[demonrail666]

People go on about them and they seem to create very divided opinions. I've heard one album which i listened to once, felt that I got the basic idea and have since filed away. I've also read some interviews with them, after which I felt thoroughly patronised. Obviously though, there's something going on. I just don't know what it is. Seriously though, I'm sort of curious to know what it is about them that attracts certain people to gravitate towards them so enthusiastically.

It's probably the same qualities that make people listen to Dio, just louder.

[dazedcola]

because dropping their name in a conversation gets you +20 hipster points

[demonrail666]

It's a cost thing too. Holy Diver's only £2.98 on Amazon. Whitehouse albums go for about £30. Maybe Dio are just the poor man's Whitehouse.

[MellySingsDoom]

Dio are the rich man's Queensryche, surely?

I'm massively biased on this one - I'm a big fan of Whitehouse and the
relative bands. I like the power, timbre, density and velocity of their sound; I enjoy a lot of their lyrics (some of them very funny to my ears), and William Bennett, if nothing else, has been an inspiration one way or another to a many great musicians and artists. To me, liking Whitehouse is something that is immediately visceral and adrenalising - an emotive response rather than an intellectual one.

As for the controversy surrounding Whitehouse, well I always take Bennett's interviews etc with a pinch of salt...he certainly knows how to sell an album, that's for sure. The thing about Whitehouse being fascists is TOTAL bullshit - I can't emphasise this enough. Are they misogynists? I don't think so, at the end of the day, although I can see why people do have a problem with them on this point.

Whitehouse for the hipster-point win? Jeez, when I first found out about them, they were "underground" to the point of invisibility, and even then I got a fair amount of shit for liking a bunch of allegedly racist, woman-hating paedophiles. Oy vey.

Anyway, I can't imagine many people on this board being into them, to be honest, which is fine. Still, I'm interested to hear what others do think of them (if indeed they do).

By the way, I'm listening to the Ting Tings album as I write this. Surely that's the real horror, a 37 year old man listening to pop music for 14 year olds...

[demonrail666]

Reading what Mr Singsdoom wrote, I'm thinking they might be a formative years band. You get into them early and you're hooked. I'm a bit like that with Marillion. Fully aware that deep down they're pretty shit, but I got into them young enough to always have a soft spot. I'd like to hear Whitehouse cover Kayleigh. That'd be brilliant I reckon.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by MellySingsDoom

By the way, I'm listening to the Ting Tings album as I write this. Surely that's the real horror, a 37 year old man listening to pop music for 14 year olds...

I've got three words in response: Avril, Lavigne, Concert.

[MellySingsDoom]

"Kayleigh. - I never meant to say 'I'm sorry'....you cheap whore!"

Ha ha ha - a priceless comment, sir Demon.

[MellySingsDoom]

I'd like to hear Steve Rotheray and the boys whip out their prog moves on "You Don't Have To Say Please". I'm sure their filligree moves would throw a new light on this tune.

[gualbert]

They're like the first harsh noise band ( = proto harsh noise ).

[SonicBebs]

she was better before she got on the booze and that. And her hair's shit to boot

[demonrail666]

Mr Singsdoom aside. Having watched some of their live clips on youtube, while Whitehouse may not be Nazis, i have definite doubts about certain sections of their fanbase.

This clip is a mixture of silly, brilliant and scary. http://youtube.com/watch?v=-Bw9M1tMIWU

[Glice]

I've always found Whitehouse a smidge boring. Sometimes I quite enjoy that, and it's definitely part of their agenda. And for all the rhetoric surrounding them, I still like to read their interviews. I disagree with their (particularly Best's) 'philosophy', but it's well-articulated and lucid - moreso than a million pubescent American 'nihilists'. They're also a fantastically British proposition in a musical world often blighted by the overbearing influence of large-C American Culcha.

Ultimately though, I don't really like too much agenda in my music, even if that's a hyper-libertarian agenda. But then, if you like something, you're often blind to an agenda (this is certainly true of my John Cage liking).

Anyway. I wanted to ask if anyone's read Sotos, because I think I might get one of his books soonish. Does it stand up to Artaud, de Sade or Bataille (swoon)?

[Savage Clone]

I have Total Abuse, which is quite the read.
Haven't been in the mood for it in quite some time, but that guy's rep is not undeserved in the least.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by Glice

I wanted to ask if anyone's read Sotos, because I think I might get one of his books soonish. Does it stand up to Artaud, de Sade or Bataille (swoon)?

I've read some selections of his stuff. In answer to your question: absolutely not, on all three counts. I wouldn't mind checking something more substantial by him though. Not being as good as either Artaud, de Sade or Bataille hardly makes someone bad, after all. Have you read Deleuze's essay 'Coldness and Cruelty'? It's about the only thing of his I've ever actually liked (or, I should say, remotely understood). If you're into your French libertarian stuff, you should like it quite a bit. Was flicking through Bataille's Visions of Excess anthology today - just to maintain contact with my inner ponce. Brilliant stuff.

Regarding your point about Whitehouse's Britishness, I entirely agree. There's definitely something of the 17th Century Ranters about them.

EDIT: I think I just managed to use up all my twat cards in a single post.

To be honest I never heard anyone making a fuss about them ever apart from some stuff written about their records. Where is the fuss about Whitehouse happening?

[Florya]

If Philip Best had shelved the 'Consumer Electronics' project in 1984 and left it at that, Id have had a lot more respect for him. Consumer Electronics was truly groundbreaking in its time, and for it to be the brainchild of a 14 year old is amazing. He should have quit while he was ahead.
I have no time at all for William Bennett.

[batreleaser]

simply put, theyre fucking amazing.

arguably first, or one of the earliest power electronics bands.

still one of the heaviest, most brutal noise bands today.

extremly confrontational, controversial, and offensive to those who dont understand tongue in cheek humour. their name was a reference to the brit morality pain in the ass bitch mary whitehouse, which is also the name of a porno mag of the time. thier lyrics go on about sadistic sex and s and m, misogyny, eating disorders, serial killers, child abuse, and all sorts of weird violent shit.

they are the best power electronics band ever in my opinion.

[Everyneurotic]

i quite like whitehouse, and i think they broke tons of ground both stylistically and musically; but i find myself liking ramleh or sutcliffe jügend a whole lot more.

part of their appeal for me is that it is too much of it's time while being ahead of it's time; meaning nobody sounded like them when they started (the distorted synth barrage, the high pitched electronical screeches and the vocal attack) but it has become so much as being part of a post-pistols, thatcher britain that i often think of them as a nostalgia act. they were all about report stuff like the yorkshire ripper and the nazi aesthetics of london underground punk but never commenting on it, it's like a time capsule.

another part of their appeal to me is that, in said chronicals, they go to the deep end like nothing before, there's a bit of a scary movie part, listening to stuff about rape and serial killers; listening to the lunatic minds of fringe people you're not supposed to know about for your own good (of course, all being an act).

after all, they are pretty entertaining and you can count on them to deliver what you know they do well (except for racket, which i have avoided like the plague). they did influence merzbow and hijokaidan back in the day and established power electronics into a proper sub genre (so to speak) which has given more extreme bands like grunt and taint.

they do push an agenda and always have, like glice noted, and when that happens, people tend to divide into followers and rejectionists; when it comes to whitehouse, both sides tend to go to great extremes. to me, what's very interesting is that there's a lot of people who are not taken by either side, preferring to stay in the middle, enjoying their tyrades and not taking their neurological programming and morbosity drenched spiel very seriously.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by batreleaser

thier lyrics go on about sadistic sex and s and m, misogyny, eating disorders, serial killers, child abuse, and all sorts of weird violent shit.

You make them sound like an episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show.