Photos by Miguel "The Spaniard" Lafuente and Roberto Ochoa.
UPDATE // Salem front man John Holland has one of those teen-prostitute, crack-addict stories that you read about in Dennis Cooper novels. So it made sense that he appeared on stage dressed in white, pale-faced, through a veil of smoke surrounded by band mates Jack Donoghue and Heather Marlatt.
For those unfamiliar with Salem, here’s how Holland described the band’s sound to BUTT Magazine:
“Uh, it’s annoying when people try to say shit like ‘Electro/Punk’ blah, blah, blah… , I’m not gonna say it’s not dark…. When Heather sings she sounds angelic, and then when Jack raps he sounds thuggy. …I don’t really know why everyone thinks it’s ‘Goth’.”
On addiction:
“Yeah. I never really feel good, unless I’m, like, drinking or doing drugs, because I’m – I mean I’m not gonna say I’ve had a hard life; I had really good parents, but I’ve had a lot of fucked-up shit happen to me from when I was really young.”
On not being gay:
“It’s not gay at all – we have nothing to do with gay culture, except on some songs, when I write lyrics about guys I like. … [The songs are] More like rape songs. (laughs) It’s not all the time, because Heather writes the lyrics too.”
On sex-drives:
I can mix it up. Like, someone can fuck me, sure, but it’s, like, boring. When I was tricking I was a nymphomaniac. I used to have sex all the time. But now I also take a lot of medication because I have, like, problems, (laughs) and so I don’t really have a sex drive.
On Juke music:
Juke is like, uh, someone being, like, ‘Git down low, git down low, git down low,’ or, like, ‘Fuck yo bitch, fuck yo bitch’ – it’s just quickly saying it over and over and over. But Footwork is more like…well, actually the difference is the dance. There’s a dance that goes with both. Footwork is when guys do the dance where you just move your leg and you don’t move your arms, but your feet are doing this crazy shit. And Juke is your whole body.
- Theirspace: myspace.com/jjhhmm
- Theirofficialsite: s4lem.com
- The BUTT interview: buttmagazine.com
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Tags: Alcohol, Butt Bang 2009, Butt Magazine, Crack-addicts, Crunking, Dennis Cooper, Drugs, Footwork, Heather Marlatt, Jack Donoghue, JT Leroy, Juke, Salem, Sex
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I would describe it as dark cosmic hip hop. But maybe that isn’t even appropriate. I wouldn’t consider them goth, but they are definitely dark, and especially live (because you can hear their voices better on recordings, that night you could really just hear the synths and the beats) it was a bit nihilistic. Which I like.
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oh, p.s. this was a bit of a nasty post. Maybe talk more about the music next time rather than how people look like they have a drug history?
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Despite this article, the pictures of Jack are BEAUTIFUL. He is EVERYTHING!
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I don’t wish to engage in any battles over what, in the end, is a matter of subjectivity—the “good”-ness of a band’s musical output—but one really ought to be a bit more circumspect and, for that matter, sensitive when choosing to write about the personal lives of its members. I understand that you have quoted things John has actually said, or rather, admitted. Everyone’s lives have darknesses that inform their choices, both personal and public.
It is disingenuous to say “no judgement” when the judgement is so transparent. It is no secret that drugs are harmful in excess, and it’s no secret that, for all we know, drugs have affected one or more of the members of Salem. But that’s true of a lot of bands that you or I listen to. What sets Salem apart in this case is that, irrespective (or maybe, actually, in correlation to) the effect of the drugs on their lives, there is a clarity of aesthetic, artistic, and musical vision in their work that is new and that must be looked at and listened to in a thoughtful, considered way—the way one looks at any artistic output. The meaning may not be clear, and the context may be muddied by events and choices that are outside our own spheres or understanding. But that is very essence of expression. Salem are merely expressing. Perhaps even in the sense that a lesion or wound expresses.
Let’s do be careful in dismissing someone’s story as “taxing,” “borderline-cliché,” or “sad” when we don’t, in fact, know the whole story. In such a public forum, one is never “just sayin’.”
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These shows were brilliant, anticipated, intelligent and gorgeous. This blog is none of these things.
Really, stellar criticism.
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As a contributer to this blog I must say I do not approve of any of the comments in this post. I thought the show was amazing. I have met John personally and found him to be a very nice, genuine person who is deeply interested in making music. I do not believe he deserves to be talked about this way and I find it a shame that he was.
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john looks chubby to keep trying to pull off this “crack addict” thing.
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