THE BANDS

Friday, August 30, 2024

Kite (Stockholm, Sweden)

Kite was formed in 2008 by singer Nicklas Stenemo, who grew up in the small town Växjö and started his career in groups like Melody Club and The Mo, and keyboard player Christian Berg who came from the even smaller town Tranås and was a member of many bands, most notably Strip Music. ”Ways to Dance”, the opening track of Kite's first EP, was an instant club hit. By putting out EP's instead of an album Kite have developed an ”all killer, no filler” approach to music making. Kite creates a dark wonderland of droning synthesizers and throbbing beats, full of majestic melodies. With spectacular lights, breathtaking projections and sometimes cat statues shooting laser beams from their eyes – Kite´s live show has given them a reputation as one of the best live bands not only in Sweden but in the entire world.

The March Violets (Athens, Georgia)

Once Upon A Time In Leeds, 1981. The March Violets strummed their first riff and scrawled their first set list. An impressive post-punk legacy ensued, including BBC sessions for John Peel and other DJs, along with huge indie chart success in the mid-’80s with singles such as ‘Crow Baby’, ‘Snake Dance’, ‘Walk Into The Sun’ and ‘Deep’. The band were subsequently snapped up by London Records for the 1987 release of ’Turn To The Sky’ – which featured in the John Hughes movie Some Kind of Wonderful – before splitting up later that same year. They eventually reunited in 2010 around a nucleus that included founder members Rosie Garland (vocals) and Tom Ashton (guitar), releasing albums in 2013 and 2015 and promoting them with European and US tours. A double album collection of the BBC sessions entitled ‘Big Soul Kiss’ was made available by Jungle Records for the 2021 edition of Record Store Day, with the same label issuing the singles compilation ‘Play Loud Play Purple’ and five-CD box set ‘The Palace Of Infinite Darkness’ shortly after. These coincided with a well received European tour that included headlining sets at Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT) in Germany and Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival (Whitby Goth Weekend) in the UK.

Frank the Baptist (Berlin, Germany)

Frank the Baptist, a genre-crossing rock/post-punk band, emerged from the southern California dark alternative scene in the late-nineties, an unpredictable and refreshing voice that was soon embraced by the goth scene. Founder Frank Vollmann, originally hailing from New Jersey, brought a vitality and immediacy to his music, indicative of the energetic punk and early alternative that molded his youth. 2003 saw the release of the band's first full-length album, Different Degrees of Empty, cementing their notion that the dark music world should be a place of kicker boots, cranked amps, and skewed top hats as much as a refuge for poet shirts and ethereal echoes. By 2006 the group was based in Berlin, Germany and international concerts had become commonplace. Several albums and multiple European tours later, Frank the Baptist stands as a band the counterculture can count on. They don't belong to a fad. They didn't ride a single wave of fashion. They don't mind which way the future turns. Theirs is an easy confidence that comes from making something we'll always need: a timeless beat, an eternal vocal, rising above the mess of bands that live and die away below, in the maelstrom.

Bootblacks (New York, New York)

Bootblacks is a brooklyn-based post-punk band that was formed in 2010. The current lineup of the band consists of Panther Almqvist on vocals, Barrett Hiatt on synth, and Kalle Fagerberg on guitar. Bootblacks' sound is characterized by its brooding and atmospheric melodies, driving rhythms, and almqvist's emotive vocals. The band draws inspiration from the post-punk and darkwave movements of the 1980s, but also incorporates contemporary elements of electronic music into their sound. Since their formation, Bootblacks have released several critically acclaimed albums, including "Veins" (2016), "Fragments" (2018), and "Thin skies" (2020). The band has also toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing at renowned venues and festivals.

Christ vs. Warhol (Los Angeles, California)

All is not well in Los Angeles: beyond the perfectly manicured lawns and pre-fab buildings, between the corporate media hype and pharmaceutical ads, behind the plastic surgery and spray-on tans, a sense of unrest grows, festering just beneath the surface, threatening to tip the delicate balance of artifice and apathy off it's axis and send the entire facade crashing into a well-deserved oblivion. It is this climate that birthed Christ vs. Warhol – art school sedition with guitars instead of guns. Fronted by agitprop siren eveghost (ex-Scarlet’s Remains and Purnama), Christ vs. Warhol is colored by the frenetic, swirling guitars of Steven James (ex-All Gone Dead and Scarlet's Remains/currently of The Deadfly Ensemble and Faith And The Muse), driven by the eclectic, angular basslines of Marzia Rangel (ex-Kastle Greyskull and Scarlet's Remains/currently of The Deadfly Ensemble and Faith And The Muse), and held in place by the thundering drums of Geoff Bruce (ex-Sunshine Blind and Faith And The Muse/currently of Anima Mundi).

The Neuro Farm (Washington, D.C.)

The Neuro Farm is a Washington DC-based darkwave gothic rock band that combines haunting vocal harmonies with soaring violin melodies, driving rhythm guitar, and ethereal sonic textures. Drawing on influences such as Joy Division, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sigur Ros, Chelsea Wolfe, Portishead, and Rammstein, their music has been praised for its hauntingly beautiful sound. Nominated for Washington DC’s the Wammie Awards, The Neuro Farm has released three full-length albums to date - Vampyre (2021), The Descent (2019), and Ghosts (2014).

The Bellwether Syndicate (Chicago, Illinois)

William Faith  (former member of seminal goth acts Christian Death, Shadow Project, Mephisto Walz, co-founder of Faith and the Muse) moved from his native Los Angeles to Chicago in 2010 to form THE BELLWETHER SYNDICATE with his wife, Sarah Rose Faith. Sarah aka “Scary Lady Sarah” is a well- known DJ and club promoter, with the longest-running goth event in North America called Nocturna at Metro in Chicago. The duo forms the nucleus of THE BELLWETHER SYNDICATE and also often DJs together as The Pirate Twins. Their 2013 EP The Night Watch  was described as “an amazing, stunning, hell yeah, OMG, gimme some more, record! Post-punk on a not-very-discreet death rock orientation,” by Noise Journal. Next was 2018’s single “Republik.” It was called “a glittery piece of glamorous darkness... with William Faith’s crooning vocals and Sarah Rose smoothly cascading guitars,” by Post-Punk.com and was to lead to a 2019 release that never came. While the studio recordings are made by William and Sarah alone, the live lineup includes Corey Gorey (bass) and Philly Peroxide (keyboards/percussion) and Stevyn Grey (drums). Are YOU on The Night Watch?

1919 (Bradford, United Kingdom)

1919 is a post-punk band from Bradford, UK, and an early contributor to what became the Goth genre. The band evolved late 1980' with the sole aim of pounding out a rhythmic, menacing, atmospheric, sometimes bleak sound with hints of a dark melody. I had two Vox AC 30's with the original blue speakers – apparently the dog’s bollocks – the sound I required was like vicious monsters jumping out of the speakers; aural beasts from Hades. There weren’t too many ingredients to the 1919 sound – if we couldn't file it under EVIL it would not make it onto the set list. 1919 was four Northern souls desperately different in temperament but with a much focused musical vision, which Attila the Stockbroker once described as "Stockhausen on guitars with some long lost tribe on drums".

Rosegarden Funeral Party (Dallas, Texas)

Rising from the inferno of heartbreak with a determination towards gentility, humility, graciousness, and kindness, Rosegarden Funeral Party takes influence from life’s tragedies and spins chaos into beauty. Leah Lane fronts the band with a voice like that of the lovechild between Morrissey and Siouxsie Sioux and her guitar playing has been compared to that of Daniel Ash. with bass playing that takes obvious inspiration from Peter Hook. With synths trapped in the loving arms of the 1980’s, rhythmic percussion and drums inspired by dark dance floors, Rosegarden Funeral Party prove to be the second-coming of traditional goth.

Lathe of Heaven (Brooklyn, New York)

Formed in 2021, Brooklyn based Lathe of Heaven delivers a powerful take on Post-Punk and New-Wave, pushing the boundaries of both genres into an untouched realm of sonic abstraction. With melodic riffs, urgent rhythms and Science Fiction themed lyrics, LoH carefully position themselves in the no-mans-land that exists between beauty and dissonance, offering a unique sound as reminiscent of Finnish Post-Punkers Musta Paraati as they are to pop-pioneers A Flock of Seagulls. Though Lathe of Heaven features members of many noteworthy Brooklyn based projects including People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Pawns, Android, Hustler and more, this roster of past and alternate musical endeavors exposes a diverse range of genre and skill sets which can only be understood as a departure from such influences, exploring a sound entirely of its own.