Digital Hardcore! Fondly, Reflected Upon.

So, in the old days before everything was dowanloadable, we learned about bands via zines and magazines and word of mouth. One such band was Atari Teenage Riot.

I remember reading about them and being intrigued by the reviewer's take on the band's sound. I was pretty into electronic music at the time, since I was DJing quite a bit, and was constantly on the prowl for stuff that mixed beats with a harder-edged punk rock feel. I had heard Gabba but thought it sounded too cartoonish and, while it certainly was fast enough, it lacked the character I was looking for.

Anyway, I read a review of the band's debut and went in search of the disc. At the time, there weren't too many places in Chicago that were carrying that sort of thing, but after weeks of scouring indie record stories and dance specialty shops, I found the Delete Yourself! CD tucked away in the corner of the upstairs section of the old Earwax Cafe. I was trembling with excitement but it still took me another week to save up enough disposable dough to buy the damn thing. I'd stop by and visit the CD every day, worried that some other cool taste-maker would grab the prize before I did. I think I just about drove Photogal nuts by wanting to stop by there so often. I still remember the snobbish dude behind the counter mimicking the beats with his mouth and alternately jeering me for / congratulating me on my choice of purchase.

When I finally got home and got the disc in my CD player I realized that while I hadn't discovered the absolute missing link I was looking for, I had obtained something wholly unlike the rest of the dance music scene. The samples were there, the dance beats were there, the chanting was there ... but it sounded like someone had pureed all those elements and then used them to splatter paint the rec room from hell. I loved it.

I picked up other material by them as it was released, and various other DHR stuff (though none of that every really lived up to the promise implied by the name), although by the time The Beastie Boys discovered ATR and signed them to their Grand Royal label, I was pretty done with them. I did get a chance to see ATR play a blistering live set with live Shizuo and EC8OR and my retinas and eardrums still haven't completely recovered. Alec Empire's solo Destroyer disc is still one of my favorite pieces of accessible noise out there, and I think Hanin Elias' solo output has been consistently strong, but nothing could ever match the anticipation I had for the band when I first encountered them.

It's a different world now, and I accept that, and I think it has changed mostly for the best. But I can't help reflecting on memories like this and feel that something hasn't been lost in our age of instant gratification. Sometimes waiting for something made it that much more precious and special, so how do you recapture that feeling when nothing is unattainable?

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Mark up your calendar in black.

Saturday day night, after seeing Crispin Glover, won't you join me for this?



I actually forgot I was DJing this particular show! I had always intended to attend the concert, but I'm glad Wes reminded me I'll need to bring my own gear as well. Also, it's not in this particular flyer, but the show will also feature rock photography by Nicole Faust, so that should be pretty cool too.

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A reminder.

Only one day left in the Lady Sov contest, so get your entries in!