Brothers, Sisters, Can't You See? The Future's Owned by R.J. Reynolds

Throwing a fit when one doesn't get a front row seat at a fashion show is the kind of behavior that we commonly associate with royalty, celebrities, socialites, and Lenny Kravitz. But in a world where an English Prince is actually trying to fight in Iraq and Sean fucking Penn is apparently the most charismatic anti-war spokesperson that the left can drag in front of a television screen, it probably makes sense that Geordon Nicol, one of the founding members of New York's (in)famous DJ trio Misshapes, demanded the best seats in the house at a recent G Star fashion show and threatened to leave if he didn't get his way. After all, in the eyes of Madison Avenue, Nicol is one of the hippest people on the planet, and he seems to be well aware of it.

And really, why shouldn't he have a little attitude? Think about it: if you'd read a Village Voice article that compared your presence in the downtown New York scene to those of Larry Levan, Fab 5 Freddy and Andy Warhol among others, you would probably feel entitled to take full advantage of your 15 minutes too. Its undeniable that the Misshapes have had a noticeable impact on what we'll call "hipster culture" (for lack of a better term) over the past couple of years, and if comparing them to Larry Levan seems more than a bit ridiculous to you, you might want to consider the number of 18-24 year olds around the country that know who Misshapes are and compare that to the total number of people that knew who Larry Levan was during his first two years at Paradise Garage. This has everything to do with media technology and nothing to do with musical innovation to be sure, and the long term cultural significance of emo hair and Depeche Mode revivals is questionable at best, but the result is unchanged: Misshapes have built a gigantic and loyal following in one of the world's most exciting cities, and not just any hipster dumbasses can pull something like that off.

Just look at what they're up to these days if you don't believe me. After packing houses for several years with their regular DJ nights in New York, curating the music at just about every major party during New York's fashion week, and sharing decks with Madonna and a slew of other high powered celebrities over the past few months, Misshapes are cashing in on downtown cool as they embark on their first ever national tour, bringing the Lower East Side to us Red State folks just as Gawker's anti-Misshapes coup d'etat has started to drive the trio's stock price down with the Brooklyn/Houston- Ludlow hipsters that put them on the map in the first place. Of course, it would be far too easy to completely dismiss Misshapes and those that emulate them as clueless hipsters, and it would be incorrect to say that their sets aren't exciting and highly entertaining at times. But with all their lucrative corporate tie-ins and friends in high places, it also must be noted that the trio has been able to milk the current incarnation of 00's hipster cool more effectively and notoriously than almost anyone else on the face of the planet (other than Vice).

Take their upcoming set this Saturday at the Lizard Lounge in Dallas as an example. Normally, a well known DJ can pull in quite a nice cover at a large established dance venue like the Lizard Lounge, but Misshapes didn't come all the way to Dallas to take your money. No, they're just here to chill out and throw a huge free party with their ultra hip friends over at R.J. Reynolds, and if you want to go, all you have to do is get an account and RSVP (aka "track down your local rep") over at Camel's website. But wait a minute. Since when are the old southern white men that run R.J. Reynolds "ultra-hip," you ask? Well, it might surprise you to learn that they practically invented the term, at least in the parlance of our times (get it?).

Not to get all "truth.com" on your ass, but a 1994 internal document produced by Camel's marketing department has been cited by Naomi Klein and others as the first document of its kind to make use of the contemporary idea of a "hipster" to describe a marketing demographic that the brand was having trouble reaching. In this rather humorous report, the marketers describe scenes of urban young adults scoring smokes at cool bars as they talk all cool and do various other cool things. Here's an example of one of the scenarios the document lays out:

Saturday night. Smoke filled night club. 1am. Nirvana blares through the sound system. The cigarette machine is broken. Lisa's looking to bum a smoke. She saunters up to the bar in her ripped Levi's and vintage motorcycle jacket and looks at the bartender. "Manny, got an extra cigarette?" Manny reaches into the chest pocket of his black tee shirt and pulls out a Camel.

You get the idea. And if you think it sounds like they were way off on what was hip in 1994, all you have to do is go rent a copy of Clerks in order to see that RJR was pretty much right on the money with this one. As the document goes on to state, Camel started an aggressive campaign 13 years ago to get to these cool kids and link the Camel brand image to whatever happens to be hip at any given time. One look at their Website (or a quick flashback of the Camel sponsored Ladytron show at Hailey's a couple months ago) reveals that they've been pretty successful at doing just that. They currently sponsor all kinds of events all over the country that deliver consumable hipster culture to people in all kinds of famously unhip locations with little or no direct sales pitch involved, other than a friendly reminder that Joe Camel is the motherfucker that told you about all this cool stuff in the first place, dipshit.

What does this all mean? Who knows. The ideas behind branding and its effects on target markets are certainly debatable and mostly immeasurable, and we're certainly not going to sit here and lecture you about corporations and society and why its so wrong to dance. After all, the Misshapes party will probably be pretty fun, and we might even show up to it ourselves (I've already contacted MY Camel rep, have you?) It just seems funny that Misshapes, who have become a perfect example of savvy hipster self-marketers, are teaming up with Camel, the people that just might have invented the modern hipster marketing demographic in the first place. If nothing else, this connection might pop into your mind five years from now, during the middle of the inevitable grunge revival, when you're sitting at a bar in your ripped Levi's and motorcycle jacket, laughing about the bad clothes in that old issue of Fader and desperately searching your pockets for that one last delicious cigarette. That damn Manny might have moved on to another job at that point, but rest assured, your local Camel rep might just be sitting at the other end of the bar doing something cool. And you know he'll probably hook you up.

Misshapes play this Saturday at Lizard Lounge with our friend Justin V (formerly of High Society) opening.