EDGE Magazine
(Los Angeles, CA)

Vol. 404 - 6 January, 1999
Subject: The Velvet Mafia "We Know Where You Live"

Part camp rock band and part carnival side show, The Velvet Mafia is the '90s answer to the b-52s, offering a full-frontal assault of in-yer-face homocore party rock on their Trip Records release We Know Where You LIve.

The band's bald, cross-dressing ringmaster Dean Johnson spews original stories of gay life that is best described as Ritalin-free Dr. Seuss for adults. Johnson is backed by bassist Little Mary Feaster, cross-dressing drag king guitarist Bruno Bettelheimer (aka Susanne Hassenstein), cellist (sic) Father Josh Atkins, drummer Sailor McDrum (aka Tom McCrum), and backup singer Nurse Wanda Hill (aka Jean Walsh).

On We Know Where You Live, the band keeps a melodic dance-rock beat pumping while Johnson offers stories ranging from a danceably quirky ode to DaVinci, "Mona Lisa," to a hard-hitting look inside the mind of a junkie in "Poppies in Springtime." Things get interesting when Johnson takes an autobiographical look at past relationships in the tell-all tunes "Love Sucks," "Jersey Gigolo," and "Deli Boy."

The band addresses its do-anything approach to making it in the mainstream music biz in the hilarious "The Velvet Mafia," which finds Johnson doing a bit of scathing name-dropping: "If you wanna cross the bridge, you gotta pay the toll. If you wanna make it big, you gotta play with trolls. So pardon me whilke I go steppin' out to Fire Island with David Geffen. Outta' my way 'cause I'm goin' palin' around the Riviera with Sandy Gallin. Here I go and I'm feelin' fine strollin' down Madison Avenue with Calvin Klein... You get me 'in,' I'll be your 'friend.' I'll cringe at your touch but I'll take it in the end. Why don't you put me in the will before you die and go to hell like your friends Roy Cohn and Steve Rubell."

Ouch!

For more on The Velvet Mafia, check out www.tripnet.com.

© 1999 Trip Records, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
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