Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Peter Murphy sings all the hits

2008-07-10T02:21:50Z

A highlight of our trip to Maryland last week was seeing Peter Murphy in Baltimore, though the less said about the club (and the opening act) the better. The last time we saw him as a solo act was at the 9:30 Club in 2004, when he was being force...

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Blues backwards: On the Road Again

2008-02-28T04:39:31Z

Of course everyone knows that "On the Road Again" is a blues standard made famous by Canned Heat in 1968: But I didn't know that in the 80s; my first encounter with it was on synth band (or what in retrospect is referred to as "minimal wave") Sc...

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Homegrown Gothic: Vigil

2007-12-09T17:04:04Z

One Baltimore-area band to almost hit it big in the 80s was Vigil; I think they were actually based in Glen Burnie. The quartet of Jo Connor, Andy Reynolds, "X Factor" and Gregg Maizel had gained a local following under the moniker "Here Today," ...

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Gothic funk: Brilliant

2007-12-06T04:36:46Z

At the forefront of the 80s gothic funk bands was Brilliant, the band formed by bassist Youth (Martin Glover) after leaving Killing Joke in 1982. (And they weren't the only one, I can think of about two more.) If Wikipedia is to be believed, the...

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The March Violets and Leeds again

2007-11-14T23:05:44Z

In the runup to their December 8 reunion show in Leeds, The March Violets have just released a new downloadable mp3 via their website, and they're encouraging fans to share the track, so here it is: What do you think? I'm still on the fence, I ...

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Leeds: The March Violets (The Curse of John Hughes part 2)

2007-11-04T04:46:46Z

Just days after Shelleyan Orphan announce a reunion gig, The March Violets announce one too. I guess there's something to what Bob Lefsetz says about live shows being where the money is in the music industry. Like a mainstream news outlet, I'm g...

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The Curse of John Hughes Part 1: Flesh for Lulu

2007-10-06T00:04:31Z

Flesh for Lulu sprouted from the branch of British Goth rock that turned up the guitars, and their 1984 song "Subterraneans" was in my personal heavy rotation list for several weeks that year. I was enamored of synth-and-drum-machine bands at the...

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The Sociology of Joy Division

2007-07-13T00:35:10Z

I don't read much sociology, but I couldn't resist picking up (from the library) the new essay collection Goth: Undead Subculture from Duke University Press, edited by Lauren Goodlad and Michael Bibby. The two framing questions of the book are (1...

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