The Good, The Bad and the Undead are back (so is hockey)

So, basically, if I tried to write anything sensical about the lockout being over I would fail.  It would just be SKDLJGLHLKSHJAGHJA;GKARGLEBARGLEARGHHOCKEY for like 5 pages.

So instead it'll be a goth post.

When Annie and I went to Barnes and Noble the other day to buy Down Goes Brown's book, I ended up in the periodicals section skimming the latest Gothic Beauty.  I miss my subscription-- the music reviews alone are worth it, but I went for the Hockey News instead this year.  My 13 year old self is rolling her eyes at me SO HARD.  Shut up, wee-self, I'm a sports fan now.

Anyway, they had a whole feature on The 69 Eyes' latest album and how could I possibly resist a band touted as "Helsinki vampires"?  They were basically my new favorite band before I'd even tried them out.

Hint: I can't. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinns. My not-so-secret weakness.

The 69 Eyes, based in Helsinki, Finland have been mainstays of "dark rock" since the late 80's.  I have no idea why I've never listened to them, but I guess there are holes in my early 90's music knowledge. ( I was only a toddler in the early 90's, so I have to do it all in hindsight.  Forgive me, Gothic Cabal.)  The Eyes' tenth album "X" was released in Europe this past fall and is making the rounds of the American goth scene to pretty great reviews.  I can't really compare it to their previous albums having only just downloaded "Back in Blood" (2009) like, 45 minutes ago, but it's definitely one of the better contemporary goth rock albums I've heard lately.

I'm a total trad goth and a music snob.  Nine times out of ten I prefer punk or deathrock, but when I do go for goth rock/metal/the like, it better sound like something out of the soundtrack of the goddamn Hunger.  This isn't quite in that vein-- although the 69 Eyes have referenced the Hunger ("Hunger" from Back in Blood) and Bauhaus ("I love the Darkness in You" from X).  It reminds me a bit of the only other goth rock album I've really loved in the past decade-- veteran rockers The Damned's "Now Who's Paranoid?"

Don't get me started on my love of Dave Vanian and his ascots

It's an interesting phenomenon that seems to have affected the goth scene of late-- with all the new subgenres of steampunk and cyberpunk, industrial and horrorbilly, it seems as though the bands and designers sticking with the old standards are doing so in a more lighthearted and self-satirizing vein.

Or maybe I'm reading into things too much.

Either way, X had a lovely campy-horror feel to it.  Not my new favorite band after all, but a few songs are going to make their way onto my iPod.

Totally went for the live version of the last one because the intro is in Finnish.  I have a fetish and I am not ashamed.