Apparently, people are catching on now. The genre is called “drag” and I’m trying to not get irritated. Why? BECAUSE. This is a typical first step towards a mainstreamification of genuine artistic innovation, ALWAYS a dubious prospect in my mind. Pitchfork reported today that a new record label, called Tri Angle (distributed by Kompakt–is this an indie version of major label/small label–my mind is BLOWING UP here) will have a roster that includes the bands Creep (feat. Lauren Flax), Slava and oOoOO, all “drag” artists. Haven’t heard of them? Don’t worry, this is straight up niche-nerd stuff, we’re still in the first wave. It’ll be a couple of years before we hear a “drag” artist break out with some pop-friendly version and then we’ll all remember when and cry “LATE!” In any case, the genre is described by Tri Angle owner Robin Carolan as “”witching-hour vision of Cocteau Twins dream pop, meshed with the soundtrack to a particularly angsty Gregg Araki film full of Gen X shoegazer atmospherics and industrial beats, brought bang up to the date by the influence of raw hip-hop mutations like chopped and screwed and juke.” Pretty much EXACTLY what Salem is–I’m actually sitting here, slapping my forehead thinking about this druggy psychosis as a movement. The small amount of information we actually have about Salem clues us to their addiction/prostitution roots, it’d be shame if there were other bands with the same back story. Conversely, it’d be a shame if there were other bands that just pretended to be like that in order to make some fucked up sounding goth-juke. For now, my eyes and ears are wide open, the label name and it’s first releases have that familiar whiffa GAY.
