By town I mean Georgetown I’m planning to go up the I-5 corridor 90 minutes to see Gordon. (If that seems like a long time to you, I grew up on the west end of the Olympic Peninsula. Long travel times are normal out there.) If you are a Washingtonian, you should come too. It’s at Fantagraphic Bookstore in the Georgetown neighborhood in south Seattle. (see map below) (I already bugged him about Portland, but a certain well known bookstore needs at least 6 months notice…) Has his life in England soften him up since leaving the wilds of the PNW? Will he be too proper to handle an ax or a chainsaw ..read more

A Reaction to Gordon Raphael’s new book. The World Is Going to Love This: Up from the Basement with the Strokes. London: Wordville, 2022 Look what came to me from Merry Ol’ England…The following is not a proper review of the book. This is a Reaction. The review will come. I just received this in the mail last week. I’m compelled to share my initial thoughts and reactions as the Spirit reveals these Cosmic Intersections. I’m honored and humbled. Divine Intersections of geography, time, and homosapiens I held his image in my hand as he rolled across my social media feed. Both mystic and personab ..read more

It’s no secret that I get stuck in the ’80s. I’m always living in the ’80s…in my heart. Clearly, that’s not new music. (Listen carefully and you can figure out which Nirvana song took the riff from this song). Post-Punk and Goth music and subculture emerged in the late 1970s and the 80s. Popular, and dare I say, important music and bands came from this era: Bauhaus, Depeche Mode, the Cure, Siouxie and the Banshees…so often contemporary goths return to these songs and bands. They mean so much to us. Frankly, it kept a lot of us alive. Siouxie Sioux being interfaith. Appropriate for this blog ..read more

The answer is “yes”. In my quest to discover new music, I didn’t expect to fall in love so quickly with this band from Austin, TX.  This band has consistent, driving fat synth paired with Jonathan Horstmann’s deep, gorgeous baritone voice. Horstmann’s earnest expressions have a combination of grit and soul. Gen-Xers might compare it to Depeche Mode. Millennials may compare it to Bloc Party and maybe the Shins. This band honestly stands on it’s own with talent and integrity. I don’t know much about what makes a band big or not, but I wouldn’t be shocked if these guys made it big. (Whateve ..read more

Holy Saturday isn’t observed much in any of the churches I’ve belonged to, and I don’t know many of my Methodist tribe who do. Holy Saturday is a day in which “nothing” happens, though Jesus is still dead Rev. Anna Blaedel from enfleshed brought this to my attention: Earlier today, the D.J. Awfully Sinister shared some songs under the title: “Goth songs for wandering through a cemetery”. How appropriate. People who love goth music find beauty and wonder in places of the dead. Many of us are very familiar with “deep, complicated and messy” as Blaedel mentions. Our music, and for some the goth ..read more