~Daisy Chainsaw~
I'll be adding more things in this section soon!
~SIREN #1~
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~VOLUME #1~**
~MM 12.1.90~**~NME 11.16.91~ **~NME 11.30.91~**
~NME 1.11.92~**
~VOLUME #3~**
~MM 3.14.92~**
~MM 3.21.92~**
~ELEVENTEEN!~**
~SAWESOME!~**
~FLIPSIDE INTERVIEW~**
~NME 10.10.92~**
~MM 10.31.92~**
~NME 11.28.92~**
~NME 1.9.93~**
~DEADLINE 7.93~**
Daisy Chainsaw:
July 7, 1999 from sfbg.com
WHEN THE FORCES of a free-market economy are at odds with the aesthetics of the cultural elite, euphemisms are created, like "critical favorites," or "cult sensations," to explain what some people like and what most people don't. Nowadays, with information being more of a commodity than ideas, the place of a critic is less that of an arbiter of taste than a spectator at a marathon. Critics have no actual effect on the race, and even if they screamed their opinion of the runners at the top of their lungs, it would only contribute to the overwhelming din of the crowd.
This writer believes that the best story might not be traveling with the leaders of said race, but perhaps with those at the very back, or even those who pass out during the first five miles. In the record business, these losers all convene in one place when their run is over: the bane of every buyer's existence, the dustiest, moldiest, grungiest section of the store, the budget bin. Hence, every few months in this space, I'll show you the ugly side of art versus commerce, the commercial failures that, fair shake or not, never got their due.
Daisy Chainsaw traveled the path of many a promising British band. Their 1991 debut single "Love Your Money" was chosen as single of the week by NME, they received heaps of praise for about a month, and then, before their album was even released, the U.K. press turned on them. Here in the States they signed to A&M, which released the EP Lovesick Pleasure ("Love Your Money" plus the second single, "Pink Flower," and B-sides) and their 1992 debut album Eleventeen. The band received some minor exposure when the "Love Your Money" video was prominently featured on Beavis and Butt-Head (hey, it worked for White Zombie) and when Darlene, Sara Gilbert's character on Roseanne, sneaked out of the house to see a Daisy Chainsaw concert (that home viewers never saw).
The problem for the band was that grunge was on the rise in American radio, and late-'80s dance pop like Depeche Mode was the only U.K. export that could get any play outside of college stations. Additionally, American critics didn't know what to make of Eleventeen and dismissed the album as the product of art-school Sugarcubes wanna-bes. Katie Jane Garside, Daisy Chainsaw's singer, left the band amid rumors of both mental illness and a fierce dislike of the music industry. The band replaced her with a weak soundalike and released a mediocre record that never saw release stateside. Garside resurfaced for a few cameos on electro-industrial records, but hasn't been heard from in years.
Eleventeen is admittedly flawed (erring on the side of experimentation rather than mundanity), but it is far too compelling in its brightest moments to languish in the budget bin. Garside is undoubtedly the focal point with her frightening coos and shrieks (the Sugarcubes comparisons are understandable, but Björk never freaked so brutally, even during her days with Kukl). The two singles, along with album opener "I Feel Insane," show Garside in her element, storming from lyric to lyric like a bite-size juggernaut, frantic and out of breath. Guitarist Crispin Gray (who also wrote all the songs) gives the group its catchy hooks with sped-up and feedback-laden glam riffs ā la Mick Ronson. Together, the band produces startling bubblegum pop with glass in it, irresistible and dangerous. The quieter songs, most notably "Hope Your Dreams Come True" and "Natural Man," have an eerie charm that round out this unappreciated and widely forgotten gem. Cory Brown
Daisy Chainsaw:
From "Propaganda" Issue No. 21, Spring 1994
Interrogation by Stephanie Young
Here she comes - the new age Ophelia of the "Addams Family - the dirty little street urchin right out of the pages of Charles Dickens. Katie Jane Garside has been described in many different ways by many different people - all of which are probably true to a certain extent because of her almost schizophrenic nature. The same goes for her band, the maniacal Daisy Chainsaw. Their sound has been called everything from Kate Bush meets Big Black to Siouxsie on acid. One thing, however, is undeniable - both Katie Jane and Daisy Chainsaw demand your attention. Their dark, psychedelic musical meanderings have created a cult following. They've been touring worldwide almost non-stop since their highly neurotic debut lp, ELEVENTEEN, came out almost a year ago. Even the name of the album is steeped deeply in their occult dabblings. It's a subject Katie is purposely vague about because she feels that the paranormal is something we should just allow to happen, and not over-analyze.
"The number eleven has come to symbolize many things for us," says Katie looking upwards as if searching for guidance. She is draped in her usual veils and torn party-dress attire, her hair is dreadlocked and garnished with dead flowers. She really is the reincarnation of Ophelia Addams. This couture is perfectly suited for the subject matter she is about to reveal to us. "It's very strange that both Crispin [Gray, the band's guitarist] and I would be using this number in or art and our doodlings long before we even met each other. He used to put elevens all over his guitars and amps. He tells me he never really knew why he did it. The number eleven is very significant in the I-Ching, an ancient Chinese book of divination that Confucius and the Taoists used. It's supposed to be the key to harnessing the positive and negative energies that exist all around us. The famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung was a firm believer in its powers - and I've seen some of what it can do. The number eleven represents peace and creativity. It just so happens that my old flat number in London was eleven. I guess that's were the song "Room Eleven" on ELEVENTEEN came from."
Hmm, maybe there is something to that "eleven symbolizing creativity" thing. Katie was called to join Crispin's fledgling band while she was still living at that infamous Flat #11. The early days of Daisy Chainsaw saw Katie, Crispin, and the other members knocking around the local dives of London. The band's outrageous stage theatrics and Katie's bombastic vocal performance caught the attention of audiences and press all over England. Large inflatable animals and antique rag dolls covered the stage. Katie would surround herself with vines of ivy and sunflowers. She'd run around the venue barefooted like some demented Alice In Wonderland. NME described the Daisy Chainsaw act as "theater of the absurd." They got signed to an independent label, and their very first single, "Love Your Money," shot through the indie charts and onto the national charts in England. This was as much attributable to Katie's antics and persona as it was the band's music. Where oh were did this ragamuffin vagabond get her sense of drama and style from?
"I've always been theatrically inclined," reveals Katie. "I've even auditioned for some parts in various plays. This interest started when I was very young. You see, I was pretty isolated as a child growing up. I was literally raised on my father's boat. Me and my sister would make up our own little fantasy worlds using my mother's old rag dolls. We'd create little plays to music. In a way, I'm still doing it, I guess. Maybe someone should analyze what's going on with that."
And many music journalists have tried that. Ian Gittins of Melody Maker pondered this question by stating: "Katie Jane is either in drastic need of psychiatric help or she deserves an Oscar for best actress." Another question journalists have been struggling with is: where does this band fit in musically? Their music seems to be a hybrid of everything - hard rock, gothic and punk.
"It appears the press has been working overtime with trying to create a category for us," muses Katie. "The one I like best is 'gloth' - which is a combination of glam and goth. I like the fact that we don't fit in anywhere, that we're outcasts. Who wants to be part of a trend. When we were just getting started, the 'shoe-gazer' thing was the big fad for English bands, and the Seattle grunge thing was big for bands coming over here from America. We never wanted to be big MTV rock stars - it doesn't interest us. That's why the success of 'Love Your Money' and 'Pink Flower' [the band's second single] caught us off guard. I'm very uncomfortable with that kind of recognition, because now I'm expected to live up to it. I just wanna keep on going about my business the was I always have."
And for Katie, that means getting lost in her spoiled-brat cabaret on stage, and her little girl fantasies in her songs. When the Daisies signed to a major label (A & M), Katie insisted on changing nothing about the band. ELEVENTEEN includes some of those early singles plus several new tunes that retain the notorious Chainsaw madness. "I Feel Insane" and "Everything is Weird" are indicative of what these psychotic songsters are capable of. A new album is in the works as you read this, and don't expect Katie and the band to tone it down one iota. If the Daisy's latest live shows are any indication, Katie is closer to going off the deep end than ever before. She recently shaved her head and put bandages on it to make her resemble some sort of head-injury patient. And she had taken to drilling holes in her doll's heads while on stage. All this madness ties in somehow with Katie's belief that her antics represent the world as a whole in microcosm... that we are all going wacko.
"The whole world is fucked up - to put it in a nutshell," states Katie emphatically. "There is so much conflict, so much hatred, so much violence, I think it'll never be resolved. It's been going on forever, and will keep going on forever. What we need is a 'revolution of the mind,' as Robert Anton Wilson put it. He's the one who said that we're using only a tiny portion of our intellectual capacity - that we're still basically very narrow-minded and tribal in our perception of the world. And if we don't change that aspect of ourselves, we're doomed... we really are. I'm talking Armageddon here."
My goodness, how easily the innocence of childhood is lost... and how quickly Ophelia has become her sister Mortiche. Like the rest of us, the Daisies seem to be growing more cynical as they grow older. There seems to be indication that this attitude will be reflected on the upcoming lp.
"It's interesting that our getting older should be make an issue as far as our music's concerned," retorts Katie. "Crispin Gray's great uncle was Oscar Wilde's lover for awhile, and Oscar based the story of Dorian Gray on him. A strange coincidence."
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