HAPPY DAYS | SONGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

These songs might seem a little out of character by the usual angry Punk and angsty Post-Punk that I usually post on here. But my love for those genres is only a segment of the music that I love! I actually grew up on full diet of soul music and jazz. Well, kind of – like most young’un’s I went through periods of everything from DMC to The Eagles to Ray Charles. I memorised them all and would play them each over and over through certain periods of time. But classic songs by bands like The Supremes have managed to stick to me. I jump straight to them when I want to sing and they always manage to make me smile.

Lime in the Coconut by Harry Nilson
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye
Knock on Wood by  Amii Steward
Where Did Our Love Go? by The Supreme
Que Sera Sera by Doris Day
I Want to Be Evil by Eartha Kitt
Dream a Little Dream of Me by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong 
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John (This is Coen and I’s song! We always sing duets.)
Hit The Road Jack by Ray Charles

I’ve been on a quest of being positive. Laying off the coffee (okay, there’s still some coffee) and replacing it with fruit and vegetable juice. Attempting to stop glorifying YouTubers and instead learning about crystal healing.

It sounds totally cliche, but it’s helping me cleanse my life. It’s time to throw away the negative and live, you know? Do you have any soppy classics that always manage to make you smile?

If you’d like, you can listen to the mixtape at the top of this post by pressing play, or jumping straight to YouTube.

Trick or Treat: Goth Halloween Songs!

In the future (the very soon future) I’m hoping to do a larger post on Goth-Rock and Rock-related Halloween music. So if you have any songs that jump out at you that might fit please, please let me know! I never feature any music on my blog that I wouldn’t listen to myself, so it’s a bit hard to find songs in such small a category: Goth rock + Halloween related + I actually like it.

It’s nearly the Halloween season (as in October) and that means it’s time to get into the spooky spirit. Last year I did a top four Halloween songs that were more traditional. This year I thought I’d focus more on Goth-Rock Halloween songs. And so, here are my four absolute favourites!

They aren’t the typical bands I’d listen to (aka, they aren’t The Cure or Stevie Nicks), so I’m glad I found them, fell in love and now I have music I haven’t listened to a thousand times before to add into my collection!

Video links after the jump or play them on the player right below!

        Halloween by Siouxsie and the Banshees – Everyday is Halloween by Ministry
Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde           

What do you think? Do you have a Halloween playlist?

Five Killer Bauhaus Songs That Aren’t Bela Lugosi’s Dead

For the record, killer in my own context means something like “awesome” and “kick-ass.” The fact that three of these are covers is merely coincidence – badly planned coincidence.

I’m not claiming that Bela Lugosi’s Dead isn’t both a beautifully composed and sounding song. It has a great amount of roots in the subculture. Who’s life wasn’t changed when they first heard it and suddenly, just, ‘got it’ – or was that just me being a dramatic little thing? While, it seems to be in everyone’s top ten Ultimate Gothy Hits For The Undead But Totally Still Dead; I Mean, Totally Undead (Hands up if you’re feeling sassy today?) it isn’t the be-all end-all of Bauhaus. As such, I’ve compiled a few of my current Bauhaus repeats below.

Bauhaus from Flickr

Severance (Cover)

Okay, so I did find this song while searching through Gypsy 83’s soundtrack. But shame aside it’s an ethereal melody that combines killer beats, just the right amount of melancholy and a touch of whimsical charm that makes it perfect for almost any situation – if this was played at my funeral I would be more than happy!

Stigmata Martyr

Okay, I’m going to try to be brief and not go into the religious implications (okay, it’s not really implying it – it encompasses it). Otherwise, combination of melodies has me stuck. How can you not love the raw sound of Bauhaus at it’s beginning?

For it on YouTube click here.

Third Uncle (Cover)

My whole life has apparently been a lie (or at least the last month of listening to this song) because I honestly thought it was originally by Bauhaus. While a lovely song by Brian Eno I do prefer the atmosphere of Bauhaus.

A version of it on YouTube is here.

Peter Murphy from Flickr

Who Killed Mr Moonlight

This song is all about the ambiance. The use of the repeated signature key-strokes aren’t kitschy as some attempts at ambient and melancholy music tends to be, always making me laugh instead of rever.

Find it on YouTube here.

Ziggy Stardust (Cover)

Fun-fact, when I was in high school studying music I did an assignment on Goth rock. We each had to use a prime example of our ‘category of rock’ under three minutes and I, of course needed Bauhaus. This song was one of the only that I could find under three minutes and one of the first ‘Bauhaus’  songs (it’s actually a David Bowie cover) I fell in love with.

Find a link to the official video on YouTube here.

What are your favourite songs by Bauhaus? I promise I’ll YouTube them as quick as I can type (for the record that’s seventy words per minute with a side of RTS syndrome and never seeing direct sunlight for more than five minutes at a time).

Five Song-Types For Angsty Alternatives

As alternative people of music-subcultures (there are exceptions to this rule) there’s no doubt that when we are emotional, withering wrecks we turn to music that helps us express, revel and question. So here are five kinds of songs (that coincidentally paralleled the stages of loss) that always help me get past my moments of emotional wreckery.

Free to use under Creative Commons – Link

A Song Depicting The Exact Opposite Of What You’re Feeling (Denial)

 Studies have shown that acting confident can, over time, make you naturally a more confident person – and this works for music as-well. But for those situations when you can’t break down crying on the street or you can’t smash that shop window, like you’re envisioning in your head. It works to stored it away for you to express healthily when you remove yourself from the situation.

Don’t You Want Me by The Human League. This song just makes me laugh so hard, every-time.

Something Screamy (Anger)

Sometimes, don’t we all need to scream? We just need to get it all out and say all of the cuss words (that last part may just be me).

Hole’s Rock Star (AKA Olympia)

A Political, Punk Song (Bargaining)

I’m not trying to dishevel the politics of the Punk movement into a subculture of angsty teens. What I am trying to do is to use the power, emotion and politics of Punk music as a way to express your angst in a healthy way. Arguing is one thing, but arguing politics is another.

Holiday In The Sun by The Sex Pistols, it’s certainly a classic.

Something That Lets You Dwell (Sadness)

I considering a certain amount of dwelling a good thing because it allows the problem to not get stuck in your mind, under layers of work and school, to hit you when you least expect it. Face your emotions, cry a lot (there’s nothing wrong with that) and in the end you’ll be surprised to find that you feel so much better than if you pushed your feelings to the end of your to-do list.

Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead (or anything by Radiohead at that) is my ultimate dwelling music.

Your ‘Happy‘ Song (Acceptance)

This can be a song that has always been there to make you smile or a recent song that you just can’t stop yourself from dancing to! Anything that gives you a bit of a smile and makes your housemates scream at you for playing it over and over.

Doing The Unstuck by The Cure is a constant and Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles is a current.

What do you listen to when you’re emotional and why? Post any song suggestions below that you feel better fit your own ‘Angst’ list!

Thirteen Post-Punk, Trad-Goth or Otherwise Bands

A follow up article for The Poll of the Week could have been an explanation of what post-Punk/Positive Punk, Goth Rock, Trad-Rock, etc actually are. But there are far better explanations of that online and my opinion’s tend to be particularly biased. Also, a warning! Though these are not all very Gothic-Rock in sound.

This morning I put a note out on the Goth Blogging Community I’m in and a few lovely people came to my rescue. Obviously I’m not the all knowing god of music and not all of what I like, my readers will like. Which is why I wanted to get some other peoples opinion’s on their favourite Post-Punk and Trad-Goth bands. I also tried to leave out some of the most commonly cited bands because personally I like to broaden my music taste not only to Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division (You guys should know I love me some Joy Division!).

The Bands/Artists:

The Damned – Eloise, also known as the song that forced me to fall head over heals for this band. Other favourite songs include Melody Lee and Love Song.

A Flock of Seagulls – Space Age Love Song, is a new love of mine – generally after first watching The Wedding singer, which I wish I had have seen earlier!

Christian Death – Romeo’s Distress.
Other of my own favourite titles include Lullaby and Sick of Love.

Lydia Lunch, which I have probably mentioned on this blog before because  I love her. Her interviews are particularly interesting. Other favourites include Dance of the Dead Children and This Side of Nowhere.

The Birthday Party – Faint Heart
Honourable mentions of She’s Hit and Say a Spell.

New Order (New Joy Division, after Ian Curtis’ death) – Blue Monday
This is by far my favourite song of New Orders (and probably there most popular).
Other notable tracks in my opinion include Age of Consent, Ceremony and All The Way.

The Monochrome Set – Alphaville
Other lovely mentions include self titled The Monochrome Set and Strange Boutique.

 PiL (as suggested by Eva from Early Autopsy and White Scissors) – This is Not a Love Song
 Other mentions include God and  Public Image.

The Killing Joke (which was suggested by Lavender Scented Fetuses and Two-Headed Rats aka Trinidy) – Love Like Blood.

Along with The Wait and Invocation.

Love and Rockets (Also suggested by Trinidy) -No New Tale to Tell
Other mentions include Ball of Confusion and So Alive.

 Virgin Prunes (As suggested by Kati from Never-ending: Playlist of a Psycho) – Decline and Fall
Other notable songs: I Am God and Love Lasts Forever.

 Love After Midnight as suggested by Clockwork Mice and Toy Spiders (though she hasn’t posted in a while) – Revenge
Other such tracks include Black Cats, Nothings Sacred and Your Best Nightmare.

45 Grave (Another Trinidy suggestion) – Party time.
Other honourable mentions include Evil and the notorious cover School’s Out.

 In the end the whole point of listing these bands and reading all these thought provoking articles on music history has been my own exploration. I always want to know more and more about music and have a wider spread of bands that I listen to which has successfully happened today. I’ve spent the whole day sifting through different bands of my own desire and of others suggestions; Youtube has been my best friend. I hope you all find something you like or find that you don’t actually like this music. Either way comment below on what you like and don’t like – I know my own feelings on some of the bands are mixed.

Best wishes,
-Sary

P.S. You have no idea how long it took me to write this post.