Yep, it's time for this again. Except, by extraordinary coincidence, all the bands are American this month.
We have made it to July. Here in
Florida rainy season is in full gear. The thunderstorms are the only advantage
to summer, as usual. So, I still don’t have the coronavirus, but we’ll see what
happens. Florida gets like 10,000 cases a day. Wonder when my number will come
up. Besides working on my art and
parenting I really haven’t been up to much as of late. This is the last full
month in the ancient Armenian calendar that I follow, by the way, with an extra
6 days before August 11th, which is Navasard, the New Year. So, all
of you bashing 2020, I get to end my year early. Still got the second wave of
the coronavirus and the awful US elections to look forward to next year in 4513
though.
I
have been working on a short story for a contest, my forthcoming webcomic (I
finished penciling the first episode last month, as you may remember me saying
on the blog before, but coloring and digital inking is taking a while); and a
week or so ago I felt like writing a poem for the first time in a long while,
which I did. I’m thinking of submitting it to different places, which is why
you probably won’t be seeing it on this blog, except maybe years from now. As
for the blog, I have a few ideas. I don’t know for sure what my next one will
be, but I just read a pretty good Oz book, which I may review. Other topics I
may cover this month include the Armenian holiday of Vardavar on the 19th, my 2015 trip to my grandfather’s village of Shvanidzor (I don’t want to
make promises), some more mixtape playlists, perhaps 1988 in Music, and
whatever else strikes my fancy.
Lately my musical tastes have been
as dark and gothy as ever. Specifically I’ve been into darkwave, with acoustic
guitars, slow tempo and gloomy vocals. Depressing music for nonconformists. I
mean I wouldn’t say I’ve been into this music because I’m particularly
depressed over anything specific, other than just the state of the world, I
guess. It has just kind have been my mood lately. It’s been a welcome
distraction from the music my 1 ½ year old likes to listen to on loop over and
over day in day out (pop music, Armenian folk pop, children’s music, some 80’s
pop and 70’s funk…yeah it’s really hard to get him to like my type of music, he
has a mind of his own and has to hear a song maybe 20 times in a row before he
might start liking it). I’ve been supporting obscure, underground bands on Bandcamp
since I know they can’t tour right now, sad as that is.
Forever
Grey – The Style is Death
I’ve had my eye on this band for the past few months, but this is a song I only heard for the first time a few days ago, but it’s already climbed my charts. Forever Grey is a darkwave band out of my home state of California, in Los Angeles. This song is already four years old, as the album it’s on, Alabaster Chamber, came out in 2016. They’ve had more recent albums since. The lyrics don’t make a whole lot of sense to be honest, but I just like the sound of the song. “False truth or fake hope. We say yes to death.”
Velvet
Acid Christ – Futile 98
I have a history with this band. I recorded the song “Fun With Drugs” on my first mixtape back in 1999 off the radio, way before I was into that type of music. It was more than a decade before I found out what band had made that song. I finally went ahead and bought the album “Fun With Drugs” had come on just recently, Fun With Knives. It was a remastered edition released last year, although the original album is from 1998. Velvet Acid Christ is an electronic industrial band known for their use of voice samples from movies and television. This song in particular uses samples from the Borg on Star Trek. I’d heard a shorter version of this song before, as I purchased a “Best of Velvet Acid Christ” CD a few years ago, but I didn’t hear the extended “98” version until I bought this album.
Tearful
Moon – The Stars Have Fallen and Died
Some more darkwave, Tearful Moon pretty similar in style to Forever Grey, really. Same genre. “The Stars Have Fallen and Died” is another song that came out in 2016.My musical tastes have been out of date lately. This song has a spacey feel too it which I always love. The lyric “This world is a lie” sticks with me. Maybe because I’ve felt this to be true in recent years. It’s music to have a good existential crisis to.
Honorary
Mention: Forever Grey – Lost in a Moment
Here’s another song from this band that I heard recently. It doesn’t quite beat out “The Style is Death”, but it’s close. It was first released as a single in 2016 but was included on the band’s newest album, Departed, in March of 2020. Which is how I started getting into this band, as one of the YouTube goth music channels I follow posted this song up.
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