BEYOND WIERD
A week ago tonight, New York’s famous Wierd party met its scheduled demise. Joshua Strawn retrospects on how Wierd carved out a space for doom-laden sounds that transcended subcultural clichés:
We were all painfully aware of what goth had become throughout the 1990s: spooky dolls, mainstream industrial rock, weak Tim Burton films, and dyed-blue dreadlocked types wearing goggles, platform boots, and cheap-looking PVC to go out and dance to music that basically sounded like La Bouche with an unlistenable male vocalist. In this sense we were elitists, and it would be hard to apologize for having been that way. There are different kinds of elitism. Some focus on the eliteness of people, and and that couldn’t be further from what we were about. The Wierd thrived on nothing if not inclusion of people. But it was elitist in the sense of a standard of excellence in art that most people then could have been forgiven for assuming never got anywhere near so-called dark music.
For those still craving that Very Rare vibe, there is good news:
Following a brief silence, some of the party’s affiliates — Soren Roi, Nikki Sneakers, Hillary Johnson, and Jasper McGandy — announced a new weekly whose name immediately addresses the void Wierd left. Named after a song from neofolk band Death In June, Nothing Changes will have a similar musical scope and continue to provide local and touring bands with a venue and eager audience.
