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Orange County Register rave articles


NOTICE: TO ALL CONCERNED Certain text files and messages contained on this site deal with activities and devices which would be in violation of various Federal, State, and local laws if actually carried out or constructed. The webmasters of this site do not advocate the breaking of any law. Our text files and message bases are for informational purposes only. We recommend that you contact your local law enforcement officials before undertaking any project based upon any information obtained from this or any other web site. We do not guarantee that any of the information contained on this system is correct, workable, or factual. We are not responsible for, nor do we assume any liability for, damages resulting from the use of any information on this site.
The following files are taken from February 16th's Orange
County Register Show section. Someone might be interested. It was
a chance try out my OCR software (ReadRight Personal V1.0 w/ a
Scanman Plus). Some of the entry errors may have been missed, I
deny all responsibility.

CVRSTRY.RAV Cover story attempting to describe OC rave
GLOSS .RAV Their rave musical glossary
OCWHERE.RAV Where the legal raves are in Orange County
MDMA .RAV Their discussion of MDMA and rave
HISTORY.RAV Roots of rave
CLOTHES.RAV OCs inspiration to clothing
DISCS .RAV Essential rave discs

(Addendum: All of these files have now been condensed into one file called
OC_RAVE.DOC so you won't have to track down the separate files.)



Orange County Register
SHOW section
Cover Story
New Rave Music

All-night parties rise from ashes of disco's past

Stories by Cary Darling
The Orange County Register

Richard Schroeder was in Compton looking to party, The
Placentia resident had heard about an unauthorized late-night dance
in a local warehouse. And, with Any luck, Schroeder and the other
young people wouldn't see the outside world until the sun was
peeking over the horizon.
But Schroeder never stepped inside. What he believed to be
gunshots echoing in the neighborhood unnerved him. "There were
gang-bangers all over," said Schroeder, 21, a California State
University, Long Beach, student. "We just took off."
Schroeder had been in search of the latest "rave," an
all-night party pulsating to the latest hyperspeed musical
descendents of disco.
Beginning illegally in the late '80s in abandoned warehouses
or other atypical locations, raves boast high-tech, psychedelic
lighting and laser effects, art installations, trendy
surf-and-skate-inspired street fashions, and a multiracial crowd of
up to 4,000 people who like to underscore the "unity" of their
scene.
But Schroeder no longer has to put himself in danger to
indulge in one of his favorite pastimes. Raves are emerging from
the back-alley underground.
Inspired by warehouse parties in Chicago and popularized by
trend-hungry British youth who turned them into a pop cultural
phenomenon, raves are quickly moving into the Los Angeles and
Orange County mainstream and establishing their own subculture.
Avalon Attractions, the Encino-based concert promotion firm,
has allied itself with rave promoter Les Borsai to stage legal
raves - featuring live bands as well as recorded music - in such
locations as the Spruce Goose in Long Beach and a rodeo ring in
Pico Rivera. Promoters are talking about large-scale outdoor raves,
possibly in Orange County, this summer,
Rave music acts such as the Shamen, Quadrophonia, N-Joi, and
LA Style are being snapped up by major record labels. Elektra,
Atlantic and Profile have either recently released or plan to
release rave music compilations.
Fashion firms such as Stussy and Sjobeck, both with roots in
Orange County, are capitalizing on the rave look of baggy jeans,
baggy shirts and baseball-style caps.
Rave fans now have their own radio station (MARS-FM/103.1),
magazine (Urb), and a network of one-night-a-week clubs playing
rave musical styles such as techno and house music, the 120 to 140
beats-per-minute disco descendents that" are ravecrowd favorites.
Some on the scene even say this generation has its own illicit
drug: MDMA, a so-called designer drug also known as Ecstasy.
The new visibility makes Schroeder happy- He can go to Deep
Shag, a Friday night rave at the Kona Hawaii restaurant in Santa
Ana, and not fear the police will show up to shut it down.
"It's a cool scene. It's not a scam scene," he explained. "And
lately, some of the underground ones have been bogus. You take
a risk every time. With (the legal raves), you know what you're
going to get."
"It's huge. It's not just in the warehouses anymore," said
Kevin Nakao, marketing director for MCA Records. "It's really
phenomenal and now, from a record label's perspective, we're
starting to see the impact in terms of sales."
"It used to be there was one rave a month. Now there are four
on Friday and four on Saturday," observed MARS-FM music director
and DJ Egil Aalvik, best known as "the Swedish Eagle."
Even dance-music experts far from California acknowledge the
spread of rave in the Los Angeles area. "LA is the rave capital of
America," said Matt E. Silver, vice president of A&R (artist &
repertoire) for New York's Invasion dance music label and a rave
columnist for DMR, a dance music magazine. ' `It's the entire West
Coast for that matter, we're talking from British Columbia to
Mexico."
Various explanations are being tossed around for why rave -
which mixes up the hard electronic beats of '80s hip-hop and
industrial music and the dance aesthetic of '70s disco with the
peace and love sentiments of '60s rock - is appealing to young
people of the '90s.
"A lot of people are just tired of mainstream artists,"
reasoned Scott Brown, manager of Record Reaction, a Long Beacb
record store that has become a major source for rave releases.
Borsai, the former underground rave promoter who has teamed
with Avalon Attractions, puts it in economic terms. "Kids get more
for their money than when they see a concert," he said. "They get
to dance, they get to see special effects. It's a lot smarter to
see a band that way, especially a dance band. Sitting down in a
venue is kind of boring."
Others stress the scene's egalitarianism. Rave fan Alonzo
Jones, 22, of Huntington Reach say's this is what separates rave
from disco. "This is come as you are and do what you want," he said
while visiting Deep Shag.
"It's a unity event," said Invasion Records' Matt E. Silver.
"There is no violence. I relate it back to the '60s- I wasn't a
flower child, but this is where everyone is coming together."
The throwback to a previous generation is no accident. When
British DJs and fans latched on to house and techno - forms of
dance music spawned in black Chicago and Detroit clubs - in the
mid-80s, they overlaid it with a veneer of psychedelia. Smiley
faces - those smiling yellow buttons of optimism that disappeared
in the '70s - made a roaring comeback.
In addition, the English added a bit of their own chemical
engineering. While the American house scenes were not known for
drug use, British fans began to extol what they claim were the
virtues of drugs such as Ecstasy.
The clothing look was a mix and match of retro sensibilities.
The scene took off in Manchester, England, at a club called the
Hacienda, a nightspot operated by members of the band New Order.
Many Manchester rock groups, such as Happy Mondays and Stone Roses,
incorporated rave elements in their style.
In the late '80s, the scene returned to American shores and
word about illegal raves began circulating among the dancefloor
cognoscenti. "There were warehouse break-ins," recalled Aldo
Bender, an Orange County DJ who now resides in Los Angeles and
works at the Happy Wednesdays rave in Redondo Beach.
"We did a couple of break-ins in Orange County," said Bender,
who noted the buildings' owners often were completely in the dark.
"They'd come to show the building (the next day) and it was
trashed."
Borsai says his illegal raves were held with the permission of
the property owners, but that didn't help with police and fire
officials. Now, the illegal raves are being overwhelmed by those
with the correct permits and papers.
"The problem with (illegal raves) now is a lot of kids are
losing their money because you can't hide 3,000 kids anymore," said
Borsai who says he has staged past raves in burned down racquetball
courts, underground parking garages and refrigerator companies.
He concedes legal raves might not have the forbidden charm of
their illegal counterparts, but says "When (the kids) pay their
money to get in, and the event gets shut down, it's a toss-up
between losing a little bit of atmosphere and getting your money's
worth."
"Those days are over now," said Bender of his break-ins.
"Those were days of irresponsibility, and that was part of the
scene that made it appealing to a lot of people and now it's not
that way."
Yet, for all the talk of rave being a unity scene, the
ascension to legal status and the explosion in the number of raves
- both of the underground, yet legal, and advertised variety - has
caused a rift. "It's totally out-of-control and cutthroat right
now," said Bender. "It's a combination of Avalon being involved and
promoters who've been doing it for awhile feeling threatened."
Some argue that a big companies such as Avalon Attractions and
the major record labels know little about rave culture. They say
that at least some of the high-profile LA rave events - such as
those with the bands 808 State, the Farm, the Orb and the Shamen -
were not really raves. An Avalon sponsored concert with rave
elements, featuring the band Primal Scream, plays the Hollywood
Palladium on March 7,
"Shamen was not a real rave- That was an alternative band
posing as a rave act," said Silver. "Rave is a large dance party,
so technically that would come under rave. The concept was there,
not the music."
Avalon general manager Moss Jacobs says there's room for
various approaches. "There will always be an underground thing
happening in every major city," he said. "But so many people who
would like to go and have a good time would like to have a little
more access."
Jacobs admits one of the reasons Avalon is getting involved is
because the company realized a large segment of young people isn't
attending rock concerts anymore.
"I immediately liked what I saw in terms of the energy," he
said. "But the second most motivating thing for me was that there
was a group of people out here, who I think of in terms of being
the demographic who would come to concerts, but were not."


DEFINITIONS: A musical glossary of new sounds
Detecting the differences among the music played at raves can
be problematic for the neophyte. "If you're from rock 'n' roll,
it's all going to sound the same," admitted Deep Shag DJ Beej. "But
the kids who go to these know the differences."
Here are some basic rave definitions.
# Acid House: A form of fast-paced house music that
incorporates eerie synthesizer sounds. The term is not used much
anymore as acid has mutated into techno.
# Acid Jazz: A soulful brand of dance music featuring slower,
less strictly electronic rhythms than acid house or traditional
house and jazz instruments such as saxophone and trumpet-.
# House music: A style of dance music reminiscent of classic
disco but enhanced with more up-to-date electronic rhythms. The use
of vocals, acoustic piano and organ contrasts sharply with the
electronic elements. Slower than acid or techno, house usually
clocks in between 120 to 130 beats per minute.
# Techno: A mostly instrumental, entirely electronic brand of
dance music played at a furious 130 to 140 beats per minute pace.
# Rave: An all-encompassing term for an all-right dance party
featuring high-tech lighting effects, art installations, recorded
house and techno music and sometimes live performers.


WHERE THE RAVES ARE

The following is a partial list of regularly scheduled weekly
raves. Of course, many would claim the best raves remain those that
are unadvertised and only open to those who are in the know. Others
are held in rotating, undisclosed locations.

# Deep Shag, Kono Restaurant, 226 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana.
Friday nights. 21 and older. 967-0530.

# Happy Wednesdays, Fashions, Redondo Beach Pier. Wednesday nights.
$8. 18 and older. (310) 288-1116.

# Hypnotek, Club Postnuclear, 775 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach.
Friday nights. $6 before 10 p.m., $9 after 10 p.m. 16 and older.
494-1432, The club will be presenting bestselling rave bands
Prodigy on March 13 and LA Style on April 3.

# Joy, Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.
Thursday nights. $10. 21 and older. (310) 957-4727.

# Sunday Love, Blak'n'Bloo, 7574 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood.
Sunday nights, $8. 21 and older. (213) 876-1120.



LIFESTYLE: US Ravers Downplay Role of Controversial Drug MDMA:
By Cary Darling The Orange County Register

The most controversial element of the rave subculture is the
use of MDMA, a man-made "designer" drug also known as Adam, XTC or,
most commonly, Ecstasy. While the drug has been closely associated
with the British scene, US observers say this element of the rave
trend is less important on this side of the Atlantic.
"Since it's moved into the mainstream, you see less of it,"
said MCA Records marketing director Kevin Nakao. "The police, fire
marshals and the liquor board are coming down and watching."
In fact, booker Steve Clifton at the no smoking/no-alcohol
Club Postnuclear in Laguna Beach is so impressed with what he sees
as the ravers' clean lifestyle that he's devoting Friday nights to
rave under the name of Hypnotek. Two major rave concerts, with
Prodigy on March 13 and LA Style on April 3, are scheduled for
Postnuclear.
"I like the fact it's against drinking," he said.
Sgt. Bob Hogbin with the narcotics division of the Orange
County Sheriff's Department hasn't seen much Ecstasy locally. "All
we know is what we've read about," he said. "We're looking for it,
especially with the high school and younger group."
"People get high on the music," said Matt E. Silver, A&R
(artist and repertoire) vice president for Invasion Records, a
dance-music label. "With a great sound system, you can get high off
the record."
The drug's British defenders, such as Shaun Ryder, leader of
the group Happy Mondays, has claimed in interviews the drug can be
used with no side effects. He says the drug induces a good-time
feeling and that British soccer "hooligans," who might otherwise
brawl, act like brothers under the influence of Ecstasy and rave
music on the dance floor.
However, the Drug Enforcement Agency in the United States
believes the illegal drug to be dangerous and classifies MDMA in
the same category as heroin.
Q.What is MDMA!
A. MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is an analog of MDA and
shares similarities to both mescaline, a hallucinogen, and
amphetamines, a family of stimulants. While referred to as a
hallucinogen, this association is somewhat erroneous- MDMA's
effects differ from those of LSD and other psychedelics in that
there is a lack of perceptual distortions.
Q.Why was MDMA created!
A.Some psychotherapists see MDMA as a therapeutic aid.
Q.What is the attraction of MDMA !
A.The drug's proponents claim MDMA increases empathy and
self-insight. However, Pete DuFlour, assistant director of the
state Drug and Alcohol Program, warns, "It's `better living through
chemistry,' and that's what we caution people about. Anything that
gives you a high is going to give you a letdown. You can be getting
yourself a real problem."
Q.What are the side effects!
A.Research is slim on MDMA but the drug's effects start between 20
and 60 minutes after ingestion, with the high lasting two to three
hours.
Animals studies showed large doses of intravenous MDMA caused
degeneration of nerves and brain damage. There is also evidence
that links Ecstasy to suppression of the immune system.


HISTORY: Music grew from fusion of black sounds with European
industrial beat

While rave is thought of as a British import, its roots are in
black America, specifically the house music of Chicago and techno
sounds of Detroit in the mid-'80s.
According to legend, the house music sound began when New York
club DJ Frankie Knuckles moved to Chicago. There, he built a
reputation for playing the best disco at the best warehouse
parties, hence the term house music.
Competition between DJs coming up in his wake was intense, and
homemade labels began churning out records with a specific Chicago
character. Such house acts as Todd Terry, Marshall Jefferson, J.M.
Silk, 2 Puerto Ricans a Blackman and a Dominican made an impression
on the dance charts in the late '80s.
Simultaneously, DJs and musicians in Detroit - a city that
some in the scene called America's first post-industrial metropolis
- began to tinker with European industrial music, a beat-heavy
style meant to reflect the urban environment.
One of the most influential industrial groups was Germany's
classically trained Kraftwerk who provided the link for Detroiters
between esoteric Europe and proletarian America.
Such producers as Kevin Saunderson (Inner City) , Derrick May
and Juan Atkins and acts like Cybotron - also influenced by Depeche
Mode, New Order and Yello - turned out cool-to-the-touch electronic
dance music.
While most Americans ignored these movements, the Europeans
took them to heart. DJs and musicians there began cross-pollinating
styles and varying tempos, leading to such offshoots as acid house,
acid jazz, and techno in its current fastpaced 120-140 beats-per-
minute format.
Later, many English rock bands - Happy Mondays, Charlatans UK
and Stone Roses among them - began fusing these dance sensibilities
with rock 'n' roll.
Because of the proliferation of independent, underground
record labels associated with the scene and the ease of turning out
releases, some have called rave "the new punk." As with punk, rap,
disco or rock 'n' roll in their early days, rave records are
inexpensive to make.
England turned rave into an entire subculture and shipped it
back to the United States as a new sensation.
"It's exciting. It's like hip-hop, which changes every three
months. except techno changes every month," said Matt E. Silver,
rave columnist for the dance-music magazine DMR. "you're not in the
studio for two months."
But others wonder whether a scene based around generally
faceless performers in a surreal dancing environment ever can
generate more than a cult audience in the United States.
"A big part of this is what happens with any of the bands and
with radio play," says Gary Blitz, promoter of Happy Wednesdays
dance night in Redondo Beach and Shag in Santa Ana. "So far, no
band from LA has gotten exposure. For a music scene to progress, a
band has to expand the base of people for what you're doing. It
takes time for that to develop. There aren't too many scenes that
last a long time without that."


STYLE: Clothes, devotees come from Orange County

When Southern California ravers hang out at trendy rave clubs
- such as Redondo Beach's Happy Wednesdays in their trendy rave
clothing, they don't realize they owe some thanks to Orange County.
Many of the original rave promoters and DJs are from south of
the Los Angeles county line as are the clothing lines Stussy and
Sjobeck, the brands of choice for many ravers. To top it off, a
large percentage of the ravers themselves are from Orange County.
The Orange County fraternity includes names such as Les
Borsai, the rave promoter who has allied with Avalon Attractions to
stage big-name raves ; Happy Wednesdays/Deep Shag promoter Gary
Blitz; Happy Wednesdays DJ Aldo Bender ; promoter Daven, who ran
such large-scale LA events as Aerial and Paw Paw Patch; and DJ Kool
Aid, who has made a name for himself at a variety of raves.
"Most of the ravers are from Orange County," maintained Aldo
Bender. "To me, it's always been the thing that LA doesn't dance
and the energy was provided by the crowd from Orange County,
Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Agoura and South Bay."
While many of these promoters have staged raves in Orange
County, they've concentrated their energies on Los Angeles.
"You couldn't get credibility in Orange County because all the
(music) industry people didn't want to come down to Orange County,"
Borsai said.
Also, Orange County raves fall victim to the longstanding mind
set that dictates Orange County residents will drive to Los Angeles
for an event but LA residents won't travel in the opposite
direction."
"The people who want to be hip and cool don't even waste their
time in Orange County," Bender said. "I'm hopeful for Orange
County. God knows that's where our audience comes from."
The clothing - a mixture of skate, surf, hip-hop and '60s
sensibilities - is universally accepted throughout the rave
culture. Much of the style draws at least part of its
inspiration from the stereotypical casual Orange County lifestyle;
"From the early punk scene to the club scene, (Orange County)
has been an influence," said designer Eric Sjobeck, who until a
recent move to Los Angeles was based in Costa Mesa.
"But we get inspired by the world. We just try to have fun
with the clothing."


ESSENTIAL RAVE DISCS [according to the Orange County Register]

_Adamski_, "Live and Direct," "Doctor Adamski's Musical Pharmacy" (MCA)
_808 State_, "Utd. State 90," "ex:el" (ZTT/ Tommy Boy)
_Human Resource_, "The Dominator" (R&S single)
_Inner City_, "Big Fun" (Virgin)
_Isotonik_, "DifleFent Strokes" (FFRR single)
_Kraftwerk_, "The Mix" (Elektra)
_LA Style_, "James Brown Is Dead" (WATFS single)
_LFO_, "Frequencies" (Tommy Boy)
_Lords of Acid_, "Lust" (Caroline)
_Messiah_, "There Is No Law" (Kickin' single)
_Quadrophonia_, "Quadrophonia" (BMG single)
_The Prodigy_, "Everybody in the Place" (XL single)
_Rozalla_, "Everybody's Free" (Buzz single)
_The Shamen_, "En-Tact" (Epic)
_Donna Summer_, "l Feel Love" (Casablanca single)
Various Artists, "Acid Jazz: Collections One and Two" (Scotti Bros.)
Various Artists, "Best of House Music" "Gotta Have House, Best Of Vol. 2" (Profile)
Various Artists, "Order to Dance, Vol. 3" (R&S)
Various Artists, "Street Jams: Electric Funk, Parts 1 and 2" (Rhino)
Various Artists, "Techno Glub Vol. 1 & 2" (Techno Club)
Various Artists, "Techno Tracks, Vol. 1-3" (ZYX)
Various Artists, "Techno: The New Dance Sound of Detroit" (10)
Various Artists, "The First Chapter," "The Second Chapter" (XL)
Various Artists, "The History of the House Sound of Chicago" (BCM)
 
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