The bats have left the bell tower.

American Goths

Remember when they didn't sell fangs and red contacts at the mall, and you actually had to put forth quite a bit of effort if you wanted to look undead? Back in my day, we painted our fingernails black with Sharpies, drove an hour to find a store that sold fishnet stockings, and tattooed ourselves with a sewing needle and India ink... and we liked it! Kids these days sure have it easy, with their Hot Topics and their Nightmare Before Christmas backpacks and their Kiss of Death lipstick...

Ok, enough fuddy-gothiness, but it is the last weekend before Halloween, so what better way to celebrate our impending doom than with three days of classic goth songs? First up is the band that started it all, with the song that started it all--"Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus. 

Bauhaus formed in England in 1978, and their sound picked up the jagged pieces punk had left behind and added a hefty dose of gloom to them. Their slowed-down tempos, ominous synthesizers, and doleful lyrics set the mold for dozens of bands that followed their footsteps in the years after their 1983 break-up. "Bela Lugosi's Dead" was the band's first single, released in 1979, and is not only considered to be the first goth record ever released, but is still goth's greatest anthem. Raise your devil horns in salute \m/ \m/!!!