Robert Smith

The Five Most Disappointing Goth Albums: Bauhaus, Go Away White

All this week we're going to look back over albums from undeniable goth icons and talk about their failures. Thus far I've been focusing on endings, what with Siouxsie and the Banshees' last album and another that made Robert Smith seriously consider ending The Cure. Now I'd like to bring up somet ... More >>

The Five Most Disappointing Goth Albums: The Cure, Wild Mood Swings

All this week we're looking back over albums by undeniable goth icons and talk about their failures. As we proved in Monday's entry in the series, the mid-'90s wasn't an easy time for the pioneers of the goth genre. On the one hand they were reasonably secure as established and proven acts, but on ... More >>

The Five Greatest South Park Musician Cameos

Last week I looked at some of the worst musical guests on The Simpsons, a show almost as well-known for the appearance of musicians as Saturday Night Live, though with a hit -or-miss success rate since they can't just have the musicians come on and perform their songs. Rewind: The Five Worst Music ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Sean Ozz, Wizard of The Abyss

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sean Ozz fronts what might be Houston' ... More >>

10 Great Versions of "Wild Thing"

"Wild Thing" may not be most-recorded song in history, but it's got to be up there. (It's not even in the Top 10, though, according to the UK's The Independent.) But when the version by the Troggs, whose singer Reg Presley died of cancer late Monday night, became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic ... More >>

The 5 Most Important Years In Goth Music: 1994

Over the course of the week Rocks Off will be looking at the biggest years for goth music and exactly what they meant for the genre. 1994 was a good year for a new kind of goth. Previously, for the most part the men had been sensitive artists, and even the ones who could be pretty brutal -- such as ... More >>

The 5 Most Important Years In Goth Music: 1986

Over the course of the week Rocks Off will be looking at the biggest years for goth music and exactly what they meant for the genre. Goth history does not have a lot of supergroups, unfortunately. Robert Smith briefly played guitar for Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Peter Murphy occasionally works ... More >>

The 5 Most Important Years In Goth Music: 1983

All this week, Rocks Off will be looking at the biggest years for goth music and exactly what they meant for the genre. Just as Bauhaus was breaking up, a place in England opened up whose gothic importance cannot be overstated. Beginning in 1982, the Batcave intended to bring about a revival of the ... More >>

Happy Birthday Anne Rice! 6 Songs For a Horror Icon

Anne Rice, the author of horror classics like Interview With The Vampire and the Witching Hour, turns 71 today. She's a talented and complicated lady that all goths owe a debt to for recreating the vampire as a lonely, Miltonian figure that was at home in seats of elegance or on a rock and roll stag ... More >>

Middle Eastern Wine for Xenophobic Times

Let's face it: Texas is often the butt of our nation's jokes. Nearly every day, The New York Times shares some of our less savory idiosyncrasies with readers across the country. Today it's voter discrimination by our state's legislature. Yesterday it was Lubbock County Judge Tom Head's plans to rise ... More >>

9 Rock Stars & Their Favorite Books

Musicians like to read as much as the next person and being a creative lot they tend to draw inspiration from their favorite books. Which pieces of literature have struck a chord in the hearts of our favorite rock stars? 9. Billie Joe Armstrong, Catcher in the Rye: This probably isn't a surprise si ... More >>

Defying Ambiguity: Jandek & 5 Other Curious Cult Musicians

As a musician, there are many reasons behind choosing to remain an ambiguous character in the public eye as opposed to taking in all of the public attention one can. Choosing to remain ambiguous or elusive is sometimes a decidedly defiant statement, sometimes even a backwards-marketing tool, or is s ... More >>

Dear Obama: You'd Make A Great Goth Musician

Dear President Barack H. Obama, I want you to know that I am very impressed by your recent musical endeavors. While it's clear that you could use some practice and professional vocal coaching, it's equally clear that you possess more than enough raw talent to excel as a musician. I know right now, ... More >>

Gothic Council Praises Lyrics, Bowie's Penis

Really there are two kinds of music fans. Those who are there for the music as a whole and those who are there to hear the words. Make no mistake, we're not saying that one side is better than the other, but we are definitely in the latter category. Being a melodramatic lot, most goths are. So we t ... More >>

Your Biggest Fan: When Rockers Get Stalkers

cinemafestival/shutterstock.com​This past week a statement by pop institution Madonna helped put away one of her newest stalkers, Polish citizen Grzegorz Matlok, who broke into Madge's London home and the residence of her ex-hubby Guy Ritchie. Madonna submitted the statement to Southwark Crown ... More >>

Gimme Some Truth: What Happens When Rabid Fans & Bands Meet

​We have all been there. You may have had a few drinks, you are at your favorite band's show, and you come to find yourself in the vicinity of one of your heroes. Word vomit. Torrential word vomit. But you mean well. "I really think youse guys is great and your albums really means a lots to ... More >>

Nothing's Shocking: Thank You, Iggy Pop

singinglamb.caA young Iggy Pop has his way with a microphone stand c. 1968​Cyberspace was all abuzz on Monday, thanks to Lady Gaga's "shocking" VMA performance of "You and I" dressed as a young Ralph Macchio, or at least that's what it looked like from here. It was creative and bold, and defin ... More >>

Boobylicious: Music's 20 Most Memorable Breasts (Semi-NSFW)

ztams.comWendy O. Williams, seen here with Motorhead front man Lemmy Kilmister​It may sound silly, but boobs are powerful things. Men are fascinated and entranced by them, while women constantly obsess over their size and shape. In a way, they're not unlike the ring in Lord of the Rings: Capab ... More >>

Which Goth Heroes Deserve Their Own Action Figures?

​Gothtopia has been spending some time working a few shifts at Houston's most excellent new comic shop, 8th Dimension Comics. Mostly it's a way to fund our crippling Magic: The Gathering addiction. As we basked in the glory of geekdom and capitalism on a recent shift, we noticed that the shop ... More >>

Pop Rocks: For This Comic Book Summer, Five Superheroes Who Won't Be Getting Their Own Movies

Dream on, fish boy.​We're well into summer blockbuster season, and even if you couldn't tell by the sweltering temperatures outside, you'd only need to look at the number of superhero movies -- both in theaters and about to be released -- to realize it. Thor started us off in May, and X-Men: ... More >>

Internet Radio Gives Goth A Sanctuary

​Due to a boo-boo during the installation of XM radio in Rocks Off's car, we know longer have a terrestrial radio antenna in our Matrix. Due to the fact that XM became about as empty and mindless as terrestrial radio shortly after the merger with Sirius, we no longer have satellite radio eithe ... More >>

Happy Birthday Siouxsie Sioux: Eight Of Her Best Songs

Siouxsie on Facebook​Today Siouxsie Sioux, born Susan Janet Ballion, turns 54 years old. Sioux is one of the undisputed originators of the post-punk and goth genres. Whether you're talking about her work with the Banshees or the strange, dark world music that defined the Creatures, you can be ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates Most Definitive Goth Album... Ever

​Gothtopia has a new, longer drive to the sheet-music mines every day, the upside of which is that we get to listen to a lot more music in the car. Since much of our dedicated listening time is taken up with official assignments, drive time is one of the few opportunities we have to really sit ... More >>

The Gothic Council is Taking "Friday" Back

​Gothtopia moved this week, and even though we've been reduced to shelling out cash for professional movers rather than proving our manhood by hauling furniture by ourselves until 3 a.m., there was still a fair amount of backing and forthing to do between the old place and the new place. With ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates Peter Murphy's March 19 Show

Chris GrayPeter Murphy at Meridian, July 2008 - we have waited a long time to get a better picture.​It was announced recently that the Godfather of Goth himself, Peter Murphy, will be making a special trip down to Houston. The former Bauhaus front man and composer of super-hits like "Cuts You ... More >>

The Seven Ages Of Goth

​This is not meant as a complete history of goth, as that would be a huge book. Instead, we're aiming to give a simple overview of the musicians, songs and albums that have most defined the genre. Many deserving artists have been left out, and some that we're sure some people feel are not wor ... More >>

Gothic Council Debates Gothiness Of "Graveyard" Video

​Though Gothtopia doesn't get to do our daily music-video column anymore, they're still one of our favorite things to write about. So, while trolling through YouTube yesterday, we came across the music video for the latest single by Pittsburgh electo-goth duo Candy Apple Blue, "Graveyard." ... More >>

Musiqa Loft Concert

Jeremy Justeson scores Barkley L. Hendricks's exhibit "The Birth of Cool"

Goth-Rock Icon and Web Recluse Daniel Ash on His New It's a Burn Out EP

​Every Goth in Houston knows, or should know, that if you want to know what's up or going down with any major Goth musician from the '80s or '90s, then all you have to do is keep an eye on Lonnie Locascio's MySpace or Facebook. Between being on a first-name basis with Robert Smith and having inter ... More >>

Slide Show: Albums That Went Darker

​ For most rock acts, the traditional way to deal with success is to rework their lyrics, image and sound to become palatable to a larger audience. Usually this means brightening the subject matter, cleaning up the bad words, softening the sharp edges on those power chords and getting haircuts tha ... More >>

The Most Unimpressive Hacker Ever

Those wily IT guys.A computer tech who was a contract worker for the energy giant Calpine is going to federal prison for a year and a day because he hacked into an employee's computer and used it for nefarious purposes.Actually, not all that nefarious -- he used the financial information contained o ... More >>

Ten Gruesomely Good Halloween Songs, Pt 1: New York Dolls, Dr. Elmo, Ramones and More

A compendium of Cure-related information

The Only One

Highly Anticipated Albums of 2008

120 Days

CD Review

Your Guide to Being Cool

Stuff you need to know to avoid musical ostracism

Screw October

Justin Furstenfeld orders us to hate him. We obey.

Nu Shooz

Film School grows better as it grows older -- shoegazer comparisons be damned

Playbill

Femmes Fatales

The fun is freaky -- and free -- with the Ladies of the Night

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Boys Do Cry

The band nearly broke apart before the Cure finally took

The Cure

The Cure (Geffen)

What Was That?

Horton hears a Who in Seussical

Talk the Night Away

Leave your boogie shoes at home when you visit Level 1 Lounge and U Bar

Music Awards 2001

A preview of this year's show

The Sperlings

Green Manilow (Self-released)

Meltdown at Fox

Several staffers move over to Channel 39's start-up effort

Hail to the '80s

A rash of new compilations makes a case for the Me Decade's place in rock history

Long Lasting Treatment

The ingredients may change, but the Cure endures