The DJ; The Reality TV Celeb of the music world?

I'm a little confused as a DJ.

I just saw an advert for a dance compilation "as mixed by (insert random DJ here)". The advertisement's focus appeared to be entirely about the *DJ*, not the musicians responsible for the music itself, without which this guy would just be a bloke standing in front of some shiny gadgets.

I've never got this concept in all the time I've been er, inserting a CD, pressing play and shoving another CD on while that one plays, with the end result of following the current song with one that is similar.
No really, that's it. No magic. No pyrotechnics. Just a bloke who can press the 'play' button on a CD player seemingly better than others according to some unknown quantification of opinions.

Now, granted, I do not beatmatch. I assume that there is some modicum of talent around making two tempos the same and blending one CD into the other. I imagine it's a real shitter to do it with vinyl. Call me cynical, but I imagine that the job is made a whole load easier if a laptop is involved. I could be wrong-I have never tried it.
I'm lucky; I need not bother myself with such shenanigans. Goth is expected to be this loose, fluid arrangement of emotions, rhythms and noise that has a beginning and an end that people recognise. I'm grateful for this of course because anyone who knows me knows that my grasp on timing is less than favourable-a NASA computer couldn't help me beatmatch. But I digress.

How on earth did we get to the point where DJs get as much, if not more famous than the musicians that put them there?

How is it that this guy whose name I've already forgotten, gets a higher billing on a Ministry of Shyte dance compilation advert than the people who made the oonzty-boom-boom-gerbil-voice stuff? I mean, it wasn't him who put in the hours & money required to make this music, which despite not being my cup of tea, mostly had artistic reasons behind its making?

Don't get me wrong; I quite like that people appreciate & compliment me on whatever the heck it is I'm doing every week on various stations. That sort of recognition has got me doing some incredible events & experiencing some even more incredible moments over the years. For all of that I am more than just a little grateful. But christ only knows, I'm realistic about it.

I'm extremely aware that it's the people who write & perform the music who really *make* the shows, not me. I'm just the grout between the tiles, mate. I'd be awfully uncomfortable if I was billed at the same level as the artists themselves for essentially doing a tiny fraction of the work they did at an event or by some weird quirk of fate, a goth compilation album.

Maybe I'm wrong about it all. But it just seems a bit...odd.

Emergency Exit Festival 2013

(I'm posting this for Lilly because she's great.)

The Emergency Exit Festival enters it's second round on March 30-31st 2013.

As with the first Emergency Exit Festival, the venue is the Schlachthaus in Dornbirn, Austria, close to the border of Germany and Switzerland. This time it is extended with the café of the youth center, where you can sit down for eating, drinking and talking. This time there will be several label's offering merch next to the band merch in a separate room.

The hosts are none less than the Static Magazin Germany, who have gained an excellent reputation with their online magazine, booking, events and lots of other campaigns for more than 3 years now.
Also and the New Old Way Party, which has consistently kept its "Goth rock only" program for more than 6 years in the 3 country zone. So it's no surprise, that the line-up is a Goth rock and Post Punk Fest at its best. From long-established heroes to younger high achievers, everything can be found here. The following bands will perform at the Emergency Exit Festival 2013:

Grooving in Green (UK)
With their debut album "Post Traumatic Stress", Grooving in Green have already earned a relatively large fan base which, could be extended by the new album "Stranglehold". You can easily hear that the two guitarists already strummed the strings with Children On Stun. To perfect the line-up, they recruited singer Tron (ex-Solemn Novena) , who also takes care, that the Stun-mark is maintained while giving it a very new sound.

Red sun Revival (UK)
Mastermind Rob Leydon is not an unknown within the Gothic Rock scene. He has already proven that he's right for this genre, while a part of Voices of Masada,. With Red Sun Revival he tops it once more; combining soft Neo-Folk / Classical influences, with Gothic Rock, comparable to Fields of The Nephilim. Aimed guitars, a comfortable violin, solid drums and a strong bass perfect the interplay.

The Stompcrash (IT)
A rather new band, but one, you should keep an eye on, has already formed in Mailand in 2002. With their different styles, every song gets its own note and and a different feeling of , what they want to express with their lyrics, that are often about love and death. The sound is, partly reminiscent of, the early 80s, when bands such as The Cure, The Mission and Siouxsie & The Banshees called out a new age with great Gothrock and Post Punk. But in no way do they just copy the sound, instead giving their its very own touch.

The Last Cry (UK)
The Last Cry have already enjoyed great popularity. Their debut album "Walking to The Edge" already counts as a classic of modern UK Goth rock / Dark Wave. With their intensive live performance, which is very hard to describe, yet extremely intoxicating, they already found a lot of new fans at the Emergency Exit Festival 2012. The high demand for the band eased the decision, to invite them to the Emergency Exit Festival again, and to let them play as the headliner.

Twisted Nerve (UK)
Thise Scottish legend of Post Punk of the very first hour, has already caught a lot of attention on the European continent. For the Emergency Exit Festival they leave their coffins once more, to bring us their live set which ,has entertaineds parties and pulleds the people onto the dance-floors for over 30 years. Here you can experience music history!

Berlin Black (UK)
Mastermind Chris Tuke has been striking terror into people's hearts for a number of years. In the early 2000s he rocked the stage on guitar and the bass with Screaming Banshee Aircrew, always looking for new challenges. The challenge was found on the microphone, which he perfectly masters, as none else, nowadays. Musically Berlin Black are in a twilight zone, somewhere between Bauhaus and Theatre of Hate... Shrieking guitars and an enormous voice make the tone here.

Aeon Sable (GER)
It gets harder and harder to find the right words, to describe the mixture of classic and modern elements of the Essen-based gothic rock duo Aeon Sable – the perception of this form of music is too different .. Aeon Sable achieve once more the balancing act between 80s flair and progressive gothic rock, without becoming icky or drift away into popular cliches.

The Festival gets support by Djs out of every corner of Europe once again.
DJ martin oldgoth, one of the best-known Djs within the Goth rock scene, with more than 30 years of DJ experience, will take care of fitting music between and at the aftershow party. He will be supported by DJ Cyberpagan, who works on the preservation of guitar-goth with years of experience as a DJ and promoter. DJ Gianfranco from Italy organizes concerts and festivals here and also organizes a lot in Italy, will be supporting them as well. The local DJs Illi (NOW Party) and Exciter (Static Magazin) will be behind the turntables now and then as well. A DJ line-up is as promising as the band line-up!

More info:
http://www.staticmagazingermany.com
http://staticmagazingermany.bandcamp.com
http://www.af-music.de
E-Mail contact:
lilly@staticmagazingermany.com
enrico@staticmagazingermany.com
eef@staticmagazingermany.com

Unhinged: A Festival for Eku's Head

About Unhinged

There is this great person named Eku Zhong. She is funny, talented, kind, and also quite ill. Not ill as in awesome, ill as in sick. Not sick as in super cool (well she is that too) but sick as in very, very ill.

You may or may not be aware of that- up until a few months ago, I wasn’t. I was clueless. I had no idea because Eku doesn’t make a big deal of it. Day in and day out, I would complain about my little problems and she would listen patiently and advise wisely.

Her presence as a friend is a blessing. She brings fun and light wherever she goes- and she does so in the face of incredible challenges. Her ability to stay positive no matter what is an enormous inspiration.

Her struggles started with MS. Then they found thyroid cancer, and through poor treatment it turned into bone cancer. Over the last seven years, literally countless surgeries, radiation therapies, bone replacements and marrow transplants later, the stress of repeated surgeries has left her skull fragile and yet more surgery is needed.

The area where her zygotic arch meets the temporal bone is severely compromised.

Literally there is a risk that her zygotic arch could lift off the temporal arch and push the temporal bone into her brain. Actions as simple as chewing hard food or yawning the wrong way could cause this.

There is hope. Another surgery could correct this issue, but it requires the purchase of a prosthesis to replace the damaged bone. This is where myself and a group of people who love her dearly come in, and you as well should you choose to help out.

From November 15th through December 15th, we will be running a festival in SL- a festival to celebrate Eku’s titanium spirit. The event is called Unhinged. It will be a great big gacha fair with a skull theme, lots of DJs and super fun party time, in honor of this spirited and sweet person who is such an inspiration.

75% of the proceeds from gacha plays will go to the Eku’s New Bone fund, to help offset the substantial out of pocket cost for this prosthetic. We have a great group of vendors and entertainers lined up, but there is room for lots more, and every contribution helps!

If you are interested in helping out, leave a comment with your avatar name and what you would like to contribute, and I will be in touch with you inworld. There will also be opportunities for sponsorship of the event- I will update this blog with all that information over the next few days, so please do check back with us.

If you prefer to do a non-sl donation, our indiegogo page is here.

After Hours @ Club Gothika

After much negotiation, encouragement and maybe just a little badgering, I've now become a resident DJ in Second Life at Club Gothika, a virtual club owned by the awesome DJ Bronxelf who was behind the World Goth Day event in Second Life and raised quite a lump of money for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation in doing so. That's the flyer for it above. Right up there.

If you're a Second Life user, which up to recently I wasn't and I still haven't quite got the hang of it if I'm honest, you can catch my set as it reads above, at Club Gothika from 2.00pm-4.00pm SLT, which translates to 10.00pm-12.00pm on a Thursday night in the UK.

You can use one of those newfangled timezone converter thingies to work out what that means in your part of the world.

If you're not an SL user (see? I'm using acronyms and everything in this post, go me), you can still tune in using your media player of choice by pasting this URL into it when I go live at the times above: http://aqua.neostreams.info:8036/

I'll be streaming it live, so you get to hear me in all my unedited, unfettered, no-safety-net glory, chucking out tunes and bad jokes at the same rate, as they happen. Totally and utterly live.

Yes, it's fucking nerve racking since you ask, not least because I don't have the most resilient internet connection on earth. But it's two hours of great music, occasionally spoiled by me talking. Just how you like it, apparently.

Upcoming Guest DJ Appearance: 15/12/2012

Fat Bob Speaks.

Robert Smith in a 15 minute interview the french website Télérama.fr. Funny shit, really.

You Shriek covers Siouxsie: Desert Kisses

You Shriek win again. Out this week for free download from http://youshriek.com/desertkisses (which I suggest you do, actually.)