I use this blog also to give you some background info about Labelfucker Parties or to respond to comments and criticism. Man, I could write an article a day, but then I’d probably considered a blog spammer, ha ha. OK seriously though. I had dinner with 2 friends last night and they are LF members as well. One of them since the beginning, the penthouse times.
You are overdoing it it says Anne. Really?, I ask. What do you mean? I feel like I am getting an email a day from you. Its getting too much. Hm, I heard that one before and I am constantly trying to improve the communication channels to avoid this. I’m sending one mail per week, I reply. Unless there is a mistake or a change. The other friend (also Anne), says. I signed up for the house parties and I only want information for them. Are you getting a mail a week?, I ask back. Yes, she nods. Probably you are signed up for the news list then. You can just unsubscribe from that and you will still get the invitations to the house parties (every 3 months or so).
And what about the communities? You mean Facebook, I ask? Since a few weeks I am not sending invitations to my address book anymore. You have to be a member of the Labelfucker group to receive these event invitations. Just sign off from the group, there is nothing else going on, other than the event invitations anyway. I also rarely don’t send invitations to my address book at Small World anymore. Their event tool is fucked and I keep asking them for 4 weeks to repair it. It just doesn’t accept Moscow events and it doesn’t show them in the event calendar and city guide. Sometimes (like for the member meeting), I have to send it to my address book (even though there are a lot of people who are not from Moscow) to get the word out, but even there I post events with no address book invitations to avoid bothering you.
Well, you should do less parties!, Anne says. Really? I’d like too, actually. I am getting kind of tired hanging out at Wall Street Bar every Friday, I reply. The thing is, that I never wanted to do weekly parties and I actually didn’t think it would work. The WSB people talked me into trying it and it actually became a success. Wall Street Bar is pretty full with our people every Friday night and they are having a good time. There is even a core group of (LF) people, that comes every Friday! So what should I do now? Stop the running train? I thought it would not work, but it did. Now I have the feeling that a lot of people expect me to continue, although others get bothered by it and my mails. I guess that is why I made separate email lists. You just have to unsubscribe, if it bothers you, I tell Anne.
Hm, Labelfucker is not underground anymore, says the other Anne. It was never really underground, I reply. OK, we did a few parties in private locations, but we never had a creative or sub-culture crowd. From the beginning we had a 30 something “normal” crowd and that is what I wanted. You are complaining that I am not doing so many house parties anymore, but do you have an idea how much work that is? How much money and time we need to invest each time? Its also pretty risky. We invest up to 10 000 EUR into a party and what happens, if something goes wrong? I can’t do parties in Zak and Ja’baghs loft anymore, because the place is just too small. I need a certain infrastructure. A big enough entry, a coat check, safety exits (in case of a fire etc), enough toilets and so on. Its just easier for me to make parties in bars and clubs, because they have everything we need. Of course the drinks are more expensive there and its not that cool, but the core values are still there. Nice people and good music. Recently I also tried doing more parties in places which usually have face control and we are going around that with our password. I had offers of clubs (eg Most) to do parties there and at the end it didn’t work out, because they wanted to face control our crowd and I said, if its Labelfuckers and they have the password, they get in. Unless they are shitfaced or totally off.
I am open for discussion. Let me know what you think. We can stop all bar and club gigs and only do a house party every 3 to 6 months. Fine with me. I really enjoy doing Labelfucker and organizing this. My main motivation is that I am meeting so many (nice) people. Of course (its no secret), I make a bit f money with it as well, but $300 per evening is not much, considering the time I put into it, right? This is not a cash cow business and unless I make it really commercial it will never be.
So if I understand right, Labelfucker got too successful and there are too many people now?, Anne asks. In a way yes. Even if I will only send out 150 invitations the word will go around and I will still get 400 party guests. So why don’t you start a new party with less people? The core crowd. Well, how would I choose them? Based on what? I know and like most of the people on this list. I am friends with a lot of them. Choose based on what kind of music people like. Or how cool they are, she says. Ah, so how would you feel, if you get to know about a party of mine. I invited only people I consider “cool”, but you are not on it (for whatever reason). Its sort of a face control, isn’t it? That is exactly the opposite of what Labelfucker is about. I am trying to offer an alternative to Moscow’s usual nightlife for people like you and me. Of course I have to be selective. I can’t have some hooligans from the suburbs on my parties. I don’t want whores neither, but this email list thing works pretty well so far.
As of today, I have a few items in my idea book. One is a “take over party”, where we’ll make a deal (and the crisis supports that idea) with one of the posh clubs and we’ll take it over in a flash mob manner one night. We’ll replace their DJ with ours and have fun. Hopefully the regular guests catch the virus and will have fun as well. I wanted to do that with Most, but they were not courageous enough. Its a risk for them. Their regulars book tables for a lot of money and they expect a certain kind of music and party. Its what they know and what they want. I can understand the clubs, which don’t want to take a risk. So I put the idea back in my idea book, waiting for the right opportunity to come. Another thing I want to do, is taking a small bar once a month and playing new music. The music I actually like. Don’t get me wrong. I stand 100% behind the music our DJs play and I am standing behind them, but personally my range goes further. I come out of hip hop, switched to punk rock later on and today I really like the new blog house style. I am actually thinking about DJing myself again. Just waiting for the right place and time. I’d call it LAB and I’d tell people to come and check it out, but fuck off, if they don’t like it. Its going to be something I like. No matter how many people are coming, what time they are leaving, if they make enough revenue for the bar or the bar owner likes the people or the music. I am never free, there is always some restrictions and a compromise. There are always problems with these bars and clubs, even if it would be possible to make it much easier for everybody involved. As a guest you don’t see that kind of stuff. I just want you to have a good time, while I am dealing with it in the background.
So where do we go from here? I don’t know. I am trying to evolve Vibes. Its starting to bore me, so it needs some change, but the owner of WSB directs it into the wrong direction. I will definitely not do anything that I personally don’t like. I am always up for a compromise, but I don’t want to end up like anybody else (e.g. playing commercial deep house music). I will also try different new formats, if I get an opportunity. We’ll revive old formats like YUM YUM, which we will do at Club Cult once a month from May on. I am happy its happening in a location with such a long history. We are also planning a new Organique Grooves session (also once a month starting at the end of April. I also want to do a Labelnight once in a while, but its the most expensive format we run and we just can’t afford it right now, without any sponsors.
Sounds like a lot of emails coming your way, so make sure you are signed up to the right lists. I said it before, but these are the lists and how often you’ll get messages:
News & Partners - Part of our weekly newsletter with all of our events and our friends parties. We are actually working out a deal with Le Cool to get you even more interesting hand picked good events.
Weekly Invitations & LFP - This is the open list we offer on our website and its part of the weekly newsletter.
Labelfucker - This is the secret list. The signup form looks the same, but the open forms are missing this LABELFUCKER list. If you are on this list, you can get ONLY invitations to our house parties. No other communication.
Organique Grooves - I see that a lot of you are members of this list as well. We’ll only send an email to you a week before the OG party and it usually comes with the weekly newsletter. You can sign off from the weekly and still get the OG invitations, if you like.
YUM YUM - Same as for above
Labelnights - This project is on hold, until we find a sponsor or the times get better. As for invitations, its the same as for YUM YUM and OG above.
Long story short. You can unsubscribe from the weekly invitations, using the link at the bottom of the email. You will still get invitations to the other parties, and you can unsubscribe from them as well. I promise I will not send any more invitations to my address books in Facebook and ASW. You’ll have to unsubscribe from the Labelfucker group in facebook, if you don’t want to get a message from each event we create there. Sorry, we cannot select within this group. Its all or nothing.
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