Viola Peacock

This Way To The Alley Where They Eat Your Heart (Bedazzled)
by Chris Adams

Word on the street is that DC’s Bedazzled Records is home to the emerging “new Goth” scene. Goth rock, for the uninitiated, is a fringe lifestyle that seems to revolve around the following:

1. Singing songs about vampire bats and witches.

2. Draping yourself in a wardrobe drab enough to make an undertaker look like Bozo the Clown in comparison.

3. Large investments in the hairspray industry.

4. Laughing at nothing but the futility of it all.

5. Tearfully writing bad poetry in spidery handwriting while surrounded by candles and incense.

6. Listening to bands with fun-lovin’ names like “Bone Orchard” and “Christian Death.”

7. Talking a lot about weird ritual sex while steadfastly concealing your virginity.

Sound like a buncha bullshit? That’s because, by and large, it is. In the case of Goth, the “children of the night” do not make “beautiful music.” Generally, it’s turgid, redundant, super-pretentious caca aimed at sickly suburban girls who call themselves “Natashia.”

Bedazzled’s “new Goth” however, seems to hold a little promise. In fact, both the Curtain Society and Viola Peacock resemble the early ’90s British “shoegaze” thing more than anything else. To wit: There’s a whole lotta chiming, layered guitars, echo-drenched swirling atmospheres, and a flair for theatrical vocals. Granted, both singers sound like miserable, overly-serious jerkoffs, but at least there are no third-rate Peter Murphy imitations. After a few listens to these records, I’m left with the same conclusions I came to with the “old Goth” stuff: Stop paying homage to the same dead-end blueprints, stop writing about things you don’t mean (aka faking it, aka lying) and buy yourself a sense of irony. There is life after 4AD.