Steerpike
08-26-2007, 01:40 PM
Back again.
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531576
Swans – A Study in Evolution
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532051
DJ Shadow – Hip-Hop of Tomorrow
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532894
Dungeon – Pure Aussie Metal
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533587
Ensiferum – Viking Heroes
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=534371
Type O Negative – Life Sucks
We’re doing something a little bit different this time around, as even though the purpose of this review is to turn you on to new music, it would be unfair not to explain the full scope of the career of today’s artist who is a true auteur in his scene.
Biography
The Goth scene is typically stereotyped as being mopey and depressing, populated by geeks who lament their past of ridicule and lost love (real or imagined). The only notable exception to the mainstream is Robert Smith when he made a cameo as himself on South Park. But the Goth scene isn’t as two-dimensional as people imagine. For example, they possess a sense of humor. And this is best shown in the work of Voltaire.
Born Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez in Havana, Cuba, his family emigrated to New Jersey when he was a child. Unfortunately for young Voltaire, the suburbs proved to be rather drab, dreary, and soul-crushing. He found his escape making stop-motion videos in his basement with a Super-8 camera and whatever props he could scrounge up around the house. He also played in a New Wave high school band called First Degree.
His fate was sealed when during another typical bout with insomnia he happened to catch Night Flight at 4 AM. He first experienced Goth via The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, and Bauhaus and was also inspired by the pageantry of Adam Ant in the video for Stand and Deliver.
Intrigued and fascinated with Old World culture, Voltaire began actively pursuing any lead he could into studying this subject. Folk music, classical music, art history, and so on all became a catharsis for him.
When he was 17, he got into a huge argument with his parents and left home for Manhattan. Given the nature of the real estate business there, he found himself moving into a new apartment every couple of months and directing commercials and station IDs for MTV and the Sci-Fi Channel. He would also actively transform his living space into a veritable inner sanctum where he would practice drawing, singing, guitar, and prop making.
He actively joined the Goth scene in the mid-90’s after spending about 10 years swamping himself in work. And it was through a twist of fate and pompous bravado that he got himself booked as a solo performer for a Goth night at a bar on Houston Street. At this time, the Goth scene had stagnated for the most part. Most all of the music was a rehash of second wave bands like Sisters of Mercy and the more original groups that we see today had yet to be signed.
Voltaire hadn’t performed in front of an audience since his school days, and thought there might be a slight problem. All of his songs contained satire and black humor. His material was strictly acoustic and had a strong Old World folky feel to it, which suited Goths fine. But as I said, the scene was rather stagnant and sadly living up to the stereotypes. It would take a strong performance to succeed.
He did his show complete with spoken-work monologues between songs and Gothic bingo, and lo and behold the crowd of white-faced vampire-costumed Goths started enjoying themselves in public. With that one performance, news spread throughout the New York scene like wildfire about the funny Goth singer.
To promote himself, he decided not to do pamphlets, but instead handed out little mini-comics called “Oh My Goth!” where he knew his crowd frequented. The comics soon took on a life of their own and he began publishing them as comics independent of his performances. The boost in his audience allowed him to sign to Projekt Records and in 1998 released his debut album The Devil’s Bris.
At this point he began to consider himself a professional Goth, and flush with a Quixotic feeling of success, attempted to pitch more ideas… which fell flat on their faces. The Goth scene simply wasn’t big enough or accessible enough to a mainstream audience.
Nevertheless, he decided to keep on keepin’ on. In 2000 he put out his second album, Almost Human. Around the same time, he got enough publicity and darker entertainment was becoming popular enough that he contributed two songs to the Cartoon Network series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
The following year, he put out an EP called Banned on Vulcan. A long-time sci-fi fan, he sold the EP at his favorite conventions. The four songs parodying Star Trek became popular with fans and won him a new audience as well.
Apparently experiencing a strong creative streak, he swiftly followed up with 2002’s Boo Hoo. It was a slight experiment for him, deviating from the usual Gypsy violins of past releases and going for more a lounge music sound.
2004 saw him experimenting a little more. He went back to the standard instrumental sound for the album Then and Again, but in lieu of his usual ironic and satirical sense of humor he tried his hand at much more accessible lyrical material. The fans embraced it as one of his most artistic albums to date.
That same year he put out his first compilation album, Deady Sings, as well as his book “What Is Goth?” as a way of delegating to more mainstream audiences what his beloved counterculture was all about.
In 2005 he followed it up with “Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking”, a collection of DIY decorations, crafts, and home improvements with a… spooky kind of flavor to them.
The next year saw a release of the Zombie Prostitute EP and his first live album appropriate titled LIVE! And containing not only a collection of his concert staples, but also his trademark monologues.
In early 2007, he appeared briefly on Fox News to defend the Goth scene after it was once again connected to a murder not by police, but by a bunch of over-reacting parents. You know, the type who think Ozzy and Harriet was a documentary instead of a shitty TV show. The appearance was well-timed as only a few months later he released his most recent album, Ooky Spooky. Containing the Old World flavor and biting humor of past releases, he also wrote the album for Goth parties, working in a horn section and several very danceable songs. The reaction thus far from the Goth scene has been overwhelmingly positive.
As I said at the beginning of this article, Voltaire is a true auteur who has done a lot for the Goth scene, musically and otherwise. He’s defied the stereotypes and actively combated them wherever he can through humor, satire, and overall likeability. And if Goths can learn to laugh about themselves, what’s stopping us?
http://www.voltaire.net/
Official Web Site
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=531576
Swans – A Study in Evolution
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532051
DJ Shadow – Hip-Hop of Tomorrow
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=532894
Dungeon – Pure Aussie Metal
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=533587
Ensiferum – Viking Heroes
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=534371
Type O Negative – Life Sucks
We’re doing something a little bit different this time around, as even though the purpose of this review is to turn you on to new music, it would be unfair not to explain the full scope of the career of today’s artist who is a true auteur in his scene.
Biography
The Goth scene is typically stereotyped as being mopey and depressing, populated by geeks who lament their past of ridicule and lost love (real or imagined). The only notable exception to the mainstream is Robert Smith when he made a cameo as himself on South Park. But the Goth scene isn’t as two-dimensional as people imagine. For example, they possess a sense of humor. And this is best shown in the work of Voltaire.
Born Aurelio Voltaire Hernandez in Havana, Cuba, his family emigrated to New Jersey when he was a child. Unfortunately for young Voltaire, the suburbs proved to be rather drab, dreary, and soul-crushing. He found his escape making stop-motion videos in his basement with a Super-8 camera and whatever props he could scrounge up around the house. He also played in a New Wave high school band called First Degree.
His fate was sealed when during another typical bout with insomnia he happened to catch Night Flight at 4 AM. He first experienced Goth via The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees, and Bauhaus and was also inspired by the pageantry of Adam Ant in the video for Stand and Deliver.
Intrigued and fascinated with Old World culture, Voltaire began actively pursuing any lead he could into studying this subject. Folk music, classical music, art history, and so on all became a catharsis for him.
When he was 17, he got into a huge argument with his parents and left home for Manhattan. Given the nature of the real estate business there, he found himself moving into a new apartment every couple of months and directing commercials and station IDs for MTV and the Sci-Fi Channel. He would also actively transform his living space into a veritable inner sanctum where he would practice drawing, singing, guitar, and prop making.
He actively joined the Goth scene in the mid-90’s after spending about 10 years swamping himself in work. And it was through a twist of fate and pompous bravado that he got himself booked as a solo performer for a Goth night at a bar on Houston Street. At this time, the Goth scene had stagnated for the most part. Most all of the music was a rehash of second wave bands like Sisters of Mercy and the more original groups that we see today had yet to be signed.
Voltaire hadn’t performed in front of an audience since his school days, and thought there might be a slight problem. All of his songs contained satire and black humor. His material was strictly acoustic and had a strong Old World folky feel to it, which suited Goths fine. But as I said, the scene was rather stagnant and sadly living up to the stereotypes. It would take a strong performance to succeed.
He did his show complete with spoken-work monologues between songs and Gothic bingo, and lo and behold the crowd of white-faced vampire-costumed Goths started enjoying themselves in public. With that one performance, news spread throughout the New York scene like wildfire about the funny Goth singer.
To promote himself, he decided not to do pamphlets, but instead handed out little mini-comics called “Oh My Goth!” where he knew his crowd frequented. The comics soon took on a life of their own and he began publishing them as comics independent of his performances. The boost in his audience allowed him to sign to Projekt Records and in 1998 released his debut album The Devil’s Bris.
At this point he began to consider himself a professional Goth, and flush with a Quixotic feeling of success, attempted to pitch more ideas… which fell flat on their faces. The Goth scene simply wasn’t big enough or accessible enough to a mainstream audience.
Nevertheless, he decided to keep on keepin’ on. In 2000 he put out his second album, Almost Human. Around the same time, he got enough publicity and darker entertainment was becoming popular enough that he contributed two songs to the Cartoon Network series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
The following year, he put out an EP called Banned on Vulcan. A long-time sci-fi fan, he sold the EP at his favorite conventions. The four songs parodying Star Trek became popular with fans and won him a new audience as well.
Apparently experiencing a strong creative streak, he swiftly followed up with 2002’s Boo Hoo. It was a slight experiment for him, deviating from the usual Gypsy violins of past releases and going for more a lounge music sound.
2004 saw him experimenting a little more. He went back to the standard instrumental sound for the album Then and Again, but in lieu of his usual ironic and satirical sense of humor he tried his hand at much more accessible lyrical material. The fans embraced it as one of his most artistic albums to date.
That same year he put out his first compilation album, Deady Sings, as well as his book “What Is Goth?” as a way of delegating to more mainstream audiences what his beloved counterculture was all about.
In 2005 he followed it up with “Paint It Black: A Guide to Gothic Homemaking”, a collection of DIY decorations, crafts, and home improvements with a… spooky kind of flavor to them.
The next year saw a release of the Zombie Prostitute EP and his first live album appropriate titled LIVE! And containing not only a collection of his concert staples, but also his trademark monologues.
In early 2007, he appeared briefly on Fox News to defend the Goth scene after it was once again connected to a murder not by police, but by a bunch of over-reacting parents. You know, the type who think Ozzy and Harriet was a documentary instead of a shitty TV show. The appearance was well-timed as only a few months later he released his most recent album, Ooky Spooky. Containing the Old World flavor and biting humor of past releases, he also wrote the album for Goth parties, working in a horn section and several very danceable songs. The reaction thus far from the Goth scene has been overwhelmingly positive.
As I said at the beginning of this article, Voltaire is a true auteur who has done a lot for the Goth scene, musically and otherwise. He’s defied the stereotypes and actively combated them wherever he can through humor, satire, and overall likeability. And if Goths can learn to laugh about themselves, what’s stopping us?
http://www.voltaire.net/
Official Web Site