I love their first album DELETE YOURSELF!. I really do. It’s all hard-hitting gritty hardcore and hip-hop beats and brutal samples and whip-worthy anthems.
“If we don’t turn it on, nobody else will!!”
However, I fucking love their second album 60 SECOND WIPE OUT, solely because of ATARI TEENAGE RIOT II, a revision, a revisitation, of their prior ATARI TEENAGE RIOT anthem.
The first version is a fucking banger, carefully crafted with hardcore pacing and fist-pumping lyricism.
“Stop the riot?!! FUCK YOU!!!”
The second version? It (d)evolves into absolute sheer fucking noise. It is absolutely wild and I can’t help but revel in it.
“But that doesn’t stop me!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!!!”
This is all about progressive noise artist Nic Endo. She’s the driving force here; she fucking escalates aural matters that were already far too heightened. She’s unbridled and drives the track into MERZBOW territory and holy hell is it amazing.
“What did you say?”
I saw them on the 60 Second Wipe Out Tour so many years ago and I was elated to have Nic Endo fucking melt my ears! For all intents and purposes, I met my wife there. (We’d met a few hours prior to the show, but at the show proper? That’s when I feel I met her.)
“What did you say?!”
Despite not knowing each other at all, we both pushed ourselves to the front of the crowd and were spit on by Alec Empire and we locked eyes during this song and, well, ultimately that was that.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!!”
Pretty fucking dumb, but what’s youth if you aren’t dumb and willing to have fun?
I digress, but the rest is all ancillary I suppose!
This post is sexually explicit, but not in a fun way.
LORDS OF ACID are a quintessential late 80s/90s techno-industrial band, all dancehall woman-belting and raw synths and dirty beats, but they were far, far filthier than anything of their time. Hell, even for now.
This is a band whose breakout single — from their debut album titled ‘LUST’ — repeatedly features the refrain “Sit on my face”.
Additional songs from ‘LUST’ include Rough Sex and I Must Increase My Bust which do what they say on the tin. The Most Wonderful Girl? Yeah, that’s all about loving yourself in more than one way.
Their second album ‘VOODOO-U’ featured beautifully eye-searingly neon lurid cover art from hotrod artist COOP which, well, is comprised of a devil orgy and everything is on display, to the point where they had to have both uncensored and censored versions of the cover.
So it should come as no surprise that on ‘VOODOO-U’ they penned an entire song — The Crablouse — about a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
It should also come as no surprise that I fucking love it.
Here’s a message for the girls about vaginas And the consequence of fiddling with a partner Mind your labia they’re never out of danger If you’re gonna go to bed with a stranger
For whatever reason, despite the fallout from Nancy Reagan’s 80s protectiveness and censorship and HIV/AIDS — or perhaps because of it — the 90s musically reveled in sexuality and sensuality, and LORDS OF ACID took that to the extreme. As you can read in the peppered lyrics here, there isn’t a single line here that isn’t either sexually loaded or absolutely explicit.
If you meet a guy who’s scratching at his totem We all know that it’s connected with his scrotum He might tell you that his undie is too tight But you’ll know that it’s the crablouse and you’re right
While some may write The Crablouse off as a song that exists solely for shock value with a fantastic kick — and don’t get me wrong, I love it for that alone — I think it’s not without merit, that it’s sincere and substantial and serves a purpose.
If a crablouse gets mixed up in your saliva Stumbles through your body right into your vulva Then waits patiently until penetration Gets it out of there and right into salvation
STIs are perhaps one of the last taboo topics when it comes to mainstream culture. It’s a stigma, something to be shameful of, perhaps because of puritanism, of the myth that folks are sexless and virginal until they meet the person they’ll die with or whatnot; it’s something not to be talked about out loud but whispered. These are physical matters that only occur to the deviants, societal aberrations, and they’re reaping what they’ve sown.
The little vampire, horny and so greedy It doesn’t care about a penis and it’s envy It’s intelligent, nasty and it’s sick A party animal, a pervert and a pig
Obviously, that’s not the case. Not to get all high-school sex-ed on you but one in five folks in America has or have had one (and that’s just based on reported numbers). Hell, even if one is chaste, they may contract one from the person they marry or permanently partner with. Some may go to their grave without ever knowing that they have an STI.
Now we know the little crablouse is a raver You can’t get rid of it unless you use a razor It’s unbearable, funky and so cool A real smartass and nobody’s fool
With The Crablouse LORDS OF ACID shove this awareness in your face and make you confront the fact that STIs exist and they revel in the fact that this is just a part of enjoying life, that we should be thankful that we have remedies and methods and ways to heal and continue to indulge in desire.
It’s there to stay, sucks all day It’s there to bite, my parasite My love machine, my maddest dream Turns me on, makes me come
This isn’t the purpose of the post — the purpose is to recommend this banger of a song — however? Get tested. Use protection, although that doesn’t 100% guarantee against STIs but it’s the best you can do. (No risk, no reward and all that.) I shouldn’t have to be typing this, but I am anyway because well, I’ve known more than a few folks that knew better not to do so but …didn’t.
Be aware of not just your body, but also your partner or partners. Doesn’t matter your age or disposition. I believe that LORDS OF ACID does an exceptional effort at drawing attention to all of that, without explicitly stating so despite that they’re all about being explicit.
It is a cautionary tale for adults in its twisted way, all accompanied by heavy-hitting beats.
Lastly I’ll note that, shockingly, there is an actual video for the song that — while yes, it traffics in a lot of fetish wear — is surprisingly tame, but still manages to convey the verve and abandon of the song.
This is a post I initially penned last year, but never quite got around to finishing because, well, there was no way anyone could see it as the production had closed and there are usually a number of years between when it’s produced again. However, now you can stream it via the WTTW website!
Those around me know I’m a curmudgeon when it comes to ALICE IN WONDERLAND. It’s not because I believe Lewis Carroll’s story is overrated trash best left in the past. That would be foolish. It is a brilliant foundational text; a complex piece that entertains and enlightens no matter your age.
However, I do feel that referencing ALICE hallmarks are often used as an artistic crutch. Someone slaps a ‘DRINK ME’ tag into a work or mentions ‘rabbit hole’ and it’s meant as a wink and then all of the sudden the work takes on a deeper meaning without having to imbue your own.
So, last year when I read that Chicago’s LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE was reviving their signature take on ALICE IN WONDERLAND — LOOKINGGLASS ALICE — I reluctantly resigned myself to attending, albeit to their final performance on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was surrounded by painted-up wide-eyed youths and then I remembered that oh, right, ALICE IN WONDERLAND is first and foremost a cautionary tale for youths, one that’s mostly been reappropriated by adults for the reasons listed above.
Like I said: I am a curmudgeon.
If you aren’t familiar with LOOKINGGLASS THEATRE, it’s a relatively small but celebrated Tony-award winning theatre. It can accommodate a few hundred folks and is located in downtown Chicago, in the infamous Chicago Water Tower, part-and-parcel of the legacy of the Great Chicago Fire that razed most of the city. However, the limestone-constructed Water Tower survived.
LOOKINGGLASS is a theater-in-the-round in a maximal way; they don’t constrain themselves to the main floor, but frequently utilize the entire space, weaving their way through the audience to the rafters before sinking into the subterranean basement.
As you might suspect by the name, LOOKINGGLASS ALICE is “one of their signature shows”, and what a show it is. Not only is it extraordinarily physical and features numerous upbeat songs, it is often very melancholy, even when reveling in acrobatics and circus spectacle and elaborate, inventively whimsical costumes.
There’s one scene where Alice ascends before going down the rabbit hole and the actor grabs and grapples through three tiers of rope, all swinging and twisting and twirling and contorting herself while singing at the same time. It is jaw-dropping and intensely emotion and satisfyingly effective.
While the production traffics in a lot of expertly crafted kid-pleasing numbers that some might find abrasive and somewhat puerile — such as ones from TweedleDee/TweedleDumb and The Caterpillar — those numbers serve to heighten the reflective bits.
One personal note: there’s a scene where the White Night is talking to Alice. He removes his elaborate helmet and hands it a front-row audience member. For that final performance, I just happened to be that audience member.
After three months of very sweaty performances, it was very fragrant. Also, it was very warm.
The White Knight exits the scene and doesn’t return for some time and when he does, he climbs onto an extremely tall unicycle, riding around the stage all while talking at Alice.
After holding the helmet for a good ten or fifteen minutes, I wondered whether it was a production error because, again: final performance, Sunday afternoon. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen performers flub a line or miss a mark or be visibly hungover during the last show.
You can find out for yourself whether it was or was not an error, and you don’t even have to visit Chicago or even leave your house to do so! Our local PBS station WTTW aired a finely produced live-with-audience production of LOOKINGGLASS ALICE that was recorded last year. You can stream it at the WTTW site!
I am a huge fan of the website AUTOSTRADDLE. Yes, it is a queer-centric site and I do identify as queer, but AUTOSTRADDLE is specifically a website for lesbian culture that is also trans and non-binary inclusive.
I fall under none of those labels. Okay, well, genderqueer, but I present as a dude. I feel more akin to their writing than, well, just about any other culture site out there. They have a certain sensibility — a brusqueness and forthrightness coupled with insight — that brings me joy, although I do occasionally feel like an interloper. I have numerous tabs of their posts in my browser at all times. I want to send more eyeballs forward, and perhaps you’ll enjoy it and maybe even become an A+ member. (I am a proud supporter!)
I first discovered the site via Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, who wrote for the very influential A.V. Club website before the working conditions went to shit, and she is now a writer and managing editor for AUTOSTRADDLE.
Kayla is brilliant and recently posted the sequel to her HORROR IS SO GAY collection of queer-adjacent essays about horror works, which is a far better collection than what I’ve been doing all month. Among other things, it features a deep dive on the works of Jennifer Reeder, who I have posted about and am always delighted to see others extoll her films.
I’d be bereft to mention their selections of horror films based on your astrological sign. While I’m not all that into horoscopes, this is fun and I absolutely cannot deny that I’m undeniably a Cancer, to a scary extent, and despite — well, this entire fucking site — I have not seen any of the films they assigned to my sign.
While I’ve always identified Halloween as Goth Christmas — see tomorrow’s post — it is also Gay Christmas and Kayla linked to a fantastic piece about exactly how it became know as ‘Gay Christmas’. This is history that should be known and she’s doing the work. I would not have discovered it if it weren’t for her or AUTOSTRADDLE.
AUTOSTRADDLE is a great site, one that really knows how celebrate Goth and Gay Christmas! I do hope that you click through to some of their non-horror posts as well, as they’re writing amazing works and I’m happy to call myself a supporter, even if I’m a genderqueer dude.
ADDENDUM
If you’re looking for more horror/goth-centric queer essays, I highly recommend GOTHIC QUEER CULTURE from Laura Westengard. I will warn you that it is surprisingly more entangled with trauma than I expected.
This Sunday’s repost is LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL! I can count the number of off-Broadway musicals I know by heart on one finger, and on that one finger? That’s LIZZIE, THE MUSICAL.
This musical — centered around Lizzie Borden, who had an axe and gave her mother forty whacks — is goth as fuck, goddamn pitch-black, and outrageously, outstandingly feminist and I am absolutely fucking here for it.
There’s a fair amount of smutty language so, uh, good luck seeing a high school production of it (although more schools should produce it! Even if they have to tone down the language!) but keep your eyes out for a local production!
This is a terribly unfair recommendation as there’s no way you can experience — or even watch this — but my blog, my rules.
Chicago-based burlesque performer Red Rum is rather singular in that she marries burlesque with horror. Her acts are often creepy, often unsettling, sometimes bloody, but always enthralling. For example: she once programmed an entire night of performers around TWILIGHT ZONE episodes and it was a twisted blast.
In 2018 I attended the second SATANIC PANIC FESTIVAL, a phantasmagoric horror-centric burlesque gala, wrangled by Red Rum. It took place in Chicago’s School of the Art Institute’s ballroom which is an open two-story space and — as you can see by the photo above — they needed it.
The event was bewildering, all spectacle and darkness and it was spooky and creepy and sexy and it was amazing. The highlight — in more ways than one — was the above. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you: those folks are holding buzzsaws to their metal-ensconced crotches and yes, the sparks flew two stories to the ceiling.
Red Rum only programmed two of these momentous, over-packed events, the first of which I missed — which I regret — but at least I was able to attend this one. I treasure the card pack that was handed to me. It resides on a shelf to the right of me, and I see it every day.
Why am I posting this? Obviously, you have no hope of attending these events as the SATANIC PANIC FEST is no longer.
Second, there’s more to enjoying horror than just watching scary movies or TV.
There are so many ways to celebrate confronting the darker sides of humanity than just watching a screen. These events are communal. You intermingle with like-minded individuals and you can simply revel in the experience and know that you are in a safe space where folks want to have fun while acknowledging the terrible potential of human or supernatural or otherworldly behavior.
It’s a way to be thrilled, to be safely scared, to feel like you’re living, and there’s no better way to do so than with others while watching someone living in front of you, writhing and reveling in your reactions. Hopefully you live in an area with folks that provide such an experience and, hell, if no one else is doing it? Do it yourself. Red Rum willed this event into existence. She did it herself. You can too.
Did you have a house in your neighborhood that, whenever October 1st rolled around, it went from being what looked like a normal abode to a creepy funhouse?
When Halloween rolls around they get out their garb and spend a hell of a lot of time crafting some of the finest covers with the most engaging choreography to make the punkiest, gothy videos ever.
As someone who has a significant number of compilations solely dedicated to goth covers of pop songs, I can safely say that they put most of those covers to shame. BROKEN PEACH are endlessly inventive; they take twists and turns when they didn’t need to! I endlessly wonder how they find the time to plan and practice all of this out, while still putting out their own original work, as this feels like it’s on the level of drumcore work.
Granted, over the years I’m sure it has become somewhat easier as they have found their very signature look and uniforms — which I’ll note, they had pretty much out of the gate with their earlier videos — stance, choreography, personality (in a great sort of goth group way), and cadence. However, they’re always upping their game, and I’m always in awe of the results. They’re endlessly engaging, amazingly energetic but still tightly maneuvered, and their production and costume design is so finely tuned. Most importantly? The music always is fist-pumping, boundless fun.
They just released their latest Halloween work, their cover of BLONDIE’s One Way or Another. Please, click their YouTube links to check out their full song history. My personal favorites are Personal Jesus. Tainted Love and Don’t You Want Me and now, of course, One Way or Another, but they’re all great! Also, check out their non-spooky works, especially the soulful automaton-centric video for I Miss You!
It can be difficult to find a fun and enthralling collection of creepy songs that aren’t solely novelty works, but HALLOWEEN NUGGETS: MONSTER SIXTIES A GO-GO fills that void and has been a staple of my Octobers for many years now, and may be perfect for your Halloween party.
It’s a diverse three-disc collection of engaging early 60s fusion and surf and garage rock numbers that are all spooky in their own ways, kicking off with the emphatic and amazingly catchy THE MYSTRS’s Witch Girl.
(Please appreciate the fan video which marries the song with the Soviet witch classic VIY!)
Also featured on the disc? JIM BURGETT’s Jekyll and Hyde, as well as THE WEIRDOS’s languid and sample-and-scream heavy E.S.P. Theme for Shock Theatre.
Disc two features a few staples, such as THE SHANDELLS’s perky and potentially iffy Go Go Gorilia but it has an energetic heartbeat. It also has LEE ROSS’s haunting Johnny Cash-ish The Mummy’s Bracelet.
The third disc contains among many other dazzling tracks, the THE TWELFTH NIGHT’s Grim Reaper!
(These are a few select favorites of mine and I don’t mean to overlook any of the other songs. If I listed off every track I revel in, this post would be thousands of words long.)
Emblazoned by furious brass, sultry back-up singers, hard-hitting drums, and a swinging groove that often will make you sway like Audrey Horne in TWIN PEAKS, this compilation has a little of something to please everyone. It is endlessly listenable and, if you don’t like a song? Wait a few minutes as you’ll probably love the next.
It’s available to purchase digitally — and there are physical copies available — via most outlets but, to make matters easier for you, here’s a Spotify link:
Every once in a while I completely miss the mark with a film, and I certainly did so with REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA when I first saw it, fucking fifteen years ago.
“Zydrate comes in a little glass vial.”
“A little glass vial?”
“A little glass vial.”
“And the little glass vial goes into the gun like a battery. /
And the Zydrate gun goes somewhere against your anatomy /
And when the gun goes off it sparks and you’re ready for surgery. Surgery.”
REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA (REPO! going forward) musically portrays a BLADE RUNNER inspired dystopian future where massive organ failures wipes out the bulk of the population. The company GeneCo, run by CEO Rotti Largo, facilitates organ replacement and refinement on a payment plan but, if you miss a payment, they’re legally able to repossess organs by any means necessary.
We’re then introduced to Shilo, an extraordinarily pale Alexa PenaVega, the daughter of Ritto’s ex-fiancée and who has rare blood disease. Shilo is overly sheltered by her father Nathan, sinisterly portrayed by Anthony Steward Head. Matters escalate as everyone — including Rotti’s three desperate children, which includes SKINNY PUPPY’s ogHr — work towards their own self-interests.
“Lungs and livers and bladders and hearts /
You’ll always save a bundle when you buy our genetic parts /
Spleens and intestines and spines and brains /
High are our prices but our quality’s the same”
As stated right in the title, this is an opera — a goth-as-fuck rock opera — and has all of the trappings of one: it’s wall-to-wall extremely infectious, emotional goth/industrial songs and Greek chorus and family melodrama.
“My brother and sister should fuck.”
I attended a screening of it at the Music Box as part of the REPO! Road Tour with a post-film Q&A that included director director Darren Lynn Bousman and it grated on me. I found the film sweaty, especially the gaussian blur which felt unnecessarily tacky, despite that it seems to be trying to recreate the look of nitrate film. I did appreciate the moxie of those behind the production, especially Bousman’s efforts which absolutely took advantage of his directorial access to SAW IV’s sets and resources in order to realize REPO!.
“I’m infected /
By your genetics /
And I don’t think that I can be fixed /
No, I don’t think that I can be fixed /
Oh, tell me why, oh /
Why are my genetics such a bitch.”
Upon a recent rewatch, I realized my initial opinion was gravely wrong. Since my first watch, I’ve become a fan of musicals so I was able to greatly appreciate the influence of Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD, the patter inspired by THE MUSIC MAN’s Meredith Willson, the drama of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the driven emotion of Les Misérables, even the rich history of pirate songs, and a hilariously sick sense of humor. This time around, I saw how it lovingly leaned on the structure of opera and I was here for it.
“DECAF?! I will shoot you in the face!”
I still don’t love the gaussian filter that distracts from the extremely striking makeup and fetish costume design; the Repo Man outfit is especially well-executed. There is way too much exposition, often doled out by finely illustrated comic panels almost certainly included because of budgetary constraints. While I tried to be as concise as possible regarding the plot, this is an extremely dense and ambitious work with all sorts of intertwined conflicts and duplicity and back-story that can feel both overwhelming while also feeling unnecessary.
“How’d you do that?”
“Do what?”
“That eye thing.”
“These eyes can do more than see.”
“I know. I mean, I’ve seen you sing.”
“Where?”
“From my window. I can see the world from there /
Name the stars and constellations /
Count the cars and watch the seasons.”
With this rewatch, I simply allowed the film to wash over me and I loved it. There are so many great lines and songs in it and when the exposition lets up, it finds a fantastic flow that will leave you breathless.
“Your mother would be proud, rest her soul, would be so proud of you /
Though you cannot see her /
She is here with you /
We will always be there for you in your time of need /
Shilo, you mean the world to me.”
Paul Sorvino’s work here as Rotti Largo is remarkable. He takes it far more seriously than need be given his stature, all sinister and greed but occasionally sensitive, and his voice will blow you away.
“Maggots. Vermin. /
You want the world for nothing. /
Commence your groveling, your king is dying. /
Rotti, your king, is dying. /
Even Rotti Largo cannot prevent this passing. /
Who will inherit GeneCo? /
I’ll keep those vultures guessing. /
I’ll keep those vultures guessing.”
This is a quintessential passion project. It originated as a theater production shepherded into existence by Darren Smith, then a short film from Darren Lynn Bousman, then this astounding feature film. I’ve noted that often music-centric productions — such as the film adaptation of CATS — have a scrappy charm to them. That sort of pluck and charm is absolutely on display here, that exacting belief in the batshitcrazy creation you want to put in-front of people. I was not prepared for REPO! the first time I saw it, but give it a chance. I was deadly wrong about it the first time around and hopefully you’ll revel in its charms.
“Flesh is weak /
Blood is cheap.”
ADDENDUM
The excellent magazine and website RUE MORGUE has an interview with director Darren Lynn Bousman, looking back on REPO! fifteen years after its release. This interview was the impetus for my rewatch and, consequently, this recommendation!
![LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL (2010+) [REDUX]](https://mediaclature.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/lizzie-the-musical.jpg)
