Cover for "La Mia Vita Violenta" by Blonde Redhead
Alternative rock band Blonde Redhead is coming to North Carolina this month. The beloved three-piece band will perform at Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw Feb 21.
Named after the third track on DNA’s 1981 album “A Taste of DNA,” Blonde Redhead formed in 1993 when Kazu Makino met twins Amedeo and Simone Pace in New York City.
The band’s first album, “Blonde Redhead,” debuted in 1995. My introduction to the band came from this album, namely the track “Girl Boy.”
The track Illustrates a vivid and sensory dichotomy between femininity and masculinity, furthered only by Makino’s beautiful — and heartwrenching — vocals.
Cover for “Sit Down for Dinner” by Blonde Redhead
Following “Blonde Redhead,” the band produced nine more albums. The most recent: “Sit Down for Dinner,” released Sept 2023.
The album is solid. It’s smooth, subtly romantic and interesting. While there was a clear “vibe” pervading throughout the album, each track had a distinct enough sound to maintain my attention.
While there (probably) won’t be any moshing at this show, it’s en excellent opportunity to unwind and lose yourself in beautiful, emotional music at a gorgeous venue.
Welcome to the second installation of The Metal Minute. If you’re new to this series, I’m taking on the (impossible? delusional? moronic?) task of defining as many metal subgenres as I can.
Last time, I covered the basics of folk metal. This week, I’m shifting focus onto one of my personal favorite metal subgenres: prog.
Progressive Metal: The Foundation
To understand progressive metal, it’s important to first understand progressive rock.
Prog rock blossomed in the late 60’s and early 70’s as a way to imbue rock with “artistic” sensibilities, thus “elevating” the craft. Pretentious British intellectualism aside, the genre served as a platform for artists to subvert and ape the “archetypal” structure of rock.
Cover for “Gentle Giant” by Gentle Giant
Groups played with musical structure, tempo, timbre and instrumentation. They also incorporated experimental, classical, jazz, folk and psychedelic influences. Irregularity, complexity and melody defined the genre, paving the way for some truly amazing art.
Many sources state that progressive metal emerged in the late 80’s. What’s important to note here is the word “emerged.”
It would be inaccurate to claim that the genre “began” at a specific point in time, because prior to progressive metal’s “solidification,” the worlds of metal and prog rock had already melded several times.
In Jeff Wagner’s “Mean Deviation,” he mentions the influence of King Crimson’s 1974 album “Red,” which frontman Robert Fripp himself considered “a beautiful piece of heavy metal.”
Other groups like Led Zeppelin, Rush and Deep Purple experimented with sounds that could also be considered proto-progressive metal.
Cover for “The Verdict” by Queensrÿche
Music under the official title of “progressive metal” was spearheaded by bands like Queensrÿche, who fused the cerebral style of progressive rock with the characteristic aggression and heft of metal.
Though largely relegated to the realm of the underground well into the 90’s, progressive metal — like the genres that produced it — metamorphozed into a many-headed beast.
Rules and standards were continually established and surpassed as artists discovered new inspirations, furthered their experimentation and diverged from their peers.
As a result, it’s honestly kind of hard to lay out a concrete definition of progressive metal. But in this instance, is something concrete really necessary?
In the words of Wagner:
One thing prog metal certainly is, is metal. Hard and bold and brash, but refined, adulterated, and mutated; it is heavy metal taken somewhere illuminating and sometimes bizarre.
Jeff Wagner, “Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal,” pg. 19.
Progressive Metal Today
Today, the first band most people imagine when thinking of progressive metal is TOOL.
Formed in 1990, TOOL is lauded for its stylistic complexity. The band’s discography features uncommon time signatures, experimental sound and tonal effects, occultist themes and meticulous composition.
The band’s song “Lateralus” was so influential that it has its own Wikipedia page.
Songs by these artists are entrancing and multifaceted, often with several “acts” and incorporating styles from jazz, folk, psychedelic and many others.
If you’re hesitant about diving headfirst into the metal scene, prog might be a good place to start.
One of my favorite weird bands is coming out with another weird album.
The Minneapolis Uranium Club, known also as simply Uranium Club, are a four-piece band operating out of Minneapolis.
Most of Uranium Club’s songs sound like if someone gave a gnome a journal and then introduced it to existential angst and avant garde film.
Distinctly DEVO-esque, this (egg punk?) band defines itself by an eclectic, twangy style that straddles the line between new wave and punk.
The band got their start in 2016 with their first album, an originally cassette-only release titled “Human Exploration.”
Cover for “Human Exploration” by Uranium Club
It’s a great album. The tracks are jaunty and entrancing and the lyrics are weird, abstract and occasionally pretentious (though decidedly self-aware). It’s the kind of music best suited for late-night basement shows or long, manic drives.
The band’s recent announcement of their upcoming fifth album, as well as the release of the album’s first track, tacks on another element of excitement and intrigue.
According to the band, the album “…opens up the history books of unsolved mysteries – unidentified, unsolved, unanswered subjects of suspicious acts or individuals across the last century” to ask the questions “Who, what, when and where… but mostly, why?”
The band references several unsolved cases, such as the mysterious deaths of the Somerton Man and Peter Bergmann (content warning: postmortem photos) as well as the strange circumstances of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who wrote an entire manuscript while experiencing locked-in syndrome.
Details from these cases, apparently, will imbue the contents of the album.
“Small Grey Man”
The theme of “strange phenomena” is compelling, especially with the band’s track record for tongue-in-cheek humor and witty prose. A taste of this theme can be seen in “Small Grey Man,” the first track of “Infants Under the Bulb,” which came out as a single on January 18.
Like a spoken-word poem, the bizarre lyrics reference both the Somerton Man and Peter Bergmann (both the actor and corpse). Wordplay, entendre and fantasy come together to capture the incongruous sensation of stumbling upon an unsolved mystery and being left with questions forever unanswered.
Cover for “All Of Them Naturals” by Uranium Club
Throughout the song, the speaker’s identity appears to shift as he imagines himself as the two men, speculating that they were spies who found themselves as corpses upon the beach — perhaps murdered, perhaps victims of suicide — due to a strange twist of fate. The ambiguity of their circumstances and the mystery surrounding their identities rings out as the speaker questions, “What’s your name?” and “Who are you?”
If there’s so much apparent depth to just a single song on the album, I can’t wait to explore the other ten.
Here’s the official tracklist:
1. “Small Grey Man” 2. “Viewers Like You 3. “Game Show” 4. “The Wall Pts.1&2” 5. “Tokyo Paris L.A. Milan” 6. “The Wall Pt.3” 7. “2-600-LULLABY” 8. “Abandoned By The Narrator” 9. “The Ascent” 10. “Big Guitar Jack– In The Sky” 11. “The Wall Pt.4”
The first time I ever drove on the highway, I listened to an IDLES song.
Gripping the steering wheel with bloodless knuckles, my vision blurring from the sheer force of my skin-prickling anxiety, I barreled down the highway with the lyrics to “Never Fight a Man With a Perm” rattling around in the empty space where my brain was supposed to be.
Cover for “Joy as an Act of Resistance” by IDLES
IDLES, formed in Bristol in 2009, make music specifically for the situation I outlined above. Grimy, manic and thudding, IDLES is delightfully raucous.
“Tank” but with a bit of “G”
Back in October, they announced their upcoming album “TANGK,” which is set to come out Feb 14.
According to the band, the word “Tangk” is pronounced like “‘tank’ with a whiff of the ‘g'” and serves as an “onomatopoeic reference” to the band’s “lashing” guitars.
While the word may sit strangely in one’s mouth, it’s clear that “TANGK” is one of the band’s most ambitious projects yet.
Two months later in December, the band put out “GRACE.”
Most recently (Jan 15, to be exact), IDLES released another single from “TANGK,” “GIFT HORSE.”
Cover for “TANGK” by IDLES
The second song to appear on the album, “GIFT HORSE” is classic IDLES.
More fast-paced than “GRACE” and rougher around the edges than “DANCER,” “GIFT HORSE” — while not particularly striking on its own — is a fairly solid track to bolster the runtime of an album.
According to the band, “TANGK” will consist of 11 tracks and focuses on empowerment, trauma and community. I look forward to being able to listen through the whole thing come February.
As a metal-music-enjoyer, I find myself often daunted by the abject volume of metal subgenres that exist. This undertaking marks my (futile? misguided?) attempt to make sense of them.
Welcome to the Metal Minute.
What is Folk Metal?
Folk metal is probably one of the easier metal subgenres to parse, as it’s simply a marriage between the archetypal characteristics of metal and the style of European folk music.
There are several subgenres of folk metal (which only deepens the complexity of the metal iceberg), such as Celtic metal, Viking metal, medieval metal and pagan metal.
Cover for “Njord” by Leaves’ Eyes
The differences between these subgenres come from their distinct styles and influences, with Viking metal centering itself around Viking and Norse mythos while medieval metal draws its sound from the traditional folk instruments of the British Isles.
Instruments like the flute, lute and bagpipes abound.
When Did it Start?
According to MasterClass, folk metal developed in the 90s as different metal groups from Western and Central Europe began to experiment with their native folk music traditions.
Many groups were already experimenting with other metal subgenres, such as gothic metal, progressive metal, symphonic metal and melodic death metal. Thus, it was not a far jump for bands to integrate different folk styles into their work.
Cover for “Himmelfahrt” by Subway to Sally
Bands were not limited to the folk traditions of their native countries, either. Many groups, such as Subway to Sally, explored styles from other nations and integrated them into their own work. The band, hailing from Germany, was heavily inspired by Celtic traditions.
Eventually, folk metal influences traveled to Eastern Europe, leading groups to pop up in Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Latvia.
Today, folk metal groups can be found across the world.
When I approached the subject of the Appalachian murder ballad, I first had to answer the question: what is Appalachian music?
Believe it or not, I’m far from the first person to ask this. In fact, dozens (maybe even hundreds) of academics and historians have been trying to piece together an answer for decades.
In Jane Becker’s book “Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk,” she explores the “folk revival” of the 1930’s to 1940’s and the ways in which “the structures and ideals of a culture dedicated to industrialism, consumption, and rationality” ultimately recast and commodified the authenticity of Appalachian folk culture.
This “iconization” of Appalachia ultimately makes it difficult to parse out the “true history” of Appalachian folk music, as it’s been primarily non-Appalachians (specifically, upper- and middle-class academics) who set about the task of defining and contextualizing Appalachian culture.
John Alexander Williams’s book “Appalachia: A History” suggests that the popularized construct of Appalachian folk music – defined by its parallels to the music of the British Isles – was ultimately borne from the ignorance of “the contemporary and topical sounds of town dwellers, mine workers, and any others ‘spoiled’ by too much contact with non-British culture” whom scholars deemed “unfit for study.”
To rephrase all of this in plainer language: Appalachian folk music is hard to define because of its misrepresentation.
Perhaps this knowledge isn’t essential to understanding the Appalachian murder ballad specifically, but I feel that it’s obligatory to point out.
The Murder Ballad
As opposed to the scope of Appalachian folk music, the murder ballad is easy to define.
Modeled after the traditional ballad, murder ballads illustrate a narrative that hashes out the events of a murder.
Often inspired by real events (“Omie Wise”), these ballads typically involve the murder of a woman by her lover, often (though not always) as a result of unwanted pregnancy.
Murder ballads can be from the perspective of the murderer, the victim, or an unnamed third party. Occasionally, they can portray the murderer as sympathetic.
Murder ballads are not localized to the Appalachian region. Rather, they originate from the British Isles — with the earliest iterations emerging in the 1500s — and made their way to the Americas in the mouths of Scottish and English immigrants.
Many American murder ballads are in fact directly inspired by songs from the Old World.
For example, “The Knoxville Girl,” comes from the 19th-century Irish ballad “The Wexford Girl,” which itself took inspiration from the English ballad “The Bloody Miller” detailing a murder that occurred in 1683.
One of the most commercially successful ballads is “Tom Dooley,” inspired by the case of Tom Dula, who murdered his lover in 1866 after she became pregnant.
Hang down your head Tom Dooley Hang down your head and cry Killed poor Laura Foster You know you’re bound to die
Dula was executed in 1868 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. The song, popularized by the Kingston Trio in 1958, was a “breakthrough hit.”
Another well-known murder ballad is “Omie Wise,” which tells the story of a man who, upon discovering his lover’s pregnancy, lured her to a river and drowned her.
‘Little Omie, little Omie, I’ll tell you my mind. My mind is to drown you and leave you behind.’
‘Have mercy on my baby and spare me my life, I’ll go home as a beggar and never be your wife.’
He kissed her and hugged her and turned her around, Then pushed her in deep waters where he knew that she would drown.
“Omie Wise,” lyrics by Doc Watson
“Pretty Polly” is another widely popular song, depicting a young woman lured to her death by her lover. In some versions, Polly’s murder is the result of her pregnancy.
Oh Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is about right Polly, Pretty Polly, your guess is about right I dug on your grave the biggest part of last night
Oh she knelt down before him and what did she spy She knelt down before him and what did she spy A knew dug grave with the spade lying by
“Pretty Polly,” lyrics by Ralph Stanley
Rewriting the Murder Ballad
Though many ballads ended with the execution of the murderer, they often presented their narratives with a sympathetic slant, as though the men were somehow victims in of themselves, forced to act out violence in order to preserve their reputations.
Themes of femicide and patriarchal honor abound throughout the murder ballad genre, with songs often posited as “warnings” for young women to lead “respectable” lives.
In the 1940s, women began to rewrite the murder ballad, excising the “Ophelia” archetype and replacing her with a cognizant (and more overtly dangerous) woman.
Some of these songs include Patsy Montana’s “I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded,” which details the exploits of “Miss Effie,” a gunslinging “femme fatale.”
Now one night she had a date, With a wrestling heavyweight. And he tried a brand new hold, She did not appreciate. So she whipped out her pistol, And she shot him in the knee, And quickly, she sang this plea.
“I Didn’t Know the Gun Was Loaded,” Patsy Montana
Wanda Jackson’s 1966 “The Box It Came In” was another major hit, telling the story of a woman’s resolution to exact revenge on her former lover.
He took everything with him that wasn’t nailed down, Bet he’s got a new sweetheart to fill my wedding gown. But somewhere I’ll find him then I’ll have peace of mind, And the box he comes home in will be all satin-lined.
“The Box It Came In,” Wanda Jackson
I would be committing a travesty if I didn’t mention Dolly Parton’s influence. Not only has she covered numerous murder ballads, but she wrote her own in 1967.
“The Bridge” first appears to follow the classic murder ballad formula, featuring an unmarried woman who finds herself pregnant. However, rather than murder her, her lover flees.
Left alone, the woman returns to the bridge — the site of their first rendezvous — and resolves to commit suicide.
While the story of “The Bridge” has a tragic end, Parton places agency in the hands of her female lead and implicity exposes the plight of women in a patriarchal society.
Final Thoughts
Though I’ve spent hours researching this subject, I’ve only just scratched the surface.
The history of the Appalachian murder ballad (and Appalachian music in general) is intensely rich and insanely complex.
While I’ve mentioned the innovations of female artists in the mid-twentieth century, twenty-first century artists continue to recontextualize the prototypal murder ballad and imbue the Appalachian folk genre with new, experimental sounds.
While I would probably consider myself a casual listener at best, I look forward to delving deeper into Appalachian folk music and uncovering more of its compelling history.
I’ll be honest. I haven’t been listening to many new bands lately.
In lieu of my duties as a DJ, I’ve mostly been streaming dreamy 80s pop. I find that the musical works of Duran Duran, Naked Eyes and Kajagoogoo are just enough to distract me from the sense of melancholia that emerges during the early winter.
Although I didn’t take the opportunity to compile an assortment of new bands over winter break, I did manage to stumble upon an group slowly gaining more prominence in the dark music scene.
The band released their first single in 2021. Titled “Steel Patch,” the track features upbeat instrumentals with droning, dispassionate vocals. Their sound reminded me of French Police, one of my most beloved post-punk bands.
Cover for “OLD COVENANT” by Tassel
Tassel calls its music “industrial liturgy,” a term which I took as an incovation of the band’s aim to sublimate ritual in music.
Other bands have taken on a similar goal, such as the aptly-named Liturgy. However, while Liturgy’s ritualism is evident in the band’s sprawling, hypnotic rhythms, I struggled to situate this concept within Tassel’s music.
That was, until I listened to some of their more recent material.
Cover for “NEW COVENANT” by Tassel
Tassel’s two most recent releases, “NEW COVENANT” and “OLD COVENANT,” are more darkwave and industrial than post-punk. Cold, metallic and entrancingly distorted, these two albums are more in the realm of Male Tears or Skinny Puppy than French Police. There’s more drama, more sensuality and far more emotion.
Tracks from both albums feature vast expanses of experimentalism, presenting a raw and unabashed sound.
While it seems Tassel originally branded itself as a post-punk group, it’s clear that its stylistic progression has led down the route of EBM and industrial. It’s clear to me from what I’ve consumed so far that the band is adept at cultivating both subgenres of sound.
Cover for “steel patch ep” by Tassel
Of the band’s post-punk works, my favorites are “ruminate,” and “reprise.”
From their latest albums, I particularly liked “only a word” and “unveiled.”
While Tassel is still relatively new to the scene, I certainly look forward to the band’s future projects.
It usually is, existing in a strange liminal space between fall and winter where the days are shorter, the nights are colder and our collective laps bear the crushing weight of finals.
While some people began their post-semester recovery in the comfort of their parents’s houses or their own apartments, I found my own solace at the steps of The Wicked Witch, a Raleigh club located above a tattoo parlor (and one of my favorite spots).
I usually find myself at the WW on their monthly goth nights, during which I inhale copious amounts of incense smoke and fog and pretend to be a reanimated corpse.
However, the venue is also a great place for live shows.
I didn’t catch many shows this semester, but I’m definitely glad I dragged myself to the December 8 performance of three local goth bands: Dead Cool, Tenderlash and Feyleux.
One of my favorite things about local shows is the sense of closeness between the performers and the audience.
The Wicked Witch was no exception. While the turnout was certainly decent, the floor was far from crowded. Fog machines puttered on full blast, filling the room with a haze colored blue, red and pink by overhead stagelights.
Tenderlash
The first performance was by Tenderlash, a solo artist I saw for the first time at the same venue back in May.
According to her personal website, her music draws inspiration from 80’s darkwave, synthpop, coldwave and vintage horror soundtracks. The result is a chilling, eerie sound that rumbles through the ribcage and calls out to the forces of darkness.
Cover for “Zombie” by Tenderlash
My favorite part of the performance was Tenderlash’s proximity to the audience.
Several times throughout the set, she stepped down from her podium and sashayed around the front of the crowd, entering the audience’s ranks. The result of this was a deeply intimate, almost conversational atmosphere that left me fully immersed in the music.
Feyleux
Following Tenderlash was my favorite set of the night, the second-ever live performance of darkwave duo Feyleux.
Announcing their start on August 1, Feyleux is so new that their online presence remains localized to a sparse Instagram page. As a result, I am positively desperate for the band to release some tracks online.
And since the band hasn’t yet uploaded any of their music, I went into the show totally blind. I left the show, however, absolutely riveted
Feyleux’s sound is dreamy, dramatic and highly tactile. As the duo started their first song, I could feel the energy race throughout my whole body.
The music filled the room like a pale and vaporous haze and as the vocalist began to project her voice out to us, my skin erupted in gooseflesh.
How had I not heard of this band before? I asked myself, blinking back tears. Later I would ask myself in a mixture of rage and despair, Why haven’t they posted any music online?
Dead Cool
The final act of the night, and perhaps the most anticipated, was that of Wilmington-based duo Dead Cool.
As someone who used to live in Wilmington, perhaps I would’ve found it more enjoyable if I’d been aware of this band’s existence. Probably not, though.
Cover for “Strange Kind” by Dead Cool
I was pretty familiar with this band going in, as I follow them on everyone’s favorite green music app.
I liked their music for its high dramatism, dark energy and danceability. I found that these qualities translated well into their live performance and were only elevated by the band’s cool (one may even say dead cool) stage presence.
Sometimes when I talk about genres, I’m accused of making them up. I think this is fair, especially when it comes to egg punk.
I’ve been listening to egg punk since 2019, though I never knew that there was a name for the “weird punk stuff” I’d play while filing through backstock at my old retail job.
Anti-Genre
Egg punk is, for all intents and purposes, a satirical genre born from internet chatrooms.
Apparently inspired by the works and aesthetic of DEVO, egg punk is mild, colorful and imbued with a new wave influence that sets it apart from other punk genres.
Cover for “DOG” by Snooper
While some sources claim the genre got its start in 2013 as a response to the abject overseriousness of “chain punks,” there isn’t anything scholarly (that I could find, at least) to support this.
This distinction isn’t to be taken too seriously, either. The egg-chain dichotomy is, at its core, mere meme fuel.
The Sound and Style
All the same, it’s pretty easy to identify.
Egg punk music is inherently unserious, energetic and ironic. With firm roots in punk’s DIY style, egg punk bands use minimal recording and mixing and cheap synths.
Cover for “Grass” by Powerplant
The result is music that sounds transfused by static, but in a strangely good way.
The genre can also be distinguished by its art style, which draws from both DIY and experimentalism. Egg punk band album covers often appear hand-drawn or collaged.
Partly as a function of being a DJ and partly as a function of being neurodivergent, I spend a lot of time “crate diving” through sprawls of Spotify playlists and recommendations.
While these efforts usually lead me to simply find more songs by artists I already know (for some reason, the algorithm really wants me to listen to Joy Division’s “Disorder”), there’s also the rare (but cherished) occasion that I discover an artist unknown both to me and by many others in the scene.
This week, I’ve put together a small selection of “obscure” artists I personally enjoy in the hope of growing their listener base and giving them some much-deserved recognition.
Soma Cake
With only 900 monthly listeners, this band is probably the most obscure on this list.
Based in Reynosa, Mexico, Soma Cake walks the line between the realms of darkwave, post-punk, dreampop and jangle rock.
The band hit the scene in 2018 with the release of “Manual Para los Recién Fallecidos” (“Manual For the Recently Deceased”), which features tracks recorded between 2016 and 2017.
Cover for “Manual Para los Recién Fallecidos” by Soma Cake
This album has a distinct gothic tone, though with jangly — rather than consistently distorted — guitars.
The presence of live drums, rather than a drum machine, is also an interesting touch. And while the band makes use of synths, their end product has more of a nostalgic deathrock feel.
While “Manual Para los Recién Fallecidos” is technically the band’s first release, they consider their first “real” album to be ”Girls Bite Harder.“
Released April 2018, the album is a stark turn from its predecessor’s clear goth influence. Rather, the album is a font of dreampop, jangle and shoegaze.
My first encounter with Soma Cake came with their 2022 album “Senza,” which blends the band’s dual atmospheres — gothic and dreamy — in beautiful harmony.
With under 4,000 monthly listeners, Datura is a gothic rock band from Wentachee, Washington.
Datura draws inspiration from goth legends like The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Chameleons.
This influence can be clearly seen in their work, which has a staticy retro feel and upbeat, though still moody, vibe.
Cover for “Arcano Chemical” by Datura
The band released two EPs in 2020, followed by several singles before “Arcano Chemical,” the band’s first album, came out in 2022.
While some tracks on the album have more of an “alternative” than goth slant, there’s a consistent goth influence — distorted guitars, spectral ambience and dark lyrics — throughout.
Recommended Tracks:
“Phantasma”
“Chase”
“Sapphire”
They Feed at Night
Of the three artists I’ve presented, They Feed at Night is probably the most niche.
I’ll start out by saying that this band probably isn’t for everybody. Of all the goth subgenres, I find that deathrock is typically the least palatable for people new to the scene.
Experimental deathrock, by this summation, is even stranger.
As a lover of strange music, They Feed at Night captured my very heart with their frigid, weeping and harsh sound.
Cover for “Deprivation” by They Feed at Night
Though apparently no longer active (the band’s latest release was in 2016), the band started its career all the way back in 2009 with their debut demo “They Feed at Night.”
Taking a very literal approach to the term “deathrock,” each of the band’s tracks are angsty, frenzied and dramatic. Rough, screaming vocals meld with an accompaniment of distorted guitars.
