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The corporate spin >> Thievery Corporation pimp jazz (and dub) and hit the Fest decks
by CHRIS YURKIW
With little of a clubland around them, they built their own club on a piece of land somewhere between the White House and the red light district, and to fit in with the doubly shady vibe they ordered American Express cards under the name of Thievery Corporation and charged a Range Rover full of Armani suits. But here's the kicker: three years go by, Hilton and Garza get to do their own coveted Kicks mix, and it's an even more compelling comp of downtempo breaks than K&D's. Not straight outta the USA, you say?! "We get asked these types of questions about American vs European," says Rob Garza, the understated half of Thievery Corp., "and it's funny because I don't think that we're so patriotic or nationalistic like we're representing America or anything like that. I think we're just two people who really appreciate good music and I would hope that we take our influences and add something to the mixture." On that note, the Jamaican jam is the first thing that hits you on TC's '97 debut, Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi, and that first track is appropriately called "A Warning (Dub)." Hilton and Garza even work with toasters to demonstrate their dedication to the form. But they also talk a lot about bossa nova (they dedicate the album to the late Brazilian master, Antonio Carlos Jobim), a love that's worked in a lot more subtly via the pair's preference for micro sampling. Latin jazz and an (internationalist) plundering of traditional Indian sounds and '70s Italian fusak is made explicit on the DJ-Kicks set, and the more you listen to it the more it makes sense that Thievery Corporation are playing a jazz festival. Rob? "We've never been to Montreal, first of all. And we haven't been to a jazz festival either, so it'll be two new things for both of us. But we're big fans of jazz music and that has to do with a lot of our roots." True, true and true. But what about those vintage suits and razor-sharp shirts, the silk ties and hair pomade--or at least those other Euro models like the Mercedes-Benz and the Range Rover that Garza and Hilton drive, respectively? How does that shit fit with this conversational conservatism? "We run the ESL label, too," says Rob, "so those are actually company cars. They help with taxes. But it has nothing to do with image--they're just nice cars. I mean, the Mercedes is just a solid automobile. I sat in it and it felt good." Thievery Corporation play a DJ set + Mossman + Scott C at The Savoy (Metropolis) this Wednesday, July 7, Midnight, $15 |
Dub-lovin' D.C. duo Thievery Corporation got their first break back in 1996 when their single "Shaolin Satellite" made it onto Kruder & Dorfmeister's DJ-Kicks mixed album, and it was all the sweeter for Eric Hilton and Rob Garza to get the props from a sophisticated Euro model of what they were trying to design in Washington.