The line outside the Town Hall Pub in Boys Town was filled with the young and aggressively fashionable last week, all anxiously waiting to get into the packed monthly dance party thrown by the local DJ duo Flosstradamus. The bar’s proprietor, a gruff white-haired man in a beat-up hat, was parked at the door, barking “no” at anyone who tried to hustle their way past him. People sent text messages to friends inside begging for help. After standing in the same spot for 20 minutes, a young bike messenger gave up, announcing “fuck it” to no one in particular. Even honchos from Vice Records and editors from Pitchfork stood idly on the curb, unable to schmooze their way in, while a crew from MTV that was barreling toward the door was told to queue up alongside everyone else.
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The sweaty throng on the dance floor inside was pressed skin to skin and all hands were in the air. There were hip-hop headz, art-school weirdos, and queer crews, an equal mix of ladies and dudes of every race, and anyone trying to cut through them met the tightest squeeze this side of being born. One guy tried to launch himself on top of the crowd and wound up spilling a dozen people’s drinks. Two years ago most of these kids wouldn’t have been old enough to get into a bar; anyone older than 25 was most likely an A and R rep, a journalist, a publicist, or bar staff.
“We’d like to take what we’re doing and turn it into a worldwide movement,” says Josh, who now makes enough money DJing that he was able to quit his promotions job at the Metro. (Cameruci willingly hangs on to his job selling mopeds.) They’re heading out to the west coast for a few shows next week and are working on remixes for the Eternals, Jai Alai Savant, and Walter Meego, while Kid Sister is recording a mix tape with Kanye West’s DJ, A-Trak. She was also the draw for MTV, who decided to include her in the upcoming Chicago episode of My Block, featuring West, Common, Lupe Fiasco, and others. “I know Kid Sister is still about a year out from a solid release, but she’s got real star quality,” explains show producer Joseph Patel. “Kids like Flosstradamus are a new type of DJ. They’re not going off records, beat matching and mixing. They’re doing mash-ups, playing unreleased downloads and stuff off blogs, old stuff, new-wave records, and spitting it out from their laptops. That’s why all kinds of kids from all kinds of scenes are excited about what they’re doing.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Jim Newberry, Jessica Hopper.
