Sarah Shebaro (DJ Mini-Tiger)

Sarah Shebaro, a candidate for a Master’s degree in UT’s printmaking department, also spins records under the guise of DJ Mini-Tiger. Her informed, eclectic mixes have packed the floor at Sassy Ann’s, Pilot Light, The Birdhouse and house parties, and she’s more concerned with people having a good time than trying to impress with that super-obscure or hip track. She nailed most of our selection with lightning speed and was enthusiastically curious about those she didn’t know.

Shebaro’s thesis installation, which is related to her DJ work, will have its reception at UT’s Ewing Gallery on Friday, April 18 from 6 to 9 p.m., and Mini-Tiger will get the crowd moving at Pilot Light later that evening.

Cybotron
“Clear”
from Enter (1980)

SS: This is Cybertron’s ‘Clear.’ This is one of your staples of early electro, but what first got me into electronic music as a teenager wasn’t stuff like this but stuff like Underworld and Orbital. When I started finding people who were interested in the same music as me when I moved away from home, this was the kind of stuff that I got exposed to — things that are used for samples now. I think this was used in a Missy Elliot song two years ago. To me, this still sounds innovative and new.

KV: Where did you grow up?

SS: On a farm in Iowa. My graduating class had 32 people, I think. I didn’t have that much access to the Internet, so I was exposed to electronic music through movies, for example Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ in Trainspotting, one of the best techno songs ever. Anything I could find I would gravitate toward, and when I got to college, I started fine-tuning. When I first heard this, I loved it and was like, ‘What is this?,’ and my friends looked at me like I was crazy because I hadn't heard it. But it’s always been kind of a boy’s club thing. Maybe not so much anymore. 

Loose Joints
“Is It All Over My Face?”
from Is It All Over My Face 12” (1980)

SS: This is Arthur Russell — Dinosaur L, or what’s that other one?

KV: Loose Joints.

SS: Yeah, that’s it! I love everything that Arthur Russell’s ever done. He got involved with a lot of groups and did a lot of different stuff. I was always especially fascinated, in that he came from Iowa and had a traditional upbringing but blew everybody away. But most people didn’t become aware of how great his music was until about 10 years after he died. I’m still becoming familiar with it, and I haven’t disliked anything I’ve heard.

LCD Soundsystem
“Thrills”
from LCD Soundsystem (2005)

SS: This is from LCD Soundsystem’s first album, but I can’t think of the name of the song. I used to buy all that DFA stuff around 2000, and I really like ‘Losing My Edge.’ It’s such a funny song about being an audiophile and being in the scene. He did that Nike thing [45:33, commissioned by Nike to accompany jogging workouts], and I like how he used parts of Sound of Silver and spread them into an epic concept song… A lot of people said, ‘Oh, he sold out,’ but something good came out of this project, so it’s not totally selling out.

DJ Shadow
“Mutual Slump”
from Endtroducing… (1996)

SS: DJ Shadow. This album will always be one of the best things I’ll ever hear. He’s also one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen. He was so skilled, and the visuals synched so well with the message of the music. It was during The Private Press tour. There are so many compilations and types of electronic music where people sample “Organ Donor” from this album because it’s such a great piece of music, and it’s so much about appropriation. He appropriated that organ sample, and people re-appropriate it, and that becomes another piece, and I think that’s really interesting and wonderful, and re-appropriation is important in my work as an artist and a DJ. How do you make something or combine things so that they become new or people see them in a new way? Every time I play this record for someone who’s never heard it, they’re fascinated with it, no matter what kind of music they like. Even people who don’t really like this kind of music respond to the organic, human quality in this.