Bangers and Mash-ups

Tonight saw Seattle’s MODULE! make live electro that was so funky it made me want to bite it, like the sound chalk makes when it scrapes brick. I was sweating three minutes into it and then my friend Honey, the cool sound lady at Dunes, which is where all the party people wanna be (and whose existence caused P. Sherburne to believe Portland is a mecca of West Coast experimental electronica, which, okay, I will definitely give him that, because we have Nudge and Ainu and E*Rock and Audio Dregs and Valet and Decapod Claw and my favorite ever, Solenoid [known to some for his wonderful mashers as DJ Brokenwindow–dude works at the library, knows more specifics about electronic music history than anyone I personally know, makes a great booty bass mix and can DJ the shit out of a party], and OMCO and now Aesthetics and CNSEngineering and Toast & Jam and Das Yellow Swans and Valet and Office Products and STrategy and etc.)
INNYWAY
So then Honey cranked up the subwoofers and I could feel my fallopian tubes crinkling up or something.
Module is David Farrell, who owns Tone Records in Seattle (electro, IDM, abstract, glitch) and he’ll soon release a single on the great boutique label I just larve, ORAC, which is run by Randy Jones who, if he ever DJs in your town, sell the keys to the Lexus to go see him if you have to.
[TIP: if you are at an electro party in Portland and you do NOT hear Solenoid’s “Lotus Eaters” 12″ on ORAC, you are not at an electro party in Portland. Check to see if you are vaporizing!]
He played after a boy from Olympia named Joey Casio who did the ennui-and-a-drum machine thing. Sample lyric:
“The new religion is a comic book
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron.”
I could totally relate to that one, for sure–that book made me hallucinate–not like the time my friend Marie dosed three hits of Jesus Christ Superstar and my mom made us go to church with her and she practically converted to Catholocism right then and there (after flushing her LSD stash down the rectory toilet)
but ALTERED MY REALITY. Unfortunately, the Casio Olympia boy didn’t alter my reality much, the Oly boy liberal arts school damaged-by-ennui thing gets veddy veddy tiresome and I’m not interested much in people singing about boredom, because, you know, why? though I have to give him credit for massive energy on a Sunday night. He did a Screamers cover. One thing, though–
and I’m sure this has been meditated upon before, but I find it really bizarre when folks using knobby samplers and things affect the rockstar stance–lots of boys (no girls do this, that I’ve seen) twiddle those knobs like they’re playing a guitar, like the knobs themselves are sucking the life right out of them, or reverse, like the knobs are tiny lightning bolts that turn them into robot Mick Jaggers. And it’s like, actually a little embarrassing to me because, why be so tied to the classic rock move when you’re trying to make music that isn’t irrelevant, that doesn’t have to pay a tithe to the rock because it’s creating its own history. (Not that classic rock is irrelevant, but classic rock being made today might be.)
But I do like that people are striving for onstage energy kinda thing, and I don’t think making laptop music automatically makes your performance boring, either. Otto Von Schirach, for instance, is the single most entertaining man-behind-a-laptop live show I’ve ever seen, visually speaking, partially because Otto Von Schirach looks fucking crazy or like he just snarfed a Jolt Cola and stole a 2004 Honda Civic with rims. His eyes could melt acid. I also saw him remove one of his checkered Vans deck shoes, put it on the table next to his computer, say something about how it represented “IDM,” then chant “IDM” repeatedly, then freestyle a nonsensical rap over Miami glitch.
So basically, my advice to boys in sampler bands who sing like the Hot Hot Rapture: stop moving your knobs like they’re hurting you, and genuinely go crazy. Okay!