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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
Happy PRIDE Month! We continue with our month long focus on songs by, or covered by, LGBTQ+ artists. Some entries may have less to say other than recognizing the original or cover artists for their identity. Some may be straight/cis artists covering queer artists or vice versa. The point is there are many LGBTQ+ artists inspiring amazing music that is worth appreciation and consideration. This week it's a Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover of a track from a peculiar early nineties tv series, remade by a bisexual ambient industrial artist.:
Xiu Xiu – Falling (Julee Cruise)
David Lynch (who will not elaborate on his claim that "God is gay") and Mark Frost launched the scifi-horror mystery TV series Twin Peaks in 1990. It was unique for network television for many reasons, not the least of which was an open depiction over several episodes of DEA agent Denise Bryson, (played by David Duchovny,) a character who discovered she was a trans woman who would go on to be Chief of Staff for the FBI in the 2016 season three revival.
The instrumental theme for the show was composed by Angelo Badalamenti and Lynch added the lyrics.
The two had been inspired by the music of This Mortal Coil for their cover of Jeff Buckley's Song of the Siren and Badalamenti tapped Julie Cruise to provide a similar haunting and ethereal voice to the track Mysteries of Love for Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet. They were so impressed by her contribution they brought her in on Falling, which was then recorded by Cruise and released on her debut 1989 solo album, Floating into the Night, also under their production. They also released the track as a single before the show ever aired. Ever the "director" in such artistic endeavors, Lynch reportedly instructed Cruise to keep the person she loved most in mind during the recording. Interestingly she admitted that she was not thinking of any person at all and instead focused on her love for her pet cocker spaniel named Rudy. (Her love for her dogs does seem rather deep. In a recent interview she said, "I’m not gonna get buried. I’m going to have my ashes mixed in with my dogs. They’re gonna spread my ashes across Arizona, and Arizona is going to turn blue. It’s not gonna be a red state anymore.")
Badalamenti has stated he had no idea Lynch had decided to use the track as the theme to Twin Peaks until he was shown one of the first cuts. He says Lynch told him, "this is the title. This is the identity of Twin Peaks."
There have been over three dozen vocal or instrumental covers of Falling, many of the most recent by retro synth wave artists. Xiu Xiu (pronounced "shoo-shoo") is the ambient industrial experimental project of Jamie Stewart, a bisexual musician who identifies as queer. He and the project were commission in 2015 by the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to perform the music of Twin Peaks in their style for an exhibition called David Lynch: Between Two Worlds. Following the event, they decided to do a studio recording of the songs and released Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks in April 2016.
Stewart has noted that many of his musical influences are straight, with his excitedly admitted exception of Erasure, (and perhaps Queen and David Bowie; Xiu Xiu also covers their song Under Pressure.) In one interview discussing identity and sexuality Stewart said, "I think it’s important to just be out as a person, particularly right now. There are enough people on earth at the moment doing their best to make that as difficult as possible. I think the more that those who can’t deal with queer people are faced with them on a regular basis the more they are able to humanize them and potentially get over their own bigotry. On the other hand it’s not queer people’s responsibility to help people get over their own bigotry."
As dreamy and slow in rhythm as the original is, Xiu Xiu manages to drop the tempo even slower, filling the depths with a ghost wave of buzzing ambiance. Stewart demonstrates a remarkable vocal range, maintaining a more nasally high-pitch through the majority and dropping into a resonant and deep, almost operatic, baritone for the titular lines, as if portraying himself as a "dark twin." (But if you haven't seen the show, I'll stop there to avoid spoilers.) If anything, it adds just a touch more of Twin Peak's dark mystery to the song with potent effect!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Pride month continues here with our Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century and the thread through our last two entries has led to an inevitable darkly synthpop cover of a disco classic that I can simply no longer deny you.
*＾3＾）/～♡
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 215 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like. Thank you to they who left a generous donation last week!)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 02 - Bones UK – I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
May 26 - Stoppenberg – Knight Rider Theme (Stu Phillips)
May 19 - Deathline International– Rawhide (Frankie Laine)
May 12 - Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
May 05 - The Death Riders – Mexican Radio (Wall Of Voodoo)
. 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.
Happy PRIDE Month! We continue with our month long focus on songs by, or covered by, LGBTQ+ artists. Some entries may have less to say other than recognizing the original or cover artists for their identity. Some may be straight/cis artists covering queer artists or vice versa. The point is there are many LGBTQ+ artists inspiring amazing music that is worth appreciation and consideration. This week it's a Second Sunday Slowly downtempo cover of a track from a peculiar early nineties tv series, remade by a bisexual ambient industrial artist.:
Xiu Xiu – Falling (Julee Cruise)
David Lynch (who will not elaborate on his claim that "God is gay") and Mark Frost launched the scifi-horror mystery TV series Twin Peaks in 1990. It was unique for network television for many reasons, not the least of which was an open depiction over several episodes of DEA agent Denise Bryson, (played by David Duchovny,) a character who discovered she was a trans woman who would go on to be Chief of Staff for the FBI in the 2016 season three revival.
The instrumental theme for the show was composed by Angelo Badalamenti and Lynch added the lyrics.
The two had been inspired by the music of This Mortal Coil for their cover of Jeff Buckley's Song of the Siren and Badalamenti tapped Julie Cruise to provide a similar haunting and ethereal voice to the track Mysteries of Love for Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet. They were so impressed by her contribution they brought her in on Falling, which was then recorded by Cruise and released on her debut 1989 solo album, Floating into the Night, also under their production. They also released the track as a single before the show ever aired. Ever the "director" in such artistic endeavors, Lynch reportedly instructed Cruise to keep the person she loved most in mind during the recording. Interestingly she admitted that she was not thinking of any person at all and instead focused on her love for her pet cocker spaniel named Rudy. (Her love for her dogs does seem rather deep. In a recent interview she said, "I’m not gonna get buried. I’m going to have my ashes mixed in with my dogs. They’re gonna spread my ashes across Arizona, and Arizona is going to turn blue. It’s not gonna be a red state anymore.")
Badalamenti has stated he had no idea Lynch had decided to use the track as the theme to Twin Peaks until he was shown one of the first cuts. He says Lynch told him, "this is the title. This is the identity of Twin Peaks."
There have been over three dozen vocal or instrumental covers of Falling, many of the most recent by retro synth wave artists. Xiu Xiu (pronounced "shoo-shoo") is the ambient industrial experimental project of Jamie Stewart, a bisexual musician who identifies as queer. He and the project were commission in 2015 by the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to perform the music of Twin Peaks in their style for an exhibition called David Lynch: Between Two Worlds. Following the event, they decided to do a studio recording of the songs and released Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks in April 2016.
Stewart has noted that many of his musical influences are straight, with his excitedly admitted exception of Erasure, (and perhaps Queen and David Bowie; Xiu Xiu also covers their song Under Pressure.) In one interview discussing identity and sexuality Stewart said, "I think it’s important to just be out as a person, particularly right now. There are enough people on earth at the moment doing their best to make that as difficult as possible. I think the more that those who can’t deal with queer people are faced with them on a regular basis the more they are able to humanize them and potentially get over their own bigotry. On the other hand it’s not queer people’s responsibility to help people get over their own bigotry."
As dreamy and slow in rhythm as the original is, Xiu Xiu manages to drop the tempo even slower, filling the depths with a ghost wave of buzzing ambiance. Stewart demonstrates a remarkable vocal range, maintaining a more nasally high-pitch through the majority and dropping into a resonant and deep, almost operatic, baritone for the titular lines, as if portraying himself as a "dark twin." (But if you haven't seen the show, I'll stop there to avoid spoilers.) If anything, it adds just a touch more of Twin Peak's dark mystery to the song with potent effect!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
Pride month continues here with our Third Sunday Throwback to the 20th century and the thread through our last two entries has led to an inevitable darkly synthpop cover of a disco classic that I can simply no longer deny you.
*＾3＾）/～♡
Feel free to tell me what you think about today's cover! Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.
(And if, after 4 years and 215 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, please click over to my profile and find out how you can leave us a tip if you like. Thank you to they who left a generous donation last week!)
Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Jun 02 - Bones UK – I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
May 26 - Stoppenberg – Knight Rider Theme (Stu Phillips)
May 19 - Deathline International– Rawhide (Frankie Laine)
May 12 - Covenant – A Rider On A White Horse (Lee Hazelwood)
May 05 - The Death Riders – Mexican Radio (Wall Of Voodoo)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .
(no subject)
Date: 2019-06-10 01:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-06-10 04:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-06-10 04:16 am (UTC)I spent a good 3 hours tonight listening to Xiu Xiu.