A Plea For Sanity

hi folks, its adam black, the counter culture advocate to you pretend to love, or actively love to hate.

we are at a crossroads here in chicago.  our once great scene, whether it be house music, underground rave, industrial, techno, or electro, is dying.  we have little to claim for ourselves in this once great city of dance, performance, and production.

i've known many of you since the death of underground/rave (and it is dead)

however, being the zombie enthusiast i am, things can and will be revived.

there is much drama and infighting, nearly all of in unnecessary, be it drum and bass becoming dubstep, house music continuing to fail as a unifying force within chicago (our heroes have to make a living in europe for chrissakes)

electro going from the amazing underground parties @ the jerkstore, or darkwave disco, or the pilsen scene degenerating into a bastardization of a recent Vice magazine nightmare, or LA or Canadian knob turning hipster douche-baggery completely devoid of any soul, beat, heart, or substantial roots.

our loft party scene turning into hipster hop, bad dj's playing even worse tunes on protools or abelton

or completely forgetting what vinyl is, or means.

friends become enemies, enemies become promoters, scrubs and junkies become successful.  and us, the legitimate artists, creators, and passionistas, are left in the dark, infighting and failing to rebuild what we once had as a  city, and what many of us cut our teeth on in becoming the successful, narccisistic, socialites we all are.

this is my call to sanity:

music sucks.
clubs suck.
club owners suck.
djs get away with mediocrity too much (myself very much included, but dont tell the people that pay me)

many of us were once friends.
we all congretated together at our favorite loft parties on lake street.
the the newest clubs in wicker park.
or dirty house parties in logan square or pilsen.

and now?  we snipe eachother for teenage house parties in obscure neighborhoods.
or we battle for club spots and places, that really do nothing for any sort of local scene whatsoever.

we are local artists my children.  my peers.  my adversaries. my friends.

chicago is our motherland.

we have the greatest soapbox in the world to stand on.

house music, industrial.
melodic hardcore like Steve albini and big black. Naked Raygun.

our heroes live here.
Martin Atkins, Jake Burns, Jerry Only, Jeff Pezzati, Jeff Mills and an innumerable amount of house djs and techo producers.

yet so many have left us for the coasts, because we are too cool to acknowledge our own accomplishments.

so this is an open call:
All djs, artists, dancers, producers, musicians, degenerates, castaways and hooligans -

lets get together to form the greatest collective that chicago has ever known.
reclaim music from mediocrity.
loft parties from teenage hipsters.
clubs from douchebags in ed hardy gear.
neighborhoods from the suburban ruins of what was once wicker park.

lets work together, start making music, throwing parties that are thoroughly chicago.

and get some fucking pride back to survive us during the awful winter that is sure to come.

an open call to djs:
we currently have several events on our roster:

Front312 2nd fridays @ Liars Club
Garageland Tuesdays @ Liars Club
Grindhouse Wednesdays @ Rock Box
Creepy Country Select Wednesdays @ Delilahs
Bomb Shelter 2nd Fridays @ Debonair Social Club
Black Christmas December 17th @ Victor Hotel
and numerous events @ Lucky Number Grill.

we should all unify, and commit, to making things better, and fun, for all of us.

black out.