Website: The Gothsicles
Plenty of people laugh at the community. As a community, it’s about time they acknowledge why and accept it for the stereotype that it certainly can be — not to mention the geeks hiding beneath the elaborate makeup.
Enter The Gothsicles. Track one of NESferatu says it all: “I Can Tell You Shop At Hot(t) Topic”. Seventy percent sarcasm and thirty percent absurdity, this amusing album is both an ode to the goth cliche and a tribute to 8-bit gaming. Three versions of “Konami Code” grace the album, as one pass through the two-minute song certainly isn’t enough to sate the need to geek out.
Never mind that The Gothsicles don’t so much write songs as catch-phrases; these tracks were meant to be seen performed live with a crowd of spooky kids, with everyone screaming along and laughing. It’s fun and packed with in-jokes that only gothy scenesters and Nintendo devotees can comprehend. From “Hey, I’ve Got That Font” to “English License 2.0”, it’s great to see a typically sensitive scene finally crack a smile and giggle at itself without being depricating.
As far as being a “good” album? Throw that out of the window. That’s like trying to compare “Weird” Al Yankovic to the Beatles. Yes, there are too many repeated songs with repeated remixes, and the songs may be too short, and the vocals may become grating, but to focus on this is to miss the point. It’s a novelty and not much more, but incredibly clever and spot-on.
