Spotlight on the Scene
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By Rebecca Vernon Photography by Various henever I tell someone who’s not from Utah – or someone that is but who doesn’t give a damn what happens in this state beyond what’s on sale at The Gap – that Salt Lake has one of the best music scenes in the nation, I wait for the look of surprise. Then I wait for the look of disbelief. Then I patiently wait for the look of condescension and the look of mockery and I wait for the words, “Are you sure?” Yes, I’m sure. It’s at times like these that I think about everything my friends have been through and all that I’ve been through, and I feel like walking away. But I always end up trying to tell them about the scene here, to persuade them to avoid passing judgment on something they know nothing about. To avoid passing judgment on something that’s meant a great deal to me. Utah, whose popular vote percentage for Bush in 2004 was the highest in the U.S. at 72.7%, is the most conservative state in the nation. Where the strongest conservatism exists, the strongest movement against the negative aspects of that conservatism will exist as well. The oppression inherent in almost every aspect of Utah’s social and political landscape has bred a vibrant counterculture of music and art that is ardent, united, strange, original and sincere. I moved back to Utah in 2000 because I heard wild rumors about the vitality of Salt Lake’s music scene and I wanted to get back into music. The rumors proved to be true. I joined a band, started writing for local media, and enjoyed one of the most fun, exhilarating rides of my life over the next five years. It seems like every week I continue to meet someone new involved in some hidden niche in the scene that I never knew about before. The length, breadth and depth of the scene here is incredible. There are literally hundreds of bands in Utah of all genres. Of those several hundred is a core of about 50 that are absolutely phenomenal and who “make the scene.” But one of the most intriguing sections of the scene is its darkest offspring, the Goth/industrial scene. Fifteen of Salt Lake’s top Goth/industrial/electronic/noise acts are highlighted below, along with information on one of the biggest Goth/industrial fests in the U.S. – Salt Lake’s Dark Arts Festival – DJs, radio shows, CD stores, local dark media and local Goth designers. Because there is so much to cover, I’ve divided everything according to topic to keep it organised. Scroll and read what most interests you. DARK ARTS FESTIVAL Dark Arts Festival is one of the biggest Goth/industrial festivals in the nation. It is held annually at the beginning of the summer and features local and national acts, a fashion show, a bazaar, performance art, poetry readings, plays, humor and an art exhibit featuring dozens of local visual artists. Dark Arts Festival is 100 percent volunteer-run and is approached with a DIY, grassroots, “for the scene, by the scene” attitude – an attitude that is also scrupulously organized, disciplined and motivated. Fundraisers are held throughout the year to raise the necessary money to bring national acts to the festival. The philosophy behind Dark Arts Festival from its inception was to bring together disparate parts of a scene in one large-scale unifying event, and to celebrate a subculture and its artists that are all too often overlooked and under appreciated. Dark Arts Festival had its beginnings in the 1990s with the first attempt in 1993, called the First Communion Dark Arts Festival, which was a raging success with about 300 people attending. The 1994 festival didn’t go as well and the festival was dropped until 2001. Dark Arts has been held every year since 2001 with such performers as David J.’s Cabaret Oscuro, Bella Morte, Faith Assembly, The Last Dance, The Azoic, Cesium_137, Apocalypse Theater, Human Drama, The Cadavers, Fiction 8, The Strand, The Centimeters and Hungry Lucy. This year’s Dark Arts Festiva is being held at Area 51 on June 3-5. The out-of-state band lineup is: The Brides, Black Atmosphere, Project 12:01, Still Life Decay, Secret Secret, Stolen Babies and Machinegun Symphony. For travel information and updates, please go to the Dark Arts Festival official homepage. Dark Arts Festival stands for, in its own words, “individual vision, individual expression and the power of the arts to affect culture and the world as a greater whole.” Their ultimate goal is to become the premiere underground event in the Western United States. They’re well on their way, if not there already. THE PROJECTS The following list of bands is far from comprehensive. These bands and projects are some of the longest lasting that have made big impacts locally and/or nationally. Other local Goth/industrial projects worth investigating include Boundless, Symbiont, Lapsed, Sonic Disorder, From the Ashes and Circuit Surgeon. 23 Extacy 23 Extacy is the slicing white noise behind the taut skin of hell. Their take on industrial is cold, brutal, incisive, heavy, textured, and disturbing. It would fit being played in the background at a club in Gotham with empty syringes scattered on the white-tiled blood-stained floor, thin pale hookers with sunken dilated eyes blankly staring into the strobe lights. Chris Alvarado and Kevin “Cock Master” Cazier are the two forces behind 23 Extacy, whose third full-length album, fittingly titled Brutal, is slated to be released this May. Chris and Kevin have also spawned a variety of side projects under the umbrella label Nova One Productions: November Tide, Twilight Transmissions, Ginger Novus and Roses of Exile for Chris; and Perception Cleanse Perception and Little Sap Dungeon (featured below) for Kevin. Aodl J. Shell began creating noise projects in 1994 from a desire to return to what he envisioned industrial music to be in its origin: “I wanted the sounds of Geneva Steel in my head, not more synthesised dance music.” One gets the sense Aodl was spawned from the dimension of nothingness, answering chaos with controlled chaos, with what J. Shell calls “harsh noise, junk electro-acoustics” eschewing power noise. Influenced by Nurse with Wound, Currant 93, Premature Ejaculation, early Merzbow, the surrealist movement, and futurism, J. Shell says he “started making music out of spliced headphone cables, tweaked boom boxes and layer upon layer of tape collage.” J. Shell’s side project, Eucci, was invited to perform at Earational 2001 in the Netherlands, where he got to meet some of his idols in the genre like Netochka Nezvanova and Christian Fennesz. Aodl performs frequently at local noise activist Eric Hughes’ every-two-months “Noise dinners”, which meet early in the evening in a warehouse over potluck and end with two to five live international and local noise performers. Carphax Files Carphax Files, signed to COP International Records, is one of the best bands in Salt Lake City. Pure visceral fury explodes over electronic industrial, melodic synths, bleak textured sonicscapes of despair and withdrawal, political lyrics, and raw guitar. When creator/vocalist J. Sin Monday commands the stage, you’ll be turned inside out, scrubbed raw. Your conscience will crumble, fakeness drops away. Let the exorcism begin. Carphax Files, sometimes compared to Retrosic, was born out of a “hedonistic road trip” in 1999 and self-released three albums before releasing Vengeance on COP in late 2003. Carphax Files has had international club and radio play, extensive print reviews and a full-page feature in the July 2004 (#20) issue of IndustrialnatioN. CF trails hints of existentialism, the beauty of mathematical and technical precision, anger, strength, and defiance. J. Sin’s other projects include Abbey’s Wrist, Power Grid and Nemesis Zero. Carphax Files will be touring through Texas and the Pacific Northwest with SLC Goth band Redemption (see their highlight below) in May and June. Domiana Domiana, headed by Kevin Reece, started in 1997 and released an EP, Sacred Heart, in 2002. They have played the Dark Arts Festival every year since its inception. Their eclectic, theatrical cabaret Goth rock is influenced by trad Goth rock, industrial, experimental noise, new wave, synthpop, old-school punk, the fetish scene, post-punk and Japanese visual kei/glam. In their own words, “Domiana is 21st-century grand guignol Whorrorshow Cabaret. Faust-wave subliminal theatre. Retrofuture decadence. Cinematic and dramatic, it is the soundtrack for the decline and fall.” Domiana is set to play SLUG Localized in May. DulceSky DulceSky combines organic Goth-tinged ‘80s rock with washy Shoegazer to create a melodic bon-bon of guiltless sugary pleasure. The Cure and Radiohead are frequent comparisons, but Oliver Valenzuela and crew say they “just want to focus on writing good songs without being influenced by all the noise of what’s happening out there musically.” DulceSky are one of 19 finalists selected to be on the Virgin College Megatour this summer. Their song “Media-Luna” is No. 8 on the top 25 listener-rated tracks on Vertigo’s Shoegaze Radio and has been featured on Oxford, England’s Shifty Disco’s Singles Club (owned and managed by Ride manager Dave Newton). DulceSky has played the last three Dark Arts Festival, SLUG Localised a couple years ago and has released two gorgeous EPs, Film and Media-Luna/Half-Moon. Gothic Rap Project Possibly the funniest band in Salt Lake, the Gothic Rap Project, made up of Senor Roboto, Gravy Graves, Bowzer Bullet, MC Candypants and Martin X, will rap your pants off over old-school Hip-Hop drumbeats overlaid with Gothy synths: “Kiss kiss fang bang,” “I’m an old-school ghoul.” Yes.