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!
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)
Classism sucks and I find it sad as hell that it is alive and well within the goth community. What I am stating shouldn’t be a shock because you can easily find examples of this online. Everything from insisting on buying only thrift clothes to telling people to buy only handmade items falls into this.
Thrifting clothes as of right now is very ‘in’. So much so that people will raid thrift stores and then resell the items for twice as much online. Even thrift stores have gotten into the act. Quite often they will charge more for the same items than you can get for new elsewhere. People always screech that you should get everything thrifted because they think that is the only way we bought clothes over 30 years ago. Actually, a whole lot of us bought clothes from regular mall type shops. Stores like Contempo Casuals sold very goth friendly alternative clothes and just about everybody I knew back then got at least some of their wardrobe from there. So, don’t feel guilty that you can’t buy a lot of thrifted clothes. You may even not have any thrift stores near where you live, and that’s okay.
This was originally a Killstar jacket. I did a ton of DIY work to make it look different.
People are also giving others a lot of shit for daring to buy clothing from ‘dark alternative’ online stores. I have made no secret as to how I purchase clothing from such sites; only on sale and never full price. Frankly, I really don’t give a crap where you buy your clothes from. Just as long as it isn’t Dollskill, who is a very problematic brand, I don’t care. You do you. Personally, I would never wear an entire outfit of just one brand but if that’s what you gotta do that is what you gotta do. Who the hell am I to judge you?
It is very classist to exclude somebody from the goth subculture just because they don’t have the money or the time to do DIY projects. Studs, paints and other such things cost money and can be expensive to buy online. In this economic climate it is super hard for many to afford all of this. I only have a lot of DIY supplies because I have bought them little by little when I have the cash to do so. Also, many people just don’t have the time to work on a huge project like a jacket. I have MS and sometimes it can take me weeks to complete something because of how exhausted I always am.
Where a whole lot of weirdos bought clothes in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Remember that people have lives outside of online spaces and no longer live with their parents. The people who get really zany about all of this are the younger folk who either don’t know any better or who think they are an authority on the subject even though they don’t even know about basic goth bands such as Bauhaus. Some of them even attempt to create YouTube channels so that they can get sponsored and receive free crap to show off. Most of these type of YouTubers quit within a year or two because they want to jump off the goth train and climb onto another one.
Clout chasers should get no say in how you want to dress. Their reality of free gear and taking hours to look like a cheap-ass version of Siouxsie is not the reality for most of the people in the goth subculture. You do not have to spend tons of money on expensive gear to be a goth or to participate in the subculture. If you are poor and listen to goth music that makes you a goth, not the clothing that you wear. Be you, and don’t let the ignorant classist bullshit artists dictate where you should buy your clothes from.
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.
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.
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 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?
Never pay full price for New Rock boots. They are frequently on sale so finding them for cheap is not too difficult.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
I went down a rabbit hole on Bandcamp last night, and to my surprise I found a band that performs spooky Halloween music called Fright Night Club. Being a huge fan of Nox Arcana I got really excited because I think it’s great that another band is creating unsettling music.
They perform both instrumental and original songs. Some albums are filled with instrumentals, while others are packed with original songs about monsters, horror movies,etc… There are even a few cover songs which is pretty cool! I am currently listening to their album called Creepshow: Re-Scared, which as you can guess from the title is full of sonic landscapes that flesh out the scenes in the film Creepshow. It’s seriously good stuff! I love listening to this kind of music while writing because it gets me in the mood so that I feel extra spooky!
This band has a ton of people contributing songs to the albums, so it is a collective; a spooky version of a band such as The Joy Thieves. I honestly don’t know who the people listed are, but I am betting that at least a few of them are goth or horror-punk musicians. They put out one album every year and also some separately themed albums . They take an obvious cue from John Carpenter, which can only be a good thing! There are lots of keyboards and guitar mixed together which makes for a spooky unsettling journey through a horror filled landscape.
I seriously love this band, as you can tell. Surprisingly all of their albums, save one, are free to download off of Bandcamp. Sit down, because this next part is a bit shocking. There are NINETEEN of them! Their newest one titled Sounds Of The Season Part II, which was released last year, is a name your price album.
So, get your spooky behind over to Bandcamp and check this band out! It’s great spooky music to listen to all year, and to scare the kiddies with during Halloween.
