Manifesto #100: The Influence of Depeche Mode

[elSicomoro]

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.