The LAST FREE UP EVER at Republic this Wednesday Nov 21st, 2012

After 5 years of Free Up celebrating Dancehall, Reggae and Soca at 2 different clubs we are sadly closing the doors on this legendary weekly party. Free Up first started at Shine Night Club where Neal Loud created the concept and promoted the party for 4 years. After stepping back from the promotions scene, Neal passed the party on to Free Up's DJs and the night moved to Republic where it has been for the past 8 months. Countless guest djs have selected for us as well as many artists having performed and we'd like to thank them and everyone of you who has ever come out and enjoyed the night with us.

The LAST episode of FREE UP goes down tomorrow at Republic and we would love for you to be there. The guestlist is already pakd but we can still hook you up so get at me quick if you would like to attend for FREE @djarems.

THE LAST FREE UP EVER

Wednesday November 21st, 2012

Dancehall, Reggae & Soca w/ DJs Arems, Rexx, Hoppa & Chizzle

11pm to 3am at Republic - 958 Granville Street

FACTION 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY - July 1st inside Shine

This summer marks the the 10th anniversary of the Faction and we'll be kicking off the celebration with a big party inside Shine. Join the entire Faction Sound Crew as all 5 members unite for a once in a lifetime celebration – 10 years of Faction Sound!

DJ’s Arems, Tanner, Iron Lyon (NYC), Akshun and Trigga on the mic will be dropping nothing but pure fiyah all night as we celebrate Canada Day and the 10 anniversary of the Faction with Hip Hop and Dancehall

PLUS FREE BBQ CHICKEN RIGHT OUTSIDE THE CLUB!!!
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Faction’s Extended Bio

Good things happen when tight knit friends with a deep love of music decide to join forces. After honing their skills as bedroom DJs, Arems, Tanner and Akshun soon found themselves playing in lounges, DMC battles and smaller clubs around the way. All three DJs soon got involved in college radio and by the time they met in Vancouver it didn’t take long for a bond to form. The Faction Sound Crew was formed in 2001 by Dj’s Arems, Akshun & Tanner and was joined by hypeman MC Trigga in 2006 and New York DJ Iron Lyon in 2010. Residencies at some of Vancouver’s bigger night clubs soon started and the crew began touring and putting out Mixtapes.

Soon after forming, the Faction found themselves playing alongside world class DJs and urban artists all over Canada. Their mixtapes caught the attention of a wider audience across Canada and began spreading around the globe. Currently the Faction has released over 20 mixtapes in group and solo projects with a diverse range of musical styles ranging from Hip Hop to Dancehall to Electro. Accolades soon arrived and in 2007 the Faction was nationally recognized at the Stylus DJ Awards with a nomination for best mixtape. 2008 brought 3 more Stylus DJ award nominations including Best Mixtape, Best Canadian Reggae DJ, and Favourite Vancouver DJ which was won by DJ Arems. Nominations continued in 2009 and ’10 in the Vancouver DJ of the year and Canadian Club DJs of the year categories.

As of late the world has come calling. In 2007 the Faction embarked on an Asian tour playing in the mega clubs of Shanghai, Taiwan and Hong Kong as well as doing many dates all over Canada. 2008 found the Faction touring in Europe and also included 2 National tours playing at some of Canada’s largest mega clubs including multiple dates at the Guverment in Toronto (rated one of the top 5 clubs in North America). 2009 and ’10 saw various tours across the US and Canada plus a return to Europe and Asia.

Locally The Faction has been holding down residences at Vancouver’s hot spots for unheard of lengths of time with residencies at certain clubs ranging 5 to 10 years. Their infamous industry night at Balthazar, Sunday Night Soundsystem ran for half a decade and established Sundays as a big night to party in Vancouver. You can currently catch the Faction DJing 5 nights a week at packed venues across the city. If you’ve found an amazing party – it’s most likely the Faction is in the DJ booth dropping pure fire.

DJ Arems - Fiyah Fi Bun Dem Part 5 CD Release Party - Wednesday Feb 23rd at Free Up Inside Shine

Taking a lil break from mixing down Fiyah 5 to let you know the release party goes down this Wednesday at Free Up in Shine! We'll be giving out copies to all in attendance so make sure you're there to grab a copy of this pure FIYAAAAH! Hit me for guestlist @djarems

Free Up Two Year Anniversary at Shine Nov 3, 2010

Dancehall night at Shine has been THEE night for fans of Jamaican music for over 9 years. As the night formerly known as Bruk Out began to dwindle in numbers a few years ago a new energy was brought to the night by Loud Entertainment and it's unstoppable line up of residents for the night. For two years now DJs Rexx, Hoppa, Chizzle and Arems have been nicing up the dance with big chunes and many a dubplate. Free Up is the only night you'll see big DJs from across the globe rolling thru to bless the dance floor and regular dub fi dub mini sound clashes between Vancouver's various Sound crews. Make sure you're there this Wednesday as we celebrate two years of pure FIYAAH with special guest sets from DJ Grafta and the Faction's own DJ Tanner. Hit up @djarems or @djtannervan for guestlist on twitter or on Face Book.

Get Up Get Down 6 Year Anniversary at Shine, July 30th

Tonight is wanna those nights you'll regret you missed if you don't come through. Get Up Get Down has been delivering true school hip hop on a Friday for 6 years with the help of the one and only Needle Kineval and Carlo of Tigerstone. The night has hosted almost every dope DJ in North America and continues to bring the world's best DJs to Vancouver. Tonight catch residents Arems and Seko in the main room with TEAM CANADA and Freaky P on the Mic. U-tern and Nina Mendoza will be running the backroom. We start extra early at 9:30pm with an open bar and later on the Grill will be in full effect with Tanner aka the Bird Man cooking up his world famous chicken. We goin till 3am or later and it's guaranteed to be INSANE. DOO THISS! Holla at Arems for list via twitter @djarems or email djarems@djarem.com

Caribbean Days Festival Afterparty at Shine - Last Lap! Sunday July 24th

This weekend is the perfect time to head to the Caribbean Days Festival in North Van and get your whine on. If you've never been - you've been missing out big time. With all this hot weather we've been having you'd be a moron not to check it out. Tons of good food, beer gardens, performances and goods for sale plus great people watching. The official after party goes down at Shine Sunday night at Showoff Sundays for the Last Lap. The front room will be all dancehall and soca with DJ's Rexx, Wet Me Down Sound and Grindhouse Sound plus of course Faction Sound as well. The backroom will feature hip hop and R&B plus whatever else is nice with DJs Floetic and Icy Touch. Make sure to come thru! Holla at us for g-list: djarems@djarems.com or on twitter @djarems.

FACTION @ Get Up Get Down inside Shine May 14th 2010

DJs Tanner and Arems along side the homey DJ Seko will be DESTROYING Shine Night Club this Friday May 14th for Get Up Get Down. Come through and witness 4 turntables being molested by the finest turntable molesters on the planet. Hit djarems@djarems.com or @djarems on twitter for guestlist. DOOO THISSSS!!!!

Show Off Sundays @ Shine Night Club

Awwe Gyeah! A brand new Sunday for you to enjoy yo self wit at Shine Night Club every Sunday. Dj Arems will be in rotation along with DJs Rexx, Icy Touch, Hustle, Supa Fly and Floetic plus other guests as well. Catch Arems there this Sunday May 2nd and later on this month as well. Strictly dope music...no BS. Hip Hop, Dancehall, R&B, Golden Era, Ol School and Funk. Holla for guest list and make sure to roll through. G-List requests to djarems@djarems.com

Get Up Get Down MIx CD Party!!

Come celebrate the CD release party for DJ Arems & DJ Seko's GET UP GET DOWN vol.1 Friday March 26th at Shine night club in gastown. Limited number of cd's so make sure you make your way to the DJ booth to get yours. We are also celebrating ROXY's (Love & Electrik's) Bday bash tonight! So come down early!!

FIYAH FI BUN DEM PART 4 - Best of 2009 - Release Party

FINALLY! The mixtape that i've been putting together for months now is DONE and being pressed up as we speak. 80 minutes of 2009's best dancehall music featuring 13 Faction Dubplates by the likes of Vybz Kartel, Buju Banton, Mr. Vegas, Mavado, Assassin, Beenie Man and others amongst the 80 tracks of strictly BOOM chunes! The CDs will be ready this Wednesday just in time for the CD release party at Free Up Wednesdays inside Shine Night Club. We'll be giving away 100 copies and it'll be the only place to get the cd for a little while until we post it right here (or you'll be able to cop one of us or at your favourite mixtape retailer).

Make sure to hit me up at djarems@djarems.com for guest list requests and we hope to see you all there at Shine this Wednesday January 27th. Come thru and pick up your copy of some pure FIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Tanner's B-Day Madness Friday at Shine for Get Up Get Down

Our homeboy Rhek blessed us with two flyers for this event! One of them got rejected (can you figure out which one) but we had to include it cuz it's so dzaaaawpe and slightly disturbing. Dj Tanner's Barfday Bash goes down this Friday August 28th at Shine for Get Up Get Down. The entire Faction will be in attendance to help celebrate and we're hoping you'll be able to come party with us too. Myself (Arems), Freeky P and U-Turn in the back will be joining in on all the festivities in an attempt to make this a night Tanner will never forget...but probably won't be able to remember. Hit me up at djarems@djarems.com for guest list. It's gonna be INSAAAANE!

Chillin Illin and Grillin Release Parties and BBQs

Two giant parties go down this weekend in celebration of the release of the Chillin, Illin and Grillin Mix Cd. This Friday, June 12th, make sure to roll through Shine to party with the Faction Sound Crew and DJ New Money of the Moustache Men as we release the CD with tons of give aways and food hot off the Grill at Get Up Get Down. Hit up djarems@djarems.com for unlimited guest list. Guest DJs Tanner and New Money will join residents Arems and Rico to tear the fucking club up. If you haven't downloaded your copy yet then just scroll down and grab it! Over 2000 downloads so far!

Two days later, after we've all fully recovered, the party starts again with a huge Beach BBQ going down on the grass by the last parking lot at Spanish Banks Beach. We'll be setting up the Shark Energy Drinks massive inflatable tent with live DJ's all day bumping the illest summer time vibes and of course the grills will be in full effect. Bring some meat down to grill and of course your favorite beach side dranks and sporting goods. Everyone's welcome! Non stop sunshine in the forecast so DOO THISS!!! We'll see you there.