Joe and Alex Nava are really cool guys. Like, really fucking cool, dedicated, ambitious guys. They started booking shows during the dark, stagnant days when our local scene was just a shit-pile of mediocrity. After ten years of raves, club shows and weekly parties held all over El Paso and Juárez, these two have booked most of the best Electronic acts to visit El Paso. If you’re reading this magazine, then there’s a good chance you’ve been to, at least, one of their parties.
Joe (27) found music through the typical fashion of a friend’s older brother introducing him to Hip Hop at the tender age of eleven. Being raised in a staunchly Catholic family meant that some of this interest would be met with disapproval. For example, his “It Was Written” cassette by Nas was confiscated by an aunt that attempted to return the tape to Target, but failed, due to well-worn packaging. (He still didn’t get the tape back, though.)
Alex (25) took an interest in Punk and New Wave music after watching lots of Vh1 Classic, and attending backyard Punk shows. The two didn’t start hanging out together until they started to see each other at raves, back when that was the thing.
While the desert raves were in full swing, Joe took to booking his own raves. These would tend to fall through, but since the equipment was already rented, they would hold the parties in their own house. They would have to remove all the wall-hangings, so the bass wouldn’t do that on it’s own, and at one point in the evening Joe would walk around handing out mushrooms to any willing body.
As the years progressed, they started to form crews and the first was called Deep Down, as Joe was into Deep House at the time, and they booked their gigs at the now-defunct downtown venue Blue Agave. They followed that up with the moniker Bonus Beats Music and Joe teamed up with a clothing brand from California called Fresco Gear that would throw parties across the country to promote their line. Among their first acts to book were Doc Martin, John Tejada, and Kevin Yost, all of whom had made names for themselves at the time.
Around 2004-2005 the pair bonded over the New York label DFA Records, and Alex started to take a more active role in the planning and execution of these gigs, “Around that time, I never really had fucked with Joe before on any level other than carrying his records to the gig. I was way young, so that was my entrance, right there”.
They wanted to distance themselves from the wilting rave scene, and they both took more of an interest in the modern Disco that DFA produced. It was the first time the pair were into the same music.
In 2007, the music scene in El Paso started to flourish and other promoters and local bands started to pop up and book shows that the next generation actually liked. They formed the Broken Hearts Club and wanted to build the EP scene into something we all could be proud of, “We have this love for this city and the people here. It was kind of, like, a goal. If we could make this city close to something these other major cities have, it’ll be well worth it” said Joe. As the Broken Hearts Club, their biggest guest was Ed Banger Records DJ, Kavinsky.
The duo made friends with other local DJ’s with extensive record collections that they could relate to, and decided to form the Late Nite Social Club. The first LNSC weekly event was called Go Bang! and was held at the Eastside Italian joint, Dominic’s.
Their first big get as LNSC was the founder of Stones Throw record label, DJ Peanut Butter Wolf, who played a video-DJ set with the music videos for the songs synched up on screens behind him. They went record shopping together and PBW bought a huge stack of records and gave them all to Joe and Alex.
Their next weekly event was Everyday is Like Wednesday held at the now-defunct El Pisto Mexican restaurant and the not-defunct Black Market. This was when they really started to gain momentum and lock-down big name acts on a consistent basis.
The next weekly event with LNSC was called Soundwaves and held last year at The Lowbrow Palace. That year, they brought out the big guns and booked acts like Mayer Hawthorne, Classixx and ?uestlove. They also booked El Paso faves The Rapture, for a DJ set at the Lowbrow after their show at Club 101.
They also started their annual Halloween party, The Terror, which will be held again this October. Past years have hosted Holy Ghost!, Peanut Butter Wolf (again) and The Juan MacLean.
2012 has been the biggest year, yet for the brothers with their newest weekly Supernite. So far, they’ve brought the delightfully androgynous Kim Ann Foxman of Hercules and Love Affair, Ewan Pearson (for a second time) and Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem.
A lot of El Paso musicians and promoters get discouraged from low turn-outs, talent agents that won’t book in EP and general disinterest from the community. What keeps the Nava’s from giving up on this town and starting again in a more vibrant city?
“It’s all my 915 tattoos” said Alex, “They won’t make sense anywhere else”.
In November they will hold their three-year anniversary of LNSC.
TEXT: TYLER DUDLEY
PHOTOS: PETER SVARZBEIN (C) 2012 www.mongovision.com