Kiss & Tell Guest DJ: Veronica Vasicka was born in NYC to an Uruguayan mother and Czech father. From an early age, she had a passion for music and photography. She studied photography at RISD and later co-founded
East Village Radio.

Inspired by all the music she gathered for her weekly 2 hour show, she launched the Minimal Wave label in 2005. Specializing in obscure electronic gems, she loves old new wave, italo and house music. She aims to bring rare recordings to the public via Minimal Wave, as well as her sublabel Cititrax, which features newer bands and classic house reissues.

She hosts a weekly radio show on East Village Radio (Sundays 6:00-8:00PM EST), and also DJs bimonthly in various clubs around NYC. She records her own music under the name 2VM, a new wave collaboration with the electronic artist Marc Houle.

Currently, she's working on a collaborative release with Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw Records. The release is a compilation of essential Minimal Wave, "The Minimal Wave Tapes: Volume 1" and will be out in January 2010.

Kiss & Tell Resident DJ: Bethany Benzur
Bethany Benzur is our resident disco encyclopedia and vinyl purist from Georgia. Recently emigrating to the Big Apple, Bethany has been ruling the dancefloor at Kiss & Tell parties with her Southern charm. The DJ nerds are regularly awed by her selections, and she joins us each month to warm you up with her mix of raunchy electro, glamorous dark disco, and soulful street funk. She is sometimes joined behind the decks by her husband (and italo disco nerd) Gabe.

Kiss & Tell Hostess, Photographer, Designer: Seze Devres started Kiss & Tell as an extention of her raunchy knitting circle at Trash Bar in Williamsburg on December 7, 2005. At first only a few people showed up to her new party. However wiith a lot of help, support, and encouragement from her friends the party has become its own little beast. When she is is not dreaming up crazy themes and guests for Kiss & Tell she is a full time artist, photographer, designer and curator.

www.seze.net
www.sdphotography.net

Kiss & Tell Hostess: Deanna Asta met Seze, her fellow lady of the nightlife, a few years ago at The Bunker and they bonded instantly. Seze asked Deanna to help co-host Kiss & Tell once it moved to Rose Bar and she happily obliged. Deanna always shows up to Kiss & Tell with a bag full of tricks. She is our decorating goddess and makes sure everyone at the party is looking great and having a good time. She somehow convinced every guest to wear fake moustaches at the French pop party, and she dragged a vintage Nordic Track machine to the aerobics party! She holds a degree in design and over the years she has art directed/managed many design events and parties in NYC through her previous employment with Core77.com. When she's not enjoying the nightlife she's busy earning her second degree in Psychiatric Nursing.

Special thanks to Beyond Booking for support and promotion.

Time Out New York
Issue 740 : Dec 3–9, 2009 Clubs

A synth-obsessed label turns four
Minimal Wave celebrates a birthday at Kiss & Tell.
By Bruce Tantum

Given the passage of time, childhood obsessions almost always fade. A fascination with dinosaurs is reduced to a few plastic brontos on a high-schooler’s bureau; a prized collection of seashells morphs into a box of de facto paperweights and ashtrays. Occasionally, a youthful infatuation leads to something more—be it a lasting hobby, a meaningful career or, just maybe, a very cool, highly respected record label that’s celebrating its fourth birthday. In this case, that label is Minimal Wave, devoted to releasing obscure, largely European synth music produced from the late ’70s through the mid-’80s. Founder Veronica Vasicka is celebrating with a DJ set at this month’s Kiss & Tell affair.

“Do you remember WLIR?” Vasicka asks, referring to the beloved Long Island radio station that was a lifeline to many lonely new-wave fans throughout the ’80s. “When I was in seventh grade, I used to record mixtapes off of that station. I had a mixtape from every single month for a long time, all marked ‘May 1986,’ ‘June 1987’ or whatever. That station actually played fairly obvious stuff, but it led me to find out more about these bands. And just the sound of those bands really intrigued me.”

Unlike most tweenage romances, Vasicka’s affair has blossomed. Its consummation began with the launch of East Village Radio in 2003, when Vasicka, the online station’s original program director, hosted Minimal-Electronik Plus. Around the same time, she was searching for a name for a website to serve as a clearinghouse for her favored sound—obscure, spare and often dark, with drum machines, sequenced synth lines and deadpan vocals figuring predominantly. “I had this collection of Dutch magazines from the early ’80s, and they kept using the terms minimal electronics, new wave, coldwave and a bunch of others. I kind of thought there should be a term that covers all this music, and I thought minimal wave could be it. When I registered the website, I was able to register the name.” The site, minimal-wave.org, now serves as both a scene forum and the label’s online.

One thing led to another. “Through the radio show, I was getting sent all this music that had only come out on tape and had never really been released,” Vasicka recalls. “I would play an artist; they would google themselves, see that I had played their song, and then they’d write to me. And I would always tell them, ‘Well, if you have more tracks, send them my way!’ It turned out these people had lots of tracks, most of which had never been released.” Minimal Wave, the label, was born, with its sublabel, Cititrax, releasing newer music and some killer house material. Vasika’s East Village Radio show has been rechristened Minimal Wave as well.

The Minimal Wave story, it seems, is just beginning. Peanut Butter Wolf, the CEO of the esteemed, funk-oriented Stones Throw label, is a fan—a big fan. “Apparently, he had been buying one of each of the label’s releases,” Vasicka says, “and one day he just got in touch with me and said, ‘I really like this stuff. Let’s work on a compilation.’ I was like, ‘Um, sure!’ So Stones Throw is doing a sort of best-of anthology of the label’s releases, which should be coming out as a CD, double LP and digitally in January.”

The moral: Kids, hold on to those dinosaur models, seashells—and mixtapes.

Minimal Wave’s Veronica Vasicka spins at Kiss & Tell Wed 9. Minimal Wave airs live at eastvillageradio.com on Sundays 6–10pm.

source