Category: Goth Subculture (Page 2 of 9)

That Time I Got A Backstage Pass To Meet Love & Rockets In 1989

January 6, 2023 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

The song that really made them big in 1989.

This is quite a funny story with some very strange moments mixed into it. Since there were no cameras allowed in the venue I have no photographic proof that this happened, but that was very typical back then. All names have been changed to protect the innocent and not so innocent.

Anyways! In July of 1989 I was an eighteen year old weirdo into punk, alternative and what would soon be labeled goth music. The goth tag didn’t infiltrate that area of California until 90-91. I had just graduated high school and was so happy that I was out of that hellhole that I saw this show as a reward of sorts. I had two tickets and was going with three friends, one of whom drove all of us from Fremont to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. One friend, let’s name her Tracy, had actually lost her ticket and I let her have my extra one for free because that is what friends are for.

It was a general admission type show so we got there before noon and ended up first in line. It was very hot so we brought some shade protection and water but it wasn’t enough. Through the gate you could see their roadies and others walking back and forth getting things done. One of them had longish magenta hair and he would wave to us and smile. It was just really cool for somebody to acknowledge our tenacity in that heat.

I guess we looked very hot and miserable so that same roadie actually passed us some water and some fruit through the gates. This was a very cool thing for him to do and we thanked him profusely. Soon afterwards one of my friends, Ophelia, left the line to find a bathroom, and while she was gone the same roadie came over to us again with something in his hands; backstage passes! No joke! He proceeded to hand them out to our little group, and to two other women who were behind us in line. It was such a small weirdo world back then that I actually knew one of them. It all happened so quickly that we didn’t have a pass for Ophelia who then came back from the bathroom. That part of it really sucked, but we didn’t see the roadie again before the gates were finally opened. Word had gotten out about us getting those passes and I actually had a trendy alternative dude from my old high school ask if he could buy mine off of me for $50. Big hell to the no!

The prime area to watch a show unobstructed at that venue was standing on a bench that was on the path separating the pit and the tiers above. You had a barrier to lean against and you could see the stage with no obstructions. The Godfathers, the opening band, played and they were quite good and energetic. After they finished Ophelia mysteriously took off and was gone for about thirty minutes. When she came back she was magically holding a pass. She never told us how she got it so I’m guessing that some special exchange of body fluids is what occurred. You’ll find out why I think that later. Don’t worry, she was nineteen so nothing illegal took place.

The most famous song by the opening band The Godfathers.

Then Love & Rockets came out and they were really, really on fire that night. There was even a special appearance on stage of one of the Bubblemen, full costume and everything! It was a lot of fun, and when the show ended we went to the left side of the stage, all holding our passes like the rare treasures that they were. I mean, it’s not like we thought that we were going to get backstage passes or anything like that. My friends and I, and the two other women, didn’t look ubergoth or anything like that. We all looked alternative in one way or another. I wore the atypical black leather jacket of the time. I stuck some band stickers on the back of it and painted a quote from the PiL song Memories below them. It was 100% DIY because that is what you had to do back then if you wanted to wear something different looking. I’m just saying all of this to make the point that you don’t have to wear expensive clothes or a ton of make-up to actually talk to the ‘goth’ musicians that you like.

We get to the backstage entrance and the security guy tells all of us that we have to stick the patches on our clothing. I told him I was going to put it on the back of my jacket and asked him if that was okay. Got a nod and had Tracy stick in on for me. Away we went into the unknown!

You are probably wondering how nervous I was at this point. Very, but excited at the same time! What’s funny is that two years earlier some asshole at my high school made fun of me for not knowing about their first album, and guess who was meeting them? Me and not him! Hooray! Well, we walked into a large back room which was where the band food was to see members of The Godfathers and the really good backup singer that performed with Love & Rockets. Who was by the way a real sweetheart and I think I made her day when I got her to sign my jacket. She performed with them so she counted as a member of the band in my eyes. Backup singers are the unsung heroes of the music world.

No sign of Love & Rockets. One of the two other women asked if the band was going to come out because we wanted some things signed. She was the only person in the whole group of us who had a marker, and it was a cool pink metallic colour. I think security went down the hall and a minute later said that we can hand him our things and they will sign them. I had bought a shirt so I handed it over and about ten minutes later we received back our freshly signed gear. That wasn’t the end, so don’t think that all of us went down without a fight. Another one of us complained quite loudly as to why give us backstage passes if we don’t even get to meet the band. The rest of us joined in and I guess the band heard and soon all six of us were ushered into the inner sanctum; the band dressing room.

In the midst of all of this Ophelia told us quietly that The Godfathers wanted her to hang out with them at the club The Berkeley Square. However, she claimed that she couldn’t go because she had no way of getting home afterwards. I mean, she could have walked to BART in the morning, but I’m guessing she didn’t want to do the walk of shame. Which leads me to think that she got that backstage pass by doing something with a member of that band. She was willing to do something once, but not a second time. Again, she was nineteen years old so nothing illegal took place. I only knew her for two more years after this because she turned out to be one of those type of people who will kiss anybody’s ass to get what she wanted. That really, really irked me so I stopped being friends with her. She was kind of like a social vampire; just very draining.

The set list that Love & Rockets played that night.

Daniel Ash was standing in the corner looking at us with no expression, David J was on one end of the couch looking stoic, while Kevin Haskins was all smiles. One of the first things that happened was Kevin getting the pen from the other woman, then physically he turned me around and started to draw one of the Bubblemen on the back of my jacket. He did all of this with a smile on his face and you could tell that he was really enjoying himself and that he was in his element. When you have met a lot of musicians you learn which vibes mean what and he really came across as a genuinely nice person. Wait, I can hear you asking, what about Daniel and David? You have got to understand how absolutely gorgeous Daniel Ash was back then in person. However, I got tired of him just standing there and staring at us so I went up to him and started babbling and somehow I got onto the subject of the film This Is Spinal Tap. Yes, I talked about the film This Is Spinal Tap with Daniel Ash. I don’t remember what he said exactly, but soon it didn’t matter because we were all told that we needed to leave.

When I turned around I saw my friends but no Kevin Haskins. I asked what had happened to him and was told by Ophelia that Tracy had been sitting on the sofa arm and she had accidentality kicked Kevin in the nuts! When I was talking to Daniel I remember hearing a small commotion but that was it. So, one of us managed to accidentally kick in the nuts the nicest musician in the room. I remember Tracy constantly repeating ‘Oh my god!’ on the way back to the car because she felt so bad about it.

The really, really funny thing about all of this is that I learned years later that Daniel Ash has always had kind of a reputation of willingly having sex with his female fans, So, I guess all of us didn’t look hot enough to get banged by Daniel? I am so happy that he didn’t hit on me because that would have spoiled the whole thing in my opinion. Where is that leather coat and can you buy it from me? Unfortunately that jacket is long gone, which is what happens when you move around a lot.

Hey Daniel, if by some miracle you are reading this I hope you took my advice and watched This Is Spinal Tap because it is a very funny film. Oh, and Kevin thank you for being a really cool person and I am so sorry that a member of my group accidentality harmed you.

People Desperately Want To Be Called Goth Right Now

December 29, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

I was minding my own business when I came upon this earlier today.

Sometimes I’ll sit around trying to figure out what the heck to write about next. Most of the time ideas pop right into my head out of nowhere, but sometimes the social media gods/goddesses smile down upon me and plop a bundle of joy right onto my lap. The interaction that I had with this person easily proves why some gatekeeping is absolutely necessary in the goth subculture.

So, the above kid is asking what name should those who dress ‘goth’ but don’t listen to the actual music be called. The simple answer is of course a poseur. Oh noes, professional trendy ‘goth’ fashion victims outnumber actual goths, that must mean they are right? This is a case of a kid, at least I hope they are young, so desperate for the ‘goth’ tag that they try to tell actual goths what the goth subculture is like. You would be correct in thinking that this isn’t going to go very well for them. My responses to them are circled in green, while theirs and others are red.

I didn’t jump into this first section because the cringe was heavy in the air.

Look at our little dude/dudette go! They don’t want to hear the truth, rather they want to be validated in their self imposed wannabe gothdom; like Batman in his batcave. See what I did there?

Do you know why people in the goth community get pissed off about others using the label without listening to the music? Because trendy fashion victims are calling themselves goth without listening to the music. It’s really that simple and not that complicated. They don’t need a ‘culturally sensitive’ name, they are the living and breathing definitions of a goth subculture poseur. If they don’t like that then they do indeed need a new hobby. I’m not wrong in my assessment.

I wasn’t exaggerating when I said this fell into my lap.

Am I one of those ‘musical’ goths? I do love GiGi, Singing In The Rain, The Sound Of Music and The Wizard Of Oz. Oh wait, I think he meant ‘music’ goths. He says it like it’s dirty to listen to goth music. This is where they expose the fact that they are pissed off at being called a poseur. They called me a gatekeeper in response because they didn’t like the answer that they received. Tough luck buttercup, the music is very important to the subculture and your little temper tantrum isn’t going to change that fact.

The dude/dudette is denying they want the goth tag, all while making a post on Reddit complaining about people denying him, and his friends, the goth tag. They aren’t the brightest crayon in the box.

I feel like I should be watching a musical right now.

Goths are into actual goth music and get pissed off when trendy fashion victims call themselves goth for just dressing in black. Who would have thunk it? If they keep running into this ‘problem’ then maybe they need to learn some self awareness.

Another idiot has to throw in that Joy Division is a goth band.

You know how I feel about Joy Division being called a ‘goth’ band. I couldn’t help but interact with this interloper.

Out of every interaction that I had with this poseur this is my favourite part. I love how they actually say the truth for a second, then double back saying it isn’t a genre of music that goths listen to any longer. How dare goths listen to actual goth music! How dare they!

Again, I really hope this person is young.

They really do come across as somebody who has been called a poseur quite a few times. They can dance around this all they want, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they don’t listen to actual goth music. It’s really quite fascinating just how important the goth tag is for this person; denial is not a river in Egypt. Damn those darn music goths, damn them all! Yes, I would have the balls to call this person a poseur to their face. Seriously.

Oh noes, they corrected my spelling! Whatever shall I do?

They really are acting just like a child having a tantrum. They can bang on the gate of goth till they are blue in the face, but because they and their friends don’t listen to actual goth music they will never be let in. They claim that those darn ‘music’ goths are in a minority where they live. That would come down to the fact that him and his wannabe goth friends exist in an echo chamber, in which no actual goth person resides. So goths who listen to actual goth bands are now elitists? Considering the idiocy on show here I will wear that ‘insult’ as a badge of honour.

Yes, I do like musicals and I have no shame.

Apparently it is rude now to tell people the truth instead of validating their wonky self-made identity. This sort of thing always makes me wonder how people deal with situations such as this in the offline world. They even add the whole gatekeeping trope that normally appears in these sorts of online confrontations. Again, why this desperate need for the goth tag?

Dude, you can wear whatever the hell you want, nobody is stopping you. However, the minute you call yourself a goth without even giving the music a chance you become the living and breathing embodiment of a poseur. Want to dress in black and not be called a poseur then stop calling yourself a goth. It really is that simple. If the ‘normies’ are calling you a goth it’s because they think it is only about a style of clothes. When have the ‘normies’ ever been right about alternative subcultures?

Apparently I am supposed to be over sixty if I listen to actual goth music. I only have nine more years left until I came become one of those infamous ‘musical’ goths! This has me rather excited. Can you tell?

Oh yes, isn’t it rather silly that goths listen to actual goth music? They have probably been called a poseur by multiple people in the goth community and keep trying to get the answer that they want to hear. Remember, the person keeps insisting that they don’t want the goth tag all while bitching about those mean ‘musical’ goths not accepting them into the goth subculture. I am disappointed because they obviously already have their answer, but they refuse to believe it.

I’ll do what I like, you aren’t the boss of me!

….and that attitude makes you a poseur.

This was my original answer to their question.

How am I wrong? Even thirty years ago the people just into the fashion aspect of things were called poseurs. Want to make a bet that they didn’t even read my link?

Well, that is it for today. Sometimes people do not want to listen to the truth and that is on them, not on you.

Thoughts On The Goth Grifter

December 26, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Wednesday, the latest image that the goth grifter is poaching.

I can hear you asking, what is a goth grifter? To put it simply it is somebody using the goth subculture in order to make money, receive free gifts, or to gain popularity in ‘alternative’ subculture circles in general. Through my years of listening to goth and punk music and participating in various ‘scenes’ I have seen my fair share of them so it is fairly easy for me to root them out. All of the information included in this article is public and quite easy to find so I didn’t have to dig far to get any of it.

One year ago Madi Danger thought that all post-punk music was goth, as evidenced above. EDIT: As of 15/01 she has taken down my comment. Too late Madi, too late!!!!!

The most recent really obvious case that has totally jump started me into finally writing about this is the mysterious appearance of the self proclaimed metal and goth music lover Madi Danger. I first saw her on YouTube last year when she made a ‘intro to goth music’ video that misrepresented Echo &The Bunnymen and Joy Division both as goth bands. I corrected her just on the Bunnymen inclusion, because I didn’t feel like being called a gatekeeper. She came back with the whole ‘post-punk is a genre under the goth umbrella’ fallacy. I automatically thought that she must be really young to think that since it is surface level misinformation. Somebody older and wiser would know differently. Well, guess what? Imagine my surprise when I found out that she was twenty-four years old when she wrote the above misinformation.

The question that immediately comes to my mind is why would a fully grown ass woman in her mid-twenties suddenly hitch her trailer to the goth subculture? She obviously knows a whole lot about metal music and is a big fan of that genre. Yet, she all of a sudden likes goth and wants to share her surface level knowledge of it with everybody? It just really feels inauthentic, like she is hitching her identity now to ‘goth’ because it is what is very popular. She has the teased hair, the clothes, and all of the frippery, but it’s just really a shell that is easily cracked. She is using goth as an additive to her already metal identity, to gain more attention and more of a following. You know what? I wouldn’t hold anything against her at all if she was a youngster, but she is now twenty-six years old. This is a grift for subculture clout, and a painfully obvious one at that.

They quite frequently will call themselves a ‘trad goth’, which always makes me roll my eyes.

The next kind of goth grifter that I have run into a lot online are the ones who call themselves ‘trad goth’. They think that calling themselves such will gain them more goth community clout since the goth grifter feels that anything out of the 80’s is cool. They copy what they think the 80’s were like, but since they weren’t even born in that decade it just comes across as really shallow and reeks of desperation. They want what the 80’s produced, such as goth music, without any of the hardships that the people who actually went through that decade lived through. It’s the exact same crap as the wannabe hippies of the late 80’s; people longing for a decade, which in reality, they probably would not have fit into.

They link to an Amazon wish-list, because of course they do.

The goth grifter doesn’t really have any shame and will usually openly advertise their Amazon wish-list as the person above has done. They do this, of course, to receive free products. My huge question about this is why the heck do they think that they deserve free merch from complete strangers? What are they producing that is so damn special that they think that they deserve these goods? It takes some ego to think that their contribution to the goth subculture is that important and that worthy of attention, when in fact the information they share is usually limited and based off of misinformation. So instead of helping the subculture they hinder it, because all of the youngsters who follow these grifters head down the same path of outright lies and half truths. It’s a goth circle jerk.

I feel kind of bad for calling out this particular person in the last three photos but they embody so perfectly the point I am making. I have been running this blog as a hobby for over two years now and never once did I think that it would be okay for me to throw up an Amazon wish-list so that I could get free crap. In fact I do not make a dime at all from doing any of this. I do this because I love both the goth and punk subcultures and want to share real information, not half truths and lies that I have pulled out of my ass. I was actually a teen in the 80’s who lived through that decade not somebody playing 80’s dress-up for cash and prizes.

Because of the mainstream popularity of the series Wednesday you now have numerous goth grifters who think that dressing in black and copying a dance makes them automatically a goth. It reminds me of when Mansonites in the 90’s did the same exact crap; copying an image that they think gives them an entryway into the goth subculture, when in reality the opposite is true. When people try so hard to match an image is just reeks of desperation. How is any of this different from the endless grifting that the Kardashians do on social media? It’s done for the exact same reason; to be popular despite not having a discernable talent. Oh wow, you can buy some black clothes online and do over the top ‘goth’ make-up. In the words of Teddy Roosevelt; bully for you. You don’t deserve special treatment for it, or over the top praise for doing what thousands have done before you.

What is the best thing you can do? Not give money or gifts to any of these goth grifters. Within a few years they will more than likely drop out of the subculture and pivot to another grift. Remember Sebastian Columbine? No? My point exactly.

Why Is Hot Topic Charging More For Some Plus Sized Clothing?

December 23, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

At first I thought I was seeing things, but they are indeed doing this.

This has always been a topic that has stirred controversy; companies charging more for plus sized clothing. So much so that most clothing companies have stopped doing this due to pressure from the general public. Since this is the case why the heck does Hot Topic think that this is a great idea? I’m guessing that they are counting on people not noticing. Surprise, I have!

Pretty recently Hot Topic have decided to start selling ‘goth’ looking clothes once again. Quite honestly the pieces actually look better, and cost less, than the dreck that Killstar is pushing these days. So, please don’t think I am bashing Hot Topic when it comes to that. In fact I recently bought a very cool Misfits hoodie from them and it is of very good quality and I love it. The reason they are doing this is because they saw goth becoming a huge trend once again and wanted some of that cash. To think otherwise is just being very naive.

As per the photo above you can see that they are not doing this with every single piece; the two not highlighted are the same price. Why not just spread the cost between the two versions instead of punishing plus sized people by charging more for a slightly different size? This, quite honestly, reeks of trying to make more money off of plus sized people since Hot Topic knows that it is more difficult for them to find alternative type clothing that fits.

It’s kind of funny that the plus sized skirt is actually cheaper right here on sale. However, the regular price is still more.

I don’t see them changing their ways unless enough people start yelling at them about it. It is very important to stand up and make your voice heard in these types of situations, because sitting on your hands and doing nothing does not create change.

In Which I Answer Some Basic Goth Questions For The Masses

December 7, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

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.

Claire’s Now Has A Goth Section On Their Website

December 1, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

I am 100% not surprised by this. Mainly for the fact that they have carried goth friendly jewellery in the past. I go to the one in my town every once in a while and always walk out with something. Quite honestly I don’t think the aesthetic has ever been quite this popular before. A lot of people will move on once the trend dies down, but there will be some who stay for the music. So in the end this really isn’t a bad thing.

Fuck Jake Munro, He Is An Abusive Poseur Goth Asshole

November 29, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

The above ‘thing’ is what happens when you don’t gatekeep the goth subculture.

For the last couple of days I have been going back and forth in my head trying to figure out whether or not I should make a post about all of this. Why? Because my first husband, just like Jake, was a verbally and emotionally abusive piece of shit. So, I have been through exactly what Jake’s abuse victim, YouTuber Toxic Tears (aka Kaya), has been through. Being abused never completely leaves you and is something you have to deal with for the rest of your life. Personally, I have worked through that trauma pretty much on my own and I made it through the other end reasonably intact. However, seeing a younger woman going through the exact same crap publicly really breaks my heart and I feel like I have to speak up to not only support her but to warn others not to fall for the same shit.

Who, or what, is Jake Munro? He is an infamous thirty-one year old poseur goth YouTuber who has openly admitted to hating goth music and the subculture, but tags himself as goth in just about every video he makes. He is basically a clout chaser trying to make money off of the subculture. That’s it. I am not going to link any of his videos from this blog because I don’t want to give him views from here. You can easily find all of the crap I am talking about via Google and YouTube so what I am saying isn’t a secret at all.

For over ten years he dated another YouTuber named Toxic Tears, who is actually a goth. His channel only gained traction because of her linking his videos to her audience. In other words he used his girlfriend to jump-start his own ‘career’. He cheated on her multiple times over the years and openly flirted with underage girls while around her. So to say this dude is a creep would be a huge understatement. Some skanky bitch, who was married and has a 4 year old child, cheated on her husband with him and they are now a couple. Toxic Tears and him broke up about a year ago…but it was anything but normal.

Dearest little Jake literally threw her out of the place they shared and she was made to stay in an unheated workshop room. He had isolated her from her friends and made her be financially dependent on him, which is one of the HUGE things that abusers like him do. She eventually landed back on her feet, got a new place to stay and was starting to work on picking up the pieces of her shattered life. For about a year she was finding her freedom and healing from the abuse, then out of nowhere a few days back he makes a two hour video claiming that he is the victim and that she never respected him or appreciated all of the money and presents he gave her. Seriously. I guess he expected everybody to praise him and to feel sorry for him. It backfired. He expected her to cower, but instead she made her own three hour response in which she describes all of the abuse she went through and how absolutely horrible he was to her over the years.

Her three hour response. Please do not watch if you are triggered by talk of abuse. EDIT:This video has been ‘age restricted’ as of 3/12/22.

It took so much courage for her to do this and I really respect her for putting herself out there and for telling the truth as to how things went down between the two of them. However, it really pisses me off that she had to do this in the first place. Jake is such a fucking rabid abuser that he thought that he could still control her over a year later. He is nothing but a narcissistic immature asshole who looks like a cracked out version of Marilyn Manson, who also just happens to be an abusive asshole. Birds of a feather. Learning that he is insecure about the size of his penis and about his short height makes perfect sense. Awwwww…….the poor little guy. Literally.

So, what can we learn from all of this? That the goth subculture needs to be policing itself way more actively than it is doing right now. Abusive poseurs like Jake Munro should not be welcomed into the subculture with open arms, they should instead be kicked to the curb. Fuck Jake Munro and fuck you if you support his abusive bullshit.

The Sick New World Festival Has Booked She Wants Revenge, A Band That Includes Known Sexual Predators

November 8, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Sexual predators, wannabe goth bands and shit nu metal…oh my!

Before I start I would like to state for the record that I do actually like some of the bands featured above; Killing Joke, Body Count and some others. However, it’s on another continent than me and I tend not to go to shows where known sexual predator musicians are being featured. Just wanted to get that out there in case somebody thinks I’m being hypocritical about all of this.

Anyways! There sure seems to be a lot of new ‘alternative’ type festivals going on these days, mostly put together by the mainstream music industry. The above band line-up is so chaotic that it feels like they put a bunch of alternative band names in a hat and picked them out randomly. There is a whole lot of ‘I remember this band being edgy in the 90’s’ vibe going on here. Nevermind the fact that general admission tickets start out at $250.00. That is an insane price to pay for a one day event. It’s obvious that it is all about the Benjamins and not the actual music. Remember, all of the kids want to be goths or alternative these days so the people who put this together are counting on that to make a pile of cash.

EDIT: Just found out that it is being put on by Live Nation. No surprise there folks. They want your hard earned cash, and if women get sexually assaulted by musicians performing there so be it.

Screenshot I took of when post punk dot com featured the band a little while back. They only took it down when a bunch of people, including myself, complained. They can never deny that it happened.

There is one more thing even more messed up than all of the stuff I have already mentioned; they put known sexual predators She Wants Revenge on the bill. This article by The Los Angeles Times is the most complete as to detailing what went down exactly at the club Cloak & Dagger, a space both members of the band ran until it was shut down due to public pressure in 2021. They broke up for a time, but are now back together being covered by such problematic websites as post punk dot com. I’m guessing they handed the site a huge wad of cash to feature them, since that is what they do to the majority of the bands featured on their site. I guess money is more important than protecting the lives of women. Go figure.

The only way that any of these mainstream produced festivals are going to change is if people stop going to them. Cruel World featured Morrissey, a racist windbag. This one features She Wants Revenge, a pair of sexual predators. People will crow online all about how black lives matter and how woman should be treated with respect, but will turn around and go see bands who are the antithesis of what they claim to believe.

The end.

My Thoughts On That ’50 Best Goth Songs Of All Time’ Rolling Stone Article

November 3, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

Strawberry Switchblade was not a goth band just because they dressed strange.

There is a recent Rolling Stone article titled The 50 Best Goth Songs Of All Time making the rounds, and my goodness are people pissed off about it. The main reason being that the author of the article is a noted historian on the goth subculture, Andi Harriman. Personally I think she is full of shit, based mainly on the fact that she writes for post-punk dot com, a very problematic website that I have covered on here before. It is run by a trust fund guy who is actively buying his way into the subculture. You are the company that you keep.

I read somewhere yesterday that dearest Andi has claimed that she was told by Rolling Stone to expand the list with famous bands that maybe weren’t goth in order to appease their audience. Instead of having standards she gave in and wrote it. I guess getting her name on the byline of a Rolling Stone article was more important than telling the truth of things. Go figure. So, come wander down this path of half-truths and outright lies with me. This is going to be fun! I will quote sections of the article and then give my response.

‘The scene was a torch passing of sorts. Murphy’s Bauhaus had helped invent goth during the early Eighties; Way had brought it to stripmalls and arenas in the 21st century. And, still, neither could answer a question that has haunted people for decades: What is goth?‘

Woman, My Chemical Romance is not a goth band. I repeat, My Chemical Romance is not a damn goth band. Just because a band dresses in black does not automatically mean that the band makes goth subculture music. It wasn’t passing a torch from Murphy to Way, it was more like Murphy spitting up in the air and his phlegm landed on Way. What is goth? A question that she sure as hell also doesn’t know how to answer.

Let’s travel back to 1983. A time when London’s Batcave club was in its infancy. There, the aesthetics of goth were cultivated—a love for horror movies and Gothic novels, a sickly pallor and a koosh ball of hair, pointy winklepickers and a mish-mash of fetish materials, and most of all, a romance with melancholy. ‘83 was also the year that vampire-thriller The Hunger, co-starring David Bowie, hit the big screens. Vampires, Bowie, Bauhaus – it was the perfect trifecta, beautifully bound in an orgy of tragic eternity.

Um…on the US West Coast during the same time there were bands doing the exact same thing. The Batcave was not the only place where goth music came into being and was born; it’s just the obvious easy answer that people repeat over and over and over….again. So much of this is repeated elsewhere that there are tons of people who weren’t even alive during the 80’s running around wearing Batcave shirts and patches right now. I was a teen in the 80’s in the San Francisco Bay Area and even though I was alive during those Batcave years I wouldn’t sport a shirt or patch of a place that I never went to. An orgy of tragic Eternity? It’s not an orgy if it is only attended by three people. Just saying.

The first batallion of dark 1970s post-punk bands fed off the energy of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust character, an androgynous creature who didn’t quite seem human. The allure of Ziggy, mixed with the magnetism of Dracula (namely Christopher Lee, Udo Keir, and of course, Bela Lugosi) helped to assemble the essential iconography of the subculture– at once dreadful and oozing with sex appeal.

A whole lot of those bands came out of Los Angeles and not the Batcave; specifically Christian Death and 45 Grave, who both used darkly themed aesthetics in their stage performances. Alice Bag, who was in the early Los Angeles punk band The Bags with Patricia Morrison, actually goes into detail in her book Violence Girl as to how everything creatively morphed after the early punk scene there imploded due to the violence that was happening at shows. I highly recommend her book, because she was best friends with Morrison and her insight is very valuable.

And the sound? It’s atmospheric. Somewhere between a banshee scream or a bellowing, reverberated howl that could part the Red Sea, goth began as a transition point from the jaggedness of punk’s confrontational simplicity into an elegant darkness, one cloaked in sorrow and so much emotion. In order to achieve goth status, there must be as much drama as possible: the music, in true Hitchockian fashion, must be as frightening as a spiral staircase in a creaking haunted house.

Again, a whole lot of early goth bands were anything but elegant. Sex Gang Children, Virgin Prunes, Christian Death, etc…were all very confrontational and anything but elegant, but that was the appeal. You could speak up about how fucked up the world was along with looking like you were mourning it. Personally, that is one of the reasons why I have always been into goth music along with punk; they can be on different sides of the same coin.

Think of this list as a roadmap to that sound—from B-movie horror thrills, to reanimated rock and roll rituals, to complete sacrilege, bulging with blasphemy, bondage, blood and lots of bats. It’s a history that touches on subgenres like dream pop, hard rock, synthpop, and glam, that makes pit stops in Spain and Germany, pays homage at the doorsteps of black-clad country heroes and spooky blues legends, and dives into seedy art rock grottos and DIY punk venues. So pour yourself a goblet of red wine and hold your rosaries tight. It’s gonna be a long, dark night of the soul.

A roadmap to the sound? Then why the hell would you call this list ’50 Best Goth Songs Of All Time’? It should have been titled ‘music that influenced goth bands’ instead then. She should know better than to mislead people with this article, because right now there is a ton of misinformation about it. So much so that teens, and even adults, are running around calling themselves goth without listening to any of the actual music. Instead of trying to stop this crap she is doing her part to perpetuate it. Awwww…….how peachy-keen of her!

I am now going to briefly comment on each band on that list that are in no way goth, and give my reasoning for my opinion on each.

50. Strawberry Switchblade They were basically a pop band who happened to dress in a lot of polka dots. Seriously, that’s it. Plus, Rose McDowall got all cozy with Death In June, a very problematic band. A big huge thumbs down from me.

49. AFI This one is a huge WTF. I actually used to go to the punk club Gilman in Berkeley during the same years that Havok went there before he got famous. I just remember that he had the cover of TSOL’s album Dance With Me on the back of his leather jacket. The dude does like some deathrock music, but that doesn’t mean that he actually makes deathrock music. Their sound has morphed multiple times over the years, but it has never been strictly goth.

47. She Wants Revenge Members of this band have been accused of sexual assault. They opened a ‘goth’ club in Los Angeles and preceded to do nothing about their workers being sexually assaulted by their guests. Fuck this band up the ass with no lube. I guess our friend Andi is perfectly okay with all of this. Good to know.

45. My Chemical Romance Not a goth band folks. A band isn’t goth just because they dress in black and whine about their lives. The song she chose sounds like straight up pop punk, which is a music genre that really needs to jump off of a cliff.

44. Type O Negative This is one of the big bands that is always called goth by people who don’t know any better. Andi should know better, but apparently she thinks misinformation is okay as long as she gets the clicks. They are straight up metal and that is it.

43. Echo And The Bunnymen If I had a dollar for every single time a misinformed kid calls this band goth I would be a wealthy woman. They were never goth….at all. I actually saw them live in 1987, so I was around when they were big, and they were never called goth. The internet has been spreading this misinformed crap for the last decade. Sorry kids, just because a post-punk band made maybe one or two sad songs in the 80’s doesn’t make the band goth. Period. Thanks Andi for perpetuating this bullshit.

41. Suicide They have always been considered punk. That’s it.

38. Fad Gadget Their songs used to be played in the alternative/goth clubs I went to over 30 years ago, but that doesn’t mean the band was goth. I have always considered them to be a new wave band more than anything else.

36. Nine Inch Nails Seriously? Wahahahaha!!!! Industrial music, maybe, but definitely not a goth band. Nope, just a trust fund dude whining about how shit his life is while playing a keyboard.

33. Depeche Mode I have always loved their album Black Celebration, but is it a goth album? Synthpop definitely, but not really goth. They were an important goth gateway band for me in the 80’s, but they themselves were not a goth band. They could lead you down a road of discovery if that is where you wanted to go. A lot of people would just stop at them and not go any further, and I found such people to be boring as hell.

32. Johnny Cash I love some Johnny Cash, but was the dude goth? Nope, he was solidly a country musician who sang about dark subjects. Then again a lot of old school country bands did the same sort of thing and they don’t appear on this list. I think Andi only included him because of his Nine Inch Nails cover song, a band who is also not goth. Way to go Andi!

21. The Velvet Underground Definitely a proto-punk band, that is in no way goth.

12. Iggy Pop Again, a proto-punk band and not goth….at all. Iggy Pop’s music isn’t goth just because Ian Curtis hung himself while listening to one of his albums. I saw Iggy perform in the late 80’s and it sure as hell wasn’t a dark romantic performance; it was aggressive, energetic and punk as all hell. If he tours near you go and see him, he puts on an excellent show.

7. Joy Division They were a solid post-punk band and that is it. Ian Curtis killed himself before the subculture was even fully formed so I think sticking the music of the band into a goth box does it a disservice. Retroactively calling bands goth is just lazy and trite journalism. I wrote a whole article about how they were never a goth band. The only people who think they are goth are the kids running around who think that all sad songs must be goth. They couldn’t be more wrong.

6. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Not a goth musician at all. I wouldn’t even call him proto-goth. However, I think the dude influenced the hell out of horror punk and shock rock. The Misfits even played some shows with him over forty years ago. Just because a musician uses dark theatrics doesn’t make said musician goth. That is unless you want to call both the Misfits and Alice Cooper goth.

4. David Bowie Again, yet another musician who was in no way goth but whose music influenced both punk and later goth musicians. His music is very important but it just isn’t goth, and that’s okay.

Well, that’s it folks. What lesson can we learn from this whole mess? That to some people getting an article in a mainstream music publication such as Rolling Stone is more important than actually telling the truth. Sad but true, and it is this attitude that is really hurting the subculture right now; fame at all costs, and if you have to step over people and lie to achieve it then so be it.

I Have Finally Started Working On The Glenn Danzig Themed Jacket!

October 25, 2022 / dystopiagal / 0 Comments

The patch placement on the back I am more than likely going to run with.

You have read that correctly, I have finally started working on the Glenn Danzig themed jacket! This will entail including patches from the Misfits, Samhain, Danzig and other related spooky stuff. The funny thing is that all of this is happening around the same time that I finally got my eyes tested and found out that I need reading glasses. It was getting difficult to thread a needle so that really needed to happen.

Without glasses I managed to sew on the Samhain death dealer patch. I used red thread to make it pop a little. I have decided not to tire the hell out of my eyes any further and just wait for my glasses to arrive before I start on another patch. So, I will be back at it next week. While I was waiting for the last patches to arrive I started yet another project.

I bought the above Misfits hoodie from Hot Topic’s website about a month ago. I only order from the site once a year because they charge way too much money for shipping. I’m just going to slowly sew more patches to it and perhaps add some spikes.

All of the patches shown in this post I bought from Etsy.