Talk to us on AIM via the screen name: DownWithGenderDown With Gender: A BiographyQ: From what did Down With Gender arise?
A: From Damascus, but not the Damascus of Oil and the Syrian Scimitar, but the Damascus of Racial Strife (see: The Washington Post: Jun 26, 2002. pg. A.24) and looming beige strip-mall construction.
-I built robots. (sez Sam)
-So did I. (sez Will)William Wooten-Janney and Samuel Hanson are (almost) Down With Gender¹. They subsisted on the income brought in by their fighting robots. But then the industry bottomed out, BattleBots went off the air, and Will and Sam were broke. These were dark daysWill worked non-stop for the oppressive NASA labor machine, failing to collect a days pay. Sam searched endlessly for a pseudo sexual release from his persistent lust for metal and destruction.
But then Sam heard Kraftwerk, and realized machines not only fought but also made music. Together Sam, Will, and Kenny produced sounds of hate and disgust (the logical extension of their ennui) from a second-hand computer and later, with their indeterminate-hand synthesizers. But suddenly, from the androgynous form of the robot came the realization of the obsolescence of gender. This epiphany affected their lives, yes, but also: their music. Hate was transformed into love, noise into melody. Dance beats, glistening textures, and pulsating pleasure coalesced with the sounds of Devo, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and Numan. Presiding was Wendy Carlos on the fulcrum of her surgery, in a moment of perfection.A New Gospel was born, and it was sung. Its song was heard from clubs in Washington, DC and Maryland, including the Electrick Maid and Velvet Lounge, and in the form of self-released compact discs, including: Down With Gender, Theres No Sex Like No Sex, and Experiments in Love. It was beautiful, and also lucrative.¹ Please note: They are not down with gender. Also: Kenneth Wright and Zach Poyatt complete Down With Gender
As we are fond of saying: you need only lose one thing in order to gain everything. (sez Will)
