welcome to the abyss
You read that correctly, I have been blocked by Killstar so that I can no longer comment, or even give a a laugh reaction on their Facebook page. Gee I wonder who else has done that to me before? Scammers that I report to Facebook. What do private equity firms love to do? Scam people. So, thank you Killstar for proving me right. By the way, here is a link to that article that has them so angry with me, and why they blocked me on Facebook. I’M NOT BACKING DOWN KILLSTAR!
Before I dig in I would like to give a huge shoutout to Jello Biafra, the original singer songwriter of the Dead Kennedys. He taught me to never trust corporations, especially when they are trying to sell pre-packaged rebellion to the masses. He even wrote a song called Anarchy For Sale way back in 1986. THANK YOU JELLO!!!!
Killstar right now are acting like an ex who will tell you that something never happened even though you saw it happen with your own eyes. However, they are dealing with somebody who has been around the block for decades. I am not somebody who can be bribed away with promises of free merchandise or promotion. Even when I was a teen in the 1980’s I never fell for that type of crap. I refused to wear labels; so much so that people thought I was nuts for ripping a Guess label off of a pair of jeans I had back then. So, what I am trying to say is that I am not a person that they can easily make go away. In fact their current actions make me want to latch on even more securly and not let go; like a tick, but I am getting fat off of their gaslighting instead of blood.
I have mentioned this before but I used to buy clearanced out clothing from them and use the items in DIY projects because the quality at that point wasn’t as bad as it is currently. I just looked and the last time I bought from them was in October of last year. This is worth mentioning in case they try to point this out and use it against me. Anyway, off we go!
Yep, you are seeing that right. That same photo that I snatched from Killstar’s website now has no missing stud! They put a new photo next to it to pretend that it never happened, but since I’m not a complete idiot I was not easily fooled. This proves that they are actually paying attention to me. I am beginning to be a thorn in their side which fills my cold dead heart with warmth and happiness.
Remember, if you see something wrong going on within the goth/punk communities always speak up about it and drag it into the light of day so that others can also make informed decisions.
As most of you know I have been listening to punk music for as long as I have been listening to goth/alternative music. I refuse to use the term ‘post-punk’ for that time because we didn’t use it and punk was still fully alive and kicking. I am more in tune to modern goth type bands than I am with modern punk bands so these songs will be mainly from the 80’s. I like everything from UK 82 type bands to skate-punk and horror-punk so there is a wide variety here. If you always wanted to get into punk music but didn’t know where to start any of these bands would be a good jumping off point. By the way, the Sex Pistols would have appeared on this list but Lydon is now a supporter of fascist bullshit. Fuck him, he is now dead to me. Included is hands down the best Joy Division cover song ever made ; Day Of The Lords by Neurosis. I saw them do it live at the punk club Gilman in Berkeley over 30 years ago and it literally gave me goosebumps, it was that powerful. Don’t skip it, you are in for a treat. Also, some of these songs may be considered deathrock or metal but some bands don’t fit into just one box and that is a good thing.
These songs will not be in any kind of order because sometimes my top spots totally change. I hope you enjoy these songs and that you discover music that is new to you.
MISFITS – BLOODFEAST (1983)
BAD RELIGION – DO WHAT YOU WANT (1988)
GBH – I AM THE HUNTED (1982)
BODY COUNT – COP KILLER (1992)
7 SECONDS – 99 RED BALLOONS (1985)
CANCERSLUG – GIRLS CHAINED UP IN THE BASEMENT MAKING BABIES TO KILL (2013)
UK SUBS – LIMO LIFE (1982)
RAMONES – BONZO GOES TO BITBURG (1986)
JELLO BIAFRA WITH D.O.A. – FULL METAL JACKOFF (1990)
NEUROSIS – DAY OF THE LORDS (1990)
SUBHUMANS – THINK FOR YOURSELF (1986)
THE VANDALS – THE LEGEND OF PAT BROWN (1982)
DEAD KENNEDYS – CHICKENSHIT CONFORMIST (1986)
DISCHARGE – STATE VIOLENCE STATE CONTROL (1982)
THE EXPLOITED – FUCK THE USA (1982)
GWAR – SICK OF YOU (1990)
TSOL – CODE BLUE (1981)
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – INSTITUTIONALIZED (1983)
BLACK FLAG – LOOSE NUT (1985)
SAMHAIN – HALLOWEEN II (1986)
Imagine my shock and horror when I found out that an article about ‘goth’ had appeared on MTV’s website. Why shock and horror? Because MTV has had a very long history of promoting corporate music. The Dead Kennedys back in the 80’s knew what was up and Jello even penned an excellent song detailing the issues surrounding the channel. About forty years later and nothing has changed.
First off, before I get stuck in, when the fuck did it become cool to be excited about MTV? I was a teen in the 80’s, so yes I did watch it back then. However, by the late 80’s I understood what was going on; they were trying to sell and promote their idea of ‘cool’ to me. By the time The Beastie Boys came about with their very sexist and frat boy bullshit the channel was dead to me. Where I lived at the time there was a local channel that would show obscure alternative/modern rock videos every weekday late in the afternoon and I would always watch it. It was the music that was too ‘out there’ for MTV, so I was very fortunate. I know this.
Let’s begin! I will be showing the sections I have issues with and then I will give a response.
‘ How e-kid style presaged the dark subculture’s resurgence… ‘
From the very start this article makes me wince. The term ‘presaged’ means a sign or warning of an imminent event. I fully don’t understand how some e-kid fashion victims had anything to do with the goth music resurgence that has been happening for the last few years. Oh wait…the author is equating goth with just a fashion style? Oh dear.
‘ A new aesthetic inspired by Y2K futurism, anime, nu-metal, mall goth, and mid-’00s emo rose among a group dubbed the “e-kids.” This interest in 2K culture reignited an adjacent style as well: goth fashion and, by extension, goth music. ‘
Um….no, just no. The whole ‘e-kid’ crap did not reignite goth fashion or goth music. Goth fashion and goth music never went away, it has always been around. These e-kids are so desperate for an identity, any identity, that they try them on and then throw them away once they are done with them after a few months. Teens have always done this sort of thing, but because of the internet they just go through identities way more quickly and in a more shallow manner. For example, if these kids want to be ‘goth’ they will get their parents to buy them entire outfits from dark alternative clothing websites and ask around as to how they should do their make-up so that they can be judged as a ‘true goth’. For many that is how deep it goes; just a ready made fashion statement, a box to fit themselves into. Do some of them actually get into goth music? Of course, but I think they are heavily outnumbered by the ones who don’t.
‘ The roots of goth are deep and nuanced. Starting in the late 1970s and into the 1980s in the United Kingdom as an offshoot of post-punk acts like Killing Joke, as well as the rich voice of Nico, goth took inspiration from Victorian-era dress (long black gowns, lace, boots, and clove cigarettes), literature, society, and the grim theatrical nature of the early 20th century vamps and silent film stars, like Theda Bara. The term “goth” as an adjective for music wasn’t recorded until 1967, when music critic John Stickney called The Doors “gothic rock.” During the ’70s, goth developed in the United States with bands like Christian Death, known for seminal hits like 1982’s “Romeo’s Distress.” Some of the most famous goth groups in the ’80s — many of whom remain shorthand for the very word — include The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division. ‘
I know that I just quoted an entire paragraph, but there is just so much to unpack here that I feel like I have no choice in the matter. The goth subculture, which is mainly about the music, came right out of punk. The clothing aspect of the goth subculture also came right out of punk. Earlier goth bands, like Sex Gang Children, still had the punk ethos of making music that challenged people, that made people think. They just did it more artistically than the punk music that inspired them. Also, not everybody back then copied Victorian fashion. People within the early subculture were not just one block of people listening to Bauhaus and dressing like fainting Victorian ingenues. What does smoking cloves have to do with the Victorians? I just liked cloves in the late 80’s because they tasted good and you could get really tripped out by spinning around while you inhaled. That was a thing within my friend group. Yes, it is okay to find that funny because it is.
Oh no, not the whole The Doors were the first band to be called ‘gothic rock’ trope. No matter how many times people are corrected about this it always manages to bubble to the surface like toxic goo. Since the goth subculture didn’t exist in the 1960’s how the hell could the band be considered goth? What the reporter back in the 1960’s meant is that The Doors had a sound that could be called foreboding and dark; in other words gothic, because that is what the term means. The term gothic does not always equate the term goth, they can mean totally different things; one is about a subculture, the other is a style of architecture and literature.
I do not know how many more times I have to repeat this but JOY DIVISION IS NOT A GOTH BAND. I even wrote an earlier blog post all about the subject. Ian Curtis killed himself in early 1980, before the subculture was even formed so that fact alone throws the whole thing out the window. Did Joy Division inspire a lot of goth bands during the 80’s? Sure. Were they themselves a goth band? That would be a no, because they influenced tons of bands that were in no way goth like U2. Plus, I think fitting Joy Division into a neat and tidy goth box does the music of the band a disservice. I have always considered The Cure and Siouxsie & The Banshees to both be dark pop bands that some goths happen to like. I saw The Cure live in 1987 headlining a sold out arena show. You weren’t an underground band back then if you sold out a venue like that. Plus, both bands were played on the more mainstream stations back in the 80’s. That is how I first heard The Cure back then; Boys Don’t Cry being played on a regular pop station that my then friends were listening to.
‘ As social media has since taken over culture, and as apps progress and new ones launch, subcultures develop from terminally online lifestyles where the association lines are often blurred. What is or isn’t goth becomes harder to identify. ‘
I actually agree with this bit a little. Social media has taken over culture to some degree, BUT only as much as an individual wants it to. It is still totally possible to have a social life outside of social media, especially since clubs are opening up again and bands are touring. Social media isn’t the be all and end all of the goth, or any other, subculture. Yes, what is and isn’t goth is harder for newer people to identify. I know that the author was trying to do a good thing by sharing all of this, but in the end all articles such as this, that spread misinformation, are doing more harm than good. Especially considering that this article was published over on the website of MTV.
‘ Today, it feels fitting for goth to be passed down through TikTok, just like it was through Tumblr in the 2000s with soft grunge and pastel goth taking over adolescent closets, with looks built from black velvet chokers, flannels, and shorts styled with black nylons. The neo-goth invasion picked up steam in 2020 when Belarus-based band Molchat Doma’s album Etahzi started gaining traction, with users clinging to the track “Sudno” and soundtracking the song by posting pictures from Soviet-era Europe, both romanticizing it and showing the harsh reality of life in the Eastern Bloc. ‘
Oh dear god so much to unpack here. When they mention ‘goth’ being passed down through Tumbler to TikTok all they are meaning is the fashion. Sorry to tell everybody who doesn’t know but ‘grunge’ was pre-packaged rebellion sold to the masses in the 90’s by record execs and MTV. I was there, that is all it was. It had nothing to do with the goth subculture at all. Nothing. I wore ripped shorts with tights underneath them in high school in the late 80’s, and I even had a flannel shirt or two. Both things were worn by people in the metal, punk, and every other alternative subculture at the time. This fashion was only made popular when MTV got a hold of it in the early 90’s and all of a sudden it became popular to look like the unpopular kids. Since the 80’s are still hugely popular teens only liked Molchat Doma because their music sounds like it came out of Stranger Things. It’s just 80’s nostalgia, it doesn’t go any deeper than that.
‘Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based musician and producer Aryan Ashtiani, who goes by the moniker Mareux, became a TikTok sensation overnight with his 2021 cover of The Cure’s “The Perfect Girl,” taking a floaty song originally from their 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me to gritty electronic depths. Mareux’s synth-heavy reinterpretation sparked a movement on TikTok, with some well-known users posting videos using it as a backing. Mareux was shocked. “There were a few very famous TikTokers who used the song back in summer ’21. This gave it that boost overnight,” he tells MTV News. “From there, it ran rampant on various edits and meme videos and continues to this day.”’
Who? I honestly don’t know who this person is. Does that make me terminally old and not hip? Sure. I just listened to the song and it’s meh? In all honesty it just sounds like an amalgamation of all of the sounds that teens associate with 80’s music all mixed together ready for easy consumption. That is exactly why it got popular with that set of people. Again, it’s just 80’s nostalgia boosted by Stranger Things. Next!
‘Last year, Dua Lipa was photographed by Jordan Hemingway for 032c, styled in a Trad Goth look inspired by Siouxsie Sioux. GothTok celebrity Zander Buel, a.k.a. awfullysinister, posted a video praising her for the ensemble, saying, “I think she looks great! She nailed it.” Buel is another face of the subculture on the internet.’
Again, I have no idea who these two people are, however I remember when this happened. The people who I remember freaking out the most about this were all of the self described ‘goth’ teens, who thought being goth was just about image and that’s it. I have let it be known before but I cannot stand the whole ‘trad goth’ trope. It’s just goth for fucks sake, take the term ‘trad’ and throw it into the waste-bin where it belongs with all of the other ‘goth types’.
‘“When goth goes through this cycle, like it does every so often where it has its ascendance in popularity, it takes a bunch of people with it,” he says. “Some of the people, it spits back out, and those people move on to the next thing. But some people, it takes with them, and then they keep that long-term interest in that label, and they stay within it and they continue to listen to the music, or they go to the clubs and shows, and they discover new bands.”’
This is the only full paragraph in the whole article that I feel is 100% correct. Most of these teens right now are probably going to move on within the next year or two and some will indeed stick with it and really get into the music. This happens in every subculture.
‘Dusty Gannon, of the band Vision Video, has become TikTok’s “Goth Dad,” a comedic character he made up to provide reassurance and levity through his dad jokes, makeup tutorials, and advice, while also promoting his music. Aside from being a digital dad, Gannon has focused energy on explaining goth culture and history, and the importance of maintaining a safe community.’
I am going to be wording my response to this bit very carefully. Gannon has created a gimmick and has made it his profession; he recently quit his job to be a full-time musician. On the one hand I think good for him for carving out his own niche within the goth community, but on the other hand my stranger danger hackles rise up because who financially can take a chance like that right now? I’m not saying he is a bad person at all, just that the way he promotes himself specifically to teens can be easily seen as such by people who are older and who have been around the block a few times. He just ticks off so many boxes that it feels like an act of some kind to me. If you enjoy him and his music more power to you, I just can’t support him. You do you.
‘ Where is the future headed? Bauhaus, one of the original goth bands, released a new single for the first time in 14 years in March, and they are touring again. ‘
…..and the single sounds exactly like the music that they made forty years ago. No real growth.
‘ “Most of the other artists have not embraced TikTok because they think it’s cringe or detracts from their brand. I saw a huge opportunity to connect with fans and create new ones and haven’t looked back,” he says. “In regards to younger people, I think a lot of the stigma towards goth and alternative cultures in the past was linked to homophobia. Now that mainstream culture is more open and accepting, I think a lot of these previously disenfranchised scenes will continue to flourish.” ‘
Homophobia was huge period until fairly recently. If you looked too different in the 80’s/90’s, no matter how you dressed, you were called a faggot. Funnily enough those name calling people got into ‘grunge’ and played at being alternative until that trend died with Cobain. They would drive their cars around blasting Smells Like Teen Spirit while yelling ‘faggot’ at you as they drove by. Anybody who was around back then knows exactly the crowd I am talking about. Mainstream culture has never been as accepting as it appears; scratch the surface and you find out what is really going on.
‘ As the scene grows, the community is full of Baby Bats and Elder Goths ready to share the experience of dancing to darkly dazzling tunes and breathing in fog from the smoke machines. However, that only happens if we continue passing down the music and fashion. TikTok is divisive, but it can be influential, opening doors into new worlds and allowing us to experience other avenues of expression and art. Beyond likes and views, exposure is paramount. ‘
Exposure to actual goth music is indeed important to the continuation of the subculture. However, when the music being shared is not goth by any stretch of the term that is when all of the confusion sets in. It is the reason why a lot of older folks, such as myself, largely stay away from specifically TikTok. TikTok is divisive because of all of this and more. Not to mention the fact that it is a phone app being used by the Chinese government to spy and collect data on people.
‘ “It’s probably going to be a mess for a while,” he continues. “It’s in a transitional stage where it’s becoming very mainstream. People love to fight and argue and gatekeep online, so I can see it staying ugly for a while. Still, that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of cool creators and new artists to discover.” ‘
Gatekeep? More like telling the truth. A huge issue right now is people throwing that word around when they are told the truth about goth music and the goth subculture. When they find out that their favourite black metal band is in fact not considered to be a goth band they get all pissed off and throw around the term like rice at a wedding. Goth music has parameters, and without them there wouldn’t be a goth genre of music or even a subculture for that matter. It’s a music based subculture. If it was based on just wearing black, like some younger people and publications still think, then wouldn’t you see priests and nuns dancing around in goth clubs to This Is Heresy by Christian Death?
The end.
I have never made it a secret that I have bought some clearance items from Killstar’s website in the past to use in clothing projects. However, the quality of their items has gone totally downhill within the last year. So much so that I can no longer find items on their site that are fit for purpose. Most, if not all, of their clothing items are now made of really cheap looking polyester that looks the same as the crap fabric that Halloween costumes are usually made of. I have said in the past that I don’t care where you get your clothing from, and that still holds true. However, I do not like people being fleeced. If I see something that is really ‘off’ on a dark alternative clothing site I will tell you about it.
The other day I got a Killstar email, and in it included a link to their new drop. I normally don’t click through their emails because I just read them at this point for the entertainment value. However, I saw a green pillow and on a lark I decided to click through. That in turn took me to the ‘new-in’ page so I started scrolling through that trying to find that damn pillow. To my shock and horror the above studded pleather jacket caught my eye; not because of the spike disaster zones located on it, but because it looks cheap as hell. Again, something that you would find in the ‘punk/goth’ section of a Spirit Halloween store.
I have an older pleather jacket by them that is thick and of a pretty good quality, so I am not totally against pleather. This jacket is an entirely different story. First off is the damn price; they are charging £299.99 for this badly made excuse for a pleather jacket. Yep, that much. The pleather material looks very thin and very cheap and it’s easy to tell that because of the way it doesn’t flatter the model at all. It hangs on her all wrong and she looks awkward as hell in it. If a model can’t make it work the chances of you making it work are about zero. It will look good on nobody.
This next part really cracked me up. As I stated right below the photo one of the cone studs is missing off of the edge of the lapel. It looks like a plastic screw, whose cone snapped off…and they didn’t even notice. Using plastic screws instead of metal ones on those cone studs? They will probably easily snap off if you accidentality brush up against anything. Even worse than that is that the lapels and larger areas of cones on the arms are from rolls of pre-studded pleather. I have seen such pre-studded pleather material online before so this isn’t totally shocking, but the pure audacity to charge that much for a jacket that wasn’t even completely hand studded is really outrageous to say the least. Nevermind the fact that they are claiming they are metal studs, when it fact the screws are plastic. Are the cones plastic also? I honestly can’t tell. Also, the lapels don’t even have snaps on them to hold them down against the jacket. I’m guessing because of the pre-studded material being used. It’s just generally constructed very badly and it shows.
As of me writing this they are having a 30% off sale on everything on the site, including their new items. That brings down the jacket to just over £200, which is still very overpriced. Killstar seems to be in financial trouble because of the constant sales they have been having. Not a week goes by without some sort of deep discount. This is not the sign of a company that is doing financially well. The venture capitalists who bought it a few years ago keep cranking out new ‘drops’, and have made the brand into a fast fashion label.
If you read this blog you know that I do a lot of DIY projects that involve studding. You can do it too! Honest! I believe in you! If you have to buy a pre-studded jacket please buy one from an independent creator on Etsy, because you deserve better quality than what Killstar is trying to sell you.
Have you noticed how it is always evil bitch Tories who are the only women that ever get elected as UK Prime Minister? First there was Margaret Thatcher, who hated the poor and working class. Then next up it was Theresa May who hated immigrants and made the immigrant laws even more difficult to navigate. Then there is Liz Truss who is fighting right now to become yet another evil bitch Tory Prime Minister.
What did Liz Truss do to piss me off this much? It’s simply enough that she is a Tory because Tories are corrupt pieces of crap who don’t care about anybody except for their wealthy friends. However, she is right now bragging to her brainwashed brethren that she will allow fracking again in communities that want it, concentrate on extracting oil off the coast of Scotland and will ban solar panel farms. She wants to go back in time. How far back? Probably the 1800’s because she could make little kids go up chimneys again and save her wealthy friends a few pounds.
That’s right, this corrupt bitch doesn’t give a crap about the future of the UK. Scientists proclaiming that that the environment is terminally fucked doesn’t matter to her at all. Screw those kids who can’t breathe properly, screw those elderly people who can’t afford oil to heat their homes and screw all of the families who cannot afford to buy food. What is more important is that sweet cash she is getting from the oil industry, and her ability to put her cronies in charge of projects in which they will just steal all of money for themselves. Do not trust a damn thing that comes out of that woman’s mouth: lies, lies and more lies.
The only thing that ever scares the Tories are mass uncivilized protests, like what happened when Thatcher came up with the poll tax. People were so angry by that tax that there were full scale riots, This caused the Tories to make Thatcher quit and the law was thrown out. There is no honour among thieves. I can see something very similar happening again soon because people aren’t too happy when they can’t turn on the heat or feed their children.
In the wise words of the Subhumans…just think for yourself. Never believe what the Tory led UK government tells you.
Don’t know who GBH are? They are a UK82 punk band that was formed in Birmingham England in 1978. They helped shape the sound of British punk and are still touring and making music.
GBH was my very first punk show in late 1989 so their music has always held a special place in my heart. They were seen as just a street punk band by many back then, however if you delved into their releases you would find two albums that did not sound like their others; Midnight Madness And Beyond and No Need To Panic. I actually remember the first time I listened to a Midnight Madness And Beyond tape in my car and being really surprised and pleased that they were singing about a lot of spooky stuff. I was also a fan of The Misfits, Samhain, Danzig, Christian Death, TSOL, Black Flag, Rudimentary Peni and other such punk and deathrock bands. I kind of straddled punk and goth back then, just like I do now.
Their album No Need To Panic also really struck a chord with me. What really tripped me out is that I never heard a single person back then mention these two albums. They’d mention one of their more famous albums like City Baby Attacked By Rats but never these two. The music mostly sounds punk but you can definitely hear some deathrock influences breaking though. There are a lot of very heavy baselines and lyrics about horror films, monsters and very unfortunate situations. They are seriously fun to listen to and are forgotten gems. Below are a few songs from the albums that are very good examples of what I have been talking about. Enjoy!
Horror Story
Makin Whips
Electricity Through Space
Malice In Wonderland
This is an interview between Ken of Sounds And Shadows and Jose Hernandez Riwes Cruz of Hueco. Jose has been into goth/alternative music since the 80’s in Mexico and has just written a book called Jumping Someone Else’s Train in which he explains how the subculture formed there. A while back he asked us in the Sounds And Shadows Facebook group what we were called before the term ‘Goth’ was used in our areas. I mentioned to him what my friends and I were mostly called way back in the mid to late 80’s in the SF East Bay and some more information.
Most, if not all, of you know my real name on Facebook is Megan Wood McGuigan so that is not a secret. It is just so cool to feel appreciated, especially by people who are very knowledgable about a genre of music that means a lot to me. I am not giving the exact time of when I am mentioned because it is a very cool video that should be seen in its entirety. A huge thanks to both Ken and Jose.
I just finished these the other day and I am very pleased with how they turned out. They are Angry Itch brand boots that I modified to fit into my post-apocalyptic/dystopian aesthetic.
The first thing I did was lightly stud the bottom straps. The leather is really thick so they warped a little bit but that’s fine. There were straps above but I took them off and hung some pandemic symbols from the rings instead. I bought the symbols off of Etsy and hung them from the outside ring with some jewellery wire that I wrapped around some clips. Finally, I coloured the white stitches with a purple acrylic paint pen. It is impossible to paint those stitches perfectly so I got some stray paint around them. Again, that is okay because my aesthetic isn’t based on a perfect appearance.
If you want to do some DIY work on a pair of boots I say go for it! It’s a lot of fun and you will be wearing boots that are unique to you.
Have you heard about how the members of She Wants Revenge didn’t really give a crap when people employed in their wannabe goth club were sexually assaulted? Remember the LA Times article detailing what occurred in 2021? To refresh your memory here is a free version of the take-down. All of this is public knowledge and I remember this being discussed in tons of goth online spaces during the time the article was released,
Since all of this crap happened She Wants Revenge were effectively cancelled, as well as they should have been because fuck these assholes. That is until Post punk dot com got it in their heads that it would be perfectly fine to promote them. Why would they think that? Mostly because they care more about scene cred than anything else. They have to put up the latest ‘news’ to look like they are on the cutting edge of promoting whatever shit band they are calling ‘post-punk’ these days. Women sexually assaulted at a club that the band members ran? Who cares about that! What is more important is having scene cred so that all of your young readers will buy whatever crap music from whatever crap band you are promoting before they move onto something else.
This is not the first time this kind of the thing has happened. Time and time again musicians, DJs, and promoters within the goth subculture are given a free pass to do heinous acts.
Up next, let’s talk about the singer for the bands Bella Morte and The Rain Within; Andy Deane. The allegations against him are so many and so credible that some of his ex band mates have dropped him as a friend. He emotionally abused multiple women by cheating on them, stealing their money and giving some of them STDs. There were so many women involved in his web of bullshit that there used to be a website dedicated to telling their stories. I’m not joking, this asshole has a long and rich history of pulling this shit, and yet he still gets invited to play gigs and some goth musicians still support him. Remember kids, scene cred is way more important than protecting the lives of women. Fuck this guy.
Lastly I want to talk about a promoter in the Washington DC area named DJ Panic. I have first hand experience with this steaming pile of shit because I moved to the area without knowing anything about anybody back in 2003. We messed around a bit BUT he started ignoring my phone calls and pretended I didn’t exist. Seriously. When I went to his job once to ask him what was going on he started to call me crazy. Ummmm….I don’t know…..but when you are act like a gaslighting little bitch you deserve to be confronted and treated like the piece of trash that you are. This serial emotional abuser did the same thing to other women right after me. Imagine my surprise twenty years later when I learn of this asshole being in charge of booking goth/industrial gigs in the DC area. I’m being sarcastic, because I actually wasn’t surprised at all. He has claimed that he is a changed person and that he has apologized to all of the people he hurt. Funny, I never got one even though I am easy as hell to find online. It shows you just how much that area cares about the safety of women. They don’t at all.
What can we lean from all of this? That scene cred is much more important than kicking somebody out of the subculture. If the abuser has ‘connections’ with club owners and bands then they are usually deemed too important and their behaviour is excused away. The DJs and musicians who support these assholes are just as bad in my opinion because they know exactly what is going on but don’t lift a finger against them. This has been a dirty little secret going on in the subculture for decades and one that almost nobody tells baby bats about. If a baby bat asks me about going to goth clubs I always tell them to act like it’s any other kind of club because there will be predators there.
The goth subculture has never been a safe space for everybody, especially women and it’s about time that the truth comes out about this HUGE issue.
© 2024 My Dystopian Life
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑