Recently in Dancers Music Category

He has known since 1998, but is in good health and says he feels better than ever. I hope him great health and happiness. I love Erasure and Andy Bell.

Sometimes your friends go on tour and when they come back from tour they have amased some neat musics from their travels. They might pick up a really neat mix CD from New Orleans full of their distinctive rap called Bounce. Maybe they got a weird demo from some cool dudes in Dekalb, IL or got some cool recordings of whales from a very chill hippie street vendor on Venice Beach. You like this. New weird stuff from places is awesome, and sometimes these CDs are really awesome and you cannot stop listening to them, but sometimes your friends forget where they get things from and have no information to help you figure out where this music is from and how you can get more of it. It's true--the character of "you" in my hypothetical is in actuality me in real life. My friends Adam and Jona bring me good stuff, and last year they brought back MP3s of a CD that were just marked "Mexican Dancehall" and "Fleamarket." Searches upon searches have turned up nothing. I now turn to you, the public, as I am desperate for information. I need for music like this. I need to be able to appropriate the adulation that I am holding onto right now.

This image is not the cover of the CD. I just needed an image, because what would a Greatest Band entry be without an image. This image is for a mix cd of the dancehall riddim entitled Mexican, which is sorta related but definitely not what I'm looking for. Fleamarket is packed with 29 hot jams that don't really fall in line with any genres or sub genres of music and more specifically dancehall I've heard before. While the beats are definitely within the Dancehall realm with its off kilter slap tap style they are topped with Spanish rapping or toasting. Wait, you say, by that description this must be reggaeton music, right? I don't think so, it doesn't have the same feel of reggaeton. It feels more free and party than reggaeton as the disc is filled with samples of 80s new wave plus 80s and 90s rap jams and also sorta has that slow moving double decker bus blaring house music vibe like the Vengaboys or something. It's totally irressitible. I think that is how I'm describing music I love these days: irressitible. It's a great quality. So, yeah, if anybody knows anything about this CD or what this music is, please let a dude know, until then all I know about Fleamarket is that this mix CD that I know so little about is the Greatest Band of All Time.

There apparantly is some sort of DJ handbook or coda that is supposed to be followed when one is trying to do his or her thing. You know the sort of thing that make someone a real DJs DJ, like proficient technical skill. super flow, these types of things. One of the 10 commandments i believe is to never play 2 songs by the same band/act/group in the same set. I am not a DJs DJ. I figured this out when I literally couldn't stop myself from playing The Soft Pink Truth at least twice a night. The Soft Pink Truth is undeniable.

The Soft Pink Truth is Drew Daniel, who is more famously one half of Matmos, whose deeply conceptual "found sound" style electronic music has garnered mucho critical praise and they also made a lot of music and stuff for that Bjork lady. So, the legend goes like this, Matthew Herbert (a crazy electronic man who records under names like Wishmountain, Doctor Rockit, Herbert, and Radio Boy) dared (DARED!) Drew Daniel to try to make some "house music" in the using the same intricite manner in which Matmos is created. Drew Daniel was indeed very much up to the task. He put out two 12" under The Soft Pink Truth name in late 2001 and 2002 on Herbert's Soundslike records. The two 12" plus 3 more tracks then became The Soft Pink Truth's full length debut called "Do You Party?" which came out in early 2003.

"Do You Party?" played a really sick joke on me because it really took so many things that I didn't like about the specific kind of music that it is and did them in such an amazing way. I love the concept of music designed specifically to make people dance, but so much of that type of music, especially of the electronic variety, is very bland with nothing distinctive and incredibly cold. "Do You Party?" is just packed with personality and fun and all the things that house music isn't most of the time. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call it house music, more like neo-electro. What? Why would I call it neo? Also, I have historically hated vocal samples but The Soft Pink Truth just completely flips the switch and shows all the others how vocal samples should be used. Really the heart of this sort of music has to be the beats, though, and The Soft Pink beats are thick. Somehow the beats skitter and slam at the same time. They have the exciting feeling of chopped up beats but they propel you to move as much as a 4/4 disco track. "Gush Gush Gush," I know you are saying, but I'm serious, "Do You Party?" is such a special dance record.

How does one follow up such an amazing debut album? Well, if you are Drew Daniel, you totally do something unexpected and you make an album of all anarchist punk anthem covers. That's right, The Soft Pink Truth's news album, "Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth?", is full of Crass, Rudimentary Peni, Swell Maps, and Minor Threat covers. It doesn't disappoint either, it's strong and still full of the right amount of humor but just that perfect amount of vitriolic politics (to be released appropriately next Tues, aka Nov. 2, aka Election Day) that we need right now. The album is a little more angular and maybe a little less funk vibes, but it is totally another dancefloor burner.

So, I'm breaking the DJ 10 Commandments again, because I have the new The Soft Pink Truth again. How could I not break the rules, though? Drew Daniel makes my favorite dance music that is being made in his spare time! When someone makes music this music as a side project it automatically makes them The Greatest Band of All Time.

Dum DumDum DumDum DooDooDooDoo "Groove is in the DUUUUDDE!" I swear I'm not kidding. I really believe this. From how GBoAT is going, it seems like Zac will inform you about deep historical dudes you've probably never heard of that have a lot of very interesting history, while I will mostly be talking about bands with one huge hit that has been driven into the ground with a fairly boring history and our amazing new contributor Marisa, well no real trend has developed yet (as she has only written two) but it is clear Marisa's will be interesting and well written. Oh, and it's just starting folks as I feel more comfortable talking about my more awkward musical loves it may get ugly, but stick with us here. There really is something there.
So, yeah, Dum DumDum DumDum DooDooDooDoo, "Groove is in the DUUUDE! YEAH YEAH!" Greatest Band Of All Time. Swear. Totally Swear. Dum DumDum DumDum DooDooDooDoo. It's on every "Totally Fun Party Songs From the 1990's," and every "NOW! That's What I Call The Totally Fun Party Songs From the 1990's" compilation CDs. It was even probably on the amazing "MTV Party To Go" CDs. "Groove Is In The Heart" is an amazing song. It still sounds great when it comes on, even though you've heard it a million times. I mean, it totally does the trick of making you want to dance. It's sorta goofy but with a great bassline from Bootsy Collins, hot horns, very legit guest appearance from Q Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, and that lovable Lady Miss Kier doing it up. Alas, one great song does not a The Greatest Band of All Time make, but when their debut album is really solid, AND they have a hugely underappreciated third album that spoke on all things trippy and ravey then YES, well maybe, but PROBABLY!!!

Lady Miss Kier, Super DJ Dmitry, and Jungle DJ Towa Towa (later changed to just Towa Tei) formed Deee-Lite in 1986 in New York. Leaders of the whole New York club scene they worked the clubs and excited the crowds. One thing I don't know, but would love to know is how a band like Deee-Lite gets signed to a major label. I mean being a phenomenon in NYC will get almost anyone signed, but I have never seen anything about recorded material prior to their major label debut. Do they get signed based off of the live show, or are there demos or what? Anyhoo, they get signed and release their debut album, World Clique, in 1990. The album featured their mega hit, "Groove Is In The Heart," and so many totally good vibes. Vibes, baby, that's what I'm all about now, and Deee-Lite are the best at bringing the vibes. On, World Clique, the vibes are of positive rap style production of the late 80s early 90s variety kinda like De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest mixed with diva vocals and positive horns. Some songs roll in a traditional dance manner like an early house but feature a heavier layering of instruments and interesting tones over the house base. World Clique sold bunches of records, due to the hit single, and played a big part in bringing back the 70s retro thing that happened in the early 90s. Visually, at this point in their career, Deee-Lite was all lava lamps and deep fashion and wacky fun.

In 92, Deee-Lite dropped a dissapointing second album called Infinity Within. It veers to close, musically, to simple vocal house like you find on all the euro style dance cds of the early and mid 90s. The sound was like some of World Clique but the production was simpler and lost some of its energy and magic. The lyrics became much more political as we entered the days of The Gulf War and George Herbert Walker Bush's depression. I respect the intent, but the lyrics come off sounding pretty trite.

Dewdrops in the Garden was Deee-Lite's last studio album (a remix album dropped later) and was released in 1994. It was a pretty drastic re-imagining of the band's vibe and sound. Towa Tei left the group to work solo, which was a huge blow according to some people who viewed Tei as the musical force behind the band. They added a new member, DJ Ani, and took it so rave. Always pushing the connectedness of humans and earth they took it to another level with Dewdrops in the Garden. The album is filled with ruminations on romance, love, drug references (including a song called DMT, the most intense of psychedelic drugs), and hippy speak. It all works so well. The album is incredibly eclectic, with much more chilled out stuff, and focus on mood, albeit there still is some diva style stuff for those who wouldn't love Deee-Lite without Lady Miss Kier wonderful wails. It does reek of the 90s, but in a nice way. Dewdrops sold poorly and Deee-Lite packed it in. I saw Lady Miss Kier DJ in 1998 or something, and that was not a good show, the good vibes were gone replaced with a very confusing ethos entitled "Bitch" which stood for Being In Technological Courageous Harmony (whu?), I hope it's a movement for more women to DJ, but I'm not sure what it is. She was spinning really garbage drum'n'bass, and it just was sorta gnarly. I sound like a goober, but I WANT THE GOOD VIBES, and Deee-Lite were the best at bringing the good vibes, and good vibes = The Greatest Band of All Time, right? Right?

Okay, I don't want this to sound epic, but while creating 10 albums between 1982 and 2000, Tracy Thorne (12/06/62) and Ben Watt (09/26/62) of Everything But The Girl (EBTG) thoroughly confused their fans. They accomplished what many musicians could only dream: selling hundreds of thousands of albums, but somehow doing it in a way that challenged their listeners to journey with them through decades of inconsistency.

Initially releasing a smattering of albums consisting of what many consider to be "folksy-acoustic" but what I think to be "acid-jazz / light-jazz / female lead / adult contemporary," EBTG transitioned ungracefully at the end of their career toward female lead drum n' bass electronic with heavy house and ambient influences. It was in 1994 when the English duo released Amplified Heart and they garnered their first listen by many soon-to-be-fans, including myself. However, it wasn't until 1996 and their release of Walking Wounded that EBTG would thoroughly confound their following . . . and the WORLD. Influenced heavily by Massive Attack, Thorne was quoted as saying, "Even we got a bit bored with what we were doing [previous to Walking Wounded]. We felt, for the time being, we'd gone as far as we possibly could doing what we were doing. With this new material, it is like hearing a new group."

Indeed, Tracy, it is. Walking Wounded: totally a gateway album. Watt, on the brink of death due to a rare intestine disease, programmed beats and organized much of the science-music production of the album. Thorne added her classic vocals to the electronic mix in a less-ben-gibbard/more-mia-doi-todd fashion and Walking Wounded was in the can. However, it didn't sell compared to the previous outings of easy listening that the couple had bequeathed to the public.

Yet, the faux inaccessibility thought harrowing and scandalous by many proved breathtakingly necessary by at-the-time novice electronic music listeners like me. To this day I listen to this album several times per week. I have secret friends whom I identify with in relation to this album, this band.

Ben Watt is still alive. He only has three feet of intestine left. Everything But The Girl produced one follow-up to Walking Wounded called Tempremental, after which the group decided - amicably - to work on other projects. Watt co-founded the West London night club, Lazy Dog, where he was rumored to DJ on a regular rotation. He now runs a record label called Buzzin' Fly Records, which seems to focus on saxophone-based electronica. The group, graciously, has left their amazingly vintage website online.

When I started listening to EBTG, I had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Somehow listening to this band in my headphones in hospital rooms and reading Ben Watt's book about his fight with disease helped me think of music in a new way. Indeed, it helped me get more into experimentation in music. EBTG brought a mildly-progressive approach to electronic vocalist music that deserves recognition of being The Greatest Band of All Time.

I think it is obvious that it it unnecessary to write a lot about this band. The pictures speak for themselves in this occassion. These dudes totally rocked it VICTORIAN FUTURISTIC SPACEDUDE style. What more is there to say?? Seriously, these guys were on some whole other thing. They took part of their inspiration from the whole Parliament/Funkadelic spaceship thing, but no one could even come close to the one and only Jonzun Crew.

They were pioneers in the electro funk hip hop world that would be the biggest thing around in 84, 85, 86. They gave the breakers something to keep getting wild too while their culture was being totally over exposed. They had the hottest style of all time. Three brothers originally from the home of all things truly surreal, Florida, moved to Boston and formed The Jonzun Crew in 1981. Two years later they had the first ever album released on the hip hop label that would put out some of the greatest records ever and a giant in the industry, Tommy Boy. The historic LP, Lost in Space, featured three of the greatest electro jams of all time ("We Are The Jonzun Crew," "Space Is The Place," and "Pack Jam"). Long songs allowing for a dark groove to develop featuring minimal wicked robot voices talking mostly about space. Let's just be honest: it may seem goofy and silly in 2004, as it has been copied by dance music for 20 plus years now, but it still feels amazingly cool to listen to The Jonzun Crew.
Michael Johnson (nee Jonzun) continued on in the music industry after The Jonzun Crew stopped putting out hot records. He was behind the careers of New Edition(he wrote and produced their amazing hit single "Candy Girl"), New Kids On The Block, and more. An expert on The Jonzun Crew (with the last name Johnson as well) was telling me that he produced a group (whose name he could not recall) that was like electro with Temptation style vocals. The idea of that freaks me out. Michael Johnson and The Jonzun Crew influenced the direction of music (popular and underground) for years and of course anybody who wears those hot threads are certainly The Greatest Band Of All Time.

Never having heard a full album and actually knowing very little about a band certainly does not exclude them from being The Greatest Band Of All Time. CERTAINLY NOT!! It's true. Tussle haven't even released their first album yet, and lord knows, I haven't ever seen them play live. What I do know is that my friend, Adam Forkner, played with them or saw them or something when he was staying in New York in the fall of 2002, and he returned with a 1" button of theirs. I love it when the first thing you know about a band is what their button looks like. Forkner also had a CDR they were selling at their show and boy was that baby bouncing. Tussle is an instrumental band. BLECHHH. Who likes instrumental bands!?!? They play a super danceable mix of dub, kraut, and funk with four dudes. One plays bass, one plays drumset, another plays a "weird" drumset made of weirdstuff like plastic and paper and garbage, and a guy who plays samplers and keys and noises and junk.

Some true Mission district dudes, the majority of the band considers themselves to be visual artists first or at least "before Tussle happened." Tussle is deeply entrenched in both the San Francisco rock (Erase Errata, Numbers, etc.) and the San Francisco electronic scene (Kid 606, Matmos, Blevin Blectum, etc.). Tussle has released two EPs so far on Troubleman Unlimited, and this is where Adam Forkner returns to the Tussle story. Adam is in a band called Yume Bitsu, who released an album called the Golden Vessyl of Sound, with some crazy fractal lazer cover. Both of the Tussle EPs have artwork by the very awesome Chris Johanson but both are really reminiscent of the Yume Bitsu art. Scope on this: Yume Bitsu's Golden Vessyl of Sound (2002) on the left, Tussle's Don't Stop EP (2004) on the right.

Tussle is music that I feel comfortable putting on all the time. Tussle is so so well crafted and so versatile that songs take on very different vibes. Sometimes a song will make you wanna dance, sometimes it will make you wanna read a book, and sometimes it will make you wanna sit on a couch and clothes your eyes. Tussle are destruction dub masters and kings of crunk rhythms and their first LP is coming out in September. Pick it up, because who wouldn't want to own the first LP of The Greatest Band of All Time.