The deep archives of disco legend and synth wizard Patrick Cowley continue to prove inspirational for Dark Entries. Cowley, who passed away from AIDS-related illness in 1982, was the multi-faceted producer behind numerous disco anthems such as Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”. Since 2009, Dark Entries has been working with Cowley’s friends and family to shed light on the lesser known facets of this singular artist’s output. This has resulted in a string of celebrated archival albums, including Catholic (featuring Jorge Socarras), School Daze, Muscle Up, Afternooners, Mechanical Fantasy Box, and Some Funkettes.
For the latest addition to this saga, White Trash Boom-Boom, Dark Entries has teamed up with The Stud to release four tracks culled from some of Cowley’s earliest rehearsal tapes. In 1972 Patrick was living in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood with Theresa McGinley and Janice Sukaitis, friends of his from New York. In 1973, Theresa and Janice formed White Trash Boom-Boom, an all-female avant-garde performance troupe. Reacting to the Angels of Light and the Cockettes, they captured the spirit of the times: camp, confrontational, and delirious. Theresa recalls, "We brewed a brand of performance that steered away from the doctrinaire and reveled in ambiguities." Patrick provided their theatrical experiments with appropriately zany musical accompaniment. Side A features two songs from the “Country and Western” skit, “Bride” and “Beer and a Pizza”, which were written by Janice and Karen Dunaway and produced by Cowley. The feminist skit tackled the issue of women’s limited life choices in society. The B-side contains “Baciami” and “Spengo la Luce”, two songs from “Goes to Little Italy”, a skit addressing Catholic expectations of female chastity, performed in 1974 on top of the bar at the Stud. These songs were lifted from an Italian folk 7” found at a thrift store, and feature “improvised” Italian. The material on Boom-Boom shows Cowley flexing his synthesizer muscles to create curiously camp genre pieces. This is an essential document of a bygone era.
White Trash Boom-Boom is limited to 330 hand-numbered copies. All songs were remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The cover was designed by Eloise Leigh, and features a photograph of the White Trash Boom-Boom skit “Goes to Little Italy”. The lithograph sleeves were printed by The Aesthetic Union. Included is an insert featuring notes from original Boom-Boom girls. The release date of Boom-Boom is timed to coincide with the opening of Queer Visions at Haight Street Art Center, an exhibition that explores the role of nightlife in queer art in San Francisco.
| Country And Western |
| A1 | Bride |
| A2 | Beer And A Pizza |
| Goes To Little Italy |
| B1 | Baciami |
| B2 | Spengo La Luce |
