In Honor of Indie Sleaze : a Concert-Only Newsletter
except for one blind item about a drag queen
the album cover from Machine Girl’s 2014 album Wlfgrl
Hello ladies and everyone,
I’m Mo, your guide to the queer underground, and this(!) is The Deviant Dispatch. I keep a faggoty ear to the ground, delivering you the latest news on NYC’s greatest underground parties, rock shows, and ACTUAL raves- every fuckin’ week. Plus you’ll get it-girl gossip, cultural speculation, snark, typos, and lots of Charli XCX updates. To throw me some much-needed support, become a paying subscriber, share this with someone, or hit the heart button at the top of the post so I know someone is out there.
First thing’s first I have to issue a correction (👉 👈) from last week’s paywall ExCLUsiIVveee. I mistakenly said that Kieran Culkin starred in the movie Party Monster, but it was actually Macaulay Culkin. Exhibit A:
Ugh, such looks!!! And yes that’s Chloë Sevigny next to Mr Culkin. Remember her iconic 1994 profile in The New Yorker? Now THAT’S an It Girl.
I have another…not quite correction, but an evolution of thought. Last week I was skeptical of this supposed indie sleaze revival. Early 2000s mainstream fashion is obviously trendy, but the hipster reaction encapsulated by indie sleaze still seemed more like a prediction than reality.
But the more I’ve looked, the more that party-centric culture did seem to be burbling. Friends shared tales of hearing CSS at bars. Mashups in the vein of the famed DJ Girl Talk are the go-to sounds on TikTok. American Apparel founder is behind a new brand: Los Angeles Apparel. The poet Rachel Rabbit White is wearing a bodycon dress with the graphic sensibility of a message tee. Justice songs are being used in car crash commercials. On this very newsletter I hyped Uffie’s recent appearance at the rave SKSKSKS. When in the past we had politically incorrect alternative publications like Vice, now we have the podcast Red Scare. None other than former-top 40 fixture David Guetta put out a remix of “Silver Screen”, a song that encapsulated electroclash and lead to the bloghaus movement (then called “indie dance”).
People are also growing tired of the phones and the self-enforced surveillance state they’ve created. “I wanted to speak with you about phones at shows,” Mitski wrote on Twitter. “Sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not here together. This goes for both when I’m on stage, and when I’m an audience member at shows.” She got trashed online after, but the sentiment remains.
The vibe in Brooklyn rock is definitely mirroring the vibe of early 2000s New York, The promise of record labels with tons of resources and big wallets has faded (“Have you tried making a TikTok for your song?”) and there is a gritty back to basics quality. Garage rock is in vogue with countless bands ditching the 90s (finally) and embracing the metal and punk sounds of the 70s and early 80s.
A key aspect of the 2000s is gone from NYC though: the DIY scene. Throughout the 2000s there would be parties/concerts/art shows/ theatre pieces in old industrial spaces converted to lofts or venues. The Williamsburg waterfront had venues like 285 Kent, Glasslands, and Death By Audio that were so poppin that college students in Jackson, Mississippi knew about them. There were spaces that modeled inclusion like The Silent Barn, havens for affable stoners like Shea Stadium, punk dives like Palisades, and more that I don’t even know.
As the waves of gentrification rolled farther and farther through Brooklyn, the real estate developers bought up all the discarded industrial spaces that were previously left unattended for scrappy artists to build culture out of. The scene today limps along thanks to some semi-monthly shows at backyard or basement venues, but for the most part “DIY” nowadays is a fully permitted bar with trendy lighting.
Still there can be some good music in such places, and in this special edition of The Deviant Dispatch I’ve got a strictly concert-only list of events for you to check out. See you in the mosh pit.
XOXO,
Mo
TVOD Tour Kickoff Show
When: Wednesday
Where: Doors at 8
What: TVOD is like if the Stooges developed a vaguely Marxist POV. Frontman Tyler Wright leads this 6 piece with members of the pop-punk band Thick and enough wattage onstage to power the queen of England’s corpse (allegedly). Fellow heavy hitters Smock will be joining TVOD alongside photographer and scene mainstay Jessica G DJing between bands.
How much: $15
Sega Bodega (NY Debut)
When: Wednesday, doors @ 8
Where: Elsewhere, the Hall
What: Sega Bodega is a longtime producer of alt electronic music figures like (Shygirl, Oklou, and Zebra Katz. His own music can be tender or terrifying, and his stage show looks like it’s got high production value (or at the least flowing curtains). Opening up for his New York debut is longtime local experimental music fixture and Mugler model Eartheater.
How much: $25.00 Face value + $7.19 Fees
Surfbort, Cumgirl8, Pussy Gillette, Dog Date live
When: Thursday, 8pm
Where: Market Hotel
What: The Market Hotel is a holdout from the older days of Bushwick parties. Back then it was a loft where people lived, and now its a got security guards. Still, the vibe is rugged and the train passing 5 feet from the windows is quite a vibe, and this bill of punks might actually getting the stoic NYC crowd to erupt in a moshpit. Surfbort’s Dani Miller has starred in Gucci campaigns, and Cumgirl8’s fashion line get coverage in Vouge. Despite these band’s fashion pedigrees, they make punk raw enough for the Market Hotel of days past.
How much: $18
Customer live @ The Broadway
When: Friday, 8pm Doors
Where: The Broadway
What: I saw this band open for Chastity Belt at Webster Hall, and for their first show they had a quite a swagger to them. The group comprises of members from LVL UP and Maneka, and their playing reflected this pedigree. The band is equally adept at covering droll post-punk territory a la Dry Cleaning or soaring melodic territory a la the Buzzcocks. Openers Zero Point Energy are the gritty garage outfit from former members of Warehouse.
How much: $12
Machine Girl, Lustsickpuppy, Kill Alters
When: Saturday, 8pm doors
Where: Music Hall of Williamsburg
What: This show merges hardcore punk, gabber (like techno but more faster and more brutal), and bizarre pop. This show is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re up for it you’ll be sure to have a wicked time. Machine Girl is from out of town, but after seeing openers Lustsickpuppy and Kill Alters you’ll get a good peek into the local scene of sonic vandals.
How much: Advance: $20.00 , Day of Show: $25.00
Blind Item
Which season 6 drag race contestant isn’t vaccinated? Maybe she’d be worried she’d grow and extra head.
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