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Fasten on your piercings and dance

By Jules Quartly
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jun 20, 2003, Page 17

Eyecandy on offer at Texhound. PHOTO COURTESY OF TEXHOUND

In these timid times of plush lounges and multimillion dollar bar makeovers it's refreshing to hear of a place that boasts about its sound system and music rather than its decor.

A club that prides itself on being underground, just when it became unfashionable, and has been packing them in every weekend for the past five years.

So, pin on your piercings, your Alberts, your eyebrow rings, tongue rings, plugs, eyelets, labrets, or navel rings and and get in for NT$300 at TeXound tonight. Otherwise, pay NT$500 for the varnished sounds of DJs Victor, Tiger and Stone in the main room, or Blueman in the X-bar -- and stare politely.

TeXound was first opened by A-chi and DJ Tiger on Nanjing East Road and has been closed many times since. Not for dull reasons, like re-modeling, but for fun reasons, like in June last year, when Hong Kong pop star William So (蘇永康) got caught with drugs while enjoying himself too much.

The resultant media rage in June last year made things uncomfortable for a while and TeXound did one of its familiar dying swan acts and closed, but re-emerged on Valentine's Day this year, intact. There were rumors that the ownership of the club had changed.

"That's a load of crap," said Jimmy Chen, the DJ and TeXound promoter. "Somebody always says that, but actually it's the same owners since it first opened in 1988, only now we've got a license."

Club licenses are rare in Taipei. Until recently, 2nd Floor claimed to be the only club in Taipei with a dance and liquor license. Most clubs and pubs that open until late have only restaurant licenses that allow the sale of alcohol. This gives the police powers to shut them down without too much difficulty and, not incidentally, facilitates backhanders to the same party to keep the place open.

No more, at TeXound, it seems. Which is odd, given that the club is famously gay and Taipei's governing bodies, aren't. Not only that, but TeXound is often mentioned in ecstasy-bashing articles. Yet, in a business littered with the casualties of the war on drugs, even the routine busts -- as many as two or three a night, with attendant TV camera crews -- couldn't stop TeXound.

"We're established," was Chen's first explanation as to why, among all the other clubs in Taipei, TeXound was given such a license. Then, he joked, "Alright. Money's the answer. Maybe they [the owners] threw money at the council."

In the early days, TeXound catered for the emergent dance music crowd that wanted a place that was still kicking after the other clubs had run out of steam around 4am and pretty much, anything went.

"There was room for about 700, but it got packed, over a 1,000 people, more trying to get in, so we had to move across the road," Chen said of the first TeXound. "The old TeXound was not gay at all. It was straight, gangsters and [English] teachers, foreigners, very mixed. What happened, I don't know."

"We just focus on the music and the sound. White people always say our music is the best because we concentrate on it and it's not cheesy. Other places it's the hard house or ticky techno and the R n' B and hip hop, where no-one dances."

TeXound's 10 resident DJs play progressive and tribal house and tech house. It also features foreign DJs once a month, such as Richie Hawton, Satoshi Tomiie, Tom Stephan, Paulo Mojo and Lee Burridge. It was also the Taipei stop for the UK's DJ Magazine 2002 Asian Tour.

"Our music policy is to showcase the best Western music, 'coz let's face it, that's the best there is. It's like some clubs in Taipei are 10 years behind in the early 1990s. The music just hasn't changed and the crowd ... so cheeesy. Even the big clubs are playing pop music, really," Chen said.

"And I know we have the best low bass in Taiwan, because I've worked in the business for 13 years, so I know all the other systems, in Taichung, Kaohsiung, the city. Ours is best."

As for drugs, Chen is neither proud nor apologetic. "Drugs and clubs go together, but do not equal each other."

TeXound is open every Friday and Saturday at B1, 217, Nanking E Rd., Sec 3, Taipei (台北市南京東路三段217號地下一樓). Tel (02) 2546 770 008.
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