In 1978 JOY DIVISION was still called Warsaw (from DAVID BOWIE’s Warszawa); IGGY POP convert Ian Curtis wanted his band to be as Punk as Robert Smith’s Easy Cure, both walking on SEX PISTOLS’ shoes/shows. SISTERS OF MERCY? BAUHAUS? Nobody would hear from them in years.

1978 saw the release of SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES’ debut The Scream. The first Gothic record in all of Rock N’Roll, amidst the very Punk hurricane.

Outpouring from a SEX PISTOLS’ contingent of dedicated fans (the Blomley Contingent) and counting on Sid Vicious as their original drummer (lately replaced by Kenny Morris), Siouxsie Sioux (born Susan Janet Ballion), Steve Severin and John McKay caught the attention of producer Steve Lillywhite (afterwards, adopted by U2) to provide the bridge from Punk to Post-Punk with all their theatrical doom and gloom, their anguish and tortured yells from the pits of utterly depression. The strength of ongoing musical struggles fed SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES through the growing pains of their incandescent journey, overtaking the Punk revolution to bring about the aftermath.

When I mean depression, there is nothing to do with Emo’s phony broken hearts, MORRISSEY’s closet depression or even NIRVANA’s “I hate myself and I want to die” aesthetics of suicide. I mean existential depression. Depression of existing, not bringing about a new world or refusing to cope with it taking your own life. SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES though the world was a bad thing to taste, back in 1978. Where Punks found an excuse for non-conformity and rage, to bring about the end of this world, Goths found acquiescence of living in a wasteland. Living through it. They were survivors. Remaining a creative outfit up to 1995 provides the ultimate proof.

Siouxsie Sioux opened her wounds through haunting, impossible-to-ignore earnest vocals, colliding with the sparky melting pot of her colleagues. She really meant that all. The razor in her voice flew all around the band in tandem with archetypical synths all in a row. She caught rhymes from the borders of incongruent emotions, as shown eloquently by their best song yet, Jigsaw Feeling.

However, the opening number is no Siouxsie solo triumph. Pure is a nightmarish gathering of wolves, blurred howling overtaking McKay’s anguished guitar. The worldless disharmony (a scream) becomes, without a pause, the jangly razorblade of Jigsaw Feeling, parsimonious Severin opening gates for McKay, inexorable. Siouxsie stings back with a vengeance, grandiose and decayed. Tragic realization of emotional disarray leads the number to a downward spiral of riffs and the bliss of paranoid vocals – the singer shredding her chords and clothes in cathartic despair. By the way, we have McKay predating ART BRUT’s Formed A Band main riff by 3 decades…

Circular guitar motifs bring forth Overground, latterly included in their Greatest Hits. It’s as typical a Goth song from the 1980s one could have expected from the ultimate exponents of the genre. Hideous minimalist electronic effects – in crescendo, of course – carve an ideal background for Siouxsie’s elegantly doomy tales. “Don’t give up life in this netherworld” she suggests. Klings and klangs become obnoxious and the chorus becomes a perturbing mantra of acquiesced inadequacy. This is the prototype for 16 years of Gothic raptures…Carcass is the most energetic number in the set (what an irony). Severin and McKay provide Punkish dynamics while Siouxsie sounds positively intoxicated in a creepy singalong until “…we become carcass”. This is all about exhaustion, being used and abused. Siouxsie begs to “stay in love” but the coda is an old dress dragged to smithereens. Obsessive relationships.

Obsession drives their downtrodden rendition of THE BEATLES’ own deranged Grunge precursor, Helter Skelter. Unlike their forthcoming Dear Prudence rendition, there’s nothing here resembling respect and fidelity. The pace changes maddeningly, from a stompy intro to a tongue-in-cheek collapse, bridges repeated to overbearing effect. Siouxsie assures she’s no “f*cking dancer”. Once sloppy, the song becomes a statement on fueled perseverance. The whole thing ends abruptly. This is the most shrieking cover from the 1970s apart from PATTI SMITH’s My Generation from you know whom…Mirage follows in a calmer, but nevertheless energetic and still obsessive, vein. A more “commercial” item, for the 21st century at least, flashy guitars and shimmering bass lines with Siouxsie thrown in between to melodic hooks. It could have been a hit for YEAH YEAH YEAHS or THE KILLS. Despite all this, it’s a minor number.

Once in a lifetime Kenny Morris shows his chops in unsettling Metal Postcard (proving Budgie was the missing piece in the BANSHEES’puzzle). Siouxsie percolates the can’t-be-bothered landscape with provocative detachedness and hiccup acrobatics. The band forges a faux-Blues pattern. In other hands – say, JUDAS PRIEST – it would have been a deceptively serious rapid fire. Here, it is a mid-pace grey satirical theatrical performance, sending Karen O back to school. “Metal, come on, come on”. Nicotine Stain is an expressionist-tinged Punk number reminiscent of early THE DAMNED. The dark routine chronicling would prove familiar to THE CURE fans circa Pornography. The red-hot soloing lifts number above its peers.

Suburban Relapse, near the end, is a grim urban tale from suburban creatures. Siouxsie crawls distortedly whereas the band predates SOUNDGARDEN and MELVINS extended gloomy jams. They were no Grunge, though – the vocals still have central place and there’s no detuned soloing. This is a Post-Punk band pushing the boundaries of their newfound genre. THE BANSHEES’ debut was a 21-minute rendition of The Lord’s Prayer, which helps making sense of the streamlined number under scrutiny. Last but not least, Switch is a melancholic power ballad, the sole concession to the matters of the heart here. Still, “…watching the muscles stretching for a brand new switch” is much far from your traditional post-heartbreak – it bears “tragic side effects”. Severin, McKay and Morris do their solo stuff quite well. Siouxsie is languid, but unmistakably wounded. She whispers and moans, building at atmosphere of emotional emptying and anxiety for change about to come. “They’re dying to switch”. No Emos - they survived. People praised YEAH YEAH YEAHS’ last record in what regards this kind of song – that’s precisely why I find they definitely lacking in something! See ya.

File under: Gothic, 101

(I wish they were UN)Related reviews

http://www.epinions.com/content_294236360324
YEAH YEAH YEAHS’ Show Your Bones

Tracklist:

* * * * 1/2 Pure
* * * * * Jigsaw Feeling
* * * * 1/2 Overground
* * * * 1/2 Carcass
* * * * Helter Skelter
* * * 1/2 Mirage
* * * * Metal Postcard
* * * * Nicotine Stain
* * * * Suburban Relapse
* * * * 1/2 Switch

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep