Music

What I am currently listening to :

UPDATED 3.9.09

A trip down memory lane …

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Garbage, Goldfrapp, the Cocteau Twins, and Imperative Reaction

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The Birthday Massacre

Let me qualify this one.

I really have a big problem with goth culture and goth music, most of the time.

I can’t stand the idea of people dressing in baby-doll dresses and dying their hair black, overdoing their make-up, and walking around acting as if life in a First-World, First-Class lane is so awful and depressing and terrible.  Which, frankly, is what most goth groups seem to be.  A lot of spoiled brats from suburbia with nothing important to write in their lyrics except self-serving, self-pitying, woe-is-me.

The exception to the Birthday Massacre is that they, wonderfully, don’t decay into the metal-trappings of so many goth bands. Actually, they have a tremendous talent of blending 80’s new wave synth pop with heavier 90’s alt rock guitar riffs, to a very pschedelic result.  Think Letters to Cleo meets Veruca Salt, with some of The Cure mixed in.  This makes for an exceptionally good sound — and the production is done well enough so that you can easily tune out the sometimes juvenile lyrics should you want, in favor of the more melodic guitar and synth work.

Their evident love of 80’s music is represented very clearly by their cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” — which is a literal cover, with almost no variation (but then again isn’t that what most fans aspire to do – imitate to a fine point?)

Anyone who grew up in the early 80’s will probably appreciate this band — even though they would be labeled as “goth” or even (unbelievably as iTunes has done) as “metal.”  They aren’t quite either.