Editor’s Warning: This video isn’t safe for work. But it’s Plack Blague. You knew that.
words by Chance Solem-Pfeifer
Squint, and it’s a man dancing in front of a tower of speakers in a small rehearsal space with unfinished wood for walls.
But watch the video premiere of “Boyz Club” cold, and you’re standing before the altar of Plack Blague, enveloped in strobe lights, coerced into staring bluntly into the face, chest and crotch of a figure deified by director Dustin Ferguson’s camera.
The music video was shot in the Lincoln rehearsal space Plack Blague (a.k.a. Raws Schlesinger) shares with his other band Vickers. Set to pulsating dance music, with enough ambient grime to soundtrack a haunted house rave, Schlesinger groans and growls in a voice so low and digitally affected, the words are barely audible. In the 14-year career of Plack Blague, which has seen Schlesinger routinely clad in his leather mask and spiked codpiece, he’s written, performed and intentionally aimed to disturb audiences in the space between a nightclub dance floor and metal shows. “Boyz Club,” for its subversive sensuality, leans toward the former.
“You know, I really consider myself to almost always be in a dancey headspace,” Schlesinger says. “Most people have no idea how much dance music I actually listen to on a daily basis. ‘Boyz Club’ is a song that’s more about sleazy eroticism and dirty sexual perversions, so it didn’t really have that sort of ‘metal’ vocal style attachment to it. I wanted it to sound more erotic and sexy than ‘scary.’”
Dustin Ferguson, whose previous music video work includes groups such as Egyptian Lover, KMFDM and Lords of Acid, visually frames Plack Blague absolutely in line with the performance philosophy Schlesinger has been cultivating behind the mask. If you’re going to look away, you might as well not be at the show.
“Plack Blague is all about control and being the dominant figure in the room,” he says. “I’m basically forcing the viewer to stare at me whether they want to or not. That power of control is sexy to me, which brings even more confidence to the live aspect of Plack Blague. I want to turn you on and I want to freak people out, as well, but I also want people to have a good time.”
“Boyz Club” will be featured on the Plack Blague’s upcoming 7-inch, his first vinyl effort, called Leather Band. It will be released on the Los Angeles label, Cubicle Records. Watch the exclusive premiere of the “Boyz Club” music video below:
Chance Solem-Pfeifer is Hear Nebraska’s managing editor. Reach him at chancesp@hearnebraska.org.