We Have A Commentary: Tones On Tail, "Pop"

Classic two albums formatted episode coming at you folks in the wake of Halloween and the seasonally appropriate bloodbath south of the border. The aggro and almost proto-dark electro EBM of prolific side project Insekt's Stress, as well as the synthpunk of Magas' Friends Forever which emerged in the shadow of electroclash are on the table!

Are Bauhaus side projects Halloween fare? Who's to say, but Pop, the one LP from the brief but memorable Tones On Tail is the subject of this month's commentary. Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins' attempts to both continue and break from the experimental side of their recently dissolved main band, the record's noir-absurdia mood, and so much more are all being explored here. 

As we get set for Halloween we're digging into the loosely defined but distinct "mutant" EBM sound or substyle. It's a term we've found useful in describing a slew of bands and records from recent years, but what exactly is it? What are its sonic features and influences? And why is it so damned colourful and funky?

This week we're joined by a trio of Patreon backers to chat with them about albums of significance to them. We're discussing the soupy industrial rock of Kidneythives' Trickster, the high-def nu-metal-cum-industrial of Celldweller's self titled debut, and the glitchy magick of Furnace, the first LP from Download. Thanks very much to Daemon, Cory, and Devyn for joining us!

On this week's episode we're joined by all four members of Vancouver's Actors, who talk with us about new LP Our Love Will Live Forever as the culmination of the band's first era, road stories, and their place within the broader Canadian musical ecosystem. We're also discussing the band's recent homecoming show, as well as a double-stuffed show which brought Twins, Spike Hellis, Kontravoid, and Buzz Kull to town.

This episode's Pick Five theme is a bit tricky to define - we're talking about band's we often splash out for. Now, that could just be a simple expenditure of money but could also encompass travel or time spent researching and keeping up with. To use wrestling parlance, which specific bands are we marks for? We hope it'll become clear over the body of the episode. We also have a whole slew of live business to discuss, with Bruce catching the Immortalis tour in Vancouver and Alex heading out to Toronto to see the long awaited live incarnation of The Tear Garden.

On this episode we're discussing the life and legacy of Das Ich's Bruno Kramm in the wake of his tragic passing as well as the one LP released under his solo project, Coeur by Kramm. We're also recapping a couple of shows from this past weekend.

Our monthly commentary podcast takes a slightly autumnal turn with the ethereal wave mastery of California's Claire Voyant. Their sophomore LP Time And The Maiden isn't just a watershed moment for the band, but arguably for an entire wave of likeminded 90s acts who never quite reached the depths of composition and subtlety that Claire Voyant did here. 

Get Mean, the new LP by Boy Harsher, is up for discussion on this week's episode. We're talking about the record's shift away from the oft-imitated sound pioneered by the duo, its releases on a major label, and the new metrics by which its sound and songwriting need to be evaluated.

We're dancing with the ones that brought us to the podcasting hoedown on this episode, as we discuss a pair of industrial records from the might aughts: Landscape Body Machine's Manifest Destiny and Haujobb's Vertical Theory. There's loads to be said about each LP in their own historical moment, and how we're now looking back at that time decades on, as well as within the catalogs of the artists themselves.