Unter Null - "Broken Heart Cliche" (live)

Wow, Erica looked so -- proper when she was doing her tour for Unter Null's Moving On. I don't really know what to say. I half-expected band to be dressed in suits and ties. I'm certainly not complaining. It's just that you can tell that Erica carries herself with dignity. At least, that's the vibe I'm getting. This isn't just something I'm basing on just one video, either. Here are two other videos of the same song in different tour locations: here and here. Am I crazy here?

Absolute Grrrls Manifesto [chapter 1] (a.k.a. "Let Me Rip Money out of Epic Lightning's Wallet")

(Property of Alfa Matrix, used under Fair Use for direct, substantial commentary on product)

Here is a listing of just the bands that I personally endorse that are going to be on this compilation:

Ayria

Collide

Lovelorn Dolls

Tying Tiffany

Junksista

Alice in Videoland

Psy'Aviah

Marsheaux

I:Scintilla

Stray / Unter Null

Does Alfa Matrix hate me or something? It's like on April 12, Alfa Matrix is going to tell me, "You're going to give us a chunk of change, and there's just nothing you can do about it." This almost feels like a tax or a bill. I have to buy this.

Colony 5 - "My World"

Erica Dunham practically gave me this afternoon's article on a silver platter by posting her favorite EBM songs on the Unter Null Facebook page in celebration of International EBM Day. Here is my favorite of the ones she posted. It's "My World" by Colony 5. I hadn't listened to any of Colony 5's stuff before, but I really like this video. The song is as danceable as EBM should be, and the video feels intellectually stimulating.

Random videos

Do you like seeing your favorite musicians be entertaining in ways that have little or nothing to do with their music? Well, here's a video dedicated to that.

First, here's Erica from Unter Null practicing her French:




Here's a Santa Hates You video from 2011 that you might have to understand YouTube trends from that time to get:

The people from Psy'Aviah had to make a wine commercial for a school project. Here is what they made:

Seven songs that motivate me

(Public Domain License)

Although it was very tempting to make this a three-video Thursday, I practiced restraint and decided to make a post discussing ten songs that get me going while I'm at work. I have a day job, and while I'm at my desk or walking on my way to and from work, there are some songs that just get me going. Now, I've completely fawned over some of those songs in previous posts, but I want to talk about the songs that might not get as much love elsewhere. Mind you, there are also plenty of videos or album reviews that I post of songs that I like, but I might not listen to very often. This is a list of things that I listen to on a daily or nearly daily basis. In a way, this is meant to be an "about me" post.

(One thing to note is that these songs are also not in any particular order.)

1. "Playing the Fool" - Unter Null - From Sacrament, this song gets me particularly pumped up when I'm in a less than stellar mood, especially in regard to things in my personal life. The lyrics clearly state that a former significant other has been so deplorable that it has caused Erica to completely lose respect for him and remove him from her life. It's not the kind of song that I play for inspiration as much as it is to channel irritation, particularly the kind that is specific and pointed, into something tangible and stop thinking about it.

2. "Better Off" - Alice in Videoland - I won't lie. This song is kind of depressing, but it has a certain calming beauty to it. Although there is discussion that floats around about what the real meaning of this song is, I think it simply has to do with having to put up a happy front when you're feeling sad or depressed and getting emotionally drained by it. By the end of the song, it seems like the narrator just doesn't care about putting that front up anymore. This song has a fair bit of that kind of chiming, whistling Swedish electronica charm to it, and I think that's part of what makes me feel happy, even though the song is really very melancholy.

3. "Once in a Lifetime (Extended)" - Wolfsheim - If you went to goth nights in the early part of the 2000s, you probably noticed this played almost every week. This song is dark, with snappy, clicking beats in the foreground and synth bass in the back. It brings in a mood of pure despair about how a man who has lost his family to the ocean in some sort of tragedy is contemplating suicide, because nothing can console him now that he lost everything that matters to him. Obviously, this is another grossly depressing song, but it brings about this sense of nostalgia for me from a good time in my life, back when I started getting into the goth scene.

4. "Hydroelectric" - MDFMK - As far as I'm concerned, this is one of Lucia Cifarelli's best vocal performances. This song seems to be about a general sense of being able to give yourself up to someone. Although the imagery that MDFMK provides is very "them", when you move all that aside, you actually get an emotionally charged song that can make you feel good.

5. "Voices" - Helalyn Flowers - This song holds more value in its beat and melody than in its lyrics. I always want to bob my head or tap the desk whenever this song pops up. There is a definite futuristic sound to this, but it also sounds like it could be pop music, given a different circumstance. The way the song seems to want to beat you in the head with the fact that everything is done with electronic or synthesized guitars, drums, and other instruments almost creates a sort of novelty to it. I admit that I've gone the whole song not even paying attention to the lyrics sometimes, just trucking along with the task at hand while letting the beat sizzle through me.

6. "Liar" - Emilie Autumn - This is my favorite song from Opheliac. Let it be known here that Emilie Autumn is probably one of the best (if not the best) musicians I've ever heard in regard to being able to convey high drama in music form. "Liar" is probably her best song for that. That scratchy violin cuts through me like a knife. All the booms and pings add incredible atmosphere. And she has a singing style that just runs me over. I love listening to this on my walk to work. It gets the blood flowing and wakes my brain up in a way that feels more like having a healthy breakfast, instead of something merely loud and banging, which is more like waking up with a Monster drink and a donut.

7. "Unicorn" - Apoptygma Berzerk - This is the token sappy love song of the list. Well, it's as sappy as Apoptygma Berzerk can be, I guess.

So, anyway, if you want an idea of what I listen to on an everyday basis (and I went out of my way to not put in an I:Scintilla or Tying Tiffany song), here's a good sampler.

You know what's deplorable? Misogyny.

As my readers should know by now, Unter Null is one of my favorite musicians. I've not had the opportunity to have the years of experience with her music that some people have, but in the short time that I've listened to it, it's moved me. Moreover, based on the half a shot glass's worth of information I have gathered about her personality, Erica has my respect in that category, too. In particular, I like how she's able to take things in stride and change the direction of an annoying situation using sarcasm.

(Photo by Ericadunham, CC 3.0 Unported License)

So, Erica made a status update on her official Facebook page, today. She asked people what people would like to see in her collector's boxset edition of her next Unter Null album. Most of the suggestions were mundane, such as T-shirts, autographs, and wristbands, but someone made a comment about putting in condoms. That was kind of icky, but that was one of the things you could probably roll your eyes and just skip over. The crown jewel though was when someone said "used panties."

I'm not joking here. Someone suggested she put used panties in her box set. Regardless of whether or not that was supposed to be a joke, that was still pretty vile. Erica said, "Allowing some of these comments for posterity. This is what happens when you don't have a dick and still write music." I think she hit the nail on the head with that comment.

Why are there men out there who don't see women as people? I see this all the time when I look at communication between male fans and female artists. Luckily, I don't see it as much within the goth-industrial circles as much as I see it within some other scenes, but it still happens quite a bit. There are some men out there who think women are lesser beings than men are and don't have to be treated with the same respect.

First and foremost, if you're a guy, firing off sexually charged statements, whether in jest or seriousness, to a woman you don't know, just because she's a woman, makes you a jerk. She's a person, just like any man is a person. Moreover, as far as I know, Erica has a husband, and he's likely the only person who can get away with saying things of a sexual nature to her. If you are one of the billions of men on this planet who aren't her husband, and you say things like this to her, you're also a jerk because you're saying these things to another guy's wife.

I'm happy to see that Erica was able to handle this with such poise. If I had to guess, I'd say she probably has plenty of experience having to put up with misogynist fans, and this experience is probably something fairly common among women in the goth-industrial music scene. All things considered, this is not remotely as damaging of a situation as countless others in the past that women have had to endure, but it's still wrong and should be called out for what it is.

A lot of these people have day jobs, you know.

(In the Thick of It (Alex Proimos) / CC BY 2.0)

One thing about being part of the underground music scene is the fact that a lot of these people have day jobs that pay the bills, and music is what they do with the time they have left. I would imagine that means they have extraordinarily little spare time, since they're professionals when it comes to their music. It really must take a lot of drive to succeed.

I may make this a recurring column if there's interest in this. Basically, I just want to share what the day jobs are of a few musicians you all know and love.

Erica Dunham of Unter Null is a pastry chef. Her baking business, Unterbites, focuses heavily on bacon and has a whole section of the merchandise devoted to it. I have yet to try her pastries, but I'm definitely interested. She does have a number of good reviews from her customers.

Brittany Bindrim of I:Scintilla is a graphic designer by trade. She has a degree in graphic design, and she does all the physical artwork for the band. Considering her talent in that field, I've pitched the idea on their Facebook page that she make a Tumblr or another site totally devoted to her artwork. I don't lie when I say that I look forward to the album cover artwork just as much as the music.

Sam Rosenthal of Black Tape for a Blue Girl owns and manages the Projekt independent record label. Prominent artists include Aurelio Voltaire and Android Lust. Owning and running a record label sounds like a lot of work to me. I wonder how Mr. Rosenthal has the time.

I know what it's like to have to work to make ends meet while having something very important and time-consuming in the background. So I can definitely sympathize with these people who probably have insane schedules and little time to just vegetate. A lot of people seem to think that being a musician means you get to just hang out and perfect your art all the time, but that only happens once you get to a certain level of fame and fortune. Before you get there, unless you have someone else doing the work of keeping the lights on and food on the table, it can be a real grind.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

So, this is my first post. I wasn't sure how I wanted to start this blog, because there were so many topics I really could discuss. Should I just go right into music news and opinions? Should I introduce the purpose of the blog? Should I introduce myself? Should I just start rambling relentlessly?

Instead of worrying about those questions though, maybe the best thing to do would be to just talk to you, the reader. I'm making this blog with two stakeholders in mind. One, I'm doing this for me, because I feel like I have plenty to say about the music that I've grown to really enjoy and show some level of identity alignment. But two, I'm also doing this for you, the reader. I want to believe that what I have to say will benefit you in some way, whether it brightens your day, makes you think, gives you a platform to argue on the Internet, or otherwise brings you something worthwhile. Am I under the delusion that you will hang upon my every word for the definitive verdict on everything in the goth-industrial-electronica scene? Absolutely not. My main goal is simply to at least provide you with unique, novel, and interesting thoughts about the things I like (and things I don't).

Speaking of things I like, the overwhelming majority of music that I like comes from, speaking very loosely, the overall goth, industrial, and electronica genres. The scope of this blog is to talk about music in those very general categories. In this post, I'm not going to go into a more in-depth discussion of the details of exactly what I like the most (There will be plenty of time to do that later.), but it's safe to say that if I talk about Unter Null, it's a lot safer of a bet that I'll talk about, say, KMFDM as opposed to Nicki Minaj. Of course, a big hint to figuring out what shivers my timbers would be to look at the links list on the side.

So, keep checking the blog for updates. I hope you enjoy what I have to share. To end this groundbreaking post, I figure I'll share a song that I've been really digging lately:

Erica Dunham has a side project, Stray, that is supposed to be the expression of post-fury despair that complements the anger that Unter Null shows off. This song, "No Vacancy", comes from her second Stray album, Letting Go. I absolutely love the instrument choices, particularly the sitar, against the synths. The vocals give off an echo that sounds a bit like she's singing from the bottom of a well or down a dark tunnel, and that's exactly the effect that is necessary for a melancholy song about regret and confusion like this.