www.lamrimmusic.com

If you just did that then - when you located the music - you would have heard a subtle mixture of progressive/gothic rock, international pop, britpop, jazz, blues, latin and electronica (that's if you listened to the whole album all the way through; or you might have been smarter about it and thought, 'As it's free, I'll download it to my iPod and listen to it carefully a couple of times'). You would have been surprised at how well this fusion actually works in practice because it sounds nearly impossible to achieve. That's what WE all thought... and then we fell over backwards when certain musicians left us gob-smacked and teary-eyed . The success of the music produced and performed by Lam Rim is the combination of the novelty and intellectual stimulation from the fusion and the emotional and empathic connection the songs manage to create. You'll probably need to reread that last sentence and test the theory for yourself. The songs reflect reality and they signpost a way of living. The proposal is optimistic and uplifting; these songs can make you feel good about life and recover your ambitions. It's not magical it's musical and SOMETIMES music does people good.

This blog has two objectives and two directions. The most obvious is that we aim to create a massive fan base for Lam Rim, the band, and we want people to listen to the music and love it. Therefore the blog represents the music and focuses towards it at all times... only someone with too much free time would want to spend their time carefully engineering clever phrases to catch people's attention just for a laugh. Our other objective is to propagate a community. This Lam Rim community is a real/virtual group that talks about life, the world and people in the same way that the album, 'Eleven Pieces of Something' does. If you think contemporary music can and does talk about real life or if you think lyrics are more than a parody of real experiences, then you're welcome to this community. If you think music SHOULD do this but it doesn't, then you're welcome, too.

Heavy Metal: Cerveja. Bebe demais e se mantém firme.

Thrash Metal: Pede gasolina.

Power Metal: Pede uma poção mágica.

Viking Metal: Pede hidromel. Fica extremamente bêbado, mas não cai.

Black Metal: Pede sangue de uma virgem.

White Metal: Pede água benta. Afinal, álcool é pecado.

Grunge: Pede Veneno. Não é atendido e decide comprar uma arma.

Rock Progressivo: Pede uma batida. Bebe pouco.

Metal Progressivo: Pede uma batida com tudo que tem direito. Pede várias esperando uma que chegue à perfeição. Fica bêbado e se torna um chato.

Hard Rock: Pede Jack Daniels. Fica bêbado e sai jogando TVs pelas janelas de hotéis.

Gothic Rock: Pede uma taça de vinho e diz que pensa em se matar.

Gothic Metal: Pede uma garrafa de vinho e logo depois se mata.

Doom Metal: Acha o vinho ruim e se mata.

Emocore: Não sabe o que escolher e começa a chorar.

Hardcore: Pede uma smirnoff ice ou qualquer coisa fraca para dizer que bebe.

Punk Rock: Pede uma cachaça barata, para não alimentar o sistema.

Glam Rock: Pede qualquer coisa colorida e brilhante.

New Metal: Pede a bebida mais forte querendo dar uma de bonzão e cai no primeiro gole

Indie Rock: Pede um refrigerante.

New Wave: Pede água.

Copy + Paste Whiplash - escrito por André Drumond Ortega Filho

]

Inmersos en la oscuridad de la noche y aún atraídos por el brillo de la sangre, nos alejamos un poco de la esfera del rock, en pos de un sonído mas electrónico y sintetizado, para encontrarnos a otro huesped de estos parajes siniestros, Gary Numan.

 Gary Numan nace en Londres en 1958 y comienza sus andadas dentro de la música a finales de los 70. Forma  numerosas bandas, pero la gran parte de su carrera la ha hace en solitario, ofreciendo su música con diferentes resultados a lo largo de las diversas épocas. Es este vinilo, "Exile", el que le hace ver la luz despues de una temporada bastante desastrosa.

 "Dominion Day" es el primer single del disco y el tema que lo abre. Es una mezcla de rock gótico industrial, con grandes dosis de sintetizadores, loops y guitarras distorsionadas, que describe como la pesadilla de un hombre se hace realidad. (Dejo la letra abajo, creo que merece la pena leerla).

Como anécdota, Gary Numan padece una extraña "enfermedad" psicológica llamada "Síndrome de Asperguer". Aquí dejo un enlance que explica de forma concisa en que consiste esta enfermedad tan poco común.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADndrome_de_Asperger

Nos alejamos un poco del rock, pero aprovechando la noche.....

"nine while nine" del primer disco "First and last and always"

"lucretia my reflection" del segundo disco "floodland"

"temple of love" reedición con Ofra Haza.

Con la puerta abierta que nos dejó The 69 Eyes, entramos en un mundo romántico y siniestro a la vez, oscuro ,húmedo y ácido, un mundo de vampiros, de amor y  de sangre, de dolor...

The Sisters of Mercy son ante todo un grupo que puede calificarse de cualquier forma menos  de normal. Entre sus desvaríos podemos citar que su batería es una máquina que tiene nombre propio "DR. Avalanche", que siguen en activo a pesar de no sacar un album desde aquel "Vision Thing" fechado en 1990, que por desavenencias con su discográfica a la que le debía un album de estudio, sacó bajo la denominación "SSV"  el album "Go Figure", disco que grabó y "compuso" en un día (malo como la peste), y que además colgo en la web para que nadie lo comprase.....en fin podríamos seguir.

Aparte de estas extravaganzas, remitiéndonos a lo meramente musical, S.O.M. tiene unos discos buénisimos, fascinantes en todos sus sentidos, letras, riffs, atmósferas, canciones....queda claro que nos encontramos ante los "Grandes" dentro del estilo.

S.O.M. nacen en Inglaterra, concretamente en Leeds sobre el año 80. Surge de la mano de Andrew Eldricht, y Gary Marx, a los que posteriormente se uniría Wayne Hussey y Graig Adams. Con esta formación grabarían el primer LP "First And Last Ande Always". Posterior a esta grabación, la banda cambiaría en varías ocasiones de miembros, excepto Eldricht y Doktor Avalanche que permanecen desde el inicio.

En esta ocasión he elegido 3 temas , cada uno de ellos pertenece a cada uno de los 3 lps que grabaron.

Seguimos por los Paises Nórdicos, pero esta vez nos intrducimos de lleno en otra rama del arbol, en la del Gothic Rock. Estaremos paseando los próximos días en este terreno oscuro y vampiresco...

The 69 eyes son una banda formada en Helsinki ( Finlandia) a finales de los 80, de su escopeta salen cartuchos llenos de un gothic rock con ciertos apuntes sleazy sobre todo en los primeros vinilos, o como se describen ellos "sleazy blend of post- apocalyptic rock‘n’roll" (¿?)  . Entre sus influencias encontramos a Elvis Presley, The Misfits, Guns and roses, y como no, los grandes de este movimiento, The Sisters Of Mercy (su voz se asemeja bastante a la de Eldricht, de los S.O.M).

La forman Jyrki 69 a la voz, Bazie guitarra, Jussie69 batería, TImoTimo a la guitarra y Archzie69 a las cuatro cuerdas.

El tema que he rescatado aparece en disco editado en el año 2000 "bleesed be", primer disco de The 69 Eyes que llega a ser disco de oro, permanenciendo semanas en el top ten de Alemania y Finlandia. El primer single que da ha conocer el disco fué "Gothic Girl", como segundo single es éste "Brandon lee", que llega a ser número uno.

Aqui os dejo el video con esta versión del Romeo y Julieta desde la visión oscura de The 69 eyes.

"Black Symphony" is an upcoming live album and DVD from Dutch rock band Within Temptation.

This special concert features the band accompanied by The Metropole Orchestra, the Pa'dam Choir, and special guests including George Oosthoek (ex-Orphanage), Anneke van Giersbergen of Agua de Annique and Keith Caputo of Life of Agony. It was filmed by 14 HD Cameras on February 7, 2008 at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam.

Tracklist:

Disc One:

1. "Ouverture"
2. "Jillian (I'd Give My Heart)"
3. "The Howling"
4. "Stand My Ground"
5. "The Cross"
6. "What Have You Done" (with Keith Caputo)
7. "Hand of Sorrow"
8. "The Heart of Everything"
9. "Forgiven"
10. "Somewhere" (with Anneke van Giersbergen)
11. "The Swan Song"
12. "Memories"

Disc Two:

1. "Our Solemn Hour"
2. "The Other Half (of Me)" (with George Oosthoek)
3. "The Promise"
4. "Angels"
5. "Mother Earth"
6. "Frozen"
7. "The Truth Beneath the Rose"
8. "Deceiver of Fools"
9. "All I Need"
10. "Ice Queen"

cheers & GB...

By the late 80s two Greek students, Yiannis Kalifatidis and Kostas Tzeras, formed the band Into The Abyss in Darmstadt-Germany.  They were soon joined by other German musicians.

I am not sure just when Tzeras returned to Greece, leaving behind Kalifatidis as the only Greek in the band.  Their first demo releases, "The Frozen Minds" (1988) and "Songs About Martyrs & Criminals" (1990), made it clear that the band was influenced by New Model Army, Joy Division, etc. 

Their first album titled "Martyrium", released in 1993, found the band exploring different music styles, which was closer to the sound of The Fields Of The Nephilim, but more trippy than ever.

A year later, with the addition of the violin and oboe in the cover version of The Doors' "Waiting For The Sun", the need was made obvious that the band was moving away from their initial gothic sound.  Before doing so, one of their songs, "Banner of The Fray" was featured in Mick Mercer's "Gothic Rock" compilation.  During this same year (1995) Into The Abyss released their single "La Soeur D’Icare" from their upcoming album "The Feathered Snake".

For the next three years they toured extensively throughout Germany, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and Spain with bands such as Pink Turns Blue, Crime & the City Solution, Dave-id Busaras (ex-Virgin Prunes), Shock Therapy, Sweet William, Vendemmian, Kiss the Blade, Nosferatu, Corpus Delicti, Die Laughing, This Burning Effigy, Drowning Maud Land, Mephisto Walz, and Girls Under Glass, to name but a few.

In December 1995 they released a 10” split record with the psychedelic German band Grass Harp and Into The Abyss turned into a peculiar psychedelic group.  Their next stop was in 1998 with the release of their double-vinyl album titled "Cosmogonia".  In this album one can find elements of world music, psychedelia, prog rock, some gothic, as well as some space rock.

Without a doubt, it was one of the most interesting releases of Kalidatidis's band and covered a vast music space that one needs to experience.

In April 2000, the band had their first and last gig in Greece at the Athenian club "An" with the German band Embryo as an opening act.  This gig was recorded and released a year later on a CD album, titled  Adrenochrome, and covered all the phases the band went through.

In addition to all this, Kalifatidis also released "Fight Amnesia", a 16-page xerox copy fanzine full of addresses made to help other bands contact each other and to help each other with gigs and stuff.  "Fight Amnesia" was given away for free as all expenses, including p+p,  were being paid by Kalifatidis's own pocket.

Into The Abyss wasn't a 100% Greek band, but it was formed by two Greeks, and was used as a vehicle, at least to one of them, for the voyage into the wonderful world of music.

Unfortunately, the band remained virtually unknown to the Greek audience.

Their homepage:  http://comig.net/abyss/
Their last interview: http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue18/inabyss2.html

Mais ce qui m'a vraiment coupé la chique fut ce disque sorti ce printemps, "Saturnalia" des Gutter Twins. En duo avec le non moins ténébreux Greg Dulli, ex chanteur des Afghan Whigs et leader des Twilight Singers, Mark Lanegan qui sait décidément fort bien s'entourer, a frappé fort. Réunissant leurs étonnantes personnalités, leur goût pour les atmosphères sombres et mélancoliques, pour la pop nostalgique et le gros rock qui gratte lourd, ces deux gars ont engendré une espèce de heavy rock atmosphérique bluesy, baroque et gothique qui vous fend l'âme en deux. Comme dans un poème de Baudelaire, le spleen vous envahit et vous planez au dessus d'un univers digne d'Edgar A. Poe. Il est vrai que la plume romantique de Dulli alliée à la présence chamanique de Lanegan, le tout posé sur des guitares incandescentes, des cordes orientales, il y a de quoi décoller du fauteuil, surtout quand on ne gâche pas l'écoute avec un misérable mp3...

Une fois Saturnalia posé sur la platine, le voyage commence et on a plus envie de descendre ! Depuis "An End has a start" des Editors, je n'avais eu l'envie de faire tourner en boucle un cd. J'ai donc attendu cet album un an ! Sur ce disque, Lanegan sort le grand jeu, il se métamorphose en crooner goth habité. Sa présence magnétique a ensorcelé Greg Dulli qui prend une envergure jamais atteinte jusqu'ici. Car non seulement tout ce qu'il a écrit pour Saturnalia, l'a obligé à composer pour lui et en pensant à Lanegan, l'obligeant à sortir de ses plans plus classiques, usés chez Afghan Whigs et Twilight Singers. L'album sort de plus chez  Sub Pop, dont la finesse éditoriale continue à m'épater.

Alors chapeau bas à ces messieurs, je place "Saturnalia" à coté de "Pornography", "Play Blessures", "Soleil cherche futur" et "Unknown pleasures" que les thékaires ne cherchent pas à comprendre c'est la PCDM5...

Gutter Twins live chez Jools Holland sur la Beeb :

Un album duo Tom Waits-Mark Lanegan avec Iggy Pop en guest, vous croyez que c'est faisable comme demande au Père Noël ?

A character as tragic as his roles. Iconic, intriguing, irritating, haunting - Bela Lugosi (born on now Romanian territory - Lugoj) was cursed to play the role of Dracula all his life. Unable to detach his image from that of a monster he slowly started to embrace it. This is why we find him as an old man playing Dracula sketches and as a final legacy to horror movies, playing in Ed Wood's movies, characters that are beyond pathetic - to the point that you hang them on your wall.

Bela Lugosi in Bride of the Monster

In Glen or Glenda

]]> http://pygospa.wordpress.com/?p=145 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:43:53 +0000 pygospa http://pygospa.it.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/asp/ After finally seeing the stop motion video "Me" by Asp on YouTube (I never actually came to the idea of looking for it - I just found it by accident, while searching another song for my mother), I found the next band, I want to present to you. (Actually I never intended to write so much about music, but actually music is one of my passions - maybe I should think about a template and better formating for this music sections ;-) ).

So first of all here is the video I was talking about:

This ingenious piece of art was produced by the band Asp. Asp is a German Gothic rock band, that was founded by the mastermind Alexander Frank Spreng (Asp), together with his friends Matthias Ambré (Matze), Andreas Gross (Tossi) and Oliver Himmighoffen (Himmi) in 1999.

The name Asp actually was the sign of Alexander Spreng, when he was working for a school newspaper. It is by the way pronounced as word, and not as the letters A S P. This is a common mistake made by new fans, and when they finally find out, they feel strange about it and can't change it (that's why I'm telling you - I made that mistake myself ;-) ).

The music is quite alternating, some songs are more soft, some are hard and heavy. There are fast songs, songs with screaming and growling, sung songs. Even the instrumentation changes a lot. All in all it is a mixture of classic gothic rock, electronic music, and classic instruments (acoustic guitar, piano, violin). Some songs even have a background choir.
But most of the songs have following instrumentation: Singing, guitar, e-bass, and drums.

Their first songs on their promo cd where "Schwarzer Schmetterling", "Sing Child" and "Teach me war". They did not have to wait long for a label, and so in 2000 their first album "Hast Du mich vermisst?" entered the stores. 2001 there was the second album :duett.
After having some concerts with other Gothic bands like "L'Âme Immortelle" (I will definitely write about them in another post! ;-) ), Janus and Chamber (with which Asp still does a lot together), there came out an EP in 2002, containing remixed versions of the :duette Album by those artists, and others. But that is not all. Soon many other Gothic bands gathered around Asp and made remixes with them, like "Samsas Traum", "Unheilig", "Blutengel", etc. This, and the fact, that Asp produces ingenious music led to real fast famousness in the Gothic subculture.

Asp would not be Asp, if this stopped them producing music. Nearly every year a new album was produced, and now the band is looking back at 8 albums, 8 E.P.s, and 10 singles, all of them high quality artworks.

The band itself likes to call its music "Gothic Novel Rock", because they have a strong connection to literature. This becomes more obvious when you look at the first 5 Albums. They all cover the story about the famous "Black Butterfly". So most people that just dig into the music of Asp have a lot of questions about who or what the "Black Butterfly" actually is, as it seems to be a mysterious metaphor - a strange creature that sometimes is described as a a good most of the time a bad character.
Actually Asp was asked the same things a lot of times, but he rarely gives any information. For everybody the Black Butterfly could mean something else, and Asp doesn't want to spoil this by telling what it actually should mean.
But if we look into the songs and listen carefully we come up with the fact that there is a person that has a split personality. On the one side he is Asp, a good but weak person. On the other side he is the Black Butterfly, an evil creature that tries to pull Asp to his side, while Asp himself struggles resisting that evil creature.
So from this point of knowledge there are many interpretations, that fans have. Some just take it literately and see the every day's struggle between the good and the bad side that is in every person. Another interpretation I have heard is that the Black Butterfly is actually love (because many songs also deal with love, and even though the Black Butterfly is evil on the one side, he is also something that Asp could not live without, and there are also songs showing the Black Butterfly as something good (which on the other side could also be interpreted as persuasion)).
Another interpretation could be mental illnesses like "multiple personality disorder", "schizophrenia" or "Borderline personality disorder".
And yet there are still a lot of other possibilities.
Beside this story of the black butterfly, which actually is described in the first 5 albums ("Hast Du Mich Vermisst", ":duett", "Weltunter", "Aus der Tiefe" and "Requiembrio"), there are also songs with deeper political meanings. The best example is "Ich bin ein wahrer Satan", which can be interpreted as song against religious power, wars, and even racism. Another one is "Hässlich", which criticises the people that only care about their outer beauty but that are ugly when it comes to their inner values. Or "Sag nein!", which is definitely a song against racism.

What makes Asp special as well is that each of their albums is a real piece of art. You can really feel how much work was put into it to make something special. This starts with the content of the cds itself. The songs have great lyrics, great music in really good quality, which is manifold, and has really deeply meaningful lyrics. The still the cd is not only a collection of some new songs they produced. It is a piece where each and every song has its position by purpose. While hearing the cd, you really get the feeling of hearing a beginning which is like an introduction, a main part in the middle and an ending. And at the end you feel like reading a book - having completed a story.
But it does not stop there. The albums come along with a really complex artwork, containing lyrics and pictures which fit thematically to the songs - most of them photos of Asp that are digitally remastered.
The fans really get the feeling that Asp cares about them. There are a lot of collectible cds. Many of them not even that expensive (some of the special cds, that are only available on concerts start with 10€, which today sadly is a rarity). Once there was a collectible cd, which you could get for free with voucher that could be collected in the singles. After this, the cd was destroyed so that it could not be sold by anyone else, and now has a special value for all those lucky to possess one.
Knowing what the fans want, Asp is totally against the new copyright laws. To demonstrate this, all their albums don't have any copy protections, and one of their singles was sold together with a free cd recordable, so you could copy the single and give it to your friends for free. In their online shop they also sell covers for your own Asp compilation cd, that you can burn yourself. And they have a download shop, where you can get the songs in high mp3 quality for a really competitive price, drm free!
Also they published their video ME on their website for free download. They did it because before it was only available on a cd of Asp, why people started sharing it over YouTube. As Asp did not like the bad quality it is now available for free download in good quality.

Beside these activities, Asp tries to have strong fan contact by supporting two fan clubs, where they answer questions on the forums. And every year there is a barbecue evening for all club members together with Asp.

Now, after finishing the Black Butterfly Tale everybody is curious about what will come next. Even Asp did not think about it yet. After finishing the Black Butterfly, they started to small projects, the first one was the first official Best-of double cd, with all the old songs remastered and rerecorded. The second project is still not released. It is a number of songs on the Story "Krabat" (sorry, but the English name for it is horrible!) by "Ottfried Preußler". They actually started it in 2006, before knowing that there will also be a movie that by accident is released in the same year. So these two things have actually nothing in common!

Part of these songs where already released in singles and on albums. But the main part is till unknown.

So I hope I made you curious now, so let's look for some songs:

Schwarzer Schmetterling
Schwarzer Schmetterling [Hast Du Mich Vermisst?] with this one everything started.
Und wir tanzten (ungeschickte Liebesbriefe) [Hast Du Mich Vermisst?]
Die kleine Balade vom schwarzen Schmetterling [:duett]
Welcome [Weltunter] This one is in English!
Weltunter [Weltunter]
Ich will brennen [Weltunter]
Stille der Nacht [Weltunter]
Lykantropie [Weltunter]
Hässlich [Weltunter]
Die Ruhe vor dem Sturm [Weltunter]
Werben [Aus der Tiefe] <-- Great song, especially the violin solo!
Me [Aus der Tiefe] This one is in English!
Sage Nein! [Aus der Tiefe]
Ich bin ein wahrer Satan [Requiembrio]
Schwarzer Schmetterling (Necrolog) [Requiembrio]
Nie mehr! [Requiembrio]

Krabat Liederreihe
Krabat
Zaubererbruder

Here you can download the song Me in a better version.

And of course, the official website:

Ok, check this out - HAPPY GOTHIC. It's incredible. They really made my day. Listen to their MySpace page

I feel happy!

Blood Train

Nice comercial

Webpage

 Ghost Dance: still waiting for the last train...

Another one from the archives...!

Found in a Kemptown charity shop for 99p, this is a compilation of Ghost Dance’s first three EPs, and I already have everything on here, but I’m a completist aren’t I. Plus it’s nice to have everything on one album as my original singles are all quite worn by now, and there are brilliant Spinal Tap worthy sleevenotes from appropriately-named producer Bill Spectre, though the tracks he didn’t produce are the ones that have the best sound on this album.

  What can I say about Ghost Dance? They were I think probably the first band I fell in love with, though I swiftly fell out of love with them after the period represented here, which is only one year. Their second single was one of the first that I bought, early in 1986, and it was definitely a major part of the soundtrack to my early teenage years. It is a source of major regret that I never managed to see them live, though I nearly did twice, but I stupidly gave in to my parents’ 10.30 curfew and so missed them both times. But I painstakingly copied out their logo in felt tip pen, intending to have it painted on my leather jacket if I ever managed to get one, and had a considerable crush on lead singer Anne-Marie Hurst. She had previously been in first generation second-string goth band Skeletal Family, and had left them in 1985 when they signed a major label deal- her replacement was named Katrina I believe, she was blonde and they went rubbish shortly afterwards. Gary Marx- surely the unsung and unassuming ur-guitarist of gothic rock- had meanwhile just left the Sisters of Mercy, and had a load of songs he’d written for that band left lying around. They hooked up with Paul ‘Etch’ Etchell, former bassist with the Citron Girls (no, me neither), and a drum machine called Pandora, Dr Avalanche’s kid sister by the sound of things. Operating out of Keighley, they surfed the second generation goth wave alongside the Mission and Fields of the Nephilim, but were overtly a pop band from the start. Exhilaratingly uncomplicated and shallow, they gave the kids what they wanted- anthemic, catchy tunes you could dance to- and had just enough of a melodramatic, melancholy edge in their music to satisfy the sorrowful, romantic stirrings of the adolescent soul. 

  This collection starts with the lead track of their first single, ‘River of no Return.’ It’s classic autumnal goth-pop, from the high-in-the-mix chiming guitar riff to Anne-Marie’s curiously strident vocals, which almost recall the chick from Shocking Blue, another band I loved around this time. She mutters marvellously meaningless gothic clichés over a minimal bassline, and on the line “I can see you’re getting scared,” a scream rings out in the background. There’s a breakdown section after the second chorus; my copy jumps on this track too.

  ‘Celebrate’ was later re-worked for Ghost Dance’s debut LP proper, the disastrous major label, mainstream-pop crossover bid Stop the World. Here it’s another great combination of, er, chiming guitar riffs, low-in-the-mix vocals saying absolutely nothing and a relentless, less-is-more drum machine beat. There’s a 2-bar distorted bass solo after the second chorus that then gradually builds up again, and the whole song has a perfect chicken-dancing goth two-step rhythm.

  ‘Heart full of Soul’ has a classic chorus-plus-distortion guitar sound and is far better than the Yardbirds’ original in my highly subjective opinion. Everything is deconstructed down to its bare essentials, in a way that owes more to lumpen glam than punk, and as a result is ten times as powerful. Anne-Marie’s straining, yelping vocal is very sexy in a goth girl next door, Kim Wilde kind of way. ‘Can the Can’ is more perfect gothic bubblegum, but done completely straight and deadpan in spite of the absurd “eagle meets the tiger” lyrics- no more absurd than Ghost Dance’s own though, I suppose. Again, Anne-Marie comes over very sexy on the breakdown section, and does a fine scream, though she’s definitely more Joan Jett than Suzi Quatro.

  ‘Last Train’ is taken from the third EP, and a change of producer definitely shows in the clearer, crisper sound. This album is generally quite muffled all the way through, and I’m not sure if that’s due to the quality of the vinyl or the recording. Anyway, there’s a single-string Sisters of Mercy guitar riff, a four-square, bass-driven verse, and then the riff kicks back in for the chorus. The “last train” itself works both as mythic archetype and a social-realist reference to the actual last train from say, Leeds to Sowerby Bridge that your average Ghost Dance fan may find himself running for after the show. Indeed, he’ll probably be worrying about missing it while they’re playing this song, and may have to leave early to catch it, cursing his parents- so the hookline “take me anywhere but home” resonates particularly strongly. Going to gigs by train is probably an experience quite particular to growing up in small northern valley towns; incidentally, the Sisters wrote quite a few train songs as well, making it something of a classic northern gothic theme.

  Also from the third EP, ‘A Deeper Blue’ is built around a descending, circular riff and a surprisingly melodic chorus, probably stolen from ‘Blue Turk’ by Alice Cooper, providing more evidence of Ghost Dance’s glam rock roots. The hardcore punk-goth bridge section is definitely more Skeletal Family than Sisters derived. There’s also a fine, almost FM-rock guitar solo, and a neo-psychedelic fade-out.

  Side two opens with two of the band’s earliest numbers. ‘Yesterday Again’ is an old Skeletal Family song, also covered by Jude the Obscure. It’s a classic minimalist goth ballad, built on a pulsing, one-note synthesiser bassline that recalls the Sisters’ ‘Afterhours,’ a heavily echoed, minor-key guitar riff set on repeat and a ‘China Girl’ glam descend chorus. A break-up song that positively wallows in glorious self-pity, it’s wonderfully simplistic, even though by the end you expect it to turn into the Sisters’ ‘Some kind of Stranger’ at any moment- you can easily sing one song over the other… Roxy Music’s ‘Both Ends Burning’ is rendered as a straight-ahead rocker, with the drum machine set on autopilot and Marx playing the same three chords repeatedly over the top, the glam descend once again. It works though, and perfectly illustrates Ghost Dance’s seductive naivety. Despite the various members’ past experience in several successful groups, there’s a local-band amateurishness throughout proceedings, a DIY, primitive ethos that’s almost Billy Childish-like in theory, if not in actual sound. I guess that you could get away with that kind of thing in the 1980s, in a way that you certainly couldn’t now.

  Some- but not all- of that innocence had evaporated by the time of the band’s third single. ‘Grip of Love’ may be the band’s finest moment, a perfectly-conceived pop song with a great galloping rhythm and cleaner production than the previous two EPs. By now Richard Steele had joined on second guitar, and so the chorus-distortion main riff is underpinned by chiming 12-string. Yet its b-side, ‘Where Spirits Fly’ is a curiously charmless affair; driving and dynamic, it’s effective but formulaic. Of course, all of Ghost Dance’s songs are formulaic, but this one is too slick so as to sound almost cynical. It’s not a bad song- it was an old Sisters number that they never recorded- but it’s not one of my favourites. The album ends with ‘Radar Love,’ another cover that surpasses the stodgy original. There’s a driving bassline, a cute squeal from Anne-Marie, a top flight drum machine solo and then one of the great low E down the neck guitar scrapes on record. It jumps at the end though.

  After this, Anne-Marie went blonde, they replaced Pandora with a mere mortal (John Grant), and produced one last great EP- though I disliked it at the time- before signing to Chrysalis and re-emerging in 1989 as an AOR pop-rock outfit denying any gothic connection whatsoever. They lost all their old fans, failed to gain any new ones, flopped miserably and split up- though goth was dead in the water by the beginning of the 90s anyway, killed by the double-whammy of grunge and acid house. Etch briefly joined the Mission, and Richard Steele ended up in big-in-America ‘90s glam-rockers Spacehog, alongside members of cult Leeds fellow travellers the Dust Devils. Anne-Marie has recently been singing with a reformed Skeletal Family, having apparently spent the intervening years living the normal life, having kids and so on. And of the whereabouts of the great Gary Marx, I know nowt.

  This stuff has aged surprisingly well. It owes more to Kim Wilde, Joan Jett and the Sweet than Joy Division, and could still show the likes of The Killers a thing or too. It’s just classic pop music, gothic bubblegum indeed that still has me in the grip of love.

(edit: Etch also played in minimally-monikered and mightily-mulletted, but actually quite good on their day Bradford Metallers Loud, while Gary Marx can be found here: www.garymarx.com

And see also: www.ghostdance.co.uk )

Yesterday, while looking for a picture of someone with a big smile (and I remembered that there was a really funny one from her - but I could not find it) I found this beautiful picture.

This led me to present this band to you. So let's start:

The woman on the picture is named Amy Lee (now Hartzler), lead singer and founder of the famous band Evanescence. The band was officially founded in 1998, though she and her former friend, whom she met at the age of 13, where making music together ever since they met each other.
Actually the way she learned to play music is a quite sad one. At the age of 6 years, her older sister, who was her best friend, died. So to ease her pain and to give her some distraction, the parents, decided to send her to piano lessons.
In her first years she was the typical outcast, and suffered from being made fun of in school, etc. But then she met her friend, at a summer camp.
Together with him, Ben Moody, she wrote a lot of songs, both with equal share of work (and both doing everything, from songwriting, to the music). Many songs, amongst them some of their most famous, like "My Immortal", "Solitude", "Understanding", etc. where from that time. Most of the songs where only sung by Amy Lee, although there are some of the older ones, where also Moody takes a singing part in them (as background voice for the chords), e.g. "Anywhere".

In 1998, at the ages of 17 (Amy) and 18 (Moody) they decided on a band name, Evanescence and produced their first two LPs, "Evanescence" (100 Copies) and "Sound Asleep" (50 Copies), which they send to friends and different record labels. As unknown band they gave some concerts in small bars, and finally managed to produce another "Album", Origin. That was in 2000 (the first Album I knew of - I found this band on the Internet in 2002). From this Album 2,500 copies where produced. It consisted of some of the later famously known songs, such as "Whisper", "Imaginary" or "My Immortal".
Those 2,500 people that where lucky enough to get a copy, soon realised how valuable the CD they possesed was, and that this band had great potential. It was shared in the Internet, and even before Evanescence finally was spotted by music producers, they had their small fan community. Beside the "Origin" Album and the two LPs, there where a lot of demo songs, that appeared on the Internet. Some of them where the later widely known songs in their first versions, a lot of other stuff was never ever published.

Evanescence was spotted in 2003, while the band got two new band members, with which they wanted to re-master their old songs. Only then where they contracted by a music label, "Wind-Up Records", to which they still belong to. Together with them, the first official Album, "Fallen" was released, and their two singles "Bring me to life" and "My Immortal" where also published in the Daredevil soundtrack. This lead Evanescence to fame, and number one chart positions. They gave a lot of live concerts, as they used to, when they weren't that famous, only with a enormous audience (it is funny, in some of the first concerts you can see Amy Lee giving her band members astonished looks, due to the cheering of the crowd - as searching through the Internet for an example I just found this one - have a look at position 1:30).
It was also in that time, that the original old stuff from Evanescence was sold over ebay, gaining prices above 250$. To fulfill the wishes of their fans for the old stuff (which btw. real fans like much better then the stuff published under "Wind-Up Records ;-) ), Amy and Ben officially asked their fans in an interview, not to buy the stuff and spend that much money for it, but to share it over the Internet (oh that gains sympathy with me :) ).
Anyway it took quite a while until a website heard that call, and now offers all the old stuff on a website for download (See here - but according to many track lists and copies that I have, some of the songs are placed wrongly - but anyhow, who bothers?).

Beside these copies there are also a lot of compilations in the internet which where never officially released by Evanescence, and compiled by fans. Two of the famous are "Not for Your Ears" and "Ultra Rare Trax. Vol 1". They where sold through eBay and were also found in a lot of file sharing communities. Both of them have a number of non released tracks, like "Lies", "Solitude", "Exodus", "So Close", "Forgive Me", "Missing", "Surrender", and many more.

Due to fights about the future path of Evanescence, during tours in 2003, Amy and Ben broke up, and Ben left the band. After that Amy had a two years relationship with Shaun Morgan, lead singer of Seether, with whom she recorded the song "Broken".

In 2004 also the first Live CD/DVD-Bundle was released.

During this time the Band went through a lot of changes, so eventually in the latest line-up, there is only Amy Lee left as original Band member.

After the relationship with Shaun, she met her childhoods secret love Josh Hartzler, who is a 28 year old therapist. Actually he inspired Amy for the song "Bring me to life" by asking her the question "Are you happy?" On the 6^th May 2007 (American date: 05/06/07), they got married.

She said, that her life now totally changed. This also led her to give up everything that remembered of her childhood (e.g. she sold her House, and left the place, Little Rock (Arkansas), a small town, to the metro pole New York, where she lives with Josh in an apartment, etc.).

Her latest Album, "The Open Door", was published in 2006, and in those songs you can feel, that a change is taking place. Most of the songs are either inspired by the horrible relationship to Shaun (like "Call me when you are sober"), or by Josh (e.g. "Good Enough" - which is by the way the first happy song she ever made).

Beside she was invited by Korn for their unplugged album to perform the song "Freak on a leash". As Amy Lee is a great Korn fan, this was a special honor for her. The result was a really great duet which was played on mtv.

The music is a somehow unconventional mixture between Metal, Rock and Nu Metal (Bands which inspired Amy Lee are Korn, or Linkin Park). Beside fast songs, there are also some songs (especially the old ones) which are slow and melancholic. Next to typical Metal instrumentation there are also songs with only acoustic guitar, or piano, and some songs are more orchestral.

That is why people in the beginning seemed to think, that you could categorise Evanescence as Christian-rock, which Amy and Moody where strictly against. Evanescence was also quite often categorised as Gothic, but Amy Lee is also against that category. As she once said in an interview, as soon as you are put into a category, people expect you to create certain music. And that is what Amy Lee does not like. She does not like to be pushed into categories, and she does not like to be judged with prejudice. She said, that all she wants to do, is to rock, and so should her music be understood.

Beside that statement, the biggest part of Amy Lees fans comes from the Gothic culture, as not only her music style is typical for Gothic music, but also her song lyrics. Most of them deal with sadness, death, loneliness, living a lie, suicide and other issues typical for Gothic lyrics. And beside even her clothing style is typical Gothic, which leads Evanescence to be often compared to similar bands like "Within Temptation" (just one example of many, that you can find on the internet).

What makes Evanescence outstanding, is the perfect mixture of nice melodies, together with really touching lyrics, and an outstanding voice, with so much energy, power and passion in it. Most of the time, Amy Lee brings feelings across her songs. And you really get the impression, that while singing, she really feels those feelings.

So especially her live songs are great, but sadly her first ones weren't that good, as she puts much energy into the performance on stage. So during her first concerts most of the time, her voice suffered under the dancing. But meanwhile she has that perfectly under control.

To conclude: I am a huge fan of Amy Lees/Evanescences music. They meant a great lot to me, and guided me to difficult times. I could connect with a lot of them, and really had the impression, that she feels like I do, and vice versa, which made her music kind of special for me. Today things have changed a bit, I have changed, and also her new songs have changed - I cannot find that passion anymore, and the connection. But still she has a great voice and her old songs will stay evergreens for me. It is now more than 6 years that I know this band, and I still love them, I still listen to old songs every now and then (not exclusively anymore like I used to ;) but still), so all in all I am really happy that this band came into my life!

If I now got you interested, here is a set of songs from YouTube - I tried to get those more unknown once. So those are songs you may not have heard, when you know this band only from Radio/TV/the "Fallen" Album. Enjoy! ;)

David Hodges feat. Amy Lee Breathe (a really rare one - at least used to be, but if you can find in YouTube now (I am supprised). 2:40 Amy's part starts).
David Hodges feat. Amy Lee Fall Into You

Solitude (Evanescence EP)
Exodus (Evanescence EP)

Evanescence - Anywhere (Origin) (Amy Lee with Ben Moody singing in the background)
Evanescence - Even in Death (Origin)

Breathe No More (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - Missing (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - Before the Dawn (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - Untitled (I must be dreaming) (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - You (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - Further Away (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - Anything for You (Not for your ears)
Evanescence - My last breath (Fallen)
Hello (Fallen)
My Tourniquet (Fallen)

If you want to get any of her three officially released albums, click here (Amazon links):
Fallen
Anywhere But Home
The Open Door

And again, here are the old albums, for legal download:
Evanescence EP
Sound Asleep EP
Origin
Mystary ("released" 2003 containing some of the until then unreleased songs)
Some of the plenty demo versions of now pretty popular songs

The official Website

Intermezzo Bright Violet Euphoria

Greensward Grey

En hiver

Catacombs Kittens


The red and Silver Fantastique

Cinema Strange is an American death rock group based in Los Angeles, California. Their performances also incorporate film, dance, and visual art. Their music, while originating humbly in 1994 as a high-tempo post-punk expression, has evolved into a bizarre and exciting species of musical storytelling, breaking new ground.

Links:
- Official page
- Cinema Stange's MySpace page
- Deadfly Ensemble's MySpace page
- http://www.cinemastrange.de/

Howling to the moon at night
While all is silent and not a soul is in sight
There's someone watching me
There's someone watching me

The door to heaven is almost closed
Even when it's wide open, I dare not go
'Cause someone's watching me
Someone's watching me...

Waiting for the footsteps to fade away
Hoping I can breathe for another day
For  now I'll just have to close my eyes
And wait for the footsteps
To fade away.

-short instrumental-

When Mommy tucks me in at night
And the blankets around me are snug and tight
There's someone watching me
There's someone watching me

She closed the door and the light grew dim
Now I'm locked in my room with the shadows within
I know they're watching me
They're always watching me

Waiting for the footsteps to fade away
Hoping I can breathe for another day
For  now I'll just have to close my eyes
And wait for the footsteps
To fade away.

-short instrumental-

-spoken-

Now by the time the footsteps are gone
I could very well finish my song
Without interruption, away from destruction
Of the mind, of the soul

I'm free to be me, when no one is around
But I must listen in the hallway for that dreadful sound
Feet against wood, that's not very good.
Once I hear it, It's back to a fake sleep, so I can continue...

-drum beat-

Waiting for the footsteps to fade away
Hoping I can breathe for another day
For  now I'll just have to close my eyes
And wait for the footsteps
To fade away.
 [repeat x2]

Deze CD, Mourning Sun, was dan wel een voltreffer. De CD is volledig door McCoy zelf geschreven; de andere oorspronkelijke bandleden zijn hier voor zover bekend dus niet meer bij betrokken. Er zijn wat meer metalinvloeden in verwerkt, maar het typische Fields-geluid manifesteert zich toch onmiskenbaar. Sinds het verschijnen van deze CD hebben er nog maar een handvol nieuwe concerten plaatsgevonden, maar de fans kunnen zich momenteel verheugen op het aantreden van de groep als hoofdact op zondag 11 mei op het prestigieuze Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig.

Cherry Red Records wil het ijzer blijkbaar smeden wanneer het heet is en brengt net nu een DVD uit van de groep, Live in Düsseldorf. Het betreft een optreden dat dateert van 1991 in, tja, Düsseldorf uiteraard. Al een hele tijd geleden dus, maar wél nog in de originele bezetting. De DVD verschijnt op 26 mei.

Het is nog maar de vraag of Carl McCoy erg opgezet is met het uitbrengen van deze DVD. Ik vermoed van niet, maar dat mag de pret niet drukken voor een fan als ik!