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That Time I Saw Danzig Live In 1992

Chuck Biscuits always looks so lost in Danzig band photos. It’s adorable, plus he is a great drummer.

I saw the original Danzig line-up perform on October the 29th of 1992 at The Warfield in San Francisco. Those of you who are into Glenn Danzig will know how lucky I was to be able to see that show because it was the last full tour that the original line-up ever did. Chuck left in 94 and Eerie and Christ departed in 95. This original line-up has never reunited despite some members saying that they would love a reunion.

For a Danzig show it wasn’t really that violent. Their shows kind of had a reputation during that time because people would heckle Danzig and he would usually get a bit punchy. I mean, if you are going to a show just to fuck with the singer you kind of deserve to get knocked out. About a step or two above the pit was an area where you could lean against a long thin table and watch the show with a totally clear view. That is where I was, surrounded by a sea of men.

Am I Demon, from their first album ‘Danzig’.

I get it, mostly guys go to metal and punk shows, especially back then. I would say that the audience was about 80% men. No joke. I actually ran into two female friends at it and we all commented on it. I was with my ex-husband at the time so I didn’t get my freak on or anything like that. However, if I had been single at that show I guarantee you that I could have gotten laid that night. There was everybody; from bikers to skaters and beyond. It was like a smorgasbord for single ladies.

Anyway! How was the performance? Epic.I can safely say that this was the best concert that I have ever been to. Slayer is number two if that says anything. They sounded very tight, everybody stayed on beat and Glenn’s voice was in tune and never cracked. It was two nights before Halloween so maybe demons were at work? They played all of the hits from their three albums and a lot of the crowd, including myself, sang along. It was kind of wholesome.

Halloween II by Samhain.

Then came the encore song; the Samhain version of Halloween II. You’ve got to understand that November Coming Fire by Samhain was, and still is, my all time favourite album, with that track being my favourite song off of it. It was played perfectly and powerfully and I remember getting goosebumps from it and almost getting teary because I never thought that I would ever get to see that song performed live. To say I was moved would be an understatement.

I remember not being able to sleep that night because I was just so excited and happy when I got home. I didn’t know how lucky I was to see such a great show until I saw Danzig about ten years later; Glenn’s voice was shot and the band did not sound tight at all. If the original band ever gets back together to tour internationally I would totally go because those early Danzig albums mean a lot to me and they were an amazing band live.

I hope every single one of you get to experience something similar with your favourite band, because the memories from a great show can stay with you for life and that is cool as hell.

Holy Crap, Somebody Uploaded The 1990 Danzig VHS Tape!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTFh3pnL-HY
The man, the myth, the legend.

Yesterday I was innocently perusing Glenn Danzig related videos when to my shock and surprise I discovered that somebody had uploaded the 1990 Danzig VHS tape! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! EDIT: The video has been taken down by Glenn. RIP video.

I bought this over 30 years ago and my friend Sheri and I would watch it and just drool. Seriously, if you like dudes with muscles playing evil sounding music then this is the video for you! It’s composed of a few music videos from the first Danzig album entitled ‘Danzig’, along with various interviews. My favourite is the one in which Glenn discusses the lost books of the bible. Glenn knows his stuff when it comes to Christianity, probably more than most Christians.

What trips me out is how young they all look. I am now older than they were when this was made. I actually saw this original line-up of the band on their Dirty Black Summer tour and it was the best concert I have ever been to. The audience was at least 80% men, and filled with everybody from punks to bikers. It was really close to Halloween, and for an encore they played the Samhain version of Halloween II. That is my favourite song off of November Coming Fire, which is my all time favourite album, so to say I was thrilled would be an understatement.

So, watch the above video and bask in it’s glory because it’s a very cool video if you are into anything Glenn related.

I found a Spooky Band Called Fright Night Club And I’m Excited!

Their newest album.

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.

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

The man, the myth, the legend.

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

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

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

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

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

That Time Jack Grisham Of TSOL Pulled Me Onstage To Sing Part Of Code Blue

Jack is on the right wearing the glove. This must have been taken around the time I saw them because he was dressed the same.

The first time I ever heard TSOL’s music was when I was at a friend’s house watching the early 80’s punk film Suburbia. I’m pretty sure it was in late 1989 because I remember being just out of high school. Watching Suburbia was a right of passage if you were any kind of weirdo back then.

I love the film because there were some parts of it that were very relatable, such as metalheads, and other general assholes, who would give you shit even though you were just walking down the street, or shopping, minding your own business. Sure, the acting is pretty atrocious, but that is what makes it a cool film. Most of the actors were actual punks so they looked and acted more real than say the people in Return Of The Living Dead. Also love that film but one of the reasons why it’s so funny is because of the shit they got wrong in it.

With all of that being said the scene that really pulled me into the film and got to me on a deeper level was when TSOL took the stage at the club and started singing Darker My Love. At that time I was already listening to goth and punk music and that song spun the genres together into a sound that really hit me hard in a good way. I’m not going to lie, Jack Grisham was also really easy on the eyes! That same week I bought the soundtrack of the film, Dance With Me and Beneath The Shadows. Needless to say I was hooked. Watch it below.

The only sad aspect to all of this was by the time I discovered them Jack had left the band and without his presence they had morphed into a hair metal band; a music genre that I generally disliked. In 1999 the original members sued the hair metal singer for the rights to the band name, and for the right to perform their older songs. They won, and afterwards started touring again.

In 2001 I had just left my ex-husband so I was somewhat scantily dressed when I went to see them play at The Cactus Club in San Jose. It was a cool venue and I had seen 7 Seconds, Christian Death and some other bands there in the past. When TSOL started playing I was sitting on some stairs that were attached to the left of the stage. I was was only a couple of feet from the band so when Jack complained about the tour bus getting a parking ticket I took some change out of my purse and handed it to him. He gave a sarcastic chuckle, and soon afterwards came the familiar intro to Code Blue. The audience went really nuts and everybody was singing it together. Jack grabbed me and a guy and motioned us to get in front of the mic and sing some of the lines. I don’t have the greatest voice but I knew all of the lines and gave it my all! I had such a blast and after the show I shook Jack’s hand and thanked him. To this day I still smile when I think of that show, because it’s not every day that you get to sing a song about necrophilia with one of your favourite bands!

The song Code Blue.

Albums That Shaped Me: U2 – The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

The album that lead me down a cool weird path.

Before I begin I would like to state for the record that I know that Bono is an immense egomaniac and that the band hasn’t made a really good album since the 80’s. I only like their music up to and including this album so I am not one of those modern delusional U2 fans who think they can do no wrong.

I’m pretty sure I bought the cassette of this album in late 1985. It was before Joshua Tree was released and before I transferred high schools so it kind of had to have been that specific year. None of the friends that I had at that first high school liked them so I kind of got into them on my own. I remember hearing New Year’s Day on the radio a few years before and seeing that video on MTV as a young teen. By the time the song Pride, which is on this album, came out they were already on my radar and I decided to take the plunge and buy one of their albums. Thank you mom for giving me the money to buy this!

I can in no way overstate how important this album is to me, because it lead me into liking other bands. I remember reading somewhere about members of The Virgin Prunes growing up with the members of U2. So, I bought one of their albums and instantly got hooked. That in turn made me more open towards other ‘weirdo’ bands like Specimen. Also, I got into a lot of Irish post-punk bands, such as Blue In Heaven, that all had connections with one another or with U2.

So musically what makes this album so darn special? The entire album has a very haunting quality to it. There were hints of this on some of their earlier albums, such as New Year’s Day on War, but they went full force into it on this one. I think the pinnacle of this style on the album is the song The Unforgettable Fire. It’s my all time favourite U2 song and it still gives me major goosebumps.

I know that it’s really ‘in’ to hate all of U2’s work these days, which I think is a shame. Their first five albums are post-punk perfection. If it wasn’t for this album I wouldn’t be the mildly dramatic weirdo that I am today. It made me evolve my musical tastes and widen my horizons.

New Release: Stoneburner – No Light No Spark

Steven Archer is a very talented musician who has supported the goth/industrial subculture through the years by being in the band Ego Likeness, and by helping other bands and people out. His solo project, Stoneburner, has just put out a new deluxe remix EP called No Light No Spark. It consists of interesting mixes of past songs and a new one called In This Place. You can’t really fit his music neatly into any single music genre box because he combines different styles together, which is what I find very interesting about his project. When musicians experiment with different styles and ways to bring them together it takes you onto a musical path that may bring you to a genre that you have never been exposed to before. Steven is a very cool human being so give his new EP a listen, and if you have the funds buy it this Bandcamp Friday on the 5th of February.

https://stoneburnerofficial.bandcamp.com/album/no-light-no-spark-deluxe-remix-ep

That Time MC Hammer Bought A House In Fremont, The Suburb I Lived In As A Teen

I went to high school in Fremont California, which back then was a really boring suburb in the San Francisco East Bay. By all accounts it’s still boring as hell, but it is now home to the largest group of immigrants from Afghanistan in the United States. So much so that it has the nickname of ‘Little Kabul’. This is a huge change to the area, because thirty years ago is was almost all white and quite racist. That is what made MC Hammer’s move to the area in 1991 really strange and fascinating at the same time.

Why would a rap star from Oakland want to live in a mansion in Fremont to begin with? Fremont was boring and totally devoid of culture. There were no large or even medium sized venues for live music. The most exciting thing to happen every weekend there was the Rocky Horror Picture Show that was screened at an old school type theatre on the main drag. I honestly don’t remember the name of the place and I only went a handful of times before I got really bored of it. To this day I cannot watch that film without flinching.

I guess maybe MC Hammer still wanted to be close to Oakland and Fremont was considered more safe? His mansion was in a gated community. However, it was really easy to get through because all you had to do was follow another car in. It was kind of a ‘thing’ to drive around in that area and stare at all of the really gaudy mansions. There was a whole section of that gated community where nothing was built yet so people would drive into that bit and party.

I saw the diamond hair dude with the red coat twice.

One of the strangest aspects of this entire thing was running into MC Hammer’s crew around Fremont. Everybody saw them at least once. I especially remember the dude with the diamond shaped hair. I saw him at Newpark Mall and at The Hub shopping center.

All good things must come to an end. In 1996 MC Hammer declared bankruptcy and in 1997 sold his Fremont mansion for just over 5 million dollars. Somebody paid over 5 million to live in Fremont? It boggles the mind!

My Favourite Songs – You Dropped A Bomb On Me – The Gap Band (1982)

This is where I share the songs that I love that are not a part of the goth genre of music. So far they have all been 80’s songs because that is the time period in which I was a kid and teen.

This song always makes me want to grove! I love 70’s/80’s soul, r&b and funk music and it’s really amazing how many cool songs came out of that era. Some of the most fun I have ever had at a club was when my friend Sheri and I went to a disco and r&b themed night. I just remember dancing the entire time because they played such cool music!

If I had been older in the 70’s I would have gone to discos and punk shows. A lot of the early punks actually did that which is cool as hell. I will always love The Gap Band, their groove is just so infectious!

Goth Music Is Undead And Here Is A List Of Newer Bands To Prove It

I’ve been into goth and punk music for about 35 years, and goth music right now is more vibrant and varied than any other time that I can remember. I’m not saying that the 80’s or 90’s were bad or anything like that, but the sheer amount of really good goth genre music being made right now is very staggering.

There is so much really good music being made right now that it’s very difficult to catch up on every single goth genre band out there making music. I used to DJ deathrock/goth rock about twenty years ago during the time that EBM and synthpop took over just about every goth club. When I was a DJ in Washington D.C. I was one of the only people who didn’t spin EBM or synthpop all night and I got a whole lot of shit for it. Goth music was in a pretty dire situation during those years and the deathrock revival happened during that time as a response to it. However, a lot of those bands were either not really good or over the top to the point of absurdity. There were some decent bands but the movement died out within a few years.

Every once in a while I would seek out newer goth genre bands hoping to hear something more guitar based that spoke to me, but I would always end up ducking my head back into my shell. I started to focus more on the new wave bands that I really liked in the 80’s and that somewhat filled the void. However, within the last few years, I felt like I was stuck in a rut of only listening to older bands. I didn’t want to be THAT person who bitches constantly about all of the newer bands being way worse than the older bands. I guarantee that you will bump into a few of them if you in any way participate in the punk or goth subcultures. I went onto the Reddit goth group and started to try out the bands that people posted, and to my surprise I heard music that was actually really well done and not derivative! My journey into discovering the music of newer bands had begun!

Before I start a list of the newer bands that I like you should know that I lean more heavily into deathrock and goth rock than anything else. Also, I like some darkwave and hybrid type bands. The only subgenre I really don’t care for that much are the wannabe 80’s synth and post-punk bands. I think a portion of them are definitely style over substance, and they try to go for an 80’s sound by using every bell and whistle that different bands used back then. In my opinion it makes some of them sound very similar to one another, when a lot of the original 80’s bands actually sounded very different from one another. Did early U2 sound exactly like Echo And The Bunnymen? No? You get my point. However, I do like some bands that mix the post-punk sound with darkwave. The band names are linked to their Bandcamp pages.

Mystic Priestess A pagan anarcho deathrock band that blends political statements into their songs. The vocals are very well done!

The Creeping Terrors Great political tinged deathrock with some excellent female vocals.

Then Comes Silence This is a hybrid band, a mix of post-punk, goth rock, deathrock and some darkwave.

Nox Novacula Great deathrock. The singer sounds a bit like Grace Slick and I think she is definitely one of the better vocalists in the genre right now.

Detoxi Deathrock with a political bent. I think they may be dropping some music soon, because they released a new song about a week ago.

Horror Vacui A deathrock band out of Italy whose bass playing is pretty stellar.

A Cloud Of Ravens They make some very foreboding goth rock with some tinges of darkwave. Very atmospheric music!

Amaranth Very good goth rock with some cool sounding layered guitar blended with cool darkwave elements.

The Cult Sounds Dark goth rock tinged with some deathrock.

Panic Priest Hybrid band that mixes post-punk with some darkwave.

Black Angel Solid goth rock with some darkwave sprinkled in. Pay attention to the lyrics because they are very well done!

Andi I’m not heavily into the electronic side of things but these couple of songs are very well done and I hope they release more music!

Mary Hybrid band that blends dreampop, darkwave and goth rock. Reminds me of My Bloody Valentine’s album Loveless.

That is a ton of really good music to sift through! I will do a sequel to this post soon because I know that there are some bands I’ve missed. Enjoy!

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