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| Andrew Andrew > iParty with iPods Words by Chris Mace > Image by 2nd Impressions Andrew Andrew met three years ago while on vacation in Disney World in front of Tomorrowland's Carousal of Progress when Andrew asked Andrew "IBM or Mac?" The strangely analog, highly digital "interventionalists," (aka, jesters) eat the same foods, wear the same clothes and finish each other's sentences. As DJ Andrew Andrew they cue up a weekly iPod programming party at APT, an upscale lounge in NYC's Meat Packing District where revelers pull a number from a deli-style dispenser and wait to play a seven-minute set, fading between two 5GB iPods (they've expanded Beck's play-list) patched into a two-channel mixer. In front, a large digital clock ticks off the remaining seconds as if the whole set-up were a time bomb. "We're going about our career as if watching it on an episode of VH1's Behind the Music," said Andrew, talking over a song, before the other added, "At this stage in the evolution of media and communication, it's difficult for anybody, not just us, to escape the notion that you are constructing the movie of your own life." Well, no doubt that feeling is heightened after appearing in the NY Times and Wired, and as they continue to get more media attention. Their VH1 episode would have to cover all the "divisions" of their company, such as Curatorial Services (a recent show was "The Viewer's Choice: One Gallery, Eleven Artists, Thirty Days," an exhibition inspired by the Survivor TV series; patrons voted to eliminate one art object each week, winning the finalist a solo show) and 2nd Impressions, their fashion design division (just pin on a "Respect Me," or, "Respecter Moi" label to personalize a garment). However, the episode would not include the past, "the time before becoming Andrew Andrew" (I had to sign a nondisclosure agreement promising I wouldn't reveal anything about this strange double name). Introducing a girl in a retro-80s chiffon top to iPod DJing, they looked like B.F. Skinner clones performing a psychological experiment, right down to the matching lab coats, pens in their front pockets and thick black frames. As the inductee went from Men at Work to Neneh Cherry, a raucous girls-night-out enveloped them like an amoebae and Andrew Andrew seemed, if not surprised, then amused with the test results. The room continued to fill with thrift store-clad East Village types and assorted Euros; one guy looked like Barry White from an album cover, while another was a younger version of the Dali Lama minus the robe and reincarnated as a graphic designer. With all the 80s synth-pop, it was impossible not to think of the scene in Weird Science after Gary and Wyatt created Lisa (Kelly LeBrock) with their computer and she made them throw that huge house party.
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Andrew came by, clipboard in hand: my turn. I led with DJ Assault, moved through The Dead, the Fall, Souxie and the Banshees and ended with Snoop Dog so as not to draw the ire of the girls-night-out who had requested Beautiful several times during my set. At least that last song received cheers. They also DJ sets in the "Word" style, composed of songs with a designated word in the lyrics, song title or artist name. When they opened for Chicks on Speed at Irving Plaza, the word was "speed," resulting in an eclectic mix. Or, for another gig in the Neiman Marcus shoe show room, they played an entire 45-minute set of cover tunes of These Boots are Made for Walk'in. When I rang the other day for conference call, they were meeting with Commes de Garcons. I called back and they were ordering stir-fry. After that, it was a photo-shoot with the clothing company, Theory. I finally got them at home in Queens and asked about the "iMac cozy" offered through their Advanced Settings division: "It's functional but it has to do with the fact that the iMac is no longer aesthetically at the forefront, so this helps you cover it up and make it look contemporary until it becomes back into vogue, becomes retro, becomes cool again." They also have one for the VW Beetle. But they wanted me to ask them for their opinion of Apple's new $.99 iPod music store, as if they had anticipated the question from MacDirectory and were waiting with the answer. It was a set-up: my dutiful question was met by silence until one of them finally chimed in: "eh . . . it's okay." The other Andrew was ready with a non-sequitor: "Do you drink Pepsi, or Coke?" They were excited about a recent DJ/brainstorming gig with Pepsi in which an executive implied that Pepsi is looking down the road whereas Coke is looking in the rearview mirror. It was a question of "tradition vs. innovation," and indicative of the oppositional meanings tied up in brand-identities, like the question of IBM vs. Mac, and at the forefront of their artistic agenda. They want to offer a fresh perspective, or to "intervene," and force us to have a revelation by catching us off guard. Andrew explained further: "I think what we're getting down to is that there're two kinds of people in the world: those people who think that the world can be divided into two kinds of people, and then there's everybody else." www.andrewandrew.org | |
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