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Record label Uh Oh Disco brings new tunes to Westwood

Stephen Corwin founded Uh Oh Disco during his freshman year and has watched it blossom into much more than the tiny record label it started as. (Photo courtesy of Houser M.D.)

By Gillian Glover

Sept. 27, 2010 1:18 a.m.

After years of Bruins traveling to Hollywood for the club experience, the club is finally coming to them.

Uh Oh Disco, an electronic music record label started by fourth-year electrical engineering student Stephen Corwin, is starting a weekly club night at The Glendon in Westwood. The club night, dubbed “The Sneak: Sexy Sundays in Westwood,” will boast a new group of artists every Sunday evening beginning Oct. 3.

The first night will feature Robot Love, FunkTheFresh and Houser M.D. The latter two are part of the Uh Oh Disco label, and electronic music artists who will perform their material as DJs.

Corwin created the label at the end of his freshman year at UCLA, and since then Uh Oh Disco has seen a lot of growth.

“It started out as kind of a passion project of mine. There was this really interesting music scene going on at the time. … I was really into it ““ this electronic music. I wanted to bring it to people because a lot of people liked it but there was no way to get a hold of it on campus,” Corwin said.

Corwin took matters into his own hands and started a music blog called Uh Oh Disco. It was soon receiving thousands of hits a day, at which point he decided to turn his idea into an official record label.

Through a friend he was able to partner with a distribution company, and the label developed, becoming an established name that now represents several artists in the area. Corwin is president of the label itself, and its vice president Rej Dhingra is also a DJ.

Uh Oh Disco started putting out free releases, including many remixes, to get people interested in its artists and music. Now Uh Oh Disco has about 20 releases to its name, and artists have begun seeking it out themselves. In addition, the label got involved in Twostep Tuesdays at BrewCo, a weekly event, promoting and helping to package its bands.

Uh Oh Disco has created a group of independent artists that offer music for a niche audience, especially for electronic music fans. Even those who don’t consider themselves electronic music fans may have heard some of their artists live. Two of Uh Oh Disco’s artists ““ Houser M.D. and DJ GOJ!RA ““ performed at Bruin Bash.

The next step for the ambitious label was to arrange a full-fledged weekly club night on Sundays in Westwood, designed to bring more life to the neighborhood and bring the music scene to residents.

“Everyone hears stories about what Westwood used to be like in the ’80s ““ it was the place to be. … It kind of lost that image over the last several years and we’re trying to bring it back,” Corwin said.

Corwin and Dhingra chose The Glendon ““ a restaurant and bar that opened on Glendon Avenue last spring ““ to host the event. They knew that The Glendon’s owners were going for something new and different in Westwood, and Uh Oh Disco was aiming for the same thing.

“One of the main reasons that they chose us as a venue is that they expressed an interest in the students wanting maybe a little higher class atmosphere to party in. You have basically your sport bars, college bars and then you have the much older restaurants (in Westwood),” said J Wolf, one of The Glendon’s owners. “We were a little hipper, a little sexier and I think they saw a lot of benefit in that.”

The Glendon, as a relatively new establishment, is trying to welcome in Bruins as the new school year begins. The owners had heard about Uh Oh Disco’s success at BrewCo and hope that “The Sneak” will bring the UCLA demographic, especially older students, to The Glendon as regulars.

“(Uh Oh Disco is) the launch to our partnership with the student body and UCLA. That’s the way we see it, as a partnership,” Nick Jacobs, co-founder of The Glendon, said.

Corwin and Dhingra clearly made the distinction that The Sneak will not be a weekly rave, and they will be playing house, not trance music.

“It’s a fun atmosphere, not an ecstatic drugged-out atmosphere,” Corwin said.
According to Dhingra, even if you haven’t listened to electronic music before, you won’t feel out of place.

“We would love it if people would come based on wanting to try something new. Curiosity is really what we’re going for,” Dhingra said.

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Gillian Glover
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