Greetings From The Land Of Schlock...

[donny-g]

Hello All -

my name is Don and I've got a blog called Schlockmania (link in my sig below). I've been aware of Bernie's site for a while and made the decision to join up because my blog is going to be covering a lot of stuff that fans of this forum might like. I just put up an essay about the aesthetics of disco and I've also got a review in there for the recent Casablanca Records book. There will be plenty more - forthcoming reviews include the Meco productions and Pattie Brooks two-fers from FTG and I plan to make coverage of disco CD's new and old a regular part of what I do.

Thanks to the mods for letting me join up. It's good to be amongst some fellow disco fans!

[DonaldCleveland]

Hello All -

my name is Don and I've got a blog called Schlockmania (link in my sig below). I've been aware of Bernie's site for a while and made the decision to join up because my blog is going to be covering a lot of stuff that fans of this forum might like. I just put up an essay about the aesthetics of disco and I've also got a review in there for the recent Casablanca Records book. There will be plenty more - forthcoming reviews include the Meco productions and Pattie Brooks two-fers from FTG and I plan to make coverage of disco CD's new and old a regular part of what I do.

Thanks to the mods for letting me join up. It's good to be amongst some fellow disco fans!

SON~!! CHANGE YOUR NAME TO T.O.D.~!!

Just kiddin' Welcome Donald......from er ah erm........Donald.


:icon_mrgreen:

[Bernie]

Welcome aboard donny-g!

[donny-g]

SON~!! CHANGE YOUR NAME TO T.O.D.~!!

Just kiddin' Welcome Donald......from er ah erm........Donald.


:icon_mrgreen:

Haha, maybe I'll add "Discomusic.com's other Donald" to my sig.

And thanks for the welcome, Bernie.

[DonaldCleveland]

Haha, maybe I'll add "Discomusic.com's other Donald" to my sig.

And thanks for the welcome, Bernie.

Too late. I already named you: T.O.D.

The Other Donald.

(Hey listen, for a while there I was WDC as in Who's Donald Cleveland? We all get it once in a while. YOUR TURN~!)


DC

[donny-g]

Too late. I already named you: T.O.D.

The Other Donald.

Oh, I realized that. I was just trying to turn it into more of a slogan. You know, when you're #2, you have to try harder!

[JussiK]

"We’ll end by return­ing to the title ques­tion — why disco? Why the hell not? It’s the last unex­plored fron­tier of cultish-music plea­sure left."

This is a quote from the blog, written somewhere in a frontier far, far away :-).

What about the popular cosmic phenomenon, italo nights, space disco parties, any kind of funkless electronic 70's/early 80's gigs? These seem to be completely alien to the majority of American clubbers. The country apparently suffered an irreversible trauma back in the early 80's when it came to all things disco, and it somehow became genetic. In the states, to most people the music STILL equals the Village People, Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive, polyester and Saturday Night Fever, as the recent Vanity Fair article sadly proved once again. Disco? File under Schlock.

In Europe and in Japan, things could not be more different, thank god. When I for one spin my vinyls (not funk, not soul, but disco) to students, hipsters and clubbers looking an alternative to formula dance music, it's all about quality sounds, wicked basslines, fuzzy guitars, insane flanging beats, sexy beach girl choruses, analog synths sounding just right, and amazing arrangements. Weird, campy and often bizarre records do get played, a lot, but in all those cheap tracks made in low rent studios in Italy there's freshness lacking in the glossy big budget stuff thought as disco in the US, and people here respect that freshness. Prestige clubs all around Europe program disco nights, nothing to do with trash or anything related to Saturday Night Fever. Even England has it's Horse Meat Disco.

Still, a very good blog, that SchlockMania! Just needs to broaden it's perspectives a bit.

So, to dig a bit deeper check this out:
Overfitting Disco

[donny-g]

What about the popular cosmic phenomenon, italo nights, space disco parties, any kind of funkless electronic 70's/early 80's gigs? These seem to be completely alien to the majority of American clubbers.

First of all, thanks for reading!

That essay you quoted was written in an attempt to convert (or at least challenge the thinking of) people who have never considered listening to disco at all, much less all the fascinating offshoots and alternative varieties. I'm sure this is second nature for a veteran like yourself but it's anathema to most music fans I know. There's a deeply rooted anti-disco prejudice in American society that is very difficult to overcome and that was my small attempt to take a David Vs. Goliath swing at it.

As for me, I'm just trying to learn more. I just got copies of the NIGHT DUBBING and HORSE MEAT DISCO comps in the mail today and will be covering them eventually on my blog. So don't worry, I will continue to work at my broadening my blog's horizons.

[JussiK]

Right on, sounds good! Just kinda forget all about Chic, KC&Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, Prelude, Salsoul, Philly etc. That's good music but it's the sameold thing, how long can you try and revive that to audiences that just don't care? And in any case, that commercial side of disco was just that, one end of the spectrum only. Try something else and maybe they'll take notice in the US. Things like the Horse Meat packages are a start (even if the Meat guys don't list the original records they build their edits from). I don't want to sound snotty but American-made disco is way too polished for today and too much of it spells "retro". The real sound is elsewhere.