Gothic

Electroclature Volume Twenty-One: XXI

June 14, 2024

Part twenty-one of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Content Warning

This post contains mentions of death. A lot of mentions.

For some inexplicable reason, I have two covers for this disc. I chose the red one for the post because it’s far more striking and evocative, and the other? A bit gets lost with the cluster. However? Not sure which I gave to my wife!

However? I really like both of them. It’d tweak some of the margins on the front, and yet again I have no idea what I was thinking with some of the suffixes as there’s absolutely no consistency there, but I do think both are goddamn striking.

There’s a lot of great stuff here! RASPUTINA! An entire band comprised of women cellists! I was so fucking delighted to see ’em live! I used to be a cellist! (I can still play, but I’d be rubbish at it but it’s one of those things that you did enough at a specific age that you can never forget. When I re-listen to this I can hear the notations and finger twangs and bow pressure and strings tensing and it is goddamn delightful.)

MI AMI’s ‘Latin Lover’? I can’t help but throw my arms around when I hear it.

Goddamn CARY ANN HEARST. ‘Are You Ready to Die’ is also one of my fucking anthems.

TALK NORMAL! (They were so awesome and brazenly noisy when I saw ’em!) SLOW CLUB! THE RAVEONETTES! YANKA! (R.I.P. Uh, yeah, that death? Not great.)

I want to give a special shout-out to THOSE DARLINS and the much-missed Jessi Zazu. I was fortunate enough to be able to rock out to them live when they hit Chicago for their ‘Screws Get Loose’ tour. ‘Keep My Skillet’ is a raucous folk cover and their version is so endearing. The band may be no longer, but misfits like myself will always remember them.

Goddamn. When I see all of this spelled out? There are a hell of a lot of works included here that either focus on or are related to death here. (I didn’t even mention CROCODILES & THE DUM DUMS’ ‘Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don’t Die)’.) My apologies. I can only think that it was in the back of my brain at the time. I mean, I’m goth and are very accepting of the more morbid facets of life — that doesn’t mean I deal well with personal loss! — but I must’ve been dealing with some shit when I made this mix.

Well, that went dark pretty quickly.

Anyway, this mix brings me joy and reminds me of better times, and perhaps it’ll do the same for you.

As with the prior motherfucking twenty Electroclature posts: Artist / Album / Song and if there’s a link? It goes to a video for the song.

  • LAURA MARLING / I Speak Because I Can / Alpha Shallows
  • TWO STAR SYMPHONY / Love and Other Demons / Goblin Attack!
  • RASPUTINA / Sister Kinderhook / Holocaust of Giants
  • KRADDY / Android Porn Remixes / Android Porn [Playpad Circus]
  • LULLABYE ARKESTRA / Ampgrave / Y’Mare Me Shake
  • MI AMI / Steal Your Face / Latin Lover
  • Colourmusic / My _ Is Pink / Yes!
  • LOVE IS ALL / Two Thousand and Ten Injuries / Dust
  • CARY ANN HEARST / Lions and Lambs / Are You Ready To Die
  • CROCODILES & DUM DUM GIRLS / Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don’t Die) / Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don’t Die)
  • TALK NORMAL / Sugarland / Transmission Lost
  • SLOW CLUB / Yeah, So? / It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful
  • THE RAVEONETTES / In And Out Of Control / Bang!
  • YANKA / Styd i Sram / vyshe nogi ot zemli (a.k.a. ВЫШЕ НОГИ)
  • SLEIGH BELLS / Treat / Tell ‘Em!
  • THOSE DARLINS / Those Darlins / Keep My Skillet
  • Bonus live track for their hedonistic song ‘The Whole Damn Thing‘, which is all about getting drunk and then eating an entire chicken in the kitchen.

Electroclature Volume Twenty: XX

June 7, 2024

Part twenty of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

It only took years and years and twenty CD mixes, but I finally latched onto a signature visual style!

This is one of my favorite design works, not just of the discs but in general. If I saw this in a music store — which sadly are few and far between nowadays (although we do have one located two blocks away from us but we live in a weird area) — I would immediately buy it. Hell, I’d pay import prices for it!

(I don’t think anyone apart from 90s goth/industrial folks routinely felt the pain of having to pay an extra ~$10-$15 for the pleasure of buying your favorite band’s CD shipped in from Europe.)

That said, the descriptions are more than a tad pretentious than I’d like, and I have no idea what is up with the suffixes. If you’re wondering about the listed seconds? Singular moments I wanted to call attention to. Again! Really fucking pretentious! I spent too much time thinking about these mixes!

I wish I had kept the green on the front just to the center, but I know I was trying to have some background accents. I think it’d be more effective without them, though.

I still can’t believe I designed the back cover. There are minor typography issues that some may find fault with, but this is one of the few designs where I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

I honestly can’t believe I willed it into the world.

But enough navel-gazing! Hightlights! Goddamn this mix has so much good stuff. While KRADDY is blusterous, I love their pacing and it builds to what can only be described as an aural orgasm.

Motherfucking PUERTO MUERTO! Absolutely one of the most memorable live acts I’ve ever seen. It was an actual final live show — and promoted as such — because they were a husband/wife band for many years. Then he cheated on her and holy hell she was so fucking pissed off — rightfully so — and that anger was so loud and resonant and present in her performance. I’ve never seen or heard anything like it. It was like an live indie music version of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?. I’m not exactly sure I want to see something like that again, but it has stuck with me for years, and good for her for burning the band to the fucking ground and moving forward.

(Also? ‘Drumming for Pistols’? So hooky, but builds to be so ferocious.)

A lot of underrated, unsung bands on here. THE SECRET MACHINES! LANTERNS! The wild mixture of cultures from ALINA SIMONE!

I find this CD mix to be a lot of fun, and maybe you will too. (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

Electroclature Volume Nineteen: XIX

May 31, 2024

Part nineteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Ah, when I decided to opt for Roman numeral naming.

Yet another cover I do not love. It’s too severe and there’s far too much and too little spacing with the track list.

No idea where I got the photo from, but I imagine it was from drunksaling. If you are not familiar with the term? You get tipsy in the morning and head out to garage sales and buy stupid shit. We’re too old for that now, but if you’re young enough? I highly suggest it. It’s a ton of fun. Just only get tipsy, though.

Highlights! NOUVELLE VAGUE & JULIE DELPY! You may be familiar with Delpy from the Linklater SUNSET trilogy, but she imbues this song with significance. (Also, not the only French New Wave-inspired track here!) BOY 8-BIT hits hard! CLUE’s Approach the Throne is an amazing bop. I know everyone only knows ELASTIC through their late 90s theme ‘Connection’ but? Go through the entirety of their limited collection. Pure post-punk perfection.

Not my best effort, but here’s the tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

Electroclature Volume Eighteen: 18

May 24, 2024

Part eighteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Cover photo? A fucking mess of a dress mannequin that someone slapped a dead star on and that we stumbled upon while in Austin, TX.

I quite like this cover. I find it engaging and well-structured, however it definitely gives off SILENT HILL vibes.

Could use a better font, but I grouse about that every time. Also? Probably should have actually included spaces. Too late now.

Anyway! Highlights! BLACK BOX RECORDER’s The School Song! The severely underheard LACROSSE and I See A Brightness! The delight of CRYSTAL FIGHTERS’ I Love London! Motherfucking PATTI SMITH’s Land which has been such a formative work for me. I cannot impart how much this song means to me! Seeing her perform it at Chicago’s The Vic? Mindblowing. I rocked the fuck out in that piss-smelling venue.

Moving forward, here’s the tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

  • bocca grande / Little Pianist / procedere
  • PATTI SMITH / Horses / Land
  • MUSIC GO MUSIC / Expressions / Warm In The Shadows [Villa]
  • BLACK BOX RECORDER / Passionoia / The School Song
  • VITALIC / Flashmob / Poison Lips
  • STS9 / Peaceblaster : The New Orleans Make It Right Remixes / Beyond Right Now [Glitch Mob]
  • BABY MONSTER / null / Ultra Violence & Beethoven (Mondkopf Remix)
  • CRYSTAL FIGHTERS / I Love London / I Love London [In Flagranti Vintage] (Yes, when my wife and myself visited London? I did play this song in our hotel room like a dumb American. Also? The lead in the video? They encapsulate Harley Fuckin’ Quinn and I am so here for it.)
  • SCANNERS / Salvation / Salvation
  • SONS AND DAUGHTERS / This Gift / House In My Head
  • LACROSSE / Bandages For The Heart / I See A Brightness
  • FIDEL NADAL / Nacional Records Sampler 2009 | The New Sounds Of Latin Music / Puerta De Oro [con Pablo Lescano]
  • XAVIER CUGAT & HIS ORCHESTRA / 16 Most Requested Songs Of The 1940’S, Volume II / South America, Take It Away
  • thefancydressparty / Off The Beaten Tracks / Egg & Spoon Race

Electroclature Volume Seventeen: 17

May 17, 2024

Part seventeen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Yet again a I cover I don’t love.

This cover is a repetitive collage of images snapped while drunk at a posh club, one that I can no longer remember and probably do not want to remember.

That tracks.

I like it as an image though, but I love me my symmetry and striking lighting. It also reminds me of the hallway-facing glass bathroom wall of the first place I lived in when I moved to Chicago, although that was more colorful. (Fun fact? I did shoot an entire short film that only featured that bathroom. Not so fun fact? There was a hell of a lot of shouting and screaming in said short.)

Yet again, the text formatting here — while very intentional — yet again feels like slop to me and I regret it, but nothing to be done about it now.

As usual! Tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song):

  • WOVENHAND / Consider the Birds / To Make A Ring
  • OLD CANES / Feral Harmonic / Little Bird Courage
  • THE BUILDERS AND THE BUTCHERS / Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well / Short Way Home
  • POLLY SCATTERGOOD / Polly Scattergood / Bunny Club [Bonus Track]
  • KRADDY / Android Porn / Steppin’ Razor / Android Porn
  • DAS ICH / Kannibale / Kannibale [Inline.Sex.Terror]
  • THE SOUND OF ARROWS / Into The Clouds 12″ / Into The Clouds [Fear of Tigers] (Want a video to get high to? I suggest this.)
  • CHICKS ON SPEED / Cutting The Edge / Super Surfer Girl (Also a great video to get high to.)
  • THE PIPETTES / We Are the PIPETTES / Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me
  • FRANKIE ROSE & THE OUTS / Thee Only One / Thee Only One
  • THE WILLOWZ / Everyone / Repetition
  • WAX TAILOR / Hope & Sorrow / Sometime
  • FEVER RAY / Seven / Seven (Martyn’s Seventh Mix)
  • KATIE STELMANIS / Join Us / Harder Now
  • LOS CAMPESINOS! / The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future / The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future
  • Soap&Skin / Soap&Skin / The Sun
  • Tomas Dvorak / Machinarium Soundtrack / Hodiny

Electroclature Volume Sixteen: 16

May 10, 2024

Part sixteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

…and yet again I went a bit too hard with the cover. It looks far better in print than on-screen, but …yeah. Very difficult to read here. Obviously I assume too much from those who will see these designs.

I will note that I took the photo while having a bit of a stress-reliever respite outside one of my best friend’s porch, and as you may see? The light was covered with webs and spiders and their prey and was oddly consoling.

Sigh. A lot of weird melancholia and anger here. I love all of the tracks, otherwise I wouldn’t have pressed them. CIRCULATORY SYSTEM’s Overjoyed is exuberant, as you would expect from the title. CHICKS ON SPEED’s Art Rules is angry and joyous at the same time. SCREAMING TEA PARTY is tasty punk goodness that makes ya wanna throw arms in the air. I love the organ in THE LOVE ME NOTS’ Give Em What They Want. The pure hedonism of MAD JUANA’s Valhalla!

There’s also ZOLA JESUS’ Rester. I saw her perform at Lincoln Hall and accidentally ran into her after the show. As in actually accidentally ran into her. I’m taller than average and she is quite short so I legit didn’t see her. (I’ll note? Her voice makes her feel like she’s a giant). So… that was awkward. At least I didn’t disrupt her drink.

Setting that aside? Tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

Electroclature Volume Fifteen: 5115

May 1, 2024

Part fifteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

Despite the fact that photos from an airplane window are rather cliché, I do rather like this cover artwork, especially since I believe I took it upon a trip to London. (The tracklist text could be tightened up, though, especially since some of it is practically unreadable on the screen.)

This is an embarrassment of riches and also another mix where I’ve seen so many of the bands. FEVER RAY! ART BRUT! THE KILLS!

Arguably the greatest — or at least most exuberant — AMANDA PALMER song! Fun fact? Saw her live at Chicago’s Metro back in the DRESDEN DOLLS days. She pulled water balloons out from her under her tits and threw them at the audience. An audience that was almost solely comprised of young teen girls. It was a show where I thought to myself: “I’m the oldest person here. Also, I think I’m the only dude? Am I gonna be put on some sort of watchlist for this?”

Anyway! Amanda is one fucking audacious performer.

PARENTHETICAL GIRLS! POLLY fucking SCATTERGOOD! Goddamn DIFFERNET!! Fuck, I live for this.

Also? GOD HELP THE GIRL’s ‘Musicians, Please Take Heed’ which features one of my favorite lyrics:

I made a daisy-chain from phrase, verse and punctuation.

I’ve said it before and I will not apologize for saying it again: make the effort to see bands live. Even if it’s a shit performance, you will remember it and will be able to hold that memory close to your heart.

I constantly think about when my wife and myself and others were wrangling acts and when I was DJ’ing and it takes so much time and effort to finesse these matters, much less actually show up and do the fucking work.

I do not think many folks realize just how hard it is to be an indie musician, to try to give misfits a good night out, and how driven a musician or band must be to endeavor out for what amounts to free booze tickets and maybe $60 if you’re lucky.

Okay, I’ll step down from my soapbox now.

As always, tracklist! (Artist / Album / Song — links go to a video of the song, if available):

AMANDA PALMER & THE GRAND THEFT ORCHESTRA – ‘Want It Back’ (2017)

April 26, 2024

CONTENT WARNING

The following video is not technically NSFW, but it’s as close as you can come so …viewer beware.

Calligraphy. This music video is all about fluid, dynamic, gorgeous and ornate text and I am absolutely here for it.

I cannot relay how many times I’ve watched and rewatched this.

My mind is blown by the amount of effort it must have taken to will this into the world. Words and stop-motion animation and so much skin and ink spatters? Fuck yeah. Reminds me of when as a youth I’d suck India ink in a straw and spit it out all over a page and revel in the black stains.

The fact that the song turns me into a whirlwind? Icing on the cake.

Also? If you were a svelte goth in the late 90s? You’ll certainly recognize the liquid latex utilized at the end. That sort of skin-tight nudity needs to be brought back in-fashion because I miss rocking that.

(Fun fact: Another song of hers will show up in the next Electroclature!)

Lastly? Note the use of BLOCKLETTERING for the chorus. Really, goddamn, the attention to detail here is astounding. Fucking amazing.

“It doesn’t matter if you want it back!

You’ve given it away!

You’ve given it away! Away! Away! Away! Away! Away! Away!”

GOTHIC QUEER CULTURE (2019)

April 24, 2024

Laura Westengard’s GOTHIC QUEER CULTURE is mostly what it says on the tin: it’s a collection of essays examining goth literature and queer culture over the past few centuries, focused on how those in that community are often considered monstrosities and how they (and by they, I mean: people like myself) embrace and own it. In case you haven’t realized it? I’m goth as fuck.

What I didn’t expect from it was how it’s also 100% about trauma. Probably wouldn’t have read it if I’d known that before diving into it! I have been repeatedly told by numerous professionals: “Take a break from trauma-centric works!”

(If I’d read the subtitle “Marginalized Communities and the Ghosts of Insidious Trauma” I probably would have realized that but …I’m dumb and didn’t bother to read that far until the book arrived at my doorstep. I was hooked on the title alone and couldn’t help but read it.)

“Gothicism is perhaps best characterized by its excess, bringing the disruptive, the unspeakable, into our field of vision.”

I’ve touched on this before, but uh, from my pre-teen years into my 20s? Pretty fucking traumatic. I really put myself through the wringer. I’m still digging through everything I hid and buried, from myself, from everyone. I’ve been in trauma therapy for a while now. Didn’t really realize any of it at the time — who does when you’re living it? — but fuck. I hope to hell you haven’t had to deal with anything severely traumatizing but if you have? Get yourself to a trauma therapist. Seek help. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

I don’t mean to oversell — plenty of folks have been through far worse than I have — but we all have our own terrible journeys in one way or another, don’t we?

What GOTHIC QUEER CULTURE instills is that those who lean towards the gothic subculture, especially if one is queer or bent? You’ve been through a lot of shit and have been weathered and found some sort of calm through this dark community, despite feeling like one is a societal aberration and have been treated like shit, and often still are.

I won’t go as far as to embrace the central thesis of these essays — that goth subculture is innately queer, despite the fact that I identify as both queer and goth — but I also won’t deny it. For me, the goth subculture has always been about simply accepting the deviants, those cast aside from mainstream society and — yes — that definitely includes those who are queer and marginalized, more often than not.

I have mostly lived in goth and queer communities. These have always been safe spaces for me. You can embrace who you are, how you present yourself; you don’t have to feel like you have to put on a facade. You can be genderqueer! You can be non-binary! You can be androgynous! You can be a weirdo cishet that just wants to dance to the point where you feel abandon! You can just be yourself and folks will appreciate and embrace you! It sounds hippie-dippy, but that is absolutely the experience I’ve had in Chicago’s goth community since the moment I moved here and I love it.

We are the misfits. We have been spit on. We have been slandered. We have been abused. When I was younger and lived in Indiana? I felt like every day I went outside I was putting myself at risk, simply for looking and presenting the way I did and rightfully so, as I have been in more than a few situations where I realized: “Oh, fuck, these people are absolutely against me and are definitely going to go to town on me if I don’t do something.”

“If we recognize that a traumatically informed gothic aesthetic was and continues to be central to queer cultural production — critical theory, popular culture, literature, art, performance — it becomes clear that resistant and subversive queer culture is gothic at its core.”

GOTHIC QUEER CULTURE recognizes all of that, albeit couched in academic terms and references. It’s goddamn rare to find a text that encapsulates what I’ve experienced in a manner that is wrapped around the subculture I grew up with. It’s safe to say? I felt super seen. This text isn’t for everyone as it is extraordinarily specific but it was astounding for me and it might be for you.

You can pick up a copy via the University of Nebraska!

Electroclature Volume Thirteen: 13

April 17, 2024

Part thirteen of an array of CD mixes I made for my wife over a long number of years! Read more about it here!

I know this is a CGA-ish eyesore. (CGA? An old-school limited computer display spectrum.) I got way too carried away but I think it has a certain charm, even if it gives me a bit of a migraine.

Included is the back and front and an alternate cover — which is even more of a visual headache! — because that’s a thing I used to do for some reason. Also, the initial template, which is far friendlier to one’s senses.

…or not.

There’s a lot of repetition here. A lot of the same tracks from a few prior volumes. I’m gonna chalk that up to a bipolar manic episode because that tracks.

(And yes, I still have a few ‘tape suitcases’ exactly like this, full of second or third or fifth-generation ripped audio works.)

Highlights! EXOCET’s South End [Colombian Connection] is powernoise perfection, all gristle and meaty beats. THE BPA and Toe Jam is so exuberant and ebullient, although 80% of that is instilled solely by David Byrne’s lilt. THE LONG BLONDES’ I’m Going to Hell from their under-heard album ‘Couples’ which features the following:

I didn’t want to risk the chance of someone finding out /

Now I’m going to hell, so I may as well make it worth my while

Yeah, that’s my lifelong anthem.

Yes, I spent a stupid amount of time on all of these works, and that time is not reflected in the end-product!

(Artist / Album / Song):

  • SALLY SHAPIRO / Remix Romance Vol. 1 / Jackie Junior [Junior Boys]
  • TILLY & THE WALL / That Remix Sucks / Bad Education [No Context]
  • EVIL NINE / They Live! / They Live! [Felix Cartal]
  • EXOCET / Violation / South End [Colombian Connection]
  • LOS CAMPESINOS! / We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed / Miserabilia
  • TITUS ANDRONICUS / The Airing of Grievances / Titus Andronicus
  • THE OOLAHS / Chinchilla / Lemmings Anthem
  • BE YOUR OWN PET / Get Damaged / Becky
  • LOVE IS ALL / A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At / Wishing Well
  • CALL ME POUPÉE / Western Shanghai / Le Paradis Des Fous
  • KATZENJAMMER / Le Pop / A Bar In Amsterdam
  • ELASTICA / The Radio One Sessions / I Want You [Evening Session]
  • THE BPA / Toe Jam / The Jam
  • PARENTHETICAL GIRLS / Entanglements / This Regrettable End
  • TIMBER TIMBRE / Timber Timbre / Trouble Comes Knocking
  • THE LONG BLONDES / Couples / I’m Going to Hell [Abridged]