ft ft

i
DANIEL ASH

CHEMJAB

PE FOR
p E GIRL

SUPER HEROINES

SHADOW PROJECT

NEIL GAIMAN
AUTHOR OF

THE SANDMAN

THE DEEP EYNDE

KITTENS FOR CHRISTIAN

HUMAN DRAMA

SKY CRIES MARY

ACUMEN
:;
.

LEATHER STRIP
SKIN ART
THE MOON SEVEN | COMICS
FICTION
REQUIEM IN WHIT
THE LEGENDARY
REVIEWS
PINK DOTS
 PERMISSION
3023 N Clark
Suite 777
Chicago, IL 60657
editor
The Legendary Pink Dots 6 Rev. Jayson Elliot
I've Always Wanted To Be A Pig 10
contributors:
Requiem In White 13
Heniy Anderson Daniel X O'Neil
The Moon Seven Times 15 Chris Bensen Jason Pastori
A Piece Of Me 18 Sid Blair Greg Preston
Fred Burkhart Juliana Puckett
Leather Strip 20 Corinna Cueto Eddie Puente
Acumen 22 Sophie Diamantus Roknich
Jane Diamond Nathan Running
Sample Sources 24 Dan Dinello Michelle Russo
Sky Cries Mary 26 Jaqueline Disler Ruthie Schaefer
TKDye Stencil
Cornfields 32 Kathryn Euper Greg Swallow
Boston scene report 33 Kent Friedman Maria Tate
Wes Giles Thea
Ethereal Ravages 35 Dean A. Herman Iggy Vamp
Human Drama 36 Christine Huneke Vlad
Jennifer Jalensky Randy Yau
Kittens For Christian 40 kaos Zahr
Magick In The '90s 48 Lavona King Zero
Alex Koshiba full color 8x8 copies of this
The Deep Eynde 49 Tony Lestat issue's cover photo can be
purchased from
Neil Gaiman 50 CMain Maxphotograhy
Jim Marcus -adress on p. 98
SuperHeroines 55 Mario
Shadow Project 56 Katie Matras 'garage font' on p. 22 & 32 created
by Michael Polydoris -
Max
Ignorance Is Death 58 adress on p. 98

Sam Rosenthal 60
Wreckage 62
Chem Lab 66 cover
Daniel Ash 68 photo by
Max
SKIN 70
THE LISTENING ROOM 78
THE LIBRARY 92
Permission is published on something approaching a quarterly basis - single and back issues are
available for $3, four issue subscriptions are $12. All copyrights herein belong to the original
artist, photographer, or author. Eat natural foods, bathe twice daily, fill your nostrils up with gravy.
You finally hold in your hands Permission's fourth issue -
before I let my editorial diatriabe begin, I just want to inter-
ject a few words. First of all I want to thank Nathan and Alex
and Andy for letting me take over their living room for three
weeks as I finished the final layout. I do all the computer
work in a far away town, where I don't get to go often - so if
anyone out there has a computer they feel like donating or
wants to invest in Permission please write to me and then
maybe we'll see more than one issue every four or five
months! A few news bits as well -
Dave Vanian is currently on the road with his new band
The Phantom Chords - Dave is sporting a damned pom-
padour, and the new songs rule the earth! They even did a
cover of "BeBop A Lu La" in Chicago. / Haloblack has just
completed recording at Die Warzau's Warzone Studios - the
EP will likely be called "Inert Tension", and includes a
cover of the Prince song "Irresistable Bitch" / Dark
Theatre's Vlad is currently working on two seperate projects
- a book for Berkely, an etiquette book for vampires
"Vampire's Cookbook"; and a graphic novel, "Silent Death"
about the first cybervampires. Half computer art and half
airbrush by Talon Nighshade / Cleopatra Records has rere-
leased The Gothic Rock CD -previously only available as an
import, they have made it a double CD by adding James
Ray's Performance, Nosferatu and others / Blue Eyed Christ
is currently exploring labels for the release of their second
album, after leaving KK Records. Listeners should expect
much harder, more organic sound than the first album. /
Blue Eyed Christ is also on the new ReConstriction comp
"Shut Up Kitty" with a cover of Animotion's "Obsession".
The all-cover CD includes KMFDM doing U2, Diatribe
covering the Sugarcubes, DDT does Madonna's "Vogue",
16 Volt Wisdom covers Devo - there are 17 tracks in all. /
Permission will be releasing a CD in summer of '94, all
tracks will be covers of 1970's TV theme songs by industrial
and goth bands. Currently slated includes Skrew doing
"Sanford and Son", Chem Lab doing "The Dukes of
Hazzard", PantherSahib, Wreckage, Die Warzau, Loud
Lucy, The Lupins... anyone interested in being included
onthe CD should contact Permission or submit a DAT
before March 31, 1994.
It can be very hard to decide where to start when writing
this page - it seems there are a million questions and
problems that face me every day. Why do they keep the
bathrooms locked ii; a "public" library?
Why can't we vote directly on a government budget
made up of our own money?
How can a "progressive" person with!
blue hair turn around and make fun oi
someone else for the way they choose toj
IS SEXISM INVADING
look?
Why is conformity and obedience valued
INDUSTRIAL MUSIC?
higher than individuality and ingenuity?
How can a person place pride over friendship?
What's the best way to shave around a labrette peircing?
Sometimes, however, one problem becomes much loud-
er than the rest. The problem which has shoved itself in
my face is sexism, and its invasion into alternative
music.
Music comes in for review daily at Permission, and I lis-
ten to everything at least once or twice before sitting
down with it to write a review - all the way up to the day
before I go to lay out the magazine. So when the latest
crop of industrial CDs came in from a label in Germany
-1 gave them all an open ear. At one point there was a
song on a compilation, called "Daddy's Girl". The lyrics
were hard to make out, but enough was clear to be dis-
turbing. With the next track, however, came a new band,
and the previous song was in the background, if not for-
gotten.
Later that night, I reviewed a disc by Ringtailed Snorter,
entitled "Sexual Child Abuse". The very title put me on
edge - but after reading carefully through the enclosed
press kit, I managed to garner that the Cd was meant to
be a statement against sexual abuse. Still, there was no
way to tell from just the album itself, and I became more
sensitive to the idea that there might be a sexist bent to
this agressive musical direction.
The next day, I reviewed the Psychopomps - where I dis-
covered once again, the track "Daddy's Girl". This time,
there was a lyric sheet, and I took the time to sit down
and examine the entire album. I had hoped to find some
element of sarcasm or warning in the words, instead I
found only graphic, threatening lyrics, describing a scene
of incest, rape and abuse to a little girl by her father. (See
the review in this issue for the complete lyrics). In their
endeavors, the Psychopomps go on to sing about anal
rape, "bitches", and "sick faggots". I searched the CD
over and over again, trying to find anything that might
give some relief from these sentiments, or even an indi-
cation that it might be a joke, no matter how sick. There
was nothing to find.
Through calling around, I eventually spoke with their
American contact, who defended their actions through
"artistic integrity". We spoke for over an hour, within
which I was told that the band members were by no
means sexist, that it was all written to cause people to
think, and that the Psychopomps were artists, and as such
could do as they pleased.
This did give me thought. Was I proposing censorship?
Is an artist's responsibility only to their art, and what
people do with it up to them?
After some time, and many discussions with friends, I
have decided a few things. It is true, an artist should not
spend his or her time worrying about who will be offend-
ed or helped by their art. There is no place for censor-
ship in art, especially not in the artist's own mind. When
one is creating something, music, painting, writing,
whatever - the only responsibility is to oneself.
But.
(of course there's a but.)
Once you have created your art, it is your decision, and
responsibility, what you do with it. When Upton
Sinclair, out of horror and outrage at the conditions in
turn-of-the-century factories, wrote The Jungle, he was
writing for himself. When he decided to publish it, he
was offering it to the public. Make no mistake, The
Jungle did offend. It offended the sensitive upper class
sensibilities, it offended the factory owner who was
making profit off exploitation, and it offended the pub-
lie. It offended the public so much that vast social
change was triggered in the treatment of children as
workers, in safety, and in fair wages.
When George Lincoln Rockwell sat fuming to himself
about race-mixing and Jewish conspiracies, he may have
been way off-base, but we aren't living in a world with
thought police. However, when aryan supremacists got
together to publish the Protocols of the Elders ofZion or
the Turner Diaries - they gave artificial fuel to racists
and hate-mongers; and when Denver talk-show host
Alan Berg was gunned down in front of his own house
by white power members of The Order, the authors of
the racist books that gave them their ideas can hardly
hide behind "artistic integrity".
Censorship is about thoughts and words. Action is a dif-
ferent matter. Censorship is wrong. There can be noth-
ing gained by the suppression of thoughts and ideas,
even misguided ones. After all, how can we know what
is right or wrong if no one discusses it?
Action? The act of taking the the music & words one has
written and putting them on a CD, releasing that CD -
that is an action. Where art is made for oneself, respon-
sibility lies only to oneself, but once it is given to some-
one else, the artist is responsible to that audience. If I
were to rent a billboard and place upon it a picture of a
black man hanging from a noose, with the legend 'lin-
gers beware" - few would call that art. The history m
society of violence and oppression against the Black nice
is such that the billboard and its threat would have the
ugly spectre of reality behind its image. With child
molestation a grim reality, violence against women in
America at an ever-increasing rate, in a society where a
woman is raped EVERY FIVE MINUTES: how can
lyrics like "bend over bitch you're gonna take it up the
ass" have any connection with artistic integrity?
Watch a Sleep Chamber video, and you will see women
portrayed as mindless sex machines for men's desire.
(Yes I know it's all about eroticism - so why are the only
men involved the ones making the music and directing
the film?) It's fine to have women on stage or in videos,
so long as they are scantily clad, big boobs, leather boots
and biker caps. In an environment like this, it's a short
throw to songs like Klute's "I Wanna Fuck Now" or
Psychopomp's "Doggy Style".
True, there is a difference between a CD which one has
a choice to buy and a billboard on the side of a building.
Still, the choice to buy the CD is not the whole story.
Take the audience into account - who is listening to that
aggressive electrothrash? Obviously, a wide spectrum -
and included in that spectrum is the same audience of
angry youth that has bee there for punk, hardcore and
metal. When you are 16 years old and pissed off, some
thrash music, a fast car, a slam pit - it's good to get out
the anger. What happens when the lyrics you hear are
"get on your knees and beg for my cock"? It's not going
to make a boy run out to buy a girl a rose. "Industrial"
music is part of a wide and loosely defined genre of
"alternative" music - reaching back to greatly varied
roots, from Brian Eno to The Sex Pistols, from
Kraitwerk to the Buzzcocks. The one underlying con-
nection that has made "alternative" music alternative is
that it stands apart from the mainstream. For me it was
the idea of intelligent, dissatisfied people writing for the
outcasts - giving a sense of understanding where there
was despair. It's about new ideas, innovation, individu-
ality - not about repeating the tired old shit we wanted to
escape!
Responsibility to your audience does exist - look at
artists like Headcrash, Consolidated, or
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.
Industrial music once set out to break
down the structures of indifference and
hate - to stand as a violent mirror to
show the ugly truth, to bring it out in
the light where it could be stopped. It
seem that to some musicians, the ideas are fading, and
they are becoming the very things they once commented
on. Macho posing, snarly faces and electro-muscle fak-
ing - is that the best you can do?
the following is by Katie Lebbin -
Considering the extent to which I have discussed and
thought about the subject of sexism in the music indus-
try, I was excited when presented with the opportunity to
express the multitude of opinions I have on the topic.
But after sitting down to write I was suddenly confront-
ed with the dilemma of how to express those opinions in
a way that would offend the smallest amount of people.
Normally I wouldn't care about such a thing but because
of the importance of this issue and my desire for people
to learn about it, the last thing I want to do is offend peo-
ple and cause them to reject what I have to say.
The appearance (read: scourge) of sexism in indus-
trial music came as no surprise to me, since it is present
in just about every other type of musicthere is. Hell, it's
present in just about every other art form one can
thinkoffilm, painting, photography, literatureit
 seems there's no escaping it.To be honest I was not
aware of the extent to which it had permeated the indus-
trial movement until Jayson mentioned the tapes he had
just received and what was contained on them (which he
discussed in the previous article). Rather I had been
more aware of just a complete lack of concern for wom-
en's issues in general. So many bands exist, probably
too many to count, that rage against the evils of racism,
homophobia, and animal experimentation, but not a sin-
gle band comes to mind that has made it its mission to
expose and eradicate sexism and all of its evils from our
society (or any society). In fact I can't think of one
industrial band that even mentions rape or domestic vio-
lence in a derogatory fashion. Don't these count as
social ills too? Isn't the idea of women being brutalized
terrible enough to prompt someone to write one song
about it? Obviously not, although the thought of little
boys being raped was enough to drive Chemlab to
expound on that horror. Which is not to say that boys
being raped is not a horrible thing, or doesn't happen
boys all over the country will be molested this year at the
hands of strangers and loved ones, even by their own
peers. But the fact remains that an absolutely appalling
number of women are raped every single day, and at an
exponentially higher rate than men, and yet no one feels
the need to scream about it, let alone lend four minutes
of song to the suggestion that maybe something needs to
be done about this. The thought of a terrified, shrieking
animal being tied down to a table and tortured with
chemicals, surgical instruments and electric shocks was
enough to prompt not only a large number of musicians
but a whole national movement to expose and attempt to
eradicate the practice. But the thought of terrified,
shrieking women being tied down to their beds and tor-
tured with weapons, tools, fists, and penises obviously is
not disturbing enough to the great majority of the popu-
lation, artists included, who turn their heads away from
it and instead focus their attention on "greater social ills"
like poverty or racism. And I askwhy? Why is sex-
ism and all of its abhorrent effects considered less impor-
tant, hence less deserving of attention and rectification
than any other social problem, especially racism? In my
mind the two are almost synonymous: how can hating
people for the color of their bodies be any worse than
hating people for the shape of their bodies? And yet the
fact remains that racism is considered to be a greater evil
than sexism and because of this whenever there is an
issue in which the two are at odds, especially in music,
the sexism is always excused, ignored, or just accepted
in a way that racism would never be. Take rap music for
instancewhen 2 Live Crew were in the news, the
whole issue of the gratuitous sexism of their music was
immediately swept under the rug assoon as the accusa-
tions of racism began, and instead the affair was turned
into a battle over the band's first amendment rights. It
seems that in the opinion of the media and almost every
left-winger I've discussed this with, to question anything
a non-white does, no matter how offensive to women or
anyone else, is racist. Call me cynical, but I truly believe
that if the situation had been completely reversed, and 2
Live Crew were a bunch of white boys singing about the
joys of "stringing up niggers" we would not have seen
such a mad dash from the media and the arts communi-
ty to defend them as artists and what they were singing
as art. But according to that same media and that same
arts community, elaborating to the public about the joys
of raping, beating, and mutilating women is okay, con-
sidering the complete lack of protest from both of them
one usually finds after yet another album is released
that's degrading to women. The following are direct
quotes from a few songs off the album "Efil4saggin"
(Niggas41ife) by N.W.A. Read and decide for yourself
if you think the latter statements are correct. This is from
a song titled "One Less Bitch":
A N D WHAT RESPONSIBILITY DO WE
HAVE TO PREVENT IT?
"Listen up and let me tell
ya how I did it
Tied her to the bed,
I was thinkin' the worst,
but yo
I had to let my niggas
fuck her first,
yeah load her up before
the fall, yo
and then I straight smoked
the ho'...
One less bitch you gotta worry about."
Another example of Pulitzer-caliber material:
(spoken)
"In reality, a fool is one who
believes all women are ladies;
a nigga is one that believes
all ladies are bitches, and
all bitches are created equal.
To me, all bitches are the same:
money hungry, groupie ho's,
that's always ridin' on a nigga's
dick, always in a nigga's pocket,
and when a nigga runs out of money
the bitch is gone like the wind.
To me, all bitches AIN'T SHIT!!!"
And that's not even the worst of it. This next piece is
from another song off the same album entitled "She
Swallowed It":
"So fellas, next time the bitches
try to lie and say they never do it (he's talking
about oral sex, if the title of the song isn't obvious
enough)
punch the bitch in the eye,
and then the ho will fall to the
ground, and you open up her mouth,
put your dick in and move the shit
around, and she'll catch on and
start doin' it on her own."
Now, how can anyone defend this as "art"? The fact
that these last three excerpts are nothing short of a total
exhortation of gang rape, sexual assault and absolute
misogyny is not nearly as disturbing as the ridiculous
truth that there are people out there who would insist that
this shit really does have artistic merit. I would like to
put forth a politically incorrect, earth-shakingly blasphe-
mous idea: that just because someone is speaking his
mind and it's being digitally recorded does not mean that
what he's saying is ART. If people are talking shit,
they're still talking shit whether they said it to you in per-
son or they tape-recorded it and sent you the cassette.
Of course, the solution to this dilemma of sexism in
music would not be, nor should it be solved by censor-
ing individuals who spew forth hatred towards women
and encourage it under the guise of art. Instead what is
needed is for society to reexamine how it prioritizes its
problems and realize how we've erred in thinking that
one prejudice could be "worse" than another. I find it
extremely hard to believe that if I reworded one of the
above songs in an equivalently racist way that I would
not have to fear for my life if I ever actually succeeded
in getting it released, and this is because most people are
aware of the injustice of our country's racist past, and
thus are quick to counteract any attempts to reinvoke it.
Singing something like "So fellas, next time the nig-
gers try to lie and say they didn't steal it, string them up
quick and burn a cross on a nigger's lawn every day for
good measure" would only be a reminder of what actu-
ally happened to black people not that long ago with
terrifying frequency. So why is it acceptable for men
to sing the praises of violent sexual assault when not
only is sexual violence NOT a thing of the past, but
women to this day are raped and bludgeoned more than
ever before, and it's only getting worse every year? Is
it any wonder that this is happening when a substantial
number of people in this country are absorbing filth like
this in all its forms, learning from it, and when the idea
arises that it might actually be despicable to glorify
such things, we defend it as art? I will defend the right
of an individual to say whatever the hell he or she
believes, no matter how ignorant, repulsive, or person-
ally degrading it is to me, but I absolutely will not
defend what they say as "art", and is therefore some-
how sacred, just because a guitar might be playing at
the same time the words are spoken. And I do not see
a difference between the violence and terror inflicted
on blacks in the past, and the pervasive racism that still
exists today, as being any different or worse than the
violence and terror inflicted on women not just in the
past but which is still being inflicted at an ever increas-
ing rate. It is an absolute crime that our society will not
see the two as equal and therefore does not afford sex-
ism the same amount of disgust we show for racism
and every other cause du jour. If we, as a society, can
honestly evaluate the way we view women and read-
just our attitudes accordingly, the presence of sexism in
mainstream music and its subsequent emergence into
industrial music will soon fade, because bands cannot
survive if no one will buy their music. The whole rea-
son bands like this can survive is because too many
people, including women themselves, do not respect
women enough to refuse to purchase a sexist band's
music if it sounds good. If we want to see sexism erad-
icated from the arts then we have to stop supporting the
so-called "artists" who put out this crap. Using the
excuse that you "don't listen to the lyrics, just the
music" isn't good enoughthat music was still com-
posed with contempt for women in mind, and the
money you paid for that CD still went into the pocket
of a chauvinist asshole who thinks he's superior to
every female.you know (including yourself if you're a
woman). A complete boycott of the bands is necessary
if any message of disapproval is to be sent, as well as
letters or faxes to their record companies expressing
disgust for their willingness to market those bands, and
profit from the degradation of women. If, unfortunate-
ly you happen to buy an album that turns out to have a
sexist theme, warn your friends not to buy it. It would
also be helpful if magazines would provide this infor-
mation when new albums are reviewed. This problem
does not have to become any more serious if everyone
will just realize that you don't have to grudginglyac-
cept what someone puts on a tape if you don't agree
with itideas are not sacred just because they've been
published, and if you come across one you think is
wrong speak out! We only have ourselves to blame in
the end, if we sit back and do nothing while women are
disdained, and suddenly find that no music, art form, or
any other aspect of society is free from sexual preju-
dice.