From: Morpheus Laughing <n8442349@janice.cc.wwu.edu>
Copyright Notice: This zine is copyright 1992 by Corey W Nelson for the contributors, except for the bits that I've shamelessly stolen (like the cover). Those bits are of course still copyright by their original creators. This zine may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without express written permission from me. Permission is given in advance for a printout for yourself. Just because you get something for free via the net doesn't mean it's public domain and you can do anything you want with it.
EEEEE GGGGG OOOOO PPPPP RRRRR OOOOO J EEEEE CCCCC TTTTT
E G O O P P R R O O J E C T
EE G GG O O PPPPP RRR O O J EEE C T
E G G O O P R R O O J J E C T
EEEEE GGGGG OOOOO P R R OOOOO JJJJJ EEEEE CCCCC T
ISSUE NUMBER TWO
-. .-
_..-'( )`-.._
./'. '||\\. (\_/) .//||` .`\.
./'.|'.'||||\\|.. ). .( ..|//||||`.`|.`\.
./'..|'.|| |||||\`````` '`"'` ''''''/||||| ||.`|..`\.
./'.||'.|||| ||||||||||||. .|||||||||||| ||||.`||.`\.
/'|||'.|||||| ||||||||||||{ }|||||||||||| ||||||.`|||`\
'.|||'.||||||| ||||||||||||{ }|||||||||||| |||||||.`|||.`
'.||| ||||||||| |/' ``\||`` ''||/'' `\| ||||||||| |||.`
|/' \./' `\./ \!|\ /|!/ \./' `\./ `\|
V V V }' `\ /' `{ V V V
` ` ` V ' ' '
Copyright Notice: This zine is copyright 1992 by Corey W Nelson for the contributors, except for the bits that I've shamelessly stolen (like the cover). Those bits are of course still copyright by their original creators. This zine may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without express written permission from me. Permission is given in advance for a printout for yourself. Just because you get something for free via the net doesn't mean it's public domain and you can do anything you want with it.
Welcome to issue two of my zine. Issue one went ok, there were lots of little problems that were hopefully not too noticeably to you, my faithful public. Yeah, right.:-> A new thing I've added is the buy/sell section. We'll see how it works, if response is favorable, it'll stay. If not, out the window it goes. Suggestions for a new name are also being taken at this point. It seemed like a clever idea at the time, but i think it's dumb now. Anyways, here I sit here writing by candle light, listening to Elizium. Thinking about some recent conversations and things. You'll note that it's Editorial and not Editor's Note this time. 'Cus I have a few things I want to say that are strictly my opinion and not any sort of policy here at Ego Project.
The first is inspired by a great conversation had with a few close friends a while ago, conducted by the light of a brother to the candle burning right now. It wandered into the fact that so many people of my generation (20 something's) are perceived as cynical by older generations. That we live for the now and don't think about the future. We'd rather spend 50 bucks on CDs than put it away into a retirement fund or something. That's so wrong. We do think about the future, that's why we spend so much of our money on the here and now. Let's face it, we don't have that much money to start with and what's there to look forward to? Inheriting a planet polluted and raped by our predecessors? The future is a bleak prospect any way you look at it. Better to live fast and have fun now, cus no matter what the future holds, it's unlikely to be pretty. You can pretty much forget ever collecting any of the money you're putting into Social Security, let alone surviving on it. The odds are very slim that any of us will ever be able to own our own home. Nuclear annihilation has been pretty much removed as a threat, but there are lots of other ways for humanity to destroy itself. One look at the Persian Gulf will show you that.
The other thing. Does nobody pay any attention to political conventions any more? Pat Buchanon got up in front of millions of people and raved like a lunatic, and George Bush went up in the Polls. Has this country gone totally insane? The man tried to give Georgebo credit for the fall of Communism and The People ate it up! Georgebo had nothing to do with it. Communism collapsed under it's own weight because, like anarchy, it simply doesn't work on that scale. It can't. Never underestimate the power of the media and the stupidity of the average American is apparently the answer here. Godz, I hate people. No, I like People it's the other 99.9% of the population that should be euthanized for their own good. grr. I urge all of you in the US to go out and vote for Bill Clinton in November if you care one whit about the future of this country, your future. He doesn't have all the answers, but at least he knows he doesn't and is genuinely concerned about the future of this country. To quote Hunter S. Thompson: "...short of guaranteeing in print that President Clinton/Gore will solve all our problems and give forty acres and a mule to everyone that votes for him. Nobody is going to do that. And especially not George Bush. But Bill Clinton will at least try, and that's good enough for me." And me too.
Err, that's enough ranting for one night. :-) Hopefully it hasn't put too many of you off, but I had to get it out of my system.
Corey
Write to: Ego Project
1717 Monroe #B
Bellingham, WA 98225
(I love getting mail :->)
The Sisters have broken up yet again. The parting of the ways was amicable. Andreas will be doing his solo project, as will Andrew. Tim has formed a new band called CNN. It will combine the greatest and worst bits of Western culture. So if it sounds like crap, it's supposed too. :-)
The Sisters will arise once again after everybody gets this little solo thing out of their system. As of right now, this is a hiatus and all involved consider themselves to be members of the Sisters of Mercy that happen to be doing something else for a while.
Rubicon, formerly Fields of the Nephilim, should be releasing their first album anytime now. Reports indicate that it compares favorably with their previous work.
Shadow Project are currently on tour. Now for the really exciting news. According to my sources, if the SP shows go well Rozz plans to get out on the road and do a few Christian Death gigs as well in early 93. So attend, be nice to Rozz, and you just might get to Christian Death live.
And a few more bits of editorial stuff. Demos. I've had several people express interest in sending me demos, promo copies. etc for reviewing and so far nobody has actually done it. To reiterate my policy. Material by independent and unsigned bands will be given priority over practically anything else for review purposes. I would also be quite happy to interview any band that sends me stuff or even if they don't actually send me stuff. I believe in indie music and am always interested in finding cool new bands that could use a little exposure. Circulation is up to around 150 potential buyers and fans and growing weekly. :->
Ok, I guess I will have editor's notes after all. :-) This issue is really not as together as I'd hoped it would be . This is mostly your fault. :-) To keep this going, I need your help. If you go to a Goth gig, take a bit of time and write up a quick review for me. A page's worth is sufficient, but write as much a need. If you buy something, take a few minutes and write up a review. It's that easy really. Got any obscure and interesting articles hiding away somewhere? Type it in and send it to me. Or just photocopy it and I'll type it in. This is at least in part your zine. Tell me what sorts of things you want to see and I'll do my best for you. I've also included the Goth List in this issue since many of you don't have one for your own, i apologize to those that have it already. This issue is a little longer to make up for it. Um, anyway, that's all for now and onto the zine proper. Enjoy!
corey
(laughs). Whereas Harold got,ah, you know, I don't think he even knows
about our version yet.
INT Yeah, and I doubt that. uh, your live show is quite interesting. I saw
you in the fall when you played the Danceteria, um...
AE: Which day did you see? Cus the one that we played twice, and I think one
day, I think Thursday, was a lot better than the Saturday.
INT Thursday was the night I saw it.
AE: Lucky you.
INT What sort of reaction do you get from the crowd?
AE: Very good. I was surprised. They looked a little trendy for my liking just
the same.
INT (laughs) um, when they, say, were calling out a lot of songs. Do you,
does that annoy you when they're just calling shouting out for the one
like, 'hit song'. This time you'll probably get, you know, shouts of...
AE: No, because it's surprising how much different stuff they do shout for. If
they were all standing there shouting, "Alice Alice Alice", then I'd
probably say something vile. But as it is, no. No it doesn't. It's good...
INT You used to get very worked up during your show and, how do you get into
that fre...?
AE: Well, it's hot up there and the people shine these lights in your eyes,
you know...
INT So it's hard...
AE: The way I look at it is, uh, any normal human being, you put them in a
situation like that, that they're gonna get completely loopy. I find it
very very contrived for people to actually try and behave normally up
there...
INT On an elevated stage, with lights and a bunch of
people staring at you.
AE: Right, it's not a normal situation. Right, two thousand miles from home is
not a normal situation. And we just do whatever comes into our heads,
sometimes it's strange.
INT Do you do a lot of playing live, or do you prefer working in the studio?
AE: Well, I don't know. I very much like working in the studio. I think, uh,
overall the consensus in the band would very much be that it prefers
working live.
INT Um, hmmm...
AE: There's more excuse to, well, get drunk basically. I don't think there's
any other word for it here. Get drunk.
INT When you're playing live or with your records. Do you think that a lot of
people that like you, um, are aware of the underlying humor in some of
your things? Or do they, some of your fans, take it too seriously maybe.
AE: I don't know. That doesn't, it doesn't bother me anymore, because I figure
that every level's reasonably well represented at the moment and it's not
like...
INT And it's hard for you to really judge it anyway, I imagine.
AE: It is, it is. You gotta remember that i can only ever see the first three
rows, beyond that it's just, you know...
INT And as far as people that buy your records, you probably don't get much
feedback for...
AE: Uh...
INT ..or very limited.
AE: They certainly don't write in saying, "That was a very funny record", or,
"Well, that record was a little bit serious, Andrew".
INT (laughs) Oh, got the joke on that one!
AE: (laughs) Yeah, right. maybe we should put a few questionnaire into the
records. I don't know.
INT Or a laugh track.
AE: Yeah.
INT What are some other songs you've been working on for the...
AE: Well. We re-recorded Body Electric, because the original has been deleted.
That was the only record we ever released that wasn't on our label,
because we were so short of money at the time.
INT What label was that on?
AE: ...it's been deleted. It was on a label out of York called CNT. And people
still write an awful lot saying, "Well were the hell can I get a hold of
Body Electric?" And it gets a bit embarrassing to keep writing back and
saying, "Well, you see, you can't. So now they can again. It's a
reasonably faithful re-recording. It's just that it's a 24 track recording
instead of an 8 track recording. And there's also a song called
Afterhours. I'm not sure whether it's going to come out here, because
there just isn't enough space on a record to put all this stuff on.
INT And do you find that, you've been covering all of the United States, has
distribution been getting you out to all the little places across the.
It's very hard to hit, you know, get yourself across such a large country.
It's not like England, which is...
AE: It is very hard and our distributor doing their best, but they're, until
the American Independent Distributor actually get their act together and
do a bit of cooperating instead of mercilessly competing against each
other. Uh, independent distribution in this country is never really going
to get anywhere.
INT And you're looking for a worldwide signing. Is there anything you're
going to regret about moving to a big label, or are you just glad you'll
be getting more money to do what you want and better distribution?
AE: There's not a lot to regret unless you sign something you're not happy
with. And the reason we've been talking to lawyers so much is we're
absolutely determined not to sign anything we're not happy with. The way
it looks, we should be pretty comfortable. we've tried to keep our wits
about us. We spent a very long time doing this, a very long time.
INT had a coupla months now to just..
AE: uh, more like nine actually! (laughs)
INT Nine months...
AE: So you can imagine how comfortable we're going to have to be when it
actually happens to validate all that time spent away. Really, cause it's
a long time to appear so inactive.
INT Right.
AE: We're confident it'll work out good, but it's still gonna look, sort of,
dodgey for the next coupla months.
INT Right. You've got all that business experience behind you with running
your own label to know what they might be pulling on you.
AE: Yeah, you just gotta keep your cool, and pay attention to what goes on
around you. And there's a fair amount of intelligence within the band. We
can cope with these sort of issues. we're quite good at reading
contracts.
INT And the album should be out you say, you'll be doing it , working on it
over the summer. so...
AE: It should be out sometime in September.
INT Sometime in September. ok.
AE: And we'll be back here, Oct, Nov.
INT To support the album. This has been Ann Clarke with Andy from the Sisters
of Mercy on Music View. good night
REVIEWS/MUSIC
***** absolute classic, essential listening
**** extremely good, buy at the first opportunity
*** a good, but not great record, buy if you have the xtra $$$
** not actually bad, but give it a listen first
* if you really want it, tape it off somebody silly enough to buy it.
don't even bother
Christian Death
"The Iron Mask"
Cleopatra Records CD CLEO 57512/ CS CLEO 57514
Rating: ****
Review by Darien Waldhoff
And yet another great disc by Christian Death. This is the first thing that Rozz has done with Christian Death since "Ashes" (he also sang "Infans Vexatio" on the album "Insanus, Ultio, Prodito, Misericordiaque", although I've heard a rumour that that album was just demos that Valor went back and reworked and released).
This album is full of old Christian Death songs, as well as a new song and a live track that is very good. I kind of thought that this sounded like Shadow Project doing Christian Death tunes, but the liner notes more or less say otherwise. The liner notes also scoff at Valor and misspell his last name ("This is dedicated to the memory of Valor Hand").
The new versions rival the originals in some cases, except for the version of "Cervix Couch", which I thought to be awful. All the songs that they redid from "Only Theatre of Pain" ("Spiritual Cramp", "Figurative Theatre", "Deathwish", and "Desperate Hell"-on the CD + tape version of OTOP) are quite excellent. The version of "The Luxury of Tears" also was very comparable to the original. The new song, "Skeleton's Kiss", is really excellent. The live song, "Down in the Park", is decent, although it sounded rather like someone in the crowd recorded it. Could have been better.
Another interesting note for you collectors: the first 1500 copies of the compact disc came in a light purple cloth bag which contained the disc and an actual photo of Rozz. If you can find it, snag it quickly and hoard it all the way to the cash register.
And keep your eye out in the record stores. Shadow Project's new album, "Dreams For The Dying". It should be finished sooner or later. SP went into the studio to record it April 27th, and, at this time, it is done. This one should be even better than the first. I have gotten word that the recording sessions were tense because they were recording the album during the L.A. Riots. Tense nervous energy tends to give music an interesting edge. If you liked the first disc, the second is bound to be much better, if not just as good.
Gothic Rock-various
Jungle freud cd38
Rating: ****
Track List: Bauhaus-Dark Entries/Southern Death Cult-Moya/X-Mal Deutschland
Incubus Succubus II/Theatre of Hate-Black Madonna/Gene Loves JezebelShaving
My Neck/Fields of the Nephilim-Preacherman/UK Decay-Testament
Virgin Prunes-Pagan Love Song/Danse Society-We're So Happy/Tones on Tail
Burning Skies/Alien Sex Fiend--Now I'm Feeling Zombified/Sex Gang Children
Dieche/Specimen-Syria/Play Dead-Propaganda/Christian Death-This is Heresy
Gitane Demone-Incendiary Lover/Marionettes-Ave Dementia/Rossetta Stone
Deeper/Creaming Jesus-Reptile
Well, I finally found a copy. Was it worth paying import prices for? Yeah, if only on the basis of getting tracks from some bands that I'd simply given up hope of ever finding anything by. The liner notes are fairly amusing. Siouxsie and the Banshees get royally slagged off for being annoyed that Mick didn't consider them Goth in the book counter-part. A few others politely declined, the Sisters for instance, and frankly I'm kinda amazed that Mick had the balls to ask him in the first place, considering Andrew's remarks on the subject of Goth in the past. :-)
So anyway, 19 tracks, ranging from 1980 to 1992. A good cross-section of what Goth has been and what it will be. Let us get into my comments about the individual tracks.
Bauhaus. The 7" version from the original single. If you don't have a copy of this on something by now there is something seriously wrong with you and perhaps you should try a new sub-culture, being a mod maybe.
Southern Death Cult. A live version of one of their best songs and a reminder of what all the fuss was about.
X-Mal Deutschland. Is the album version minus the drum intro. Great song from a great band
Theatre of Hate. Is a previously unreleased live version. Also a great song from a great band.
Gene Loves Jezebel. Taken from their deleted album of the same name. I never much cared for GLJ, too glam for my taste. But this is from the early days, which is apparently when they were good cus I rather like this song.
Fields of the Nephilim. Ahh, the Neph. Love these guys, and this is the original single version of the song that really got them headed for the bigtime.
UK Decay. One of the bands that I despaired of ever getting to hear. Worth waiting for? I dunno, sounds just like SDC to me. Not necessarily a bad thing mind you, but it doesn't send a shiver down my spine.
Virgin Prunes. Godhead. Simple as that.
Danse Society. Now I know DS mostly thru the Heaven is Waiting lp. So this was something of a shock. Quite different in very subtle ways from their later stuff and a really really good song.
Tones on Tail. An edited version of the song. I prefer the album version.
Alien Sex Fiend. Godhead. A live version from the 91 tour that makes the album version look like a squashed grape
Sex Gang Children. Not one of their best songs in my opinion. Sebastiane would have been a much better choice. Still, it's Sex Gang and therefore great by definition.
Specimen. Says previously unreleased. However the song is available on the US mini-lp "Batastrophe". This is a different mix from that version, a slightly less poppy version too. The Beauty of Poisin would have been a better choice, but Syria is almost as good.
Play Dead. Another band I know from later material and another shock. Guitars. Lotsa big ol' guitars. This is great, and makes me want to find move PD stuff, whereas the single I've got didn't. Excellent
Christian Death. The US Goth band. I'm sure Mick has caught a lot of flack for choosing a Valor version CD song instead of the original version of CD, but it's a great song in any case so there ya go. This is the 'video edit' version.
Gitane Demone. Former CD person and all-around Goth Woman extraordinaire. This is a solo treatment of a CD song and to quote Mick, "if you don't like it you need your lungs removing".
Marionettes. The album is pretty much impossible to find on this side of the pond. This is an edit version of the title track to the first album. The Marionettes sing the best out of every Goth band I've ever heard. I mean, these boys can sing. Harmonies that make most Goth singers seem like two note wonders(ok, so they are, that's not my point here). And they can apparently recreate this on stage, so I'm pretty impressed. A way cool tune.
Rosetta Stone. Heirs to the throne vacated by the Mission. And extremely worthy of it. Though at times they seem a bit too much like the Mission. This will fade with time I'm sure. Probably the band to keep an eye on in the second decade of Gothness.
Creaming Jesus. I love these guys. They're too cool for this zine. They help put the fun back into Goth, have no respect for anything, and play like there's no tomorrow.
The overview. If you're new to Goth, get this and dive in. Even if you're older and jaded by now, there's something new here for you and even if there isn't, it's great to let friends borrow when they want to know what the hell you mean by "Goth". :-)
James Ray's Gangwar
Dios Estas De Nuestro Lado CD
Merciful Release MRAY 341CD
Rating: **
Track Listing: Rev Rev Lowrider/Heart Surgery/35 Thousand Times/Badlands
Hardwar/Cadillac Coming/Bad Gin/Santa Susanna/Coo Ca Choo
The first full length release from James Ray's new band is something of a disappointment to me. I really liked the Without Conscience single and had high hopes for this album. I dunno, it just never really strikes any chords in my soul. I listen to it occasionally, hoping it will get better with time, but it never does. He seems to have gotten caught up the band's image as tough-guy outlaws too much and actually believes it now. It comes across as a facade and nothing more. There's nothing beneath the surface to make me believe in it.
Rev Rev Lowrider is the only song that stirs in me anything I felt about the Without Conscience single. A good, solid rocking song. After that, it all heads down hill. Heart Surgery is embarrassingly silly. 35 Thousand Times is pretentious and a lame song. Badlands at least is interesting musically. It shows flashes of the old Performance style with guitars added. By far my second favorite song. Marred only by the silly samples.
Hardwar starts out promising with a propulsive keyboard line and then the lyrics start. Lame lame lame. If you ignore the words and concentrate on the voice as another instrument, it's a pretty good song.
And then there's Cadillac Coming. James seems to be as obsessed with American imagery as Andrew, only Andrew utilizes it so much better and less literally. Coming from a Brit it all seems as silly as Phil Collins singing about the homeless situation in the US.
Coo Ca Choo is the album's main redeeming feature. An inspired bit of silliness. I dearly love this song. It's an old Pete Shelley tune, probably from the Buzzcocks days given James' avowed interest in them and that period's music.
The main impression I get from this album is that it would all sound much better in a live setting. Not really an option for me, but I'd encourage all that can to go see them live, it'd be money better spent.
the Mission
Masque
Mercury 314 512 317-2
Rating: ***
Track List: Never Again/Shades of Green(part II)/Even You May Shine/Trail of
Scarlet/Spider and the Fly/She Conjures Me Wings/Sticks and Stones/Like
a Child Again/Who Will Love Me Tomorrow?/You Make Me Breathe/From One
Jesus to Another/Until There's Another Sunrise
I haven't had this quite long enough to have formed a solid opinion yet, but enough requests have been had for a review that I'm gonna go for it anyway.
Firstly, the question on everyone's mind. Does it suck as bad as we all thought it would? No, it doesn't. Which surprises me as much as it does you. I firmly believe that the two greatest mistakes Wayne has ever made in his life are 1) letting Simon Hinkler get away from him and 2) touring with the Wonderstuff. Simon was a godlike guitar player. The man had a sound all his own and if you play guitar at all you know how hard it is to develop a sound of your own that says "it's me!" Touring with the Wonderstuff seems to have gotten Wayne thinking that he'd like to be a pop star or something.
Anyway, here we go then. Musically speaking it's a slight return to the pre-Carved in Sand sound, with a lot of new elements and influences introduced, predominantly the whole Manchester thing. It works in places, it's laughably silly in others. Lyrically, we get some of Wayne's best, and of course, some his worst, " come to me my flower, let us fuck and then wistfully part" lyrics. Only now, the wistfully part bit is gone now that Wayne's married with a kid.
Sticks and Stones contains a great verse, fairly obviously aimed at Andrew. "Assassination by vitriol and your quill a loaded gun, your finger on the trigger baby, trigger baby, trigger baby, but your dumb dumb bullets, dumb dumb bullets, can't hurt anyone"
Like a Child Again is the second single and the best song on the album.
It's a great pop song plain and simple. The pinnacle of what Wayne was
shooting for on the whole album. He doesn't quite make it most of the time,
but he makes it enough of the time that I'll probably keep listening to the
album. Give it a shot with no expectations and you might be pleasantly
surprised.
Siglo XX
Fear and Desire LP
Play It Again Sam BIUS 1008
Rating: ****
Track List: Fear and Desire/Everything is on Fire/Lost in Violence/Sorrow and
Pain/35 Poems/On the Third Day/My Sister Called Silence/the Pain Game
I bought this on the recommendation of somebody as a comment to the gothlist (printed elsewhere in this issue). My first thought was, "hmm, very Nephish, but I like it". I've since come to the conclusion that Joy Division would be a more accurate comparison, but that's neither here nor there.
The music is very dark, with the bass being a very prominent instrument, as is the case with the Nephilim and Joy Division. Lyrically it hits all of the traditional Goth areas of pain, isolation and the bleakness of life. But that's not a criticism really. It's done in their own way and never descends into Goth-clicheland. They also use piano occasionally to good effect. The piano is a sadly underutilized or misused instrument in Goth music. It's either solo piano and voice (which is good if done properly) or relegated to the background (which can be good or just a waste of the possibilities inherent in the instrument). Siglo XX use it on a few songs, notably "Sorrow and Pain".
I can't really pick out any songs in particular as stand-outs. It works best as album, listened to with the lights low, late at night. A band I'll be sure to pick up something else by in the future.
the Sisters of Mercy
Testament of Ivar L. bootleg LP
Tenpole Elp 849-3 double
Rating: ***
Track Listing: Afterhours/First and Last and Always/Body and Soul/Detonation
Boulevard/Ribbons/Dominion-Mother Russia/Flood II/Valentine/Heartland
Doctor Jeep/Amphetamine Logic/Marian/Alice/Gimme Shelter/This Corrosion
Jolene/Temple of Love/Something Fast/Vision Thing
Yet another Sisters bootleg purchase, and a pretty good one. Packaging is
minimal. Single sleeve for the two records and a cover swiped from the LA 'Q'
session. The record labels are totally blank, making what side you get kind of
a hit or miss proposition. It was recorded in Dusseldorf on November 21st,
1990. The sound quality is pretty good, but it's often hard to make out
Andrew's vocals. which is actually a good approximation of the concert
experience by most reports, so sit back and imagine yourself surrounded by
thousands of sweaty Sisters fans. :-)
The show itself is a fairly standard 90-91 tour show. It's main attraction for me was the inclusion of Flood II. Three other boots of the tour, but do you think any of them would have it? Noooo, my life doesn't work that way. It's probably my favorite song on Floodland at the moment and I really wanted to hear the live version. In the end though, it's not that spectacular. I don't feel that the guitar presence in the live version does the song any justice. ah well.
Overall, if you don't have any 90-91 shows yet, I'd get it. Otherwise I'd probably say pass and try to get a copy of Rise and Reverberate instead.
Virgin Prunes
Over the Rainbow + Heresies CD
Baby Records/Red Rose Baby 002 CD
Rating: ***
Track List: Down the Memory Lane/Red Nettle/Mad Bird in the Wood
Jigsawmentallama/the King of Junk/Just a Love Song/the Happy Dead/Third
Secret + Heresie: We Love Deidre/Rhetoric/Man on the Corner/Nisam Lo/Loved
one/Go "T" Away Deidre
Not having actually heard much VP yet, and hearing people rave about them for so long, I've been keeping an eye out for anything by them. Lo and behold, upon my regular ritualistic visit to the record store I come upon this treasure. It's a compilation of rarities and outtakes from 80-83, the high point of Goth and the Prunes. So I snatched it up naturally and returned to my den for a listen. So far I don't quite know what to make of it. I like it, I just don't know what to make of it.
Down Memory the Lane is sort of a Poguesish songs, if the Pogues did songs for Sesame Street. Which according to the liner notes, pretty much the point. The next three songs are sort of Ambient pieces. Interesting in their way, but pretty much background music. Soundtrack music for imaginary films.
The King of Junk on the other hand is an unabashed pop song based on a short story. It's also an outtake from the, "If I Die, I Die" sessions. Silly, danceable and it was almost used on a children's tv show. What more could be asked of them?
Just a Love Song is exactly what it says it is. Done in one take as a sort of joke to prove that Barry Manilow and his ilk are sincere in their schmaltzy "oh I love you" songs. An oddity at best, your mileage may vary. I find it amusing.
The Happy Dead is a song from the "New Form of Beauty" soundtrack project It's mostly a solo piano piece. It's an interesting piece, but again, your mileage may vary depending on how much you like solo piano music.
Which bring us to the last of the rarities, Third Secret. It sort of a quasi-industrial ambient piece and a commentary on the religious fanaticism of places like Lourdes, and on the Third Secret of Fatima.
That ends the rarities and brings us to the Heresies 10" ep from 1982. Much more like the Virgin Prunes I've come to expect. Odd, abrasive at times, and totally captivating. Kind like early Neubuaten with the idea that there should be some sort of tune in there occasionally. Challenging, yet rewarding listening.
So from a non-Virgin Prunes fan point of view. I'd say this would be a good place to start. It highlights the non-poppy and rock side of the Prunes, yet gives a good sampling of their range. The Goth quotient probably isn't terribly high, but that shouldn't stop anyone from giving one of the important Goth bands of the first generation a try.
the Sisters of Mercy at Birmingham, NEC 6/27/92 review by Mr. M.R. Anderson
The day started badly. Having missed my train, I sat in the station wondering whether I'd ever get to see the Sisters live. I'd missed the Leeds gig last year (!) because of work commitments, and prior to that the Sisters hadn't played in the north of England for years. Luckily I took a chance and caught a connection which wasn't listed. (Thank god for British Rail's trains running late !)
On arrival at Birmingham New Street station, I was greeted with a glorious sight of gothdom, as the platform was littered with goths. Having dumped my gear at my brother's place where I was staying, I made my way to Birmingham NEC, a venue with which I was familiar having been there a couple of months prior to this date to see one of the Rollercoaster concerts (My Bloody Valentine, Blur, Dinosaur Jr., and Jesus and Mary Chain). It was a shame about the security at the NEC though, where even studded belts were considered lethal weapons and were confiscated. Quite how people managed to hold up their hands and their trousers at once was beyond me!
Unfortunately, I can't remember the actual set list now as the concert took place over two months ago, so apologies if any of the following tracks are mentioned out of order -- if anyone can supply a set list for this gig, then I'd be grateful.(I can be reached at scst49@uk.ac.liverpool.compsci)
Supporting acts for the NEC were Sunshot, who were reasonably good, and Murder Inc. (ed. note: Murder Inc is a new band with Chris Connelly and Killing Joke -Jaz), who, after a false start when the microphone gave up the ghost, were loud if nothing else. Finally though, my ambition was realised as the lights dimmed, the hall filled with smoke, and the crowd rose to their feet in anticipation.
Andy emerged from the smoke to great cheers, took a low bow, and the gig kicked off with "Comfortably Numb/Some Kind Of Stranger", a good combination of songs which appeared to flow into each other. Few tracks suffered through the lack of a "proper" bass player (apologies to the Doktor), "Body Electric" being the worst casualty losing some of its drive towards the end.
The set consisted of a good mix of the old and the new, ranging from "Body Electric" and "Alice" to "More" and "Vision Thing", although disappointingly there was no "Temple Of Love" which is surely a track worthy of any Sisters set. There were a number of pleasant surprises though, with the inclusion of "Amphetamine Logic" and the Stones' "Gimme Shelter" - two of my favourite tracks from "First and Last and Always" and "Enter the Sisters" respectively. The latter was particularly outstanding with Tim's ripping guitar playing.
Another pleasing performance was that of "Flood II" which was accompanied by a suitable light show. On the subject of lights, it was funny to see the technicians taking time to carefully align the lights so that they would shine on Andy's face, only for the great man to stand and sing right at the back of the stage in complete darkness when those lights were lit.
The encores started with an a Capella version of Stevie Nicks' "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" which was different and unexpected to say the least. "More" burned live, as did "Vision Thing" which, I must confess, is not one of my favourite tracks off the album. However, tracks always sound that much better live than they do on vinyl/CD. The closer for the gig was "1969".
It must be said that throughout the evening, Andy was in fine fettle, cracking jokes with the audience, and then throwing cigarettes to those in front of the stage.
As I was sitting on the goth express home, only two minor gripes came to mind. One, the ridiculous attitude of the security staff at the NEC, was nothing to do with the band. The other was the fact that the set was only 90 minutes long. Still, I suppose that quality is better than quantity. As the shirts stated - Utterly Bastard Groovy!
Common Language/66 Saints
the Re-Bar, Seattle WA USA 9/15/93
Common Language are the best of the small handful of bands in Seattle that could be called even vaguely Goth. They've got a CD out on a local label that I recommend highly and will have a new CD coming out soonish on the UK label Blast First!. If you can find either, buy them, you shan't be disappointed.
Anyway, onto the review. 66 Saints started around 10:30 and got a full forty five minutes to play. It's just the two of them on guitar and Common Language's drum machine. They make an incredible amount of noise between them, but overall I wasn't highly impressed. A couple of songs I really liked, but that's about it. They have a tape out now that I will be sure to pick up at some point tho, since based on Common language's show, I suspect I'd like it considerably better than seeing them live.
Common Language came on around 11:30, or rather Mary came on at 11:30 and proceeded to encourage everyone to register to vote since Tuesday was Primary day in Washington. She then got a couple of volunteers from the audience to hold up a very long piece of paper for her and proceeded to play Stars and Stripes Forever and the long piece of paper turned out to be sheet music :-).
With that bit of somewhat silliness out of the way, she was joined by Char and Gretchen and Common Language launched into their set. It consisted entirely of new material and none of the songs off of Scar(their CD). I personally feel it was a mistake not play any of the older material, since they've been taking a break and haven't played any shows for many months now. It was a good show, but their rustiness was evident.
I enjoyed the show, and it was certainly worth the $4 to get in, but I think that, for me at least, Common Language are a much better studio band. Scar is a flawlessly beautiful album and the live show didn't measure up. Should they tour anywhere near you, I'd still recommend seeing them tho. If only to prove that there's far more to Seattle than Grunge.
Morbius the Living Vampire
Issues 1 & 2
Marvel Comics Group
#1 $2.75
#2 $1.75
Writer: Len Kaminski
Artist: Ron Wagner
Morbius joins Ghostrider in Marvel's resurrection of their 70's line of comics. First a little background for those that missed his earlier adventures. Michael Morbius was a Nobel prize-winning biophysicist dying from an incurable blood disease. In attempting to cure himself using an untested vaccine derived from the blood of a bat, something went wrong. He was no longer dying, but he had turned into a vampire, forced to steal blood from others to maintain his own life. Morbius despises his science-spawned curse, and has worked endlessly to find a way to cure himself and be human once again.
Morbius is not an undead and therefore unlike any other vampire in comics. Since he no longer produces blood cells of his own, his bones are hollow, giving him deceptively superior agility. He is also immune to most of the traditional vampire weaknesses, such as garlic and holy symbols(a lesson hard learned by Blade the Vampire Hunter in the early seventies). His condition has made him hyper-sensitive to the sun though, so he does burn if the rays of the sun touch his skin. Showing incredibly good sense little seen in vampire stories, Morbius goes out and buys himself a leather outfit that not only will protect him from the sun, but in any of the frequent altercations he seems to find himself in in his quest for a cure.
The new series picks up the old threads and begins anew with Morbius' former fiancee seeking him out after Morbius is spotted again following a period of self-imposed exile. He had tried to kill her in a moment of Hunger induced madness and vowed it would never happen again. She has met a biochemist that may be able to cure Morbius.
I shan't spoil the plot for anyone, but I highly recommend this series. Ghostrider and Johnny Blaze make an appearance in issue 1(if you thought they were one and the same, they're not anymore and it's really not worth explaining here)
The plotting is tight and avoids the action over content syndrome of most of Marvel's output as well as presenting a very good version of the vampire from a scientific point of view. Issue one is part three of the Rise of the Midnight Sons cross-over series with Ghostrider, Spirits of Vengeance, Darkhold, and Nightstalkers. This is, however, inconsequential, the story stands on it's own more than adequately.
the Resurrected
Directed by Dan O'Bannon
Starring Chris Sarandon, John Terry and Jane Sibbett
Scotti Brothers Pictures/Live Home Video
108 minutes
This movie is based on "the Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. HPL is among the gothest of the goth writers of the first half of this century. If you haven't read any of his work, you should be ashamed of yourself and go purchase one right now. Preferably the aforementioned short novel. Anyway, it's directed by Dan O'Bannon, best known for his work on Dark Star and Alien.
The film concerns the investigation into the activities of Charles Dexter Ward by John Church, private investigator, at the behest of Charles' wife. He's been acting extremely peculiar and two weeks ago, he moved his laboratory out to an ancestor's old farm house.
It all started when he received a trunk full of old papers and artifacts from a recently deceased, previously unknown relative. The papers included many notes about a Joseph Curwen. Intrigued by a reference to a farm house owned by Curwen in the 1700's, not too very far from where Ward and his wife live, they go out to the site to see if it still stands. To their surprise, not only is it still there, it's remarkably well-preserved. Since it's boarded up and it looks like it hasn't been inhabited in some time, the two of them break in and have a look around. Behind some wallpaper over the fireplace they discover a portrait of Joseph Curwen, a man that looked remarkably similar to Charles Dexter Ward himself.
I shan't spoil the plot for you, but the title should give you a hint what the movie's about. I was very pleased with this movie. Being an avid HPL fan and rather disappointed in the lack of faithfulness to the source material of most movies based on his work, not that they're bad or anything. I quite like Re-Animator, it simply bears little resemblance to anything HPL ever wrote. This is by far the closest in tone in my opinion so far. The time setting has been updated to now of course. There's pretty much no getting around that in today's jaded movie going market. Otherwise though, it stays fairly true to HPL's style of letting you imagine things yourself, rather than handing it to you on a silver platter. This is a classic horror film stylistically speaking. The effects don't substitute for having a plot. Nor are they used to cause the gross-out reaction of most of today's horror films. They accent the plot line, giving you glimpses of the horrors without letting you get a really good look at it. The way it should be done in my opinion. A highly recommended film for HPL fans, and fans of solidly plotted horror movies.
[Ed. note: This list started as a whim quite some time ago. It's grown into a monster. Don't even bother trying to convince me any band herein isn't Goth. Even I haven't heard all of them and it's pointless. I do it for my own benefit and share it cus think it might be useful to other people.]
The second list is of bands that have material that could be called Goth, but not any album or work in particular, or bands that should interest fans of Gothic Music.
Abcendarians active US
Area active US
Arms of Someone New ? US
the Church active AUS. esp. Persia e.p.
Cocteau Twins active UK
the Creatures hiatus UK Siouxsie & Budgie of the Banshees
Cindytalk active UK
ClockDVA active UK mostly "advantage"
Concrete Blonde active US mostly Bloodletting
Curve active UK
Dancing Did defunct UK
the Drowning Pool active US now called Mumbles
the Dream Academy active UK
Echo & the Bunnymen active UK
Gentle Ihor's Devotion active UK
Godflesh active UK
Gothic Hut ? USA
the Glove defunct UK one-off by Steve Severin of the Banshees and
Robert Smith of the Cure.
Icehouse active AUS first album only
Junior Manson Slags defunct UK
Kastrierte Philosophen active GER recent single remixed by Andrew
Eldritch
Legendary Pink Dots active UK
Love and Rockets active UK the rest of Bauhaus David J & Daniel Ash
have solo albums out
Modern English active again UK mostly Mesh & Lace, which is out on CD soon
Mumbles active US formerly the Drowning Pool
Naked Raygun active US
Nice Strong Arm active US
Pieter Noonten/Michael Brook defunct ? Pieter is ex-Xymox
the Pixies active US
Public Image Limited active UK
James Ray & the Performance defunct UK on Merciful Release
James Rays Gangwar active UK new lp out
Savage Republic defunct US
Sunshot active UK
Siouxsie & the Banshees active UK see Creatures & the Glove
Sleeping Dogs Wake active UK
Systems Collapse ? ?
the Tear Garden active CAN/BEL Kevin from Skinny Puppy with
Edward Ka-Pel from LPD new lp out now
Jimi Tenor and His Shamans active Finland
Toyah active UK also part of Sunday All Over the World
Ultravox defunct UK pre midge ure
For sale : Damage Done. Moderate condition. 80 quid + postage
To buy: the 12" of Walk Away, the CD single of Lucretia, Dominion and
Doctor Jeep.
I have all these 12" records for sale. In addition to these, there is a separate list of Depeche Mode records that I would like to sell. Please email me and ask for it. Unless otherwise specified by lp or 7, all these titles are 12"s. A few cassettes (c) and cassette singles (cs) and CD albums (cd) and CD singles (cds) are for sale as well. All cassette albums are $8AUS each or best offer. Those 12"s which are definitely imports are marked as such; the others may or may not be imports.
boxcar insect/freemason special edition $6
who do you think you are? $5
vertigo c
candy flip strawberry fields forever 7 $5
cure lullaby $6
pictures of you (strange mix import) $8
love song $6
the singles (standing on a beach) c
mixed up c
new order subculture (2 copies) $7
true faith remix $10
true faith 7 $5
mega order megamix $40
the perfect kiss (2 diff versions) $7
fine time (2 diff versions) $7
blue monday 88 $8
world in motion remix $8
shame of the nation (tour flexi, 2 copies) $15
substance 2lp $20
nine inch nails pretty hate machine c
nitzer ebb showtime lp (sold $12)
orbital omen (sold $13)
propaganda machinery $7
heaven give me words $5
1234 cd $12
severed heads greater reward $6
bulkhead lp $20
siouxie and banshees kiss them for me cds $8
superstition c
the the infected lp $8
mind bomb c
slow train to dawn $5
third eye the real thing $5