Rave New World Radio Episode One: “I Wanna Go Bang!” is about: the origins of ecstasy culture at Starck Club, “trance that the kids call techno,” communing with older heads, Dallas’ nightlife crackdown, the Hazy Daze collective, cumbia renegade raves in the forests of Texas, the eccentric owner of the legendary Bill’s Records, tripping on acid and wishing more people were watching the sunrise with you.
I enrolled in the Jackie O Body School of Dance because I wanted to go BANG!!!!
Actually, I NEEDED to go BANG—like a soda shaken too hard, fizzing and exploding and making a scene, I don’t care if it’s embarrassing. I want husky, acerbic techno that hisses and singes my face, searing skin. Stinky techno that I can hear belching from three miles away. Synths that shimmer and coil like vapor in the sun. Songs that I can bathe in. Sloughing off the sadness that clings to me like pollen, so I can breathe again.
Because what’s happening to raving these days is making me sick!!! Where do you go when the thing that was supposed to be the way out warps into a mirror of the bullshit? When I read the text for a party way out in a small town called Denton, Texas it felt like someone had heard my plea. Written by the DJ Carlos Souffront, here’s what it said:
The Jackie O’Body’s School of Dance isn’t real, but it is serious business. Not THAT serious, though. The idea is kinda like the Field of Dreams for music…build it and they will come. What is “it”?
It is a space of radical musical expression, untethered by genre or coolness. DJs, producers, band members, are all equal. We’re not doing this for the money, we’re here to share music and party amongst our peers. Artists are encouraged to present their wildest expression, and to subvert expectations. It is controlled chaos. We are not here to create a “safe space” for the audience.
We challenge the audience to engage with non stop programming across multiple stages. It’s like a 3-ring circus, impossible for anyone to take it all in. In effect, the audience becomes a DJ, mixing their own experience. The music will range from compelling, relaxing, organic, synthetic, pummelling, profane, holy, psychedelic, professional, amateur, sensuous, playful, funny, funky, raucous, erotic, ponderous, confounding, bizarre, horny and more and beyond.
That is not to say it will be everything for everyone, it really will be strictly for the headz.
Thank god—maybe this party would save us from the scourge of clout queen DJs lip synching in the booth like they’re performing karaoke for their Instagram Reels, and take us somewhere more real. I packed my bags and voice recorder. Giddyup boys, time to take the show on the road…
Rave New World Radio Episode One: I Wanna Go Bang!