Though not directly related to Detroit I thought I'd share this because of
the link to the recent comments by Stacey Pullen in XLR8R...
San Francisco magazine September issue
"Pulse of the City" by Sheerly Avni
(page 89)
The Boomboom Room (with apologies to the late John Lee Hooker)
"House music is a British export and was the dominant music of the Bay
Area's early '90s rave scene. It's bar far the most popular electronic dance
music in San Francisco. On any given night, you can usually find a small
club where they are spinning music that is darker and heavier than house,
such as drum 'n' bass, edgy techno, but on that same night, you can choose
from among at least ten venues spinning house music.
I've never like house. Happy, up-tempo rhythms, video-game bleeps - it's
disco at its worst. Every time I hear it I think, "Oh, they're playing that
song again, the one that goes thump thump thump really fast." But if rap and
arock are too familiar now, house could be the answer - so subversive, so
new, that my conservative ears can only hear it as noise. Maybe house is the
new rock 'n' roll - Brando with Glo Sticks...."
She later talks to Paul Kantner (formerly of Jefferson Airplane) of all
people about today's dance culture.
This is how the conversation goes:
I tell him about the people I've met so far who describe today's dance scene
in the same way I've heard old hippies talk about community in the '60s.
"It's different now."
"Why?" I ask. "There's drugs, there's music, there's sex."
"They don't have as good drugs. Sex is always good. But most of what they're
taking is the equivalent of horse tranquilizer. Which can make you pleasant,
but it doesn't let you see God. In the '60s, we spoke to God on a regular
basis, and he spoke back to us in many interesting ways."
I make a mental note to check with my new clubbing friends: find out if
they've ever seen God on the dance floor.
"Can a DJ build the same energy with a crowd as a band?" I ask.
"He could if there was a real community, but there isn't. It's just people
coming together to dance. They're not coming to experience the universe."
She then goes on to write about Liquid after telling her friend in
confidence that she wouldn't. She's a hack and a lousy friend.
Sorry, I had to get that out of my system and yes I wrote to the editor.
Did any of you West Coast 313ers see this article?
MEK
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