I met this band ten years ago after I saw them opening up for Anything Box. Or it may have been Book of Love. I was instantly hooked on their synthpop sound with goth style vocals. I felt they could have been extremely successful, but for whatever reason, they parted ways after a series of shows and demos. I’m not sure what most of the members are doing these days, but their keyboardist Rubin has remixed numerous trance, synthpop, and EBM tracks (Iris, Icon of Coil, Syrian), and has a successful photography company.
The two songs I’m posting are from a five track demo CD. The first is “Perfect Isolation”, one of my favorite synth songs of the last decade and one of the most heavily requested songs when I did Destination Unknown. The second is their cover of Anything Box’s “Carmen”. It adds a darker dimension to the song without destroying the elements that made the original a classic.
Musician and synthpop/industrial promoter Jens Domgörgen and singer/songwriter Eric Schmaler have just released their first album as X-Divide, called X, on Infacted a few weeks ago. It’s not doing too bad for a debut album; their first single, “Forever”, just found its way into the German alternative top ten. I’m expecting to see them in an opening slot on a synthpop tour this summer–this could be a band worth getting to the show early for.
It’s 6am and the sun is coming up. Kamar just dropped me off and these potato things from Dunkin Donuts are soooo good, you have no idea… Such a great evening at Panic! I got there way too late to hear Arturo, but caught a rare Britpop-ish set from Chicago-legend-via-Berlin Scary Lady Sarah, who had the place so packed with friends that my head was spinning even before the Maker’s Mark got to me. We moved on to Late Bar, Dave Roberts’ new place, with Peroxide and Stormy, and made some new friends there, too.
I should probably go to bed, but I can’t stop listening to this Lykke Li remix lately, which may have something to do with me starting off my set with it Thursday night.
Here’s to hoping your weekend is going as well as mine.
Last night started off really slow–after all, a good portion of our crowd was at The Queen Is Dead early in the night–but by the time Arturo went on and The Handsome Devilz arrived, it was a juggernaut. While Kamar was rallying the dancers over to Neo, I got to do a long early set. One of the things I love about doing early sets at Atomic is that I get to experiment a bit and gauge reactions before I play a song to a packed floor. Will they dance if I play this? Will the regulars run up to the booth screaming about how they love it or how they’ll strangle me if I ever play it again? Sometimes, I realize that I should’ve been playing it at 1am all along.
Such is the case with the Yello classic “Bostitch”. It blows my mind that this single was released in 1979. Typical of Yello’s style, it’s sophisticated, dark, and avant-garde. It’s very new wave, it’s really tech-house, it’s vaguely industrial…and no, that is not Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb singing. Actually it’s Dieter Meier [himself a very interesting person], the conceptualist half of Yello, whose ideas are executed by self-claimed perfectionist Boris Blank, who reportedly has a library of over 100,000 samples he made from scratch.
Now in their 60s, Meier and Blank are still making music as Yello, and it’s still just as good. Most of their current work is in soundtracks these days. Recently, they’ve worked with Audi and been the subject of a documentary. I hope I’m half as cool as they are when I’m their age.
What I love about the Handsome Devilz is that they are the least pretentious musicians I have ever met. They know they’re talented and have had success in other bands playing their own music, but they absolutely love The Smiths and Morrissey and dedicate a night a month covering their heroes at the Abbey Pub. Lisa and I are big fans of their night “The Queen Is Dead” and look forward to hosting their after show party on the last Thursday of every month. If you go to the show this week, remember that Atomic is free with a wristband or ticket stub from the Abbey and you’ll get to hear Guest DJ Arturo spin a Smiths/Morrissey set!
Somewhere back in the ’90s, I drug a handful of friends to a Placebo show in St. Louis. Having only ever heard their solitary US hit “Pure Morning”, they were skeptical, and I can hardly blame them. I don’t much care for that song; to me it is to Placebo what “Vaseline” is to Flaming Lips fans: an annoyance that requires so many “no but really, their other stuff is so much more than that” explanations.
I’m proud to say that my friends left the show that night as Placebo fans, and henceforth trusted my judgement about these sorts of things.
Despite the little airplay they get here in the States, thankfully they’ve attracted enough of a cult following to tour here every few years. I always go see them, and -I can’t say this about too many bands- they’ve always gotten better. One of the things one comes to expect from their encores is a cover of someone who has influenced them; I’m quite fond of what they’ve done to The Pixies and Kate Bush. But since this week we are providing the afterparty for The Queen Is Dead (details to your right), it seemed more fitting to post their rocked-out version of The Smiths’ classic “Bigmouth Strikes Again” from their collection of covers Sleeping With Ghosts. Though not necessarily as good or true to the original, their take on it is worth noting.
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I met this band ten years ago after I saw them opening up for Anything Box. Or it may have been Book of Love. I was instantly hooked on their synthpop sound with goth style vocals. I felt they could have been extremely successful, but for whatever reason, they parted ways after a series of shows and demos. I’m not sure what most of the members are doing these days, but their keyboardist Rubin has remixed numerous trance, synthpop, and EBM tracks (Iris, Icon of Coil, Syrian), and has a successful photography company.
Somewhere back in the ’90s, I drug a handful of friends to a Placebo show in St. Louis. Having only ever heard their solitary US hit “Pure Morning”, they were skeptical, and I can hardly blame them. I don’t much care for that song; to me it is to Placebo what “Vaseline” is to Flaming Lips fans: an annoyance that requires so many “no but really, their other stuff is so much more than that” explanations. 
