Meet Martyn Jacques, a white-faced depraved individual that plays the accordion, sings about smashing babies' heads, and on occasion takes photos of fucking inflatable sheep. His band, The Tiger Lillies, has shocked and offended audiences for almost 15 years, and he is now playing a Broadway rendition of Heinrich Hoffman's Shockheaded Peter, a 19th century collection of children's tales designed to scare youngens into submission. His angelic voice sings songs of perverse delusions, or at least,...
Yay! I saw Shockheaded Peter in NYC. It was awesome. Also, "Banging in the Nails" is such a good song. "The Brothel to the Cemetery" is such a good album.
I was actually at that Boston Dresden Dolls show he mentioned in the article, and they freaking rocked. However, he did neglect to mention that it was a Halloween Ball concert! Not that your average Dolls concert doesn't have plenty of 15 year olds in white face and bowler hats... but there are certainly more doing it for Halloween. It wasn't so much of a gothing up thing as dressing up as Brian, one of the two members. Fans tend to emulate Amanda or Brian's style often at the shows.. I really don't think it has ANYTHING to do at all with Manson and i'm kinda annoyed at him for thinking that but he's British and i can't expect him to understand Boston. Furthermore, this sort of style is being called punk-rock cabaret, not goth-rock. That would be more like Rasputina, which is all about gothing up and you could say was mostly started by Manson tho of course he was by no means the first...
I'm saying this all with love and excitement for these peopl and music, not being harsh or snooty about categories or music or anything...
I only have The Gorey End Which is with the Kronos Quartet, because that's all we have at work but i still remember most of the songs from when they played and they are really wonderful.
m0use said:
I was actually at that Boston Dresden Dolls show he mentioned in the article, and they freaking rocked. However, he did neglect to mention that it was a Halloween Ball concert! Not that your average Dolls concert doesn't have plenty of 15 year olds in white face and bowler hats... but there are certainly more doing it for Halloween. It wasn't so much of a gothing up thing as dressing up as Brian, one of the two members. Fans tend to emulate Amanda or Brian's style often at the shows.. I really don't think it has ANYTHING to do at all with Manson and i'm kinda annoyed at him for thinking that but he's British and i can't expect him to understand Boston. Furthermore, this sort of style is being called punk-rock cabaret, not goth-rock. That would be more like Rasputina, which is all about gothing up and you could say was mostly started by Manson tho of course he was by no means the first...
I'm saying this all with love and excitement for these peopl and music, not being harsh or snooty about categories or music or anything...
I only have The Gorey End Which is with the Kronos Quartet, because that's all we have at work but i still remember most of the songs from when they played and they are really wonderful.
I agree with you on some points, and not on others.
First off, I am a huge Dresden Dolls fan. I've only seen them live once, and it was at a 21+ venue, so no, there were no 15 year olds there. As for the age comment, he was contrasting it to the typical age demographic to which The Tiger Lillies usually play.
I don't know what the deal was with the Boston show, so I really can't comment there. I don't feel though that his nationality has anything to do with anything else though.
Secondly, one thing I would like to point out is that Martyn and I were referring to the overall influx of popularity and commercialization of the 'gothic' genre in recent times. I don't believe that goth rock was mentioned anywhere in there, I'm pretty sure we focused on 'punk cabaret' term. I do agree with you on the Rasputina thing though. I don't think he was bashing the Dolls in any way, I definitely didn't get that impression from him when we spoke. If anything, I think that Martyn was correct in saying that Marilyn Manson really did popularize the whole 'goth' thing and bring it to the fore front of pop culture. Manson definitely wasn't the first to do the goth thing, but before him I think that it was still a fairly beneath the surface genre. You can't argue that within the last ten years the macabre has become more popular, almost sought out, and I don't feel that it was as active beforehand.
Like you said, The Gorey End is the only album available at your work, and that's the case in most shops (I'm assuming you work in a record store). Marilyn Manson is an available everywhere, whereas The Tiger Lillies are not. The Gorey End is a great album, I'd say go find some of The Tiger Lillies other stuff as well if you liked it.
Fractal said:
I don't know what the deal was with the Boston show, so I really can't comment there. I don't feel though that his nationality has anything to do with anything else though.
awww.. i meant that as a silly.
I just don't particularly feel that the Dolls, or the Tiger Lillies are entirely "goth" (except for the Gorey bits) and therefore the discussion was kind of.. odd. Sidetracked. Although reading again i see how it happened. (Discussion of the macabre can hardly go anywhere but goth) But really I would have liked to hear more about the circus/punk/cabaret/brechtian/vaudeville with a swing/ragtime tweak-thing, but generally in really dapper costumes. Things that range from World Inferno Friendship Society to the Ditty Bops to the Reverend Glasseye and His Wooden Legs to even Regina Spektor.
Again, i know my tone is coming out completely wrong here. It's just so fascinating to me how huge this thing is these days and i'm trying to wrap my head around it. So again, please read my tone as bouncy/loving and excited...
Also, most of the bands i listed are completely different from each other, and yet have the same "thing". Also, i do not like all of the bands i listed.
But i do love the Tiger Lillies. I regret getting ushered out of the concert too quickly to meet and greet and get signage that night.
Lemony Snicket played Martyn Jacques's accordion? It's like a beautiful dream. Especially since I'm imagining Lemony Snicket the character, not Daniel Handler the author.
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Olivia
I'm lost
May 2002
APR 21, 2005 06:00 AM