Johanna's House of Glamour

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Although the Newport, RI, trio Johanna's House of Glamour is most often lumped in with the goth rock underground of the '80s and '90s, there's none of the cheap nihilism or tired "shock" tactics so prevalent in that scene in the group's music. In most ways, Johanna's House of Glamour deliberately recalls the more open and experimental vibe of the '70s progressive rock scene, particularly the alternately whimsical and mysterious sound of mid-'70s Virgin Records releases. (Indeed, Johanna's House of Glamour did a respectful, ghostly cover of Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song," from his 1974 classic Rock Bottom, on their second album.) Those tinges of Wyatt, Slapp Happy (singer Laura Darrow sounds more than a little like Slapp Happy chanteuse Dagmar Krause), Mike Oldfield, and even bits of King Crimson, Curved Air, and Hatfield and the North, however, are processed through a post-punk aesthetic very similar to that of the 4AD Records house band This Mortal Coil, whose experimental recastings of pop and rock standards sound like the other primary influence of Johanna's House of Glamour, most notably on their version of Marc Bolan's "Cosmic Dancer," which sounds like an outtake from It'll End in Tears. Johanna's House of Glamour formed in 1988 in Newport, with singer Laura Darrow, her sibling guitarist Daniel Darrow, and keyboardist Bruce MacLeod joining forces without the benefit of a rhythm section. (MacLeod programmed a bass synthesizer and drum machine, while the Darrows added hand pe

top songs

albums

Farewell Street

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slow verse and rhyme: collection 1990-1993

Style Monsters

The Dark Flower

Woke Up Smiling

VA - Woke Up Smiling A bedazzled Label Sampler

Doctor Death's Volume IV - The Marvels Of Insect Life

Doctor Death's Volume IV: The Marvels Of Insect Life

Doctor Death's Volume Six : Floribundus

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Songs About Croaking - Mean Green Mutha, Vol. 1

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Doctor Death's Volume 5: Hearts Lust In Limbo

Forever Autumn

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