The Merits of Gothic Sleaze

I read a few blogs written about music.  In particular, I read blogs written about specific bands, and found that they all took a surprisingly defensive stance.  

I don't mean yours, man, I read that one and I thought it was cool.

The writer would name the band, give tedious biographical information, some would even give album by album and even track by track reviews and then... Defensively begin to counter any and every argument made about how much this particular band sucks.  The writer would tell you that an album sucked not because of the band but a neglectful producer, that while the A-Side may have been a hit, you really should listen to the B-Side, because it's way better, and if only people had heard of this band, they would take over the known universe.

I'm not a music critic, nor an art critic in general and only know what I like, so my first music blog will take the form a grade school book report, or a "What I did during summer vacation" essay.  Simple reportage.

TYPE O NEGATIVE SUCKS

All I knew about Type O Negative was that the lead singer had vampire teeth.  I'd heard a bit of music here and there, seen a video or two, and for years I just called them "that Vampire Band".  Later I found out the lead singer was named Peter Steele and that he was once in Playgirl magazine.  He also died a couple years ago.  As a group, they focused on death, and on sex.  I discovered them at a time in my life when I actually had a pretty good and satisfying sex life and my parents were both dying, so perhaps you have to be in that kind of mindset to really "get" them.  This would explain their rather limited appeal.

Goth types seem to have a reputation for being very somber and serious.  Every once in a while I'll pick up and issue of "Gothic Beauty" magazine and admire the way-out fashions of that scene and invariably there's an editorial of some kind in which someone bemoans a misconception of the Goth community.  It was in an issue of this magazine that I read Type O Negative described as "Gothic Sleaze", also reading that what really makes you Gothic is your sense of humor.

Type O Negative released albums called "Origin of the Feces" and "Slow, Deep, and Hard".  I think that's funny.  They have songs with titles like "Everything Dies", "Everyone I Love is Dead", and "Requiem for a Soulless Man".  I think that's pretty funny, too.  

They did slow and morbid versions of "Cinnamon Girl" and "Summer Breeze" in a funeral dirge style that earned them the nickname "the Drab Four".  Get it?  The Beatles were the "Fab Four".  

I guess the "sleaze" factor comes in with songs like "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend", a joyful ode to group sex, and the almost thirteen minute long "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity".  In the latter, the lyric is basically a rant about an unfaithful girlfriend.  Peter Steele sings "Do you believe in forever?  I don't even believe in tomorrow.  The only things that last forever are memories and sorrow."  This isn't strictly true, it's a poetic overstatement, but one can relate.  Sex and death.  The macho, dismissive stance of the song is parodied at the end when the frustrated lover wails "You... You make me hate myself."  

Once you've seen death, really seen it, you realize not only the absolute worst that can become of you, but also it's inevitability.  It's kind of like what the samurai used to call "the Art of Dying", making a conscious effort to let go of this life day by day to ease ones mind and perhaps allow for more enjoyment of it.  To enjoy a dirty joke, enjoy sex, and enjoy all of the other things that one day you won't be able to enjoy.  You know, because you'll be dead.  It's not so bad when you think about it.  

If memories last forever, then I credit Type O Negative with never taking themselves too seriously.  It seems like anyone who's had a hit record these days is thought a genius, especially by the artists themselves, and it's refreshing to have a band that admitted their faults.  The ultimate epitaph for any group is the greatest hits compilation, and Type O Negative entitled theirs "The Least Worst of Type O Negative".  

Peter Steele evidently had a lifelong struggle with faith and had experienced addiction, pain, and loss and when he became ill embraced a spiritual nature he'd long denied.  This is admirable in itself, but more admirable still was his attitude about it.  He didn't give a damn what people thought.  He made his own way.  

Strangely enough, "Everything Dies" is one of the most life affirming songs I've ever heard.  If you listen to anything, listen to that one.  

Would you hire ANY of these guys to clean your pool?

Then write a blog about how much it sucks.  Type O Negative and I couldn't care less.