electroclash
Electroclash (also known as synthcore, retro-electro, tech-pop, nouveau disco, and the new new wave) is a genre of music that fuses 1980s electro, new wave and synth-pop with 1990s techno, retro-style electropop and electronic dance music. It ...
duo from
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. Based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, the duo consisted of Debbie D. (Debbie Attias) and Daphne D. (Daphne Gomez-Mena). They were protégés of Larry Tee, and performed for his parties. Their music is an energetic, humorous and sexually explicit mix of hip hop, electro, and new wave.
History
Avenue D formed in 2001, as part of New York's electroclash scene, which also included artists such as
Fischerspooner
Fischerspooner were an electroclash duo and performance troupe formed in 1998 in Chicago after meeting in school. The name is a combination of the founders' last names, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner.
Career
Originally a duo formed by clas ...
,
Peaches
The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...
, and
Felix da Housecat
Felix da Housecat (born Felix Stallings Jr., August 25, 1971) is an American DJ and record producer, mostly known for house music and electro. Felix is regarded as a member of the second wave of Chicago house
Musical career Early life
Stall ...
. Their songs were inspired by
new wave music
New wave is a loosely defined music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock, including punk itself. La ...
and
2 Live Crew
2 Live Crew is an American hip hop group from Miami, Florida, which had its greatest commercial success from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The group's most well-known line up was composed of Luke Campbell, Fresh Kid Ice, Mr. Mixx, and ...
. Groups including W.I.T. and My Robot Friend were part of the lineup along with Avenue D in April 2003 at
Great American Music Hall
The Great American Music Hall is a concert hall in San Francisco, California. It is located on O'Farrell Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the same block as the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre. It is known for its decorative balconies ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It begins in the east at Sunset Boulevard in the Los Feliz district and proceeds to the west as a major thoroughfare through Little Armenia and Thai Town, Hollywoo ...
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singer ...
appeared onstage with Avenue D at a July 2004 party "Disgraceland" hosted by Larry Tee. They performed at clubs Wave Waikiki and Pussycat Lounge in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
Hot Dance Singles Sales
In the issue dated March 16, 1985, ''Billboard'' magazine debuted its first chart devoted exclusively to 12-inch Singles Sales. The 50-position weekly ranking joined ''Billboard''s established Club Songs chart, reduced to the same 50 positions, ...
chart. The same year, their song "Orgasmatron" was featured prominently in Eon McKai's
alt porn
Alternative porn (also known as alt porn, alternaporn, or simply alt in context), a shortening of "alternative pornography", is a subgenre of pornography that is centered around alternative subcultures, such as goths, punks, emos, scenes, ska ...
film ''Neu Wave Hookers''. The band was also politically active, and played rallies and benefits for causes such as
gay marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
.
They released six albums independently, all on their own label, Avenue Dreams. In 2004, they collaborated with
Boy George
George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singer ...
's electroclash project, The Twin, by appearing on his album '' Yum Yum'', on the track "Fire-Desire". A mash-up of the duo's song "Do I Look Like a Slut?" with The Twin's "Here Come the Girls" was also made but remained unreleased until his 2010's compilation, named "Ordinary Alien". Norwegian musician
Erlend Øye
Erlend Øye (born 21 November 1975) is a Norwegian composer, musician, producer, singer and songwriter from Bergen, best known for being one half of the indie folk duo Kings of Convenience, along with Eirik Glambek Bøe. Among other musical pro ...
included Avenue D's song "2D2F" on his installment of the '' DJ-Kicks'' compilation series, released on April 19, 2004.
On November 19, 2007, Avenue D announced on their website that they would split up. They performed two final shows in December of that year, one in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and the other in Miami. To coincide with
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, thr ...
, a triple-disc box set was released in early 2008, containing the albums ''Grade D Beef'' (a re-issue of their first album with an altered track presentation), ''D Sides'', and ''Totally Magic'' (a collaboration with
Phiiliip
Phiiliip (born Philip Guichard, August 24, 1980) is an American performing artist, whose music has been described as "'Lady Godiva's Operation' remixed by the Neptunes on a budget."
Life
His first album, ''Pet Cancer'', was released on American ...
), packaged in a heart-shaped box with a bonus T-shirt included.
In 2008, Debbie D. joined
Otto von Schirach
Otto von Schirach (born March 10, 1978 in Miami, Florida) is an American IDM and breakcore musician. Of Cuban and German heritage, he grew up in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami and heavily incorporates elements of Miami bass
Miami b ...
, Jose el Rey, and El Tigre to create the Miami Bass Warriors. The band released a self-titled 12" EP in July 2009. In a 2009 interview with ''
The Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.
Reception
In a review of one of their 2002 concerts in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', journalist Kelefa Sanneh commented, "The concert also featured no fewer than four white female rappers, all of whom reduced love and lust to a series of anatomical slogans. The most entertaining was Avenue D, a local duo. The two women shouted lyrics that let potential lovers know exactly what they wanted, and they wore barely-there outfits that made it easy for them to turn their demands into dance moves."Agence France-Presse gave a favorable review to a 2003 performance, "From the sharp wit, dirty lyrics and rump shaking of ''Avenue D'' and their scantily-panty-clad dancers to the twinkling light suit and homage to machines by ''My Robot Friend'', the range in style, sound and concept was enormous." In trying to describe the duo's style of music, ''
The Honolulu Advertiser
''The Honolulu Advertiser'' was a daily newspaper published in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest daily newspaper in the American state of Hawaii. It published daily with special Sunday and In ...
'' observed, "Bad girls: Every music genre has its foul-mouthed instigators. Rap had 2 Live Crew. Alt-rock had L7. Classical had Mozart. And electroclash? It has New York-based Avenue D. Imagine J.J. Fad and Stacey Q mixing up their '80s-era synth beats with profanity-laden tales of anonymous sex, promiscuous peers and, well, more anonymous sex. Daphne D and Debbie D are all that, some fluorescent pink lycra and a roll of duct tape."
In a September 2005 review of the group for '' The Herald'', Rachel Devine wrote, "Debbie D and Daphne D of Avenue D deserve to be queens of the electro scene. Not since Bananarama has a girl group exuded such effortless sexual energy in the pursuit of making music that runs the scale from the ridiculous to the sublime. Michael Hamersly of ''
The Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami. In a later piece for ''The Miami Herald'', journalist Tom Bowker described Avenue D as "the female Latina version of 2 Live Crew". A 2008 review from ''
The Morning Call
''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after '' The Express-Times''. In 2020, the newspaper permanently closed its ...
'' of Swedish recording artist
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson (born 12 June 1979), known as Robyn (), is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, record producer, and DJ. She arrived on the music scene with her 1995 debut album, ''Robyn Is Here'', which produced two ''Billboard'' Hot 100 t ...
's eponymous album compared it to the style of Avenue D., noting, "Robyn's pseudo-thug, occasionally profane lyrics hearken back to the earlier days of electroclash".
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Bootleg'' (2004)
* ''As Free as We Wanna Be'' (2006)
*''Eurawesome!'' (2006)
*''Totally Magic (2008)''
*''Grade D Beef'' (2008, recorded 2002)
*''D Sides (2008)''
Extended plays
* ''2D2F E.P.'' (2005, LP, Japan)
Box sets
* ''Totally Magic/Grade D Beef/D Sides'' (2008)
Singles
* "The Sex That I Need"/"Dancin'" (2003)
* " Do I Look Like a Slut?" (2004)
* "You Love This Ass" (2005)