TOMMIE SUNSHINE survived the glowstick-waving Midwest rave scene ofthe '90s to collaborate on tastemaking albums by electro-kitsch master Felix Da Housecat -- but he's really come into his own in the past fewyears as one of America's strongest remixers of rock records. While spinning and mixing for and alongside everyone from Arthur Baker tothe Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he's churned out dancefloor fits that brought out
Avril's inner Cybotron and the Chic side of Louis XIV. His style is aggressively simple: biggus dumbus funnus. Enemies of pleasure will not be pleased. But what use have we for them, anyway? For an encore, in 2006 he's hit the jackpot by crossing EMO with DISCO, thereby giving old people who like "real" "music" heart attacks, thereby making OTD very, very goddamn happy. (And making him a perfect match for PAPER, the only emo-disco dance night in the city, and thus the only indie-dance night in the city currently overrun by hot 18 year old mallpunk girls.) We love the conceptual brilliance -- not to mention the marketing guile -- of Tommy turning Fall Out Boy's "Dance Dance" into a bonafide dance hit, and now that he's given Panic! at the Disco a luxurious vintage-synthpop makeover that even the Faint ought to be jealous of, we can't remember what the original version of the song sounded like. Which, of course, makes him a perfect match for Paper, the hottest indie-dance night in the city.
Check it out tonight at Harpers Ferry.