![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
IT has become the number one feature film adaptation of a Stephen King novel, grossing more during its opening last weekend than any previous adaptation's final domestic total. When the IT television mini-series aired in 1990, another of King's film adaptations hit the box office a week later and is now ranked fourth among his films. The book on which that film is based was the inspiration for today's featured song and its cover:
Steril - Misery (Psyche)
Psyche, a Canadian darkwave synthpop band taking their moniker in part from a Killing Joke b-side track and from a desire to explore the human condition, released their fourth album, The Influence in 1989. Though no single was actually released from the LP, most sources seem to designate Misery as its most memorable and representative track. In a 2013 interview, sole remaining founder of the project, Darrin Huss makes it evident that he was influenced strongly by a number of authors and film soundtracks of the time, notably the 1987 Stephen King novel, Misery. Huss said his song, "does not mention the story of Stephen King, but the title and the idea of the punishment inflicted on the artist subjected to the hands of a fan fascinated me. It was this idea of the artist who experiences things in life that he does not really want, depressing and difficult things to face, is it really that being an artist? It was more a piece about the misery of the artist." (Errors in quote possible due to Google-translation from French.) This theme is also interesting given the fact that Darrin's brother and co-founder of the band, Stephen had recently left after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was replaced by David Kristian for this album.
Steril is a German electro-industrial alternative trio that formed the year following the release of The Influence. They contributed to the Unforgotten Rhymes - A Tribute To Psyche compilation featuring 23 different acts in 2015, including Leæther Strip, Parralox, and X-in June. Steril brings a cleaner sound and crisper, futurepop style dance rhythm to their version of Misery. It's clearly a bit more layered as they have two instrumental musicians and the original was recorded with only a single Casio FZ1 synthesizer. The vocals on both versions sound not unlike Marc Almond of Soft Cell, perhaps one a little more mature than the other (but I'll leave it to you to decide which is which.) Steril has acknowledged briefly that this song was an early inspiration for them, but apart from that, there's been little reported as to why.
One thing that seems certain however is that reading is fundamental and can be a huge influence that reaches artists in ways of which even they may not be aware. So read a book! (IT doesn't have to be Misery.)
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
It's the beginning of a five-Sunday Octoberween! As frequent readers may already know, whenever there is a fifth Sunday, I do a feature called Fifth Sunday A La Mode and present one of the hundreds of Depeche Mode covers that exist. However, Last Octoberween was also a five-Sunday month, so this time I thought I'd offer up a First Sunday A La Mode instead and then the following four weeks of covers leading up to October 31 will be as appropriate as ever to the Halloween season!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
One last gig for September this Friday and two upcoming in October! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 17 - The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Aug 20 - Dead or Alive - That's the Way I Like It (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
IT has become the number one feature film adaptation of a Stephen King novel, grossing more during its opening last weekend than any previous adaptation's final domestic total. When the IT television mini-series aired in 1990, another of King's film adaptations hit the box office a week later and is now ranked fourth among his films. The book on which that film is based was the inspiration for today's featured song and its cover:
Steril - Misery (Psyche)
Psyche, a Canadian darkwave synthpop band taking their moniker in part from a Killing Joke b-side track and from a desire to explore the human condition, released their fourth album, The Influence in 1989. Though no single was actually released from the LP, most sources seem to designate Misery as its most memorable and representative track. In a 2013 interview, sole remaining founder of the project, Darrin Huss makes it evident that he was influenced strongly by a number of authors and film soundtracks of the time, notably the 1987 Stephen King novel, Misery. Huss said his song, "does not mention the story of Stephen King, but the title and the idea of the punishment inflicted on the artist subjected to the hands of a fan fascinated me. It was this idea of the artist who experiences things in life that he does not really want, depressing and difficult things to face, is it really that being an artist? It was more a piece about the misery of the artist." (Errors in quote possible due to Google-translation from French.) This theme is also interesting given the fact that Darrin's brother and co-founder of the band, Stephen had recently left after being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was replaced by David Kristian for this album.
Steril is a German electro-industrial alternative trio that formed the year following the release of The Influence. They contributed to the Unforgotten Rhymes - A Tribute To Psyche compilation featuring 23 different acts in 2015, including Leæther Strip, Parralox, and X-in June. Steril brings a cleaner sound and crisper, futurepop style dance rhythm to their version of Misery. It's clearly a bit more layered as they have two instrumental musicians and the original was recorded with only a single Casio FZ1 synthesizer. The vocals on both versions sound not unlike Marc Almond of Soft Cell, perhaps one a little more mature than the other (but I'll leave it to you to decide which is which.) Steril has acknowledged briefly that this song was an early inspiration for them, but apart from that, there's been little reported as to why.
One thing that seems certain however is that reading is fundamental and can be a huge influence that reaches artists in ways of which even they may not be aware. So read a book! (IT doesn't have to be Misery.)
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
It's the beginning of a five-Sunday Octoberween! As frequent readers may already know, whenever there is a fifth Sunday, I do a feature called Fifth Sunday A La Mode and present one of the hundreds of Depeche Mode covers that exist. However, Last Octoberween was also a five-Sunday month, so this time I thought I'd offer up a First Sunday A La Mode instead and then the following four weeks of covers leading up to October 31 will be as appropriate as ever to the Halloween season!
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
One last gig for September this Friday and two upcoming in October! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 17 - The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Aug 20 - Dead or Alive - That's the Way I Like It (KC and the Sunshine Band)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies