Goth divas & gothmothers recordings collected for Dressed In Black comp

Cathi Unsworth – author of Season of The Witch – made some unusual track choices for her new goth comp Dressed In Black.  

Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Darkside

The 19-track “Dressed In Black” compilation (out June 26 via Ace Records UK) was curated and annotated by Cathi Unsworth, author of the book Season Of The Witch: The Book of Goth – a woman who considers herself fortunate to have had Siouxsie Sioux, Lydia Lunch and Diamanda Galàs for role models while she was growing up. For further illumination in Cathi’s own words, read on.

Cathi Unsworth

“The music gathered here is an aural manifestation of turbulent times, made by women possessed of supernatural abilities. The music I fell in love with emerged from the dark end of the 1970s: The Winter of Discontent of 1978-79, when intractable industrial action left the dead unburied and mountains of rubbish in the streets. All the promise of punk came to a brutal end with the deaths of Sid and Nancy in New York; IRA bombs exploded in central London and a seemingly uncatchable ripper roamed West Yorkshire with 13 murders under his belt. Ill omens that augured badly for the events of 3 May 1979, when Margaret Thatcher became our first woman prime minister. Dressed in blue and ready to whip the country to her heel.

“But at night, malcontent youth were united by forces of opposition, whose dissenting voices were aired across the land on John Peel’s Radio 1 show, set to the sound of slasher guitars, swirling fairground keyboards, loping basslines and percussion that recalled the echo of jackhammers or the march of insect feet. Here, punk’s unruly offspring distilled the dissonance of the times into a new kind of music. Flirting with the fetishist and taboo, drawing upon horror and science fiction imagery, they were the outlaw leaders of the greatest style tribe of the decade: the goths. Dressed in black, these kohl-eyed women voiced the alienation of their generation during the decade of the Cold War, the Miners’ Strike, privatisation and AIDS.

“Reflecting on all this while writing Season Of The Witch, I also began to realize how this music linked to previous generations of gothmothers, going back as least as far as the Industrial Revolution, probably much further. The oldest song you will hear here is Shirley Collins’ setting of ‘Death And The Lady’, which was collected just after World War II but has its roots in the global pandemic of 1348-49: the Black Death. Shirley has spent her long life researching and breathing fresh breath into songs that span time and cross oceans to form an alternative history of events recorded not by the victors of wars but the peasants counting the cost.

“Poison Ivy Rorschach of the Cramps performed a similar service, when she and Lux Interior disinterred a crypt-full of long-forgotten hillbillies and bordello blues singers and re-recorded their songs at Sun Studios, where Elvis cut his first disc. Greek-American Diamanda Galàs, that greatest and most fearless defender of AIDS victims, drew upon the demotiki tradition of her forebears in the hills of Sparta. A teenage Lydia Lunch channelled Billie Holiday’s 1941 version of the notorious ‘Gloomy Sunday’ into big band jazz for the no wave New York of 1980. Perhaps the most distinctive female face of the 80s, Siouxsie Sioux was herself inspired by the enigmatic psychedelic seeress Julie Driscoll.

“To make sense of the absurd is genius enough. But to then cast the glamour of sublime music around those insights – I come back to my point about supernatural abilities. I hope you will find illumination within. You know the dress code.” 

Check out the track listing for the Dressed In Black comp (which you can pre-order directly from Ace Records UK right here) followed by some interviews with Cathi Unsworth for her book Season Of The Witch: The Book of Goth. 

Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side, 1941-2025

1. DO YOU TAKE THIS MAN? - DIAMANDA GALÁS WITH JOHN PAUL JONES

2. NIGHT SHIFT - SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES

3. CAT-HOUSE - DANIELLE DAX

4. SUBTERRANEAN WORLD (HOW LONG...?) - ANITA LANE WITH DIE HAUT

5. CISCO SUNSET - LYDIA LUNCH WITH ROWLAND S HOWARD

6. GARBAGEMAN - THE CRAMPS

7. ROAD TO NOWHERE - JUDY HENSKE

8. ODE TO BILLIE JOE - BOBBIE GENTRY

9. SEASON OF THE WITCH - JULIE DRISCOLL, BRIAN AUGER & THE TRINITY

10. AIN'T NO GRAVE - ANNA CALVI

11. DEATH AND THE LADY - SHIRLEY COLLINS

12. IDIOT MILK - M U M M Y

13. ICEBLINK LUCK - COCTEAU TWINS

14. ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES - THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO

15. DRESSED IN BLACK - THE SHANGRI-LAS

16. GLOOMY SUNDAY - BILLIE HOLIDAY

17. KATIE CRUEL - KAREN DALTON

18. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU - NINA SIMONE

19. ÇA VA "LE DIABLE" - JULIETTE GRECO

Here are a couple of interviews with Cathi Unsworth discussing her book Season Of The Witch 

R.I.P. musician/DJ Gregg Foreman, 1972-2026

Sadly, my old pal Gregg Foreman of Delta 72, Cat Power, The Gossip, etc, has passed away far too soon. He'll be greatly missed.

Lydia Lunch & Marc Hurtado perform the music of Suicide @ Lee's Palace, Feb 13

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Lydia & Marc present the songs of Suicide at Lee's Palace on February 13th. Get tickets right here.      Photo by Helène Cazes

Here's the scoop...

After the Big Sexy Noise tour Lydia will be reunited with Marc, to perform the Suicide and Alan Vega songs, for the first time in Canada. Watch some recent performance footage below. 

Feb 13: Toronto - Lee's Palace

Feb 14: Montreal - La Sala Rossa

Feb 15: Ottawa - Club SAW

Byron Coley chats about Captain Beefheart, Lydia Lunch & Terry Reid

Check out music journalist Byron Coley's chat with Barney Hoskyns & pals on the Rock's Back Pages Podcast below.

Rock's Back Pages Podcast

Episode 208: Byron Coley on Beefheart + Lydia Lunch + Terry Reid R.I.P.

For this episode we're joined online from northwest Massachusetts by the legendary Byron Coley, champion of all things weird and non-mainstream.

After describing his somewhat peripatetic childhood, our guest explains – very amusingly – why as a teenager he hated the Beatles and what led him eventually to the more subversive sounds of the Mothers of Invention and their ilk. A digression on the Grateful Dead – whose Jerry Garcia we lost 30 years ago this month – is followed by Byron's memories of first reading R. Meltzer and Nick Tosches in Crawdaddy! and Creem... and how a teaching assistant grad student inspired him to "write like you talk".

After Barney reads from Byron's 1980 New York Rocker piece on Lydia Lunch's 8-Eyed Spy – prompting our guest's recall of first seeing her No Wave trailblazers Teenage Jesus & the Jerks live – we hear about his 1978 Rocker interview with the incomparable Captain Beefheart. This in turn leads to clips from Gary Lucas' audio interview with the artist born Don Van Vliet, recorded in January 1972.

After a quick late '70s/early '80s detour via his temporarily adopted California, Byron talks about his return to the East Coast and his writing for Boston's Forced Exposure – not to mention his rather more lucrative "Underground" columns for Spin. In passing he explains how his friendship with Sonic Youth led to a declaration of war on Bob ("Dean of American Rock Critics") Christgau. We finish up by paying tribute to blue-eyed-soul man Terry Reid and beloved Salsa star Eddie Palmieri.

Finally, Mark and Jasper talk us out with remarks on newly-added library pieces about the Legendary Stardust Cowboy (1968), Ronnie Wood and cronies (1974) and Lana Del Rey (2019).

Listen to Byron Coley on Episode 208 right here. 

Many thanks to special guest Byron Coley. Find his book C'est La Guerre in all good bookshops and check out his other literary work right here. Follow him on BlueSky @byroncoley.bsky.social.

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Celebrating the birthday of influential artist/musician Lydia Lunch with her own story, a discussion of no wave and more.

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Celebrating Lydia Lunch's birthday with a Retrovirus performance with Bob Bert at Szene Wien in 2013 and an interview.  

Happy Birthday Donita Sparks!

Celebrating Donita's birthday with L7's appearance in 1994's Serial Mom, an interview and 3 episodes of her Hi-Low Show podcast.

Edwin Pouncey aka Savage Pencil chats with Lydia Lunch

Check out Edwin Pouncey's recent discussion with Lydia Lunch on her Lydian Spin podcast right here. 

Here's the scoop...

Artist Edwin Pouncey works under the nom de plume Savage Pencil. His art has mauled and entertained a generation with a stinking psychedelic cesspit of corpse cluttered comix. As a music journalist, Edwin's writings and Trip Or Squeek cartoon strip are featured regularly in The Wire. He has an insider’s knowledge of the many bands whose records and performances he has reviewed over several decades.

Check out Edwin's appearance on the Lydian Spin right here. 

Lydia Lunch vs. The Remains

Lydia Lunch's 8 Eyed Spy knocked out a great version of "Diddy Wah Diddy" in '79 which would've impressed The Captain. 

Beth B's Lydia Lunch doc The War Is Never Over opens June 30

Beth B's feature-length film about Lydia Lunch, The War Is Never Over opens at NY's IFC Center Wednesday. Watch the trailer.

Here's the scoop...

Turning trauma into precise and angry feminist rock, American singer, writer and actress Lydia Lunch helped birth the No Wave music scene in the late 1970s and early ’80s—and she’s still killing it today. Fellow No Wave pioneer Beth B constructs a lively portrait of this innovative performer, whose confrontational artistry resonates loudly in today’s feminist landscape. Critics, filmmakers, musicians and friends discuss the relevance of Lydia’s brilliantly vitriolic world. 

If you are in the New York area, tickets are now on sale for the first two days of the IFC Center screening of Beth B's film: Lydia Lunch: the War is Never Over. Beth and Lydia will be present at the 7:40 PM show on June 30. https://www.ifccenter.com/.../lydia-lunch-the-war-is.../

 More about Beth B.

In the 1980s, Beth B was one of the most prominent creative voices living and working in downtown New York. During this period, she made large-scale installations and Super-8 films. This film work which included G-man and Black Box made her a key player in the Cinema of Transgression film movement. Since the 1980s, she has released numerous documentaries and features for screen and television.

Her non-fiction feature, Exposed, about burlesque premiered in the Panorama section at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival. Beth's documentary, Call Her Applebroog, chronicles the life and work of her mother—renowned visual artist Ida Applebroog. Call Her Applebroog premiered at MOMA’s Doc Fortnight in February 2016.  Beth has also written and directed narrative features such as the great Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today?, and Two Small Bodies. 

Listen to Lydia Lunch's interview with Beth B and the documentary on her Lydian Spin Podcast right here. Watch the film trailer below. Find out more about Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over and upcoming screenings right here: https://www.lydialunchmovie.com.
 

Happy Birthday Bob Bert!

Check out Bob's entertaining chat with Lydia Lunch for The Lydian Spin podcast and another with Rev. Derek Moody.

LINK 

PKM Bob Bert: The View From Behind The Drum Kit

Beth B's documentary Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over due in November

The crowd-funded film includes recent and vintage Lydia Lunch live footage intercut with talking head commentary from Thurston Moore and others.

Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over premieres on Saturday, November 9 as part of DOC NYC at the IFC Center (323 6th Ave @ 3rd St) – Theatre 1 at 7:05 pm. 
Get tickets right here.

Happy Birthday Bob Bert!

Celebrating the birthday of drummer/photographer and journalist Bob Bert with "The Trip"

LINKS
Louder Than War: Bob Bert – In depth interview with New York legend

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Celebrating Lydia's birthday with a performance of "3x3" from a 2018 show at Mavericks in Ottawa. 

New book from Lydia Lunch "So Real It Hurts" due in July

"So Real it Hurts" by Lydia Lunch, published by Seven Stories Press, hits the streets July 9. 

Here's the scoop...
"So Real It Hurts is the perfect title for this collection. It's a mission statement. A few bleeding slices straight from the butcher shop. A sampler from an enormous archive of work that will, no doubt, be pored over by grad students, book lovers, film historians, music nerds and straight-up perverts a hundred years from now." – Anthony Bourdain, from the Introduction

Through personal essays, interviews, and poetic verse, punk musician and cultural icon Lydia Lunch claws and rakes at the reader's conscience in this powerful, uninhibited feminist collection. Oscillating between provocative celebrations of her own defiant nature and nearly-tender ruminations on the debilitating effects of poverty, abuse, and environmental pollution, along with a visceral revenge fantasy against misogynistic men, Lydia Lunch presents her exploits without apology, daring the reader to judge her while she details the traumas and trials that have shaped her into the legendary figure she's become.

Inserted between these biting personal essays, Lunch thoughtful cultural insights convey a widely-shared desire to forestall inevitable cultural amnesia and solidify a legacy for her predecessors and peers. Her interview with Hubert Selby Jr. and profile of Herbert Hunke, her short unromanticized histories of No Wave and of the late Sixties, and her scathing examination of the monetization of counterculture (thanks, Vivienne Westwood!) all serve to reinforce the notion that, while it may appear that there are no more heroes, we are actually just looking for heroes in the wrong places. The worthy idols of the past have been obscured by more profitable historical narratives, but Lunch challenges us to dig deeper.

Lydia Lunch Retrovirus @ Hard Luck Bar, Thursday

Don't miss Lydia Lunch Retrovirus featuring Weasel Walter, Tim Dahl and Bob Bert. 

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Celebrating the birthday of the influential Lydia Lunch with a recent Teenage Jesus performance. 

Happy Birthday Lydia Lunch!

Here's an old gem that Lydia recorded with 8 Eyed Spy followed by a discussion of no wave. 

Gallon Drunk comes roaring back

Older and wiser perhaps, but Gallon Drunk are no less menacing. Following the tragic illness and death of their bassist Simon Wring, the bruising Brit thug rockers have resurfaced as a three-piece with the intense new single A Thousand Years (available via iTunes) and suitably unsettling video (see below). Taken together with the previous single You Made Me – issued in the UK a few months back – it certainly bodes well for Gallon Drunk's forthcoming album The Road Gets Darker From Here now set for release on September 11 after initially being slated for August 14th. 

Have a look at the press release:

Recorded at Clouds Hills Recordings in Hamburg during the summer of 2011, produced by Johann Scheerer (Faust/Robots In Disguise), Gallon Drunk bring the considerable power of their renowned live performances to the new album The Road Gets Darker From Here which will be available on heavyweight vinyl, CD and download.

Featuring founding frontman and former member of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds wrecking crew James Johnston (vocals, organ, guitar, harmonica, piano, and bass), Terry Edwards (bass, saxophone and percussion) and Ian White (drums, percussion), the trio have refocused their utterly distinctive musical vision with a collection of impassioned songs, imbued with pure mania, despair and abandonment.

At the state of the art analogue recording studio, Scheerer recorded the band playing the songs live, direct to two-inch tape. This gave a warmth, richness and depth of sound to the recording. Coupled with the band members’ own recent experiences, playing and recording with the likes of Lydia Lunch’s Big Sexy Noise, Faust, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and The Tindersticks, this brought an open minded freshness to the sessions.

From the insistent, slide guitar driven ‘A Thousand Years’, through the exhilaratingly sleazy, deranged rock ‘n’ roll of ‘You Made Me’ (the first single to be released from the album, in the UK and Europe only), the menacing melancholia of ‘Stuck In My Head’ (featuring French singer Marion Andrau of Underground Railroad), to the desperate eruption of guitar fury of ‘Hanging On’, this is classic, unfettered Gallon Drunk. Also including the fever dream boogie of ‘The Big Breakdown’, before the final haunting, enigmatic psychodrama ‘The Perfect Dancer’ - a miasma of hallucinatory guitars, Hammond organs and slinky voodoo drums - the album is an utterly captivating experience.


A Thousand Years



You Made Me



LINK
site http://www.gallondrunk.com/