Also this issue:

Acid Reigns
British DJ legend Gilles Peterson loves Philly back.
-Sean O’Neal

Riot Going On
The latest Red Hot disc has hip-hop and soul's current whiz kids taking on Kuti classics.
-A.D. Amorosi

Teddy Pendergrass
-A.D. Amorosi

Eternity
Dave Vanian's gonna smash it up till there's nothing left.
-Helen H. Thompson

thesuitespot
-Peter Burwasser on Classical

Is This Still It?
-Sam Adams

Beenie Man
-Ainé Ardron-Doley

Bellini
-Paul Burress

October 10-16, 2002

music

Titan of 'Clash

Punk, trash, electroclash, it’s still rock ’n’ roll to Tee.

by A.D. Amorosi

TEASE: “The next punk-polka movement will have my total support.”

Producer/promoter/provocateur/DJ Larry Tee has gone through it all, with the dopey (thankfully buried) photos to prove it. From Badd at Joe’s Pub to Limelight’s Disco 2000. From uprooting himself and fellow Georgians The B-52s (for whom he produced a first single) to Manhattan to discovering and writing hits for RuPaul. From Rock and Roll Fag Bar to Love Machine. From white-electro’s first steps to its currency as electroclash.

"Atlanta helped me define my musical likes and dilslikes," says Tee from the office of his label, Mogul Electro, where he's readying a second fab volume of Electroclash as well as full CDs by sugar-electro gal pals W.I.T. (Whatever It Takes) and goth-gang Soviet.

"DJing led me to discovering the original electro, The B-52s and my love of camp-trash culture." Along with bringing the Bs to Warners and introducing black-electro sounds like Afrika Bambaataa to white and gay audiences at the above-mentioned Manhattan club nights, Tee became famous for writing Ms. Ru's smash "Supermodel." Ask Tee what he did with all the money and he laughs. "I blew it on drugs. I got clean in 1997 with the help of NA."

Better still, ask Tee what the most finite difference is between old electro and its new scion, and he opens up pragmatically. "New evolved electro has the punk attitude and star power that the original lacked, as well as things like dance, performance art, fashion and politics. Those things weren't part of the old electro. That's why electroclash is an evolution, not a retro movement."

Along with spinning nights at Spa and Hudson Hotel in New York City, Tee, 42, is most noted now for bringing Brooklyn-electro to the masses, what with Mutants and Berliniamsburg (two regular parties at Williamsburg's Luxx club) as over-hyped a media sensation as is his other discovery, Fischerspooner. While he lists electro experiences old and new -- "Taking Florian of Kraftwerk shopping, experiencing Fischerspooner, touring with W.I.T." -- amongst life's favorite moments, he insists he's no poster child for electroclash. The movement could end up dead in the water before it even winnows its way through the States due to mass-mediation. "I'll have you know, I'd be the first rat off a sinking ship. I will always champion the music that most inspires me. The next punk-polka movement will have my total support."

It's his dedication to an idea (and to the credibility of Mogul Electro) that makes Tee most apt to dutifully back W.I.T.'s Melissa Burns and Christine Doza's sugar sweet lip-glossy electro-pop hits like "Oooh, I Like It," even though he's reportedly been cold-shouldered by Fischerspooner since he got them signed to Ministry of Sound and the millions came tumbling in. "W.I.T. are my best friends and I will never drop them like I never drop my other friends. I still love Fischerspooner though I never hear from Casey [Spooner] since they got signed."

Tee's motto, then, for his Electroclash Tour 2002 -- featuring Peaches, Chicks on Speed, W.I.T., and Tracey and the Plastics -- is simple: "Don't take anything too seriously. It's just rock 'n' roll." No assembly required.

The Electroclash Tour, with Peaches, Chicks on Speed, W.I.T., Tracey and the Plastics and DJs Larry Tee, Julian S. Process, Dirty Dave Pee and AJ Ready Right, Sat., Oct. 12, 9 p.m.-3:30 a.m., 18 to enter, $5 ($15 DOS), Transit, Sixth and Spring Garden sts., 215-925-8878.