Catching Up with Dance Hall Pimps
Catching Up with Dance Hall Pimps
Formed in the darkly, twisted primodial ooze better known as the Los Angeles 
underground cabaret scene in Two Thousand and Nine, the Dance Hall Pimps are a hard to classify horror inspired, genrebending show band.
Their debut Beast For Love, is a good time throw back disc focusing mostly on campy 1950’s monster shlock-horror themed songs. “Mommy Was a Zombie” and “Beast For Love” are stand out tracks. And by having a saxophone in the band to color the leads and offer a distinct warmth to the rhythm, it gives the band the feel of The Spencer Davis Group, Madness and shades of Cab Calloway.
One of the first things which should be evident when listening to the Dance Hall Pimps is the way they manage to make even the most straightforward of beats swing. It’s as though the rhythm section learned how to play before rock ever reared its head. There’s a big band swing to all of it, thankfully. This only adds to the overall playfulness of the bands approach.
DHP’s version of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side” is positively sunny. Gone is Reed’s droll delivery as the lyrics wax poetic on cross dressing hustlers and dope fiends. Lead vocalist, RJC delivers the lines with an unexpected exuberance.
If this was 1963, DHP would be the house band in a creepy beach party flick. The band scores major points by refusing to take themselves too seriously and playing retro rock like it never went out of style. Thrust Magazine was lucky enough to be able to catch up with lead vocalist and Banjo player RJC, who was good enough to share his thoughts on what it means to be a Dance Hall Pimp . . .
Watching the videos and listening to the songs, you sound like your having a good time. Are there any horror movies or books you look to for inspiration?
Thanks, that is the hook with us, we’re into horror movies and dark and twisted stuff, but always playfully and looking for a good time. Movies Yeah, we love the classic horror Carl Laemmle/Universal films. I have horror film stills and movie posters in my work room: The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, stuff like that. Those movies had style. When I was a kid in Chicago, my Mom (who also taught me about big band jazz) let me stay up late and watchCreature Features on WGN. Our song and video Beast for Love comes directly out of the big band jazz and horror movies I shared with my mom when I was little.
Is there anything that still scares you?
We’re always a little nervous when we get our Soundscan Reports… please everyone, if you haven’t already bought Beast for Love, we sure would appreciate it if you did. Think of us as a band held hostage in SAW and the only way we can survive is to convince people to buy our record.
Seriously, though? Not a big fan of spiders, creepy little bastards. Suffice it to say, the DHPs are all on team Green Goblin. But here’s what really scares me… if I let my imagination go I can totally give myself the creeps. Like this… I 
often come home late at night, long after my wife is asleep, and as I’m coming into the darkened bedroom, if I start thinking “What would I do she’s levitating above the bed or climbing wall, possessed by a demon?” And that thought grips me, and I get scared walking into my own bedroom in the dark. If the dog stirs suddenly, I go reaching for a rosary and six-gun.
Musically, DHP moves around, from punk, and roots rock to New Orleans Jazz; what music excites you the most?
The most exciting thing is finding something new in those mid-20th Century American sounds or mash-ups, something that just kills. Like recently I heard a Buster Poindexter (David Johansen) cut “Smack Dab In the Middle” that captured the horns of big band and the attitude of rock so well I again considered adding a trombone to our trumpet/sax horn section. We’re also really excited about Rock&Roll Soul. The new DHP music we will be recording next month explores a neo-soul vibe on some tracks that are really cool.
Do you have a favorite horror story or film?
Easy, The Excorcist. First, I was raised Catholic and my parents took me to see that movie in the theater when I was 12—the same age as the kid in the movie—to show me that “Evil is real.” Ha! Well it worked, though it’s probably child abuse by today’s standards. I also read the book many years later while staying in a remote mountain chalet inAspen that was previously owned by William Peter Blatty and where he wrote much of the novel—creeeeepy! What makes that story so scary, and what is necessary to make any supernatural horror story scary, is it makes you believe this could happen to you. It occurs in an environment familiar to you, and you start doubting your own perceptions after seeing the movie. That’s how a movie or a book scares you long after it’s over.
As the band prepares to record its follow up to the well received Debut, some of the new material is moving away from the horror themes. Do you see the day when DHP no longer writes horror themed songs?
No, we’ll always come to the Monster Ball and dance on the edge of the abyss with you. It’s part of who we are. We have a songs coming up with titles like Voodoo Bar and No Survivors. But we’re about more than that, so we’re gonna be a little more personal and show some of our sunny side on upcoming tracks like Ain’t Dyin In My Sleep and Love Ain’t Just A Feelin’ and we’re gonna rock some universal themes in our signature mid-20th Century American roots style. The horror references will be in there on some tracks, though more subtle. The surf rock and New Orleans influences will be there, and we have one classic hard driving southern rock song that is just guitar, bass, drums and two-part harmony that tells the story of what happens when you let evil take over your mind. The monster always lurks within, but we can enjoy ourselves out among the merely mortal too.
If you could re-animate one band or artist for just one night to share a stage with, who would it be?
Well, we almost had that experience playing opening night at the Sunset Strip Music Festival in August. Peter Murphy (Bau Haus) and the DHPs both at the Roxy. We’re loading in as Peter is doing his sound check and we’re looking at each other like “How cool is this?!”
But in answer to your question, without hesitation, The Cramps. Their monster macabre strung-out rockabilly punk and Lux Interior’s stage presence are the primal altered states behind every sound and move the DHPs make.
The Dance hall Pimps remind you to Pimp Music Not People. Visit them at www.dancehallpimps.com
-THRUST-
This article previously appeared in www.Thrustmagazine.org
