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 TITLE: Dead to Me ARTIST: Vile Hour WRITERS: Nichole Shade LENGTH: 3:06 GENRE: Alternative rock, folk punk, punk rock PRODUCER: Reza Vranitzky LABEL: FREEDOM RELEASED: August 28th, 2014 From the Album: TBA
Culture Uncut Article
After over a year of no new music - and a long silence from any old music as well - Vile Hour has finally come back with their first single off of their third studio album, and already, they're starting to cause a bit of commotion around the musical camp fire.
In 2012, Vile Hour appeared on the scene, and people immediately started talking. The duo seemed to be more like a two-person circus act than a band, and they had the personality to prove it. Lead singer and pianist, Nichole Shade, joined the cast of the third season of Big Brother after Vile Hour's first single was released, and proceeded to make a spectacle of herself on the show until she was finally 'evicted' in the Final Three. Some of her more famous antics include fighting with pop star Suzie Stockholm, many nights of drunk craziness, and hooking up with several members of the cast - the most notable being with infamous Erica Hess of The Harlots. It would be more apt to say that Nichole and Erica's relationship had developed into a more romantic nature by the end of the show, but Nichole was hesitant to confirm that they were together. When the show ended, most fans from both sides of the relationship were surprised to find out that not only were Erica and Nichole not together, but both of them had quickly become engaged to other people - Nichole to Sam Fischer, leader of the death metal band Acts of Hate, and Erica to Natalya Dobros, formerly of the girl group Lashes. Generally, Nichole and Erica were perceived as being best friends. The two fought occasionally, but the fights never went on for more than a couple days before they were ultimately resolved. Many people compared their relationship to one of an old married couple, referring to how often they bickered, yet they couldn't get away from each other. Even after the two got married to their respective significant others - which in itself was a dramatic debacle between the friends - they still seemed thick as thieves. Vile Hour in this time had already released their first album, Common Technicalities, which had reached number one in the charts for two weeks, and was currently putting out their second album, My Phoenixes. Vile Hour used Common Technicalities to show their new - and very much expanded - audience what kind of talent they had. Although the songs had the same heart and sound that all Vile Hour songs would come to have, they were ultimately lacking the personal story and drive that Vile Hour's second album, My Phoenixes presented. Most critics attributed this change in writing to Vile Hour's many new life experiences that the duo had by the end of their first year. Near the end of writing the second album, Nichole was already married to Sam Fischer and was almost six months pregnant with triplets, while Castor Drake - drummer for Vile Hour - had been married to Nina Sangria, bandmate of Erica Hess, for a little over a year, and they were raising together his six year old daughter, Virginia. Their life had become one ferris wheel of inspiration for Nichole and Castor to write about, and they used every bit of it for their album. But now that they're beginning album three, what are the chances that they have had just as much experience this year to write another amazing album out of? Pretty damn big.
Shortly after releasing My Phoenixes, Nichole gave birth to three children - two daughters and a son - named Kaya Rose, Sylvie, and Layne. Two months after giving birth, Nichole's husband left her, and still has not been heard from since. The reason for Sam Fischer leaving his wife and newborn children has never been explicitly said, but many believe that either Sam had a hard time accepting the responsibility of being a father and ran from it, or that Nichole had been caught cheating on Sam and he left. Most die-hard Vile Hour fans refused to believe that there was any truth to the rumor that Nichole had been cheating on Sam, but they would soon find out that there was possibly more to it than they knew.
After Sam left, Nichole and Erica became closer than ever, although nobody truly knew just how close they had gotten until later. It wasn't until the tragic murder of Erica's wife, Natalya Dobros, that the truth about Nichole and Erica came out - they had been seeing each other under the nose of Natalya for a while. Nobody was sure how long the two had been together, and frankly, nobody was too terribly shocked by the information. Natalya had been pregnant at the time of the murder, and given birth to a daughter, Takara, who was then kidnapped by the murderer and kept in his house until he was apprehended. To make matters even worse, it's believed that while the murder was taking place in Natalya and Erica's home, Erica was with Nichole, her secret lover. The two received much criticism when Erica let out the information that the two had been seeing each other at the time of Natalya's death, and since then, the two have become much more private about their relationship, although it is well known that they have been living together as a couple, and do in fact consider themselves in a romantic relationship.
It's from the story above that I believe most people have taken offense to Vile Hour's newest song, "Dead to Me." Most of us have become very aware of Vile Hour's shock-and-awe approach to life, but most of us still become a little uncomfortable when Nichole and Castor manage to do things that surprise us. Lately the awes have outweighed the shocks with Vile Hour's amazing Warped Tour performances where they used actual circus performers in their acts - and the continuation of that amazing stage performance now on their world tour with Reported Failure - but we all knew that soon the shocks would come back again, and here it is in a form of a song.
This isn't to say that "Dead to Me" isn't good, of course. The track adds a bit of the folk punk genre that Vile Hour toyed with in My Phoenixes with songs like My Own Personal Oz - which was recorded purely with Nichole's voice and Castor's guitar - and other more indie style songs that branched out of the general dark piano rock that they had become known for. In terms of lyrics, the song is also much more simple than previous Vile Hour songs had been. One of Vile Hour's more famous songs, Sympathies with Satan, was a complex and challenging song, testing the ideas of religion and faith in the modern world. The song received minimal airtime, not only because many people found it offensive, but because many radio stations felt that a song of it's complexities wouldn't appeal to the normal radio listener. And they were absolutely right. Although Sympathies with Satan is one of Vile Hour's most well-known songs, this of course does not mean it has been the most well-liked.
The problem with Vile Hour's new song, and probably the problem with Nichole Shade in general, is that it's another piece of evidence we have that proves that Nichole Shade either has absolutely no sense of social graces, or that she simply has no ability to empathize with people around her. When the song was first released, many rumors started about what the song could possibly be about. The most popular - and probably correct - of the rumors is that the song is about Nichole's husband, Sam, and how he left her. But with the several references to murder and death throughout the piece, many people have ran with the idea that the song is about Natalya. It didn't take long after Natalya's death and Erica's announcement of Nichole and her's relationship for people to start conspiracies that Nichole or Erica had something to do with Natalya's murder - and for many, this song seems to have confirmed that for them. If it were any other band or songwriter, I would say that it was no way that they could have possibly written a song about the murder of their girlfriend's late wife, but since it's Nichole Shade, anything is truly possible. Nobody has ever said that Nichole Shade wasn't a smart business woman, and the possibility that she capitalized on the rumors of her involvement in Natalya Dobros' murder - although shockingly brutal for all those hurt by Natalya's death - is nothing short of genius on her part. And honestly, even though it's much more likely that Nichole wrote the song about her husband leaving her, it's no coincidence that she chose to use the murder imagery throughout the song. For many, it is easy to say that Nichole knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote this song.
I suppose what fans and listeners of Vile Hour need to do now is choose if they're going to continue to support Nichole Shade/Vile Hour's return to music or not. Many people have let Nichole's abrasive personality slide because of her ability to write amazing music, but now it's becoming more and more difficult to ignore. Should we let artists' reputations and pasts cloud our judgement of their music? And if we do, are we even truly listening? Nichole had very little to say about the song before she released it, but she did say this: "'Dead to Me' was written at a very dark time in my life when I had a lot of anger and hate inside of me. I still have that anger and hate, but there have been too many wonderful things that have happened to me of late for me to focus on that hate anymore. It's not fair to spend all that time in the darkness - it's not fair to my children, it's not fair to my girlfriend, and it's not fair to myself." Nichole Shade and Vile Hour aren't going anywhere, and they're good at what they do. To focus on the implications of "Dead to Me" without really giving it a chance isn't allowing yourself to be open-minded, and I feel that most people would agree with me on that. Without knowing what is going on in Nichole Shade's mind, there's no way for us to predict or say with total confidence what she was intending when she wrote this song. For most people, this will be the make-or-break in their fandom for Vile Hour, and although I personally will continue to like Vile Hour as a band, I realize that it will be difficult for some people to separate the music from the members.
Stupid mistake, what a mess
Crime of passion, oh yes
Stupid mistake, what a mess
What's my man now? I can only guess
'Cause you're dead, hunny, dead
You're dead to me
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
Like you should be
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
You have no rights
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
To even sleep at night
If I see you
Hate will come through
If I see you
These lyrics will come true
'Cause you're dead, hunny, dead
You're dead to me
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
Like you should be
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
You have no rights
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
To even sleep at night
Tell by the way that you turned and walked
I can see by the way you never talked
I can know by the way that you're not a man
You loved me until your babies were crying
'Cause you're dead, hunny, dead
You're dead to me
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
Like you should be
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
You have no rights
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
To even sleep at night
Stupid mistake, what a mess
Three small children, oh yes
Stupid mistake, what a mess
What's my man now? I can only guess
'Cause you're dead, hunny, dead
You're dead to me
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
Like you should be
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
You have no rights
Yes, dead, hunny, dead
To even sleep at night
Dead to me
Dead to me
Dead to meSOUNDS LIKE:
The Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
Edited by user 29 August 2014 02:31:53(UTC)
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