Secrets of the City

Very cool.

So electroclashy, so many black-shirted art fans.

It is kind of disturbing hearing music that I’ve watched people freak out on drugs to and dance until dawn and then hear the words, “WCCO invites you to…”

Serious question borne of my ignorance or inexperience:

What music type/genre/style was that?

(I was in Miami this summer, with some time to kill after working, walking around, and at the big outdoor venue in the park at the edge by the water was a music fest playing a similar, but much louder and more bass-y, type of music, characterized by the long repetition of the undercurrent notes. Sat there for a few hours and really enjoyed it, and then realized I had no idea what it was.)

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I think this is an older promo. I went to a Fischerspooner CD release party at the Infinity Room in April. I remember commenting to a friend back then about seeing the Walker ad with the song “Emerge” on WCCO.

The easiest classification of their music would be Electronic Dance Music (EDM), which can be further broken into sub genres such as house, techno, trance, etc.

Thanks! Now I just have to find somewhere to listen to some samples to get the right subgenre. But that narrows it down.

Here is the progenitor of the electronic music movement.
Here are it’s first “pop stars”.
Here is my personal favorite.
There’s a ton out there…happy hunting.

Electroclash.

Bobby_b: This is a pretty popular podcast out of Sydney that only plays electroclash, the stuff Ficsherspooner plays. It can give you a good grounding in that very strange subgenre.

Then there’s mazasapa jr.

This promo is from right before the Walker expansion opened. Not to brag up my co-workers too much… but our creative services/promotions people are unbelievable. Sometimes as a news guy, I think their promos are a little too high-concept… but I’d rather see that than the totally obvious, boring TV News promos: “Something in your kitchen could be killing your kids! We’ll tell you what it is, tonight at ten.”

JD, nice job last night. Nothing like laying a little cable on the 10 o’clock news.

Link please.

In these important times, you can count on me to lay down the cable. I’ll lay it down on tape, I’ll lay it down live. Roll it out, tighten it up, and watch it work its magic.

lay down the cable

Is JD making a poop joke?

Link for cable story…I usually avoid this stretch of highway when driving up to Maple Grove and points beyond becuase the oncoming traffic is ~10 feet away with no barrier in between…maybe now I can give it a try.

oh my god is minneapolis finally catching up to electroclash? I can relive my college years and go dancing finally!

Because, you know, electroclash was so 2001 on the east coast and is totally over now. But I still like it, so this is ok that it’s coming here because I’m already ahead of the curve.

Here’s the direct link to the cable story.

Hey, g rote, I bet they were playing minimal or tech-house at that Miami thing. That’s the rage in electronica right now. Some of it is great. Electronica in general, and house music specifically, is underrated.

Rex picked Melodious Owl, Minneapolis electoclash defined, to click in Nov ‘04.
This article from 2002 was my first awareness of the term. I’m sure it was used before that, and I certainly wouldn’t claim to have a better grasp on trends than fimoculous. I spend too much time listening to kid’s music & 70’s vinyl to keep up with college radio.

Cool. Thanks, all. Yeah, tmay, it may be so 2001, but I’m so 1969, so it’s all good.

(I figured out that it was the Ultra Music Festival in Miami that I wandered into this past March, and it appears that the music named here is what I was listening to.)

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I haven’t been to an electronic dance party (we called them raves) since 1995….My date OD’ing in the bathroom kinda took the fun out of it for me, so I’m way out of touch with what’s playing these days. Can’t imagine the music’s morphed much.

I don’t like that electroclash stuff, from what I’ve heard. I’ve been listening to this German minimal stuff, which I thought I would hate, but actually love after listening to it recently. Stuff like Tiefschwarz, Cassy, and those Kompakt and Bpitch comilation/mixes.

Incidentally, I think I’m wrong about the promo. It’s the same music as the original series of PSA’s we did, but the Walker blog says it’s a new PSA. Either way, I dig it.

oh my god is minneapolis finally catching up to electroclash? I can relive my college years and go dancing finally!

For some reason, I don’t think we’re even allowed to get into it. From what I could tell five years ago, if you didn’t live in a megalopolis like NYC, London or Berlin, you by default weren’t cool enough to be into electroclash.
Plus, if Minnesota got ahold of it, we’d give it an alt-country or indie garage band twist. Then everyone would have to call it something else anyways.

I completely forgot my Melodious Owl blurb! “These hyper Hopkins high schoolers (who pinched their name from canonic sophomore reading, Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five) electrified punk-disco by exposing the term as nothing more then an illogical conjunction of words: people who can’t play their instruments, making music for people who can’t dance.” I’m a frickin genius!

(Is Melodious Owl playing back there anymore? I know that Wes moved out here briefly, but he’s back in MSP now, right?)

Beyond electroclash, there is a pretty good electronic scene here in Minneapolis.

“Druggie” raves are a thing of the past here, sure there will be some fucked up kids there, but that’s their choice and definitely not an integral part of the “scene” anymore.

There’s also a bit of a minimal scene here too.

Escalators, stairway to death?, tonight at 9.

I haven’t heard much about Mowl lately, but I don’t get out much.

“Beyond electroclash, there is a pretty good electronic scene here in Minneapolis.“

Where would someone go to find this scene?

And, do they validate parking?

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Well, the Music of Minnesota Wikipedia entry says there’s a burgeoning electro scene. “Minnesota is home to a burgeoning electronic music scene in the area, though the genre tends to get little radio airplay in the state. Dance music in Minnesota is often played on local pirate radio outlets. The most famous of these was Beat Radio 97.7, started by area programmer and DJ Alan Freed…” And if Wikipedia says it’s true…

Oh, and those of you who are more into the experimental side of electronic music, you should definitely check out the Spark Festival and the UofM in February. Amazingly weird stuff there…

Oh, and if you’re into this, you also want to watch keep your eyes on TCelectropunk.com. You can’t have much more proof than that there’s at least some scene around the movement in the twin cities.

Speaking of Feb events, I’m wondering if Rex will make the trek back for this, and if there will be a post-show throw-down between Rex & Klosterman. My money’s on Rex, because beards are for quitters.

I’m actually maybe coming back for that, if I can talk some other friends into coming to town too.

Rex, I haven’t heard anything about Melodious Owl in a long time. I know that Jonny has been playing with the god damn doo wop band for most of the past year.

We stumbled upon Melodious Owl playing outside @ the Walker in July. My 4-year-old son wondered how they could be a rock band with no guitars. Apparently the electroclash revolution did not filter down to the pre-schoolers.

you think Rex would ever miss a chance to milk his tenuous connection with Klosterman?

that katherine kersten komment was totally Marsh.

“tenuous connection.” that’s funny. this nemesis wants to “milk” back some royalties for having half his life written about!

The Walker promo is cool, but I much prefer ‘CCO from 1981. That theme music is way cooler than Fischerspooner will ever be.

Actually, this is a new spot, Jason, but it does use some of the same intro footage from the first WCC0 grand-opening spot. My favorite part is how the identity strip casts a reflection/shadows as it goes through the space…