Sex Gang Children
By Carlos Detres
1. Sex Gang Children “Times of Our Lives” – These Batcave vets only put out a few albums but they amassed such a large amount of singles that record labels began to stuff them into compilations. This tribal slammer was released in 2001 on Empyre and Fall but lead singer, Andi Sexgang had already quit the band by then, leaving this savage artifact from England’s goth subculture – complete with Andi’s gnarling vocals and two step . Let the kingdom fall on this one.
2. Marilyn Manson “Get Your Gunn” – Few recall the how explosive Portrait of an American Family was when it arrived on the scene. The ferocity of Manson’s vocals make this song one of the indisputable highlights of an album that was full of highlights. The lead single for the band’s debut went through the music video circuit and was already on its way to becoming the house band for the Anti-Christ superstar before Mr. Manson pushed that enigma aside and took charge himself. It also helped to have Trent Reznor’s faithful backing.
3. The Animals “House of the Rising Sun” – The first time I heard this cover of an old blues standard was when I was five. It was Halloween and my family and I were en route to the video rental store. The song was still ringing in my ears while I picked through the movies in the Horror section. I’ve been connecting this song to images of demonic faces and gore ever since. It’s still one of my favorite tunes and in a cheesey curse of habit, I listen to it every time I go to New Orleans.
4. Ladytron “Ghosts” – This is a driving song. You’re driving out in the desert alone to the middle of nowhere; you plug the mixtape (it must be a tape) into your tape player and let the music decide your destination. I’m writing this while stuck in shitty New York weather. Forlorn trips through the desert sound a lot better than being here. It’s a powerful bass-smacker that makes you wish you were somewhere else.
5. White Zombie “Black Sunshine” – Speaking of trips through the desert, the video for this track screams Hell on wheels as if you’ve been trapped in a place with a badass car and only one thing to make escape complete – drive, drive, drive as fast as you can. When the sinister bass kicks in then it’s time to go. God, I need a vacation…seriously.
6. Ministry “Every Day is Halloween” – This anthem for the sartorially liberated is a proclamation to dress how you want – fuck the rest…or something like that. Way before Ministry became speed metal roadsters; they were Siouxie and the Banshee-styled dressers with a pair of keyboards and the sounds of electro pop synthesizing from their minds. Oh yes, they were Industrial without trying and being unique separated them far enough from the rest that they were able to continue through their careers unhindered by the past.
7. The Faint “Posed to Death” – Reverberating drums slap this song into rhythm like the cadence for a death march rather than a pose. Most likely you’ve heard this song before but chances are that you’ve forgotten it throughout the years since its release in 2001 (has it really been that long???). It was an appropriate song for the times back when we had a blue blooded president with a will for destruction like never seen before – and this was before Afghanistan and Iraq. Not sure who singer, Todd Fink is talking about in this catchy song but he sounds like a pretty fun person to hate.
8. Bauhaus “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – Typical, right? I just want to make sure the young kids remember who started the shoegazer-glam thing way back in the ‘70s. Inspired by David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and the hero of vampire past, Bauhaus penned a song that not only describe a day in the life of a vampire but also created the mood for him to live and breathe. With virginal bodies passing by his tomb, it seems that the “count” had a lot of nice things going for him.
9. The Horrors “Gloves” – If there was a single band that emulates Bauhaus and yet rends its own twisted style of horror, it’s this band. The single, “Gloves” was released in 2007 from their acclaimed album, Strange House. Although much has changed since then, Faris Badwan still pens some of the best lyrics out there today. Choosing to relate fantasies and stories in the band’s music, Badwan wrote about a character whose obsession with gloves causes him to imagine where these dirty little things might have come from. The story ends with the character freaking out before shutting off the bad thoughts.
10. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky “Night on Bald Mountain” – This is by far the oldest song on this list, predating even the earliest of these compositions by nearly a hundred years. You know this song. You definitely do. It’s the one popularized in the film, Fantasia that was released in 1940, however it went a long way from manuscript to orchestra. First arranged by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after Mussorgsky’s death, it laid out the blueprint for Leopold Stokowski’s famous version. The scene featured in the Disney classic indicated that this cartoon was for grownups…unless parents back then were open enough to allow their kids to view naked witches flying around. Probably not.
