Friday,
September 03, 2004
By
PATRICK O'SHEA
Staff Writer
Everybody
has a dark side. West Windsor resident Polina Yakovleva
has built a 
business
around hers.
Yakovleva
is the mastermind behind the massive "Drop Dead 2" Festival
taking place this weekend in New York.Billed as the "biggest
international horror-themed music festival in the world,"
the three-day event will occupy all three floors of the famed
Knitting Factory club in downtown Manhattan.
Featuring
more than 66 bands with names such as Cult of the Psychic
Foetus, Lugosi's Morphine, the Rabies and
Malice in Leatherland, the event will showcase the
musical genres known as deathrock, grave punk, gothic, psychobilly,
monster surf, garage and, of course, horror music.
And
though it promises to be "bigger, darker and deadlier" than
last year's inaugural Drop Dead Fest - a one-day event at
the smaller CBGB's in the Bowery - Yakovleva says there's
no reason for anyone to be scared away. "Good music is good
music," says the Russian native. "I think what unifies all
of this is the horror genre, but the interesting thing about
mixing everything is that you get a wonderful mix of people.
"You
can't go to another place and see so many people with different
looks," she adds.
While
not a performer, Yakovleva does DJ death rock/psychobilly
shows - and she does look the part, with unnaturally dyed
hair and provocatively mascara-carved eyes.
She
insists, however, that she was not the "dark and mysterious
weird kid" in class when she was a student at Lawrence High
School.
"Actually,
I was more into art than music," Yakovleva notes. "My love
for music came during college and after college. I went to
college for biology, actually."
Yakovleva
got her start in concert promotions by booking acts for clubs
in New York such as the Limelight, Webster Hall and the Pyramid.
She eventually decided she could do better working on her own
and set up the NY Decay Music Production Company, producing
monthly shows in New York and Philadelphia.
Her
ongoing match-making experiment to join gothic rock music
- bands influenced by such 1980s pioneers as Bauhaus and Siouxie
and the Banshees - with what she calls "-billy" music - which
includes everything from the swing of the Stray Cats to the
camp of the Cramps - peaked with last year's Drop Dead Festival.
It drew a capacity crowd and raised the clamor for a bigger,
better event this year.
The
Knitting Factory, with a capacity of about 1,000, seemed the
perfect venue. Yakovleva had proved her promotion prowess
with the club last November by organizing a Johnny Cash/Diabetes
Association benefit with 30 bands.
That
concert, too, featured a variety of acts.
"It
was a big, big mix. Johnny Cash influenced everybody - psychobilly,
country, punk. There were some really old people in the audience
and some really young people," Yakovleva recalls. "It
was funny to see some punk rock kids checking out some of
the country acts."
Based on the success of the night, Yakovleva said the club gave
her an open invitation, saying "anything you ever want to do,
you're welcome."
And,
of course, what she most wanted to do was Drop Dead 2.
Yakovleva
said some of the acts she's most looking forward to checking
out are the reunions of two United Kingdom bands: Ausgang,
"a tremendously influential band" that has never played in
the United States, and Skeletal Family, another old-school
band featuring a female vocalist.
Also
on her must-see list are the California-based Cinema Strange
and Dead Bolt; and Speed Crazy from New Jersey.
"Speed
Crazy is an exciting psychobilly trio with male and female
singers that are local favorites," the promoter says. "People
just love them. They're amazing."
In
addition to the nonstop live music, the festival will feature
DJs from around the world, stage designs, murals, fashions,
thematic art and a movie matinee tomorrow from 2:30 to 5:30
p.m. Hosted by the New York City Horror Film Festival,
the screenings will include such silent classics as "The Cabinet
of Dr. Caligari," the original "Frankenstein" and "Nosferatu."
Looking
to the future, Yakovleva intends to keep "Drop Dead" alive.
Eventually, she envisions it becoming a traveling festival
along the lines of Ozzfest.
"There
has been a resurgence of death rock recently," says Yakovleva.
"There
are new bands heading in new directions. It's become darker
and spookier . . . and dancier."
Drop
Dead 2 Festival will be at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard
St., New York. $27.50 each day or $65 for three-day pass.
(212) 219-3132 or http://dropdeadfestival.com
