Loudanum Dropz 2
I’m sure that a few people read this comic only off an RSS reader, and will think I’m anti-dubstep.
As noted yesterday, I’m not. I like more than a few such bands. But trying to explain to my older friends what dubstep is equals very odd expressions and a lack of comprehension.
To me, dubstep is the perfect amalgamation of techno and industrial music genres. When it’s done right. When it’s not, it just sucks. But when it’s done right?
Here’s an example:
Blackburner is an example of “non-standard dubstep,” in that they have a much more goth/industrial feel to them, and get more melodic than the majority of acts out there. Unlike most of the others out there, they make music that has more than just a sampled movie or song bite and wobble bass dropped all over the place.
Whereas Dupstep is a genre of music, Steampunk is more of a subculture. Some like to claim that it cropped up on its own, and tend to get dickish about it if you claim otherwise *cough-RobertBrownOfAbneyPark-cough*. Those of us living in reality can more accurately tell you that Steampunk is what happens when Goths find H.G. Wells books and the color brown. It is a complete offshoot of Goth. Just as Industrial takes the Goth Punk feel to a sci-fi, dystopian future*, Steampunk goes the other way and takes it back to the past.
*Note: In NO WAY am I saying that Industrial is, was, or ever will be an “offshoot” of Goth. The two genres evolved separately, and converged to some degree.
This is topical, in a way: As of the day this comic posted, we are at Comic Con San Diego, or as some people call it, San Diego Comic Con, at our regular booth of #1230. We are splitting the booth this year with Gearhearts Steampunk Glamour Revue, a magazine full of scantily clad steampunk chicks, fiction, art, and other such. You know who we are, but Gearhearts is a publication run by several very close friends, with great content. I have it on good authority that they’re bringing mucho steampunk merch, as well as the final remaining copies of their first 4 or 5 issues, I forget exactly. Come by and see us!
EJECT EJECT
Get this man 20ccs of Trampled By Turtles, STAT.
Or get him a dose of a truly badass cover of Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of Hollis Brown.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFUmQHjsYzw
Okay, I do read the comic via an RSS reader (and thanks for the feed!), but I normally do click the header to open it in a full tab. 🙂
Actually, Steampunk as a subculture is what happens when bored people with a little money and a lot of creativity (or vice-versa) decide to live out the alternate history novels of K.W. Jeter and his peers who were writing “alternate history” fiction. Jeter jokingly slapped the term on the genre when asked to describe it, as kind of a lampoon on Cyberpunk. Then, of course, the neo-Victorians got hold of it and (as Victorians of any stripe are wont to do) retconned the history of the thing so that it REQUIRED a Victorian setting and ideology (the original works of fiction didn’t) and it sprung fully formed into the heads & onto the backs of the first people to dress accordingly; mostly because this allowed them to cling to their modern contrivances while still spouting their romanticized Victorian ideals
Steampunk as a musical sub-genre is what happens when a bored, somewhat talented darkwave band (aka Abney Park) decide to shoehorn Steampunk inspired lyrics into their music and others catch on that there is money to be grubbed.
I would agree if I had ever known one – even one – Steampunk who hadn’t started out as a Goth.
Retcon? Oh yes. A lot of Steampunks retcon their own history.
“Wot? Gothic music? Such garbage! I would never listen to such a thing!”
“BITCH YOU AND I WENT TO THE SWITCHBLADE SYMPHONY CONCERT TOGETHER IN 1998, AND YOU DRESSED LIKE SIOUXSIE GOT HIT BY A BUS FULL OF BAUHAUS!”
I’ve known a few, but they get fewer and farther between every year as the “neo-Victorians” that subverted the genre take more of the whimsy and fantasy out of it (kind of like the sci-fi fans who say that “hard science” sci-fi is the only “twue sci-fi”) because it loses its luster for them. An extremely vocal minority proving that it doesn’t matter how big the punch bowl is, it only takes one person pissing in it to fuck the whole thing up. That’s why I dropped out of all the Steampunk forums and discussion groups years ago, but I don’t count for the sake of that line of discussion because I’ve always had a touch of “the Goth”. Well, that, and I was never big enough into the Steampunk subculture elements to dress the part.
And yeah, it’s weird, as if the whole neo-Victorian subset posted a big “No Goths Allowed” sign outside their little metaphorical clubhouse and the Goths are just like “Quick, smudge your eyeliner so it looks like soot stains and they won’t know” instead of saying “Fuck you guys, we do what we want” and carving out their own little niche in the subculture.
“AND YOU DRESSED LIKE SIOUXSIE GOT HIT BY A BUS FULL OF BAUHAUS!”
You’re getting my cleaning bill for that line. I fucking choked on my drink.
I am amused by this continuous attempt to either define or control the idea of ‘SteamPunk’…I’ve been dressing in vintage clothing for around 40 years, so at times I’m Dieselpunk, a historical re-enactor (French fur trade), XX Legio Augusta, etc.
Also used to shoot a lot, mostly range stuff, 500 yards and under. Never saw the point to hunting apart from going after the assholes that were determined to hunt grandma’s farm without permission. I’ve been shot at, and let me tell you, some hunters get all testy when you shoot back. Tsk tsk. At least *I* aimed to miss.
ANYway, Neo-Victorian, Goth, call it what you will, it’s all about being something apart from the plastic X-box generation or living in a useless present devoid of style or courtesy.
In other words, be polite or I’ll shoot you in the ass with my Tesla-Gatling-Laser-Electrolux (yes, the vacuum cleaner, with conversion kit) Field Gun, Mk. II.
I found it mildly amusing when the Goth scene showed up, devoid of color or some sense of taste in many ways. Brown being the new black…
Come on by sometime you’re in the Boston area, I can show you the Baldwin compressed-air locomotives and a few hidden gems.
OK, so that Abney Park thing was so depressing I had to comment. They sound like DcD circa Into the Labyrinth crossed with a mediocre Nova Scotia folk-rock bar band, with China Mieville derivative lyrics and all wrapped up in bad costuming and goggles.
Oh the goggles.
Perhaps the goggles prevent them from seeing that their costumes are ridiculous (even by steampunk standards). I kept hoping they were a parody, but no, he got increasingly serious and WHY THE HELL DOES HE KEEP SQUINTING AT THE CAMERA LIKE THAT?
My morning was weird already. Now it has taken a complete left turn into wackytown (or as it is here in Der Schweiz, Kanton Aargau).
First:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFQ5EpO7iHk
Secondly, I’d LIKE to be able to read the comic off my RSS feed, but the RSS posts the service you use generates always show a miniaturized version of the comic. I thought this was on purpose so you can get a better pageview count, but going by this comic.. maybe not.
Brilliant, I once had dubset described to me as follows:
“Bass beats dirtier than screwing your sister and finding your fathers wedding ring” always makes me laugh.
Nastier than Jesus dropping the soap in a prison shower.
Steampunk as a literary genre predates both the subculture and its musical roots, and in fact predates calling it that (Verne is considered by many to be “steampunk”). It is near-impossible to declare that the musical style evolved from any given other style, as there is no set style to begin with. Abney Park, while certainly among the most famous, is hardly definitive. As a change of pace, check Professor Elemental and his “chap-hop” raps.
I’m not really sure I’d consider Jules Verne to be steampunk, because part of the genre involves a specific adherence to the overall victorian aesthetic. It’s a deliberate choice. When Jules Verne was writing books the clothes, mode of dress, etc etc was still largely unchanged from victorian times. Steampunk is looking backwards and saying “what if”. Jules Verne was looking forward and saying “what if”.
Verne, and HG Wells as well, were saying “What if?”. They just happened to be in the era instead of looking back at it. The effect however, is remarkably similar; Victorian ideas of science made bigger and better.
I definitely wouldn’t consider Verne steampunk. The original basis for steampunk, the thing that started it all off, was “What if Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine [the first programmable computer ever, but completely mechanical, not electronic or even electrical] had been commercially successful and the Victorian age had gotten as computerized with mechanical computers as our current age is with electronic ones?”
Verne’s books describe technology that was a little beyond what was possible then but still sounded plausible (especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), but that’s basically what science fiction DOES (when it’s set in the present or near-future, anyway); there’s nothing particularly steampunky in it.
Chris, are you talking about William Gibson & Bruce Stirling’s “The Difference Engine? If so, your start point in the chronology of Steampunk is about 3 years late, since K.W. Jeter coined the term 3 or so years (April 1987) before that book came out (September 1990).
I don’t need to listen to dubstep. I used to connect to AOL through Dialup (kidding, just kidding). I gotta admit, I used to not care for the dubstep genre for a long time. But I grew up in the techno and house age. I mean it’s hard to understand what your listening too when a Dubstep track comes on after some Armin van Buuren or DJ Tiesto.
I’ve been giving it a chance though, easing myself into it. Honestly I’m not 100% sure what I’m listening too qualifies as dubstep, it’s melodic, lyrics and such. But I find the hardcore dubstep which is absolutely nothing but noises, I just can’t do that yet. Found a guy named KDrew though which I’m actually enjoying.
“I don’t need to listen to dubstep. I used to connect to AOL through Dialup (kidding, just kidding)”
You sir, have made my evening. Permission to steal?
Sure go ahead, to be fair I’m not sure where I stole it from though
The only dubstep I’ve really listened to is Nero, they used one of his tracks to promote Borderlands 2 and I immediately fell in love with it. It’s more dance style than some of the things out there, but it’s sheer guilty ear pleasure for me.
I have a piece of “accidental Steampunk gear” that happened when I added magazine feeding, gas-powered automatic shell ejecting and a better sight setup to Ruger’s clone of an 1873-type single action revolver and got “Maurice the FrankenRuger”:
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5542799&postcount=58
….that’s fucking crazy. Mel just noted you finally invented the Hollywood Pistol That Fires Too Many Rounds.
On RSS, this comic doesn’t seem to load fullscreen, so it’s unreadable without coming to the website. I use RSS to let me know when there is a new comic up, but that’s it.
I’m suddenly reminded of Matt Howarth’s interpretation of music and sound in Those Annyoing Post Brothers such as when Ron uses his hacked Casio to demolish a frat house in Oustand the party in 92 Degrees. It is so loud that causes birds to drop dead in the sky, damage in unborn children, and the heads of lab monkeys to explode.
Granted Howarth’s ability translated much better when he wrote reviews in the comic Sonic Curiosity.
As an older guy, I have to admit I didn’t have a clue about dubstep, and while I’m familiar with steampunk as a subgenre of science fiction/fantasy, I had no idea there was steampunk music out there until now.
If Blackburner is from the more melodic end of the dubstep spectrum, then count me out as a dubstep fan. The video on this page was barely melodic enough for my taste, and was so boring (to me) that I couldn’t even get all the way through the video. I found your two recent steampunk examples (Unwoman and Abney Park) to be much more accessible and interesting, especially Unwoman, but the steampunk/dubstep video you used to explain what Loudanum Dropz would sound like (great name, BTW!) was another one I couldn’t get through.
So thanks for expanding my musical understanding. Now at least I have some idea what my younger online friends mean by “dubstep”.
I was into dubstep for a while, but oddly I found that weird little offshoot called chillstep.
I dig it, dont judge. 😉
Not the best, not the worst. Everyone has their own musical tastes … but here is a cross-section of the lighter (?) side of dubstep.
More vocals that other variants imo. Just and FYI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3vwLoDSBLQ
You might want to look at your RSS feed in Feedly (looked the same in Google Reader)–the comic is too small to read, but your text and other links are fine as is. You’re the only comic I’m willing to read that doesn’t show up properly via RSS.
Gotta love a band that incorporates Didgeridoo as well as they do.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/09/robert-farago/toronto-boycott-no-sex-for-gun-owners/
Thus far the most disturbingly descriptive explanation I have heard for dubstep is “The sound of Transformers having sex” O.o
Ok, I’m always kind of iffy with dubstep, mostly because I know what I’ve had people try to show me was trash, but that Blackburner song? Amazing. I crave more.
My first exposure to Steampunk was the Abney Park dance remix version of “Sleep Isabella” on “True Blood”. Loved that, and have still not been able to find that remix version for download or purchase, if anyone finds it gimmee a shout. Here it is on True Blood