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Tuesday, May 22 2018, 6AM
When reviewing Black Celebration back in 1986, NME criticized chief songwriter Martin Gore's "adolescent fragments of despair." It's World Goth Day.
Bauhaus bass player David J wrote this song's lyric after bingeing on vampire movies that were showing on TV. He and guitarist Daniel Ash were both watching these films, and got to talking about them one day on the phone when they were setting up a rehearsal.
In an interview, he explained: "I came up with that first line, 'White on white, translucent, black capes back on the rack.' And it was like, 'Oh, this is interesting.' It's so descriptive - it is about the vampire. It's also about the actor - it's about retiring from the part, but then he sort of plays with the idea. A vampire can never retire from being a vampire, because that's for eternity."
Toward the Within was recorded in one take in November 1993 at the Mayfair Theatre in Santa Monica, California and was released by 4AD as an album and a video (VHS and ahem, *LaserDisc*) a year later. It was the last major event to take place in the Mayfair Theatre before it was severely damaged in the Northridge earthquake in January 1994 and had to be closed indefinitely.
"In a half-decade span beginning in the mid '80s, Swans swiftly transformed from bone-crushing no wave brutalists to God-fearing gothic rockers, and then to featherweight neo-folkies. White Light from the Mouth of Infinity and Love of Life, originally released in 1991 and 1992, respectively, marked the end of that metamorphosis, as the band settled into a sound at once songful and vast, luminous as a glass menagerie and forceful as a falling anvil." -Pitchfork bit.ly
This song describes the fate of the city of Pompeii, buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The "Cities in Dust" 12" was the first Banshees' single release in the United States. Spin hailed the group for creating "this intoxicating wonderful commercial dance record without losing their edge."
The Jesus and Mary Chain are out on tour with Nine Inch Nails. No Seattle dates, closest looks to be California. See the dates here: bit.ly
With Sympathy is Misitry's debut studio album. The album was released in 1983 through Arista Records, with Ministry's members at the time being Alain Jourgensen and Stephen George.
Jourgensen has maintained that he was pressured by Arista management into producing the album in the then-popular "synthpop" style, which is in contrast to the harder industrial and heavy metal sounds he developed afterwards.
However, there are reports of Jourgensen admitting in the 1980s that when he discovered hardcore music, his musical direction changed.
"The Caterpillar" was the sole single released from the band's fifth album The Top. In early 1984, it spent seven weeks in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 14.
The Sisters Of Mercy leader Andrew Eldritch described the track in a 1987 interview with Sounds magazine: "It's about the idiots, full of sound and fury, who stampede around this world signifying nothing. It's about people who sing about the revolution while selling it short, about people who sing about the corrosion of things while they themselves are falling apart. People who miss the point... It's also stupidly over-the-top bombastic, but rightly so."
Go! was initially a hit in dance clubs but made a number of appearances in popular culture in later years. In 1990, Moby used a sample of it in his 1990 dance hit of the same title. In 1997, it was featured in the film Grosse Pointe Blank and in 2003 in the film Party Monster.
Love and Rockets are playing a 1200 seat venue in NY in June. Along with Bauhaus. Sounds worth the trip to us! More info here: bit.ly
During the Chameleons' early career, the British music press often used terms such as "sonic architects" and "sonic cathedrals" when describing the band, due to their atmospheric sound.
The Chameleons emerged as Thatcherism was beginning to have its effect on England's former industrial towns, and their music was imbued with a sense of anxiety and a longing for the security of innocence. Burgess's impassioned vocal delivery complemented his lyrics, which touched on the alienation created in many British communities by the decline of manufacturing and industry, and the consequent disruption of social order. Burgess said in 2013 that, though growing up in a post-industrial, northern town must have some influence on one's music, he felt the Chameleons would have sounded similar regardless of where they originated from.
Nine Inch Nails covered Dead Souls for The Crow soundtrack - another goth institution. Here is NIN performing Dead Souls at Woodstock '94 youtu.be
The British rock band, Placebo, did a cover version of this song, in which Joan of Arc's "Walkman" was replaced with a "Discman." Nowadays, when Morrissey performs this song live, he changes it to an "iPod."
In 2012, the band was slated to tour with The Cult and The Mission, but they begged off in a very public way: announcing on Facebook that they weren't going, and never wanted to in the first place. The post, signed by "Black Jester" (assumed to be Coleman), stated: "The only reason we allowed ourselves to be talked into it was to blow both bands off the stage and to steal their respective audiences."
It continued: "Then there would be a problem with the dressing room and witnessing The Cult charge the fans $200 per head for a Meet & Greet. Lastly, all their songs suck!"
Their debut album That Total Age was released in 1987. Depeche Mode, longtime friends and label mates of the band, invited them to open for the European leg of their hugely successful Music For The Masses Tour in 1987.
Ian Astbury, frontman of The Cult: "What's the song about? Sex. Plain and simple, it's about sex. I've had sex and I'm very proud of that fact."
Nick Cave spoke to Q Magazine in October 2007 about Red Right Hand: "A good song has the ability to continue to reveal itself to you long after you've actually written it. This one's pretty good (for that)." Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are out on a limited tour of the Americas in October... Los Angeles is the closest stop. www.nickcave.com
Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde didn't write this song (that was Andy Prieboy of Wall of Voodoo), but knows the story behind it. In a 2013 interview she explained: "Wendy was a real person. She was diagnosed with AIDS and rather than suffering the stigma, she decided to commit suicide. It's an old song, so this is a long time ago, and not that anything's changed much, by the way. But it's basically her dialogue with herself as to the decision she's going to make on her own. She's making the decision on her own, it's her one act of dignity in her life. And it's heavy, to say the least.
When that first came out, there was a lot of good old fashioned southern 'we should burn this record' kind of shit. Between the vampires and Wendy, I think those people just about choked on their whatever."
Initially known as The Sisterhood, the band was started by frontman Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams (both from The Sisters of Mercy), soon adding drummer Mick Brown (Red Lorry Yellow Lorry) and guitarist Simon Hinkler (Artery and Pulp). Wayne Hussey is turning 60 this Saturday. Happy early birthday Wayne!
Watch the video and get caught in the shadow of love: bit.ly
TKK attracted attention from college radio stations and dancefloors, as well as religious groups who balked at the overtly occult imagery in both the music and the artwork of the releases. The group continued to stoke controversy with each subsequent release. Thrill Kill Kult's second album, Confessions of a Knife..., became one of the best-selling releases on Wax Trax!, and continued to goad parental groups with song titles like "A Daisy Chain 4 Satan" and "Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness".
Music writer Dave Thompson described "(Every Day Is) Halloween" as having been "adopted as the anthem of America's disenfranchised Gothic community."
According to The Pulse Of Radio, the upcoming NINE INCH NAILS release, "Bad Witch", will be issued as a full-length album and not an EP. This is happening despite the fact that it is relatively brief and is the third entry, following 2016's "Not The Actual Events" and 2017's "Add Violence", in what was originally billed as a trilogy of EPs.
Posting in a NINE INCH NAILS fan forum under the name "teitan," NIN mainman Trent Reznor (a.k.a. Chris Gossard's roommate) responded to a user named "Quantum550," who wrote that an album consists of seven tracks at minimum and runs over 30 minutes in length. Reznor replied: "Want to know why it's being labeled an LP instead of an EP? EPs show up with singles in Spotify and other streaming services = they get lost easier. EPs feel less important in today's music-isn't-as-important-as-it-once-was world. Why make it easier to ignore? We're not charging any more for it so why get worked up about it?"
Also apparently answering Quantum550's comment that the EP was delayed by a "lack of inspiration," Reznor retorted, "Quantum550: suck my entire cock."
"Bad Witch" in fact contains six tracks and runs 30 minutes and 11 seconds. It arrives on June 22.
In 1995 interview, Raymonde said that the band's unique sound didn't result from any conscious artistic vision nor any mysterious musical influences, as had been rumored for the band's history. "It just so happens that when the three of us get into a room, that is what we sound like," he explained.
Dazzle's lyric "swallowing diamonds/A cutting throat" were derived from the final scene of Marathon Man where Laurence Olivier puts diamonds in his mouth.
Clan of Xymox recorded two of the Peel Sessions at the BBC, in June and November 1985. Peel referred to the band's dark and melancholic sound as "darkwave".
"One Hundred Years was never a single but the opener to 1982’s Pornography (which Robert Smith once described as one of three albums that define his band best) is one of the highlights during every live set. No surprise that songwriter Scott Matthew once said, it’s his favourite on the album. One Hundred Years is a drive goth rock anti-war anthem where Smith gets surprisingly political as he mixes personal reflection with television images of falling soldiers while singing about ‘a hundred years of blood.’ It’s intense, it’s still quite heavy and an outstanding highlight in the discography of a band every music lover should at least try to explore at some point in his or her life." - nbhap.com
The Bolshoi's early gigs supported the likes of The Cult, The March Violets and The Lords of the New Church. Stylistically they have been described as a proto-goth band, similar in their live act to fellow Beggars Banquet signees, Bauhaus. Tanner was recognized for his "dark, pensive lyrics that belied a social responsibility and awareness."
The Horrors will be at Neumos on Wednesday, June 27th! Tickets: ticketf.ly
“Cranes have been tagged with more than their share of inaccurate labels over the years, such as "Gothic", "Ethereal" and even "Industrial", but just as often, they are more accurately described as a band with a furiously creative drive which allows even their simplest songs to sound beautifully honest and original.
But as simple as their music seems, the Cranes have always kept things interesting by giving their music an element of edginess and unpredictability. Some of their songs make their point with no more than three notes played repeatedly on a piano, while others rely on screeching, wailing walls of sound provided by guitarists Matt Cope and Mark Francombe, while still others rely on a clever, sometimes surprising combination of the two. All of these elements are complemented perfectly by Shaw's unmistakable vocal style and her brother Jim Shaw's precise and powerful percussion.”
– Andy Dolan, The Michigan Daily, 1995
Morrissey has just announced two huge homcoming Manchester shows in July bit.ly
Into the Labyrinth marked a strong shift from Dead Can Dance's previous albums, putting ethnic music influences at the forefront, as would be the case in the later albums. It was their first album completed on their own without the aid of guest musicians, and their first album to have a major-label release in the US, thanks to a distribution deal that 4AD had with Warner Bros. Records. Featuring this single, Into the Labyrinth was a major success, selling more than 500,000 copies worldwide.
Stripped's underlying beat is a distorted and slowed-down sound of a motorcycle engine running, while the main melody begins with a car's ignition starting, and the end uses sounds of fireworks.
A Playmobil stop-motion video for Transmission. This is the internet you signed up for: bit.ly
Peter Murphy will be performing "Deep" in its entirety in San Francisco on July 13th ticketf.ly
Last month, Matt Cameron joined Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Jason McGerr (Death Cab for Cutie), and Ruby Dunphy (Thunderpussy) for a panel discussion with The Trap Set hosted by Joe Wong.
The panel focused on human interest stories about the lives and careers of drummers and was recorded before a live audience here in the KEXP Gathering Space. See pics and listen to the discussion here: pearljam.com
Happy birthday to John Vanderslice, turning 50 today! Since 2014, Vanderslice has been a full-time record producer at Tiny Telephone.
Released on this date in 2007, Boxer is the fourth studio album by The National. Produced by both Peter Katis and the band itself, the album has sold nearly 430,000 copies in the U.S. Following its release, the album debuted at #68 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 9,500 copies in its first week.
The Roots are playing ZooTunes on July 22nd! zootunes.ticketfly.com
Sub Pop 605! Holopaw came to the attention of Sub Pop following the release of frontman John Orth's collaboration with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, on Ugly Casanova's Sharpen Your Teeth. Soon after, Brock played Sub Pop the band's demo tape, and they were signed to the label. In the words of Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman, "There are bands that are making music and bands that are making art. Holopaw is making art."
Sub Pop #606 is from the Seattle band Kinski, their second for the label (their 2001 contribution to the v.2 of the Sub Pop Singles Club was their first). The Semaphore EP includes the song “Semaphore,” which later appeared on the band’s Jan. 2003 full-length Airs Above Your Station, a cover of “Point That Thing Somewhere Else” by The Clean, and two otherwise unreleased tracks.