Texas-bred collage artist, Mike Pendon aka DJ Jester the Filipino Fist, has always been an anomaly. The black sheep of four kids from hard-working immigrants, Jester spent most of his childhood entertaining himself in the suburban outskirts 50 miles south of the air-conditioning capital of the world, Houston. Jester headed for the Hill Country in the mid-1990's to attend the University of Texas at San Antonio. After years of on-again/off-again collegiate studies, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies while working in local record stores when people still bought music. When he wasn't overseeing as Arts Editor of the school newspaper or freelancing for Houston's now-defunct Urban Beat Magazine, Jester was manager/rapper of a band called Bucketfunk. Post-graduate panic led him to a crossroads so he accepted a job offer from Boca Foods, an all natural soy-based burger company as driver/server for the Boca Burger Mobile. His six month adventure led him all over North America. He met girls. He grilled burgers. He had fun. However, the two most important meetings on that journey were in Boston when he met like-minded turntable wizard, Kid Koala, and San Francisco's Aquarius Records. Next came international press, distribution, touring across N. America (this time as a DJ) not to mention throughout Europe, the UK, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Never really having a permanent home, Jester spent a few years on couches bouncing between San Francisco, Austin, and San Antonio depending on where he could find work. He even taught a master class at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. This led to more local press, which led to more gigs throughout Texas. Along with Lederhosen Lucil aka Krista L.L. Muir, they founded the annual Waltz Across Texas, a yearly jaunt through his home state hitting cities other djs would rarely touch (i.e.--the small art town of Marfa). This eventually led to a gig with Grand Buffet, two dudes from Pittsburgh who saw the world the same way as Jester so he went on tour with them as their dj opening sold-out shows for Of Montreal and a then little-known act, MGMT.
In 2008, the Filipino Fist is still a conquerer of cities throughout Texas and beyond, host of his annual SXSW closing party at Emo's, award-winner (URB Magazine Next 100 2003, Houston Press: 2005 Best DJ To Skip Town and Make a Career and San Antonio Current: Best DJ 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008), avid runner, and alternative to your oh-so-boring dj sets. If you are ever in San Antonio, you can catch him co-hosting a very successful dance party every First Friday called GET BUSY.
Jester has acclaimed mix-cds (i.e., River Walk Riots, Heavily Booted, and Secret Love) and a few side-projects (i.e., Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine, DJ Jester & Quad Rod). If you want to buy some DJ Jester merchandise, scroll down on the left. If you are a mom and pop store and want to carry DJ Jester cds in your store, e-mail [email protected].
Find Jester on YouTube
DJ Jester has gotten love from
Spin,
GQ,
The Wire,
Paper Magazine,
Future Music,
Flyer Magazine,
CMJ New Music Monthly,
Turntable Lab,
Pitchfork,
XLR8R,
Metro.Pop,
URB,
Beautiful/Decay,
Tokion,
Mixer,
Hyphen,
Giant Robot,
Signal to Noise,
While You Were Sleeping,
Pulse!,
Scion,
Backwash,
New York Press,
Badazz Mofo,
Blaze Magazine,
The Village Voice,
The Asian Reporter,
Williamette Week,
The Stranger,
The Portland Mercury,
Grrl Scouts: Work Sucks,
Houston Press,
San Antonio Express-News,
210 SA,
San Antonio Current,
The Paisano,
Austin American-Statesman,
Austin Chronicle, and the
Dallas Observer.
For booking, interview requests, or just want to take Jester to a free lunch, send a MySpace message here.
And YES...J e s t e r DOES play weddings and private parties.
MEANWHILE, WATCH THIS:
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