By Keli Dailey
UTSTREET.COM

October 9, 2008

The economy's in a death spiral. Even more reason for you to walk it out at the club, or hole up in imaginary, recession-proof Nintendo worlds. Really. Main Streeters are slurping up Kool-Aid, Campbell's Soup and Spam to scrimp, but they simply refuse to cut back on entertainment.

Street's all about putting fun first. And trust us when we say catching Santogold (aka Brooklyn's Santi White) on her first headliner tour tomorrow at HOB is your tight credit well-spent.

Log onto UTStreet.com and get a glimpse of her Coachella Arts and Music Festival performance, and check out the e-mail interview (she was saving her voice) we did with the genre-busting, trunk-rattling artist, too. Here's a taste:

Question: I heard from Diplo (he was just here for Street Scene) that you're a huge Devo fan, that your roots are more punk rock than the music you're creating now. (I'm not trying to get Diplo in trouble!) Talk about your influences, and is there a category for your music?

Answer: “Diplo is right, that Devo is my favorite band and a huge influence of mine. But as far as my roots being more punk rock than the music I'm creating now, that's not really accurate.

“I grew up listening to Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, Fela Kuti, Nina Simone, Al Green, James Brown, Aretha, Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Doors, The Smiths, The Cure, Bad Brains, Cocteau Twins, Suicidal Tendencies, Bauhaus, The Police and Salt N Pepa, all at the same time, all before I was 11 years old. These are all artists and genres of music that I've been influenced by throughout my life, and the music I'm making now as Santogold reflects these influences.

DETAILS Santogold, with Mates of State, Alice Smith and Low vs Diamond When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m. Where: House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., downtown Tickets: $22.50-$40 Phone: (619) 299-2583 Online: hob.com

“I think Wes (Diplo) might have been speaking about the music that I made with my band Stiffed, which was pretty much straight-up post-punk, new wave.”

Q: I caught you at Coachella. And your live show is so much like a Public Enemy performance. Who're your dancers? How'd you come up with the look and feel of your shows?

A: My dancers, aka “SG1s”, are a cross between Public Enemy's S1Ws, the Robert Palmer girls, and all the teenage dancers who film themselves and post their videos on YouTube. They're amazing and help make the show so fun. They're also two Southern girls from Houston, Texas (relocated to Brooklyn), who have been friends for years and it's like being with family on the road.

“I knew that I wasn't always going to be able to tour with a full band and I wanted to find a way to create a live performance that could physically translate the energy of the music. So, I came up with the idea of having dancers who were as quirky as the music itself, with dance moves that drew from styles as varied as the music itself: dancehall, old-school hip-hop, postmodern and jazz.

“My show is pretty high-energy and, like the record, is pretty much a musical landscape with peaks and valleys, really energetic moments and really soulful moments. My favorite parts of the show are when the audience gets really involved and you get a whole room of people screaming things like 'Me, I'm a Creator' or 'We think you're a joke, shove your hope where it don't shine” or 'I got to be unstoppable.'

“It gives me chills to hear so many people proclaiming those statements and pumping their arms in the air. It's powerful.”

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