FIELD NOTES
Rule of thumb: if you’re talking during a concert, and can’t hear anyone else talking, you absolutely shouldn’t be talking. Whether you’re in the nosebleed balcony, at the back bar, or god forbid on the main floor, close to the stage. You’d think that people’s attention span and desire for concerts would be dramatically increased once live music returned full-swing post-vaccine. Or maybe it’s the opposite, that our mental stimulation changed so much during the pandemic that the general public is much more flippant about how they experience something in person. I’m not a doctor, scientist, or doctor-scientist, so I can’t pin that one down. And why does it always seem to be during the ballads?? Tired argument, I’m aware, but wild I even have to mention it in 2023.
Thanks for reading the Hunter’s Log Radio — March 2023 series last week. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
THEME MUSIC: ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ by Ladytron (2005)
In last Tuesday’s edition, I talked about The Dare, a musical artist from NYC that is embracing early 2000s indie dance music as genuinely as possible. It’s gotten me to revisit some artists that I totally forgot about, or maybe never dove that deep into in the first place. England’s synthpop group Ladytron was a bit of a blind spot in this case, goth-adjacent enough where it should have crossed my radar but just missed me like The Faint or The Presets. They played the music venue I used to work at back in 2019, but I was too busy to be able to check it out. The only song I knew at that point was ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ the second single from the Witching Hour album that I’ve become quite fond of lately. And the only reason I knew that song was from it being parodied in the internet cartoon Weebl And Bob, where the two mumbling egg-shaped characters sang about “destroy[ing] every pie you touch” in attempt to meet Ladytron and give them intact pies. That video was posted in 2008, but Ladytron’s manager sent a cease and desist to Weebl And Bob creator Jonathan Picking, keeping the video off YouTube until 2014 when the UK parody laws changed. A month before the original upload, Picking uploaded the ‘Electro Gypsy’ music video by his band Savlonic, a band clearly inspired by Ladytron and other early-aughts dark dance bands. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right?
PERFORMANCE REVIEW: VV (Ville Valo) at House Of Blues, Chicago, April 9 2023
Jackass star and unfortunately troubled person Bam Margera was a huge figure in my adolescence, particularly when it came to music. I was introduced to so many artists that he featured on his TV show Viva La Bam and his Viva La Bands compilation albums. Some of these artists I still consider lifetime favorites, like Washington DC stoner rockers Clutch or English symphonic black metallers Cradle Of Filth. Bam’s flagship band was HIM (His Infernal Majesty), the Finnish goth metal group led by 2000s alternative sex icon Ville Valo. Their music made a lasting impression on me as some of the first goth music I had discovered on my own, after growing up with The Cure and Nine Inch Nails from my parents. I only got to “see” HIM once, in 2007 from the food line at Linkin Park’s touring festival Projekt Revoltion. The band called it quits in 2017, performing for the last time on New Year’s Eve in their Helsinki homeland and haven’t appeared much at all since. Valo released the self titled album by his band Ville Valo & Agents in 2019, a collection of mostly traditional Finnish rock music that I didn’t totally connect with. In 2020, he officially launched the VV project with the Gothica Fennica Vol. 1 EP, the album cover featuring their iconic “Heartagram” logo with an extra point in the center to reflect two Vs. Those three songs appear on his 2023 full-length Neon Noir, and he’s on tour now supporting the LP. It’s one of my favorite albums of the year so far, channeling HIM’s classic goth rock sound with a bit more electronic and dance elements to separate it out as its own entity. The tour stopped in Chicago last night (with a second show tonight) and I couldn’t miss it, buying a ticket almost a year ago which I hardly ever do. Valo has Icelandic darkwave group Kælan Mikla as support, providing a brief but appropriate tone-setting performance with lots of atmospheric synth passages and vocal deliveries. Valo and his VV band took the stage next, a mostly bare-bones set up with some lighting fixtures between the band members and a color-changing VV Heartagram hanging above. The set was split down the middle between Neon Noir material and classic tracks from the HIM back catalogue, including the smash hit ‘Wings Of A Butterfly’ and my personal favorite song ‘Right Here In My Arms.’ Valo would alternate between the two, which despite the stellar performance on all tracks gave a bit of an uneven energy to the setlist flow. The diehard fans, myself included, were excited to hear some of Neon Noir’s best tracks like ‘Echolocate Your Love’ and ‘Loveletting,’ but it was clear the entire crowd’s reception was bumped a few notches during each HIM song that followed. It was extremely exciting to get to hear those old HIM songs live again, some for my first time, as well as how good the new songs sounded amongst them. If you were hesitant about checking this tour out, don’t be. Very likely could appear in my top 10 shows of the year, alongside Neon Noir in the top 10 albums.
COMPOSITION SOUNDTRACK: Goldfrapp - Supernature (2005 Mute)
Similarly to Ladytron, I don’t think I’d ever given Goldfrapp a proper listen other than ‘Ooh La La,’ the hit single that opens Supernature. I remember my dad having the CD when it came out, but I couldn’t have recalled a note of it until I’d been listening to it recently. Named for lead singer Alison Goldfrapp and assisted by Will Gregory, the English duo provide a solid offering of synthpop and electro-disco, like their contemporaries Robyn or Santigold. Maybe they don’t have the most distinct sound in the world, but it’s simply fun music that isn’t trying to be anything more (but it is good for writing to, certainly). The first three tracks are a pretty undisputable run; after ‘Ooh La La’ comes the sensual ‘Lovely 2 C U,’ and ‘Ride A White Horse,’ the album’s highlight that is not to be confused with Laid Back’s 1983 cult-dance hit (Don’t Ride The) ‘White Horse.’ I definitely want to go back and check in with the other Goldfrapp albums I’ve missed, despite not loving every moment of this one. If you have a particular affinity for one. drop it in the comments.