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Tag: Goth Subculture (Page 1 of 3)

My Reaction To The Article ‘Far Right Extremists At WGT Are A Feature, Not A Bug.’

What is WGT I can hear some of you asking. It is the huge German goth music festival Wave Gotik Treffen that takes place In Leipzig every year. It is one of the largest goth music festivals in the world and people travel from everywhere to go to it.

Two people named Jean-Luc and Miss X wrote this article specifically for English speaking festival participants since many do not know all of the right wing neo-Nazi crap that has been happening at the festival. Everything from known neo-Nazi musicians being allowed to play at the event to white nationalists being allowed to set up stalls to share their hate filled agendas. The German press has reported on these very problematic issues, but such articles have not really gained traction outside of Germany. According to the article the people who run WGT will ban people from the festival if they speak out against it.

Well, quite frankly, since I have never been into music festivals I really don’t give a shit if I am on their permanently ‘banned’ list. I have included the entire article here, and I will give my thoughts under some of the sections. The section titles were created by the authors and the article can be found here. All working links are theirs as are grammatical mistakes. It was published on June the 3rd of 2023.

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For more than 20 years, one of the largest Goth festivals on the planet is working with artists and publishers that are affiliated with far right extremism, meaning they book them or allow them to run their business on the festival premisses. The company behind the festival is doing this consistently and repeatedly and this is no secret. There is very little discourse regarding this in the goth scene and there has been next to no impact in the few years where it has been mentioned. Newspapers and magazines covered this, everything you can say on the matter is old news, except for the fact that this is not historical information, this is ongoing. The only people that are still really on the matter are local Antifa groups.

Since I have zero interest in attending music festivals I personally have never looked into the history of WGT. Since so many people from the UK and the US go every year you would think that the news about all of this white nationalist shit would have gotten out, but apparently people are scared to speak out?

Why write about this at all?

We believe this is relevant. Far right ideologies have real world debilitating impact. jl grew up with his family exposed in the Yugoslav civil war, a war motivated by nationalist ideology and racism. His family never fully recovered from the propaganda tactics used to promote division. Today most of us are in some way impacted by Russia’s criminal war on Ukraine that is motivated by the ultranationalist ideologies of figures like Alexander Dugin. Sociopolitical developments like these benefit from a soundtrack, from some emotional priming, from social events normalising the motives.

There has been a marked rise lately of this within alternative subcultures and in society in general.

WGT has a history of platforming artists and publishers promoting these motives. At the same time the festival never positioned itself, never distanced itself from the far right, claiming to be apolitical, which in practice meant they don’t wanna talk about it.

Most of the time when somebody says they are apolitical that just means they support a far right agenda and are too chickenshit to share their real views. White nationalists tend to be cowards. I, and others in leftist circles, have witnessed this over and over again.

When X talked about these things in a series of instagram stories on Monday, we learned that surprisingly many non German speakers had no clue about these things, so obviously there are still some people that can consider this whole story news. And maybe some of the Germans are too young to know.

I’m still surprised as hell that this news has been so well hidden outside of Germany.

When we asked ourselves why these people had no clue, we figured there is hardly any non German info on this (unless you wanna do research on some Russian neofolk fan forums or something).

We decided to change this and give our international friends some insights on things German goths don’t seem super happy to discuss.

I give them props for wanting to bring all of this dankness into the light.

So what’s happening at WGT?

This little article does not have the right scope to give you a full chronicle of events. What we’d however like to help you understand is that WGT as a festival is open to far right extremists over years and decades, even over two different companies organising the festival. If we would look at all of the individual occurrences we could claim accidents, but instead this all repeats. It is a constant of the festival, it is a feature, not a bug. We can’t tell whether this extreme right influences are just bound to a some small group of individuals or whether it is a small yet intrinsic element of the scene. No clue. But to give you a bit of background we compiled some facts and events to give a concrete idea what this is about, so you can decide for yourself.

I totally wouldn’t be surprised if this is a concerted effort on the part of German white nationalist groups to spread their message to a larger audience. Obviously somebody has connections with festival organizers in Germany to be able to pull off this level of crap.

In the year 2000, Mayor of Leipzig Holger Tschense feels forced by public pressure to prohibit Joseph Klumb, frontman of “Von Thronstahl”, to perform at the festival. The promoters do not cancel the slot though, so the band plays their CD while standing on stage in protest, holding a shovel and a flag with a black sun on it, a symbol originating in Nazi Germany, first seen in a floor mosaic in Heinrich Himmlers fancy little SS castle. The audience cheers the performance in front of Völkerschlachtdenkmal. This gig is not listed in WGT’s gig history, but if you google it you can still find the limited edition live recording from 2001 on discogs released on Fasci-Nation Recordings. Distributed by VAWS, which we’ll go into later. Von Thronstahl also wrote about the performance on their own webpage – we’re not going to link to that, you can find that yourself if you really want to look at it.

This is just so fucked up I can’t.

In 2009, WGT printed Heinrich Himmlers black sun (see above) on the festival’s “Obsorgekarte”, the ticket you needed for camping and public transport in Leipzig. Goth band ASP wrote a public protest note (in German) and announced they wouldn’t play WGT ever again unless the promoter would give an apology and explanation. The explanation they received was not signed in the name of the company, but rather by individuals. They claimed that none of the cultural creators involved is following any political goals with WGT and that the black sun is somehow about the 2000 year jubilee of the Varus battle. This legendary battle of Germanic tribes against the Romans was used several times throughout history to create an emotional backing for a political unity of Germany, to create some founding narrative of Germany that is predating any modern constitution. While there are in fact similar looking objects used by the tribes of the time, these are not the ones WGT used. They used the 12 S-runes, as found on Heinrich Himmler’s beloved floor piece. ASP wasn’t happy with that explanation and never showed up again. Threads about the issue in the official WGT forum were deleted by admins citing a “no politics” forum policy.

I actually know quite a bit about the ancient Roman Empire. In one form or another it lasted about 2,000 years, while the Nazis were in power for less than twenty. The Nazis were losers, just like modern German white nationalists. It’s gross as hell that they got away with this shit in the year 2009. The organizers of the WGT are pathetic for allowing this crap to happen. Kudos to ASP for refusing to play a show there.

For decades now, publisher VAWS has a booth in the merch area. The people that distributed that Fasci-Nation limited edition Von Thronstahl record according to discogs. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution took note of the company in 2002 and reported: “Through special offers and events, the alleged fascination with the aesthetics of fascism and National Socialism is to be revived, thus promoting right-wing extremist views on a cultural level.”. If you must, check out their website, you should be able to figure the general idea. You’ll find yourself somewhere between “Covid is a bio weapon”, “Argentinian exile Nazi isn’t really a Nazi” and “Let’s sell industrial tracks by putting tits on the cover”. Maybe you also wanna buy some Riefenstahl stuff.

They are allowed a booth there and nobody has done anything against it? The festival has the numbers to run this kind of shit out physically so why are people sitting on their hands? If I was wandering around a festival and saw that kind of shit I would have some very heated words and I might accidentally knock things down with my cane.

In 2015, WGT booked Majdanek Waltz, an openly fascist Russian band named after the concentration and extermination camp Majdanek. These are people that like to sing about how much they love their swastika. You can’t make this shit up. A German article looking into the band and its lyrics can be found here.

FFS

In 2022, WGT booked Of The Moon And The Wand, which has long-standing ties to nazi band Der Blutharsch. It was the seventh time the band played the festival. A local Antifa page posted a German article about it here.

Disgusting.

In 1999, 2009 and also this year 2023 Fire + Ice performs at WGT. Frontman Ian Read, when asked in an interview about fascist and racist ideas, utters that he feels that no idea is completely worthless. Read claims that Germans suffer from a post war brain wash and should stop thinking about what is “correct”. He claimed that in this context of this brainwash the German abbreviation for concentration camp (Konzentrationslager) was changed from KL to KZ to make it sound more scary, implying that some kind of post war propaganda is trying to make things seem worse than they are. The thing with the change of abbreviation is even correct, except this change was done earlier as you can read in Eugen Kogons 1946 book “Der SS-Staat”. Kogon, himself a concentration camp inmate, writes that SS Soldiers preferred KZ over the official abbreviation because it sounds more, well, scary. Some more comprehensive background in English can be found here.

That dude who threw that famous punch in Seattle a few years back needs to get his ass to WGT because he is needed there. I can’t believe people just stand there and let this shit happen. That is what blows my mind the most about this.

Also this year, Austrian stand-up comedian Lisa Eckhart was booked. She’s among that breed of comedians who make money by saying “controversial” things, on national TV. Let me give you examples: “The erection of the black person’s penis requires all seven litres of blood that a human being has at his disposal.” or how do you like: “Paying reparations to the Jews is like giving Red Bull founder Mateschitz a Red Bull.”. Lisa likes using the N-Word a lot and believes that Asian people see the world in widescreen blockbuster format. That’s why they’re so afraid of Covid, you know? That’s all not enough to put her in the nazi corner I guess. She however works hard to stretch boundaries.

Somebody should have pelted her with eggs. Just saying.

Who feels like they are getting an advantage out of her work? VAWS had her face plastered all over their booth. This might give a hint. The fact that she, of all German-speaking standup comedians, was booked despite having no known goth scene relationship will give you another.

This is one of the reasons why I think a white nationalist network is behind this shit. Its coordinated.

As previously mentioned, the above list of events is not comprehensive and we could go on for a while, but we’ll leave it like this because we have other, better hobbies.

So what does this all mean?

WGT is a festival that is very open towards the right and even the extremist right. This is not a bug, it’s a feature. For decades it is a selling point of the festival. If you look at their language, their collabs, their general behaviour you will find dogwhistles and hints. If you look at how they whined on facebook in 2022 about how the city of Leipzig offered parts of the festival ground to Ukrainian refugees, inconveniencing their festival planning, there was barely any expression of solidarity. They simply blamed Leipzig. One could say that’s not too surprising for a promoter that likes to book Russians that like their swastikas a lot. Despite all this, people come to the festival like clockwork, every damn year.

What a bunch of assholes. Seriously.

What we see is of course not a right wing subversion of the scene as a whole. What we see is a scene that seems largely indifferent to their openness to the extreme right. People are unwilling to raise any critical voice, don’t care enough or have no clue what to do. Likely many festival goers feel like their culture was taken hostage by people they actually don’t wanna hang with. WGT is the one big party where they meet all their friends and they want to have a god time and there is no reason to deny them a good time. It’s like facebook. It’s kinda shit, but we can’t really agree on where else to go. And of course there are actual nationalists, conspiracy nutters, third reich apologists, blood and soil occultists and tons of boring, conservative boomers on top. This interesting mixture produces bizarre situations.

It is the time honoured ‘not wanting to lose goth scene cred’ excuse. Nobody wants to step up and say shit because they are afraid of losing that cred and I find that pathetic as hell. Especially when it involves excusing away neo-Nazi talking points. Remember kids, it is more important to attend a festival and be ‘seen’ than to openly act against neo-Nazis.

Recently I saw that one Tobias Theiss is making a free android app (WGT-Guide) that helps visitors to organise their party schedule. WGT has a lot of venues and stages, so this app is helpful. Since Tobias righteously doesn’t like these fascist tendencies, he omits certain acts from the app and doesn’t show them. This way he produces an independent app, for free, that adds value to a festival with above track record and calls this anti-fascist action. We can’t blame Tobias and I salute him for his service for the community, and for not going crazy because of the 1-Star reviews right wingers give him on the google play store. Still, that’s an interesting kind of mental gymnastics, that might be familiar to many people that participate and feel not perfectly well about it.

That is cool that he refuses to list the neo-Nazi crap on his WGT app. He shouldn’t have had to make it in the first place, but this is the world we are living in right now.

So what do?

We don’t go to WGT because we’re tired of that crap and do not want to put money there. It’s not even that someone books a Nazi band in Sachsen, that happens all the time. It’s rather the jarring indifference of the the scene, audience and artists alike. We very much understand that not going isn’t a good option for other people. But if you’re not indifferent as a festival goer and are just wondering what you actually can do about this, we have a few ideas.

Proves that parts of the goth subculture are still apathetic as hell. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because the same shit was happening over thirty years ago.

First off: share this information. This is not for the fame and follows, but certainly it would be helpful to let people know. WGT deems itself “unpolitical” in the sense that it doesn’t want to discuss politics. This does not apply to us. The goth scene is not discussing these things enough – we assumed everyone knew, but judging from the amount of very concerned DMs we got, that’s not the case. As mentioned in the intro, on some of this stuff we couldn’t even find sources in English. Feel free to share any of the things we made available or use them as a reference. If you do decide not to go to WGT, and people ask why you’re staying home, tell them why.

Please share the article, because more English speakers do indeed need to learn about this.

Inform yourself about how to spot a neo-nazi, which symbols and dogwhistles are in circulation etc, so you can act on it if you see them.

A link all about the symbols and groups is further down..

If you’re an artist and WGT tries to book you, we understand that this is a good career opportunity for you and it’s difficult to say no. Please consider that being on a stage gives you a platform, and you can use that platform to make a statement. Nobody said your performance can’t include some educational content or that you can’t curate your audience by telling certain people to leave. Nobody said you can’t do a diss track. Nobody said you can’t publicly stand up for something.

I wish more bands would speak out while on stage.

Make it uncomfortable to be a neo-nazi or to be in close proximity to them. Leave the situation or conversation and tell people why. If you feel up for it, you can confront people directly, but only do this if you feel it’s safe for you to do so, and remember you don’t owe these people a debate about their batshit ideas. In Germany, you can actually call the police if you see a suspicious symbol. There’s a good chance the symbol is illegal or restricted and you don’t even have to be there while the cops sort it out.

Good advice. Some neo-Nazis are very violent so if you are going to confront one in person make sure you have friends with you who will back you up.

Here is a comprehensive list of right-wing groups and symbols that are illegal in Germany.

You will possibly find more familiar stuff in there than you would like.

Contact any organisation that allows this stuff on its premises and demand an explanation and apology for why it is there. Demand that they correct the situation. You can write them an email or call them out publicly, whatever suits your comfort level. Again, if you feel safe, you can ask people at the festival directly.

This is so important. If people do not confront neo-Nazis they feel safe which is something that should never be allowed to happen.

Be however informed that people criticising WGT are reported to have lost access to festival accreditation over it before, so if you are a journalist or photographer, keep this in mind.

I don’t give a shit since I will never go to it. Plus, calling out neo-Nazis is more important than going to a festival. Especially when the festival is allowing neo-Nazis on stage and in booths.

“People like us need to stop fuelling dystopias only because we grew up loving its aesthetics.”

Marco Visconti distilled it all down to this one very handy statement. It is not wise to help make negative expectation and dystopian outlooks a reality. Not on an individual, not on a sociocultural or political level. While this is a different and pretty complex issue that can be addressed another time: our stories and images matter. Our relationship to them matters and it shapes out reality. We hope this resource will help you to navigate all this for yourself and will help you to take charge if you feel you should.

From the title of this blog you know I love dystopian and post-apocalyptic media, however I would never support neo-Nazi crap. Plague? Sure. Earthquakes? Sure. Space alien invasion? Sure. Neo-Nazi crap? Hell no!

I hope sharing this article has helped people learn the truth as to what is really going down at WGT. Please share this or the article itself so that people can make an informed decision as to whether they want to go next year or not.

In Which I Answer Some Basic Goth Questions For The Masses

How spooky!

For whatever reason there are tons of people right now asking the same basic questions about the goth subculture. Who am I kidding, we know exactly why so many questions are being asked right now; being ‘goth’ is a huge trend train that lots of people who have no clue about the actual subculture want to jump on. All of these questions are ones that I have seen asked online over and over and over again. So they are real, not anything I have made up. All aboard!

Am I goth if I wear the colour black?

No, because the goth subculture doesn’t own the colour. Plenty of people outside of the subculture also wear black, such as metalheads, priests, nuns, etc… Go forth and wear all of the black you want, nobody should be stopping you for doing so. However, it doesn’t magically transport you into the goth subculture or make you a member of it. It’s a music based subculture, not one based upon the colour of clothes that you wear.

What clothes do I have to buy and what music do I have to listen to in order to be a Victorian/vampire/trad/cyber/mall goth?

This is the one question that really gets my knickers in a twist. Those ‘goth types’ were started as a joke in the 90’s, making fun of the stereotypes found in goth clubs. That is all it was meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be a roadmap as to how to belong to the subculture. There are some self described ‘elder goths’ who have actually argued with me about this, saying that people used to take it seriously back in the day. No they did not. In the area that I lived during the 90’s somebody even made stickers based on the stereotypes and I found some in a vending machine in a Pizza Hut in San Francisco in 1998. I only remember that because I was the assistant manager of a Spirit Halloween store during that time and would always get pizza for lunch. If you want to tick all of the boxes off to become a certain stereotype within the subculture nobody is going to stop you but you will get a massive amount of eye rolling. Instead of wanting to be a stereotype just be yourself. Announcing to the world that you want to be a certain type of goth is never a great look.

Do I have to listen to only goth music to be a goth?

Of course not. The only group of people in the goth community who have ever believed that are the uber goobers, who have always been boring as hell. I listen to goth, metal, thrash, punk, disco, 70’s/80’s soul, old school rap/hip-hop, classical, new wave, blues,etc… I have always been into multiple forms of music and I have no shame in admitting it. Goth music has many styles, such as deathrock, goth rock, darkwave, ethereal and cold wave. If you try out each style and don’t like any of them you are more than likely just darkly inclined and there is nothing wrong with that. If this pisses you off then you should be asking yourself why is being goth so important to you and as to why you want that label so much in the first place.

Do I have to buy clothes from expensive online dark alternative stores to be a goth?

The answer to that is a huge no! There are a bunch of younger people running around right now looking like wannabe witches and slamming onto the gates guarding the goth community wanting in even though they don’t listen to the music. It is a music based subculture not one that is totally based on how you look. The people saying otherwise are straight up liars. If you are starting out just buy black basic clothes from a regular store, or even a thrift store, and get some accessories off of Etsy to jazz them up. Some regular stores, such as New Look in the UK, are known for carrying some goth friendly clothes. Every single time I go to the one near me I walk out with something.

Do I have to buy clothes from thrift stores in order to be a goth?

One of the main ways I used to get clothes back in the 80’s/90’s was by going to thrift stores. I lived in an area that had a lot of good ones so I was very lucky. Where I live now the thrift stores are hard to get to and are very overpriced so I just avoid them. If there are no thrift stores near you, or if they suck where you live, don’t worry about it.

Do I have to learn DIY skills to be a goth?

I have been doing DIY type clothing projects for decades and I am completely self taught. I learned to hand sew back in the 80’s and I can hem, dart, add buttons,etc…I have always upcycled clothing. I have even bought Killstar items on clearance in the past and made them look completely different. I can also do stud work and paint on leather/pleather which is a very easy thing to learn. There are a ton of tutorials on YouTube showing you how to do all of these kinds of projects. By learning DIY skills you can curate your own style so that you don’t look exactly the same as everybody else, plus it’s a lot of fun!

Do I have to be skinny and white to be a goth?

This question always breaks my heart. White skinny women and men have always been the go to for the goth aesthetic look that some directors, subculture magazines and others have been pushing since the 80’s. I would say it has only been within the last five years that you see people of colour being more visually represented within the subculture. It should have happened way sooner than that. You do not need to be white or skinny to be a goth. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Why is metal music not considered goth?

Metal music has historically never been considered goth. One of the main reasons being that metalheads, back in the 80’s, used to threaten and beat the crap out of punks and anybody else who looked ‘alternative’. That includes goths. I personally never got jumped, BUT a whole lot of male metalheads used to give me crap all of the time. Also, the music developed totally separately from it. Goth music developed out of punk, while metal developed out of 60’s rock and psychedelic music. You can, of course, like metal music and goth music at the same time. I have always loved the hell out of early Danzig and even saw them play in 1992.

When and how do I become an elder goth?

An elder goth is considered to be somebody who has been into the music for decades and still supports the subculture in one way or another. I started getting into the music in 1986 and have always been a goth-punk weirdo so I am considered to be an elder goth. I have seen some people around my age who just got into wearing black clothing who claim they are elder goths. Yes, I have personally seen that happen online and I find it really annoying and fake. You can dress in expensive clothing and wear a ton of make-up but just because you are older doesn’t mean you are an elder goth. It takes a decade or two, not a credit card, to be considered one.

How do I become a goth influencer?

This question does my head in. Seriously. Younger people see ‘goth’ influencers online getting a bunch of free swag and want exactly the same. For them it is not about the music, instead it is about curating an image; one in which they think will make them more ‘goth’. Nothing can be further from the truth. I call this the Kardashianization of the goth subculture and it is just gross. Not all goths with a YouTube, or other social media platform, push clothing, but so many do that it just becomes a blurry mess of pentacles, platform boots and loads of over the top make-up. They give the impression that all goths dress to the nines every single day, when in fact we don’t. I’m laying around in my Star Wars pyjamas right now typing this.

Do I have to dye my hair, or get tattoos and piercings to be considered goth?

Sometimes it trips me out just how ‘in’ it is these days to get tattoos, piercings and bright hair colours. All three have become totally mainstreamed so you won’t really look ‘different’ doing so. You don’t have to do any of this to be goth because it is just window dressing. These days if you see somebody dressed in all black with green hair walking down the street chances are you won’t have anything in common with them because they are just following a trend. It’s sad but it’s the truth.

Well, that is it for now. Whomever you are I hope this helps you on your journey into the goth subculture or at least points you in the right direction. Always be you, not a stereotype that you think people want to see.

Gothgate; How I Got Permanently Banned From r/goth On Reddit

Ooooooooo……….spooky!

I have been permanently banned from commenting and participating in the r/goth community over on Reddit. You may well be asking what the hell did I do to piss off the moderators over on there so badly? Well, basically, I got banned for refusing to change who I am. Seriously. My personality was deemed inconvenient and I was told that if I didn’t change how I reacted to some of the idiots on there that I would be banned. I refused to change who I am as a person so here we are! This starts to get entertaining pretty early on so enjoy the ride!

The first hint that I may have been pissing off the r/goth mods was a message that I was sent by the head mod. I was only able to get one screenshot of those because they are only saved on their side of things and not on mine. Aggressive? More like I told people the truth and didn’t sugarcoat things. I can be brutally honest, but sometimes that is what is needed for people to ‘see the light’ so to speak. The people who made complaints couldn’t deal with being wrong so they cried to the mods. The mods didn’t really feel like being mods so they passed their responsibility onto me. Which is of course bullshit. Sign up to be a mod of a large online community? Expect to have to deal with people constantly crying because things aren’t going the way they want them to.

Below is the first and only message I saved from the short conversation with the lead mod. As you can see I am being called ‘aggressive’ and I automatically disagree with them. Telling people the truth bluntly is considered aggressive apparently. If people can’t handle being told the truth that is not a me problem. This is the way I have always acted online and I have never gotten such a message from a mod of an online community before concerning my behaviour.

In response to this I wrote a complaint about it on their weekly thread. Notice how I did not start my own thread about it in the community. I knew doing it this way would kind of startle them because they probably expected me to make an angry thread and bounce.

I make a very good point below. If people cannot deal with being told the truth of things online then they are going to be emotionally unable to deal with confrontation in the real world. That is an issue that is not my fault or my responsibility to have to deal with. Yet somehow he next calls me an aggressive douche. He says that not being as confrontational is not a big ask? He is basically trying to tell me to change how I am as a person so that their job is more easy. Telling somebody to change their personality within a community that tells others to be themselves all of the time? Wahahaha!!!! The stench of hypocrisy, there is nothing like it.

They actually did need me way more than I needed them. I constantly do DIY projects and have a whole lot of knowledge on that subject. I also know a whole lot about goth/punk/post-punk music that came out of the 80’s and 90’s. You can’t get all of this kind of information from books or websites, sometimes you need somebody who actually lived through the times to tell you what it was really like. Their loss.

This next part is very, very entertaining. I know for a fact that I was the oldest person who participated in that group on a daily basis. I’m too repetitive in my comments? When people ask the same damn questions just about every single day in the community am I just supposed to make up new things to say? I was not competing for the Nobel Prize in journalism or literature, I was only telling the truth to those who had no idea what they were on about. If people think that telling the truth is being aggressive then they are going to be among the first to go once society goes completely off the rails within the next few years.

Oh, and this bitch had the audacity to say all of that after I had sold her a pair of almost new pikes for very cheap last year. She is saying she doesn’t need me now, but by golly she needed me when she wanted those pikes last year.LOL

She then passively aggressively lies about me ripping her off. Luckily I saved a screenshot of when I told her how much it cost me to send them. Did I get an apology? Of course not! If you are a cowardly passive aggressive bitch that is completely on you and not on me.

Had to be? Wahahaha!!!!!!! Try to play the victim by stating that you were a broke college student? That’s funny but I didn’t know that broke college students could spend £200 on a new pair of pikes. Maybe she will share what bank she uses because I need in on some of that action. Mamma needs another pair of boots.

A few hours after this I commented on a random half naked chick’s ‘big tiddy goth girlfriend’ pic and didn’t report it because why the hell should I help them at this stage. I knew they were going to end up banning me so I wrote a final post on their bitching Sunday thread. I didn’t make it into a separate post of its own because I knew that they were just chomping at the bit for me to do that. Instead I went out on my own terms and stated exactly what I was thinking, as I always do.

Soon after this I got two different messages, as seen below. Not only did they permanently ban me from participating in the group they muted me from sending the mods messages for three days! I freaked them out so much that they had to hide behind muting me. Hypocritical cowards are going to be hypocritical cowards.

There you have it folks. I got kicked off of r/goth because of being myself and not agreeing to change who I am as a person. I actually feel a sense of pride. Instead of giving in to peer pressure I stood up for myself and didn’t back down. If I could survive Donald Trump illegally blocking me on Facebook when he was President of the United States then I can easily survive this.

The Back of The Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Themed Denim Jacket Is Done For Now

Finally done!

After many months I can finally say that the back of this jacket is done!Will I ever add anything to it? Probably, but I am happy with it right now.

This jacket is originally from the clearance section of Killstar. I actually went around my town seeing what kind of denim jackets were on sale. All of them were more expensive than this one so I went for it. It came with the grommet lacing on the sleeves and with the ripped hole in the back. Everything else on the back I did myself.

Notice how I hung the chain from two safety pins on a seam. I was originally going to hang it from the bottom, but that top seam is very thick and can hold the weight way better. I also put a few safety pins on the bottom and hung some keychains from them. I got the patches and studs from Etsy. The most difficult thing for me was sewing the arm patches onto the upper sleeves, and placing small green and yellow pyramid studs below them.

The cool thing about this jacket is that if something falls off that’s okay because it is not meant to be perfect. For example, one of the upper safety pins I used on the Obey patch has come off and I am not worried about it. It’ll get replaced when I replace it. I used mainly green and yellow accents for this jacket because it goes well with the patches.

I hope this has inspired you to create some DIY projects of your own because it’s a lot of fun and in the end you get to wear something that is distinctly yours.

The DIY Saga Of Painting The Back Of My New Rock Boots Green

The finished product with which I am very happy with.

Why was doing this a saga? Unbeknownst to a whole lot of people, including myself, New Rock have changed the way they make their boots. Seriously. These boots I got on sale and they are a newer style. Gone are the rubber soles, padded tongues and thick good quality leather. These boots have a PU sole, thinner plastic covered leather and no padded tongue. In other words they have gone down the same route as the bad quality Doc Martens made in China, but still want to sell them for an outrageous amount of money. I wouldn’t be shocked if they actually move most of their production to China, making the really fancy pairs in Spain.

Thirty years ago I painted the back of some 14 hole Docs I owned green and I wanted to do something similar again. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal and that I could do it the way I did it years ago with no issues. Oh by golly that wasn’t the case at all! I have painted both leather and pleather multiple times before and all I had to do was paint with acrylic leather paint and it would stay put. However, this time the paint slid off of the surface when dry. Seriously. I had even de-glazed the surface before painting and that did nothing at all. So, it was then that I figured out that the leather is actually coated with plastic. Again, not something I have ever encountered before in a DIY project.

To solve all of this I sanded the areas with some sandpaper over the space of two days until the plastic coating was gone. When I tested a spot with some white paint it actually stayed put! It was like a miracle; the DIY gods smiled down upon me! Over the space of a few days I painted the back white two times and then did the same with the green. It looks quite DIY which is the look I was going for since a dystopian/post-apocalyptic style is in no way about the perfection of your outfit.

What can we learn from this?

  1. Never pay full price for New Rock boots. They are frequently on sale so finding them for cheap is not too difficult.
  2. New Rock have changed the way they make their boots. Their newer models are made of plastic coated leather, unpadded tongues and PU soles. From what I understand they are starting to use these same materials for their older styled boots as well.
  3. Never give up on a DIY project, because there will always be a workaround. It may take you a little time to figure it out, but that’s okay!
  4. Doing DIY projects gives you a sense of accomplishment and it is something that gives you your own personal style. It’s a lot of fun and you end up with something that nobody else has or can easily copy. That in itself is very spiffy!

All of Lycia’s Digital Discography Is Up On Bandcamp for only $1.00

You read that correctly, all of Lycia’s digital discography is only $1.00. You can pay more of course, but if you are broke this is an insanely affordable way to purchase their music……and what music! For those of you who do not know they are an ethereal/darkwave band that has been creating music for about 30 years. Beautiful songs that transport you to somewhere dark and comforting. If you want to get into goth music this would be an excellent place to start.

Don’t Listen To Actual Goth Bands And Call Yourself A Goth? That Would Make You A Poseur, Not A Goth.

How to pronounce the word poseur in case you don’t know already.

For years I have really disliked using the word ‘poseur’ because it would always end up being used against people who in no way deserved derision. However, given the climate that the goth subculture finds itself in right now, I really feel that the word needs to be used more often and with some intentional force.

There are many people right now who are calling themselves ‘goth’ even though they do not listen to the actual music at all. Most of the time they listen to rap/trap or metal music and think that just because they dress in black clothes that they are goth as hell. Nothing could be further from the truth. Angela Benedict put out a video the other day outlining why the overt sexualization and fetishization of goths is very bad and needs to be put to a stop. It is largely being perpetuated by sex workers, who are not in the subculture at all, playing goth dress-up and advertising their Only Fans accounts in actual goth spaces. She isn’t saying that sex workers are bad, just that they need to stop advertising their work within the actual goth community, because leg humpers then think that all goths are kinky and like rough sex. I totally agree with her.

In the comment section of Angela’s video somebody named Shino Tenshi took it upon themselves to state that goth is changing and that the subculture has got to accept it. I screen-saved all of their posts for posterity, so join me on a fun journey to poseurville. All aboard!

No, kids who don’t actually listen to goth music do not get a say when it comes to what is and is not accepted in the goth subculture. Why? Because they are not goth. Plus, these ‘sub-sub cultures’ that they are mentioning are the misused terms such as ‘trad’, ‘fairy’, ‘Victorian’, ‘vampire’, and ‘street’. Descriptors that were originally used as a joke in the 90’s. That’s right, if you use those terms you aren’t in on the joke and can be officially called a poseur. Trying to become a certain ‘type’ of goth to fit into the subculture instead of simply being yourself is sad and shows a lack of understanding as to what the subculture is about. It’s not all about how you dress, rather it is about actual goth music; goth rock, deathrock, ethereal, darkwave, and coldwave bands. Notice how rap/hip-hop, emo and metal are not on that list? It’s because those are not goth genres of music.

They respect the roots of the culture? Like hell they do. If they did then they would listen to actual goth music and not ’emo/goth/dark trap’ music. Hell, they don’t even know what music they are actually listening to! Those types of music are totally different from one another and are not related at all. Again, there is no such thing as ‘street goth’. Basically this person is wearing urban street wear, but because the items are black they think they can call themselves goth. That must mean nuns are goth because they also dress in black. No, we don’t not have to accept ‘deviations’ when they are not goth at all. Also, we don’t have to accept these poseurs into the subculture because they don’t listen to actual goth bands. This person has to deal with social stigmas because of the way they dress? Boo fucking hoo. Cry me a river. Some of us have been having to deal with it for thirty or forty years.

I thought they respected the roots of the culture? I guess not. If it is so terrible why the hell would they call themselves a goth then? Seriously, they are identifying with a subculture whose music they hate. To them goth is about fashion first, and the music is secondary. Music that is not goth at all. I would love to see this person go to an actual goth club and request their favourite ‘goth’ songs. I used to DJ and if somebody requested something like Lil Peep I would totally have a laugh about it because hell to the fucking no. It would be the type of thing I would share on social media the next day. Way to fucking go…poseur.

No, hun, you are also not ‘gothic’. That is unless you are a cathedral in Europe, so please correct me if I am wrong. No, goth is not just a ‘fashion statement’. See, this is what the person clearly doesn’t understand. They think that being goth is all about dressing in black and that the music is secondary. A person can be a goth if they don’t dress in black at all but listen to the actual music. If a person dresses in black, calls themselves a goth but doesn’t listen to goth rock, deathrock, ethereal, darkwave or coldwave music then they are a poseur. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it because it it simply the truth. It is not ‘gatekeeping’ to tell the truth. Listening to actual goth music is a very small hurdle to get over, and if people don’t want to do it then they deserve the poseur tag.

No, kid, you are not about to transform what goth is. Mostly because you have absolutely no say in the matter since you don’t listen to any actual goth music. Goth music sounds like ‘grandma’ music? Wow. This person is certainly out to win hearts and minds. So, everybody in the goth subculture dresses alike? Um…they would only think that if they only paid attention to the social media accounts of those who only dress in clothes made by dark alternative brands. These fashion victims think that dressing like a nu-goth witch automatically makes them a member of the goth subculture, when in fact it doesn’t. If they don’t listen to actual goth bands then that would make them poseurs. Again, it is not ‘gatekeeping’ to tell the truth.

As I stated above in my response to them it is perfectly okay to listen to other forms of music besides goth if you are a member of the goth subculture. However, that gets thrown out the window if you don’t listen to any actual goth bands at all. To call yourself a goth means that you listen to at least some goth music. You don’t even have to like all forms of it. You may just like deathrock or darkwave and that is perfectly okay. The people who think that they have to listen to only goth music are boring as hell and will probably drop out of the subculture sooner rather than later.

So, what can we learn from all of this? If you want to be a part of the goth subculture you have to listen to at least some actual goth bands. Metal, emo and rap/trap are not goth. Period. If you don’t listen to any goth bands and insist on calling yourself a goth then you are a poseur. Don’t want to be called a poseur? Then don’t call yourself a goth. The end.

‘Grunge’ Never Had A Connection To The Goth Subculture

This man did not make goth music, did not invent wearing thrift clothes and has been dead for almost 30 years.

I wrote this rant elsewhere out of frustration when it comes to younglings claiming that they are ‘grunge-goth’, because in truth grunge was never a subculture and has never had anything to do with the goth subculture. Enjoy!

The amount of people who think grunge was an actual subculture is disappointing and yet doesn’t surprise me. Just because some dark fashion retailer is trying to sell you something that they label ‘grunge’ doesn’t mean that it was a damn subculture. You know what grunge was? It was a marketing label used by mainstream record execs to sell pre-packaged ‘safe’ rebellion. Those bands that they labeled ‘grunge’ were playing punk meets garage music and their original audience was made up of mostly punks.

All of that changed when the label ‘grunge’ was pushed into the mainstream and the new audience was mostly made up of trend whores who thought they were now at the peak of being alternative. They were the same people who would give punks and goths massive amounts of shit for looking too different or for listening to music that was too strange. The lyrics for Nazi Punks Fuck Off say it perfectly:

‘You ain’t hardcore ’cause you spike your hair when a jock still lives inside your head’

THIS! Needless to say grunge had nothing to do with the goth subculture. Did some goths like grunge? Of course, but that didn’t mean that the two were connected. Punks, metalheads, and everybody generally alternative wore flannel, military surplus gear and thrift store clothing way before ‘grunge’ made its appearance. The bands labeled ‘grunge’ were just wearing what other weirdos wore, they didn’t invent a style. The mainstream took that style and marketed it to the masses.

Now there are a bunch of people who are using the term grunge-goth, which makes zero sense because of the reasons I talked about up above. It is a term made up by dark fashion companies to sell nostalgia to kids, as if grunge was also a subculture equal to goth. ‘If you buy this grunge-goth top you are going to be double cool and ultra rebellious!’ No, no you are not because grunge was never a subculture and if you buy into those marketing tactics you are nothing but a fashion victim, the same as those mainstream trend whores from 30 years ago.

Goth is not grunge, grunge is not goth. The end.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Join A Modern Wannabe 80’s Post-Punk Band

The man, the myth, the legend.

First, let me start out by saying that I am not going to name a single wannabe 80’s modern post-punk band in this post. So, if you are looking for some spicy drama you ain’t going to find it here. If you are a person who has been trying to find new music in the modern post-punk genre you will know exactly what I am talking about. Same thing applies if you are trying to find good goth bands since the line between the genres is very blurred right now. Suffice it to say that this issue is very out in the open for anybody to easily observe.

In music there are always trend trains that some musicians want to jump on because they think it will bring them more attention. For the last few years the 1980’s have been very popular with teens and those who actually don’t remember the decade. It’s a nostalgia trip down memory lane based partially on the music that they think was popular at that time. Joy Division being featured on Stranger Things is a prime example of this. However, what these people don’t realise is that Joy Division actually wasn’t that well known back then. Chicks with huge perms and wearing neon workout gear were not Jazzercising to Joy Division. Trust me. I had a gym class back then that made us Jazzercise to Wham. Yeah, that’s right, most people back then listened to really corny pop music.

What these trend jumpers don’t understand is that not every single ‘post-punk’ band in the 80’s sounded the same. They weren’t all copying Joy Division and many had their own sound going on. Back then you could listen to the radio or a mix-tape and know what bands were being played just by their sound. Instead of trying to sound different from one another many of these modern self described ‘post-punk’ bands think that they have to lift Peter Hook’s bass riffs in order to be included in the genre. I am not saying that every single one of the modern post-punk bands does this, but enough do it to the point that it has become tedious having to wade through an endless number of clones to find bands that have the creativity to actually mix the now stereotypical sound with the music of other subgenres.

All of this has gotten the point in which people ask in online goth communities about how to start a post-punk band and how to copy the sound. I always tell people to create their own sound because there are way too many clone bands around right now. I think it takes a lot of creativity to start a band, however that creativity is thrown out of the window when the musicians in a band play the same bass and guitar riffs as Joy Division.

BE YOURSELF, NOT SOMEBODY THAT YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO BE IN ORDER TO ‘FIT IN’ !!!!! Screw fitting in. Screw music trends. Do you know what is going to happen? If the music industry tries to mainstream the goth subculture yet again I guarantee that they are going to sign these wannabe 80’s post-punk bands. Why? Because they are safe sounding and don’t challenge the listener in any way, shape or form. I was around in the SF Bay Area when pop-punk reared its ugly head, and tons of non threatening bands got signed to major labels. What is happening right now is very similar. Meaning that a more mainstream commercial type sound is being popularized and being promoted as being ‘different’ right now, when in fact it’s about as challenging as eating a bowl of cornflakes.

Is The Goth Subculture Actually Political?

Sex Gang Children’s newest album is very political, which is a good thing.

Lately there has been a lot of talk about how goth music is political, which in turn would mean that the subculture is political as well. When it comes down to it is the subculture actually politically minded?

Everybody reading this knows that the goth subculture was birthed out of the punk subculture. The punk subculture has always been political to varying degrees. There are famous punk musicians such as Jello Biafra and Dick Lucas who have always talked the talk and walked the walk. When they write songs about supporting equal rights or about how evil corporations are they mean it. They aren’t being political to gain ‘scene’ points, they are being political because they think that speaking against injustices is important and something that must be done.

Do goth bands speak up about injustices? Sometimes, but not as often as their punk cousins. Sex Gang Children have recently put out the most politically charged album that I have ever heard come out from under the goth umbrella. It’s called Oligarch and it speaks up against corporations, religious hypocrisy and fascist politicians. I honestly hope that other goth bands listen to it and are inspired to make their own politically charged art. Christian Death is another band that has openly made politically charged music through the years. Both the Rozz and Valor versions of the band have done this. Then there are modern anarcho deathrock bands such as Mystic Priestess and the Creeping Terrors who make music with a political bent. With one foot in the punk subculture they are carrying on the tradition of speaking up against what is wrong in society.

If you spend any amount of time in online goth communities you will see people ask if they can be right wing and goth at the same time. The goth subculture has always leaned left because of the acceptance of those who society sees as the ‘other’. Are there racists within the subculture? There have always been those in the subculture who think that a person has to be white in order to be goth, which is a load of shit of course. Do some people wear white foundation and try to look as pale as possible? Of course but you don’t have to look like a Victorian ghost to enjoy the music. You don’t have to be a certain weight, a certain colour or dress a certain way to take part in the subculture.

All of this could be called political, but do people in the subculture actually stand up for the rights of others when it comes down to it? I would like to argue that there are some that do, but they are heavily outnumbered by those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. The most important thing about being politically minded is standing behind what you say, even if it inconveniences you. A huge example of this are all of the people in the subculture who will be attending the Cruel World festival, even though the person putting it on is a proven homophobe. They will post about how they are for the rights of those who identify as LGBTQ, but they don’t want to be inconvenienced by missing a show. It’s hypocritical to not stand behind what you say.

Back thirty years ago the subculture was largely not political at all. To the point that Nazi skinheads would attend the clubs and nobody would lift a finger to boot them out. Seriously, I witnessed this shit myself. Back then I weighed 100 pounds and I knew that it would be impossible for me to do anything physically about it. However, there were several times back then that I told Nazi skins off because I didn’t like the crap that they were saying. I did all that I could do back then but when it came down to it there were definitely others who just didn’t care. As long as they could dance to their favourite songs everything was hunky dory.

When it comes down to it the goth subculture can be political, but there are many people in it who need to learn to stand up for what they claim to believe in. Supporting the LGBTQ community online is good, but if it is not followed through with some sort of physical action then that support becomes meaningless. Go to marches and events that are against racism and homophobia, and don’t attend events that are put on by racist or homophobic promoters.

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