IT’S DEPRESSING 2 B RELEVANT
Le Tigre's Comeback Tour, Alt drag competition Mx.Nobody, a Techno Trend Report + More
Cuntyham competes in the 2022 Mx. Nobody Pageant
Hello sweaty masses!
It’s Mo AKA DJ Gay Panic and this(!) is The Deviant Dispatch. I keep a faggoty ear to the ground, delivering you the latest news from my corner of the NYC underground: sloppy/artful drag shows, it-girl gossip, buzz bands, cultural speculation, and ravey dance parties. There will be typos. There’s also shit behind the paywall for the real insiders.
Everyone is talking about the Renaissance tour, but I’m still buzzing off Le Tigre. The 3 piece has reunited after nearly 20 years of inactivity, and seeing their stage show came complete with costume changes, cut n paste video slideshow, and intentionally goofy choreo. It was a treat!
Coupled with that joy is the sinking feeling that songs like “Seconds” and “F.Y.R.” are still so relevant. Hearing Johanna scream “toss us some new aids drugs as national healthcare bites the dust” made me think about the proliferation of PREP for HIV prevention amidst a large-scale prescription shortage. Still, it was heartening to be in a room with thousands of people screaming along to feminist and queer art.
Speaking of queer art, I’ve been at work along with some co-conspirators planning the next Mx Nobody competition. My role was to find the venues & tally the scores, which meant that I was free to watch the madness unfold.
This past contestant Issac Miss Issac, who lip synced the same “ooooo” from a Kate Bush song on repeat in front of a slideshow about the existential crisis of doing drag, complete with digs at Bushwig underpaying their performers. Undoubtedly strange, but in many ways the typical Nobodies-style number.
The competition works like this. Each contestant will have up to 10 mins for a performance. They’re graded by the N.O.P.E. rubric: Newness, Outlook, Passion, and Eeeuuugh. Newness is all about originality. Outlook is all about if your pov/persona is clear onstage. Passion is how much energy you put into performing. The last category (my favorite) is about causing a reaction. Did I cheer? Did I cry? Did I pee? Did I go EEEUGGH!!!!!
This is a rubric that rewards the offbeat and the weird, and the contestants largely reflect that. Kate Bush and Powerpoint presentations are mainstays, along with fake blood and meme references. Traditional pageant tropes like runway presentation or Q&A are completely absent.
Highlights from last year included Sally Mistaken’s performance (shown above), Hugh Man Race performing a drag number about a mime that was cursed by satan, Jay Kay (who had been doing the faggy demon thing long before little Nas X) getting dangled over the crowd by ropes, Chevy Lace hatching out of a neon alien egg, and Oliver Herface leaping off the Purgatory stairs 6 feet to the ground into a split.
The winner, Cuntyham, took the cake by doing a deranged cabaret act that combined elements of standup and seemingly-improvised parodies of songs. The originality, commitment to the bit, and slightly aggressive stage presence cinched them the win.
This year we have the soulful vocalist and chronic stoner Lena Horne, the comedic performance artist Sleth, and a performer known for performing at punk shows with a theremin Sama Slaughter. You can see what shenanigans they and the rest of this year’s crop of contestants get up to Fri 8/4, Fri 8/25, and Fri 9/8. Those hyperlinks lead to tickets (shocking, I know). If you need a more personal angle to peak your interest, I may be going b2b with DJ Accident Report after some of these rounds.
Currently there’s a wave of techno with a lack of respect for genre categories that’s catching my interest. The biggest star of this scene is horsegiirL, who plays sets wearing a giant prosthetic horsehead. Her song My Barn, My Rules is currently blowing up tiktok.
Other notable artists in this world include the work of DBBD and Miss Bashful, DJ Heartstring, harder groups like Brutalism 3000, longtime fave LSDXOXO, and ringleader Gigola, and everyone on her label Live From Earth Klub.
The wave is crashing in New York as well. Peep the above video from (my new Tiktok mutual) Moistbreezy, who has been making hyperpop before that was even a word. Her new track is a trance anthem with drum sounds straight out of Charli XCX’s “Vroom Vroom”. The video was shot at the very cool XPIZZA, where DJs can play as revelers eat personal pizzas.
I don’t have a gig there (yet) but I will be taking over the Bushwick bar Alphaville on August 12 for a low stakes night of tunes and chicken nuggets. Alphaville has a scrappy charm that we’re playing into (old madonna singles on vinyl) but also subverting (y2k pop gems like “I Wanna Be Bad” by Willa Ford). Plus there will be cake in honor of my birthday. You should come! Here’s the flyer.
There’s more going on than just my gigs though. Here’s a lineup of upcoming shows. Tend alerts: outdoor concerts, out of town djs, unexpected locations. Keep on living!
XOXO,
Mo
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Deviant Dispatch to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.