Perhaps the most well known modern EBM/futurepop group of today, Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson of VNV Nation continue on their vigilant quest to spread their music to any willing ear. Automatic is their newest weapon, which is powerful enough to please their fans and pull many more onto the VNV bandwagon.
Wrath – VNV Nation is entered in a fight to the death battle of the bands, who would you want to square off against and what weapon would you choose?
Ronan Harris : Not being a fan of violence or displays of testosteronal inspired violence, this is hard to imagine but if this was a scene in some far-fetched, postapocalypse, low-budget sci-fi movie with Christopher Lambert or JCVD as the cyborg leader whose very word means life or death through the medium of bad acting and interpretational dance, and including some obligatory cliché punk looking folk driving around in chopped up Pintos, firing shots into the air, while inexplicable gas explosions shoot up into the sky around an abandoned factory… etc. (see 1980s for more on this)… I guess I’d go up against Belinda Carlise, if nothing for the sheer bizarreness of it all. Was she a band, even if she was a solo act? Who cares. It’s my answer. VNV vs Belinda Carlisle. Weapon of choice; I think grenades or an MP5K should do it. It’d be quick. The after-party would be awesome.
Envy – If you could put one item on your tour rider that you would always get regardless of price what would it be?
RH : When we started out we used to put “One shaved Golden Condor” and some other necessary items on the rider that you really do need on tour but people didn’t seem to have the sense of humor we expected. Hell, it was for our amusement, no one else’s. If I could put an item on the rider now that I could actually have, it would be one of two things… One, a fabric-lined, wooden box containing a bottle of an ultra rare single-malt scotch that I happen to like, and a collection of handrolled Dominican Republic cigars. After load-out, when everyone’s gone home, the whole crew would all sit around and act like kings of the road, enjoying some fine scotch and discussing the day because our crew’s conversations are hilarious and it would be the high point of the day. Two, an inflatable bouncy castle to be erected in the corner of the hall. You can never go wrong with a bouncy castle. It’s the ultimate icebreaker at cocktail parties and promotes fine conversation covering a wide range of topics. That or people would take their shoes off, get on the thing and re-join the 8 year old mosh pit club, remembering what it was like to smash their nose while flying around on one, though without a parent to run to after.
Are you ready to take a journey through time and space? OK well maybe just be hypnotized for 11 min. or for as long as your ADHD will allow. BT’s latest video for the track “Le Nocturne de Lumière” from his Grammy-nominated full length album These Hopeful Machines, is a visual treat. Reminds me of when visuals were all the rage using Winamp.
Step 1: Turn down the lights
Step 2: Turn up your speakers
Step 3: Hit play
Step 4: View full screen
For over twelve years God Module has injected a healthy dose of creepy into the dark electro scene. We had the chance to interview Jasyn Bangert, the mastermind behind it all, as he once again sets loose his imagination and musical talents to eager fans with the release of God Module’s new album Séance on Metropolis Records.
interview by James S. Cole, Kelly Cole & Mike Kieffer
God Module seems to be a band that cares a lot about and has a close connection with it’s fans, how does this relationship effect the band?
Jasyn Bangert : One of the great things about God Module is that we have some very devoted and supportive fans. In response to this I have always made a point to go out of my way to stay in contact with our fan base on a personal level. Since I was a kid I have been deeply involved in the gothic/industrial/alternative scene and I still remember every time I met people in bands who were important to me. Now that things have changed and I find myself on the other side of these situations, I’ll be honest that I do find it strange from time to time but it is also just as important to me as it is to them. I don’t take our fans or our success for granted in anyway.
What is your personal favorite song on Séance and which song do you think will excite fans the most?
JB : At this point my favorite song is “Doppelgänger” for a few reasons. I really like the synths in the track and think they give the track a pretty but unsettling, eerie feeling. I used samples from the film Happy Birthday To Me when I had my yearly viewing on my birthday this year. They really fit perfectly with the lyrics and the theme of the song. As for the rest of the CD I think the songs “M.D.K.” and “Rituals” are going over really well live.
M83 released their new LP Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming today. Check out the video for “Midnight City” off the album and check out the October/November 2011 Issue to see our review of the album.
Former member of Atari Teenage Riot, Hanin Elias revels how she sins.
interview by Mike Kieffer
Envy – What would your reaction be to a fan getting plastic surgery to look exactly like you? Would you consider that self love?
Hanin Elias : I would be horrified! Plastic surgery already gives me shivers of horror when I see someone who had done it. I think you always see it and it just makes the person look very unsure and a poor victim of superficial narcissism and a fear of getting old is something I don’t have and I wish no one would have it. I would begin to doubt if the people really get my messages right…
Gluttony – You enter a food eating competition, what food would you choose to rule over and become the champion?
HE : I would choose maybe raspberries, I can eat tons of them!
focused music news for week 37 : September 11th to 17th 2011
September 13 – This week is all about cult followings. First up is the electropop/synthpop/shoegazing band from Liverpool, Ladytron. With their fifth studio album Gravity the Seducer pushing the their sound that so many bands have tried to imitate. Ladytron is a name that is as common as pie and with plenty of die-hard fans supporting Ladytron this album is bound to make waves across the music scene.
September 13 – Next up we go a tad bit darker, but the cult following is just as rabid, God Module releases their new album Séance this week. I was shocked by how many of my friends are obsessed with them as I wouldn’t peg most of them for even liking the band. The new album Séance tones down the aggrotech allowing an identity to be formed, this separates the album from the countless other bands in the genre. Yet, this album still has the God Module spooky sound that I think is what draws in all the hoards. Listen to a track from the new album on YouTube!
My favorite cowboys from hell, Ghoultown have released a video for “Drink With The Living Dead”. The art was created by Juha Vuorma with the help of Laume Conroy as director to produce a ghoulishly visual video. Check out www.ghoultown.com to buy their latest CD, Life After Sundown and to see what these Texas hellbillys are up too. If you’re in the Toronto, Ontario area, Ghoultown will be in attendance at Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear convention on August 26, 2011.
September 13th to October 9th – Cut Copy is on tour and starting in September they pick up Washed Out and Midnight Magic. Be sure to check out our April/May 2011 Issue for a review of Cut Copy’s new album Zonoscope on Modular Fontana and the August/September 2011 Issue a review of Washed Out’s new album Within and Without on Sub Pop.
Note: there are other dates before and after this selection but they don’t include Washed Out and Midnight Magic.
09-13 – Montclair, NJ – Wellmont Theatre
09-14 – Portland, ME – The State Theater 09-15 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom
09-17 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits
09-19 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue
09-22 – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall
09-23 – Urbana, IL – The Canopy Club, Pygmalion Music Festival
09-24 – Cincinatti, OH – Midpoint Music Festival
09-26 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
09-27 – Chapel Hill, NC – Cat’s Cradle
09-28 – Athens, GA – Georgia Theater
09-30 – Miami, FL – Grand Central
10-01 – Orlando, FL – Firestone Live
10-03 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
10-04 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater
10-07 – Vancouver B.C. – The Vogue
10-09 – Portland, OR – Wonder
focused music news for week 32 : August 7th to 13th 2011
August 9 – A new album from The Gothsicles, Industrialites and Magic is out now on WTII Records, and while I didn’t exactly give it a glowing review, the album is still fun and I still love The Gothsicles. While listening to the album for the review, I struggled to figure out what “Save Dat Mermaid” was about and now there is an official video to clue us all in!
August 9 - The Birthday Massacre release a new EP, Imaginary Monsters on Metropolis Records featuring three original new tracks and a slew of remixes. Temporarily, or so I hear, they are streaming the new EP up on their Myspace page. So dig out your old passwords and check it out!
Influencing a generation of musicians and artists, a founding member and mastermind behind Skinny Puppy, Ogre gets behind our lens and talks about the newly released ohGr album unDeveloped on Metropolis Records, his role in the cult classic Repo! The Genetic Opera, the upcoming long awaited Skinny Puppy album, and more.
interview by Aaron Andrews
Since 1982 Ogre (aka Kevin Ogilvie) has been bending our minds and breaking new musical ground. First as a founding member and the vocalist for the hugely influential and infamous Skinny Puppy and later in the starring role of the self-named duo ohGr, Ogre’s one-of-a-kind vocal style combined with his visually engaging and in-your-face stage persona have been widely copied and his contributions can also be heard with bands such as Ministry, Pigface, and KMFDM, in addition to being a cast member of newly minted cult film classic, Repo! The Genetic Opera. OhGr’s fourth and latest musical effort unDeveloped builds on this strong legacy and reputation.
Ogre was nice enough to talk with us and discuss the premise and sound of the new material, aging, costuming, death, the creative culture of Skinny Puppy and ohGr, and last but not least, even Michael Jackson.
I heard great things about the Auxiliary Magazine shoot of you for this feature.
Ogre : It was fun, she’s a great photographer.
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the session.
O : Well, it’s always a bit daunting at this point in life. I call it the Dorian Gray effect. So it’s always a bit daunting. When you work with nice people who understand all the subtleties and sensitivities that go along with watching yourself decay on film over a lifetime, it isn’t so bad.
Tell us a little about the new album. What have you been exploring and thinking about with unDeveloped?
O : unDeveloped is kind of a beginning point and also closure for me. It’s something that began with Devils In My Details, so it’s a continuation of the concept of Devils In My Details but closure to the content; in that I think the last four years of my life I’ve had a number of revelations and experiences that have been very profound to me. I tried to correlate that in a much more journalistic way in Devils In My Details in the moment and unDeveloped is a different look at the same situation through a much clearer resolution lens. Almost akin to looking at something through a childhood microscope and then taking it into a lab and looking at in under an electron microscope and re-examining the same information. So unDeveloped really came out of that, it was the continuation of a really great project with Mark that we have a lot of fun with and we’re really actively involved in fomenting and creating an immersive experience and taking that one step further. Obviously this time period is rife for tons of information both confusing, I’m sure terrifying to most people; but to me, somebody who’s had their head up the ass of all this spectacular and covert and, um, left over right, right over left, even when they’re all the same. I’ve had my head seasoned to this for so long that there’s just so much interesting stuff to write about in the fashion that I do that it’s a bit poetic. I think with unDeveloped too is I’m getting closer and closer to the process of my own writing. I’m not trying to say to sound bigger than life, I say that with a great deal of humility in the sense that my writing has lead me to where I am now and on the route has had things that were almost prophetic and very mysterious to me.
