When news came down earlier this year that DJ Buck had passed away earlier this year at the age of 54, the outpouring of memories online and on finer dance floors was immediate and almost overwhelming. (A celebration of Buck’s life will be held Sun/15, noon-5pm at the Savoy Tivoli, SF, more info here.)
Buck was such an integral part of San Francisco’s dance music scene, for such a long time, that the remembrances came from every angle: His early ’90s Church Sunday nights at DV8 club introduced many local dancers to funky house music and extended weekends while, almost simultaneously, he was helping to put the city on the global rave map as part of the ToonTown crew, taking over the Fashion Center and other spots for wild all-night romps. And that was just the beginning.
In those all-vinyl days, DJing was as much of a magic trick and a marathon as much as a trained skill, and Buck was known as one of the top mixers, whose excitement for and knowledge of what was happening on the global scene established him as a DJ’s DJ. Heavily involved in DJ Dijit and DJ EFX’s The 3rd Floor record label—which started in the recording studio above legendary BPM Records in the Hayes Valley-Lower Haight nexus—and later with Tweekin Records and others, he released music with foundational scene heroes like Rasoul, Doc Martin, Chris Lum, Joshua Iz, and Guy Nado to establish a signature SF sound, with records like “The Page & Webster EP” and “Lovin’ Haight.”
And back when bigger dance labels were overlooking SF’s talent, he broke through in 1995 on Strictly Rhythm with acid-tinged “The Bells of San Francisco/Northern Exposure EP,” literally sampling foghorns and seagulls, which must have been insane to hear on an underground dance floor after eight hours of rolling.
“Everybody talked about the ‘Buck sound’—they still do,” said DJ Toph One, Buck’s childhood bestie. “He was sampling all this San Francisco street stuff like cable cars. There were intros and outros, almost like skits in the mix, that were probably an influence he brought in from hip-hop. He wasn’t just doing cut and dry house music, he gave it this dimension where he was bringing all these other things into it that other DJs weren’t listening to. San Francisco house music definitely wouldn’t sound the same without him.”
Buck, born Kuyumptiwa Kopavi Grok Tinkelman (his mother was Hopi), moved to SF from New York after his parents divorced. He and Toph became fast friends in grade school at Stuart Hall School for Boys in the late ’70s/early ’80s—”we found each other like the weirdos always do,” said Toph—and even though they played baseball together and did other normal stuff, they both shared a passion for music, wanting to “dig beyond MTV and Duran Duran” to find the raw street sounds like punk and hip-hop underneath.
They formed the AS Krew skateboarding and graffiti crew, tagging up the back of the 22 Fillmore, and became general rabble-rousers in their teen years, moving in together and partying all night (and often waking up to their apartment hallway full of crashed-out strangers, “as was typical of the times,” said Toph). While Toph was drawn more to the live punk and burgeoning hip-hop scene, Buck got deeper into electronic music and partying.
“It was this amazing time when everybody was doing their own shit, there were parts of the hippie scene, and parts of the gay scene, and the hip-hop and punk scenes, and then all this dance music coming out kind of brought it all together,” said Toph. “But what was unique in SF was we had the technology to do it.
“There was this early computer stuff developing alongside the rave part—people like (party visuals genius) Donovan could blend these hippie and computer visuals, and Nick Phillip of Anarchic Adjustment printing on his clothing. There was the wave of Brits who moved here like Nick and the Wicked Crew, so there was an international angle going on.”
Toph points up Buck’s subversive power as an evangelist of the scene. “Buck would basically drag me down to these parties, he’d say, I’ll have some fucking wine in my record box, you’re on the guest list. And of course I’d come and I’d have a great time. Someone would give me a tab of acid or some ecstasy and it would be a blast, everybody would be dancing, and you’d get to know the bar guys, and one of the Brits would have a flask in the after-hours. That was basically 1992,” Toph said.
Buck pursued his music career and a string of relationships (“He always got the girls,” said Toph) to London, LA, and the Pacific Northwest, until he settled in Long Beach with his wife. But he remained a guiding spirit to the SF scene. Even though I moved here right as he was getting ready to leave, he checked in on me often through email and then social media, always giving me sweet encouragement to write about San Francisco and the dance music world.
It’s annoying that I’m having to write this remembrance that just scratches his surface. He should still be here, and this should be a whole book about that heady time, with Buck at the center. But what a sheer blast to get to go through all the music he left us as a living document of those halcyon rave days.
And if you get the chance, stop by the celebration on Sunday. “Thinking about who Buck was, it didn’t feel right to have a memorial,” said Toph. “But I looked at the calendar and damn, his birthday falls on Monday, so we’re turning it into a birthday party for him. It’s going to be a great time for reconnection for everyone, from so much that Buck was a part of,” said Toph.
A CELEBRATION OF LIFE & BIRTHDAY FOR BUCK with DJs Spun, Jenö, Toph One, Ammon, and friends. Noon-5pm, Savoy Tivoli, SF. More info here.
