Larry Tee

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Legendary DJ Larry Tee has many claims to fame. He co-produced the first B-52’s single, “Rock Lobster.” He established such notorious NYC club nights as Love Machine and Disco 2000. He created and nurtured the electroclash scene. Now he has a new album, Club Badd, which features appearances by Peaches (whose career he helped launch back in the heyday of electroclash), Princess Superstar and Perez Hilton—who sings about his junk on “My Penis.” That song, by the way, was released as a double-A-side single with “My Pussy,” featuring vocals from Amanda Lepore. There are other songs called “Licky” and “Clap That Ass.” You get the idea. To get you in the mood for this sexed-up opus, Mr. Tee has put together a free downloadable hour-long mix tape for us as part of our M*sic To F*ck To series. PLAYBOY: Is this a sex record, or a record about sex?
TEE: It’s a sex record about the Internet. Half of it’s about sex acts and the rest is about sexual parts of the body. If you’re going to have sex, the net plays a big role in hooking people up. And of course people look at sex online, too. I found my collaborators via the Internet, too.

PLAYBOY: How did Perez Hilton get involved?
TEE: Perez contacted me. He wanted to put my song “My Pussy” on his site. Then he said, “Hey why don’t we do a song together?” When it came to working on it, he was imitating Amanda Lepore, saying “my pussy, my pussy.” I said, Why don’t you try “my penis?” There are phonetic similarities between the two if not physical ones.

PLAYBOY: Did this start out as a concept album?
TEE: I wasn’t even setting out to make an album, I was just putting together sexier tracks for my DJ sets. I needed sexier songs. Once I got started, I wanted this record to sound as twisted as the concept. If you do leftfield stuff, you can end up with a thin pudding. So I combined these ideas and stories with big sounds that make me go, ‘Whoa, dude!’ It’s more challenging, but it’s what makes it work. It’s what keeps it from being just another dance album.

PLAYBOY: What does Agyness Deyn think of the song you wrote about her on Club Badd?
TEE: She turned out to be my neighbor. She moved into my building after I wrote the song. When I first saw her it was like running into an ex when you’re heading into a hotel with a hooker. But really it’s a fan song.

PLAYBOY: Even though you share a lot of your music for free via the web, you copyrighted the term “electroclash” and seem touchy about people using it. How do you square those two positions?
TEE: As for putting free music out, that phenomenon has created all these cool pockets everywhere in the world. Thanks to music blogs, you can go to clubs in the middle of nowhere and hear nothing but songs that aren’t yet out. Deejays are the new A&R guys. The whole thing is so much more democratic. It only bothers me when people are trying to make money from electroclash. For instance, Apple’s using the word “electroclash” in the new version of Logic. They could have just called it “electro.” I don’t think they’d like it if I named my album “iPod.” They own the music business now—Apple needs a smackdown. It’s official, I’m throwing down the gauntlet right here on Playboy.com: Apple, don’t fuck with Larry Tee, you motherfuckers.