Week of 12/15/03

On Friday night I performed at the opening night of Crobar with My Robot Friend. Crobar is a magnificent space; huge, colorful with booming bass and a massive dance floor. Bravo! Finally, a new big club worthy of Manhattan. I remember in the late 90s when the hipster press declared the era of big clubs over (enter: the lounge). Well now, thankfully, that non-trend has reversed.

That said, my favorite "big space" of all time was Tunnel, back in the late 80s and early 90s, when it was a really raw space.. basically just an old subway tunnel with a sound system. There's something about the amount of money poured into a huge "fancy" club like Crobar (or Exit) that corrupts; the need to make that much money back means that bridge & tunnel types, the kind who order drinks, will be courted. Also, the sight of oh-so-condescending black-clad security types running around with headsets and nasty doorpeople don't exactly a fun party atmosphere make.

But I'll hope for the best, and in any case, I was there for the Outsider (Electroclash) Music Festival run by Larry Tee. I must now say a few things critical. I speak only for myself, and no one else.

Larry introduced the night by saying that he "loved" house music but that everyone was sick of it. He then mocked this song:

'Take Me Higher' by H20 feat. Billie

Now, to anyone going out in 1995, 'Higher' represents the apotheosis of an uber-emotional year in dance music. I told my friend Rene this story and she said "No, he didn't bring 'Higher' into it!" I was like.. yes! He did!

Insulting house music and 'Higher' serves to do nothing except alienate everyone in the world who loves that song and who loves house music. Why this need for opposition? Why can't someone love house music AND get into 'electroclash'?

Setting electroclash up as the antithesis of house music is a huge mistake, not just because it alienates the dance floor massive.. millions of people all over the world who love house music.. but also because many of the electroclash artists sound like house music anyway. 'Electroclash' is often just a 4/4 beat with singing. Viola.. house music by any other name.

Lets not forget that 'Frank Sinatra' by Miss Kitten , thought of by electroclash people as an electroclash anthem, was a huge hit in the house world before the word electroclash even existed. Danny Tenaglia turned 'Frank Sinatra' into a huge hit at the Tunnel back in 1997.

As if alienating house music people wasn't enough, mistake number two was/is in calling this "genre" electroclash. Of course there was already a genre of music called "electro" and by naming this new "genre" electroclash it confused people. Or maybe it only confused me, but that's because most of the electroclash artists, I've found, have no idea what actual electro is.. they've never heard of it. Electro is Pretty Tony, Trinere, Maggotron, Anthony Rother, B Boys, I-F, Dynamix II, Mantronix, the West Street Mob, Bass Junkie, Cybotron, the Egyptian Lover, Drexciya, etc. Look up "Peaches" or any of the "Electroclash" artists on the biggest Electro website, ElectroEmpire, and you'll find they aren't even listed.

I don't say this to disparage any electroclash artists; rather, just to point out how odd the name choice was. Electroclash is more an extension of punk and new wave than actual electro, and if you ask an electroclash artist who their influences are, they're sure not to name any of the electro artists I mentioned above.

The leader of an electroclash band, now disbanded, once remarked to me (after I gave him a CD of electro) how stupid he thought the lyrics to 'Body Mechanic' by Quadrant Six were. But not understanding the history of electro and the tongue-in-cheek synthesis of the electronic beats of Kraftwerk with the black futurism pioneered by Parliament Funkadelic is what makes some of electroclash, to me, sound cynical and flat.

Most musical movements, at least ones that have lasted, like house music, start from the ground up. A core group of musicmakers meet a core group of music lovers, sparks fly and then the fire spreads. Electroclash, on the other hand, started out as hype and now it's a victim of its own hype. Electroclash couldn't even sustain the club it started in, Luxx, and in its third year the electroclash festival had to rename itself because so many of the artists labeled "electroclash" didn't want, never asked for, and resented that label.

Lastly, I want to just mention again that it is a shame Larry Tee insists on dissing house music because electroclash artists Dirty Sanchez and Avenue D, in particular, would get a huge, enthusiastic response at any house club, like say, Roxy. In fact they'd probably get a bigger response at Roxy than they did at Crobar on Friday night.

Electro, nu-electro, trance, house, techno, pop, freestyle and electroclash; they are all facets of the same diamond in my mind. I cannot love one without loving the other.

until next week, remember..
when you dance, we are a part of what you feel.