NEW YORK -- With the founding of Rock & Roll Fag Bar over 10 years ago, Dean Johnson created a venue which quickly took hold and helped to define the growing East Village scene of the 80's. It's only fitting, then, that Johnson leads his band The Velvet Mafia onto the stage for the release of their debut album "We Know Where You Live" during the "Rock & Roll Fag Bar Reunion Party." A much-lauded event, the show will take place Wednesday, May 27th at Lust for Life in New York City.

The Freak Shows of days gone by may never return as we knew them, but The Velvet Mafia weaves a circus side-show mystique, conjuring flashbacks of Siamese twins, Bearded ladies and unicorns that look mysteriously like goats.

Refugee of the 80's Island Records act Dean and the Weenies, Dean Johnson (New York's reigning six-foot-six-inch bald drag queen who also spewed his attention-grabbing tune "Fuck You" in the film Mondo New York) plays ringmaster to his caustically catchy clan of degenerates and outcasts in a full frontal assault on 'normal' America. "We Know Where You Live" spews stories of queer life in their own unique feisty and poignant trash-rock style - a Ritalin-free Dr. Seuss for adults.

As Head Mistress to his seven-member menagerie, Johnson is joined by Little Mary Feaster (on permanent suspension from St. Ignatius School for Girls) on Bass and background vocals, guitarist in boy-drag the ever-evasive Bruno Bettelheimer (aka Susanne Hassenstein), cellist from Hell Satan (aka Sandy Spreitz), Holy Jazz-man and sexy-saxist Father Josh Atkins, nautical percussionist and background vocalist Sailor McDrum (aka Tom McCrum), and the deceptively friendly and always firm-handed Nurse Wanda Hill (aka Jean Walsh). A true cacophony of irreverence which creates a recipe for a twisted in-your-face queerer-than-thou delivery that slams your brain and leaves you flying well above the carnival world below, all anchors of comfort joyously tossed aside.

The Velvet Mafia is scheduled to take the stage at Midnight. Lust for Life is located at 158 Bleecker St.

Trip Records, a nationally distributed independent label of hard-hitting and Queer music and musical contortionists of all disciplines, leads this curiously alluring circus parade from the tent and into your homes from their ticket stand-cum-headquarters recently relocated from the mad streets of New York City to milder Maine.

+ Streaming Audio Soundbytes, lyrics and more can be found on the internet at http://www.tripnet.com/trip/velvet/