Clubs : Club Buzz : New Release Is Pressed in Vynyl

The grooviest thing about Vynyl’s opening last week had to be the people in the shiny new house. Publicists weren’t wrangling celebrities to show; the stars on the club scene just came out to support the effort their colleagues put into transforming the old Hollywood Moguls into such an ambitious venue. Where once stood a beleaguered art warehouse, there is now a funky, fresh nightclub modeled on the wackier, tackier points of suburbia. Just my style, too--plastic-covered couches, high-low carpet and Granny’s wallpaper.

Out to support key Vynyl owners and longtime scenesters Marc Smith and Chris Monaco was Mike Messex, the co-promoter and deejay of Cherry, who taught Monaco how to spin records when he was a mere 16. Everywhere you looked, it was like old homie week. Working the door in a silver-glitter cowboy hat was Solomon, last seen toiling at North. Holding court in the VIP room were the club’s designer Ricki Kline, his wife and North chef Monica May, uber-caterer Jeffrey Best, C Bar’s Christian Kneedler and Sugar’s David Reiss (yo, yo, yo . . . Sugar debuts a bomb new hip-hop club Friday night called Yo!, with both DJ Swamp, who deejays for Beck, and Evil E inaugurating). Also adding to the local-yokel color were promoter Bryan Rabin, sexy singer Coyote Shivers, Garden of Eden’s David Judaken, Highland Grounds owners Richard and Leslie Brenner (who are gearing up to celebrate the third anni’ of the monthly female showcase, “Women and Their Power Tools”). Even Bruce Perdew, co-owner of the new Blue nightclub on Las Palmas Avenue, stopped in to pay his respects . . . and to pick up the 10 bucks Monaco owed him. The two had a bet going on which club was gonna open first, and Blue beat Vynyl by four days.

All the way around, it was a happy gala, with the fun continuing on Tuesday, when Interview magazine hosted a 30th anniversary party, with a performance by Hedwig and the Angry Inch backed by the guys in Stone Temple Pilots. (All you kind-hearted people out there, please say a prayer for the boys of STP--all four of them. As rock stars go, these are some of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet, and sending ‘em a little good clean karmic energy would go a long way.)