Supposition: Revulsion

It's little secret that I am a QueenAdreena fan. Easily, the group is in my top 5 picks that define my musical interests. It is however, an interest fraught with less than desirable results. Katie Jane Garside, for better or for worse embodies the mantle of the band, she is in effect: Queen Adreena. The "wrecked nymph waif" that saunters onstage in a salacious, seemingly-possessed persona that eclipses all the senses is well-beyond any other element of the experience. And it is in that framework that KJG is vilified...


Let's be clear, in appearances alone, the emotionally unsound affect coupled with being barely-clothed and possibly naked and offering yourself to an audience of strangers to grope, molest, and violate is the blanket ingredients to shock value recipe. It is also akin to watching a schizophrenic attempt to coexist in a sterile world. It feels wrong, it feels dirty, it feels like it shouldn't be seen. And that's exactly at the core of what's transpiring. You should feel that way. Unfortunately - with much of society, what we don't want to see, we also don't want to understand.


There has been the obvious comparison to Courtney Love. Both women exude a tortured and unsettled emotion that is a pain that can't be exorcised... and it presents itself in a seething, volatile assault on the listener. But I would draw closed the comparison there. While we know much (probably too much) about the path Courtney Love has traveled, that same cannot be said about Katie Jane Garside. One can assume that there is a lifetime's worth of hurt that is personified in her lyrics and stage-persona, but we don't really know. And it's really not the point, and if you think KJG doesn't realize that, you are taking her wholly for granted. If for instance she made a statement that claimed she had been victimized as a child - it would make it so much easier to understand her presence; neatly categorized and packaged for individual judgment. And now suddenly, it's not as important, I can choose to care about this or not.


I will argue that Katie Jane Garside and Queen Adreena should draw more comparisons to Marilyn Manson than perhaps anyone. MM stoked the conservative rhetoric fire for choosing to be the embodiment of every parent's worst fear. A figurehead that questions organized religion, decency, morality, and packaged it into a fearsome, androgynous, educated and well-spoken antichrist. The image was so disconcerting that few could look past the spectacle to read and listen to the lyrics; to sit back and question what is happening and why? MM made the decision, quite reluctantly, to let America in on the joke... and now he is palatable enough for tv and film.


So, why in this morality lesson that Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Rozz Williams chose to teach us that we aren't ready to go beyond the "transgressions" of KJG? I would offer that it's three reasons: Unlike MM, Bowie, etc., she is unwilling to give definition to this aspect of herself; the music is so seething and angry that it's off-putting; but I am willing to claim that the biggest reason is because sexuality is a much different monster than religion, morality, decency. A women using her body as a statement and eliciting a sexual response without explanation is simply too egregious an act to quantify.


Now, if you couple the image with the word, perhaps the revulsion seems absolutely correct. With song titles like, "Pretty Like Drugs", "Suck", "Kitty Collar Tight", "F.M. Doll" - surely this is all just shock value and that is all that should be elicited as a response. But what is painfully evident when you listen to those songs and read the lyrics is that even from Daisy Chainsaw days, that KJG was drawing parallels between a woman's sexuality being her only currency in a world hell-bent on exploiting that. And suddenly, the spectacle makes perfect sense. The trap has been baited with silence and that enticement was too much to refuse. Out fell, the basest of human decency, the double standards by which women live their lives, and the judgmental bubble by which we navigate life. Accepting that you are a victim of this trap is a bitter pill... thinking that somehow you are better than other's for not swallowing is worse. So much effort is spent on victimizing KJG, when the reality is quite the reverse.


But perhaps it's all a mute point now. The exposition of 10 years of QueenAdreena seems to have slithered away back into the dark... the band has continued on as The Dogbones, and Garside has devoted a lot of time to writing and Rubythroat. I feel it's worth noting, that despite song-writing that remains true to her nearly 3 decades in the music industry, somehow when the stage-stripping, writhing and screaming stopped - the press suddenly expressed a profound love for the "new KJG". It's laughable, I know she's laughing. Being a sedate, intellectual woman is clearly more respectable than an angry, hell-bent, intellectual woman... but I guess we already knew that.


KJG has a new book coming out, if it's anything like her previous efforts, it will be painstakingly constructed and a special piece in your collection:


Katie Jane Garside

Link TV

The family decided we were done with our cable television provider for a variety of reasons. Our first choice was U-Verse, but some shady dealings by our former mayor, who happened to be a member of the board on the same cable provider we've been using prevented any competition in providing cable television services for a period of 99 years. So, the loophole in that law was satellite providers - so DirectTV it is. This means for me, I once again have access to LinkTV and it's amazing World Music programming. A lot of the artists I discovered can no longer be found online - their videos only live in my memory.So, in honor of that return - here's my top 10 discoveries from this ground-breaking program.

10. Kamini: Marly Gomont
A French Rapper that originates from rural France. This video went viral before there was such a thing.

9. Yothu Yindi: Ghost Spirits

Aboriginal artist that caught the attention of Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode). He produced and mixed this track.

8. Sultana - Kusu Kalkmaz

Provocative Turkish rapper Sultana churns out political rhymes.

7. Molotov: Here We Kum

Mexican rap/hardcore/thrash outfit Molotov that snagged their share of Grammys, including alum of the year. Spanglish lyrics that run political to satire to misogynistic 

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6. Die Antwoord: Enter The Ninja

South Afrikaan artist Die Antwoord started out as a skit on a comedy show on South African television. But demand for more resulted in an E.P. that exploded out of South Africa and into European Markets and the rest is history.

5. Lila Downs: Perro Negro

No official video exists for this track, but the widely popular track that featured Cafe Tacuba's vocalist inspired many fan videos, but none so popular as this one that became the unofficial offical video.

4. Balkan Beat Box: Move It

High energy and infectious rhythms, Balkan Beat Box became the darlings of the international music scene in the early 2000s.

3. Dengue Fever: Seeing Hands

Dengue Fever hails from Cambodia, but their social-political lyrics made waves across the world. They drew the ire of their own government and fled on a world tour that garnered so much attention that it forced the hand of the Cambodian regime to reconsider the prosecution on the band.

2. Emir Kusturica & The No-Smoking Orchestra: Unza Unza Time

Known for his acting chops and film scores, Emir Kusturica also offers up traditional Balkan music infused with gypsy and punk rhythms. Satire and tongue-in-cheek humor flavor this video which I promise will delight.

1. Cafe Tacuba: Dejate Caer

Also hailing from Mexico, Cafe Tacuba blend pop and alternative rock to create infectious tracks. Hugely popular South of the Border, they have also established themselves as tour favorites in The States.

Mixtape: My Sister's Methedrine

In my flurry of mixtape creation in the early 90s, I started this project of compiling Sisters Of Mercy and bands that embraced their unique sound. The tapes found their way to the bottom of a box when I found myself with too much material for one cassette, but not enough for two. After finding the lost treasure a few weeks ago, I found myself wanting to complete the recordings. So, here's the finished product.

.MY SISTER'S METHEDRINE: V.1

A01 - The Sisters Of Mercy - Lights
A02 - James Ray Performance - Edie Sedgwick
A03 - The Lords Of The New Church - Open Your Eyes
A04 - The Mission - Evangeline
A05 - March Violets - Snakedance
A06 - Fields Of Nephilim - Laura
A07 - Rosetta Stone - Heart And Soul
A08 - Ritual Howls - No Witnesses
A09 - The Merry Thoughts - Black Day
A10 - Pink Turns Blue - I Coldly Stare Out




B01 - Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Hand On Heart
B02 - Ghost Dance - Yesterday Again
B03 - The Wake - Nazarene
B04 - Every New Dead Ghost - Bleak House
B05 - Gary Marx - Blindfold
B06 - Dreadful Shadows - A Better God
B07 - League Of Nations - Fade
B08 - Fad Gadget - Ideal World
B09 - And Also The Trees - Midnight Garden
B10 - Ausgang - Crawling The Walls
B11 - Balaam And The Angel - Two Into One

MY SISTER'S METHEDRINE: V.2

C01 - London After Midnight - Inamourada
C02 - Ultravox - I Remember (Death In The Afternoon)
C03 - Sad Lovers And Giants - Echoplay
C04 - Dr. Arthur Krause - Moribund
C05 - The Sisterhood - Giving Ground
C06 - The Sisters Of Mercy - On The Wire
C07 - Love Like Blood - Into The Snake Pit
C08 - Bone Orchard - Princess Epilepsy
C09 - Fields Of Nephilim - Back In Gehenna
C10 - The March Violets - Walk Into The Sun
C11 - Virgin Prunes - Walls Of Jericho


D01 - The Sisters Of Mercy - Lucretia, My Reflection (Long Version)
D02 - The Legendary Pink Dots - Golden Dawn
D03 - Einstrurzende Neubauten - Total Eclipse Of The Sun
D04 - Phallus Dei - Circles On Circles (The Final Realm Mix)
D05 - New Creatures - Post Valentine
D06 - Ultra Vivid Scene - The Ascent
D07 - Christian Death - Lacrima Christi (Italian Version)
D08 - Petali Del Cariglione - Altra Donna

Mixtape: Sticky Brilliance (Eclusion)

A few weekends past, I found myself digging thru boxes of tapes. I probably have about 1000 cassettes in my collection, 100 or so of those are cassette bootlegs (mostly of a Rozz Williams nature) and probably an additional 100+ mixtapes of varying degrees. It's not because these collections are remarkable that I wish to share them, in fact, quite the contrary. I believe that if anything, what is illustrated with my mixtapes is a glimpse in to my music collection and how it developed and the tangents it takes. As I sat on the floor of my office I looked at the tapes, more precisely, the songs included on those tapes almost as seeds; where a sound, a genre, an artist took root, grew branches, bore fruit, and offered up new seeds. It's almost a surrogate family tree, because in all honesty, it's where I stole my culture, my tongue and my failures. This as much paints the decades of one person, as a museum in honour of one artist. So, the reason I want to share these tapes is either because I want my own museum; or I need to visualize the paths to today, and most importantly, not lose sight of the precious influence of my dearest friends and loved ones; or I need to pry open the doors to who I was and where I am today; or I simply want to hear these tapes again after so many years.

Sticky Brilliance (Eclusion)

Compiled in 1993. As previously stated, this collection sheds a painful light on how limited my music collection was at the time. I had a collection of vinyl, but no turntable at the time, so I was relegated to cassette and compact disc, and the issue I had with cassette was that I couldn't control the recording volume. Not wishing to have a mix of songs at various recording levels - I kept my selections to those that maintained that aesthetic. 

Having said that, here is the selection. Please note, the original playlist is in tact, but not as presented. I have remixed the track listing to be a little more cohesive. Inclusions I am most proud of are by Flowerhead and Walt Mink... early pieces in my collection that I was quite fond of and took me through the deeper catalogs of Caroline Records and correspondence with members of Flowerhead. Without saying, this is pre-internet forays into looking for new music, and more importantly, new visions and talent.

A01: Beastie Boys - The Biz vs. The Nuge

A02: Beastie Boys - Time For Livin'

A03: Ice Cube - Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside)

A04: L7 - Wargasm

A05: Nirvana - Molly's Lips (BBC Session)

A06: Pixies - Is She Weird?

A07: Sonic Youth - Mildred Pierce

A08: Daisy Chainsaw - Dog With Sharper Teeth

A09: The Jesus And Mary Chain - Tumbledown

A10: My Bloody Valentine: Only Shallow

A11: Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole (Opal)

A12: Nitzer Ebb - Godhead

A13: They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

A14: Violent Femmes - Mother Of A Girl

A15: Bingo Hand Job (Billy Bragg w/ R.E.M.) - Tom's?

B01: Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

B02: Soundgarden - Birth Ritual

B03: The Infectious Grooves - Do The Sinister

B04: Living Colour - Type

B05: Soul Asylum - All The King's Friends

B06: Live - Waterboy

B07: Flowerhead - Everything Is Beautiful

B08: Walt Mink - Factory

B09: Pixies - Bone Machine

B10: The Smashing Pumpkins - Siva (BBC Session)