We Have A Technical

Our last Patreon-supoorted commentary podcast of the year has us listening to the sophomore (?) record from Ontario's The Birthday Massacre. The record's combination of darkwave and broader rock and pop sounds made it a huge hit in 2004: how does it hold up? How were the band's enduring sounds and themes cemented here? Can we talk about a band like TBM without using ugly words like "branding"? And what do they have in common with bands as far ranging as The Cure, Blink 182, and Deadsy? Find out as we close out the year's album commentaries in spooky fashion!

As Year End coverage waits in the wings, your favourite post-industrial palookas are taking a look back at the year that was. Yes, it's a Pick Five episode with the dead simple theme of tracks from 2018. Yep, tunes which represented this year's broader trends as well as plain old earworms are being picked up and discussed, alongside recent live sets from SRSQ and HIDE on We Have A Technical! (And as for the stinger, it was Greta Van Fleet.)

It's a very English and very apocalyptic episode of We Have A Technical as recent records by Gazelle Twin and Current 93. Be it political, personal, or religious, endings and great changes are taken up in fraught and anxious ways on "Pastoral" and "The Light Is Leaving Us All". Bruce and Alex also take a look at the just announced Mechanisms Fest and the website's impending year end coverage on this week's IDieYouDie.com podcast!

Legendary producer John Fryer has had a hand in just about all of the genres of music we discuss on We Have A Technical, and we're chatting with him this week about his legacy behind the decks and his open-ended musical project Black Needle Noise featuring a revolving cast of guest vocalists. All that plus some talk about And One taking touring drama to YouTube, and the latest in a long line of Coil bootlegs on the latest podcast from I Die: You Die!

This month's We Have A Commentary podcast takes a tour through the diabolical world of Everything Goes Cold. "Vs General Failure," the first LP of Eric Gottesman's coldwave project brings all of the manic suppervillainy that we've come to expect from EGC, but also has a surprisingly human and vulnerable core. Alex and Bruce discuss the history of coldwave, the horrors of the American health care system, and the shadowy conspiracy at the heart of the second law of thermodynamics on the latest installment of IDieYouDie.com's Patreon supported podcast series!

Helium Vola and Solvent's connections to Our Thing may take the form of winding paths demanding historical context, but that's exactly why your old pals Alex and Bruce are here. From the sacred music root of Enrst Horn's extravagance to the strange intersections of electroclash, synthpop, and analog whimsy Jason Amm taps into, we're here to guide you. All that plus some discussion of The Quietus' new political writing on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

The new album from Dead Can Dance, replete with high concept and worldly instrumentation, is the subject of this week's We Have A Technical. How does it fit (or not) with the storied dynamic betwixt Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard? Are its Nietzschean ambitions vindicated? And since when has Dionysus been a psychologist? All these questions, plus discussion of recent shows by Odonis Odonis and Clan Of Xymox on the latest episode of the IDieYouDie.com podcast!

You'd be hard pressed to find records as different from each other within Our Thing as Hypnoskull's "Electronic Music Means War To Us" and Solemn Novena's "Kiss The Girls". But that's not gonna stop Alex and Bruce from discussing them and hell, even finding some commonalities between raw power noise and second wave goth rock revisited. All that plus talk on the Numb news and current Clan of Xymox tour on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

Okay, okay, ahem - Alex and Bruce absolutely were ready to have a podcast up the day after Halloween and definitely didn't cobble something together at the last minute because their all-night spook-tacular rager left them without research or a tangible topic. No sir-ee. So when they're picking five Halloween party deep cuts, you can rest assured knowing that this episode of We Have A Technical comes with all the hallmarks of quality you've come to expect from IDieYouDie.com!

In anticipation of Halloween, Alex and Bruce are talking about the role horror literature, imagery, and themes have played across the breadth and history of dark music. From the theological torment of Christian Death through the techno-horror of Skinny Puppy up to the camp horror cribbing of aggrotech, a broad ranging (and slightly raucous) conversation ensues. All that plus Hocico's recent stop in Vancouver and some very exciting news about a project emerging from the Telekon Slack channel on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

No less classic a record than Bauhaus' "Mask" gets the full length editorial treatment in this month's Patreon supported We Have A Commentary episode! We discuss the band's moves away from the angular aggression of "In The Flat Field" and toward the polished and ornamented singles which still mark their legacy, the press' legendary contempt for the band's theatrics, and so much more (ie, a hell of a lot of pumping of David J's tires).

You'd be hard pressed to find albums more dichotomous than the two the Senior Staff are discussing on this week's podcast. That said, Foetus' "Hole" and Deine Lakaien's "Dark Star" are both records Alex and Bruce have spent years listening to and fit them like gloves despite being maniacally destructive and melodramatic, respectively. All that plus the Senior Staff's thoughts on the Green Guy finally getting his papers in order in Canada on We Have A Technical!

This episode of We Have A Technical offers up an interview with none other than C-Tec! Jean-Luc De Meyer and Marc Heal join us to talk about the origins and future of arguably the greatest industrial supergroup of all time, how it frees them up to take different paths than their other projects, and which members of the band would taste best. All that plus updates on Uncle Gary Numan and coverage of industrial music in broader music media. Can the Senior Staff get through this episode without any editing errors? Only one way to find out...

This week the Senior Staff are on the mean streets of LA, catching all the goings on at the third and final stop of the Cold Waves festival tour. Alex and Bruce discuss all the sets from bands new and old and are joined throughout the episode by bands and other friends who offer their thoughts on and memories of the fest. It's a full-throttle trip through rivethead heaven on this week's episode of We Have A Technical!

On the occasion of Storming The Base scaling back and changing their operations, the Senior Staff are taking up the topic of mail order. From filling out money orders for Steril singles to trying to figure out which format a Bandcamp purchase should be in, Bruce and Alex are looking at mail order from both a nostalgic and business-minded perspective. All that, plus some last minute Cold Waves biz and a whole bunch of Blade Runner bullshit on the latest episode of We Have A Technical!

With industrial supergroup C-Tec back in action touring across the continent, the Senior Staff are revisiting their second LP, 2000's "Cut". What do each of Heal, Denton, and De Meyer bring to the project? How does it hold up in comparison to its predecessor? And how many Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel references can be shoehorned into an industrial music podcast? Find out on this month's Patreon supported We Have A Commentary podcast!

Hot on the heels of last week's knock down dragout fisticuffs, Bruce and Alex kick back with a good old fashioned Pick 5 episode of We Have a Technical. Yes, B-Sides are the topic, as each of the Senior Staff picks a couple personal faves and then expounds on why they enjoy them so well. Plus we talk the recent Die Krupps Visa Issues, some unexpected revelations pertaining to Mortal Kombat The Movie (really) and more, all this week on the official I Die: You Die podcast!

Things get personal, very personal, as the Senior Staff embark upon the third Great Debate. Each is acting as a representative of their favourite album of all time, and no punches are pulled as Alex and Bruce champion the virtues of two undisputed classics. The Cure's "Disintegration". Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures". Two albums enter. One leaves. One...gets its corners dinged. It's the Great Debate III on We Have a Technical! 

The ol' ID:UD mailbag is pulled open in this episode of the podcast, with all manner of questions ranging from the ruminatively serious to the frothily flippant being taken up by the Senior Staff. How will Die Sektor, Emilie Autumn -and- Tomohiro Ishii all make their way onto the world's premier podcast for post-industrial pedantry? There's only one way to find out, gentle listener.

Matia Simovich of Inhalt joins Alex and Bruce on the podcast this week to discuss how that project's trilogy of EPs responds to the crisis of late capitalism, the rhythm of the German language, and how Deleuzean rhizomes can destabilize genres. We also have a bit of a preview of the upcoming Cold Waves LA festival which we'll be attending, and all manner of other updates and bon mots from the realm of darker alternatives.