ver walk into a club and say to yourself “God, this place blows”. Sure, you have. And then you promised yourself one day you would open your own club and call it something cool like “Alphaville”, right? This exact fantasy propelled the duo that makes up the Small Town DJs , Mike Grimes and Pete Emes, to do just that. Their dream entailed a club where Afrika Bambataa rubs shoulders with David Bowie. Where Henry Rollins mingles with Wham. Where MSTRKRFT could unite with the Parisian electronic DJ group that inspired them, Daft Punk.

Unlike you and me, they made good on the promise that we let fall to the wayside in favour of barbecues and light beer (and all the raucous antics that ensued at such gatherings). After performing at many a club, they opened their own, and they made it plenty smarter than the average one.

It’s fair to surmise that Mike and Pete attained their wealth of club know how through osmosis. After more than 10 years of spinning and mashing up tracks in local clubs, they fulfilled their dream by shapeshifting the floundering The Venue into the resident zeitgeist bar known as the Hifi Club . These cats have been in and out of so many hip night spots that they knew exactly what would work and what wouldn’t.

Setting things off with what they knew best, with the help of some techie friends, they began by putting together one of the smoothest sound systems around. Whether it’s an art-punk band or a beatboxer, audiophiles and bar stars alike bow down to the Hifi’s woofers and tweeters. What sets them apart from most of the other kids at the playground is the unpretentious yet avant garde vibe that the Hifi pulls off so effortlessly.

As purveyors of sound on the 1s and 2s, the Small Town DJs mix and match genres and styles with such gusto and panache in their sets, it comes as no shock that their club delivers on that very same postmodern pastiche. Traipse in to their fine establishment on any given day of the week and expect to be wowed by the likes of local indie rock darlings Hot Little Rocket or Montreal’s neo 80s synth pop duo Chromeo. And those pomo influences are literally hanging from the white brick walls in the form of pop art rear projections, super stylized skateboard decks, and stencilled portraits of musical legends on canvas. I bet that’s what their bedroom (if not entire apartment) walls look like too.