Christian Death >> The gift of pleasure is bleeding

California Month continued, tremor #23:

Christian Death - "Cavity (Version)" (early version of "Cavity - First Communion")

(L'Invitation Au Suicide Records [France], 1981 / Contempo Records [Italy], 1990)

Rozz Williams was allegedly about 5'2" or 5'3", which would make him the same height as Prince and Ronnie James Dio, but he sure could rule the mic.  His voice was an amalgam of David Bowie, Peter Murphy, Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, and other campy, androgynously-voiced singers.

I got the band's debut album Only Theatre Of Pain in 2000 on cassette, then later on CD.  It contained a re-recorded version of this song.  The version of the song I'm posting here is from their rare EP Deathwish, which I bought on CD (on an Italian label) in the early '00s.  I think the Only Theatre version, titled "Cavity (First Communion)," is a little better, but this embryonic version is no slouch, and I prefer its slightly slower, more creepy tempo, though the pace picks up dramatically in the midsection for a while.  Rikk Agnew's writhing, kaleidoscopic guitar was the hallmark of their early sound, and still sounds stunning over 30 years later.  The distorted arpeggio starting when Rozz says "blood" at the 3:11 mark is just too cool.  This EP was recorded at Orange County Studios in 1981, but not released until 1984.  These were the first songs that they ever recorded in a studio, before signing to Frontier Records.  This song helped lay down the blueprint for the genre known as Death Rock, but it must be frustrating for a band when the best song it ever releases is the first song on its first album.

The band's history is pretty weird, so go read about it if you must.  The main thing is that Rozz left after only a few albums, replaced on vocals by a dude named Valor and a woman named Gitane Demone, so if you like "Cavity," stick with their early albums only, since their later sound was very different.  Rozz killed himself on April Fool's Day 1998.  (For what it's worth, one of my favorite bands, Unwound, broke up on April Fool's Day 2002.  Neither they nor Rozz have been resurrected, unfortunately.)  A live Rozz album was put out in 2003, named Accept The Gift Of Sin after a lyric from this song.

This adult actress goes by the name Jessi Palmer and claims to be from Louisiana.  From the looks of her, she would probably enjoy the musical stylings of early Christian Death.  (Her shirt is presumably a pun on the Mission Of Burma song "This Is Not A Photograph.")  Photos by GirlFolio.

Found on lolgod.blogspot.com

Planets with similar climates: Plexi - "Na-Na" (1994), Poem Rocket - "Small White Animal" (1994), Bauhaus - "She's In Parties" (1983), Chrome - "Isolation" (1980).