WINTER

WINTER from CAROLINESPINE on 8tracks.

MINT SIREN

Totally obsessed with this London based lingerie line MINT SIREN by Swedish designer Josefine Wing. As we all know, I am in love with wearing underwear as outerwear and the way that Wing has given these unique pieces the versatility to serve this dual purpose by showcasing them in an erotic yet delicate way is quite beautiful. Below are some of my favorite pieces from her various collections since she created MINT SIREN in 2005.

MINT SIREN AW11 Fashion Film

HAPPY END

Brighter Death Now is the reason that I feel in love with noise music. The Godfather of death industrial, Roger Karmanik, is also the mastermind behind the Swedish cult label Cold Meat Industry. I was lucky enough to see BDN live on Friday, June 13th, 2003 at the Empty bottle in Chicago for a rare North American appearance. A celebration of misfortune, BDN also shared the stage with Slogan and Proiekt Hat and released an exclusive LP bearing the same name.

Amazing sets all around from each artist, highlights beyond the music included John Balistreri from SLOGUN pouring an entire beer over some girls head and Roger running around with a disposable camera flashing it in people's faces. I never thought that the one of me would ever see the light of day until I was watching this video he compiled for Happy End.

ANIMUS

Major updates to both THISISHERESY & MOONCHILD tumblrs

**Please refer to tumblrs for references and credits.

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

Make Up Your Mind from Steven Whore on Vimeo.

An EPIC video by Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben via twistedlamb.

TEXAS

TEXAS from CAROLINESPINE on 8tracks.

MUTILATION RITES

A few months ago I had a black metal party with GG @ Saint Vitus. A few bands were on the bill to play including the Brooklyn based Mutilation Rites. I had heard of them a couple weeks earlier when I was in Chicago and they were slated to play with Nachtmystium & Batillus. I unfortunately ended up missing that show, so when the opportunity arose to check them out at the infamous Greenpoint metal bar I'd been hearing so much about, I couldn't not attend.

We walked in just as the first band, Scowl, ended their set and drank a beer while the second band set up. Black September, a five piece Chicago death metal band with female vocals, I was unfamiliar with them. They were good live, very tight, but the vocals unfortunately got a little lost over the three guitars. Another beer and we settled in to the front row booth for Mutilation Rites. Not much of a crowd had formed when we first got there, as the show was extremely early. But MR being native Brooklynites, drew more of a crowd and more people started filtering in as they finished setting up.

Their live show was most excellent. The majority of their songs taking you on a journey through a foggy field of despair and misanthropy, with beautifully grim yet technical riffs as your soundtrack. They played five tracks, which primarily would be classified as classic, Norwegian influenced black metal. But there is something extremely sophisticated about their sound and the range of each track. You can hear a wide variety of more subtle influences creeping into their overall sound. I picked up a copy of their cassette demo recorded last winter, in which apparently they no longer play any of the songs live. This is quite a shame as they are all exceptional, most notably Negative Space. With a bit of a lineup change since the demo was recorded, MR seem to have become more focused on the technical riffs, while still maintaing an atmosphere of moroseness. They recently signed to Prosthetic Records.

You can listen to the demo and purchase it on bandcamp.

Also, check out this interview on Deaf Sparrow.

PRIMAL ROOTS

In order to get in touch with my primal Viking roots, I've recently found it undeniably essential to accessorize with native, tribal, antler and bone pieces. The first stop on my hunt, being in New York City, was obviously Evolution, but unfortunately you need a medical license to purchase any of the good stuff (i.e. human or animal ribs). So next stop - the wonderful world of the internet. My first thought was eBay, but not sure I really want psycho's in Georgia with a collection of human bones to have my address. And then I remembered that Necromance in LA has an ecommerce website that I purchased a coyote bone necklace from a few years ago. But the real gem that I found was this amazing etsy site called McCairns Cottage. "Welcome to the wild country!" Indeed, this is the stuff dreams were made of and exactly what I've been looking for. All items are made from naturally shed elk and deer antlers. A few favorites include

THE KING

The LPK and I have been talking for months about locking ourselves inside of her cabin in the Berkshires and not coming out until we have watched every single Elvis movie, in a row. Yesterday would have marked The King of Rock n Roll's 77th birthday. Not only a musical icon, Elvis was quite the effigy with his unique and debonair style. Forever an inspiration, R I P.

Check out FuckYeah!ElvisPresley for more excellent photographs of the King.

WISE UP! SUCKER

Maybe all of my resent trips to Bensonhurst are making me slightly nostalgic for a simpler time when all I needed was a pair of combat boots, but I've been finding myself defaulting to some of my most beloved nineties industrial bands lately. Riding the D train over the bridge tonight, my favorite PWEI track of all time came on shuffle and I couldn't help but smile in fond remembrance of all the times I ditched high school to drive around, smoke cigarettes and listen to This Is The Day...This Is The Hour...This Is This! An absolute a classic, this live clip is a collaboration from their 1996 tour with Nine Inch Nails where Trent Reznor joins Clint Mansell on vocals as well as guitar. Mansell quit PWEI in 1996 and went on to score such notable films as Requiem For A Dream, The Fountain and Black Swan. In 2011, Graham Crabb announced the resurrection of the band and release of a new album, New Noise Designed By A Sadist. Check their website for album information and tour dates.

WITHIN

The first time I ever experienced this track was through headphones walking through a Los Angeles mall. It was in the fall of 2004 recently after I'd relocated to California and remember feeling an overwhelming sense of uncertainty. I had made a friend who worked the graveyard shift at UCLA hospital's emergency room and one morning we decided to go antiquing. He showed up on my doorstep riding his pink bicycle all the way from Hollywood bearing gifts, one of them being this amazing album. We ended up watching the infamous and illegal animated film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story about her battle with anorexia and random Nagativland videos, so I didn't get a chance to listen to the collaboration until the next day. It was one of those moments when you are so excited that you've found something so profound that you never even knew you were looking for in the first place. One of my favorite pairings of artists of all time, Neurosis & Jarboe's self-titled album was released in 2003 on Neurot Records.

DARK ALLIES

So I'm listening to an amazing mix by NP on Spotify (still trying to navigate this program) called WITCHHAUS, which is wonderfly amazing in a gothster (read 'gothic hipster') kind of way. I feel like I've nearly fallen and broken my ankle to many of these songs on the uneven concrete floor in the basement of Home Sweet Home during one of Wierd Record's nights. One song in particular invokes a vision of various body parts cutting through strobe lights, fog machines and a haze of street tequila. I recognize the beat.

The track is called Dark Allies by a Brooklyn based duo called Light Asylum. The brainchild of Shannon Funches, who can be best be described as Grace Jones gone riot grrrl. Relocating to Brooklyn from Seattle a decade ago, she has leant her wide range of vocal skills to various bands such as TV on the Radio. She conceptualized Light Asylum a few years ago, but the project only really came to life when she met Bruno Coviello. A New Jersey native with a background in electronic music, they both knew they were destined to work together after a conversation that involved an obscure Clan of Xymox reference.



Their video for Dark Allies is much like my initial experience with the track on the dance floor. Shot overnight in an empty bank vault on Wall Street used by the artist collective C.H.E.R.Y.L. and directed by Grant Worth. The video features the image of a half naked Virgin Mary, shrouded by neon strobe lights, that is faded in and out between images of Shannon dancing through a fog machine haze, dodging in and out of electric neon light sabers, slicing through the air around her as well as utilizing them as weapons, like a futuristic punk rock warrior going into battle on the dancefloor. Her all white ensemble, featuring a black cross adorning her chest and a leather daddy type hat, showcasing her androgynous style while Coviello's pulsating synth beats stimulate the electricity running through your veins and make you want to DANCE.

Dark Allies is featured on a 4 track EP that is only available directly through Light Asylum at their live shows. They are currently compliing material to record a full length LP on a yet unconfirmed label. You can keep up the band via their website.

A PERFECT PAIN

Powerful collaboration by esoteric artist Genesis P-Orridge and Japanoise heavy hitter Merzbow. Cold Spring Records, 1999.

WORLD OF SKIN

Awoke this morning in an Hashish haze, reluctant to open my eyes, hoping not to find blood on the sheets. VICTORY. My dreams rich and full of magical images by the awe inspiring Polly Morgan.

I've always found myself drawn to animals, their majesty and fluid relationship with nature. Their tenderness towards their kin and their sophisticated ability to establish trust. As well as their defensive nature to attack when threatened, rather to kill than be killed. I do not believe that the bonds we establish with animals end when the body passes into the next realm. The soul lingers.

Polly Morgan is a London based artist, whom is a taxidermist by trade, and uses various animals (specifically birds) in the creation of still lives that juxtapose the animal into a foreign and unexpected environment. These unanticipated associations challenge the voyeur to explore themes of the unnatural, as if to view them for the first time and challenge their own preconceptions of beauty.

You can view an archive of her works via her website and join the newsletter to keep informed of upcoming shows.

Atrial Flutter

Blue Fever

Systemic Inflammation

DEFIXIONES

DEFIXIONS
refers to the warnings engraved in lead which were placed on the graves of the dead in Greece, Asia Minor, and elsewhere in the Middle East. They cautioned against moving or desecrating the corpses under threat of extreme harm.
Will and Testament
refers to the last wishes of the dead who have been taken to their graves under unnatural circumstances.
Defixions, Will and Testament
speaks for individuals who have had to live as outlaws, as they were treated as outlaws; and for those who have had to create houses out of rock.
Defixions, Will and Testament
Is dedicated to the forgotten and erased of the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides that occurred in Asia Minor, Pontos, and Thrace between 1914 and 1923.

Orders From The Dead
Created, Composed, and Performed by Diamanda Galas, 2003, Mute Records