The Witch House thread

I'm not sure if this really deserves a thread but there seems to be so few places where any info is gathered about this "scene" that I just wanted to see what you all thought.

My friends have been into some of this stuff (everyone I know seems to agree that Salem is the best one: http://www.myspace.com/s4lem), and I know that it's a mostly internet scene, very few of these guys play live (I know someone who had a hell of a time trying to book a show for one of these guys), and they're all into mining the same well of ideas including obscure names that include numbers and a sound that's basically goth minimalism with screwed and chopped drums in there.

I'm digging Salem myself. What else do you guys know about this stuff?

There's a thread that covers a bunch of this stuff here:

Salem - What kind of music genre is this ?

I'm a sucker for it (I like the oOoOOO, or however they spell it, stuff I've heard, too).

I can't bring myself to call it "Witch House."

The videos of Salem playing live at some FADER event were depressing. They murdered their entire mood and mystique for me. Some great tracks, though. Curious how a whole album of it would work.

the P4K feature on this stuff is pretty good and useful (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7806-ghosts-in-the-machine/). I still have no idea of what to make of any of it other than I've decided that I'm cool with a goth revival after being on the wrong side of things the last few times around. Balam Acab and oOoOO are both working for me and I like what I've heard of White Ring even though they are biting what Salem did already pretty hard.

"witch house"

The videos of Salem playing live at some FADER event were depressing hilarious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ZetW6bQ7Q

<3 the comments

sorry to get all Chris Ott here, but it's unfuckingbelievable to me that I can count at least three "tastemaking" music websites staffed with living breathing 30-somethings can actually feign excitement over underdone, underdeveloped bullshit like witch house and chillwave.

i'm dying at this video -- there's no way this isn't a joke

basically, Jeff Mangum and Julian Casablancas melded into one person and start mumbling over Brett Scallions from Fuel and some other random lady playing arbitrary notes on Korgs set to "spooky"

*started

I think the name "Witch House" is great! Much better than "drag". It would only be better if they were all actual Witches. Seriously.

I mean, it's so descriptive. You think, what would I find in a Witch House, and you instantly start to think of spooky stuff.

Also, I thought the White Ring/oOoOO single was quite good.

As a genre I don't know if I can defend this stuff, certainly from charges of it being underdone and underdeveloped and God that video was embarrassing, but I can't help but love some of this stuff.

Jesus Christ, I hadn't seen *that* video. I'd only seen the below one (from the same show), which features some painfully out-of-tune vocals and some embarassing electric drumming. That other video is mind boggling. Is it possible that they really did damage their nascent career with this single gig?! The previous reports from their shows made them seem genuinely mysterious and frightening (the other thread mentions a few shows) - this is possibly impossible to recover from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IOX3LQbwdw&feature=related

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/buzz-band-salem-gets-booed-stage-fader-fort-during-sxsw/

those videos are amazing. i think i would pay good money to see them live purely on the back of those. they should play comedy festivals.

tempted to plug in my keyboard up here and mumble over random notes

Hey, I kind of like those Salem clips, reminds me of cLOUDDEAD somehow just not as good. Never need to hear them again though.

I remember somebody posted an oOoOO vid that I liked too.

yeah I dig this stuff - it doesn't surprise me to learn that it sucks live but that raver stay wif me mix was great. serious q, whiney: do you really not want to hear stuff that's "underdeveloped"? retrospectively people almost always end up most excited about where a given style or band was when anybody involved was still trying to figure out what exactly they were doin

dude, you can't see that elevating chillwave/witch house bands is a response to this desperate web culture to be FIRSTFIRSTFIRSTFIRSTFIRSTFIRST? This is barely music. Most bands that make formless noise put more energy and care into their art than this shit. I think as someone who clearly puts a lot of work into his lyrics you should be insulted that people barely excited enough to poke at a toy keyboard is getting so much shine. It's like Casio dubstep, come on fuck a guy

yeah there's that for sure and I gotta be honest I was listening to Satoh all morning and then I opened this thread and went "maybe I'll listen to that oOoOo" or however you spell it and it sounded really profoundly sorry by contrast, but that Raver Stay Wif me mix really worked for me. I don't really get mad when people get a lot of publicity/buzz though because I gotta lay bare my indie heart here: when something gets a lot of buzz, the chance is like +/- 100% that that means it sucks balls imo - if I spent any time/energy resenting worthless garbage betting buzz, I'd go completely insane

it's like ok yeah making any kind of a big deal about this stuff is silly, but it's pleasant enough with a martini or two

I don't even know if that's how you use "+/-" actually what I mean is "pretty much nothing buzzy is ever any good is it"

I mean, the "buzz" around this is so contrived and suspect too. I would be surprised if I ever knew someone IRL who listens to "witch house" but most of my friends are over 20, so

kinda hoping it takes off because the terrible band names would be great for ilx display names

hahaha that video is almost st sanders-y. i'm sure it wouldn't be quite as embarassing if the music wasn't mixed almost inaudibly low.

oh man the other video (where he's trying to rock on the roland spds) is even better/worse

ok I had a long post and then I watched that Fader thing where dude is rapping and rhymes "self" with "self" 7x in a row

fuck this forever, I withdraw my support

there's no way this is real, seriously: "you the one who's down with it / y'all down with shit / but now my dick hard so go down on it / haaaaaaaah! / so smoke it out"

great job all around

OK that was just one bad performance by one band. To me the whole Chillwave/Witch House thing is people who make very interesting noises but so far are terribly incompetent at songwriting. But that's gotta change at some point, I hope.

But that's gotta change at some point, I hope.

well but the thing is & this is what my long post was about: it doesn't change if you get buzz/shows/money at a loads-of-people-see-it level early on; where's the impetus to improve if you're already playing for big crowds before you're writing anything worth hearing? in indie rock since forever, people who get successful while they're still rocking some really annoying affectations/bad singing don't then learn to sing/drop the affectations. they play them up, because the message they've gotten was "this is the side your bread is buttered on."

(and if they do actually get better, it can be a very irksome uphill battle persuading supporters that you're not actually "selling out"/changing your style for ignoble reasons)

people who get successful while they're still rocking some really annoying affectations/bad singing don't then learn to sing/drop the affectations

there's also the thing in indie rock, though, where the people get more and more successful and totally lose the thing that made them interesting in the first place

which seems to have happened lately to The National, Wilco, Conor Oberst, Spoon, Broken Social Scene, etc., etc.

yeah I think that effect is generally overstated by indie ppl who're just mad that they don't get to feel as exclusive as they did before

not citing you necessarily, I don't listen to much of that stuff and am mainly thinking of people who hated on Wowee Zowee because it wasn't Slanted: there were plenty of 'em, but nowadays they all pretend they loved WZ from the jump

sure, it totally is overstated a lot of the time, but as someone who genuinely loved and still loves super hyped records by all of those bands, it also just seems true

I got five bucks says in three years you'll revisit High Violet and say "this is loads better than than I thought it was when I wanted it to be the same record as its predecessor"

obligatory disclosure, I haven't heard & probably won't ever hear High Violet though I like its name.

why won't you hear it? do you avoid a lot of the big name indie bands?

"this is loads better than than I thought it was when I wanted it to be the same record as its predecessor"

i don't usually have this with issue with any band, really -- i mean, I like Master of Puppets and parts of St. Anger, so. not that those two records were consecutively released, but

I don't listen to much indie rock at all unless I think the lyrics are awesome or the musicianship is of ridiculously high caliber

guess how often that's the case

starting a suggest ban campaign because you said you like parts of st. anger

anyway that's enough of this, nobody cares about indie rock any more than anybody cares about witch house

why though? i'm genuinely curious why you don't really dig the genre much!

I kind of am uninterested in making the witch house thread the "how I feel about indie rock" thread yo

alright dude, fair enough

anyway, I just listened to "Frost" on Pitchfork, and I really, really like it! so I'm willing to give them a second chance; it seems credible enough that at least some of the reason for the abject awfulness of the Fader Fort performance is directly due to sound problems at the venue

Salem's tracks on their 7"s *ARE* really great! And some of their homemade videos are incredibly haunting and hypnotic (there are several linked in the other thread). I think Whiney's whole This is barely music. Most bands that make formless noise put more energy and care into their art than this is bullshit, actually - Salem have managed to create a genuinely interesting sound and aesthetic (that *of course* is going to be cheapened by sound-a-like bands and inclusion in a blog-christened "scene" with a ridiculous name).

Those live videos are just really unfortunate, in every way.

yeah, they really are -- even given sound problems, the disparity between that they're doing in those videos and the quality of "Frost" is kinda insane

actually those videos make 'frost' sound terrible to me. same shitty musicians and presets, it's just on the grid and mixed better.

(i only just heard it for the first time now btw)

is this where ppl are going to talk about the Purity Ring album?

ha. or maybe here?
Johnny Fever's Not Pop Not Indie Shambhala: 2012 ed.

but people are talking about the Lorn record on the rolling indie thread so it's all up for grabs now.

I think... I really like this? It's kind of monochromatic though.

yeah if i hear one song i think it sounds great, but if i hear two+ they start blending together.

their sound feels really inevitable to me, like it was only a matter of time before someone put these sounds together (not necessarily a bad thing).

That's a good way of putting it; I feel like I've heard them a million times before but I can't really put my finger on where (the closest I could come was "Creep fronted by Kirsty Hawkshaw"). She's a wipsier vocalist than Amika and the songs are more fully baked than Kate Wax, so while there are definite similarities it slides into its own niche.

I think what's really keeping me at a slight remove is that musically there is a lot of crossover between their sound palette and Creep's but all the songs have the same singer, making them seem much more samey in comparison.

btw just by posting about it you made me realize that they're little goth-ier than i had been hearing them (which was more 'up-to-the-minute bass music sounds + indie-ish pop').

just after playing this, I put on Geography by Front 242 and I swear every group getting tagged as "witch house" must have listened to this specific album

fyi, a month later and I really fucking love Purity Ring, mostly because of the early Front 242 aping

"Fineshrine" is totally my jam

;_; it's lonely, being the only dude on ILX who actively cares about Purity Ring

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpdyGFmct78

you'd be in good company in real life, they played here and people liked it and at least one person drove to mpls to see them again

I kind of found the lyrics irritating on listen, but OK when drowned by the rest of the music. Made them reasonable live.

will CREEP make an album that gets released properly (as opposed to the usual bandcamp/soundcloud route)

i hope so ..

they've released the singles on major label, right?

no idea .. have they ?

i just got digital gubbins ..

CREEP is my most anticipated album at this point, I really really really really want that to happen immediately

re: Purity Ring lyrics, I get how they could make ppl cringe but every goth fiber in my being responds positively to the lines "cut open my sternum and poke/my little ribs around you"

CREEP is my most anticipated album at this point, I really really really really want that to happen immediately

ahh, djp, together forever in love of beer, chips, and goth enhanced pop !

*bumps fists, then stares dejectedly out into the rain pondering the futility of man's existence*

think i preferred my choice of a night out sir.

lol fair point

Is witch house, the dark genre du jour, really scary? asks MTV in feature on new genre that lists Oneohtrix Point Never as a genre mainstay.

>:-(

I think you mean <|:-(

philip morris owns triangles, RIP witch house: http://www.stonesthrow.com/news/2013/03/jonwayne-cassette-2

lolllll

This genre is better now - a few years after the hype due artistic growth, also more people working the "grave wave" scene. Really enjoying some on this Halloween.

Which hip-hop acts and recordings are the influence here? I like the whole Planet Rock / Planet Death vibe. Also some of it sounds like Cocteau Twins Garlands - the guiltiest of goth pleasures.

;_; it's lonely, being the only dude on ILX who actively cares about Purity Ring

― Technology of the Big Muff (DJP)

I like Purity Ring. Are they Witch House?

lol @ "'the grave wave' scene"

anywyay this is too good to be †rue wi†ch house but idk where to put it

https://soundcloud.com/cfcf/night-bus-3
NIGHT BUS 3: DEATH OF NIGHT BUS

new Shlohmo is super witch-y/John Carpenter-ish.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?_r=2&

digging it, he always has better hooks than everybody else.

love the hyped-up, busy d&b drum tracks too.

sorry to get all Chris Ott here, but it's unfuckingbelievable to me that I can count at least three "tastemaking" music websites staffed with living breathing 30-somethings can actually feign excitement over underdone, underdeveloped bullshit like witch house and chillwave.

― baout it baout it (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 14, 2010 11:57 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cf., "PC Music"

oh hi whiney

some of the PC Music shit is super prog, i thought you would be into it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJHsaGU09No

and what about this sounds underdeveloped?
https://soundcloud.com/pcmus/in-my-dreams

(i don't know why i try)

Also some of it sounds like Cocteau Twins Garlands - the guiltiest of goth pleasures.

I'd like to know what sounds like Garlands because that is the opposite of a guilty pleasure, delicious as it gets. I really wish they had more albums like that (as well as the early EPs).
I've meant to investigate this stuff for years but the only stuff I heard sounded quite boring. I was hoping for something like Aghast or Divine Punishment era Diamanda Galas.

Sleep Over sounded cool but that's pretty much gothic dreampop, doesn't sound like a new genre.

Will check samples of Creep soon hopefully.

Is any of the newer stuff on Phantasma worth checking out?

http://phantasmadisques.bigcartel.com/products

The Canadian duo DKMD do a nice line in giallo-influenced disco that overlaps with a lot of witch house stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udcujCjOebk

The VV17CHØU7 club events in Moscow look really fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6vL0r_VGB0

Cult and Crossparty are probably the pick of the artists.

she say im down wih huh, i say bitch you alone
you lyin wit the flesh, lyin with the bone
she say i'm lyin wih huh, my mind in the SKREET
i say i'm not with me, i'm with she, i'm with she
now plane lights blinkin, off in da evenin
got me thinkin, wish i was leavin
it's not that i'm tryna be somewhere else
i'm not tryna be here... by myself
if you were here too i'd still be with myself
i talk real loud, i don't wanna hear myself
i'm faraway lost and i don't want help
if you could bring me back, i kill myself... haaa
not myself, that's just myself
i don't know if you could tell, but i'm in hell
i don't know if you noticed, but i haven't spoken
my arm might be broken, i'm so sick of jokin

― underrated SCAREosmith albums I have loved (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, October 9, 2010 2:15 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love listening to Witch House playlists on Spotify at work because A. I like the way it sounds and B. the people who want to come into my office and give me more work to do cannot take even 15 seconds of it and flee

"Come back there's some Brokencyde you need to hear too."

it's like the perfect combination of boy band techno and creepy industrial noises, EVERYBODY hates it

except me!

was listening to the Creep album on the way to work which was more witch house-adjacent, but it made me remember "witch house"

kept mumbling "wiiiiitch hoooouse" to myself in the car

my neighbor witch house would be an excellent kid's animated film

I haven't caught up with it recently, but I used to listen to this Spotify playlist all the time.

https://open.spotify.com/user/12145454449/playlist/0ZYCdcbhJ3Uy1zcB9JHVeW?si=E0b7MIHgR3atP219YudxfQ

add your favorite witch house playlists here (I guess).

the one I really loved on Youtube seems to have disappeared, sadly

also we looked up the translated lyrics to ic3peak's "Грустная Сука" and they're pretty great:

I’m ruining your day with my dead pale face
I don’t care about you being triggered
Wild dogs are afraid both of me and of fire
That’s not a coincidence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf99kdFw9b8

if you were here too I'd still be by myself

Talking of Russian Witch House, I was just thinking about Vagina Vangi. They did a few EPs and things about five years ago, I liked this one -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvcQ4P2CcDo

(warning that it doesn't really get going until the second half)

And they did quite a few remixes of note, like this version of Ghetto Ass Witch by †‡†

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNEksbngz9E

They were definitely a bit cheesy but still exactly what I wanted from witch house.

https://www.nts.live/shows/physical-therapy/episodes/physical-therapy-22nd-march-2024

Witch House special!