FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Vice Blog

NEW YORK - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WIERD

Name one amazing weekly party that hasn't been appropriated into a spectacle of bullshit within about a year. Here, we'll help you out: Peter Schoolwerth's Wierd night of cold wave, minimal synth, and experimental electronic/industrial noise, which has managed to keep its niche purity without stumbling on its own self-importance. On Friday the party turns five, so just for why-not's sake we asked the same four questions of all the bands playing the anniversary bash. Know how everyone is suddenly claiming interest in the dark side, slinking around town dressed like spooks and talking about how they've loved Coil forever even though we saw them wearing a giant Day-Glo T-shirt while dancing to happy hardcore last year? It's because of Wierd and their likes. They might be a touch in denial of what they've started, but if our life's work was lumped in with some wacky Edward Scissorhands goth regalia we might put our blinders on too.

Advertisement

Led Er Est

click below to listen to "Unkept"

What's so alluring about the cold, dark night?
Shawn O'Sullivan: Night is great! It's the perfect time to marinate meats, soak beans, etc. We just ate some braised short ribs that sat overnight. They were delicious. Brown 2-3 pounds of short ribs in the bottom of a dutch oven. Place half a small bag of peeled carrots, one diced medium onion, one diced large tomato, 4-5 crushed cloves of garlic, spices to taste (we used some tarragon, rosemary, two tbsp honey), and a couple glasses worth of wine and/or water (just enough to cover the ribs 3/4 of the way). Cook in oven on 250-300 for 2-3 hrs. Refrigerate overnight. Reheat the next day, and adjust seasoning. Serve with potatoes/bread/rice.

Are you as serious in real life as your band seems to be?
We get a little grumpy when we haven't eaten. We're pretty serious about food. We're also serious about music, but that might be about it.

What do you think about this whole darkwave/"goth" revival?
Not to be persnickety, and this is perhaps a predictable response, but we don't view really ourselves, Wierd, or any associated projects as part of any darkwave or goth revival. Those are awfully loaded terms, and this impulsion to brand all dark or melancholy music "goth" should be resisted. Wierd definitely isn't Albion, Martial Canterel isn't Funker Vogt or whatever…ha. And while DJs at Wierd may occasionally play Skinny Puppy or Depeche Mode, that's about where the similarities begin and end. However, it's great to see this growing community for minimal electronics, coldwave, and lo-fi synth music here in the states.

Advertisement

Tell us a Wierd story.
There are plenty of great ones, but it's hard to top the time that, back when the party was at Southside Lounge in Williamsburg, a certain someone performed fellatio on a deaf/mute Hasid.

Xeno & Oaklander

What’s so alluring about the cold, dark night?
Liz Wendelbo: Not sure…but we can say a lot about the cold dark day.

Are you as serious in real life as your band seems to be?
More so.

What do you think about this whole darkwave/"goth" revival?
Didn't know there was a revival.

Tell us a Wierd story.
Sean was at a party a few weeks ago and he was speaking with a couple of neo-folk rightwingers when a very fit Dominican drag queen came over to him and hugged him goodnight.

Blacklist

What's so alluring about the cold, dark night?
Josh Strawn: I'd be a liar if I pretended to like the cold as much as so many of my Wierd compatriots.  Dark, maybe, but cold I always find myself underdressed for, I shiver and get aggro. Some like it hot, I guess. I may love coldwaves, but you can't underestimate the inner Sammy Hagar. Tequila and white sand is OK by me.  Are you as serious in real life as your band seems to be?
There's a Wierd staple by this amazing band UV Pop that has the refrain "We're so serious, serious." Pieter and I hit it off by arguing about philosophy of mind back when the party was at Southside. That conversation's pretty much been going on ever since, sprinkled with a porn-addicted Lacanian "sense" of humor. But I'd say that seriousness is generally underrated. Eventually the pretense of not being pretentious becomes a compound form of pretentiousness that's more nauseating than the basic stuff. I think we actually keep it simple in that regard. And after all, isn't there something remarkably simple and serious about the moment when the director for Ratt's video to "Nobody Rides For Free" said, "So here's what I'm thinking. You guys are playing on an empty beach at dusk. Giant bonfires everywhere, with towering scaffolds and some romantic flowing white cloth that blows in the wind. We'll shoot it panoramically from a helicopter. Stephen, keep the sunglasses on." Guiding principles for us. At that point, serious becomes fun.  What do you think about this whole darkwave/"goth" revival?
I'm not sure about a "goth revival." The notion seems to reflect this idea that darker atmospherics have to be taken in measured doses or juxtaposed with light tones in order to signify nuance, but if you go all out it's suddenly a separate genre. Seems pretty conservative to me. If it was just rock and roll when Sabbath and Fleetwood Mac kept it minor-key and mysterian, then that's all it is now. It's arbitrary to give them eternal respect but criminalize the aesthetic they inaugurated when other bands indulge it by tossing those bands in the genre dustbin. Tell us a Wierd story.
I can't repeat most of my favorite stories in public, or even in the company of most basically trustworthy confidantes. At Wierd, reputations are made and ruined and criminal records lengthened or kicked-off. I love all the cretins too much to air the sleazy laundry for the world-at-large. And besides, the story's never as good. Inevitably, you just hadda be there. In a completely sincere way I can say the best moments at Wierd for me are the moments when a song comes on and the conversation I'm having comes to an abrupt halt because I have to find out what it is. Inevitably it's some seven-inch from Holland, only a hundred ever made in the history of the world, and if you can even find it on eBay it costs $300. Of course the band will have some outlandishly ingenious name, like Ceramic Hello. The music is really the story.

Advertisement

Opus Finis

What’s so alluring about the cold, dark night?
C.E. Oni: The constant intrusion of the conscience.

Are you as serious in real life as your band seems to be?
Never. What do you think about this whole darkwave/"goth" revival?
Really? We weren't aware that there was one, how lovely… We simply feel that the vulgar B-Movie horror image that dark, romantic popular music has been cloaked in for the past 15 or so years is really unfortunate and rather embarrassing actually. The only appropriate place for darkness is to be kept is on the inside…the most radical raison d'etre is for one to have excellent manners and be absolutely polite. If you come to Wierd please be so kind as to watch your mouth, thank you very much. Tell us a Wierd story.
We were going for a nice little drive after a wonderfully intimate evening at the Wierd Party at Home Sweet Home with our friends Geoff and Lalo. Geoff decided to stop and request a bit of oral pleasure from a slightly older woman of the night. We dropped him off so he could have a walk in the park with this lovely lady, but he soon returned rather dissappointed with her level of performance. So he insisted on returning to request the appropriate refund, when she denied his request he simply snatched all of her night's hard earned wages to punish her for her problematic behavior. Immediately after his return we heard a slightly brash gutteral wail," I knew it mothah fuckah, RICKY!!!!!!"…Upon which we soon learned she had called her pimp for assistance with the situation. Suddenly we see a very energetic and enraged older shirtless three-foot Nicaraguan dwarf in a red vest and pleather pants swiftly approaching on vintage roller skates. Geoff jumped in the car and the dwarf kept skating trying to catch up but he hit small pebble and fell flat on his enormous head and blacked out. She began sobbing, and we left the scene slightly frustrated but inordinately satisfied.

ANDI CAOUGHLIN

You can get tickets to the birthday party at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday here. Wierd's weekly night's on Wednesdays at Home Sweet Home. That's tonight, genius, and Opus Finis is playing live.