MUSIC: The bizarreness of Diplo

It's 11:40 pm at Club Icon, week two for the newly created J.E.S.U.S. Rulz. The house DJs are spinning everything from Lady GaGa to a psychedelic jazz ensemble, and the main act, Thomas Pentz, aka Diplo, has yet to arrive. Outside on the busy Thursday night walks up an ordinary looking man; no entourage, no street recognitions, but this is the man who produced M.I.A.'s famous Paper Planes and tours the world, spinning for Australia, Tel Aviv and the local following in Philly. Amongst his accomplishments are the results from collaborating with Spank Rock, Santogold and Bonde do Role. It's obvious the man can spin, from Britney Spears (the Circus Alt Clown remix is absolutely ridiculous) to Bloc Party's "Helicopter", the thoughts from a man who named his 2004 album "Florida" has a few things to say about Orlando, and it's anything but ordinary.

"Orlando has just been a trashy place because we have nothing to look forward to here, you know? When you come to Orlando you're from Volusia County or Tampa or Lake Mary or St. Cloud, wherever the fuck you're from. You don't have anything to look forward to; the highest you can get is maybe going to Miami. Orlando just is what it is, there are a lot of cool stories of kids doing things by the seat of their pants because they feel trapped here, like on an island. I think it's really cool that these kids are making something out of nothing, they have their own vibe, like a Florida thing."

This is by far the most bizarre interview I have ever conducted, and it wasn't the downplay of my lovely city that caught me off guard. I have yet to hear Australia be compared to Florida, much less in the perspective of, "Australia is like Florida but they're into better music, I feel like. All the girls are hot and everyone's a redneck, but they're into weird stuff."

Whatever weird stuff Orlando residents have yet to audibly discover, Diplo's performances are always worth mentioning. Check out his MySpace for samples of his mixes. For something to do, take Diplo's advice and  "go to Wet N' Wild, you can sneak in beer in your bag and go ride the lazy river."