Grapthar's Song of the Day: Siouxsie and the Banshees - 'Christine'

of bands over the last few weeks that aren't The Banshees, but I couldn't resist anymore, so today they're our featured band! I've been a fan of the group ever since I first purchased a compilation in high school (specifically the Singles Comp.), and was instantly hooked. Though I was very much into fast, hardcore punk, the originality of the sound and timbre of their music blew me away, and became a major influence on my tastes and guitar playing. Siouxsie and the Banshees were formed in 1976 in London, England by Siouxsie Sioux (vocals) and Steven Severin (bass), who were the only two permanent members in the early years of the band. The guitar position was filled by a number of incredible players, including Robert Smith (The Cure) and John McGeoch (Magazine, PIL), both of whom created an incredibly unique sound that helped the band stand apart from everything else happening at the time. In the image above, to the right of this paragraph, they actually had Sid Vicious playing drums, before he joined the Pistols. This show happened before the band 'officially' existed, and was apparently entirely improvised, so I'd imagine its pretty insane, haha.

that was more catchy and a good entry point, but decided on the latter as I sometimes get a bit too obscure, lol. So, I chose a song from their 1980 album Kaleidoscope, which is arguably my favorite, though as I type that, I realize that there are so many other good albums that I can't really pick. This album was quite different from the two previous albums; their debut release was very much a punk album, though it had a lot of unique elements starting to appear. Their sophomore release was a lot darker, and eventually would become a major influence on the goth scene. This album is 'lighter' I suppose, but the production and arrangement of the tracks is super interesting, and incredibly different than anything else that was happening at the beginning of the '80s. This song was a single from the album, and despite getting radio play, features a really interesting chord progression and strange lyrics, which of course, I'm always partial towards.