The Drop Bass Network
Notes From the Digital Underground
or We Are Easy Riders of Self-contained Microcosms of Freedom-fun

Underground music culture has existed throughout the ages, but in recent history our scene has received more attacks from authorities than other cultures. Why? We are at a critical point in digital history, and like old-school, dirty-bearded evolutionary revolutionaries we offer you these Drop Bass Notes From the Digital Underground. Come with us as we fly through time and space like vampires of funk several centuries old, FLAP! FLAP! FLAP! EEEEeeeeee . . . Let’s take a look at some underground music cultures in recent history:

Woodstock, late ‘60’s. Following the Summer of Love, Woodstock was the first massive hippie outdoor rock concert. People were smoking grass and dropping acid in public. Police and promoters, unable to control the event, gave up, and it was free concert for everyone. Paradise. Even after all the negative publicity, huge open-air rock concerts continue on for decades, and become a staple of American pop culture.

CBGB’s New York City, mid ’70’s. The club CBGB’s, self-proclaimed “home of underground rock,” was the spawning ground of punk. The Ramones started there singing songs about sniffing glue and the Sex Pistols finished with Anarchy in the UK. Heroin is the drug of choice. Sid Vicious kills girlfriend Nancy Spungen and then dies of an overdose. Extreme stage diving at the club results in many injuries and at least one death. Authorities don’t close down CBGB’s and the venue stays open for decades.

United States of America, early ‘90’s. Hip hop grows from New York’s Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to Public Enemy, then goes nationwide with Gangsta’ Rap groups like NWA. At the peak of Hip Hop, shootings, BANG! BANG! BANG! are a major danger at hip hop events. Authorities do little to stop the cap-poppin’ perils of hip hop and the violence continues on.

State Palace Theater, New Orleans, the new Millennium. “Disco Donnie” Estopinal of Freebass gets busted. In it’s war on “club drugs” the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) stretches the crackhouse law to include glowsticks and pacifiers, and is trying to put Donny and crew away for 20 years to life. Officials want to use this case as a model to close down raves across the country. Promoters, afraid to throw parties due to prosecution, face major opposition from local venues and law enforcement.

Question: If danger (in the form of drug overdoses and violence) has been associated with underground music culture for years and little was done about it, why are authorities so motivated closing down our scene now? (turn over)

Energizer Bunnies on “e”

Energizer, one of the largest manufactures of batteries in the country, is now selling “e” batteries. What’s up with that? One questions the wisdom of marketing batteries supposed to last over ten hours after a drug that, at best, lasts four. Ecstasy “e’s” are everywhere in advertising. “e” sunglasses at the ski shop, even the Microsoft Explorer web browser logo has got the whole world rolling on “e.” Now imagine balding middle-aged ad executives kicking back at backyard barbeques in the suburbs. They’re wearing tacky aprons, stirring the sauce, talking about wife swapping...and dropin’ e. By the time they get back to the office, they’re putting ecstasy “e’s” everywhere. Unlike opiates or hallucinogenics, ecstasy is a drug that is attractive to main-stream America. This is as scary to Federal officials as when Dr. Timothy Leary suggested LSD be put in the water. The government associates this drug with our scene, and this is why they have come down hard on us.

Keep the Sound Underground

With the DEA taking rave promoters out of the running, huge corporate promoters (like SFX who handles Madonna, and has corporate ties to major radio stations and arenas across the country) figured they could cash in by taking electronic music to the masses through old-school rock concert arena tours. The failure of the Creamfields tour illustrates corporate America’s inability to grasp the nature of our scene. It was a tough lesson (i.e., costly) for the man. You cannot bring electronic music to people by taking it backwards to an old-school rock and roll stage. The future is not retroactive and the sound really is underground, HURRAY!

“He not busy being born is busy dying”

Don’t be fooled, regardless of the government’s actions against our scene, this is not a drug issue. Drug dealing is illegal, not music events. This is an issue of freedom...our freedom to party however, whenever, and wherever we want. To some people, it’s a scary thing. They don’t want to stop us because we’re ravers, they want to stop us because we’re free. Our parties are self-contained microcosms of freedom-fun. “He not busy being born is busy dying.” It is boring (not to mention lame) to party in the same place in the same way, week after week. It is much better to party when you prepare, adapt, act, and react -- not only is it more fun, but by using your whole mind/body sight-sound-serotonin system, you’ll live longer.

-->Hyperlinks to Freedom

We party in face of the American Dream and it’s lies, i.e., work hard, get a lot of money and retire; retirement equaling the freedom to enjoy yourself. Face it, when you retire you can’t enjoy much of anything, you’re lucky if you can even fuck. Like hippie bikers of the sixties, we are Easy Riders of self-contained microcosms of freedom-fun, BRAAM! Hop on your customized motorcycle chopper with the American flag tear-drop gas tank and ride! An Easy Rider, by definition, is a person who lives with a prostitute (him or her), and does good by being the object of the prostitutes affection. Sometimes simply letting someone love you is the most important thing. Events like Woodstock Americans hated in the '60’s are now looked back on with American pride. The vibrant color, energy, life of the era and lessons learned, are spoken of with teary-eyed affection. For these middle-class, workin’-for-the-man American whores now love what they once hated, and it’s a good thing. Like Woodstock our parties are hyper-links to freedom-->of future love of American dreams...so turn on, tune in, Drop Bass.

by TJ Richter

© July 31, 2001 Theodore J Richter