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[The Weekly Q&A]

Legendary Las Vegas dive and tiki bar DJ Professor Rex Dart knows how to captain a party

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Rex Dart
Photo: Wade Vandervort

Professor Rex Dart has believers believing him. The sharply dressed DJ, born Ben Coy, is a regular at the Golden Tiki and a frequent special guest at the Double Down Saloon. He’s earned a sizable and loyal local and regional following for a simple reason: He plays music that makes people feel good.

An all-vinyl DJ whose sets swing from soul to surf to punk to what-have-you, the “Professor”—his stage name is an homage to New Orleans bluesman Professor Longhair—Rex Dart has made his bones venturing into noisy, smoky dives and turning them into rapturous get-downs. Here’s how he does it.

You from around here, stranger? No, no. I was born in Alabama. My pop was in the Air Force, and we bounced around a couple of places. We were in Anchorage [Alaska] prior to being in Las Vegas, and we moved here in winter 1978, when it snowed. I’ve been here ever since. … I’ve thought about leaving Vegas many times, but then I realize what I have here. The people that I know here are just so sweet and so awesome. I can walk into any place and like get treated like Norm from Cheers.

When did you start spinning? Around 1997, at KUNV [FM]’s Rock Avenue [indie and alternative music show]. I had a beautiful late-night Sunday 3 to 6 a.m. shift. It was perfect. I got, like, three phone calls a night, and I could play whatever. Before that I’d been listening to Bazooka Joe, Poison Ivy and other legendary [Rock Avenue] DJs, and then I was in the room with them! I was like, what happened here? I thought these guys were legends and they’re just bums like me (laughs). Great. I love it.

Aw, Joe. He’s a sweetheart. He was an absolute influence on me. It’s not about what people want to hear; it’s what they need to hear. You don’t have to play Top 40 or what they request, because it’s usually something that everybody’s heard 5,000 times.

When did you find your way to the Double Down? I’d been let go from [KTNV] Channel 13, where I was an editor. I was a little sad about it, so I went to Champagnes Cafe, and I ran into my buddy Ryan Pardey, who knew I was a radio DJ with a little record collection. He said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna play a party for our friend on Monday. Would you want to DJ with us?’ … We had a great time, and he said, ‘Let’s do this again.’

We started doing it every Monday at Champagnes, bringing in our home stereo equipment, breaking fire code. We played indie rock and alternative stuff that nobody else in town was really playing, and it went like gangbusters. We brought in other DJs like [fellow Rock Avenue DJ] Ryan Kinder, who took us into the Double Down Saloon. [Owner P] Moss loved Ryan, so Ryan vouched for us. That started a relationship between Moss and me, and I played the Double Down every Monday for 20 years.

What was that like? Oh, it was an adventure every f*cking time. Some nights it was dead; some nights it was packed; sometimes it was tourists, sometimes locals; sometimes we had bands. … I brought in other DJs and started the Bargain DJ Collective, which was kind of my Wu-Tang Clan—all these different people that have all these different styles of music. Why not let them tell their stories? So, we had Jeff Murphy, who’s got all those great metal stuff, and Hanson Meyer [AKA DJ Atomic], who grew up in the early ‘80s hardcore punk rock scene. He’s now doing more at Double Down than I ever did, and I love him for it.

And then Brandon Powers brought you into Golden Tiki. It’s a good place for you.Oh, yeah. When Brandon walked me into the construction of Golden Tiki, I was like, ‘Oh, I see what you’re doing. Put me in, coach; I’m ready to play.’ … The tiki realm is bloody amazing—the mugs, the artwork, the burlesque. This guy Sven [Kirsten, author of The Book of Tiki] once made a big chart of, like, all the things that inspire a tiki bar. And pirates are on the outside ring! Oh, I love every single thing on that chart.

Your DJ sets could be their own ring on the chart. How do you know what Golden Tiki and Double Down crowds need to hear? Is it instinctual? Absolutely. I never know what I’m gonna play from night to night. When I go, I pack up some records: ‘Oh, I’ll bring my surf box. I’ll bring my blues box. I’ll bring my exotica box, my lounge box.’ And then I take the best tracks from those, and I try to make a cohesive story.

The sound just fits right. You can tell when the music’s not right in any place. Like, you don’t play hillbilly music in an Italian restaurant type of scenario (laughs).

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