[Locals Only] Long Beach's Mashed Potatos Fill Clubs with Starchy Goodness

Mashed Potatos’ version of a double feature

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• Dan Kawai
• Long Beach (New York)
• Notorious B.I.G.
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Foods

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Starchy Goodness

Growing up, chances are you were chastised at least once for playing with your food. Eventually, most of us mature and forget the whipped realms of edible fantasy on a plate full of morsels we were supposed to eat. But if Long Beach DJ duo Mashed Potatos—no “e” here—had meant to keep their sets dull and orderly, they probably would have stuck with a different name (and nearly did, having recently changed their name from Money Sex Power).

Within their thick, buttery landscape of Serato-slathered goodness come genres of all shapes and sizes. In the minds of Dan Browne and Dan Kawai, who formed the group in 2007, the ability to spread the Brooklyn swagger of Notorious B.I.G. over the terabyte digitalism of Crystal Castles requires a bit of imagination and a taste for melody.

Though they were fast out of the gate, becoming regulars at such clubs as Detroit Bar, Kawai’s foray into the corporate workforce put the group’s plans on an indefinite hiatus in 2008. Fortunately, the itch to return to the turntables became too great to resist, and as summer approaches, they’re working to get their name back on the tip of your tongue.

Combining a mix of traditional DJ tools and custom digital interfaces, the Mashed Potatos sound cannibalizes the hard-hitting elements of pop, indie electro, hip-hop and more. It sounds fairly standard, but nightly sessions of audio alchemy have them forging friendships between polar-opposite sounds that are noticeably smooth, admirably daring and—above all—not to be played with.

Mashed Potatos can be found online at www.myspace.com/mymashedpotatos.