The closest I've come is when, upon my stating that I listened to industrial, one of my old coworkers said, "Oh, like Rage Against The Machine?"

Actually that's not true. The last company I worked with, I ended up working with a girl who had been into the goth scene years ago, but considering she had long dyed-black hair, a big purple H. R. Giger tattoo on one arm and had pretty obvious mental problems, I'd figured that out already.

Funny.. happens all the time. :)

A new guy who was just hired in my team likes the noise/breakcore scene a lot. He said he likes Iszoloscope, Ginormous, Bong Ra etc... what a surprise.

Yeah, not only did that happen with a guy who works here, but he grew up in Reading, PA is around the same age, and knows all the same scene people from the past 20 years. What a small fuckin world.

I ended up working with a girl who I had to supervise, she knew the name of my band and had heard the band but had no clue who I was...cause I turn into Bruce Wayne by day.....

until one of my co-workers who is a trance DJ said something...

then she turned into a fan @ work....and that kind of sucked

but she got axxed casue her goth/industrial attitude wasnt tolerated at the average joe, pop, mainstream office attitude.

The other funny thing is the spring women. :P
I used to work downtown Chicago and Spring was always our favorite time of year. Well, at least until I moved to Austin. I then realized the Austin has some of the most beautiful women on the planet!

These moments sound gay.

miami is anti-rivet. so i have never, nor will i ever probably encounter that here where i live.

kinda like when i realized that the stuart zechman in our office was the same guy from stabbing westward and filter. i wonder if he'd want to record some guitar parts for the new 820 album. i wonder if it would sound the same as 'ungod' and 'hey man nice shot'.

Sounds gay... haha.. it does doesn't it.

I think it's only true to the older crowd. And when you meet one, it's like you have an instant bond of sorts. Kinda like Bears fans. :D

heh, last year i wanted in on the skinny puppy ticket presale but you needed an amex card to do so...

i knew my boss had an amex so i bit the bullet, went into his office and said "i have a weird request...there's this band, skinny puppy and..."

and before i finished my question he was a.) reaching for his wallet and b.) telling me how he used to listen to neubauten, kmfdm, ministry and all that.

so i got the tix, paid him back and gained some knowledge that, yes, we are indeed everywhere...

*cue evil laughter*

Kinda sounds like the whole industrial culture's all underground, everyone's a closet rivethead in the end.

Continue, please.

I thought my old coworker was goth/industrial but it turned out she was a stinking emo chick.

LOL.. it's hard to tell them apart these days. Back in 83-93 it was obvious... either into Industrial or Punk.

@ maschinetheist

didn't you know the scene is gay??

looks like someone has been led astray...ahahahaha

I've had this happen several times.

The first two were in a small town in Michigan, one was a kid at my highschool who had learned of the scene through an EX of mine, we ended up being good friends for years, the other was a doctor I met in a borders, he was wearing some obligitory band shirt, sparks flew.


the third was WAY more interesting:

I work in a group home for mentally ill (schizo's) and i often get sent to other houses, well anywho, I was just sitting in the office and this resident who had schizophrenia, and was wearing kahkis, a plaid shirt, and a crucifix, walked by the office singing the verses from RevCo's "Do ya think I'm sexy?" turned out he was into every band that I was into that existed before 1995, thats when he fell out of the scene, I still see him from time to time, but he has been kicked out of his house since then.

Never happened to me :( No-one likes industrial in the UK. No-one.

TBO, are you leaving me? hahah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA5znZOLp9o&eurl




:P

listen to the lyrics! :D

@machinetheist:

Do you want a group hug from me and eevil?

TBO- soooo....now you are ignoring me....first a sports game and now this?

where's my "dear binary" letter?

okay, my turn. A few years ago, I started working doing freelance for this guy who basically was working out of his apartment. He's 49 and is pretty normal in appearance (but so am I). I wouldn't say he's conservative, but I wouldn't think he had knowledge about industrial-anything...

...until, on my third or fourth day of working for him, he's sharing old stories about traveling/living in Europe, and casually talks about his female friend who shacked up with Blixa Bargeld etc etc etc.

He doesn't even say "Einsturzende Neubauten". He just flat out says, "Yeah, she has a way of hooking up with key people and she even moved in with Blixa Bargeld."

I think what threw me off more was not his mention of EN's Blixa, but rather he just assumed I would know who Blixa was. I mean, I really don't give any outside indication that I'm into that stuff.

Needless to say, we became friends :)

closeted riverheads are a dime a dozen; so what... more importantly what was served at lunch?

Actually the closest to such moment was probably when I met bandmate in HS.

Another one was when I found out where Helosix went to High School. Turns out he went to the same one as I did over and lived around here 20 years ago. That's the closest to such moment :(

I was assisting one of the lead scientists at my work a few years ago. We were talking about whatever, when he brings up "So...have you ever heard of a band called Bauhaus?" That wouldn't normally be odd, as this is Seattle and a lot of unassuming folk are fans of alternative music. But, this guy is just SO straight-laced, I didn't expect him to be talking about how that was his favorite band in college.

Another work experience was assisting yet another scientist. He knew I used to be in bands and asked me what kind of music we played. I said dark-electronic/industrial stiff. He replied, "Oh, like Nitzer Ebb?" I had a good laugh, in that NE were the sole reason I stopped playing drum set and began using electronic drums, along with anytime I decribed the music to any other person not in the scene, I'd always receive replies like, "Like Nine Inch Nails? Like Marilyn Manson" to which I eventually would just say yes, rather than deal with the aggrivation of explaining myself...

@ maschinetheist

If I am invited to the 20th reunion this year I will let you know. Maybe we can have a brew over at Henry's :)

@Sigsaly Transmissions (helosix)

Splendid!

I think we should have a site where we out secret fans of this music. my wife would be on this list as well. people are always suprised when they find out she is into this kind of music as well as ska and old school punk and hardcore...and when you mention that she has skinny puppy on vinyl and a lot of rare discs their eyes bug out....its really kind of stupid that people assume she wouldn't be into this stuff.

i usually just remind them that she's a grown-up.

hahaha, closet rivetheads...i'm one of them. i can pretty much guarantee no one at work would know what kind of music i listen to.

<<<i can pretty much guarantee no one at work would know what kind of music i listen to.>>>

Me neither, or at least folks that haven't been here long (I've worked for the same company for 11 years). I no longer wear the Required Industrial Uniform, just basic clothes and normal hair. Well, there are still the tattoos...

The bleached hair usually gives me away as either at least alternative-guy, if not rivethead, or Billy Idol impersonator.

I was really surprised when I was talking to a co-worker and he mentioned Skinny Puppy. He's like, a jock, football player, really into sports but really into a lot of different kinds of music. I got him liking Babyland.

Never happened to me :(

Yeah..never happened here in the UK. But then again I still don't know any English people :/
It happened in Australia though. A new chick at work, turned up in full corset, black clothes, the works. Turns out she ran the first goth club I ever went to. So we became friends, but she got the axe pretty soon.

However I have met plenty of other producers in the workplace. It seems every second male produces hip hop or plays guitar in an indie band or has a metal band with an indie record contract.... Makes for some interesting tech-talk at the water cooler.
Last Monday I came into the office straight from the airport so I had my guitar with me, in it's Gibson hard-case, and the effing guitarists were coming out of the damn woodworks...

I don't understand why it's so surprising but then I *am* "normal looking guy". When Neubauten played here did any of the club-scene types go? No, it was us normal looking guys and the old crust punks.

Normal days at work I'll be in a shirt and suit. When we have a dress-down day I might wear a Skinny Puppy shirt and one of my jackets has a silver EN stick figure badge but it's just as likely to be an Iron Maiden shirt. I often come into work early so that I can leave in time to "get to a gig". Very few people know (or care, probably) that I'm playing, not watching.

I actually dread people asking "what kind of music do you like"...how long have you got?

@ spahn22

you poor soul. miami is unfriendly territory for individualistic people. although there are pockets of sanity everywhere.


often, genuine music aficionados don't feel the need to look the part. i've met a lot of average-joe-type electronic / industrial fans. i guess i've been lucky.

So, here at my job, we've been looking to hire a new programmer.
[...] and it being a beautiful day here in downtown Philly

Anyone else ever have an experience like this?


uhm, yeah.
is there anyone on this thing that isn't a programmer in Philly?


so, sitting in my office in downtown philly one day, banging
away on some perl, and one of our customer service folks comes
in wearing a funker vogt hoodie...

no. usually when i say industrial, they say "oh, you mean like TOOL???" so i just don't bother. i'm probably the secret industrial fan next door to someone because i keep quiet about what i like to listen to!!

Couple of my managers listened to Nitzer Ebb when they were still considered close enough to techno. Otherwise, my one work friend accepted an offer to come to Inferno and she's hooked.

Says she loves the lack of pretentiousness there (<-- take note Virul3nt :P ) and of course, the dancing for hours.

covet,

UGH! i hate when people reference TOOL! like wtf makes that industrial in ANY sense?

@Toadflakz:

Lack of pretentiousness...at a GOTH-INDUSTRIAL CLUB?!!!

How drunk was she when she stated this?

I live in Oklahoma, dude. Music-wise, we've only ever had one decent club in Oklahoma City and it's still a shit hole and doesn't serve alcohol (incredibly it's still around since '93 when I frequented the place). Even so, they mainly played various varieties of house and trance, never industrial. Someone tried to start up a little goth club once by renting out a ball room on the weekends. They consistently played some good stuff but it fizzled out after only a few months.

I was introduced to Industrial in '94 by this guy I ended up working with that was well-traveled (army vet and tank commander in desert storm). He was one of the coolest people I've ever met and really took me under his wing, making it his business to expand my musical, and social, horizons. Since then I've met exactly two people who liked ebm/industrial. All three of us became musicians but they've both since moved out of state.

Now I have a career and don't get to clubs anymore. So I don't know anyone locally that even likes what I listen to or produce. No one to tap on the shoulder and bounce ideas off of or rely on for informed opinions or artistic direction. I believe it has seriously hindered the progression as a musician. YES, I FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF! lol ;0)

I think I am the secret guy, as i dont dress like a a vampire skinhead robot or whatever it is this year. I would have always thought the perfect industrial look would be a commie style blue or grey cambodia soviet issue jumpsuit, or a mechanic one like michael myers. blank. generic.

I always thought it was a sign of actual-love-of-music and maybe maturity that youd see so many "normal" looking people into industrial, who didnt bother dressing like Nazis or whatever, as if it was more about the ideas than hipsterism. (exception made for dominatrix/catwoman/patent leather clad women. I like erections.)

I knew it was a bad sign when i started going to shows and seeing every person there in clogs or whatever the fuck those massive boots are called, goggles, dreadlocks, pleather/chains hanging off their waist, and worst of all, massive, baggy, almost raver'y pants. This I directly blame Marylin Manson for. And by Manson i mean Trent Reznor. And by Trent Reznor i mean the Jews. just kidding. sort of.

I knew industrial was filling with scensters. I thought, 'well arent the scensters eventually want to be super-poplular, i.e. make mediocre music just good enough to get them on stage and get pussy, attention etc. '

one year later- enter terror EBM.

which looked good on paper (like 'chicks with dicks') "its like the stiffest-beat, throbbing-iest bassline, most distorty vocally parts of the best Leatherstrip, Wumpscut, Commando, plus "Amputate"-from Skinny Puppy, but turned into a whole albums, then a sub-genre. Itll be great!!!"

At least the 90's era hipsters-who-needed-pussy-and-were-brave-enough-to-go-on-stage-to-get-it created a listenable version of industrial- Coldwave.

Im sorry, rant over, I will officially go away if the bosses here tell me to.

"I knew it was a bad sign when i started going to shows and seeing every person there in clogs or whatever the fuck those massive boots are called, goggles, dreadlocks, pleather/chains hanging off their waist, and worst of all, massive, baggy, almost raver'y pants."

The best and brightest will tell you that gravity was the most pervasive and powerful force in the universe.......well, they don't know shit about "COOL".

Happened to me before, at my old work, and it was a female co-worker :P What a lucky punch! She was a big Depeche Mode fan, but also into Feindflug, Combichrist, Klangstabil, Tyske Ludder and so on. So she got my attention pretty fast. We ended up, going home together after party around xmas. So I proberly used all of my luck at once.

So what's new? Most of us when we have to enter the real world and get a job by the time we are 25, drop the industrial/gothic attire, but that doesn't mean that we have to stop liking the music does it?
Personally, I think it is fun, being in my late 30's, to shock the youngsters (who think they are into something so damn special and extreme) by revealing that you, that old unconspicuous looking man are way longer and much deeper into the stuff that they think will shock the "normals".

Also, is it not true that most of the legendary industrial acts looked like the average guy/girl next door? The obligatory plastics and latex only came around about ten/fifteen years ago or so....

"Also, is it not true that most of the legendary industrial acts looked like the average guy/girl next door? The obligatory plastics and latex only came around about ten/fifteen years ago or so...."

True, I've seen Front 242 do a gig in blue jeans and t-shirts.

I can think of several dozen people who came out of DIGEX here in DC "back in the day" that were all into the industrial/goth scene from techies to sales person (that would have been just me lol)

Every time I wear an EBM related shirt, I always seem to get comments from "normal" people.

Not long ago I was wearing a Suicide Commando shirt, and a waiter at some Mexican restaurant said "oh man, I love that band, and music like that!", or something like that

Ive had workers at Best Buy, the local grocery store, random girls at the mall, etc...all of whom one would consider way outside the scene, comment on bands shirts I've worn. Sometimes, its almost in a hushed "Pssst...hey, I dig that band too" tone(as if there's something shameful)

So yeah, you've be surprised who has heard of, passingly into or very much into older industrial or newer EBM music.

I wish I knew someone who liked Indust music :(

I met a brit at a party once and he knew Combichrist and Angelspit... But he was a Metal head... Anyway we became freinds and i got him into Funker Vogt but then he went back to england before i could show him any more...

Ihve shown my friends some stuff and one LOVES zombie nation by Grendel.... but no-one else likes...
devsies!!!


Infact Im in an Industrial band (cult of the bleeding toe) with a friend but he likes trance and other electronic stuff... I think He just likes making music and dosn't care what genre though... new songs soon up on myspace

Electrofreak & his NYC clone Tony aka Electroblue (same age & IDENTICAL music tastes).

you gotta buy that guy flowers now!

heh, but actually i pretty much got this job because i was into industrial music i think. during the interview we just kind of started talking about music and low and behold he was mostly into the wax trax era of stuff. even went to see skinny puppy with him last year, and we almost saw ministry twice!

oh gee, greg stumbled upon bill ahern....and now the deep thread has spawned...but i tell you this now Mr.TBO...if you some how summon Schmitty back into existence....NO MORE CHICKEN BURGERS FOR YOU!

BUMP!

Last Monday I overheard my co worker commenting on a guy on Facebook named "Van Acker", which caught his attention because it reminded him about Luc Van Acker, and he proceeded to talk (to people who had no idea what he was talking about) about Revolting Cocks.
It really surprised me, because I've been working with him for more than a year and only heard him quote cheesy hip hop lyrics so far.

Later the same day, I caught him listening to really loud Nitzer Ebb through his headphones, and it turned out he's a big EBM fan and has been since Nitzer's legendary support job for Depeche Mode in the late 80's.


Really surprised me, I'd never imagined that from a guy like him. Now I'm trying to convince him into going to the F242 show in Malmö next month.

FUCKIT!

I have mexican next door neighbors that blast Mexican Folk music all the time. I'm gonna slip a Hocico CD into there mail box this weekend

ROFLCOPTERZ @ Giga

My hubby has been doing construction jobs on the side with his buddy.He's given him tons of our music and he loves it and has been to several of our shows.They have been working on a 85 year old's house recently and the buddy gave the old guy a couple of cd's. Imagine my husband's surprise when the other day the old guy was bellowing about "gawd damnit where the hell's my Icon of Coil cd?" Turn's out the old coot loves everything they've given him! On a seperate yet equally funny note, the same old guy had Comcast show up at his door wondering were all their bandwidth was going.Turns out Oldy McOlderson had discovered internet porn....... :)

@GIGA-saw one of the lowered meximobiles (complete with all the dangle balls and statues and such) drive by with at least 10 of 'em in there blasting VNV a few months back.... :)

Ok last night around 3am i put a burned copy of "Odio Bajo El Alma" in my mexi-neighbors mailbox.

Giga- you gonna get 2 week old burrito in return, im sure :D

I'm just hoping to hear Hell On Earth Blasting thru my walls soon

LOL if u really did that you are awesome

I REALLY DID!!!!

use to play industrial to an old friend of mine every once and a while. says it reminded him of working on a cheese factory in wisconsin. then he'd go on about every machine seems to have a song of its own; how you could tell the quality of steel by its ring. then he would go on about brian eno and elevator music.

Gigatronik, I totally approve of this act of music "piracy". That's fucking cool :D

Hmm i was a my dads school, doing some random work for him. A teacher is talking with a student about dancing, and the teacher casually remarks "Tanzen mussolini" and asks the baffled student, who made that song. The student thinks the teacher is crazy and i cant stand awkward silence so i yelled "DAF!". We then proceded to talk about Nitzer Ebb and Portion control and a bunch of other old school bands.

It's also really funny working in a mainstream CD shop and play EBM. Found quite a few "normal" looking people, comming in to the shop asking if i actually sold any NItzer Ebb or Front and for some reason small children love dancing to harsh ebm, but thats probably because it all sounds like techno anyway.

Ok, this one goes much further than my story from just last week.

Turns out my co worker from Sweden, who helped starting up our Swedish department, is into pretty much the same music as I am. Anythin from X-Fusion and Hocico to Terrorfakt and that sort of stuff.
He looks like your regular boring Swedish geeky guy, who I'd never imagine being into music like this, which just makes it cooler. With such a niche scene, it's always incredible when you run into other people who are into it... unless you're in Germany. :P

Even in Germany it is not like that the farmers are argueing about the latest haujobb or that at the Oktoberfest :W: is being played in the big tents :-)))

Nah, but you can actually find record stores selling the music. Good luck doing that here. :P

But you got Claus Larsen which whe have not :-)

I one found some VNV cds in mainstream musicstore, placed between house music and danceable music, and at the same store i got a zoth omorg cd for around 2 dollars.

One day I was talking to this guy greg and it turned out he listens to all the same music as me. Then one day I found him on sideline. wacky.

One day I was talking to this guy greg and it turned out he listens to all the same music as me. Then one day I found him on sideline. wacky.

You should definitely change your tastes, then, to avoid being as lame as that guy.

god you are right, nothing but enya and michael bolton for me from now on. just have to get these damn tattoos lasered off. no need for a psychic cross or a neubauten symbol anymore. thank you for making me see the error of my ways.

oh and hi.

Electrohead:

Who is, by the way, playing in Denmark in april ;P

Who's Greg?

@Zombiejäger: Yes, yes, yes! :-) I will come to Denmark if there are no German dates/venues :-)

He's is only planning maximum 10 shows pr. year... So dont be to sure, but why not? he have a huge fanbase there :)

Germany would be a given, but how does he relate to the secret industrial fan next door? :P
Unless he's your next door neighbour, that is.

Not quite on topic, but I didn't feel like creating a new thread for this.

I just heard Skinny Puppy - Worlock played on a mainstream radio (the channel with the most listeners in Denmark) during absolute prime time (2:08 pm)

I mean, I was surprised when they played LA Style, and when they played Devo. And when they played Steinkind, it could be explained by the crazy radio host at that particular show. But this one is new to me. I'm impressed.

several years ago i was working at an ad agency as a web designer in Chicago for a few years before i realized our sound guy was the drummer for Stabbing Westward's 1st album and Machine of Loving Grace's 2nd album. Later he helped with the mixing of Pigface's Easy Listening.
that was pretty amazing to me back then.

I still haven't Found any other human into Industrial music :(