We Have A Technical

Bruce and Alex are home from their respective trips, and are getting back in the swing of things by releasing the interview they conducted with longtime IDUD faves Ashbury Heights at Terminus Festival. A congenial conversation that touches on the entirety of the catalogue, the current live incarnation of the band, and what the future may hold, the Senior Staff were incredibly pleased to get this opportunity to chat with them on the occasion of their first ever North American performance. All that, plus some catching up on and chatter about recent live shows to boot!

Welcome to In Conversation, a fill-in/bonus format podcast series wherein each of the Senior Staff invites a friend to sit in for some casual chat about shared interests relevant to the normal goings on at I Die: You Die. This week, Bruce is talking with author Bess Lovejoy about their shared experiences in 90s Vancouver goth clubs, Bess' work in death studies and death positivity, and the distinction between the gothic and the just plain morbid.

Welcome to In Conversation a fill-in/bonus format podcast series wherein each of the Senior Staff invites a friend to sit in for some casual chat about shared interests relevant to the normal goings on at I Die: You Die. This week, Alex has a jaw with longtime friend of the site Evilyn13 about DJing, twitch streaming, the world of cosplay, dogs eating our microphones during the recording, and so much more! Thanks for tuning in, we think this is a really fun one. 

Four days, thirty acts, one venue, countless pints of 88 Brewing's Wave Pool IPA, two very exhausted but happy podcasters. In one of our favourite annual traditions, we're discussing all of the acts running the gamut from synthpop to goth rock to doom rap to EBM who graced our beloved Terminus Festival this past weekend at Calgary. Please note that written coverage at the site is on hiatus until the 21st as we're both away on family trips, but we'll have a pair of specially formatted podcast episodes on the next two Thursdays to tide you over.

A loosely Terminus-themed two albums episode of the podcast has us discussing Trepaneringsritualen's Kainskult and Chrysalide's Don't Be Scared, It's About Life on the eve of our heading out to Industrial Summer Camp. We're also talking about Sinéad O'Connor's passing, the second leg of Skinny Puppy's final tour, and the prospect of a new mind.in.a.box record on the last We Have A Technical before we take a bit of a break from the website, but don't worry; we'll have regularly scheduled podcasts for you every Thursday through this brief hiatus. 

On this month's patreon-supported commentary podcast, we're hanging out with Devours, AKA Jeff Cancade, to talk about his new record Homecoming Queen track by track, discussing in turn its themes of reflection, family, and secondary attacks of various SNES characters. 

Bruce and Alex are taking a throwback trip to late 00s dancefloors with Kloq's Move Forward and another into the weird melodies and formal experimentation of Domagoj Krsic with the Cyborgs On Crack compilation Industrial Polka Classics on this week's podcast. All that plus your regularly scheduled discussion of clickbait industrial listicles, as well as t-shirt giveaways on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

A rather heavy and somewhat morbid Pick Five formatted episode of We Have A Technical has the Senior Staff selecting opening lines of songs which have stuck with them, and considering their power and implications. Which lyricists' renderings of themes of depression, mortality, nostalgia, and love lost have stuck with Bruce and Alex as they now hurtle through middle age? All that plus some Infest and Rammstein news bites.

Records by Shadow Project and A Split Second cover the extremes of the goth and EBM dimensions of ID:UD's purview on this week's episode of We Have A Technical, and as it turns out, lead to at least one rare split decision between the Senior Staff. We're also talking about a couple of passings within the industrial and goth worlds, additions to Terminus Festival, and the first issue of the new Statik zine.

Our latest commentary podcast has us going back to the deepest roots of one of the most important and celebrated industrial bands of all time. Holed up in West End apartments, Ogre and cEvin Key recorded Back & Forth, a collection of minimalist demos which pointed towards their interests in dub, Portion Control, and The Legendary Pink Dots, yet still hold some early trace of the version of Skinny Puppy we would all come to know and love.

It's the twelfth anniversary of I Die: You Die this week, and thus we're taking a look back at the road that took us here on this week's podcast. In particular, we're (briefly) discussing records from each of the years in question. Rather than simply reviewing our favourite records or undisputed classics, we're looking at some records which speak to their contemporary zeitgeist, maybe never got their just desserts, or which have stuck with us through the years more than we might have expected. We're also talking about the Darker Waves festival in Los Angeles and Edmonton's Purple City Music Festival.

On this week's podcast, we're discussing the reasons why certain acts seem to cultivate a much more dedicated fan base than others. Charisma? Solid live show? Tapping into hitherto unexplored themes? What's defines the line between broadly successful acts and cult ones? We're talking about all that, plus some Ministry and Comaduster chat, on this week's episode of We Have A Technical.

Aggrotech and darkwave might not have much in common musically, but we're finding some interesting links between the two albums up for discussion on this week's podcasts in terms of aesthetic focus and intentionality. We're referring, of course, to the dramatic arrival of Scotland's Surgyn with 2011's Vanity and the high watermark of X-Mal Deutschland's ambition, 1987's Viva. 

We're speaking this week with Raven Rissy and David from Vancouver band Hem Netjer. The band's woven a unique tapestry of industrial and darkwave sounds as well as broader folk instrumentation from around the world, with a very particular set of mythological and spiritual themes. We're also looking back on The Cure's set here in Vancouver last week.

This week's Pick Five formatted podcast has us discussing some unlikely cover selections. What tracks were we surprised to find taken up by various goth, industrial, and EBM acts, seemingly at odds with their own moods or stylings? Have those selections gone on to shape our understanding of the artists who made them? We're also discussing the recent allegations made against Rammstein and their associates by various fans over the last week.

This month's Patreon-supported bonus podcast has us taking up a slightly different style of release than the usual LP: we're talking about the first salvo in that most 90s of rivethead conflicts, The Remix Wars. Yes, in 1996 :wumpscut: and Haujobb squared off, each remixing three of the other act's tracks for 21st Circuitry, and we'll be talking about where each of these storied industrial acts were in their respective careers, as well as offering History Channel-styled evaluation of each remix's military prowess.

We're very happy to have our interview with Alison Lewis of Zanias on this week's episode of We Have A Technical. Lewis spoke frankly and earnestly with us about the personal and musical changes tied in with her new record Chrysalis.

There's no beating around the bush as the entirety of this episode is dedicated to recapping the three night multi-stage iteration of our local Verboden Festival which went down this past weekend (full disclosure: the Senior Staff served as emcees for the fest). We're talking about unexpected show stealers, divisive stage shows, and a whole mess of Canadian premieres.

Recorded a couple of days early so as to allow each member of the Senior Staff to fulfill our patriotic duty and go see Skinny Puppy live, this episode has us scratching our heads and offering thoughts about the ways in which Canada's identity, history, and geography has and hasn't shaped the darker music made within the true north. 

This week we're talking about the gloomy, atmospheric post-punk of Poland's Ziyo, and the odd n' sods Euro electro of Human Decay's swan song. We're also pushing back a bit against the presumption of Euro festivals' primacy in a moderately spicy episode of We Have A Technical.