Well, At Least I Procrastinate The Fun Way

So I'm supposed to be writing this 10-page short story that I'll be submitting to Haku later for editing and critiquing, but I'm lazy as fuck and I haven't even started page one yet. (Well, for what it's worth, I've written down the outline.) I know I should start writing soon, but music has captivated me yet again and so instead of writing I am now just chilling whilst currently listening to music. (At least it's good music.)

The band I'm currently listening to is called 'The Pierces', and they're made up of sisters Catherine and Allison Pierce. You might have heard some of their songs play on Gossip Girl, and their song 'Secret' is the theme for the show Pretty Little Liars. The song I'm currently playing is 'Turn On Billie' from their album Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge. In wikipedia, you'd see that their genres are psychedelic, folk rock and pop rock—three of my favourite music genres. Needless to say, The Pierces has become one of my most recent favourite bands.

Listening to The Pierces reminded me of how I'm really in love with tropes from children's horror stories, such as 'The Creepy Music Box', 'Creepy Carnival Music' and other similar things. The Pierces definitely know how to use these in their songs (Listen to 'Secret' if you want to know why). Thank to this, I realised that I'm not really an 'Industrial' and 'Rivethead-y' type of person. I mean, I like industrial music, but I don't think my heart's in that genre. I'll forever be the circus freak; I'm forever the girl who likes carnivals not because they're fun but because beneath the masks and clown make up you know nothing about the history of these people. They could be serial killers who use illusions to their advantage, or they could be completely not human at all. There's so much mystery and macabre in concepts like these that I can't help but be eternally in love with them.

That said, I think I'll be going back to circus punk. Whilst steampunk and dieselpunk are two genres based on certain periods of time ( steampunk being 'Steam-powered Victorian Era' and dieselpunk being 'Diesel-powered Militaristic Jazz Era' ) circus punk is based on the genre of horror that focuses on gothic Americana, gypsy punk and dark folk. It's when you enter the Hall of Mirrors and you see twisted and mutilated versions of yourself, complete with a Joker-like laugh in the background. It's when you sleep at night and the dolls wake up to pour insects into your ears. It's when you stop by the roadside attraction that secretly murders guests below eight years old as offerings to their wolf-gods.

A few examples of circus punk fashion from hipsterloli.tumblr.com:

A real fusion of punk and circus. Pay attention to the black and white stripes pattern of the pants—it's one of the easiest ways to scream 'circus' if you're unsure of how to pull the look off.

This has a very cabaret feel to it, which is lovely. Sexy and classy at the same time.

This is a bit too 'ero' for me, but I love the jacket and 'mini-hat'. I think I need bigger nunga-nungas to pull this off, though.

My personal favourite. <3 Love the colours and the simplicity of it.

Ayumi Hamasaki's album cover. This is why she's one of the few mainstream J-Pop artists that I like. (If you haven't listened to her, 'Fairyland' is a good song to start with. Or maybe that's just my bias, but whatever.)

This, for some reason, reminds me of 70's or 80's glam. Definitely a cool look, but the blue of the jacket is too bright for my liking.

A few music examples (Note that these are the not-so-creepy ones):

Their sound is definitely more cabaret than circus/folk, but they're still good music.

Another one that's more dark cabaret than circus/folk.

If you've got questions about circus punk or if you know someone who can help me make circus punk clothes, feel free to comment on this post. Thank you! <3

xoxo,

Chihiro