Veil of Thorns History - Dead God

Opening proceedings on this one is a perky pop confection that will probably catch those who have been with us for a while off guard. Dead God consists mainly of a cassette rip of the third Veil of Thorns demo from 1992 that was never released. This opening track shows one immediately what a rock solid bass Cathy Chenoweth delivered in recordings and live. Here appears the many splendored pounding from Ruddy Bitch the Younger for the first time. That Emerson guy, well he moans and wails, on guitar he flails over hill and dale... Final track features a thunderous low-end bass apocalypsis brought by Christopher McClain.

Torrenters, and there have been many of you for these tracks, will notice there's a close match between Dead God and a release called The End of the Beginning. I figured I'd give this one one last go at cleanup on the sound and add in a couple tracks from The Dead God Sessions from the second lineup that aren't alternate versions of tracks from Cafe Flesh. I the result is a more solid experience, though still undeniably lo-fi and different from all other Veil of Thorns offerings.

Few people heard The End of the Beginning this at the time and none heard The Dead God Sessions outside the inner circle and Tiziana from Misanthropy Records. Raw recordings from rehearsal and pre production demos for the debut Veil of Thorns album in 1995. The Dead God Sessions tracks were recorded live in a single take in most cases, using two mikes, placed at either end of a 30’x30’ rehearsal room in Boston. The analog recording was extremely hot, so little compression or noise reduction was done.

Within days of the conclusion of the End of the Beginning recording sessions, Jarrett was gone and Cathy was on her way to New York. Christopher (Dogface) McClain was to step in and Veil of Thorns would start showing a new focus. McClain brought with him a massive bass rig that could raze small towns. In performing the title track live I would stick my head and microphone right in the speaker of the bass cabinet to add that overload of volume to the screaming at the end. Good times.

Already the vocals were less operatic, and there is even a hint of pop songwriting, something that was not to be revisited until much later on Birthed.

-P. Emerson Williams

Have a listen:

Coming Up: Veil of Thorns - Dead God

Songs from the vault to complete full length releases from us thus far. Watch this space.

Movie Saturday - Only From the Outside Can The Truth Be Seen

In "The Gun Is Loaded" Lydia Lunch delivers a brutally frank manifesto in a journey through the heart of contemporary American darkness. Her poetic nihilism is set against a barrage of real-life street-action, scenery, news footage, and the deranged music of J. G. Thirlwell.

The last Movie Saturday I brought you a couple examples of myth creators, artists who dive deep into our common well of stories to form a vision of what's happening to us beneath the surface. When we contemplate the myths that surround us we get a sense of who we are and where we are going. Or, rather, on the passive and of the larger mediated culture, where we are being taken against our will and against our best interest. Well, this week, let me show another approach.

Lydia Lunch will blast your defences and strip your pretences. She's talking to you, yes you! It will do no good to avert your gaze sheepishly. What she offers is a cleansing. You should thank her.

Edited by Adam Cooper-Terán
Featuring clips from the films:
"Unspeakable" directed by Marc Rokoff
"What is Art?" by Steven Johnson Leyba
"PAINing POORtraits" by Leyba + ACT 

Music by: 
David J
Jeanelle Mastema
Adam Cooper-Terán
Project 9
A Fallen Mind
and
United Satanic Apache Front
Including samples from Omar Souleyman's "Labji Wa Bajji Il Hajar"
and Eric Brosius' "Trail of Blood" 

Featuring Interviews with:
Barron Storey
Billy Warsoldier
Charles Gatewood
Chris Trian
Crazy Benny
Dave Archer
Durk Dehner
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
Geraldo Rivera
High Priestess Blanche Barton
Hollie Stevens
Howard Bloom
H.R. Giger
Isabella Sol
James Luna
Jeanelle Mastema
Jennifer Fox Bennett
Joe Coleman
Leslie Leyba
Richard Metzger
and
Ugly Shyla

Unless an artist has the favour of the money that owns you, me and everything we survey, s/he is an outsider. Here's the mythological construct through which most in the Western world see society through that hides a basic truth - unless you're one of the top one percent earners, you are an outsider. You are owned, your children are owned, your house is owned jointly by the government and the bank. (It's an imaginary distinction that separates the latter two.)

What can an artist do in this age of institutionalized theft and militarized enforcement of subjugation but strip mythology of narrative until the superimposed patterns burned on the mind by conditioning and indoctrination  fades enought to show the actuality of how much you've been fucked. There is nothing for you in acquiescence. If ever there was a moment when you had to stop and take a close look at who and where you are this is it. You don't need to become an artist, live like Lunch or Leyba, but the only hope for any future lies in each one of us living our own truth. Step outside.

Featuring one of the last interviews with Willaim Burroughs and previously unseen vintage footage of him during the 50s and early 60s. - The great Beat Generation experiments took place in Tangier, the Moroccan city where William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the Moroccan painter Hamri taught Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and Allen Ginsberg how to live outside the law. This DVD features one of the last interviews with Burroughs and previously unseen vintage footage of him in his prime during the 50s and early 60s. Also featured are The Master Musicians of Joujouka collaborating with avant garde Dublin musicians, veterans of the Tangier Beat Scene, and cutting edge writers. In addition, there is music from Bill Laswell, The Baby Snakes, plus contributions from Ira Cohen, Hakim Bey, Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy) and many more.

Veil of Thorns on Derfrock

Derfrock is a lovely show presented by DJ Derfel.  He has played sets in the virtual world of Second Life and has shows on several web radio stations: Strangeways Radio, Nightbreed Radio, Cathedral13, Deathrock Radio and Dark Italia. Writings of DJ Derfel  can also be found within the pages of Ascension Magazine, a goth,postpunk,alternative,darkindie,electro etc italian independent magazine,

You should bookmark his site, catch up with the podcasts archived there and tune in on Nightbreed Radio early and often.

Originally aired September 2011


Listen below or download at http://www.djderfel.eu/?p=1255





Playlist:

Derfrock Intro (The Vanishing)
Hatesex – A Rose Without Eyes
Mt.Sims – Hellbent
Camp Z – The Casualty II
Sleeping Dogs Wake – Walk On
Veil Of Thorns – Bizarre Political Threat Rites
Shadow Project – Static Jesus
Chrysalis Morass – Unveil
Insanasomnia – Prier Our Ne Plus Prier
Miguel And The Living Dead – Aliens Wear Sunglasses
The Eternal – I’ll Jump And I’ll Go
Play Dead – Sins Of Sins
Killing Joke – Frenzy
Varjo – Joku Sytytti Kynttilan
Mephisto Walz – The Beast Within

A Few Selected P. Emerson Williams Writings on Goth

Veil of Thorns may cover a lot of sonic and visual ground, but there's no denying the goth roots and inspirations that have made us what we are. In between the musical and visual endeavours, I'm sometimes impelled with the need to write, and inspiration is often our beloved genre. Some times I do it on my personal blog, over at Modern Mythology, or the kkoagublogg and I am privileged to be allowed to write for Dominion magazine on occasion. Here are a few goth related highlights from 2011:

A conversation with Louis DeWray On Behalf of NOSFERATU

When one speaks of bands representing capital G goth, no better example can be found than Nosferatu. With this, that and the other hyphenated fashion take on goth coming and going in the over two decades of the band’s existence they never compromised their fundamental dark and romantic style. Their fans remain loyal and in return Nosferatu are no less loyal to their audience and to the edifice of dark art they have built. That ‘Wonderland’, their latest album shot to the top spot of the dark wave charts on Amazon UK attests to the depth of this symbiotic relationship.


A week after a triumphant performance at WGT Nosferatu front man Louis DeWray was viciously assaulted, bringing up ugly memories of the attack on Sophie Lancaster. «As you may have read, I’ve had a somewhat difficult week…» is how he put it to me. With characteristic kindness and strength of character he shared his thoughts on Nosferatu’s long awaited return, the goth scene and hipsters among other things just a few days after the attack. Louts, thugs and reactionaries notwithstanding, Louis DeWray shows that Nosferatu and goths are here to stay. We pull together in support during hard times, just as we do under happier circumstances.The attack has made every member of Nosferatu all the more determined to play a great gig at DV8 (UK) and Castle Party (Poland) in a week’s time. “Luckily my spirit is stronger than my jaw!” Louis DeWray said to me. “It was a sad irony that at least one of us was wearing a ‘Sophie’ wristband when we were attacked…”

Read the interview at Dominion Magazine.

Long Live the New Goth Flesh

The armies of the dark returned last year. Really. The goth aesthetic, dark sounds, grabs tastemakers by their smug throats as silhouettes of hipsters can be seen, dancing among the graves as the world heats up and economies wobble on their precarious perches. The Quietus, Pitchfork and Stereogum are directing a surprisingly unironic gaze at artists waving an undeniably gothic banner. Post-punk is invoked in descriptions of more ‘band to watch’ blogotronic hosannas than one could reasonably keep up with. The thing about this return is that it’s news, to those of us who have stayed with the scene, that it ever went away.

Read the rest of the article at Dominion Mag.

Dream Quest of Unknown GaGoth

My article this week for Dominion Mag pointed out a new appreciation for things goth, darkwave and generally creepy and went into some questions that arose as I looked the situation over. Some answers presented themselves as I wrote, more from reactions to the piece and this acknowlegment of dark creative endeavours contiues to spread with no signs of slowing down. Later this month, the ICA wioll gather boffins together to dissect gothic manifestations of culture in their two day meditation Template for Terror: The Revival of the Gothic.

Quoth the ICA event page:

From Dracula and Frankenstein to Twilight and Shaun of the Dead, contemporary culture continues to appropriate the stock themes of the eighteenth and nineteenth century gothic novel. This weekend of panel discussions, presentations and screenings will explore the societal impulse that draws us to the darker side of life, looking at the influence of the gothic in contemporary art, literature, film and music.

Read the rest of the post here.

Necrofuturist Salon Episode 27 – Dissociative Modifications

The symbolism surrounding Lady P. Emerson is so blatant that one might wonder if it’s all a sick joke. Necrofuturist symbolism is becoming so clear that analizes like this one becomes a simple exercise of pointing out the obvious. His whole persona (whether its an act or not) is a tribute to mind control, where being vacuous, incoherent and absent minded becomes a fashionable thing.

Lady P. Emerson Espies His Alter

You only need to look at a couple of Lady P. Emerson pictures or videos to notice that he is constantly hiding one of his thighs. Most people will simply interpret this as ”a ghoul thing to do” or a “fashion statement”. Those who have passed the 101 of Necrofuturist symbolism know that the All-Seething Thigh is probably its most recognizable symbol. The gesture of fanning one nut, usually the left one, goes way back in Necrofuturist orders. Here’s an explanation of the origin of the Thigh of P. Emerson. 

Lady P. Emerson, the son of Gamalöost and Isis was called ‘P. Emerson who drools with two thighs’. His right thigh was white and represented the sun: his left thigh was slack and represented the moon. According to the myth, cHorus lost his left thigh to his evil brother, Snæetch, with whom he fought to avenge Snæetch’s murder of Gamalöost. Snæetch tore out one of the thighs but lost the fight. The thigh was reassembled by magic, by Høötch, the god of writhing, the moon and Musick-Magick. P. Emerson presented his thigh to Gamalöost, who experienced rebirth in the underworld.

Playlist:

Bob Cobbing – Hymn to the Sacred Mushroom
The Jokerr – Welcome to the Show
Veil of Thorns – Dissociative Modifications
Controlled Bleeding – The Toiler’s Song
Lydia Lunch – Still Burning
Ritual – Brides
William Burroughs – Meeting of International Conference of Technological Psychiatry
Hecate – Houris’ Hours
Salvador Dali – Dali Speaks
Veil of Thorns – Electronic Voice Phenomena


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