Search - Vanishing :: Songs for Psychotic Children

Dark Music with a Beat - Very Cool!

Big Wave Dave | Redwood City, CA United States | 06/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The following review, published in the May 30 - June 5, 2003 Orange County Weekly, says it well. Great CD - truly unique - the Vanishing Rocks!The Vanishing
by Samantha Ott

THE VANISHING
Songs For Psychotic Children
GSL RecordsThe Vanishing are Goth, but not the kind of Goth that perches you over the sink in a candlelit bathroom with a razor blade against your wrist. They're more like Goth that makes you put on three extra coats of eyeliner and your pointiest dancing shoes. Songs for Psychotic Children sounds like Joy Division with the Cure's guitar player on bass and Lydia Lunch or Nina Hagen singing-with unbelievably dance-y beats flush against flanged bass and panicked little-girl-trapped-in-a-woman's-body (or vice-versa?) vocals-but also remembers the bands the various members have laid to rest, such as the Subtonix, the Knives and the (not-quite-dead) Lies. Call it post-Goth or call it New Darkwave, but the Vanishing have tapped into everything that made their influences great and come up with something wholly original. After all, this is a punk-punk band whose black-clad, mop-topped drummer occasionally answers to the name Muffin and whose Clara Bow-meets-bride-of-Frankenstein singer/bassist Jessie is more likely to get in a grass fight at the cemetery than weep on someone's grave. With Jessie's vocals-are we hearing an exorcism or a murder here?-backed by dearly departed (no, silly, she just left the band!) Sadie Shaw's creative keyboard counterbalance and the drummer invoking whatever disco-drum demon he prays to, Songs for Psychotic Children is playfully dramatic, but never at the expense of the beat."

New Goth Interests

M. Starr | Kansas City | 10/31/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back in high-school I met a guy who indirectly introduced me to music. We were in History class together and one day he had two cassette tapes; both of which I'd never even heard of. One was Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division and the other was Hyena by Siouxsie & the Banshees. For some unknown reason I was extremely drawn to the cover of Unknown Pleasures and began to interview my friend as to what these bands sounded like. I was then determined to make copies of them both so I could experience just exactly what "weird" music was like. I was hooked. From there it was The Cure, then Bauhaus, and so on. The darkness and emotion of these bands was the beginning of my affinity for goth-rock music. Fast-forward to 2003, and the release of Songs for Psychotic Children, by San Francisco's, The Vanishing. Comparisons to any of the previously-mentioned bands may not be exactly accurate, but the style and ideas that went into those albums are also present with The Vanishing. The songs are dark and consist of Siouxsie-esque vocals á la ex-Subtonix member, Jesse Eva. It's pretty evident what this trio is going for. This is not just an album, but a lifestyle that seems to be crushing the underground scene in the bay area of California. The guitars are damaging and the bass lines are forceful in their delivery. Add an eerie layer of keyboards and you're off to the deep caves of the goth-rock underground. The thing that has shocked me about this particular release is that it pays great tribute to one of my original music love affairs, and does so in a very consistent and cohesive way."