From Industrial to Techno: A Musical Companion for Waltpaper's Memoir 'New York Club Kids'

Compiled by Parisa Eshrati

The Club Kids were a group of fashion-forward artists in the 1990s that created an alternative, underground club culture in New York City. Known for their outrageous looks, legendary parties, and often illicit antics, the Club Kids were the embodiment of youth counterculture and gender revolution in the '90s. In his new memoir, New York Club Kids, prominent club kid figure Walt Cassidy, aka Waltpaper, gives exclusive insight into the lifestyle of this notorious clique. This blog is a chapter-by-chapter guide into the music mentioned in this memoir, listing all the artists that inspired the nightlife, fashion, and culture of the scene.

​
​Chapter One: The Global Village​

On moving to New York and attending Wigstock:
“Walking around the streets, we saw this black-and-white poster with faces of drag queens all collaged together in a circle. It was promoting an event called Wigstock, an outdoor music festival being staged at Union Square Park with the band Deee-Lite scheduled to headline… These queens were next level, and there was a distinctive ‘showbiz’ vibe at this particular Wigstock. I imagine the great success that Deee-Lite were having at this time had a lot to do with that same energy. They had broken through and were holding the attention of mainstream audiences as well as the music industry. Deee-Lite, clubbing, the East Village, and all things ‘downtown’ were having a moment, and in true New York City fashion everyone showed up to grab their piece of the heat.”

Chapter Two: Meet the Club Kids​​

​On the music behind the ball scene: 
“...DJ David DePino, who had begun spinning Tuesday nights at Traxx, a popular party with the ball crowd. DePino created the first musical tracks that were structurally designed to accommodate the precision movements of voguing.”

Chapter Three: Building a Look

On the musical influences on drag:
“During that first Style Summit in 1992, I met a young ethereal beauty named Kabuki Starshine...I first remember him wearing a mixture of leopard and cheetah print furs with jewelry made of clear plastic globes that had been cut like disco balls… Later on his looks would evolve to be more ambitious and otherworldly. David Bowie, New Romanticism, and the illustrations of Erte And Aubrey Beardsley heavily influenced him.” 

Chapter Four: House Culture​

​On The House of Field ball scene:
“Cesar Ninja Magnifique (L’Amour), who performed in the Butch Queen Vogue / Black Style of Strength category, intiially received a questionably low score of 6 from Andre Leon Talley. Cesar challenged his low marking and went about working for a better score while battling the next competitor... Cesar walked away with the trophy. He also caught the eye of judge Malcom McLaren, which led to collaboration between them and House of Field member Willie Ninja Field and a tour to promote McLaren’s subsequent singles, “Deep in Vogue” and “Waltz Darling”.

Waltpaper goes into the work of Jojo Americo Field, House of Field member and visual director for the Patricia Field store, who had his own band called Jojo and the Jockstraps. Although you can't find footage of Jojo and the Jockstraps online, he later went on to be one-third of The Ones (with Paul Alexander and Nashom Wooten/Mona Foot).  They scored a UK hit single with "Flawless". (RIP Mona Foot, who tragically recently died of COVID-related complications this month.)

​Hex Hector, noted as one of the top house DJs of the early club years:

Chapter Five: Body Modification 

​On industrial culture meets fashion:
“Many of us from the inner circle of the ‘90s Club Kids had evolved out of hardcore, goth, and industrial music. The foundation is probably what gave us a bit of that dark and intense edge that differentiated us from the earlier Club Kids. We loved bands like Skinny Puppy, Thrill Kill Cult, the Legendary Pink Dots, Edward KaSpel, and all the 4AD label stuff, like Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and --my personal favorite-- Dead Can Dance.”

On singer Diamanda Galas:
“Desi, Christopher, and Pebbled introduced me to the work of avant-garde singer Diamanda Galas. She performed a seminal piece, “Plague Mass,” in 1990 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The performance was recoeded and released as a live album in 1991, a harrowing conveyance of the pain and suffering endured by the gay community as a result of the AIDS pandemic. Galas lost her brother to the disease and was a prominent member of ACT UP. She maintained an uncompromising commitment to the integrity in her work. The penetrating and poignant releases that she conveyed in her music mirrored the experiences that I was having while dancing in nightclubs. Despite the musical styles being completely different, the opportunities for transmutation and catharsis through sound were very similar.”​

Body artist Ron Athey was dating goth icon Rozz Williams, singer of Christian Death. Together they formed Premature Ejaculation, an experimental industrial band, and performed in various clubs and galleries.

​Waltpaper discusses appearing as a contortionist in this Redman music video, alongside Tattoo MIke", an NYC body mod icon. The video was filmed in 1994 at the original Coney Island Freak Show Museum:

Club Kid Miss Guy shared an appreciation for many glam rock bands with Waltpaper, including KISS and The Plasmatics. Miss Guy also later went on to form her glam-punk band Toilet Böys.

​Chapter Six: Techno Warriors

​On Bjork & the Sugarcubes:
“Another celebrity who was frequently on the scene was the Icelandic singer Bjork from the Sugarcubes. We all met her at the Level 27 parties at Palladium. Bjork was a close friend of Lil Keni and started hanging out from time to time with the Club Kids when she came to New York to promote the Sugarcubes’ latest record… She invited us all to dance on stage with the Sugarcubes at their final concert in New York at Roseland, before the band broke up and she went solo.”

Bjork & Club Kids at Limelight, 1992. Photo credit: Michael Lavine

Pioneers of the DJ scene noted in this chapter:

"DJ Juan Atkins is credited as the originator of techno along with Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson; together they are referred to as the Belleville Three. They combined black musical styles of Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with the electronic music of European pioneers like Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder and the Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra."

‘It’s important to note the influence of a collective called Underground Resistance on the early days of techno. The collective was formed in the late ‘80s by Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, and “Mad” Mike Banks. Often compared to Public Enemy, this fiercely independent group sought to engage with and uplift lower-class African Americans in Detroit through the sounds of techno. Even though Techno was becoming a mainstay in these eccentric yet highly commercial New York City nightclubs, the temperament and undercurrent of the techno sound remained informed by the conceptual ethics of the underground, which were anti-mainstream.”

​DJ Keoki, who had a Thursday night house music party called Groove Thing at the club Building:

Brooklyn DJ Frankie Bones​, who laid the groundwork for drum & bass and jungle:

​​Heather Heart, who along with Frankie Bones and Adam X, opened the first all-techno record store in Brooklyn:

DJ Repete and MC Romeo Romeo, who had a Friday night residency at Limelight called Future Shock:

​DJ Carlos Soul Slinger, who along with his then-wife Claudia Rey, had opened a store in New York called Liquid Sky. They sold their signature wide-legged jeans, which became a staple fashion in early rave culture:

​​DJs of the NASA Space Party

NASA was the first party to bring together a large roster of DJs that rotated throughout the night. DJs of that party included. Dante, DB, Moby, Dmitry and Kier of Deee-ite, Mr. Klean, and Jackie Christie.

Larry Tee was the designated early morning DJ who played the NASA after-hours sets:

Popular Singles of this Era:

Chapter Seven: Under the Influence

On The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black:
“Playing around in the cross sections of fashion and nightlife, I eventually became aware of a performance artist named Kembra Pfahler, who would come to play a very influential role in my life. She was the singer for a band called The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, and we first came in contact while she was preparing one afternoon for a concert at Limelight. We didn’t speak on that particular occasion, but after seeing her performance, which was loaded with handmade props and an ensemble cast of brightly painted young dancers, I became fascinated by her. The work she was doing was the most compelling that I had seen in New York City."

On Waltpaper's band BOOB:
“We weren’t real singers, but with our talented musicians we found ways to make some interesting noise. In addition to our dynamic costumes and DIY stage theatrics, we were able to come up with a sound that was uniquely ours. We collaborated with different clothing designers like Carlis Pistol and Jimmy Helvins for our stage looks. Each of our shows was defined by a theme, which informed the development of our costumes and stage sets. Every member of the band came up with an interpretation of the theme while adhering to a strict color palette. This approach yielded some healthy competition, and it was always exciting to see who produced the strongest look by show time.”

GG Allin, a hardcore punk icon, who appeared alongside Waltpaper and other NY Club Kids on The Jane Whitney Show in 1993, on an episode about "contemporary youth movements":

Riot grrrl band Lunachicks were a regular at a short-lived party called SHE, alongside other artists like Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, and Anthony Kiedis:

Blacklips Performance Cult was an underground performance-based party at Pyramid:

Anhoni (formally known as Antony Hagerty), who was a performer in Blacklips Performance Cult, went on to create a avant-pop solo project called Antony and the Johnsons:

DJ Junior Vasquez was a premiere house DJ with a residency at Sound Factory:

The club Squeezebox became a hugely popular party, and was hosted by emcee Formika. The club would also see various celebrities and musicians, such as Courtney Love:

Walt describes the soundtrack he'd listen to for coke binges or prepping for a ketamine injection. The music included The Hunger Soundtrack, Tori Amos, and Edward KaSpel:

Chapter Eight: Mega Clubs

On nights at Palladium Club:
“My favorite lighting detail was a gridded palette that had a uniform field of tiny, whirling spotlights. The techs could lower this palette down from the ceiling toward the dance floor, and it would come so close to your head that the lights would practically be spinning in front of your face. There was a particular song by Phantasia called “Violet Skies” from 1991, the opening line going, I’ve come down from the violent skies to save the day.” When the DJ played that song, they would drop the lighting unit as if the sky was coming down to greet you. You couldn’t help but go completely nuts just from the combination of elements and the choreography of the lights and music.”

Palladium designer Mike Schmidt had created a leather dance floor that spelled out the lyrics to "Nightclubbing" by Iggy Pop in braille with metal studs. 

Bonus DJ Mix

Waltpaper recently teamed up with DJ Juliana Huxtable to make a half-hour techno mix featuring many of their favorite tracks from Limelight:

You can order New York Club Kids and follow Waltpaper here.

Special thanks to Kurt B. Reighley for providing some additional music recommendations included in this blog.