Thread #100: Depeche Mode
 

I can't think of a finer topic for Manifesto #100.

If you haven't noticed over the course of my Cellar postings, I am a huge fan of the British synth-pop/rock band Depeche Mode. 58 of my 411 CDs are DM CDs...all 39 of their singles, 10 studio CDs, 2 live CDs, 5 compilations (and 3 of them are essentially the same thing), and a remix CD created by someone I know in the UK.

So why, syc? What the fuck is your issue?

It's really hard to pinpoint exactly. I was a mild fan from 1987 up to the mid 90s...owned a few CDs and a couple of singles. But in the summer of 1997, I just really got into them...they had released their 9th studio album, Ultra, that spring. The band just kicks ass...Martin Gore is a fantastic songwriter, Dave Gahan is a great singer, Alan Wilder is an awesome musician, and Andrew Fletcher is...well, he's Fletch.

Little did I know where my devotion to DM would take me...

The band put up their website in the spring of '97, and one day at school, I went over there to check it out. At the time, I was still a chat whore, and lo and behold...look! A chat room! I figured it would be some silly shit a la Yahoo, with a few people to actually converse with.

To my surprise, most of the folks that frequented the room were coherent...not a whole lot of silly shit, like "anyone want to chat w/21 y.o. female from TX." We talked about the band, the rumors that dog them, Dave's 2 minutes of death in 1995...and after a while, we just talked about other things...who we were, what we did, etc. And it just kinda went from there...

Because of my devotion to Depeche Mode, I:

--learned how to use a Windows-based computer
--learned how to build a website
--learned about mp3's
--met people from places as far flung as Brisbane, Australia and Moscow...and as close as 20 minutes from my house
--met Mimi, spent a lot of time in Chicago in 1998, and tried to move there at one time
--met Rhoda, moved to Washington, then later moved to Philadelphia
--met my friend Meg (who lives here in Philadelphia)
--met my friend Maya (who lives in Toronto, and was just down here a few weeks ago)
--met my friend Yuhao (who you all know here on the Cellar as pjshimmer)
--learned about a bunch of great bands that I either never heard of, or only vaguely knew
--became a huge fan of Nitzer Ebb
--learned that US CD releases can vary greatly from what is released in other countries
--was able to practice my Spanish on a regular basis
--have an ICQ buddy list that still consists mainly of folks I met through the old DM chat room...and I still talk to them here and there
--discovered that DM fans are loyal, to the point of almost being stalker-like
--discovered that there are some folks that took Alan Wilder's side after he left the band to work on Recoil full-time...those folks are evil evil evil, and will be smoted if they do not change their ways

I sometimes wonder where I would be had Depeche Mode not been a catalyst of sorts in my life...I mean, it's not like I have an altar built for them here at the apartment. But to say that they have not had a profound influence on my life would be a huge lie.

Re: Thread #100: Depeche Mode
 

Gotta agree with all of that (lol at the Alan fan diss! Yeah, some of them are over the top). If it weren't for DM, I'd never have met you eh? (guess we gotta thank Andrew for that one...winkwinknudgenudge).

Thank goodness that a band can last as long as they have and still be relevant to the music world. :)

If you were really a true fan, you'd have all the Recoil stuff as well. :)

No seriously, Recoil is truly awful.

I have all of their cds minus the compilations (which just seem pointless to me if you have all the cds anyway..) but I haven't been able to replace my tape of Martin Gore's solo album (which was just awesome) with a cd. Nor have I been able to find it online anywhere. My life will not be complete until I do so.

You're on crack...Recoil is good stuff. :)

A lot of the Recoil stuff is good...some of it is a bit odd though...I wasn't overly impressed with the last album, Liquid.

I have 3 versions of The Singles: 81>85, mainly for the sake of completion. Obviously, the original US version (Catching Up With...) is missing several tracks (all of the missing ones are on the People Are People compilation, IIRC). I wound up finding a cheap Australian version of it (which is the same as the UK version). When they re-released it in '98, I bought a copy of that as well.

The one thing that I don't have is the bonus 3rd CD of 86>98, which has some special remixes that I don't believe are b-sides on any of the singles. I had pre-ordered my copy from Music Boulevard, and alas, didn't get the 3rd CD.

Fun DM fact #1: Martin Gore is part African-American. Really. He discovered a few years ago that his father is an African-American.

Fun DM fact #2: Vince Clarke is a piece of shit. (Okay, maybe that's not quite a fact, but I would like to think so. ;) )

Fun DM fact #3: If you are ever in London, you should have dinner at Gascogne in North West London, owned by Andrew Fletcher.

You mean Run DMC, right? I thought they were American.

Run-DMC: African-American Hip-hop trio (now a duo) from New York City

Depeche Mode: British electronic quartet (now a trio) from London

Two completely different groups, Slang. :)

OOh yea, well the song I hear in my head is a rap of personal Jesus. How do you explain that? :)

And the murder of hip-hopster-g or whatever his name was suked. I dont listen to them but it seemed he was a pretty upstanding guy.

I don't even want to KNOW what's going on in your head, but Johnny Cash does a cover of Personal Jesus on his new CD. :)

wolf!! :(

Jam Master Jay was his name...a great dj, a giver to his community...he is sorely missed.

What does "suked" mean? You hittin that moonshine again, slang?

I truly believe that the fact that Johnny Cash has covered Personal Jesus is FAR scarier than anything that could possibly be going on in Slang's head. :eek:

yes, dear?

I had a nightmare that I was in a rowboat with Al Gore. He made me row and was insulting me as he ate some cheese doodles.

I looked into the water and saw Depeche Mode singing under the water on a stage that seemed to follow the rowboat. There were no bubbles coming from their mouths and I could hear their music faintly from the conduction of the water to the rowboat hull.

Then Al's cellphone rang and it was Bill Clinton....and he wanted to talk to me!

I woke up screaming. So what does this mean, am I crazy or gay?

If you woke up flaming, you'd be gay.
 

Hmmm ... vell ... slang, my boy, hup onto za couch, and vee shall zee ...

You have great amounts of pent up emotions, as symbolized by the wasser ... you isolate yourself from this, as seen in the rowboat. you do not actually touch the wasser, versteh? And within the water you see, and faintly hear the wunders of the DM, but cannot fully participate and appreciate dis ... furst, you muss become more in tune with your emotional nature.

The cheese doodles of Mr. Gore appear to be your feeling that he ingests nothing but useless puffs of air, but he himself says nothing but insults to you. Instead, he makes you do all of the work, expend all of the effort, himself getting a free ride ... Then he offers you the cellphone to speak with clinton, which causes you great distress.

I think you're just having relatively clear memories of the 90s.

With a little work, I think we can get you repressing this stuff again.

(AND HE HAD BEEN DOING SOOOO WELL UP TO THIS POINT!!!!)