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  • Jheri Curl June: O’Bryan’s “Lovelite”

    I stumbled upon O’Bryan sometime last year, in one of my annual trawls through the underbelly of the Internet looking for fresh Jheri Curl Music. Born O’Bryan McCoy Burnette II, he cut his teeth in the 1970s Philadelphia soul and disco scene, before a fortuitous meeting with Soul Train creator Don Cornelius resulted in his being signed to Capitol Records. A singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with an exotic, ethnically ambiguous look, O’Bryan was a shoo-in to be Capitol’s answer to the rising star Prince.

    The problem was that O’Bryan took things a little too far. While Prince was blowing up MTV with the low-key erotica of his videos for Purple Rain, O’Bryan was getting banned from MTV for actually showing titties in the video for “Lovelite.” Turns out that embracing a soft-porn aesthetic can make you a star, while literally putting soft porn in your videos will just make you a historical footnote. Still, there are definitely boobs in the video above, so enjoy!

    We’ll see you again tomorrow–Spotify and YouTube playlists, as always, are below.

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  • Jheri Curl June: Slave’s “Turn You Out (In & Out)”

    We’ve featured Slave before for Jheri Curl June, but their 1983 album Bad Enuff is the group at their most activated. By 1983, the sound of ’80s R&B had fully transitioned from leftover disco to what we all know and love as Jheri Curl Music, thanks to Prince’s Minneapolis sound taking off. Slave followed suit, though their sound had already changed slightly due to drummer and singer Steve Arrington leaving the group in 1982.

    Although post-Arrington Slave is not nearly as formidable as their earlier releases, Bad Enuff is a solid album, proving that Slave could adapt to changing times and a changing lineup. “Turn You Out (In & Out)” is arguably one of their sexiest songs, combining one of Mark Adams’ signature below-the-belt-hitting basslines with a prissy Prince-like synth riff and breathy vocals practically lifted from a Dirty Mind outtake.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more Jheri Curl June. Spotify and YouTube playlists are below:

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  • Jheri Curl June: The Bar-Kays’ “She Talks to Me with Her Body”

    Few groups in the history of R&B have been as long-lived, or as chameleonic, as the Bar-Kays. The Memphis group got their start in the mid-’60s as a session band for Stax Records, with songs like 1967’s “Soul Finger” fitting squarely into the label’s signature sound. At the turn of the decade, like many other soul groups, they went psychedelic, backing Isaac Hayes on his epochal 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul, then recording their own Black Rock. In the ’70s, they were pure funk. So it should come as no surprise that the Bar-Kays were among the first groups of their vintage to recognize the wind change in the early ’80s and embrace the style we call Jheri Curl Music.

    https://youtu.be/3C8Wim_fJMg

    Like last year’s Jheri Curl June alums Ebonee Webb–who shared with the Bar-Kays a manager and producer, Allen A. Jones–the main frame of reference was Prince, with whining Minneapolis-style keyboards taking the place of traditional Memphis-soul horns (and no, that horn section miming in the Soul Train video above isn’t fooling anyone). But there’s also more than a touch of Zapp in the band’s 1982 single “She Talks to Me with Her Body,” from the short snatches of talkbox to that “More Bounce to the Ounce” bass. In fact–and ironically–the only thing that wasn’t Jheri Curl about the Bar-Kays in 1982 was lead singer Larry Dodson’s hair, which appears to be the same heavily-processed dome he wore to Wattstax in 1973, looking a little worse for wear. C’mon man, get some activator at least!

    We’ll be back tomorrow with more Jheri Curl June–Spotify and YouTube playlists are below!

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  • Jheri Curl June Special: Jesse Johnson

    For the past three years, we’ve commenced our Jheri Curl June festivities with profiles of major figures in the style we call Jheri Curl Music, timed to line up with their birthdays in the beginning of June. In 2014, it was Prince (born June 7); in 2015, it was Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (the former born June 6); last year, it was L.A. Reid (June 7 again). But until now, we’ve never managed to make time for another architect whose birthday falls as close to the beginning of June as possible: June 1, 1960. I’m talking, of course, about Jesse Johnson.

    Jesse, in our defense, hasn’t exactly been a stranger to Jheri Curl June. His “Be Your Man” was our second-ever JCJ post back in 2014, and we’ve also considered his work both as a member of the Time and as the producer of late-’80s Minneapolis funk-rockers dáKRASH. But we’ve never taken a deep dive into his music–and that’s a damn shame, because whatever Johnson might have lacked in the innovation of his former associates Prince, Jam, and Lewis, he more than made up for with some of the strongest pure Jheri Curl Music of the mid-to-late 1980s. In other words, there’s no better person with whom to launch our fourth annual celebration of all things wet and silky in ’80s R&B music. So let’s get to it!

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  • Jheri Curl June: One Way’s “Cutie Pie”

    This year, we’re kicking off Jheri Curl June with Detroit R&B group One Way, formerly known as the Soul Partners. Although not exactly a household name, One Way has made a significant impact on music. Between One Way and Zapp, you pretty much have the sound of West Coast G-funk down pat: Everyone from Too $hort and DJ Quik to the Game has sampled One Way’s heavy bass and whiny synthesizers.

    One Way’s Who’s Foolin’ Who album from 1982, which includes their biggest hit, “Cutie Pie”; © MCA Records.

    One Way had a consistent output of top-charting R&B singles throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s. “Cutie Pie,” their biggest hit, is the perfect music to listen to in your vintage Lincoln Continental while you cruise through the strip on Belle Isle.

    We’ll be back tomorrow with this year’s Jheri Curl June special, on the music of Jesse Johnson. In the meantime, check out our Spotify and YouTube playlists below!

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  • Introduction: The New Jheri Curl June IV U

    Ladies and gentlemen, it’s finally here: the holiest month on the Dystopian Dance Party calendar, Jheri Curl June. We’ve done this song and dance a few times before, so I’ll keep it brief this time; suffice to say, if you need a primer on what Jheri Curl Music is, you can check out our somewhat crudely-produced Imaginary Genres video from last year:

    We’ll be back later today to officially kick off the festivities…remember to check back every weekday in June for more of the wettest, silkiest ’80s R&B!

  • Dystopian Listening Party Podcast: Memorial Day, 2016-2017

    Well, here we are: for the second consecutive year, we’re turning Memorial Day weekend into a time of remembrance for the many great artists we lost since last May. But because this is still Dystopian Dance Party, and we’re constitutionally incapable of being reverent for more than a few minutes at a time, please be aware that the resulting podcast is about 70% wake, 30% roast (well, maybe 60/40). Just believe us when we tell you it’s all coming from a place of love. Hopefully, while everyone good continues to die and leave us trapped on this smoldering husk of a planet, we can at least entertain you (and ourselves) with our impressions of “The Force M.D.’s Meet the Fat Boys”… R.I.P. to Trisco Pearson. Show notes below.

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  • Dystopian Book Club Podcast: Paul Stanley’s Face the Music

    The last installment of our Dystopian Book Club miniseries on the memoirs of KISS is finally here, and we’re going out in a big way. Paul Stanley’s Face the Music: A Life Exposed isn’t the best KISS biography we’ve read (or the second best…or even the third), but it’s certainly fertile ground for discussion. Join us for almost two hours on the man, the myth, and the chest hair; and remember, while Dystopian Book Club is done with KISS (for now), WE! ARE JUST! GETTING! STAAAAAAAAHHHTEEED! We’ll be back in June with a special Jheri Curl June episode on the memoir(s) of Rick James. And don’t forget, next month is our annual Memorial Day podcast, when we commemorate the many musical icons we lost in the last 12 months. Show notes, as always, are below.

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  • From the Vault: Interview with Beth Ditto of the Gossip, 2006

    Editor’s Note: Back in my past life as an extraordinarily small-time freelance music writer (as opposed to whatever the fuck I am now), I had the opportunity to interview Beth Ditto of the Gossip for this article in my local “alternative” weekly, the Lansing, Michigan City Pulse. The interview was, to be honest, the main reason why I wrote about the Gossip for today’s Women’s History Month post: don’t get me wrong, Beth Ditto was and remains a badass, but even more than her music, our conversation is what made a lasting impression on me. Ditto’s reflections on growing up as a queer woman in the deep Bible Belt were fascinating and incisive; she was also funny, gregarious, and a pleasure to speak to in general. So, whether you’re a fan of the Gossip or not, I highly recommend reading this interview: not because 21-year-old me did a great job as an interviewer–I emphatically did not–but because it’s a warm exchange with a decent human being, and that’s something I think we can all appreciate. – Z.H.

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  • Women’s History Month: Trina’s “Da Baddest Bitch”

    First and foremost, I love Trina. Trina is my shit. She’s a bossy, nasty, fellow Sagittarius woman who is obsessed with her own ass: sounds like a role model to me. In high school I was constantly listening to “Look Back At Me,” and for better or worse, the confrontational line “yeah you runnin’ now, you runnin’! I’mma put this pussy on you!” continues to influence me to this day.

    Trina and Trick Daddy in the bubble bath; photo stolen from Gangsta Boo’s Instagram.

    Trina has been outrageously raunchy since her debut verse on fellow Miami rapper Trick Daddy’s “Nann Nigga,” which jump-started Trina’s music career. Her 2000 debut album, Da Baddest Bitch, expands on the financially and sexually astute persona she introduced in “Nann Nigga.” The title track is essentially a book of proverbs for bad bitches, with such gems of wisdom as, “You see the bigger the dick, the bigger the bank / The bigger the Benz, the better the chance to get close to his rich friends”–and of course, my personal favorite, “make him eat it while my period on.”

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