Dinner with DJ’s #6: The Rev
I hesitated for a moment, trying to put into words exactly how much of an impact The Rev aka Timm Reynolds has had on the rave community here in the 505. Especially because his story is still going.
To say he is simply a DJ is an immense understatement that only helps to start the conversation. To me, ever since I was a teenager meeting him for the first time at the Loft in Nob Hill, he’s been a bit of a teacher.
Sharing bits of knowledge and facts about this music and this community that I just didn’t know before; which is a huge part of why I was so excited when he agreed to be the next DJ to come over and have dinner with us as part of our series we call Dinner with DJ’s.
What would he teach me now? Where would our conversation take us? I was excited, nervous, and I’ll admit running a bit behind since we didn’t even have anything set up, yet the information he shared with me on this one perhaps surpassed all the rest before.
I understand the weight of saying that knowing every interview has been successful and powerful each in their own way. But what made this dinner different from the rest was that this time, the Rev brought along a stack of flyers that he collected over the years, with each one having its own story and background.
Each flyer, like each song, seemed to have its own identity, and still, each connected to the overall story that is the Rev’s life here in the 505. It was perhaps the best example of what this dinner with DJ’s business is all about. I want to hear your story, from your perspective to your own beat. Here’s what I heard while experiencing this one.
As the theme for the night, I chose to have the food revolve around the birthplace of house music, Chicago.
I even found a pizza place in town that claimed to make the “True” Chicago-style pizza that you normally can only get in the windy city, yet we were going to test that claim with the DJ who introduced us to Chicago House in the first place.
After that, we’d follow it up with some spaghetti with some marinara sauce, which you’d think is everywhere, but I’ll tell you now, it tastes a little different if it’s made in Chicago. I guess you can say that about music as well. Like the skyscrapers, the Riverwalk, and even the crazy Red Line, Chicago does things a bit different than everywhere else.
The soundtrack for the night is usually a mix or playlist controlled by the DJ, but for this one, we never even got to that, which ended up being a wonderful decision I may follow for other editions moving forward.
Instead of having him play, I picked a double CD called Live at OM, mixed by our favorites Derrick Carter and Mark Farina, both from Chicago, and we spent somewhere around four hours talking nonstop.
We focused specifically, to start, on the flyers he brought that I was now rummaging through on my living room coffee table as if what he brought was some magic codebook I was meant to crack.
We started with what he’d tell me was his very first gig here in the 505, one that took place on Five Points in the south valley, right off of Bridge. He talked about how unsure he was and how new it all really was, only agreeing to play for his friend, who heard he was a DJ.
I can remember that exact spot as it was right next to a bingo hall my grandmother used to go to when I was a child. It’s crazy to think at that same moment in my life, the Rev was already out there playing the music we’d find one day down the line. The 505 is magic like that.
From there we talked about another flyer he showed me to a rave called House Without Walls, which was important because it represented the first time a DJ setup was out of the back of a UHAUL truck here in the 505.
A large amount of my teenage rave years were spent at raves like Junebug and Dreamscapes, and you always knew them because they had a certain style to them. Out in the open desert, surrounded by stars and the DJ standing inside a parked UHAUL-style van, bumping the tracks that followed you into the dark night and towards the sunrise.
He even recalled a moment at this one where the wind started up so bad that they had to close the back of the moving truck, leaving it only open enough for the wires and the air to get through and keep the party going. It’s so crazy to think how grassroots it all was back then.
So simple, yet filled with so much determination and passion. We all just assumed when we showed up at the rave that it was always done like that, and yet we forget it had to start somewhere and with someone. The Rev is a part of that story.
As we continued through the pile, every flyer seemed to have its own nugget of history and joy. He showed me one called “The Birth of Sativa” which was actually the baby shower for one of his best friends, whose daughter they named Sativa.
He even laughed at the idea that there’s really a Sativa out there, now an adult living their own life. It was a great example of how important these flyers are. To most they are just handbills, but to each person they represent another connection in their own story. I enjoyed hearing the Rev remember each one. It was yet another example of why I find these interviews so important.
After that, he showed me the flyer the very first time Mark Farina came to New Mexico, and although I have a couple of pictures of it, there’s nothing that compares to holding that flyer in my hand and opening it to see how beautiful it really is. And not just for the story, but also for the actual art of it.
These pieces of paper are what led us down the rabbit hole that is the rave and every single time I find another one, it’s as if I see another way we are all connected through this art. No matter where we started, or even where we will end up, they matter because we do, and that will always be worth writing about. Through these articles of rave history, we will always have this common memory or moment. The moment the rave changed our lives.
From there, the conversation shifted a bit, and the Rev talked about two passions he is in the middle of right now, that take him away from the dancefloor, wherever it may be. The first focuses on documenting the many different and unique records he finds along the way with his page A Record a Day.
What I especially enjoyed was his explanation of how each also has its own story and memory, and how important it is to document them while we still have the chance. It reminded me of the idea behind disco itself.
What many people hear as disco these days is a new sound that was made in a studio by an artist or producer, but what we don’t realize is that at the beginning of it all, in the 70’s nightclubs where disco was born, there wasn’t exactly a disco sound yet.
The disco sounds that started it all were records found by DJs who felt it fit the groove of the club they played in. Rarities and B-sides that existed before disco and house, that the rest of the world may never hear, and yet on the dancefloor they bop better than any song you hear on the radio. The idea of disco is that it had to be created from the sounds that already existed and made into something new, something unique.
The second passion that we discussed was the fact that recently, the Rev has taken control of a show called Afternoon Freeform over the radio airwaves for KUNM 89.9. I have been a huge fan of these shows as they showcase another side of the Rev’s musical taste in a setting that is different than behind the decks late at night.
Sometimes, they will take a theme, like the show where he celebrated the anniversary of the classic Beastie Boys album Paul’s Boutique, by only playing songs the group sampled for their record, and sometimes, they will just be songs he found that he wanted to share.
What I value so much about this is that it still showcases the DJ as a track selector, but it encourages them to think outside of the box that sometimes they are forced into at the rave or nightclub.
He’ll play the Cure or the Clash or even the Talking Heads, and he’ll frame them around a common idea or feeling for that specific show. It’s been a wonderful way of getting to know him in the way that you only can through music.
After that, before we knew it, the night had come to an end, and the Rev had given me so many pieces of wonderful information that all can say now as I sit at my typewriter is, thank you, and when can we do it again?
We said goodnight, and as he drove away I suddenly had a flashback to the very first time I interviewed the Rev, which must have been somewhere around five years ago.
It was a crisp, cloudy fall day, we sat out in his backyard, and he introduced his story to me, one I’m still hearing now. He didn’t know me much, and he had no reason to invite me, yet by doing that, I don’t know if the Rev realized it, but he helped me come to terms with the fact that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Write about this culture and the people in it.
I wish to say thank you to Timm Reynolds, both as a DJ and as a person. You’re ability to teach as well as include has set an example that many of my generation have followed ever since we met you through the rave so long ago. There are many stories in this rave culture, and this is just one of them, but through this story, we manage to find our way.
And, what I want more than anything, to anyone reading these words now, is for you to go out into the city that we call the 505 and find the DJ known as the Rev playing tracks that not only have a beat but also a story, and show your support from the Dancefloor, which is where we all found each other in the first place.
In closing, the pizza was phenomenal and true to the Chicago style we know so well, but the spaghetti was my favorite part, yet I didn’t even eat it right away. The conversation was exactly what we needed it to be. Honest and with intent. And the flyers were perhaps in the best shape of any flyer collection I’ve ever seen in my life.
As we go into the final days of December, I wish to show my appreciation and gratitude to the DJs who shared a meal with me this year, and I look forward to the conversations and the moments that we are yet to have in 2025.
See you on the dancefloor, dear friends, and as always, at the dinner table as well, if you’re willing. If this culture is who you are, your story will always have value. Don’t forget that one.
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