy Winehouse followed very closely by #1B: OVERTONES by Just Jack.

Artist of the Year: Well, it's basically the amalgam – Chaka Khan, Ledisi, Angie Stone, Alicia Keys, and Jill Scott - that I call the "Soulful Black Diva." These incredibly talented women - and you can throw in Ms. Winehouse with an honorary designation - produced stellar new CDs this year and as such collectively deserve this award.

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About DJ Plez

DJ Plez (aka Michael Pleasants) has been DJing since the late 1980's, sharing his passion for dance music with dance floors and listeners around the world. After many years of successful toil in the financial services industry, he’s now spending much more time in a DJ booth instead of an office cubicle.
DJ Plez has quite a diverse range of dance music “likes” to accompany his true love of house music.
The incredibly wide variety of records and CDs that DJ Plez possesses helps explain the unique style he has forged: one that melds various forms of dance music - Chicago house, progressive, tribal, underground, and club - into a cohesive presentation that is rhythmically exciting, sexy, and energetic.
DJ Plez uses fresh approaches for each of his live sets, skillfully producing intricate mixes on the fly, creating a sense of dance floor drama with his in-booth programming, and most importantly to him, making sure his sets have one abiding element: GROOVE!

As would be expected from his wide ranging style, the DJs that have most influenced DJ Plez represent the vast global dance music scene and include: Victor Calderone, Derrick Carter, John Digweed, Danny Howells, Frankie Knuckles, Susan Morabito, Ralphi Rosario, Danny Tenaglia, and Junior Vasquez just to name a few. However, the most significant influence on DJ Plez’s abilities in the DJ booth are the experiences he has when he’s out dancing at parties and in clubs, staying intimately connected to the dance floors and partygoers populating them.
It’s this connection that allows him to truly find out and understand what makes a dance floor tick, thus leading to his success in the DJ booth.

DJ Plez sees himself as an ambassador of house music on a mission to help perpetuate and grow this Chicago-born art form. During the past year he had gigs in Zurich (Nuts & Bolts Party; Labor-Bar), Montreal (Unity 2; Chrome), and Miami (Cactus) and will be adding Amsterdam, Detroit, and Los Angeles to his travel itinerary. Locally, DJ Plez has residencies at Cell Block and Ezuli in Chicago and has made several appearances at PUMP!Milwaukee. In addition to numerous private and corporate DJing gigs, DJ Plez is the Music Editor of ChicagoPride.com.

Mixes of DJ Plez have been played on internet radio at www.circuitmix.com since June 2003. Additional opportunities to listen to more mixes by DJ Plez will come about in the near future on his web site www.djplez.com.