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 Caught in the Carousel - Music Reviews and More
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Spider Hole
By The Vinyl Princess
I regret that I didn't get to see this band live before I reviewed this CD because I bet they show their fans a damn good time. Unfortunately, because I'm sixteen, I don't think I'm allowed into the places they play unless I borrow my friend's sister's ID and her torn fishnet stockings and her black lipstick…and her eyeliner…and her ex-boyfriend who sports a tattoo of a spider web on his left bicep and has mystifying facial hair.
Hailing from Chandler, Arizona, The Spider Hole is made up of five guys—six, if you count Jerome, the elusive trumpet player. They offer up a unique blend of sexy, dirty goth cabaret, lively and dark with good lyrics to lose yourself in and if you lay on the floor and close your eyes while this CD plays (yes, try it), thoughts of anarchy and suicide might flicker through your brain like a strobe light. Fun, right? Ethan Scott (I think he might be the only member using his real name) sings and…well, that's it. Daryl Scairiot plays lead and arranges furniture and writes songs, Xerxes Quinn plays bass and founded the band with Ethan. Future (formerly of the stock market, till it's demise?) plays drums and masters everything in the liveliest of ways. Derek Sunshine plays synth when he's not designing video games (which I take to mean he only has to leave the house for gigs). Jerome plays free-form jazz on trumpet and chose not to have his photo on the ensemble staff page, which is slightly reminiscent of the cover of Presenting...Lothar and the Hand People. On Meth.
Vainglorious is the band's debut CD and all the cuts were mixed with finesse and skill, something you rarely find on a DIY first attempt. Standouts include: the fierce goth stomp of "Detective Show," the macabre sing-a-long "The Warden," the creepy carnival rave-up "Not Up My Sleeve, Up Yours," and the rabid, feral grooves of "If The Scar Man." I tend to prefer the cuts where I can hear the lyrics because, as I've mentioned, they're good, and by good, I mean weird.
On a side note, when I opened the Vainglorious CD case, there was a worm in it; a live one, eating the liner notes. Cryptic message or tasty snack? You be the judge.
Allow us to introduce you to the Dark Lords Of Desert Goth: The Spider Hole
FULL NAME: Ethan Scott
BAND MEMBERS: Ethan Scott (Vocals), XerXes Quinn (Bass, Keys), Daryl Scairiot (Guitar), Future (Percussion), Jerome Stokes (Trumpet, Keys)
YOUR HOMETOWN: Lake In The Hills, IL
WEBSITE: myspace.com/thespiderhole
RECORD LABEL: Independent
DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE SENTENCE: If The Doors opened a porn shop and called it "Bauhaus," and Oingo Boingo went shopping there for a mold of Frank Zappa's cash and prizes, but instead got distracted by a blow-up Tom Waits love doll, manufactured by the Pixies. Listening in on the resulting love-fest might make you think of us.
DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND IN ONE WORD: Noise.
PROUDEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: El Paso, TX. Club Area 51. 1999. 200+ people in the joint, scattered to all walls. Took the stage in a red royal robe. Sang "Statuesque" a capella, with my back to the room. Turned around to launch into the set and saw that BOOM! Everybody in the joint was packed against the stage. It was the first time I felt I could really own a crowd.
STRANGEST PROFESSIONAL MOMENT: It's all so very, very strange.
THE SONG YOU WISH THAT YOU'D WRITTEN: "Moonage Daydream"-David Bowie
THE SONG YOU'RE PROUD AS HELL YOU DID WRITE: "Don't Worry About The Sugar Planter" (to be released on our new album sometime next year!).
FIVE BEST BANDS TO EVER ROAM THE EARTH: Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Ramones, AC/DC
WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A KID?: Inquisitive. Quiet. Self-righteous. I wore my hair in my face and loved to dress up for school. I remember how important that felt to me. I was always on stage, but in my own world. You didn't need to care. It made no difference to me.
LIFE CHANGING MOMENT: Seeing my wife for the first time, on my driveway, listening to Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting, the first day of Spring, 1992.
MOST HUMBLING MOMENT: I think I achieved absolute humility when I saw Oxford and wept. Oxford and Kensington Gardens in London in the same week. These are the places where the fairy tales that shaped me were born, and so will always be beyond me.
BEST ALBUM TO PLAY AFTER A BREAK-UP AND YOU'RE HOLDING A BOTTLE OF VODKA AND SOMETHING SHARP: You'll have to ask someone else. The only thing in that sentence I'm not afraid of is albums.
INDULGENCE YOU REFUSE TO GIVE UP: I refuse to give up any indulgence.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY: Be nostalgic for the moment. Revel in the nuance of place, with awe and reverence, as if all the material world were a museum.
myspace.com/thespiderhole
www.sonicbids.com/thespiderhole
Vainglorious is out now.
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