Comments (2) Best Solo Musician - 2009
Dino Felipe
Straight up, Dino Felipe is weird. This should come as no surprise given the local label through which he releases his music. Schematic is home of fellow freaks such as the scatologically obsessed Otto von Schirach. Dino doesn't tour much, blithely explaining it away with his lack of a job, driving skills, and a booking agent. No matter; he has gained a cult national reputation on the strength of his music alone, which can veer from experimental noise to post-punky cold wave, from ambient textures to strangely danceable rhythms. And if approval by geographic outsiders matters, well, last year the notoriously cranky critics at Pitchfork Media gave Felipe's No Fun demo a 7.2 (out of 10). Of course, his legend has been helped along by the Internet as well. Out-of-towners can use YouTube to witness parts of his legendary, somewhat rare live performances around town, which usually find him naked and sweating, Iggy Pop-style. Felipe might be as elusive as Sasquatch but, we promise, is 90 percent less hairy and 300 percent more entertaining.
