BALD AMBITION Bob Mould, right, and Richard Morel have made Blowoff a can’t-miss event.

Out gay rocker Bob Mould was thinking outside the box when he ditched the guitars and alt-rock of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, went solo with electronica in 2002 and had a brief gig with the World Championship Wrestling division. Yet his more recent foray as club DJ for the massively popular Blowoff party—for which he tag teams with house/electronica/Pink Noise–remix guru Richard Morel—came from thinking about what’s inside the box.

“When I moved down from New York City to D.C. in 2002, Richard and I got together and started writing,” recalls Mould, who still performs as a soloist; he and Morel had first met at a record release party for Morel’s album Queen of the Highway. “One day there was a box in the corner, and I asked him what’s in the box and he said, ‘It’s a DJ rig. Some guys I work with gave it to me, but I hate DJs and deejaying.’ So I said, ‘Why don’t we deejay and throw a party? Maybe it would be a good way for me to meet people.’ And it’s given me an outlet for the club side of me without pissing off the indie rock boys that don’t like the synthesizers or the beats. So I tour [my rock stuff], then I always have Blowoff to look forward to selfishly and personally—a great balance.”

Nowadays, Blowoff is meeting with sold-out, capacity crowds at New York’s Highline Ballroom—a mix of bears, queer indie rock kids, hipsters and big names like Cyndi Lauper, Scissor Sisters’ Baby Daddy and Carson Kressley—along with a few of Mould’s curious votaries. “A fair amount of my peers show up as well,” he adds. “Ben from Death Cab for Cutie, Sam from Interpol. I think they’re all sort of amazed by it and happy for me because they know how much fun I have, even if it’s not their thing personally.”

Initially conceived as a recording collaboration, Blowoff draws its name from “a term used in pro wrestling to signify the end of a feud or story line,” Mould reveals. “It seemed funny and it fit well.”

The first party, held in a D.C. basement space during January of 2003, was carefully curated: The pair printed business card–style invitations and personally handed them out. Word of mouth spread, and over the course of three years Blowoff evolved from an intimate monthly and then weekly party to a massive monthly event at the capital city’s 9:30 Club. In September of 2007, Blowoff invaded New York, and “it popped right away,” reaching Highline’s 750–800-person capacity, says Mould. “Richard and I were scratching our heads. How did this happen so quickly? In D.C. it was a slow, steady build. But what some people have told me is New York was screaming for an event like this, and we were in the right place at the right time.”

Bears have held a majority presence at Blowoff since Day One—and the party’s maestros certainly fit said category (“We just got back from touring Europe on Monday, and I was eating many donuts, bulking up for Blowoff,” Morel quips), while designer Linas Garsys’s promotional artwork amalgamates beefy men with commie-propaganda chic. But it’s the music, as Madonna once said, that makes the people come together, and Blowoff’s set lists run the gamut from remixes of anthemic rock by Alice Cooper to the hipster hotness of Daft Punk and M83 to who-is-this? finds like Chewy Chocolate Cookies and Zoot Woman.

“I think the distinction between what we do and what other events might be presenting is we’re active musicians,” Mould muses. “We write, produce and tour, and have done that our whole lives and have sympathetic ears for what makes a good pop song; strong melody, beats and lyrics more rooted in traditional pop sensibility— even though [we play] house and progressive house and electro. What we look for is more a song of substance than a popular song being played by other DJs. I think that’s what sets us apart a little bit.”

Of course, some of their own music and collaborations (they, in fact, released a Blowoff CD of original material in 2006) are frequently slipped in—including mixes from Morel’s new EP, Flawed, an upcoming double album, Death of a Paperboy, and the track “Same Ol’ Fucking Story,” from the Cyndi Lauper album he recently produced. Set lists are posted on Blowoff’s website, blowoff.us, and podcasts are in the planning.

As for this month’s installment, it’s sure to be packed with Pride revelers. But will the DJs be doing anything special? “Probably not,” Morel says. “We’re always kind of ringing in Gay Pride.”

The next Blowoff is Sat 28 at the Highline Ballroom.