The new goth is the old mod. By old mod, I hark back not to the days when our parents wore Mary Quant and danced to soul 45s. Instead, I write of evenings in the late-1990s spent in clubs where Gloria Jones, The Jam and Supergrass went head-to-head-to-head and virtually every Fred Perry-wearing, Guiness-drinking kid in the club could admit to having previously attended Helter Skelter, which was *the* goth club of the late-1980s and early-1990s.
Moths are goths who later embraced mod/Brit Pop stylings, creatures who were all over Santa Monica Blvd. in the latter-half of the last decade, particularly on Thursdays for Cafe Bleu. It was an easy scene transition to make, I learned at the end of college, as black pencil skirts and square-heeled shoes work well in both settings and Brett Anderson is equal to Peter Murphy in terms of androgony. It was a necessary transition as well. By this time, the goth clubs were jokes infiltrated by hessians who just discovered Marilyn Manson and face paint. While it's true that goth probably hadn't been cool for ten years by this time, it went from just being sort of nerdy to really fucking embarrassing.
For the past few years now, it seems that the mod/Brit Pop crowd has being toying with its collective inner goth. Fortunately, this new goth has no need for crinoline and corsets. Instead, we see a return to the deep death gurgle guitars found on albums by Bauhaus, Chameleons, et.al. and throaty Ian Curtis howls. Some people want to call this post-punk. That's just because they don't want to admit what it really is.
I must admit that I enjoy living in a city where the new goth has run amok. Some people might say that there is nothing original about the sound, but is anything really original? Late night Fourth of July, we saw The Depression Party at Zen Sushi. The four guys in ties and pullover sweaters reference the artists mentioned in the above paragraph. They do it well, as if those were records of secret listening sessions held away from the ever-critical ears of hipster friends during the years in which Joy Division and Bauhaus were not fashionable. The performance was earnest and seeming to strive for something more than just "band that sounds like [such and such]." I hope to see them play more frequently and see how they develop over the next year or two. It should be interesting.