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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Typically I try to keep these covers "dancable" in terms of modern club dance with definitive and unmistakable rhythms. For this occasion and our monthly Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century, I've chosen something seasonally dark and festive done by our gothic godmommy to which you could certainly sway in goth style, but it's not really driven by beats.:

Siouxsie And The Banshees – Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant (Traditional - Original Recording Not Found)

Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant (translates as "He Was Born, The Divine Child,") is a traditional French carol with origins that date back to the 1700-1800's. Its general tune was derived from two hunting tunes: Ancien Air de Chasse and Tête Bizarde. Its lyrical content, pretty much the story of the birth of Jesus Christ as found in the Book of Luke, is believed to have been penned sometime in the 18th century. The first documentation of the song seems to have been when it was published by R. Grosjean in a 1862 collection of carols, Airs des Noëls lorrains and the lyrical text was published 13 or 14 years later in Dom G. Legeay's Noêls anciens. The popularity of the song would appear to have been surprisingly widespread in those times, to the point of reaching a number of international shores, with a notable cultural variation called Rotonni NiioRoie Mia by the Mohawk Indigenous Indian tribe of Northern Vermont.
The carol apparently also has its own traditional dance, akin to a polka, wherein the dancers fleetingly take the shape of a twinkling star.
It's not entirely clear who the first performer of this centuries old song was, but what might be one of its earliest recordings was done by Canadian folklorist singer and comedian Arthur Lapierre in the early 1900's (reportedly 1928.)
There are at least nearly sixty recordings of the song. Annie Lennox and Tom Tom Club are among artists who have covered it. One of the earliest recordings after Lapierre was done by Siouxsie And The Banshees as a second A-Side track on their 1982 single, Melt, which was released on the Friday following Thanksgiving that year (which in itself has little significance given it was only released in Europe and it was still a few years before that day became commonly refereed to as Black Friday.)
Sioux sings it in its original French, and while there is no specific indication of her inspiration, it's not unlikely she'd heard it in her youth as both of her parents spoke French and her father was from a primarily French-speaking part of Belgium. Whether she'd held any particular religious beliefs at the time, this was not the first time Sioux drew from Catholicism. One of her earliest performances was an improvised twenty minute rendition of The Lord's Prayer. Siouxsie And The Banshees also filmed a very basic video of the band performing the track on the set of a snowy Dickens-esque street. The video included Robert Smith, dejectedly waiting his turn to clash the cymbals he held, but never does.
This haunting rarity can be found on the 2004 Siouxsie and the Banshees box set, Downside Up, perhaps the perfect gift for the elder goth or baby bat in your life this season.:

The Cover:


The Earliest Found:


Next week:
One last carol for the holiday... a darkwave cover filled a bit of wonder on the weekend officially kicking off winter.
д＼(✖.̫✖)ノ♪

Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... always welcome! You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

Currently my next gigs will be in January 2020 and I'll spin at least four times throughout New England and upstate New York! Details can be found on my schedule with additional updates soon!

(And if, after 4+ years and 241 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Dec 08 - Gunship – Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
Dec 01 - She Wants Revenge – Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon & Garfunkel)
Nov 24 - Seer of the Merciful Own – One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
Nov 17 - Attrition– Underpass [click, click, drone] (John Foxx)
Nov 10 - Simple Minds – Teardrop (Massive Attack)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

The season officially begins a few weeks from now, but Mother Nature waits for no one's calendar and is sending Winter Storm Ezekiel to bare its cruel wrath on us in the northeast, chilling our hearts, greying our skies, and will surely blanket us with with far more than just "a patch of snow on the ground." Clearly...:

She Wants Revenge – Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon & Garfunkel)

American folk rockers Simon & Garfunkel released Hazy Shade of Winter as a single in October 1966. While recorded at the same time as their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, the track was not included on that album, instead it was placed on their fourth studio lp, Bookends, released in 1968. Song writer Paul Simon has called the track and several others on the album their "dry patch," saying further that "they didn't mean a lot" and "weren't well recorded." While it wasn't a number one smash, the single still managed to be a successful and memorable top twenty hit for the duo. There have been over thirty covers, one of the first and possibly most popular versions was done by The Bangles in 1987. One of the most recent was done by Gerard Way for the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.

Los Angeles based radio personalities Kevin and Bean, anchor show hosts for KROQ-FM, curated annual Christmas season holiday albums featuring various alternative and rock artists for the better part of a decade and a half between 1991 and 2006. Their final physical media release of such compilations was Kevin & Bean's Super Christmas, with an introductory X-mas greeting from Stan Lee. The proceeds of this compilation went to benefit Starlight Foundation, Friends & Helpers Foundation and other L.A.-based local charities. She Wants Revenge, also from L.A. and likely a friend of the show, contributed their version of Hazy Shade Of Winter. Their inspiration for the track seems to be more dominantly influenced by the version done by the Bangles as both omit 3 lines of Simon's original lyrics. She Wants Revenge has covered one other winter holiday-adjacent song: Kidnap The Sandy Claws from the soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas. They've also covered Love My Way by The Psychedelic Furs.

As a personal aside, while the song itself mentions a specific religious institution known for collecting donations during this time of year, any brief amount of research will reveal the harm that organization has done to LGBTQ+ persons and their communities. Where you have the means and opportunity to give this season, please find other groups worthy of your kindness. Perhaps one of these non-religious pro-LGBTQ charities.:

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
The downtempo cover for Second Sunday Slowly might or might not adhere to the general monthly theme I stick to in December... still figuring it out, but if you have a good suggestion leave a comment.

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

I've at least one gig in December, though another is in development and a few things on deck for 2020 have already been announced. Details can be found on my schedule as well as other updates soon!

(And if, after 4+ years and 239 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Nov 24 - Seer of the Merciful Own – One Week (Barenaked Ladies)
Nov 17 - Attrition– Underpass [click, click, drone] (John Foxx)
Nov 10 - Simple Minds – Teardrop (Massive Attack)
Nov 03 - Horrorfall – Juke Joint Jezebel (KMFDM)
Oct 27 - Panic Lift – Every Day Is Halloween (Ministry)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

So when I pulled up today's obscure 20th century cover for Third Sunday Throwback, I had a specific EBM industrial band's cover in mind. When I started my research on the track, I found an even better dark ambient industrial version a couple years fresher than the one I originally planned!:

Attrition– Underpass (click, click, drone) (John Foxx)

John Foxx, having left his role as frontman of Ultravox, released Underpass in January 1980, the first single from his debut solo album, Metamatic. It's considered only a minor hit in the UK, but seems to have some long held recognition over the years, marking itself as Foxx's most memorable song. An early press release for the album stated that Foxx left Ultravox because he had "decided it was easier to work alone with synthesisers, than within the context of a group." In an effort to "strip things down to the simplest possible level," Foxx says he recorded Underpass on an 8 track machine but only used six of its eight channels. "It was that kind of minimalism that I wanted to get to. I did that to let each sound have as much aural space as possible- that was influenced a lot by dub reggae, which was new at the time."
There are three known covers the track. One is by Seeland in 2010. Another is by The Psychic Force, first released on a limited live recording split album with Systemfehler in 1993, and later as a studio version released in 1994 on their album, Traces.

The other is by Attrition who provided their version (with the added sub-title, click, click, drone,) to a various artist compilation of covers called To Cut A Long Story Short - A Tribute To The Pioneers Of Electronic Pop released in June 1995 in Sweden. Named after the Spandau Ballet song, the collection features seventeen tracks as "a tribute to some of the bands that pioneered the use of the Synthesizer, not only as a pop instrument but as a shiningly modern source to futurist romance."
Attrition later included the track on their 2001 album, Keepsakes & Reflections : A Collection Of Rarities which also features their covers of Dead Kennedys, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, and Ministry. They describe their version as "totally transposed into the Attrition sound," "an honest and minimal adaptation."
Interestingly, it was shortly after Attrition's cover in 1997 that Foxx released a reworked version of the track called Overpass in which he changed the titular lyric and made the song a little more high energy electro, where his original is raw and eerie, though both maintain his harsh vocals similar in a style to Gary Numan. Attrition may have kept it as minimal as the original but succeeded in smoothing its edges and adding even more of a sense of supernatural mystery.:

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
Turkey Jerky Pumpkin Pie... giving thanks may make you cry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

The next of my upcoming gigs are in development but a few things on deck for 2020 are announced.  Details can be found on my schedule as well as other updates soon!

(And if, after 4+ years and 237 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Nov 10 - Simple Minds – Teardrop (Massive Attack)
Nov 03 - Horrorfall – Juke Joint Jezebel (KMFDM)
Oct 27 - Panic Lift – Every Day Is Halloween (Ministry)
Oct 20 - Missio – Zombie (The Cranberries)
Oct 13 - 29 Died – The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy)
. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Wrapping up our four-part Octoberween series of Halloweeny covers, we end with a modern industrial update of what is for those of us so inclined to dwell in the dark our mantra, our anthem, our very way of unlife. It's overdue and yet ever-present because for us, it's everyday!:

Panic Lift – Every Day Is Halloween (Ministry)

Ministry released (Every Day Is) Halloween as the b-side of their All Day single in 1984. The single was done during the band's transition between labels after their first album, With Sympathy, and their second, Twitch, which ending up including a remix of the a-side but not the b-side. The fact that the song is perhaps the band's most popular song hasn't stopped frontman and songwriter Al Jourgensen from long declaring his supposed disdain for it. In his 2013 autobiography, Jourgensen said,."...the track that everyone lost their shit over was (Every Day Is) Halloween. To this day I hate it, but people are still playing it. It's got this gothic vibe, this repetitive hook, and this vocal that goes, 'boppy-bop-bop' that people like. Radio stations always pull it out around Halloween, but it's not even about Halloween—it's about people giving you shit for having a mohawk. 'Why do you look like you're dressed for Halloween, you freak?' In the song I just railed against that. I didn't think it was going to strike a chord with anyone."

Ministry abandoned the song's synthpop style of industrial for a rock-edged industrial sound by their third album. In 2010, they re-recorded the track to fit their current style, but it doesn't seem to have greater appeal to their fans than the original. Last year Ministry performed an acoustic rendition of the song with Jane's Addition guitarist Dave Navarro for the first time in concert in over thirty years following their collaboration on the acoustic version on Navarro's radio show.
The scream heard in the song was sampled from James Brown's Get Up Offa That Thing.
The song's signature bass-line was sampled almost immediately by a lesser known R&B/Soul singer Nicole McCloud and her 1985 single Don't You Want My Love, pretty much marking the height of her career.

There have been a little over a dozen covers of Every Day Is Halloween, one of the most recent released just days ago by Unwoman.

In October of 2014, the industrial project Panic Lift released their version as a free download for fans. Frontman James Francis had called on them to vote on a Halloween-themed song for them to record, the intent was to produce and release it before the end of that week. Earlier that year they did a similar poll which led to Francis releasing a lackluster version of Sponge's 1994 single, Plowed. When the votes were tallied and Every Day Is Halloween was declared the winner Francis announced, "this is one of my favorite songs, so I promise this time I'll do the song some justice."

And so he has! It is both loyal to the original while injecting some original interpretations and a vocal style some may find similar to The Faint. The cover was later included on their 2016 album Skeleton Key but it's still made available as a free download separate from the album. It's an excellent update of the song sure to make you dance with all those things that go bump in the night!:

The Cover:


The Original:



If you want to check out all previous OCTOBERWEEN covers,
click here to filter that tag and scroll down!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Next week:
We slip back an hour in time on Daylight Savings, and face Election Day... the horror of it all is I have nothing relevant to share so I guess we'll just be juking with another updated version of an industrial classic!

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

I have two Halloweek gigs left this week and another set up in November! For details about those and other upcoming gigs, please check my schedule!

(And if, after 4+ years and 234 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Oct 20 - Missio – Zombie (The Cranberries)
Oct 13 - 29 Died – The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy)
Oct 06 - Creature Feature – Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Mellomen)
Sep 29 - Synthetic Division – Somebody (Depeche Mode)
Sep 22 - Sawtooth – Mindfields (The Prodigy)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Celebrating the spookiest month of the year we continue with our annual series of Halloween specific cover songs! Normally we'd do a down tempo track for the second Sunday and a twentieth century throwback for the third, but instead I'll trick you with this obscure industrial treat from the nineties this week since it's so relevant to that all together ooky movie in theaters this weekend!:

29 Died – The Addams Family (Vic Mizzy)

The Addams Family first appeared in 1938 as a series of satirical single-panel comics in The New Yorker. Created by the late Charles Addams, The Addams Family were a macabre (though still wholesome) reflection of the typical American nuclear family. The comics were adapted to a television series on the ABC network in 1964 with its theme developed by Vic Mizzy. (Interestingly CBS began airing The Munsters a week after their debut, on the same night of the week to compete for viewers.)
The The Addams Family theme featured spoken word elements voiced by Actor Ted Cassidy who played Lurch on the show. Mizzy's theme and soundtrack were released as a full LP titled Original Music From The Addams Family in 1965, but it excludes Cassidy's vocals. The theme was released as a single and, though it failed to chart in any significant way, it did receive a Grammy nomination for "Best Engineered Recording – Special or Novel Effects."
There have been over twenty covers of the theme, including modernized updates for the cartoons and films that followed the original.
The current film has a cute homage and numerous uses of the instrumental theme and a new revision of the lyrical song just before the final credits.

In 1997, TV Terror: Felching A Dead Horse was released, curated by one Rev. Jayson Elliot who said the idea was inspired by a Sisters of Mercy tribute album (presumably First And Last And Forever from 1993.)  Elliot said the tribute was "full of step-Sisters straining their adrenaline to recreate their favorite floorshow according to their own vision thing." He continued, "I had to wonder what was the point? How much better to have them cover, I don't know, TV themes maybe?" What "started as a joke" took three years to compile and features TV theme covers from 16 Volt, Electric Hellfire Club, Kevorkian Death Cycle, Alien Sex Fiend, and many more.
A short-lived industrial project called 29 Died (possibly named in reference to President Warren G. Harding who died in office) contributed their high energy and stomp worthy version of The Addams Family. With only two albums of their own before disbanding, they also had done a cover of Tainted Love, which may not have been authorized and is difficult to find outside the original pressings of their 1995 album, Sworn.
Their cover starts effectively the same as the original before slightly rearranging the rhythm to give it a resonate sound somewhat reminiscent of Pop Will Eat Itself. They also alter the vocals done by Cassidy from deep growl to harsh exclamatory shouts. I wouldn't call it "kooky" but it certainly is a scream!:

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
It might be a second throwback for the month... then again we might be treated to another trick!

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

My latest gig is tonight under the light of a full moon! For details about that and other upcoming gigs, please check my schedule!

(And if, after 4 years and 232 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Oct 06 - Creature Feature – Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Mellomen)
Sep 29 - Synthetic Division – Somebody (Depeche Mode)
Sep 22 - Sawtooth – Mindfields (The Prodigy)
Sep 15 - Massive Attack – Man Next Door (The Paragons)
Sep 08 - Lana Del Rey – Doin' Time (Sublime)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

It's time for another Fifth Sunday A la Mode featuring a cover of Depeche Mode. And of course we do a Depeche Mode every fifth Sunday for reasons. סּڡסּ
This time we feature somebody who, inspired by the band, shook their disease, started making music of their own, and eventually paid tribute with an eight track cover album featuring a witchy version of a classic DM ballad.:

Synthetic Division – Somebody (Depeche Mode)

Depeche Mode released their fourth studio album, Some Great Reward on September 24, 1984, (making this a black celebration of its thirty-fifth anniversary!) They released their third single, Somebody, as a "double A-side," with Blasphemous Rumours, in late October 1984, partly part to diminish an amount of outrage they were getting from religious objectors to the latter. It was originally intended that David Gahan would sing the song but after multiple tries and not feeling he could get it right, songwriter Martin Gore stepped up and the band agreed it suited his voice better. It's reported Gore recorded the song in the nude in the cellar of their studio "for ambiance." Gore has said the song is "pretty much a straightforward 'I love you' song if you like, certainly not an anti-love song." Several years later Gore voiced some personal displeasure despite its popularity with fans saying, "I do not like this song anymore. Looking back on it, I think it's too soft and tender. Most of my songs are not as naive. I usually arrange songs in such a way that they take an unexpected turn at some point. I prefer it to contain doubt, when it does not rule out the possibility that a loving relationship may go wrong."
Regardless of his self-criticism the band has performed the song over 350 times and counting and there are over three dozen covers of it.

A couple of years after the release of that album, an 11-year old Shawn Decker was diagnosed with HIV, infected by way of contaminated blood transfusions treating his hemophilia. He was given two to five years to live. He wanted to meet his favorite band, Depeche Mode, before he died. Three years later he was granted that wish and so much more because he has outlived his terminal diagnosis for over thirty years and, inspired to make his own music, formed a synthpop project with Alan Siegler.
Synthetic Division released Shaking the Disease: An Unlikely Tribute to Depeche Mode in November 2015 as a way to celebrate Decker's survival. The album features eight covers of his favorite Depeche Mode tracks, including Somebody.
Synthetic Division's cover of Somebody is not strictly "witchhouse" but shares a similar sense of atmospheric rhythms and occasionally asynchronous alignment of lyrics and melody. Unlike the original which is a light and passionate bare-bones recording of piano and vocals with no percussion apart from a consistent heartbeat, Synthetic Division's version is a downtempo droney 'witch-pop' hybrid that is not just dark but danceable.
Proceeds from the album go to benefit the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, which funds HIV prevention programs around the world. Decker himself is professionally active as an HIV educator with his HIV- wife Gwenn, who most certainly fulfills his other wish for "somebody.":

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
OCTOBERWEEN BEGINS!

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

My next gig comes up in two weeks on the night of a full moon! For details about that and other upcoming gigs, please check my schedule!

(And if, after 4 years and 231 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 22 - Sawtooth – Mindfields (The Prodigy)
Sep 15 - Massive Attack – Man Next Door (The Paragons)
Sep 08 - Lana Del Rey – Doin' Time (Sublime)
Sep 01 - HexRX – Living On Video (Trans-X)
Aug 25 - Iris – I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)


. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Today's Third Sunday Throwback to the twentieth century features another "not-explictly-goth" cover from a group whose dark trip hop style has nonetheless earned them space within sects of the goth community. As it turns out, as made evident by this cover of a sixties pre-reggae track, their sound may be more influenced by goth music than some might think.:

Massive Attack – Man Next Door (The Paragons)

The ska/rocksteady group The Paragons released Man Next Door as the B-side of their 1968 single, Left With A Broken Heart. The song had two other titles, Quiet Place and I've Got to Get Away. The song didn't appear on the concurrent 1967 album On The Beach (though it has been included on recent deluxe edition reissues) but instead was included years later on a self-titled 1981 album, labeled in some regions as Sly & Robbie Meet The Paragons. The song itself is a short bit of ska telling the story of a family man living next door to someone who comes home late making noise overnight and their wish to move somewhere peaceful. While it wasn't much of a commercial success, it does have some underground notoriety and has been covered a half dozen times, mostly by reggae acts excepting one by the British post-punk band The Slits.

Massive Attack, a British trip-hop project, released their third album, Mezzanine, in April 1998. Among the more goth-popular tracks found on the album (Teardrop & Inertia Creeps) is their lesser known cover of Man Next Door. While it may not have been intentional, there's a degree to which the song captures the band's sense of internal unrest as conflicts within the group led to chaotic recording schedules and the eventual departure of Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles. The song features samples from Led Zeppelin's When the Levee Breaks and The Cure's 10:15 Saturday Night (a song they are apparently covering in its entirety live in recent concerts where they have also been performing Bela Lugosi's Dead.) There is some evidence to suggest that Massive's inspiration for The Paragons cover came not from the original version but from the cover done by The Slits in 1980 which had actually been a top ten hit on the UK indie charts. Not to say Massive Attack don't also draw inspiration significantly from similar roots as The Paragons; other artists they've covered include William DeVaughn, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, and Rufus and Chaka.

But in their version of the The Paragon's song they instill a sense of dark menace coming from Man Next Door, as not just a simple annoyance, but a potential threat from whom they need to escape. Combined with their signature trip hop dance rhythms, you may not want "to get away" but it's not improbable you'll want to move!:

The Cover:


The Original:

Compare with The Slits version

Next week:
In tribute to an electronic techno artist who passed away earlier this year and would've turned 50 this month, we'll feature a track from a benefit album that will be released on his birthday. It's an EBM cover of a song found in a sci-fi film that also featured another song from the same album as today's cover.

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

I've got some gigs coming up and possibly more to announce soon! What IS confirmed is coming up in a couple weeks and in two vastly separate areas of New England, but if you care to join either, please check my schedule for details!

(And if, after 4 years and 229 weekly entries, you find this blog of any value, consider leaving me a tip in the form of the gift of music and get me something from my wishlist on Bandcamp if you like. It'll go to good use! Thanks!)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 08 - Lana Del Rey – Doin' Time (Sublime)
Sep 01 - HexRX – Living On Video (Trans-X)
Aug 25 - Iris – I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)
Aug 18 - Apoptygma Berzerk – All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Aug 11 - Kidneythieves – Crazy (Patsy Cline)


. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Sometimes I write these up and for one reason or another I set them aside to feature something else. I had scheduled today's feature for April 22 in 2018, but when that date came up it had become the anniversary of the death of a certain icon and I had an opportunity to write up a tribute because a legitimate source for their music had finally been made available. So this got pushed back... and back... and buried. I unearthed it yesterday while organizing for the month and decided now is as good a time as any for this industrial remake of an 80's synthpop track exploring the cyberspace of life inside the game:

HexRX – Living On Video (Trans-X)

Trans-X, a Canadian synthpop band (whose name is a contraction of the Kraftwerk album titled, Trans Europe Express), released their first album, Living On Video in 1983, though it was called Message On The Radio in their home country. The title track was their second single and their breakout hit. Though far more successful over seas than in the states, it still earned them the status of a "one-hit wonder." The high energy dance track, sung in English, has a solitary French lyric in the chorus, except on select prints of the single where what is attributed as the original version of the song is sung almost entirely in French under the title, Vivre Sur Video. Frontman Pascal Languirand said in a 2007 interview that he "was inspired to compose this song listening to French pop songs musically. Conceptually the idea came from the movie Tron, living inside a video game. I am at ease with new technologies. I studied Flash programming and website design. I believe the Internet will be as much of a change for society than television was in the 50s. It will change everything. We are in the dawn of the information society. It is only beginning."
Trans-X is still active today and their 2014 compilation album, Anthology, includes a modernized version of their seminal hit.

The track has been covered by over a dozen artists, most not well known, and a least one is of the French version (that one covered by Mind Confusion.)

HexRX, a California-based industrial project led by Roger Jarvis of Kevorkian Death Cycle and composed of members from Fractured Transmission, Sleep Clinic and Dead Animal Assembly Plant, released their cover of Living On Video on their E.P., Serial Hex Addict, in 2012. However it actually appeared first a year earlier in May of 2011, when the organizers of the LA-based industrial dance and live music event Das Bunker produced their fifth in a series of compilations, Choice of a New Generation. A representative from Das Bunker has said that this compilation was "just something we did for fun, with friends." Jarvis has said that when asked to contribute he had no idea what to do and the suggestion for the Trans-X cover came from Das Bunker's resident DJ Rev. John.
While Jarvis had no direct inspiration for doing the song, it is interesting that he wrote and recorded My Eyes Are Red for their album that followed, X, which includes samples from Tron, the very movie that inspired Living On Video to begin with.
The now defunct Hex RX (evolved into what Jarvis has named Punish Your God) give this electro/new-wavey classic an aggressive industrial make-over: growly, punchy, and crunchy. If the lasers Trans-X envisioned for their "video game" are precise and focused, HexRx's are far more jagged, bleeding kinetic energy while delivering solid stompy rhythms in an assault of the dancefloor!

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
Second Sunday Slowly featuring a downtempo track from a pop artist, often embraced by sects of the goth community for the melancholy nature of her style and sound, with a just-released a cover of a So-Cal alternative hit that itself interpolates lyrics from a classic opera first heard in the mid-thirties! It's a simmering and sexy song to say so long to the summer!

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

I've got some gigs coming up and possibly more to announce soon! What IS confirmed is a few weeks away and in two vastly separate areas of New England, but if you care to join either, please check my schedule for details!

(And if, after 4 years and 227 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.)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Aug 25 - Iris – I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses)
Aug 18 - Apoptygma Berzerk – All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
Aug 11 - Kidneythieves – Crazy (Patsy Cline)
Aug 04 - In Strict Confidence feat. Melotron – The Sun Always Shines On TV (A-ha)
Jul 28 - Fur – Cruel Summer (Bananarama)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Because last week's Second Sunday Slowly feature also ended up being a throwback to the twentieth century, I had the notion that I'd consider THAT the "throwback" for the month and NOT do Third Sunday Throwback as regularly scheduled. I decided I'd do a "throwback" to the early years of the twenty first century, but after carefully reviewing the covers available from the artist I picked to feature... I am instead sticking to the twentieth. Clearly I've gone berzerk...:

Apoptygma Berzerk – All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground & Nico)
The Velvet Underground and Nico released their first single, All Tomorrow's Parties, in July 1966. A version almost three minutes longer was included on their self titled and only album in March 1967 before ending their collaboration, due in part to their low record sales.
Songwriter Lou Reed has said that the inspiration came from observations made of the decorative people attending the infamous parties held by Andy Warhol (who financed the recording) in his New York studio, The Factory. However, there are claims that the song had actually already been written before Reed met Warhol. Confusing that story further, the song's pianist, John Cale recently revealed in an interview that the song was about a girl called Darryl with whom both Cale and Reed had affectionate interests, despite the threat of her allegedly violent boyfriend.
Warhol is said to have considered this his favorite of their songs, though it's possible that affection had more to do with Nico's involvement since it was he who thought she should work with the band in the first place.
The song title has been referenced in film, literature, and musical productions. It was also prominent in Rob Zombie's 2012 horror film, The Lords Of Salem and was the title of an episode of One Tree Hill, where the story depicted the traumatic consequences of excessive alcohol consumption at seemingly glamorous parties.
Both Lou Reed and Nico went on to record their own versions of the song. Additionally the song has been covered at least 50 times by artists such as Jeff Buckley, Icehouse, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Simple Minds, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rasputina, Bryan Ferry, Hole, and Black Tape for a Blue Girl. There seems to be a misconception that the Bauhaus had covered it as well. The confusion may come from the fact the band had toured with Nico for a time and both artists appear on a number of goth classic compilations that usually feature Nico's version. (Unless their cover of it does exist and I missed it in my research. That's entirely possible as well.)

The Norwegian futurepop project Apoptygma Berzerk released their version of All Tomorrow's Parties on their debut album Soli Deo Gloria in December 1993. The track was later included on their covers compilation album, Sonic Dairy, released in 2006. It collected their previously released covers of Kim Wilde, U2, The Cure, Marilyn Manson, Metallica, The House Of Love, Kraftwerk, and OMD, with additional covers of Keane, Visage, and New Order done specifically for the album. (Their cover of Peter Schilling's Major Tom was released seven years later.) In the liner notes for Sonic Dairy, frontman Stephan Groth describes these artists as "the start of Apop." In an interview this year when asked about the covers he chooses, Groth said "usually it is an homage to the original track/artist, and most of the songs I have made a cover of have been important to me in my youth or in my musical background. So, to understand APOP completely, you need to know my roots and this is my way of showing you where I come from. To me, The Velvet Underground and their infamous “banana” album have been particularly important; hence this was the second song ever covered in the history of APOP. The first being The Model by Kraftwerk."

For having been so influential to various goth and industrial artists, the original single is truly rough around the edges, recorded in mono, rhythmically discordant, and kind of messy. Even the longer album version, which had somewhat better production value, is still as chaotic, so it seems evident that was by design. Apoptygma Berzerk transforms the ballad into a cleanly produced dark dance track, possibly just as good as any of their hits.

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
The eyes have it for a synthpop cover of an early nineties alternative rock'n'rose track about the need for loving veneration.

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

(And if, after 4 years and 225 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.)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Aug 11 - Kidneythieves – Crazy (Patsy Cline)
Aug 04 - In Strict Confidence feat. Melotron – The Sun Always Shines On TV (A-ha)
Jul 28 - Fur – Cruel Summer (Bananarama)
Jul 21 - Stromkern – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
Jul 14 - Clavvs – I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .

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.
Looking for something previously featured? Click here.

Last month turned out to be an exploration of songs radiating a bit of "heat" in torturous recognition of the blistering temperature of the season. Anathema to us goths, the summer star continues to fill the sky with rays of solar death. Of course, we can just stay in and watch videos to escape the heat of it. Today's EBM/synthpop cover of an eighties new wave hit reminds us there's a way to glimpse the sky-fire without the scorching pain (even if the song is technically about the desire to see daylight on dark days.):

In Strict Confidence feat. Melotron – The Sun Always Shines On TV (A-ha)

Norwegian new wavers A-ha released their debut album Hunting High and Low in June 1985. It featured their song The Sun Always Shines On TV which was their second single from the LP, released later that year in December. The song almost didn't make it on to the album at all if not for the secretary of the band's label executive convincing him it was hit-worthy. She wasn't wrong but it fell short of attaining the previous track's gold record certifications, but still achieved silver.
Guitarist and writer Pal Waaktaar has said in an interview that the song "was written on one of those down days." He continued that he and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen were "in a hotel watching English television on a rainy day and the guy announcing the program says, 'It's a rainy day but, as always, the sun always shines on TV.' The song is about the power of television and the way television presents life."
It was also recorded in less than optimal conditions; the entire band was reportedly all suffering from the flu and high fevers.

The song has been covered over thirty times. Some of the covers include those by And One, Atrocity, Killer Shadows, and Interactive.

The German EBM act In Strict Confidence was actually founded four years after the release of this song, then named "Seal of Secrecy" for about three years. Working in collaboration with Melotron they produced and released their cover of The Sun Always Shines On TV as a single in September 2005, between their fifth and sixth studio albums, Holy and Exile Paradise.
Both In Strict Confidence and Melotron have done two other covers each. ISC has done Metallica's Sad But True and Depeche Mode's Stripped. Melotron has covered more obscure fare: Damals, by Spliff (a band that formed after splitting with Nina Hagan) and Der Blaue Planet, by a classic rock German band called Karat.

Together, In Strict Confidence and Melotron sing it as a bi-gendered duet but mostly maintain faithfully its structure with more modernized synth elements. It's a solid dance track in which to lose yourself, allowing one to keep their troubles distant and ease the pressure of an ever worrying mind.:

The Cover:


The Original:


Next week:
Second Sunday Slowly! I've two or three directions I want to go with next week's down tempo selection...

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 reply below, but all replies are screened for spam prevention.

(And if, after 4 years and 223 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.)

Thanks for reading and keep dancing in darkness,

-Xero

Previous DisCOVERies

Jul 28 - Fur – Cruel Summer (Bananarama)
Jul 21 - Stromkern – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
Jul 14 - Clavvs – I'm On Fire (Bruce Springsteen)
Jul 07 - 3Teeth – Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People)
Jul 30 - Gaytron – Tora Tora [Tora!] (Depeche Mode)

. Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies .