We in the Midwest: Juke Vs Witch House: Nothing is Real and Everything is Awesome
Genres are nothing but artificial constructs, but then again what isn’t, amirite? Is juke a real thing or just a word dummies use to describe ghetto house? Is witch house something Pitchfork created to further the already over-segmented world of dark music/rock music/lo-fi music or is it a point of coming together of for people who adhere to a series of aesthetics not addressed by prior simplifications like goth?
A little bit of me thinking too much and a lot of great, free, new music from DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, Hollywood Holt, SSION, Juiceboxxx, Dirty Diamonds, and Starfoxxx.
We in the Midwest: Artifacts from the Rave Scene 1993-2009
Milwaukee’s Juiceboxxx just posted a link on twitter to some scans he put up on RaverGeek.com of the legendary Milwaukee rave zine Massive. In all, there are four complete issues of the magazine, spanning five of its six-year lifespan. It’s an important six years too. 1993-1999.
This was the time when a good chunk of the world thought that electronic music wasn’t just the next big thing, but the future of music (for better or worse) and magazines like Spin, Mojo, and Rolling Stone were asking question’s like “Is the Age of the Guitar Over?”. From any objective viewpoint, you could see the parallels between rave culture and hippie culture. Would 1997 surpass 1967 as a time of peace, love, music and drug-fueled social change? Would Generations X and Y finally shut the Baby Boomers up by doing it better, with new technology and a totally alien form of pop?
