If you’re trying to kick coffee by swapping one jolt for another, there’s a song for that. The only problem is that it’s kind of about coffee.
It’s “The Percolator,” one of the most energizing tunes to ever come bubbling out of clubland, a quirky sequence of syncopated electronic gurgles designed to sound like a frothing java machine. Over this classic house beat, a deadpan voice repeatedly insists, “It’s time for the percolator ... It’s time for the percolator ...” And that voice is never wrong. It is always time for the percolator.
It’s the handiwork of Curtis Alan Jones, the pioneering Chicago house and techno producer who first dropped “The Percolator” — also known as “Coffee Pot (It’s Time for the Percolator)” or just plain old “Percolator” — back in 1992 under the alias “Cajmere.”
Today, Jones does most of his work as Green Velvet, and has garnished a few other stripped-down dance tracks with eccentric lyrics about domestic technology. There’s 1997’s “Answering Machine,” which matches a thudding kick drum with swatches of bad news left after the sound of the tone. And jump ahead to 2013’s “Bigger Than Prince,” and you’ll hear Jones singing about trash-talkers who air their dirty laundry on YouTube.
This music is obviously intended to make us dance, but if “The Percolator” can break a caffeine habit, who’s to say that tomorrow’s Green Velvet songs won’t help cure us of our technology addictions, too?
With Tittsworth and Philip Goyette on Saturday at U Street Music Hall. Show starts at 10:30 p.m. 202-588-1889. www.ustreetmusichall.com. $18.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLumw9Jonqihnpx6sMHTZp6uoZSafLi8jmtnam1fZYRwf49onqudlaN6t7HLr5ytq12ovLa6w2agrGWjqbatuIypnKubn6GutbXNoGY%3D