Yo, deejay

Eric Yuke, a.k.a. 59Crime, is a drum-n-bass and dubstep deejay and scene promoter in Sacramento. He’s created many nights devoted to electronic music, including the now-defunct Drop Heavy at Silk Bar and the current Timeline, every month at Blue Lamp. His latest venture is Diggin Deeper, a drum-n-bass listening event each week at United State. SN&R met up with him recently at Naked Lounge:

Tell me about your United State gig.

Well, when people were still buying a lot of records and before digital was even really an option for everybody, everyone would meet at the record store. I’ve met so many people that way, not at shows, not at any of that. We all would go to the record store because that was what unified us.

When you say the record store …

There’s been a few different record stores, but the primary one where I met everybody was Imagine, at the old Lyon Village shopping center, when Bill used to be the old drum-n-bass buyer there. That’s been gone for four or five years now, at least. … And then as times got harder, more stores have closed … there hasn’t been a place where people can meet up to bond over music anymore.

I’m sure a lot of this has to do with, you know, the Internet.

Part of it is the Internet. But more people play on CDs now, more people play on software programs, and a lot of them pseudo-deejay through a digital format.

What about you?

I still use records. … But, no, I think a lot of those [other formats] are great. I wish actually it was easier for kids to get into things like that.

So, this thing at United State …

It’s my way to try and bring back the record-store vibe, where people at least have a place like … I mean, as much as it’d be nice for people to buy records, the truth is they’re expensive, heavy, easily destroyable, vs. “Hey, I can burn a CD.”

Right.

I don’t knock people, I just prefer vinyl. I still like the way it feels. There’s a huge argument that you’re not a deejay if you don’t use vinyl. Fuck that.

You don’t agree?

I don’t agree. Ultimately, it’s what you’re putting out and how you’re doing what you do. … At US, we play new releases, we play everything. It’s just like, come out and listen to some shit, because we always have deejays playing. Talk to some people, if you have questions, we’ll try to warm up and be snuggly to you. That’s a problem in electronic music in general, is that everyone’s got cliques and camps.

Sorry, I keep staring at this girl’s hair. Maybe I should go red?

That’s OK. I keep staring at this corner house over here. I almost went into architecture.

What do you do?

I work at Starbucks.

A barista?

I’m a shift manager, thank you. I’m using it while I’m going back to school. … I need benefits and flexibility because I’m off to go be a teacher. I feel like there’s a lot of dumb fucking kids out there, and I want to do my part.

The Internet’s changing a lot.

Yeah, the Internet has ruined everything. I quote my friend Morgan on that one, how it’s destroyed the value of everything. That record that you used to hunt down and buy?

Now you can get it anywhere.

Exactly. Now you have it on an audio file that you download from the Internet. There’s no … I don’t know. It’s made everything so easily accessible. Like I enjoy picking up a newspaper at this point, just to pick up a newspaper.

One last thing. 59Crime: Where’d you get it?

59-CRIME was my pager number in high school. We put it into one of those programs to find out if you could make any words out of it, and next thing you know, there I am.

I had a friend once whose phone number was SEXTOY-5.

That’s amazing.

But 59-CRIME: Isn’t that too many let—never mind. I can’t count.

It’s all good. You’re a woman.

Damn.

I’m just kidding.

OK.

Hey, why can’t Helen Keller drive?

Because she’s a woman—yeah, yeah. Says the Asian guy.

[Laughs.] I know.