Category: Post-Punk (Page 3 of 5)

Concert Review: Christian Death At The Underworld In London 31/08/22

September 2, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Going to this show was kind of like a pilgrimage for me because I had not seen the band live for about 25 years. This was due to a combination of living in places were bands generally don’t stop at and being perpetually broke. I saw them live twice in the 90’s when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area so I at least got to see them perform before. I know how lucky I was. I currently live in the UK Channel Islands, which is far from just about everything. This means to see shows in England I have to fly into London, which isn’t exactly cheap. So for me to see a show there I have to really, really, really, etc.. be a huge fan of the band I am flying to see. Just saying this so that you know the viewpoint I am coming from; I am a huge fan of the band. I was diagnosed with MS about five years ago and I decided that I needed to see them again because I have no idea how physically screwed up I’m going to be in the future.

My husband and I were in the front of the line to get in, of course, and I met some very cool people and had some really good conversations about the band, the current state of goth music, the Dead Kennedys, Samhain and other subjects. I have forgotten their names because I suck in general at remembering such things so please do not be mad at me if you guys are reading this. You guys were awesome and it was very cool connecting with other people at a show.

The first band up was a duo named the West Wickhams who played a minimalist type of music consisting of guitar, a drum machine and some synth manipulation. I have to be honest, I am not the hugest fan of this type of goth music. However, the guitarist/singer was so earnest that they had me tapping my feet. That actually counts for a lot when you see bands live because you can instantly tell that they are really into performing their music and that they want you to go down a road of discovery with them. I hope that they keep at it and continue to do shows because their lyrics were really good.

Ghost Dance was up next and they were very energetic and looked like they were having fun. I only knew a few songs by them but they had me up from my seat and dancing, holding the railing for safety because my right ankle tends to give out on me. Anne Marie looked like she was having a great time and she interacted with the audience a bunch as evidenced by the photo above. She had some tech issues with her mic during the first song but that was sorted out and didn’t affect the performance at all. Their last song was Promised Land, which was a song that she originally performed with her earlier band Skeletal Family. I totally wasn’t expecting that so it was very cool hearing it performed live. Their performance was very good and if you have a chance to see them go for it because you will have a good time and not be disappointed.

Up next was Christian Death. Before they went on they had issues trying to set up their video on the screen that would be shown behind them. They ended up just removing the screen, which in the end didn’t really matter because their performance would have been great with or without it. I love their new album Evil Becomes Rule and they pretty much played the entire thing. The first two times I saw them there wasn’t a second guitarist so it was very cool getting to see both Maitri and Valor concentrate more on their parts within the songs. It enabled Maitri to put more emotion into singing songs such as Beautiful and it really showed off her vocals to a degree that I had never heard live before. In other words she was totally on fire during the show and she was more front and center than usual.

Valor also put on a really good performance because he got to concentrate on his singing and playing rhythm guitar instead of stretching himself too thin by playing lead guitar constantly. That is not to say that he didn’t play lead guitar at all, it just allowed him more of a choice as to what parts he wanted to perform. He has always been an excellent guitarist so I have absolutely no complaints about his playing at all. He even played some acoustic guitar which was very cool. Their other guitarist was Chuck Lenihan who also did an excellent job, along with their new drummer.

When you go to a Christian Death show you know that you are going to hear Valor railing against politicians, religion and the British royal family, and this show was no different. I actually really appreciate that side of his performance because too few musicians are using their platforms to say such things. He has always been outspoken and it is one of the reasons why I have always loved the band. It harkens back to how political punk was in the 80’s and it really shows the connection that he has always had with that music and subculture.

After they were done with playing the album they dove straight into Forgiven, This Glass House and then Sick Of Love. The audience was bouncing all over the place and there was such energy that you couldn’t help but join in. The audience was part of the reason that the show was so good. You could tell that all of them were into the music, and it was very awesome to see some teenagers in the audience also having a great time.

This next part still has me tripping out so please forgive me if I babble a bit about it and get disjointed. After Sick Of Love they left the stage for about five minutes and then came back out for an encore. I was very near the left hand side of the stage which was on the same level above the crowd. When Maitri came out she made a beeline towards me to the other side of the railing and asked if I was Megan. I responded that yes I was and she told me to come around the railing and get on stage with them. I was so surprised that I forgot my walking stick. I told her when I went around the curtain to the stage that I might fall and she said not to worry and reassured me that I would be okay. That relaxed me a bit which helped with my nervousness and it was a very sweet thing for her to say. I stood next to her while she told the crowd that I flew in from Guernsey; that I was a very supportive fan who defended them online and that I was very much appreciated for what I was doing for the band.

As you can well imagine by this point I was borderline teary but then something really astonishing happened. They announced that because of all of this I was going to get to join them in singing This Is Heresy as their encore. Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!!! I am not the greatest singer but by golly I belted my heart out! There were parts that I just let Valor sing because I previously knew that in live performances he sometimes goes off pace. However, by the last part of the song I was yelling ‘Soaked in the blood of men, not the body of Christ!’. After the end I gave them hugs, exited the stage and went to the merch area to wait for them there because they told the audience that they would come out for photos and autographs. Sure enough they did. My husband took a video on his camera of all of this, so once he figures out how to transfer it to me I will upload it in a new post.

I cannot overstate how much of a sweetheart Maitri is. She thanked me yet again, we got some more hugs in and I left her side just insanely happy knowing that I was able to make a difference as to how she is perceived as a musician.

Valor was absolutely no different. He is also a very nice and friendly person. We got to talking and I asked him if he had ever met Jello Biafra back in the early 80’s because there was a whole lot of cross pollination when it came to punk/deathrock type bands between San Francisco and Los Angeles during that time. Sure enough he told me about a car trip he took back then with Jello to San Francisco from Los Angeles. It made perfect sense since as songwriters they both write songs about pretty much the same topics. I mentioned Jello to Valor because him and Jello are the two lyricists who largely made me into who I am today; somebody who heavily questions politicians, religions and other such things. He was very grateful towards me for telling him that, which in turn meant a lot to me. The circle of life.

Without a doubt Valor and Maitri are the nicest musicians I have ever met. That is saying something because I met Henry Rollins over thirty years and he was a very cool person too. They definitely edge Rollins out to take the top spot on my list. If you have a chance to see this band live go for it because you will not be disappointed by their performance or by who they are as human beings.

The Ongoing Saga Of Alex Baker And Post-Punk Dot Com

September 1, 2022 / dystopiagal / 1 Comment

Back in July the website tried to promote the very problematic band She Wants Revenge. Money is more important than the safety of women apparently. It was only taken down when enough of us complained.

I can well imagine that some of you are wondering why I am feeling the need to write out a post about such a peachy-keen site that promotes so many bands within the goth community. Well, sometimes things are not all that they seem to be; scratch the surface and sometimes you will find something very onerous underneath. Since I am not one to shy away from controversy I immediately knew that I has to write about this and tell people the truth as to what kind of website they are actually supporting.

So what kind of website is it and who originally started it? The original founder of post-punk dot com was Joshua Pfeiffer, and he started the site around 2004 to share information about the lesser known goth, post-punk and alternative bands that he was discovering. He couldn’t find a site online that was a repository of information about the music, so he scoured the internet, asked people, interviewed musicians and did a whole lot of independent research to create a site in which he could share his love of the music. He is also a musician and a DJ who has worked with a lot of people within the goth, alternative and punk communities. In other words the site was a work of love for him and the others who also participated in the day to day running of it. He did not do it for the money, and since it started to take more and more of his free time, which he didn’t have much of to begin with, he handed over the site to somebody who promised that they would run it in the same manner; Alex Baker, a promoter who was at the time living in New York.*

Who is Alex Baker? Where do I even begin; should I start off on what he claims he is or what he really is? Here are the basics. Our boy Alex is the son of a famous mainstream record producer. Who? At this point I really don’t care. I only know of this because our little Alex brags about it and shows 80’s photos of his dad with various famous musicians of the decade. I’m going to let Alex tell us what happened next, according to an interview that he gave in 2020.

In 2012 I started the process of taking over Post-Punk.com and relaunching it, which was done in 2014. Prior to this I had been doing event promotions in NYC, at clubs like The Limelight, Pyramid, CBGB’s, Knitting Factory and more, and had also ran a print publication.
Redakce / proti sedi

Funny how he doesn’t mention Joshua Pfeiffer, the person who actually created the site. Relaunching it into what exactly? Why would a website that is there to only share information need to be relaunched? Didn’t he promise that he wouldn’t change the site? Oh dear!

In the same magazine article quoted above he goes into how he moved to Berlin but it got too techno for him so he decided to move to Los Angeles part-time to be closer to all of the post-punk/alternative bands there. Oh, and he can travel to Europe to catch all of the music festivals there too. Needless to say the guy has a serious amount of cash. The kind of cash that you can’t make from running a website or from being a promoter within the subculture. He has to be getting money from his father to afford all of this. I’m not going to put him down for that because plenty of people that receive an inheritance or an annuity aren’t totally self absorbed liars. Rather, it is how he uses his money, or doesn’t, that I would like to have a chat about.

So, we have established that Alex is in no way broke and has a considerable amount of money that allows him to regularly travel to Europe. Since this is the case why does he charge bands for album reviews and always begs for money to support the site?

Let’s tackle the whole pay to play scam first. I know that some of you won’t know what this means, so I’ll explain. Back in the 50’s-70’s it was very common that when a music producer or record label wanted singles played on the radio they would quite often pay the radio stations to play the songs. So, whomever had the most money came up on top. It didn’t matter what they sounded like, as long as the radio stations received the cash they got played. Since I know all about how this pay to play scam works I was a bit shocked to see our little friend Alex pulling this shit right out in the open. Not only does he charge bands money to be reviewed, he also charges them money to get such things as an Instagram boost. As a person who has run my own blogs on and off for almost twenty years I know that you can link your site to your social media accounts so that you don’t have to bother doing it manually. Charging a goth/alternative/post-punk subculture band money for all of this feels as dirty as a rolled up dollar bill on the floor of a bathroom in a goth club. So, who gets the most coverage? Any band that has money. Right now that means all of the Joy Division/Cure clone ‘post-punk’ bands, because the youngsters really dig them and buy a lot of merch and music from them. I’m not knocking all of those bands, but how is it fair to the bands that are broke and trying to get their music out there? It isn’t and it sucks.

I took screen shots of the whole band submission process on post-punk dot com. Come with me on a voyage of greed on the HMS Post-Punk! I will post a photo and explain what you are seeing underneath.

Awwww……how sweet they want to give us high-quality video content. We are pretending we are a band right now so go along with it. We are in hiding.

I just picked that we wanted an article published about us. Why? Because we play good music and are cool. Don’t forget that!

Would we like our music reviewed? Of course we would because we play good music and want people to find out about it. Wouldn’t our review just automatically appear on their Instagram page when they post it onto their site? WHAT!!!!! A ‘contribution’ amount of $150 for them to write a review and create an Instagram post of us? Why should we be contributing any money to a website that was meant to just be a central repository of band information in the first place? Oh wait, that’s right, when our friend Alex took over the site he decided to turn it into something that his daddy would be proud of; a mainstream endorsed music website that is all about the cash and who you know, rather than simply being about the music. I have even heard talk from different people who ‘know’ that Alex is also only allowing bands on the site that he deems ‘attractive’, that they need to have a certain ‘look’.

This doesn’t stop out dear Alex from regularly asking for yet more money to run the site, even though the dude is loaded. So, not only is he a liar he is money hungry as well.

Awww….look at Alex. He’s started a fundraiser for the site even though he is charging for reviews AND is loaded.

He even tried to crowdfund over £20,000 to start a print magazine, and it failed. Finally some good news.

What is the real reason behind why he took over the website in the first place? He wants the power and clout that owning a popular site within the subculture gives him. He wants to be the person that the mainstream music press goes to when they want their questions about goth/post-punk music answered. He wants to be the person who appears on podcast shows talking about the bands that he ‘discovered’. He wants his head up on a post-punk Mt. Rushmore sandwiched between Ian Curtis and Peter Hook. For him this is all a means to an end, with the help of his dad’s money and connections.

The last thing I want to discuss is something that really cracked me up. Since I knew that I was going to be writing this I kind of paid attention to the website’s Facebook page. The other day the below post appeared, and by golly do I have a lot to say about it!

Can you imagine somebody being so out of touch with reality that they would think that posting about the Dead Kennedys would give them some punk cred? Wonder no more because Alex has struck again! This has proven to me that he has never actually ‘listened’ to the Dead Kennedys. Jello Biafra would verbally demolish him because he has ALWAYS been against the mainstream music industry and what they represent. So much so that he wrote a song on the subject called Anarchy For Sale, about how corporations steal ideas and try to sell them back to the subculture that they stole them from in the first place. Sound familiar?

More and more people are whispering about all of this and are genuinely scared to say anything because of the power that he is currently holding over every single musician in the subculture. I have no doubt that Alex really enjoys holding the sword of Damocles above their necks, In fact he probably gets off on it.

I’ve been into goth/alternative/punk music for over 35 years now. Over that time I have witnessed some very egregious shit go down, but I must say that this is the first time I have seen somebody with obvious mainstream ties try to buy their way into the subculture. You can have all of the money in the world, but that won’t make you ‘authentic’. Do you know the people who are actually authentic within the goth/alternative/punk subcultures? The people who actually ‘listen’ to the music and love it for what it is; not for some perceived clout. They can be broke as hell and dress in clothes they got from Walmart but because they actually ‘listen’ to the music that will always make them more authentic than our boy Alex will ever be.

I was originally going to make that last paragraph the end of this article but since little Alex seems to love posting about the Dead Kennedys without actually ‘listening’ to them I thought I would help him out. These are all of the songs from their album Bedtime For Democracy that really fit into this entire situation quite well! Remember, these songs are just from one of their albums. Enjoy Alex!

Anarchy For Sale (1986)

Chickenshit Conformist (1986)

Hop With The Jet Set (1986)

Macho Insecurity (1986)

I Spy (1986)

*I’m now told that Alex actually bought the site in an auction when Joshua couldn’t afford the website any longer. Alex still ruined the site, so this doesn’t make any real difference.

EMERGENCY BROADCAST ALERT: KILLSTAR HAS BLOCKED ME ON FACEBOOK!!!!

August 25, 2022 / dystopiagal / 2 Comments

You read that correctly, I have been blocked by Killstar so that I can no longer comment, or even give a a laugh reaction on their Facebook page. Gee I wonder who else has done that to me before? Scammers that I report to Facebook. What do private equity firms love to do? Scam people. So, thank you Killstar for proving me right. By the way, here is a link to that article that has them so angry with me, and why they blocked me on Facebook. I’M NOT BACKING DOWN KILLSTAR!

PSA: Friends Don’t Let Friends Start Modern ‘Post-Punk’ bands.

August 1, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Friends don’t let friends sound exactly like The Cure.

Before I start I would just like to state for the record that I really dislike the term ‘post-punk’. Mainly because it makes no evolutionary sense musically since punk never died. I’m only using the term because more people know of it. I would rather use the term ‘alternative’, since all of this music was either called that or ‘modern-rock’ in the area of California that I lived in the 80’s. The end. Carry on!

Do you have that one friend who just discovered post-punk music? Did they buy a bass and constantly listen to Joy Division in an effort to sound just like Peter Hook? Or are they a singer who can sound exactly like Robert Smith unironically? Worse, has this friend shown interest in starting a modern post-punk band because they think that their sound is unique, even though it is not? Then you may have to do an intervention. because friends don’t let friends start cookie cutter modern post-punk bands that try to sound like Joy Division or The Cure.

I can hear people asking ‘Why is it bad to sound just like The Cure or Joy Division?’. Because that sound has been done a million times before and is bringing absolutely nothing new to the table musically. Nevermind the fact that there were a lot of post-punk bands that sounded nothing like The Cure or Joy Division back in the 80’s. Off the top of my head here are a few of them: Big Country, U2, Blue In Heaven, A Flock Of Seagulls, The Smithereens, The Call, The Jesus And Mary Chain, INXS, Gene Loves Jezebel, Love & Rockets, etc…. Why aren’t any of these modern bands taking cues from any of those listed original 80’s bands? Because they are lazy as hell. It’s easier for them to grab at the low hanging fruit, rather than doing some research into the genre.

Big Country was an awesome 80’s post-punk band that didn’t sound like Joy Division or The Cure.

Why have all of these clone bands come out of the woodwork within the last few years? Because the mainstream has jumped onboard and has made it a trend. Your friend sees this and thinks that if they do the exact same thing that they will be launched into stardom; within a trend in which they sound exactly like everybody else. They may get some younglings to buy some of their music off of Bandcamp, but that is about it. They will just be stuck in the centre of that glut of bands with no means to escape their self imposed box.

What can you do for your friend to steer them in a different direction? Making a playlist for them out of the bands I mentioned is a good first step to take. You, of course, should be with them when they hear the music so that you can comfort them in their time of need. Finding out about all of this could lead them to lashing out and pretending that such bands did not exist in the 80’s. You can lead a horse to water but sometimes they won’t drink. When it comes down to it you tried your best and that is all you can do.

So, what have we learned from all of this? Modern self described ‘post-punk’ bands are a dime a dozen right now and to stand out of that pack you have to be willing to take some risks, such as not sounding exactly like The Cure or Joy Division.

A Sounds And Shadows Interview In Which I Am Mentioned? You Don’t Say!!

July 26, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

This is an interview between Ken of Sounds And Shadows and Jose Hernandez Riwes Cruz of Hueco. Jose has been into goth/alternative music since the 80’s in Mexico and has just written a book called Jumping Someone Else’s Train in which he explains how the subculture formed there. A while back he asked us in the Sounds And Shadows Facebook group what we were called before the term ‘Goth’ was used in our areas. I mentioned to him what my friends and I were mostly called way back in the mid to late 80’s in the SF East Bay and some more information.

Most, if not all, of you know my real name on Facebook is Megan Wood McGuigan so that is not a secret. It is just so cool to feel appreciated, especially by people who are very knowledgable about a genre of music that means a lot to me. I am not giving the exact time of when I am mentioned because it is a very cool video that should be seen in its entirety. A huge thanks to both Ken and Jose.

Why Are Predators Supported Within The Goth Subculture?

July 17, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

She Wants Revenge, whose members have been accused of perpetuating sexual assault. being supported by post punk dot com. The post only got taken down when people complained.

Have you heard about how the members of She Wants Revenge didn’t really give a crap when people employed in their wannabe goth club were sexually assaulted? Remember the LA Times article detailing what occurred in 2021? To refresh your memory here is a free version of the take-down. All of this is public knowledge and I remember this being discussed in tons of goth online spaces during the time the article was released,

Since all of this crap happened She Wants Revenge were effectively cancelled, as well as they should have been because fuck these assholes. That is until Post punk dot com got it in their heads that it would be perfectly fine to promote them. Why would they think that? Mostly because they care more about scene cred than anything else. They have to put up the latest ‘news’ to look like they are on the cutting edge of promoting whatever shit band they are calling ‘post-punk’ these days. Women sexually assaulted at a club that the band members ran? Who cares about that! What is more important is having scene cred so that all of your young readers will buy whatever crap music from whatever crap band you are promoting before they move onto something else.

This is not the first time this kind of the thing has happened. Time and time again musicians, DJs, and promoters within the goth subculture are given a free pass to do heinous acts.

Up next, let’s talk about the singer for the bands Bella Morte and The Rain Within; Andy Deane. The allegations against him are so many and so credible that some of his ex band mates have dropped him as a friend. He emotionally abused multiple women by cheating on them, stealing their money and giving some of them STDs. There were so many women involved in his web of bullshit that there used to be a website dedicated to telling their stories. I’m not joking, this asshole has a long and rich history of pulling this shit, and yet he still gets invited to play gigs and some goth musicians still support him. Remember kids, scene cred is way more important than protecting the lives of women. Fuck this guy.

Lastly I want to talk about a promoter in the Washington DC area named DJ Panic. I have first hand experience with this steaming pile of shit because I moved to the area without knowing anything about anybody back in 2003. We messed around a bit BUT he started ignoring my phone calls and pretended I didn’t exist. Seriously. When I went to his job once to ask him what was going on he started to call me crazy. Ummmm….I don’t know…..but when you are act like a gaslighting little bitch you deserve to be confronted and treated like the piece of trash that you are. This serial emotional abuser did the same thing to other women right after me. Imagine my surprise twenty years later when I learn of this asshole being in charge of booking goth/industrial gigs in the DC area. I’m being sarcastic, because I actually wasn’t surprised at all. He has claimed that he is a changed person and that he has apologized to all of the people he hurt. Funny, I never got one even though I am easy as hell to find online. It shows you just how much that area cares about the safety of women. They don’t at all.

What can we lean from all of this? That scene cred is much more important than kicking somebody out of the subculture. If the abuser has ‘connections’ with club owners and bands then they are usually deemed too important and their behaviour is excused away. The DJs and musicians who support these assholes are just as bad in my opinion because they know exactly what is going on but don’t lift a finger against them. This has been a dirty little secret going on in the subculture for decades and one that almost nobody tells baby bats about. If a baby bat asks me about going to goth clubs I always tell them to act like it’s any other kind of club because there will be predators there.

The goth subculture has never been a safe space for everybody, especially women and it’s about time that the truth comes out about this HUGE issue.

Songs That Were Played At The Alternative Clubs I Went To from 88-92 Part 2

May 22, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Somebody’s heavily pixelated photo of a Twilight Zone shirt and member pass. Not my photo.

This is a second list of the songs that I used to hear in ‘alternative’ clubs from 1988 to 1992. The shirt above is from the alternative club The Twilight Zone that was in Alameda California. You had to have a member card to get in because of the local laws and it was an all ages club. These songs were either played there, at The Edge in Palo Alto or at One Step Beyond in Santa Clara. The music was always very eclectic. Enjoy!

Bigod 20 – The Bog (1990)

Divine – Love Reaction (1983)

U2 – New Year’s Day (1983)

Nitzer Ebb – Join In The Chant (1987)

Until December – Heaven (1986)

MC Shy D – Shake It (1987)

Visage – Fade To Grey (1982)

Killing Joke – Love Like Blood (1985)

Book Of Love – Boy (1985)

Madness – One Step Beyond (1979)

Ministry – Work For Love (1983)

Faith No More – We Care A Lot (1987)

Trans -X – Living On Video (1983)

Fad Gadget – Collapsing New People (1983)

Lords Of The New Church – Dance With Me (1983)

Skinny Puppy – Assimilate (1985)

NWA – Straight Outta Compton (1988)

Tones On Tail – Go! (1984)

Sex Gang Children – Deiche (1982)

Danielle Dax – Big Hollow Man (1987)

Meat Beat Manifesto – God O. D. Part 1 (1988)

Do Black Lives And Immigrants Only Matter When Morrissey Isn’t In Town?

May 16, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

In an earlier post here I discussed in length as to what happened when I confronted Sean Brennan of London After Midnight about playing Cruel World Festival. To be fair I wrote the same exact email to a few other bands playing it as well. In the back of my mind I just knew that Sean Brennan’s ego would get the better of him and he would respond. Bingo!!! For literally decades he’s been known as being kind of an asshole so I had fun with him and bounced. In reality I actually don’t blame many of the bands for playing the gig because so many bands went broke during the pandemic.

So what is getting my panties in a bunch? People who claim to support black lives and immigrants are paying to see Morrissey, a musician who has been proven time and time again to be a racist, classist and just an all around terrible excuse of a human being. I’ll give you time to think about the sheer hypocrisy of it all for a few minutes. Got it? Okay, let us proceed.

I know that some people don’t genuinely know all about the crap he has said over the years, so I am not talking about them. A lot of teens and young adults will just take an artist for their word without understanding that some of them can be very bad people if you just scratch their skin and look underneath. However, those who do know about all of his bullshit and still went to see him anyway deserve a ton of negative attention because apparently supporting a known racist musician is just peachy-keen because he made music in the 80’s.

I can hear you asking what the heck did Morrissey say to piss me, and other leftists, off so much. Well, here you go! Enjoy the ride of racist quotes, vegan insanity and not believing sexual assault victims! Still pay to see him after knowing all of this? Piss off and fuck your feelings.

Of the Norway massacre in which 77 people died, Morrissey heralds to a Warsaw crowd, “That is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried shit every day.”
Discussing animal cruelty in China: Morrissey tells the Guardian, “You can’t help but feel that the Chinese people are a subspecies.”
“If you have any concern for animal welfare, for example, you cannot possibly vote for either Conservatives or Labour, because both parties support halal slaughter, which, as we all know, is evil. Furthermore, halal slaughter requires certification that can only be given by supporters of ISIS, and yet in England we have halal meat served in hospitals and schools!”
On the far-right political party For Britain: “For Britain seem to say what many British people are currently thinking, which is why the BBC or Channel 4 News will not acknowledge them, because, well, For Britain would change British politics forever.”
On acid attacks: “London is second only to Bangladesh for acid attacks. All of the attacks are non-white, and so they cannot be truthfully addressed by the British government or the Met Police or the BBC because of political correctness. What this means is that the perpetrator is considered to be as much of a victim as the actual victim.”
On immigration: “Although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.
On Kevin Spacey: “As far as I know, he was in a bedroom with a 14-year-old. Kevin Spacey was 26, boy 14… When you are in somebody’s bedroom, you have to be aware of where that can lead to. That’s why it does not sound very credible to me. It seems to me that Spacey has been attacked unnecessarily.”
On reggae music: “The most racist music in the entire world… an absolute total glorification of black supremacy.”
On Brexit: “As for Brexit, the result was magnificent, but it is not accepted by the BBC or Sky News because they object to a public that cannot be hypnotised by BBC or Sky nonsense.”
On Nigel Farage: “I nearly voted for Ukip. I like Nigel Farage a great deal.”

All of these quotes are available on multiple websites, so if you want to explore Morrissey being a racist wanker you can just Google ‘Morrissey racist quotes’ and tons of sites will pop-up. I really hope this opened your eyes to who Morrissey really is and that you will no longer support him.

Songs That Were Played In The Alternative Clubs I Went To From 1988-92

May 1, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

This was the inside of the alternative club One Step Beyond that I went to from 1988 till it closed in 1991. I vividly remember that head painting! Not my photo.

I went to my first ‘alterative’ club in early 1988 on my 17th birthday, and it was called One Step Beyond in Santa Clara California. For whatever reason their age limit was 17 and up instead of 18, and I had a friend that had a car so I know I was very lucky to get to experience this. My friend had graduated in 87 so I was the only teen from my high school that went. My mom was/is cool and never gave me a curfew and let me go.

What did I experience exactly? It was the tail end of new wave, so the older songs were still played regularly. Radio stations refused to play rap songs by certain artists like 2 Live Crew or NWA and alternative clubs such as One Step Beyond were among the only places that you could hear those bands being played. The American government was trying to get such bands banned for offensive lyrics so playing such music in a club setting was actually pretty forward thinking for the time.

That is me on the left at the Twilight Zone in early 1991 when I was 20. Yes, I did the jacket myself, it had a Fiend skull on the back.

Rather than me droning on and on I am going to be posting some songs that I vividly remember being played during that time at One Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone and The Edge. Each place had it’s own unique vibe. The Edge was close to Stanford University so it was where the wealthy students would go if they wanted to go slumming, but there was definitely a gaggle of weirdos that also went there. The Twilight Zone was in an old movie theatre lobby and had the best venue I have ever been to. It has sweeping staircases to a second level where you could look down on the dance-floor and it was all ages. Finally, One Step Beyond. It had the most diverse crowd out of the three. There were punkers, mods, skins, etc… and everybody pretty much got along.

These are in no sort of order and are songs that I heard during that time in the clubs. Notice how eclectic this list is? It’s why I loved these clubs. I think something was definitely lost when the goth nights started to pop up in the early 90’s and left a lot of this music behind.

Desireless – Voyage Voyage (1986)

Red Flag – If I Ever (1989)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZlO_T71Ncw

Digital Underground – Doowutchyalike (1990)

A Flock Of Seagulls – Wishing (If I Had A Photograph) (1983)

Virgin Prunes – Pagan Love Song (1982)

2 Live Crew – Get It Girl (1987)

My Life With The Thrill Kill Cult- The Days Of Swine And Roses (1990)

Christian Death – Church Of No Return (1989)

Ofra Haza – Im Nin’Alu (1988)

Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam (1990)

Billy Idol – Dancing With Myself (1981)

Specimen – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (1983)

Fake – Another Brick (1985)

Laid Back – White Horse (1983)

Blancmange – Living On The Ceiling (1982)

Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel – White Lines (Don’t Do It) (1983)

Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart (1990)

Soft Cell – Sex Dwarf (1981)

Front 242 – Don’t Crash (1985)

Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full (1987)

Some Thoughts On The New Bauhaus Song Drink The New Wine

March 24, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Meh.

So, the members of Bauhaus have crawled out from whence they came and got together to produce something that sounds like it came from an album made 40 years ago. There are tons of younger people excited about this because OMG Bauhaus are just sooooooo goth, but this song really reeks of dialling it in for me. Everything that Bauhaus did over 40 years ago is in this song and it really doesn’t bring anything new to the table. All I hear in this song are the gimmicks they used that sounded new and ‘different’ in the 80’s. When done 40 years later it just feels opportunistic because the members know how trendy anything post-punk sounding is these days.

Am I against legacy type bands making new music? Not at all. I actually think it is pretty cool when such bands still regularly put out music. However, that really isn’t the case here. Bauhaus are almost on the same level as the Sisters Of Mercy when it comes to touring and relying on old hits to sell tickets. They did put out that one album in 2008 so they at least have that going for them.

Am I going to buy this? Probably not because I want to support bands who actually care about their fans instead of leeching off of them to make a buck. Sorry not sorry.