WRITTEN BY JEREMY BISPO – UNABRIDGED / AS YOU LIKE IT FOUNDER AND FOR·MA·TIVE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
In today’s installment of Influences, I’m doing another two-parter: Jason Kendig & Marke Bieschke. While both are leading queer voices in the underground, their roles—and their influence on me—are drastically different.
Jason Kendig is a DJ. He’s released music. He’s thrown parties. But at his core, Jason is a DJ—and boy can he DJ.
Jason has been one of the best DJs in America for a long time. I first discovered him through Yasmeen Peer at a Teknokitchen underground in 2009. He was one of the best DJs in San Francisco for years. He has performed for As You Like It 23 times (soon to be 24). He played the AYLI launch. He played most of the undergrounds. He once performed a nine-hour warehouse set in Oakland. Often he performed equal to or better than the headliners he opened for.
His deep roots and encyclopedic knowledge stretch across underground genres, with a particular mastery of Detroit techno and house that greatly expanded my own understanding. I was a sponge, and Jason was one of my teachers—though he never taught with words. He taught through his mixes and his mixing style. The fact that he didn’t talk much made him an even better teacher. It forced me to focus harder, and I learned more.
Anyone who lived in San Francisco while Jason was here should consider themselves lucky. We can’t take for granted what he brought to the decks: years upon years of experience, a background in Midwest rave culture, and a friendly access point to Honey Soundsystem.
For many years, Honey Soundsystem was the best party in San Francisco. Those events at Holy Cow—wow. What happened at Holy Cow stayed at Holy Cow.
Through Honey, Jason introduced me to AYLI’s Design Director, Ken Woodard. Jason and Ken understood me quickly. The safety of the Honey dance floor extended a welcoming hand to the queer underground, which later fed directly into the launch of the party series Mixed Forms with Jordee Ackerley and Trevor Sigler—and eventually into acknowledging and accepting my own queerness.
Jason’s role in my musical journey over the last 16 years can’t be overstated. I’m honored to call him a friend. I’m honored to have hosted him 23 times on AYLI dance floors—not counting appearances at Burning Man on the Mayan Warrior, Mixed Forms, and Rare Form.
In the words of an old friend, following yet another stellar closing performance at an underground bank in the Financial District:
“Jason mutha f%kin Kendig.”*
Simply one of the best.
I can’t wait to host him and Carlos Julio Souffront together, all night long, at an Unabridged event March 7.
If Jason guided me through music, Marke Bieschke guided me through words—and through a deep, lived understanding of the underground that allowed him to immediately understand AYLI and me.
His writing in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and later 48 Hills, was a beacon for a hungry, up-and-coming promoter who wanted nothing more than to be understood through actions rather than words. Marke was the first to write about us.
In our second year, AYLI was awarded a Best of the Bay by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. I was gobsmacked. I didn’t feel like we’d really done anything yet, but Marke could see us. He truly understood Jeremy Linden and me. He understood our intentions. He understood the balance we were trying to strike between club culture and warehouse underground parties.
He knew when it was safe to write about our events—and when it wasn’t. He knew when not to shine a light on the underground, and when he could show support for club nights. I don’t believe we’d be where I am today relaunching Unabridged without that early support from Marke in the local media.
As a board member of The STUD Collective, he was integral to the launch of Mixed Forms. In the years immediately following the Ghost Ship fire, Mixed Forms truly kept me afloat. Those were dark days, and producing the event at The Stud helped me hold onto my sense of purpose.
Since lockdown, AYLI has produced three Stud fundraisers and donated almost ten thousand dollars as they moved into their new building. The desire to continue supporting The Stud comes directly from the warmth and care that Marke and the collective showed Mixed Forms during that time.
Marke’s background in the Detroit underground, alongside his deep roots in the queer underground, has been exactly the voice I’ve needed through the trials of the last 15 years. We’re lucky he calls San Francisco home. I’m lucky to call him a friend.
Marke Bieschke will be moderating a conversation, “The Midwest Queer Underground,” in February 27 at The Stud for Unabridged.
Best,
Jeremy Bispo
AYLI / UNABRIDGED FOUNDER
