Author/journalist Joel Gausten talks with New York-based Noise/No Wave-inspired duo Genre Is Death about their sound, work ethic, recent work with famed producer Martin Bisi, and more.
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Nothing involving Killing Joke is ever fucking easy.
I’m sitting at my desk in my home office in New Hampshire after returning from the most insane travel experience I’ve had in decades of flying. The journey to Chicago from Boston had already been a logistical shitstorm, but nothing prepared me for the 24-HOUR ordeal that followed when it was time to leave.
My luck ran out shortly after getting what was quite possibly the last flight out of O’Hare early Saturday morning (before the snow made leaving the city untenable), only to then endure several hours of faulty airplanes, missed connections, cancellations, rebookings, more cancellations, service-desk showdowns, and the near-miss of being stranded in Orlando until Tuesday. (Don’t ask.)
I’m quite certain it was all Raven’s doing. The most charismatic charlatan I’ve ever encountered and I had a surreally epic falling-out in early 2007. (Pro tip, kids: approach writing about your heroes cautiously.) Despite a few mutual friends assuring me that it all could likely be sorted out over an in-person spliff and handshake, the man went upstairs (downstairs?) before that opportunity. And he’s been fucking with me to varying degrees ever since. (I’m not bullshitting you. One day, I grabbed the first of several unlabeled microcassettes I found in a storage box, put it in the player, pushed “play,” and immediately heard his voice. Another time, an old address book fell out of the closet while I was moving boxes, hit the floor, and opened to Raven’s phone number.)
Here’s the thing: I’d head to Logan Airport RIGHT NOW and go through it all again if it meant I could experience last Friday night at Reggies a second time. Killing Joke is a complex entity that has been comprised of more than one epic pain in the ass over the years, but I would walk through fire for that band any goddamn day.
If you care enough to read this post, you already know why. That unexplainable thing that drives us all to be in that band’s presence. To listen to their music. To let their sounds touch our souls. To connect with others from around the world who feel the same thing.
We all felt it on Friday night
There hadn’t been a public memorial for Geordie, nor had there been one for everyone’s favorite pirate. Martin’s Extremities shebang finally gave us the chance. It was also a long-overdue celebration of Killing Joke’s most incendiary era. An event concocted by everyone’s favorite party planner/mad screen printer. There were problems leading up to the show (because Killing Joke), including the controversial decision to swap out guitarists mere weeks before the event. It could have all gone pear-shaped very quickly, but I always trust Martin to somehow turn a shitshow into something magical.
He did, and it was. Leaner, thinner, and happier than I’ve seen him in years, Martin assembled a group of disparate musicians (because Martin) and gifted us the opportunity to embrace this music live once again — giving our beloved Joke the respect and emotional sendoff it deserved.
Sitting with Roger (dear friend, travel buddy, life coach) in the VIP balcony, it was impossible not to shed tears as the show unfolded. Fuck, my eyes were watering by the second verse of “Money Is Not Our God.” By the time the somber trumpet-and-cello interpretation of “Love Like Blood” began, I was a full-on mess. Killing Joke was/is the most special part of my life’s soundtrack. Martin and co. cut the rose in full bloom. They broke my heart and put it back together multiple times on Friday night — just as Killing Joke’s music always has.
Mark Gemini Thwaite. Far too nice a man to have been handed the pants-shittingly high expectations that came with his role in the proceedings, especially with Ginny in attendance. How did he do emulating the coolest guy not in the room? Well, many of my tears were due to the tones he got from the guitar. Thanks for giving Geordie back to me, MGT, if only for an evening.
Tara Busch. What a talent.
The evening was already a success well before the first note. Seeing Karen and Ivan. Wysh and Alfred. Reidy and K W. With this thing of ours, the hugs are always tighter, and the moments shared are always more meaningful.
Other highlights:
• Grabbing a quick dinner with Mark and Geno shortly after arriving at Reggies.
• Giving Dirk a hug after not seeing him in person for nearly a decade.
• Watching Martin set a cash register on fire post-show, at the same spot behind Reggies where Jaz had done it in the “Money Is Not Our God” video, after showing the crowd the building where Invisible was located in the ’90s and where Lab Report lived during that era. (Moments later, I saw a new text on my phone from Matt Schultz. There’s no such thing as a coincidence.)
• Getting in a super-quick post-show hello with Randy just as the Uber arrived to pick up Roger and me.
There’s more, but I’m knackered. I need more sleep, although I’m a bit reluctant to let my guard down in case Raven decides to burn down my apartment while I snooze.
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I say this with the utmost love and respect, but the national Industrial/Electronic/Goth/Whatever Else Fills Dark Force Fest scene (especially in my beloved second home of Chicago) is a bloated beast in desperate need of a good popping.
My inbox is regularly inundated with submissions from seemingly everyone with access to cheap recording gear in their bedrooms and an Andrew Eldritch fetish. Look, I love this thing of ours as much as the next 400 people who’ve ever waltzed onstage at a Pigface show, but after a while, it all starts to sound the same … and that sound ain’t always great.
So, how does someone in this scene rise above the maelstrom of mediocrity and offer something fresh and actually exciting?
Be like Bellhead.
For the past half-decade or so, the Chicago-based two-bass duo of Ivan Russia and Karen Righeimer-Schock has consistently risen above the heap the old-fashioned way: by leaving the safe confines of its hometown scene (and their bedrooms!), hitting the road as often as possible, and delivering a slew of exquisitely produced releases that get stronger at every turn.
The pair’s latest EP, Threats, is the sound of two experienced musicians working hard to bring something innovative to the proceedings. Mixing stellar production (including programmed drums that actually sound like drums) with earworm-inducing songwriting, Bellhead succeeds in eclipsing its past work (including 2023’s stellar Good Intentions) while offering a tantalizing preview of even greater things to come.
How to describe Threats without giving away too much of the store? Well, the opening title track is a perfect song to sandwich between Skold vs. KMFDM and Vision Thing. Subdued, snarling male vocals in the verses give way to one of the most soaring, so-simple-yet-effective-it-hurts choruses this side of “Head Like a Hole.” Meanwhile, Righeimer-Schock’s seductive, whispered mid-song refrain — “Good girls get good things / Bad girls take what they want” — seals the deal. The track is a grand statement of intent and progress that instantly makes Bellhead circa 2025 an essential listen.
As for the rest, there’s not a single moment on Threats that betrays the title track’s initial promise. The drum-heavy and brilliantly structured “Shutters + Stutters,” which again utilizes Righeimer-Shock’s quiet, Shoegazey vocals to counterbalance Russia’s Gothy growl, is the EP’s undisputed gem. Elsewhere, the first 30 seconds of “No Dead Heroes” are the best notes Sascha Konietzko and company never wrote, and you can practically smell the amyl nitrate coming out of your speakers during the dark, dance-club-y Stabbing Westward remix of the Good Intentions track “Bad Taste,” which wraps up Threats in a leather-studded bow.
In an era when many of their contemporaries are content to linger in recycled reverb and familiar shadows, Bellhead is already chasing the light ahead.
Bellhead is set to perform at Martin Atkins’ “Extremities” event on Friday, November 28, at Reggies in Chicago. Go here for the typical array of Martinpalooza merch/ticket packages.
Bellhead:
https://bellhead.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/bellheadband/
https://www.instagram.com/bellheadband/
https://www.youtube.com/@bellhead3250
Bellhead Mailing List Sign-Up:
Author/journalist Joel Gausten talks with Biohazard drummer Danny Schuler about the band's first album in more than a decade (Divided We Fall), the art of drumming, the band's in-progress documentary, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, the influence of NYHC legends Agnostic Front, and much more.
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Author/journalist Joel Gausten talks with author/musician Jim Marcus (Die Warzau/GoFight/Pigface) about his many books (including The Rise and Fall of the MekaDisko and Tales of the Octagon), the art of writing, the rise of artificial intelligence, polyamory, and a host of social and political topics, including the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Author/journalist Joel Gausten talks with Permacrush frontman Chris Crush about the band's 22-year career, working with drummer Kenny Aronoff, the economics of touring as an independent Rock act, and more.
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