GIVE A FUNK
Besides the now-packed Better Days "Go Deep" party Saturday nights, area househeads wanting to soak up the soul-tinged, post-disco funk of Dee-troit beatdown house need look no further than Eastern Market’s Johanson Charles Gallery tonight, Dec. 30, when area house fixture Theo Parrish spins an evening of intelligent grooves for a New Year’s Eve Eve soiree. More info: 313-567-8638.
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES,
IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES
Motor’s promotions guru/talent booker Linda G has scored a coup, snagging Brooklyn hard house favorite Frankie Bones for a monthly residency at the club beginning this spring. "Some promoters are gonna be pissed," admits G, explaining that Bones is a favorite in the American rave scene, "but every time I talk to Frankie he tells me he doesn’t feel comfortable asking Detroit party promoters for his usual fee, because he knows there’s a good chance if he plays a party, it’s gonna get busted."
G’s referring to the zero-tolerance policy of the Detroit Police Department gang squad inspired by Fox 2 News’ recent "Crave the Rave" segment, which depicted the Detroit rave scene as an underage drug bacchanal and challenged police to do something about it. However myopic the "Crave" piece was, it has affected the usually bustling party scene. "There’s still a lot of smaller ‘candy raver’ parties with all-local lineups," says one insider, "but nobody wants to risk putting up the money to fly in big international talent."
As much as the "post-Crave," zero-tolerance stance has forced touring national and international deejays to seek gigs at legit clubs, there are those who would argue it’s about time the rave scene got off the streets: Two weekends ago, a raver and a friend of a local promoter were held up at gunpoint in a supposedly secure parking area of a popular party spot on the city’s east side, prompting a flurry of rumors that the crime was an inside job and casting the already reputation-tarnished rave scene in an even more unfavorable light.
But so far, what has been the after-hours promoters’ loss has been true fans of the music’s gain. US jungle pioneer Dieselboy, who made his Detroit premiere at last summer’s "Aquavelvet" rave, returns to the area for a nightclub deejay appearance at Detroit club, the Labyrinth’s "Step" party Friday, Jan. 22nd, while transgender jungle phenomenon 1.8.7, aka Jordana LaSense, appears the following Friday, Jan. 29, at "Step." More info: 313-438-6153.
Meanwhile, Bones’ monthly residency at Motor begins May 7, after Bones honors his last two non-Motor commitments in the area, and just in time for Linda G’s birthday.
NOTHIN’ BUT A D THING
Promoter Jon Layne (of Ann Arbor’s Solar) has just completed mastering an all-Detroit compilation of post-techno tracks, From Tha D: Ghetto-Tech. Besides booty-electro DJs Assault and Godfather, Ectomorph, Le Car and Keith Tucker, Layne has snagged some surprise tracks, like hard house deity Terrance Parker dropping a hip-hop beat, and Matrix’s Sean Deason and Soiree’s Derrick Thompson delivering jazzy drum ’n’ bass tracks, while DJ Recloose mixes up jazz, big beat, drum ’n’ bass and hip hop in a single track. Ironically, one of Detroit’s most visible next-school, ghetto-tech producer-deejays won’t be part of the compilation. Ann Arbor electro-booty phenom Dave "Disco D" Shayman has been bumped from the compilation following his acrimonious split with Layne-helmed Area Code management. Meanwhile, Shayman — signed to Chicago dance conglomerate MCM (Bad Boy Bill, DJ Funk, etc.)-subsidiary Contaminated — has just released Cannot Stop This, a vinyl EP of booty ("On the Flo’"), electro ("Toke") and even a jungle remix courtesy of Chicago drum ’n’ basshead Danny the Wildchild. The good news, nationally, is that the record has been picked up by prestigious dance music distributor Watts, which usually shuns booty-related fare. The bad news is that even with Watts on board, local retailers are having trouble keeping the record stocked. "We can only get 25 copies at a time, but we could be selling two hundred at a time easily," says Record Time record buyer Brian Gillespie. Meanwhile, the From Tha D: Ghetto-Tech compilation drops in vinyl form in early February with a CD version to follow in March, just in time for Miami’s (all-eyes-surely-on-Detroit) Winter Music Conference.
