Cholo Goth
May 23, 2016 9:35 PM   Subscribe

Rafael Reyes is a former gang member, author, restauranteur, and founder of Diamond Dogs, an art and music collective for retired gangsters. Together with Tijuana electronic artist Dave Parley, he is also San Diego's Prayers, a self-described Cholo Goth (or killwave or occultwave) project combining 80s synths and electronic loops with autobiographical accounts of street life in Sherman Heights and occult themes. They've toured with The Cult and collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys (h/t to hippybear's recent post) on the strength of songs like Young Gods and their cover of Pet Shop Boys' West End Girls.

The term Cholo Goth has inspired some chin-stroking consideration and approval of the genre:
I think Cholo Goth, as a music genre, is appropriately classified. It is then simply gleaning from goth culture to create something that is (without trivializing meaning to the individual) less substantive, yet unrelated. Whereas trying to identify as a subculture, implys a relation or inclusion with goth, and is ultimately harmful to the substantive, structured meaning of the goth culture. However I feel even being identified as a music genre has the potential for an eroding effect upon the goth subculture, as it can confuse the etymology, and those seeking to get into goth. The moment we allow those trends or neotribes to be considered part of the goth subculture, however, is the moment goth no longer has meaning. Also as I pointed out previously, this appropriation, or cherry picking certain aspects of goth culture apart from the others, and without respect for their meaning, can also be harmful to goth itself. Darkness =/= goth and outcast =/= goth sums it up.
From Noisey: Meet Prayers, the San Diego Cholo-Goth Duo Who Want to Break Down Every Barrier In Sight
NOISEY: You’ve always preferred industrial and goth music. You must have caught shit for that coming up as a gang member.

Leafar Seyer: Of course I did. I fought to be who I am. I got into physical fights to be able to dress like this. People around here wanted me to conform to look like what they consider to be a gangster. My homies would be like “What the fuck?” But I’m not part of that hip-hop culture. I grew up listening to industrial and death rock—Christian Death, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys—bands like that. So I’ve always stayed true to my roots even though I’m a gang member. I never jumped around when it came to music because that’s the sound that always spoke to me. That’s the sound I identified with, even though the neighborhood I grew up in was completely the opposite of that. So I fought and fought and fought until I won and they finally gave up. Man, I’ve been shot; I’ve been stabbed. I got stabbed right here in my forehead [points to scar]. That’s a gang knife right there.
posted by Existential Dread (11 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've seen this band. I like what they're doing though they only seem to have about four songs.
posted by atoxyl at 10:41 PM on May 23, 2016


Wow, this is like having someone do a podcast about my podcast.

Thanks for the post! I appreciate the depth you have added to a topic I was only skimming the rock across the surface of. Very nice!
posted by hippybear at 12:59 AM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


From the Belfry article:

It really shouldn't have to be pointed out that gang subculture, and goth subculture, are not compatible. However I think it can be easy to jump to conclusions and judgments about those who participate in gangs, and I think there is a human element here we can not simply dismiss. Often those who join gangs at an early age have no other choice; the culture is a product of the environment.

The implication of this is that membership of the goth subculture requires a degree of middle-class privilege, or at least security and stability.
posted by acb at 3:33 AM on May 24, 2016


Music posts here are the best.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:02 AM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


I like a couple of Prayers songs but I didn't realize they invented this deal since there's been a relevant famous TV character for a minute and people have been talking about Morrissey's unexpected latin american fanbase for ages.

Not in love with their West end Girls cover, but clearly the Pet Shop Boys themselves thought well of it which is pretty awesome.
posted by SharkParty at 7:31 AM on May 24, 2016


I live in San Diego and Prayers has gotten quite a bit of local press over the last couple of years. I feel like it's a joke everyone is in on but me. This music is terrible--right? But the write-ups always focus on his life story and ignore the fact of the music being terrible. Maybe in this case the story just makes the musicianship irrelevant?

Now his restaurant, Pokez, is another story. It's been a mecca for touring vegan hardcore bands for about two decades now. The formula in the 2000s was: drive into town, play a show at the Che Cafe, sleep on a floor, go to Pokez for lunch the next day, drive to LA (or Phoenix, depending on which way you came from). Definitely worth trying the tofu potato mushroom burrito.
posted by The Minotaur at 8:30 AM on May 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


Personally, I really dig the music and the juxtaposition of musical genres and tropes is really interesting to me. The lyrics maybe could use some work, I'll grant. It's not as incongruous as it seems at first; as SharkParty points out the Smiths and Morrissey have a big Latino following, and there are a lot of Central and South American metal bands.

I was blown away when I found out it was the guy who opened Pokez doing this music. I used to hit up Pokez all the time as a kid, it was just down the street from my high school. I went back this year and it's still there pretty much unchanged, and still amazing.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:46 AM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


This music is terrible--right?

....wrong?

i mean is this where you learn for the first time that different people like different things?
posted by the bricabrac man at 10:02 AM on May 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


The music doesn't go much beyond its influences so I could see being disappointed if you wanted something new. I wouldn't say they're terrible though.
posted by atoxyl at 10:59 AM on May 24, 2016


So wait, Goths aren't or can't be a gang?
posted by reedcourtneyj at 6:45 PM on May 24, 2016


Thank you Existential Dread for sharing this, this is like new music nostalgia - it's reminds me of the music I grew up on from the local college stations in Buffalo and Toronto in the 1980s, but it's something new, from a different perspective.
posted by reedcourtneyj at 6:53 PM on May 24, 2016


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