The Days of Lore

Sucking the ‘Sucks’ out of disco

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

Chicago deejay Steve Dahl just wanted to blow up a few Bee Gees records. It was a riot. Literally.

July 12 marked the 30-year anniversary of the infamous Disco Demolition Night, the flaming bookend to the “Disco Sucks!” movement started by Dahl back in the summer of 1979. Dahl would hold anti-disco events where boxes of records were blown to bits—it should be noted that Dahl was fired from Chicago’s WDAI in 1978 after the station went to an all-disco format. He finally had his largest audience when he was allowed to blow up a box of vinyl in front of 60,000 fans at Comiskey Park. It was all fun and games until the crowd rushed the field, lit bonfires and trashed the joint … while smoking joints. Needless to say game two of the double-header was canceled. Perhaps it should also be noted that the White Sox lost to the Detroit Tigers in the first game by a score of 4-1.

Of course, by 1977 disco had gone from black and Hispanic communities and gay dance clubs straight into the homes of white, middle America. The Bee Gees—three brothers from the Isle of Man who got their start in the late-’60s playing music that was as gentle and harmless as an infant’s sneeze—became the leading purveyors of the genre, which was being bumped in discotheques everywhere. Soon rockers like the Stones and Rod Stewart, KISS and even the Grateful Dead were recording disco songs. Now that’s a powerful movement. Geez, no wonder Steve Dahl was pissed.

The Guardian’s Ben Meyers recently wrote that the “Disco Sucks!” event was also fueled by homophobia and racism. Maybe there’s a little truth to that. But by 1979 disco was so watered-down and white-bread that it would have made more sense if blacks, Hispanics and gays were the ones burning the records. Besides, even the most rough-and-tumble, white, midwestern male probably thought dancing, doing copious amounts of blow, and having sex inside a bathroom stall with a complete stranger at a club sounded like good fun.

So, what have we learned from all of this? We learned that disco does not suck. Steve Dahl doesn’t even suck. The Bee Gees don’t suck. Neither does Saturday Night Fever. John Tavolta … OK, Travolta kinda sucks. And The Trammps‘ “Disco Inferno”—all 10 and a half minutes of it—definitely does not suck. Maybe Dahl’s movement should have been called “Some, Not All, Disco Sucks!” I think more people would have gotten behind that one.

“Disco Inferno” - The Trammps

News coverage featuring my man Bill Kurtis and a young Greg Gumbel

Tags: "Disco Inferno", "Disco Sucks!", Bee Gees, Disco Demolition Night, Saturday Night Fever, Steve Dahl, The Trammps

Dearest Mother

Saturday, November 15th, 2008 | musiX | No Comments

What a difference 492 miles makes. I’ve traveled to my former stomping ground of Chico for some pre-Thanksgiving festivities. The crystal-blue sky and sun-glazed trees in California always makes me think of backyard get-togethers with friends and road trips—windows down, stereo up. The perfect soundtrack? The Mother Hips.

The band got its start here in the dorms of Chico State, flirted with commercial success in the ’90s, relocated to San Francisco, battled the dreaded (and lazy and erroneous) jam-band label, battled personal demons, took an indefinite hiatus, and made some of the finest rock albums of the past 15 years.

The Hips came out at a time when Chico was divided by hippie-dippy Dead followers (influenced by the town’s longest-running band Spark ‘n’ Cinder) and bands like The Downsiders and Trench, who were revolting against anything that reeked of patchouli. Looking back on that time, Mother Hips singer and guitarist Tim Bluhm explained that he never thought the Hips fit in either camp, and that they built their sound on their own random tastes.

“We mostly just had the records in our house: Leonard Cohen, Black Sabbath, Gene Clark, Led Zeppelin, Merle Haggard, the Bee Gees. It came out kind of weird, but we liked it.”

Those influences tell it all. Distorted guitars were tempered by Bluhm and fellow guitarist/vocalist Greg Loiacono’s sweet harmonies. Early songs had multiple parts with out-of-left-field dynamic shifts. Later they would adopt more simple, pop arrangements, and in 1998 the band released a stripped-down country gem called Later Days, one of their best.

The Mother Hips recently performed at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord, playing three and a half hours of music from one fan’s ultimate setlist which was chosen weeks before. The marathon performance is available for 10 bucks (three discs’ worth) exclusively at the band’s Web site. Bluhm told me recently the Hips are currently in the studio working on the follow-up to 2007’s excellent Kiss the Crystal Flake. I was glad to hear it. At this point I don’t think I can imagine not having The Mother Hips around. Take them along with you on your next road trip, windows down, stereo up.

“Been Lost Once” - The Mother Hips (Live at Cafe Du Nord)

“TGIM” - The Mother Hips (Kiss the Crystal Flake)

“Stunt Double” - The Mother Hips (Later Days)

Tags: Bee Gees, Black Sabbath, Chico State University, Gene Clark, Greg Loiacono, Jackie Greene, Kiss the Crystal Flake, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Merle Haggard, Spark 'n' Cinder, The Downsiders, The Mother Hips, Tim Bluhm, Trench