Re-Purposing Your Industrial Stomping Boots

Almost every goth has a pair of trusty, reliable platform industrial boots. These boots typically only see the light of the night when worn to a good EBM party. Luckily for us, Rumi at Fashion Toast has shown us how we can wear our boots casually during the day. Platform buckled boots are especially trendy right now. She's created a nice contrast by pairing them with soft knits and neutral colors. In order to rock this daytime look, be sure to tone down the colors, but stay away from all-black as that look is more suitable for nighttime. Keep the accessories and makeup to a minimum. You want the focal point of the outfit to be these boots, so everything else should stay relatively bare.

(image via fashiontoast)

Black Wednesday @ Rock Box

Featuring Performances by: Skank, The Infected, and Boomslang.
Djing will be FRONT312's very own Adam Black, playing the best in punk, rock, metal, and industrial.
Also Performing: Mistress Xena & The Pain Kurst Girls who are part of the party upstairs, and in the newly furnished DUNGEON:


Featuring Dj Peter Propaganda (dark sounds society and FRONT312 ally) playing goth, industrial, new wave, electro, and dance.

Hello My Pretties.

 Hello all. My name is Meagan and I will be contributing to Front312.com about fashion. Fashion is something that, for a long time, I paid absolutely no attention to. I can't afford $900 shoes, and my interest in the goth scene necessitated that I shun any interest in sartorial design and high fashion. We all know that all goths at the goth bar tend to look the same. I had no idea that taking cues from runways and street style could evolve my goth look into something more unique, while staying true to a darker aesthetic. I hope to help you all realize that 'goth' is bigger than you think it is, and there are so many ways to express yourself through your dress. You can be gothy and still be fashionable, you can like industrial music and still appreciate a groundbreaking runway show.

I'll be posting street style, images from runways and luxury designer collections, get-the-look-for-less posts, and pictures of my own outfits for inspirations. I look forward to treating you all with lovely dark sartorial goodies.

Meagan
Lattershed Photography

Nitzer Ebb plays Double Door Saturday, November 28th

(from the double door website)
Before the majority of industrial acts added guitars and became the heavy metal of the 1990s, Nitzer Ebb produced hard-hitting electronic music with the Teutonic bent and abrasive edge of early industrial music, plus the vocal chanting and beat-heavy flavor of the late-'80s alternative and Balearic dance scene. Formed in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1982 by vocalist Douglas McCarthy, drummer Bon Harris, and keyboard player David Gooday, the group began experimenting with synthesizers and drum pads, fusing their affinity for dark goth and punk rock with the emerging technology. After several popular shows around London during 1984, PWL producer Phil Harding began working with Nitzer Ebb and recorded their first single, "Isn't It Funny How Your Body Works," which appeared on the band's Power of Voice Communications label in 1985. Three more singles followed during 1985-1986 before Nitzer Ebb signed to Mute in late 1986; the first Mute recordings were the singles "Murderous" and "Let Your Body Learn" in early 1987, just before the release of their debut album, That Total Age. After the single "Join in the Chant" was remixed by producer Flood (Nick Cave, Erasure), it became one of the crucial tracks in the growing alternative/Balearic dance scene, played out alongside Chicago house, Detroit techno, and Northern soul.

Nitzer Ebb @ Kinetik last year:

Kill Memory Crash (FRONT allies)
The Glide
Polyfuse (a FRONT ally)
and DJ Taco Punch open

To get a feel for Nitzer Ebb, check out this killer Black Strobe remix

Nitzer Ebb-Getting Closer (Black Strobe EBM Homage)


...and, just for fun, I'm posting the George Clinton remix of "Fun to Be Had".  This is a great example of how electro and hip-hop had a massive influence on industrial music.  If you like what you hear, please go on our Amazon store and purchase the artist's album.  Your dollars will go to support the music you love, and keep your favorite artists making music.

Nitzer Ebb- Fun to Be Had (George Clinton Long Mix)

A Plea For Sanity

hi folks, its adam black, the counter culture advocate to you pretend to love, or actively love to hate.

we are at a crossroads here in chicago.  our once great scene, whether it be house music, underground rave, industrial, techno, or electro, is dying.  we have little to claim for ourselves in this once great city of dance, performance, and production.

i've known many of you since the death of underground/rave (and it is dead)

however, being the zombie enthusiast i am, things can and will be revived.

there is much drama and infighting, nearly all of in unnecessary, be it drum and bass becoming dubstep, house music continuing to fail as a unifying force within chicago (our heroes have to make a living in europe for chrissakes)

electro going from the amazing underground parties @ the jerkstore, or darkwave disco, or the pilsen scene degenerating into a bastardization of a recent Vice magazine nightmare, or LA or Canadian knob turning hipster douche-baggery completely devoid of any soul, beat, heart, or substantial roots.

our loft party scene turning into hipster hop, bad dj's playing even worse tunes on protools or abelton

or completely forgetting what vinyl is, or means.

friends become enemies, enemies become promoters, scrubs and junkies become successful.  and us, the legitimate artists, creators, and passionistas, are left in the dark, infighting and failing to rebuild what we once had as a  city, and what many of us cut our teeth on in becoming the successful, narccisistic, socialites we all are.

this is my call to sanity:

music sucks.
clubs suck.
club owners suck.
djs get away with mediocrity too much (myself very much included, but dont tell the people that pay me)

many of us were once friends.
we all congretated together at our favorite loft parties on lake street.
the the newest clubs in wicker park.
or dirty house parties in logan square or pilsen.

and now?  we snipe eachother for teenage house parties in obscure neighborhoods.
or we battle for club spots and places, that really do nothing for any sort of local scene whatsoever.

we are local artists my children.  my peers.  my adversaries. my friends.

chicago is our motherland.

we have the greatest soapbox in the world to stand on.

house music, industrial.
melodic hardcore like Steve albini and big black. Naked Raygun.

our heroes live here.
Martin Atkins, Jake Burns, Jerry Only, Jeff Pezzati, Jeff Mills and an innumerable amount of house djs and techo producers.

yet so many have left us for the coasts, because we are too cool to acknowledge our own accomplishments.

so this is an open call:
All djs, artists, dancers, producers, musicians, degenerates, castaways and hooligans -

lets get together to form the greatest collective that chicago has ever known.
reclaim music from mediocrity.
loft parties from teenage hipsters.
clubs from douchebags in ed hardy gear.
neighborhoods from the suburban ruins of what was once wicker park.

lets work together, start making music, throwing parties that are thoroughly chicago.

and get some fucking pride back to survive us during the awful winter that is sure to come.

an open call to djs:
we currently have several events on our roster:

Front312 2nd fridays @ Liars Club
Garageland Tuesdays @ Liars Club
Grindhouse Wednesdays @ Rock Box
Creepy Country Select Wednesdays @ Delilahs
Bomb Shelter 2nd Fridays @ Debonair Social Club
Black Christmas December 17th @ Victor Hotel
and numerous events @ Lucky Number Grill.

we should all unify, and commit, to making things better, and fun, for all of us.

black out.

Cabaret Voltaire Gets a Techno Tuneup From Andi Müller

Cabaret Voltaire gets pretty regular play in my DJ sets these days, be it in the slow, pulsing beat of "Just Fascination" or the evangelist sampling of "I Want You".  I often get in arguments with music connoisseurs about whether Cab Voltaire is Industrial or New Wave.  For me, Cabaret Voltaire are one of those groups that manage to defy and redefine genre barriers.

At the beginning of their career they pushed the boundaries of what you could do with a reel to reel.  Moving away from experimental noise work, they moved into a sort of gritty electronic garage band style of music with classic tracks like, "Mussolini Headkick" and "Nag, Nag, Nag".  In the early eighties, albums like Crackdown and Microphonies became electronic music milestones, with the latter pushing their sound into an even darker direction.

Even though most of the album is full of catchy electro beats, a quick viewing of the "Sensoria" music video shows the darker side that was prevalent on works like Red Mecca, but that would mature on albums like The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord and Code.  The video features a very industrial aesthetic, albeit the obvious influence of post-punk and new wave.





Later on in the group's career, they would find themselves heavily influenced by Chicago house, even shooting a video for Magic in Chicago.  To top that off, Marshall Jefferson actually produced the track with them.


Since I am always trying to find an excuse as of late to throw down classic industrial and proto-industrial tracks in my DJ sets, it is only fitting that I have hunted down several Cabaret Voltaire remixes.  One of my recent favorites is from techno producer Andi Müller.  Andi was kind enough to give me permission to post his remix of 'Sex, Money, Freaks' from the album Code.  The remix serves the track well, and acts as the perfect gateway drug to the world of Cabaret Voltaire.

Cabaret Voltaire- Sex, Money, Freaks (Andi Müllers Techno Tuneup)

Friday, November, 13th is Front 312 with Polyfuse Live and Peter Propaganda

People often refer to Front 312 as an industrial night.  I want to set the record straight on this.  It is not really an industrial night, although we do play industrial music.  The whole concept centers around the late-eighties club scene in Chicago.  We had wanted to do something in line with that time period for a while, but we also wanted to incorporate elements of new music that would make it relevant to a younger generation of club-goers.

While the regular industrial night attendee might be tired of hearing old Ministry or Revolting Cocks, most of us need to remember that the average college kid who goes out on Friday night has probably never heard these classics.  The whole point of Front 312 is to make this music accessible to a wider group of people, and pull it out of the niche event nights and venues that are marketed specifically to the goth/industrial crowd.

An interesting recent review of MSTRKRFT's "Fist of God" in Filter actually complained about the current electro phenomenon, and cited "Godlike" and "No Name, No Slogan" as classic dance tracks that were better than the current banger anthems.  Instead of allowing ourselves to become bitter and jaded about the scene, however, we elected to move forward and start mixing MSTRKRFT, The Presets, and Motor with Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, and Throbbing Gristle.  Some call it blasphemy.  We like to think of it as getting people excited about this music.  Let us prevent this music from falling into the grimy hands of genre purism, and bring it back to the people where it belongs.

-Mr. Automatic

Download Tracks From Polyfuse now!


POLYFUSE- Dagger Hero 
http://www.polyfuse.net/mp3s/Dagger%20Hero.mp3

(there's a video for this one too, here: http://vimeo.com/1687918)

POLYFUSE: We Will Make Sure You Disappear
http://www.polyfuse.net/mp3s/We%20Will%20Make%20Sure%20You%20Disappear.mp3

Friday, November 13th,

Polyfuse, the alias of local sound designer and composer Justin McGrath, is an audio/visual experience that must be witnessed in person. Taking inspiration from classic industrial and EBM by way of Ambient music and IDM, Polyfuse creates an unforgettable live performance.

DJ Peter Propaganda has established himself in the Chicago scene with his band JILT, and the monthly "Naughty" Parties that he throws with the infamous Mistress Xena (going on 3 years strong!) He also runs Corrosive MusicK Media, is part of The Secret Society of Djs and of Gothic Art ChicagoNot For Profit Corporation.
Mr. Automatic will be playing classic Razormaid tracks, 80's new wave, classic industrial, techno, and new electro tracks prior to the headliners. Expect anything from Meat Beat Manifesto to The Presets to Motor. DJ Adam Black will open the night with punk rock, new wave, and alternative rock.

Doors open at 9pm. Admission is Free before 11pm with RSVP to Front312@gmail.com and $5 without RSVP or after 11.

Drink specials include $2 PBR and $4 well drinks, and plenty of other reasonably priced options are available at the bar.

Liars club is located at 1665 W. Fullerton in Chicago, Ilinois. at the intersection of Fullerton and Ashland.