Techno is supposed to be all about the music, where the faceless
producer can become famous for their musical output without the added
hassle of creating a stage persona. That remains mostly true (see
Burial, the critically acclaimed dubstep producer whose real-world
alter ego is known by maybe a half-dozen people), but the cult of
personality has found its way into techno, creating stars out of
nerds and legends of geeks.
Green Velvet is one of the largest personalities in the world of
techno, generating hits that work in both underground and mainstream
contexts. After starting with house, he rose to fame as a neon-haired
electro punk, creating timeless testaments to hedonistic excess, odes
to booze, pills, and partying. Those tracks mark a stark contrast from
his conservative religious lifestyle of the last few years.
The shift away from hard partying is worth exploring, but Green
Velvet (born Curtis Jones) has developed his infamy without consenting
to interviews or revealing much about himself. Here are some of the
facts: Jones left his postgrad chemical-engineering studies at Berkeley
for the world of music in the early ’90s after treating music as his
hobby on cheap equipment. In 1993, he created Relief Records as an
outlet for his techier output and adopted the Green Velvet moniker.
That’s about it.
Over the last decade, Green Velvet has released a steady stream of
classics. His songs are immediately recognizable and exude the Green
Velvet personality, if not Jones’s. Tracks about aliens, drugs, and
the clichés of raving would be dismissed as novelty under
weaker hands, but Green Velvet manages to blend the funkiness of Prince
and the bombast of Nitzer Ebb into a sound that bucks trends and jacks
bodies.
Green Velvet’s last Seattle appearance at the 2006 Decibel Festival
was listed as a DJ performance. Midway through the set, Jones then
picked up the mic, augmenting his instrumentals with live vocals. At
that point, the differences between a live set and DJ set disappeared
and it didn’t matter if it was Green Velvet, Cajmere (another alias),
or Curtis Jones performing. Bodies bobbed and danced, but attention was
squarely focused on the man onstage turning Neumo’s into an underground
warehouse party. Faceless producers will always have their place, but
star-powered artists like Green Velvet take techno to new heights.
Green Velvet plays Fri Nov 23 at Neumo’s (925 E Pike St,
709-9467), 8 pm, $15 adv, 21+. With Nordic Soul vs. Recess, Red Pony,
and Scott Lonheim.