The Origins of Iconic Images from NYC's Musical History Explained

COLUMNS COLUMNS

LANDMARKS THE BRONX

The places, spaces, 157 and monuments of A column on NYC's musical past, the gear and HUDSON processes that inform present, and future. the music we make. STREET PAST FEATURED LANDMARKS 1 MAX NEUHAUS’ “TIMES SQUARE” slava balasanov, who performs as 2 THE THING SECONDHAND STORE , might as well be this column’s poster column, I exhumed a dusty Slava to prepare for this 3 THE LOFT child. So much of the house and footwork cardboard box from the depths of my closet. Inside was 4 MARCY HOTEL producer’s raw, stuttering music—and the a collection of rave flyers from the early to mid-’90s, 5 ANDY WARHOL’S FACTORY uniqueness of his ideas—is born from a when I used to frequent clubs like the Tunnel, Roxy, and 6 QUEENSBRIDGE HOUSES careful selection of limitations. He uses a Shelter, where DJs like Moby, Richie Hawtin, Frankie 7 RECORD MART 1 7 6 single Korg Electribe ESX-1, both for record- Bones, Mark Kamins, Scott Hardkiss, and others played 8 DEITCH PROJECTS 5 ing and performing. Slava’s new album Raw Hi-NRG, acid house, early jungle, and assorted ambient 8 5 QUEENS Solutions is out now on Software. weirdness for kids who would soon become Kids (Chloë 7 5 Sevigny was a Shelter coat-check girl). RBMA: How did you decide on the Elec- You didn’t need to be raver royalty for admission into 2 tribe? N.A.S.A. Knowing what it was about was enough and 3 that spirit of inclusion lingered, even after Shelter closed 8 8 Slava Balasanov: I have been using Elec- and reopened in 1996 as Vinyl, which for six years host- MANHATTAN tribes since I first started performing live ed Body & Soul, a joyous Sunday daytime party. electronic music around 2003. The ESX is I ended up at my first N.A.S.A. party by accident. One 4 super flexible and does everything that I summer evening in ’92, I ran into an old friend in Wash- need. It provides fluid access to the control ington Square Park who was headed there. I tagged along, of each individual sound/sample—something and it was as if I had crossed some invisible threshold to that takes digging through menus on the a brighter, completely bonkers parallel universe; it was MPC. It also has enough parts to easily make the inverse of the uptight Wall Street scene in neighbor- LOGOS a self-sustained track—something many of ing Tribeca. N.A.S.A. was one of the first regular electron- the other grooveboxes lack. I did try using a ic-music dance events of its kind in the city, siphoning WHAT: AREA! SHELTER!VINYL computer and other gear at points, but it was off a little of the vibe rolling in from the other side of the WHERE: 157 HUDSON always too cumbersome and didn’t have the Atlantic. It was molded in part on David Mancuso’s Loft— STREET The origins of feeling of playing a single instrument. there was no alcohol, but free juice and breakfast were WHEN: AREA, 1983-1987; iconic images from provided, along with a sound system so fierce it might SHELTER, 1992-1993; RBMA: What is one feature of the machine bend your ears backwards. VINYL, 1996-2002 NYC's musical history that, when you figured it out, became inte- In the mid-’80s, prior to its techno-colored N.A.S.A. WHY: EXCEPTIONAL gral to your workflow? days, the space was called Area—news articles at the NIGHTCLUBBING explained. time reported that the 13,000 square-foot club housed SB: It’s hard to isolate one feature, but [it’s] three bars, a swimming pool, and a tank full of live probably the way I set up and chain effects. sharks, not to mention a crowd filled with art stars like STATEN ISLAND the muscular man with the tattooed from AIDS in 1987, Levan from drug- The Electribe has three effects and you can Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Laurie Anderson, BROOKLYN bicep, downward glance, and raised-up related heart failure in 1992. chain one and two, two and three, or all of and Andy Warhol. them together and can send any sample It’s hard to believe that over 20 years have passed tambourine symbolizes a particular time DePino doesn’t know who first drew the into any point in the chain. Figuring out the since my first N.A.S.A. night. There’s still one flyer in and place that lasted only a decade, yet it logo, but he clearly remembers its model: optimal way to set this up took some time, particular that catches my eye. It reads: “TIME CAP- remains permanently fixed in dance-music Willie Gonzales, head of security during but now I pretty much use the same setup SULE: Bring along items that reflect our culture.” Does legend and gay culture. Housed inside a the Garage’s first couple of years and a for all tracks. anyone know where this capsule is buried? I’d trade a pair of Liquid Sky phat pants to find out. !ADRIENNE DAY parking facility at King and Varick Streets professional body builder. The tambourine RBMA: What are some limitations of the from 1976 to 1987, Paradise Garage was wasn’t part of his persona, but the curly Electribe that you’ve embraced? the perfect name for the concrete space hair and ripped muscles were. The logo is SB: Despite having the capability to have that became a haven for music lovers, perhaps best remembered in neon, in the stereo samples, because of limited sample and especially for gay men who could feel form of an illuminated sign at the top of time and number of tracks, pretty much safe as their true selves. On Fridays and the ramp that led to the club’s entrance. every sample is mono. The longest loop is Saturdays, DJ Larry Levan threw epic Merchandising helped seal its destiny, eight bars of 16ths, which isn’t so bad, but it does set limits. You can’t really do triplets parties that centered around acceptance too. DePino recalls how people started in a 4/4 beat, although you can have swing. and community, in contrast to the more drawing the logo on their own t-shirts—and There aren’t many options and by now I TOP 5… decadent focus of competing clubs. “In New some dancers would go through several on know them all, so once I have an idea, I can SHOWS OF 2003!2004 York there were two logos that stood out: any given night: “People would come to the materialize it on the machine within a few hours. With the computer it’s so easy to get 1 2 3 4 5 Studio 54’s giant 54 and Paradise Garage’s Garage in their regular clothes and they lost in a myriad of options and lose track of THE WALKMEN POSTAL SERVICE MOGWAI YEAH YEAH YEAHS ARCADE FIRE PRESENTED BY @ BOWERY @ NORTH SIX @ WARSAW / LIARS / TV ON @ ARLENE’S garage man,” says former Garage DJ would change to dance. And you would the essence of the track. BALLROOM !APRIL 19, 2003" !SEPTEMBER 7, 2003" THE RADIO GROCERY David DePino. sweat—there was no air conditioning !APRIL 4, 2003" Lights and laptops This was right when @ WARSAW !OCTOBER 16, 2004" RBMA: You seem to use vocals in a very I remember Hamilton and people were curi- Mogwai’s album Hap- !FEBRUARY 24, 2004" It was a day show for Nearly everyone who attended describes there. That’s when Michael started saying, interesting, almost aggressively functional introduced “We’ve ous to see the Death py Songs for Hap- Not a bad lineup, CMJ. I think they Been Had” by say- Cab for Cutie guy. py People came out. huh? I remember all played around 1pm. the Paradise Garage in sacred terms. “It ‘I should sell t-shirts and people will buy way—not as hooks but as a way to glue or ing, “This song sells And oh yeah, that They opened the three Brooklyn bands I remember Richard was church,” says DePino. “People went them.’ The second he did, they sold out in fill holes in the mix. I’m Patrick McNamara. And Claire says to tell cars.” You remember guy Cex opened. He show with “Kill- seemed to be part Reed Parry wearing a you hi. Claire and I met in early 2003. In late that car commercial, thrashed around on ing All the Flies.” of the same team — it helmet, lots of bang- to dance, to worship the music, to release one night.” right? It was the the floor and got up You could hear a pin felt very coopera- ing on things like SB: For me the vocal is just another instru- 2004 we started Oh My Rockness. During that all their frustrations of the week.” DePino year we went to a lot of good shows together. Nick Drake auto ad of in everyone’s mug. drop… until every- tive. I also remember rafters, and thinking DePino also remembers what happened ment and I treat it as such. But I wouldn’t We thought it would be interesting to look back its day. Good stuff. thing exploded into a Nick Zinner took the this band just might helped Levan and Michael Brody find when Brody tried to break with tradition. say they are there to fill holes. The Electribe on five of the best. These are the sounds that cacophony of joyously crowd’s picture. The have something here. doesn’t allow for very fancy sample manip- inspired us as we tried to flesh out this online noisy guitars. And pierogis were really the space and held many roles, including “Five years into the club there was a second concert-listing site idea. Nine years later, I remember Warsaw’s good this time too. being one of the few besides Levan to spin logo made, with a dancer in the forefront and ulation so most of the time I just leave them we’re still fleshing. pierogis. They were as they are. delicious. records there. He’s also one of the last in back of him was a rainbow pyramid. There survivors—Brody died of complications was an uprising against it.” !SUE APFELBAUM !NICK SYLVESTER

12 13