Make your own music videos: Triller

Wow I'm excited to share with you an app I tried out, Triller, that lets you make your own music videos! If, like me, you've always wanted to make them but didn't want to sit around for hours and hours editing footage, you'll love this.  And what's amazing is that they've got EVERYTHING. Even 90s German industrial bands. I was worried they were just going to have top 40 stuff.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Here's my favorite spooky organ song for your Halloween playlist. 

"Toccata"  from Suite gothique, Op. 25, an organ suite composed by Léon Boëllmann in 1895. I recommend listening to the Ernie Englund version of it on Spotify, but the above was the closest I could find. A lot of organists play it too fast IMO. 

I first heard it a few weeks ago when we went for a free organ concert at one of the NYC cathedrals. I was blown away. By the way, if you are in NYC and goth and broke, check out the cathedrals. They usually have free organ concerts. And organists love playing spooky organ songs. What's the point, otherwise?

Recommend some spooky classical songs? 

100 Day Music Challenge 11-20

100 day song challenge continues. I'm also including results from my husband.

Day 11: A song from an artist you are attracted to.


Gary Numan. Yeah, I'm a Numanoid

Husband says the person from Sneakerpimps. He recommends this band.

100 Day Song Challenge

I've been enjoying listening to Deux Ex Machina's songs in the 100 Song Challenge, so I thought I'd join in, even though I prefer to stay on dark-fashion topics only. Though, I guess some would say that dark fashion and dark music are inclusive. For fun, I'm also including my husband's answers. He's the stereotypical eldergoth and a musician (he was on a David Bowie tribute album, sharing the same disk space as The Dresden Dolls). And a total music snob :p

Liebster Award

So I've been tagged by Liberty Fox of Where Foxes Say Goodnight (she's also cataloging different types of alternative fashion...worth a look on her blog!) for a Liebster Award. Thanks! Here are her questions:

1. Who would you love to see in concert? (Even if they are dead now, who would you go back in time for?).
NIN in '99. This was before online ticket sales and I waited 4 hours in line to see them...was first in line. They did the lame raffle thing, and by the time it was my turn, all the shows were sold out. I'd later see them in 2005, but the Fragile was still my favorite album. 

Also Stiffs Inc, the beginning and end of Victorian punk, almost 20 years before the steampunk thing took off. Way ahead of their time and a shame they called it quits. 

2. Where is one place in the world you would love to see/travel to ?
Being a manga/anime nerd, Japan. Also Easter Island. Antarctica.

3. What is your favourite colour (other than black)? Pine green

4. What are your obsessions? What gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps you up until late at night?
Playing videogames. I can play 15 hours straight. 

5. What would be your ideal pet?
D'aww I miss my cat. I'd love to have her back.

6. What tips do you have for newbie bloggers? Aka, what do you think makes your blog successful?
I can tell you why my blog ISN'T successful. No clear brand (how am I skuzzlite, 1066X30, mutant stomp friends...etc all at once?!) or focus...no clear identity. Yeah, it's mostly dark-fashion focused, but then again there's this post, posts about my weekend, long expository posts on gaming. Who's the audience? Do I write for them? Well, I'm a little more higher-end fashion focused (so more designer stuff instead of Nightmare Before Christmas backpacks), but my tone is completely contradictory LOL!!!! I also don't post enough to draw regular visitors. 

While that's why my blog isn't successful, I wouldn't say it sucks. I think I have a more original POV, create original content, and have big, nice photos. The most important thing is good content. 

7. Favourite song?
Foetus: Water torture. I love every Foetus album ever. There are entire years of my life where I only listened to Foetus. There are dozens of us! Dozens! 

8. Person/thing/being you always wished you could be. A mermaid? Siouxsie Sioux? Susan Sto-Helit?
A ghost with ghostly powers. More a monster from a fairy tale than Casper. I guess I'll see eventually! Either that or cyborg. I shall be a ghost in a shell.

9. Is goth a really big part of your lifestyle> Do you eat, sleep and breathe goth, or occasionally lounge around with fluffy bunny slippers? (Or both): I'll assume you use the term "goth" loosely. In that case yes. While I don't spend my days ironing Cure patches on my couch cushions, most of my time is spent doing dark (dorky) things.

10. The person you are most proud of: my graduating class in my masters degree. We've gone on to do great things.

I'm late in the game for this, so I'm not going to tag anyone. 

Brooklyn Night Bazaar

Brooklyn Night Bazaar: it's a music venue, arcade, and craft fair in an old warehouse. Free to enter, but get there early to avoid the lines.

I'm still super sick but I had to brave the cold to go see one of my favorite BK band, Crystal Stilts (I wrote about em in this nu-goth music post) before they headed back on their world tour. here's the full lineup:

By the way, if you are ever in NYC, this is a great venue for seeing local bands. There wasn't a single weak set and the atmosphere is fantastic. I normally hate live music shows (I hate standing, hate all the tall people, hate all the downtime between sets) but this place was really awesome. 

nu-goth music? else, bands I like

Here I am, posting stuff without doing any research. What do people consider nu-goth music? No idea. I don't think there're and bands billing themselves that way, no matter how many times they show up on my tumblr feed.

I made a nu-goth playlist, and this is what I have on it. I picked these songs based qualities that the fashion has, which is:

minimalism
90s throwback, lo-fi
irony/humor, especially dark humor (hipster influence)
New (no old school)

Crystal Stilts
Local band out of Brooklyn (though they ARE just doing a world tour, so I guess not so local anymore. BTW best music = Brooklyn). The singer's voice is just so beautiful, I want to weep. The band doesn't bill itself as a goth band--it's quite indie, but very dreary. If nu-goth had a sound, I would definitely say this is it. Minimal, dark, grungy. Magnetic Moon is and old song and easily the most trad goth. and Star Crawl is just beautiful...and the video is cool too.

First Concert

Read more about the challenge here. My first real concert was actually the concert to end all concerts of the mid 90s: Hanson and Backstreet Boys. I went with my mom and my sister. My first real concert that I really wanted to go to was Korn in 2000. I was in 8th grade and it was at the Allstate Arena. It was a stadium show. I've got a few blurry photos from that day, which I included in this post.

Mindless Self Indulgence opened. At the time they were a no-name band. And they were TERRIBLE. The audience was doing whatever they could to boo them off the sage (me included). To the band's credit, the went on playing and told us they didn't care if we thought they sucked. Here's a song from Frankenstein Girls, the album they were promoting at the time, released just a month earlier.

Foetus

Happy Valentines Day! I got to meet one of my favorite musicians ever. Seriously, there's been like 5 years of my life where I listened to nothing to Foetus/ J. G. Thirlwell. Most people hate it as much as I LOVE it.

But tonight he was a special guest with Elysian Fields...and was fantastic! After his guest song, I caught him and was, lol, a total fan girl. He just nodded and said thanks and then left a few minutes later. REALLY AMAZIng!

Here's the crappy picture I took: