Motherfucker is a 20th century party experiencing the highs and lows of a 21st century scene. Since its inception in 2000, Motherfucker has been twisting minds and bodies for over six years. In party years, that's a lifetime. NYC parties have come and gone, but there's a reason why MOTHERFUCKER is still "the club event of the millennium" (Michael Musto, The Village Voice). Up to seven times a year, you'll see every hipster, club kid, rocker and weekend warrior strap one on to make an appearance at the rock and roll free for all that is Motherfucker.
The four co-conspirators behind Motherfucker collectively represent something more sincere and risk-taking than their contemporaries. Producers Michael T, Justine D, Johnny T and Georgie Seville are the culture-clashing heroes of NYC nightlife and each has their own story to tell.
As a concept, Motherfucker is an outlet for outrageous New Yorkers. And in practice, it's THE party to be at. Everyone's invited and they all come. New parties have encroached on Motherfucker's territory, but the party has something that no other party will ever have - the perspectives of four very different New Yorkers that harnesses the collective energy of New York City. Downtown, uptown, straight, gay and off the beaten path - Motherfucker brings it all together.
Like most things in Michael T's life, Motherfucker was a controlled social experiment, one driven by the idea of bringing the disparate (and desperate) elements of New York's club cultures together. But more importantly, Michael T saw an opportunity. In 1999, he began work bringing new life to a club scene that was still in remission from its murderous and violent past. During an "enlightened" DJ set at his birthday party at the Tunnel, T was struck with an epiphany about how to turn things around. The answer was right before his eyes on the club's dance floor, where his diverse groups of friends from the city's dance, rock, club and gay scenes were all having the time of their lives-together. Sparked by this cross pollination of sounds and ideas, he saw how things should be-which is to say how Motherfucker would be.
Armed with a plan, he approached his friend and long-time industry-mate, the promoter Georgie Seville, about uniting the kids with the sounds, visions and experiences of true, unadulterated capital "R" Rock and Roll. Following his meeting with Seville, Michael T quickly enlisted kindred spirits Johnny T and a promising new talent from the club Life, Justine D, and with that, the team was united.
Since the summer of 2000, all four original partners have remained the producers and promoters of the party, with Michael T and Justine D doing double timeby adding their remarkable talents behind the turntables to DJ its ever-packed mainfloor. While others rely on cheeky celebrity DJs to attract a crowd, Justine and Michael, who are now celebrities in their own right, have proven that they have what it takes to bring in the crowds. Together, the two provide a soundtrack to all that Motherfucker represents-the classic bumping with the new to create a past-future hybrid. It's Bowie and Bloc Party, ESG and the DFA.
MOTHERFUCKER, which was named and given its first green light by the legendary Chi Chi Valenti, was born out of the now passed Mother nightclub. Like many of Mother's children, she has moved on and grown up. The semi-underground event has moved around to many of New York's downtown venues including the Roxy, Centrofly, Discotheque, Downtime, Spirit and Avalon.
Motherfucker occurs on select holiday weekends around 7 times per year at a forever-changing series of venues (it keeps the kids guessing and the party fresh). Recent MOTHERFUCKERs have featured venue-bursting 2000 plus headcounts with all of New York's rock glitterati lined up around the block just to rub elbows with rock stars, models, celebrities, punks and the like.
Like any good story, Motherfucker's features an all-star cast of characters who each add their own individual talents, tastes and homespun flavor to the mix. Over the years of their working together, they've found a mutual admiration for each other that can't be described. Each brings not only their badass rock and roll sensibilities, but also a professionalism deeply sought after in today's New York City. Amid the Party Wars, Cabaret Laws, Smoking Ban and Mayor Bloomberg's general disdain for the Nightlife industry, they somehow do the impossible, time and time again.
Before they came together, each Mofo was a respected member of the New York music community in their own right. Michael T, Mr. Glam, has been a nighttime fixture in the club scene for over a decade. Whether he was promoting, spinning records or hosting, T's always been at the center of the most outrageous and wildly successful parties Manhattan has offered. He was throwing parties at the Pyramid on Avenue A back in '93 and hosted the infamous Rock & Roll parties at Webster Hall from '94 to '96, but it was, Heroes, the monthly New Romantic party held at the club Mother from 1997 to 2000 that inspired the birth of Motherfucker.
Through the '90s, Michael T's parties were helping turn the gay scene and its Chelsea-boy past ("with those terrible Celine Dion remixes," he says) on to something much more substantial, universal and yes, sexy--real Rock and Roll music. Thanks to his work with the rest of the Motherfucker team, people now take this cross pollination for granted, but when T first brought gay aesthetics to the straight rock crowds, the two scenes were very segregated - a far cry from the mixed crowds who go wild at each and every Motherfucker.
While Michael T is the founder (Justine refers to him as "Mother"), the rest of the Mofos have been just as instrumental in shaping the party's success.
D's referential nature not only expresses her respect for Michael, but her praise of music history. The downtown icon, who doubles as a musical encyclopedia, dreams of orating on the history of American music. From Bitches Brew to Day Dream Nation to Blank Wave Arcade -- she knows it all, as her wildly diverse DJ sets illustrate. Her early claim to fame was Nick Marc's Tiswas party at Don Hill's. It was at that now-legendary spot that Michael T first saw her spin and asked her to be a Motherfucker. Justine's the 'scenester' of the group - but she'd rather listen to John Coltrane's "Blue Train" in the comfort of her own home than see the sunrise after a long night out on the town. Besides which, that's Johhny T's job.
Johnny T is notorious for having the best rock and roll bars in town and counts LES landmarks Black and White and Niagra as well as West Side hostpot Movida in his list of current ventures. Sit with him for five minutes and you'll realize he's got a million things to tell you about all the wild things he encounters during a "normal" work week. In addition to his impressive resume as a nightclub owner and talent buyer, Johnny has also made a name for himself as a musician through his work drumming for the venerable rock group Clowns for Progress. Most recently, Johnny has been playing drums for his longtime friend Ryan Adams and is currently working on opening up a new live music venue later this spring with Adams and Queens Of The Stone Age front man Josh Homme. There's always lots of action surrounding Johnny, but to him, it's all just part of the job of being a full time rock and roller.
Georgie, a former member of DGeneration and Sticky and the current General Manager of LES hotspot The Delancey, spends half his time in Miami, where he's preparing his new club Studio A, where Motherfucker will soon be making its Floridian debut. Prior to his joining Motherfucker, Seville was instrumental in bringing notoriously lively parties such as Glam 2000 at La Nouvelle Justine and the On Party at the club Life to the unsuspecting masses. Nowadays, when he's not running the clubs, Seville is playing in them with his band the DT's.
For those not fortunate enough to experience it firsthand, influential publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, Urb, Blackbook, NME, i-D and Time Out have all reported on the crazed goings on that regularly occur at Motherfucker. And since its promoters are the local kids done good, NYC media staples - from the Village Voice to New York Magazine to Paper - have all sang the party's praises. Of course Motherfucker has landed plenty of Page 6 items - where else would gossip columnists go to get their stories on a Motherfucker weekend?
Since its inception in 2000, the Motherfucker massive has grown from attracting crowds of 400 to 3000 and earned a rep for hosting some of the city's most buzzed-about live performances. Over the course of its now-storied history, MOTHERFUCKER has showcased rock music's most exciting acts including Bloc Party, ESG, The Juan Maclean, Andrew WK, The Rapture, !!!, Radio 4 and The Bravery to name a few.
On their 2nd year anniversary, Motherfucker booked their first international act, the awe-inducing party starter Andrew WK. Later that same year, dance floor renegades The Rapture rocked the Motherfucker stage on Labor Day 2002 and performed before 1,500 people - including Debbie Harry and a who's who of downtown celebs. And don't even get us started about when NYC dance rock legends ESG performed their first show in over fifteen years at Motherfucker. Needless to say, Motherfucker is always the hottest ticket in town every time it opens its doors - provided you can get in.
As Theo from the Lunachicks once said, "You know Motherfucker - it's all about the line." Michael T and Justine can go on for hours about when the Rapture performed and the line rapped around nearly 4 blocks. Or during Easter Weekend 2003, Justine D graced the cover of Time Out NY that week and over 1300 attendees packed into the 700 capacity Downtimeto take part in the dance floor shaking action. And then there's that time when Radio 4 took the stage in the middle of a blizzard on Presidents Day 2003 and the list of attendees was still over 700 strong.
Throughout all of this insanity, the kids keep coming back time and time again. This past Halloween, the Roxy shut down just before the party was about to begin. But that wasn't going to spoil the night. Within an hour, the team moved their party to the Delancey and everyone came. When it's a Motherfucker night, everyone keeps coming back - even the cops! The NYPD came to the Niagra in 2001, Club Shelter in 2002, Downtime in 2003 and Roxy in 2005. You know it's a party when the boys in blue show up to take part in the action.
And who can blame them? You see everyone from James Murphy to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner to Carlos D and Interpol to Jesse Malin at Motherfucker. It's the party where the celebs are the regulars and the regulars are dolled up to the nines, looking fab and famous. It's the party where parallel worlds meet and swap ideas and drinks and as the night goes on, telephone numbers and kisses. And let's not forget the all star line up of gay icons who have continually partnered (yar har) with Motherfucker over the years as hosts and performers to add their fabulousness to the mix: Chi Chi Valentine, Amanda Lepore, Paris Is Burning's Willi Ninja and the House of Ninja and of course, the party's original host, Misstress Formika. As Formika often proclaimed to the motley crew, "you wanted it and you got it." Well, they did and they loved it.
Like any generational story, Motherfucker is a mix of youth, politics, sex and rock and roll - all set to the ballet that is MOTHERFUCKER. True, the mainstream has tried to co-opt this multi-hued culture and imitate the seedy past it once despised, but none of that matters. Motherfucker and the underground have moved on.
History has proven that reactionaries never accomplish their goal, they merely point out a problem and rage against it. They exist without a past to draw from or a future to look forward.
Meanwhile, the true rebels and the Motherfuckers of the world progress and enjoy the succulent fruits of their cultural undertaking. They drink and dance. They love their misfit parents and revel in being their children. Born out of the long lineage of New York cultural institutions that run from Studio 54 to the Mudd Club to Squeezebox to Green Door, MOTHERFUCKER is that child. They've seized the day so we can love the night.
So, what's on the horizon for the children of the revolution you ask? Not television or radio, but the motherfucker of all media-FILM, baby! A documentary on Motherfucker is in production, with music video director David Casey at the helm. Obviously this beautiful and talented assortment of characters needed to have everyone (and their mothers, fuckers!) know about them, so Casey took it upon himself to get the job done. He says, "the goers of Motherfucker are of a lost generation - mixed in art, sex, race media. As they come to symbolize everything before them - they in turn desecrate it. The promoters and artists behind Motherfucker aren't the epitome of this idea, but rather the exception to it. They own their title, motherfuckers, but in all caps: MOTHERFUCKERS and everything after them admonishes that."
Prior to this reveling in subversion, Casey worked on commercial film projects for clients such as MTV, ESPN, the Sterling Group and Deutsch Marketing. Casey has also had the privilege of working with the independent film studio Sasson Pictures as an editor and soundtrack curator. Through his various connections in the music industry, the longtime downtown mover and shaker has worked with marquee independent rock groups as The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo and Interpol.
And since Motherfucker is all about sound and vision, a companion soundtrack and score to the film featuring the artists the Motherfuckers spin, listen, know or have featured at past parties is also in the works.
With everything moving at a New York pace, America had better get ready for the Motherfucker tour that's Casey's production company, the Great American Desert will be producing. That's right—Casey and co are going to take this whole shebang trans-national (it wouldn't be Motherfucker if it wasn't trans now would it?). Following the launch of the film, Casey will assemble a cast of musicians and other notables from the MOTHERFUCKER crew and bring them to unsuspecting towns and colleges across the USA, with a screening of the film and Q and A with its cast to follow the screening.
So yes, the underground essence of the city and its most fabulous subversives is being filmed and soundtracked and it's coming straight to your door. Mothers, fathers, lock your doors-Motherfucker is coming for your children.