We Have a Technical

DAF's stone classic "Gold Und Liebe" is the subject of this month's We Have A Commentary. An absolute touchstone for all EBM to come, the record is also an intriguing mix of krautrock and disco and paved the way not just for EBM but techno as well. We're digging into the record's deployment of provocative sexual and political imagery, as well as its philosophical and psychological underpinnings. J...

Verboden Festival came through Vancouver like a tornado, leaving us in a dazed state with the memories and merch of umpteen post-punk, darkwave, and related bands swirling about our heads and our apartments. This week we're discussing some highlights from this, the fourth installment of Vancouver's dark music fest, and featuring an interview with Forrest Avery LeMaire of Mr. Kitty, unquestionably...

Back in action after a couple weeks of pre-recorded episodes, the Senior Staff are getting back to basics with discussion of records by Ulver and yelworC. Also, they're doing their best to catch up on all the news that's happened since they were last sitting down together, namely the eighth Cold Waves line-up. All that plus an account of the most genteel Laibach show ever on this week's We Have A...

The second part of our Pick 5 doubleheader is here! After wallowing in the deep-friend excesses of Americana, we're crossing the Atlantic to discuss some bands who only could have come from Europe. Are we as Canadians projecting inherited stereotypes regarding our friends to the south and continental cousins? That's more than likely, but join us anyway! 

The first of two Pick 5 episodes of the podcast recorded well ahead of time, so much so that we don't remember much of what was said! We know it had something to do with North American bands in Our Thing? I guess we'll have to listen to find out, why not join us on this journey of discovery friend? 

On this month's Patreon supported bonus podcast, Bruce and Alex tackle Grendel's "Timewave Zero". A notable change in approach and thematics from the project, it's a record that pushed the project into new arenas and showed massive artistic growth, all of which the Senior Staff examines in detail on We Have a Commentary! 

On this week's episode, the Senior Staff delve headfirst into the history and enduring legacy of one of the most iconic record labels of all time. Julia Nash, daughter of Wax Trax Records founder Jim Nash, talks about the passion and process behind her documentary film, "Industrial Accident: The Story Of Wax Trax Records". All that, plus the just-revealed lineup of this year's installment of our b...

With the heavy doses of last week's truth serum finally wearing off, the Senior Staff is back to a tried and true style of episode. Yep, we're sticking with what brought us to the dance: each picking a record to talk about. This week, it's a peculiar sophomore LP from Rosetta Stone and a groovy release from KMFDM side project excessive Force.

We've reached our sestercentennial episode of We Have A Technical! Yep, that's right: 250 episodes are in the can, and to celebrate that anniversary and everyone who's joined us along the way, we're cutting through the BS, chugging some Truth Serum, and shooting straight on some hard hitting questions submitted by our readers and listeners. This ain't your mama's podcast: we're sayin' it!

This week's episode of We Have A Technical careers through a plethora of the genres and sounds we like to talk about, thanks to our Patreon backers! Yep, we have four of our listeners joining us to talk about records by Kraftwerk, Manufacture, Pouppée Fabrikk, and The Cure!

As selected by our Patreon backers, this month's We Have A Commentary finds the Senior Staff discussing the sophomore (but certainly not sophomoric) LP by Coil, "Horse Rotorvator". The record's blending of the death and sex drives, the musical ambition of Coil slowly expanding, and the spectre of the AIDS crisis are all discussed in one of the most fast moving and jam-packed We Have A Commentarys...

Chris Peterson and Craig Huxtable of Ohmelectronic sit down withe the Senior Staff to discuss their second album of deep Vancouver electro-industrial. From the murky origins of Chris and Craig's first meetings to the stages of Wave Gothic Treffen, we're happy to be talking shop with a jam-up pair of Van City true-schoolers.

Like many folks in Vancouver and around the world, we were shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Phil Western last weekend. This week's episode of We Have A Technical is meant to be a celebration and examination of his genre-bending electronic forays.

An off the cuff conversation with none other than Daniel Myer is featured on this week's episode of We Have A Technical. Myer was passing through Vancouver to play a DJ set at a techno party, so we wanted to take the opportunity to discuss how his recent work in a myriad of projects relates to the ever broadening world of dark techno. Additionally, we have some discussion of ohGr's PledgeMusic woe...

How - if at all - does the craft of DJing fit into Our Thing in 2019? In a loose (read: boozy) revisitation of an older topic from a more personal perspective. Get ready for hot takes, side eye, and plenty of polemical ranting in the first episode of We Have A Technical recorded in the new HQ!

Whether it's a matter of strangers getting on the same elevator, twins separated at birth, or just two great tastes which taste great together, Our Thing has plenty of collaborations across its history and styles worthy of consideration and discussion...including the ol' Pick Five treatment. From power noise to drone, the Senior Staff have a clutch of collaborative projects and releases to discuss...

For the first Patreon-supported commentary podcast of 2019, we're listening to American industrial rock classic Burnout at the Hydrogen Bar by Chemlab. How did the record both presage what was to come while speaking to the history of the North American sound? Has it aged well? Is Jared Louche an amazing frontman? Listen and find out! 

We're acting like a pair of old fashioned Germaniacs on the latest episode of We Have A Technical. Records by Lacrimosa and Steril are on the docket, alongside discussion of some new comments from Blixa Bargeld regarding industrial music, and the news of Ant-Zen withdrawing from the physical media business. Life may not be easy in Germany, but listening to the latest episode of the IDieYouDie.com...

It's the 242nd episode of WHaT, and you'd better believe the Senior Staff are making the most of it. They're welcoming an all-star cast of friends of the podcast to celebrate and discuss the music and legacy of Front 242. From their famous live shows to the radical changes made across their discography, folks from across Our Thing are dropping by to speak about what it is that makes them such an e...

I Die: You Die kick the new year off with an extended discussion of Laibach's new record: a representation of tunes from "The Sound Of Music" for their tour of North Korea. All of the bugbears and thorns which come with Slovenia's most stoic cultural product are in the mix, along with consideration of socialist realism, Anschluss, and Rogers & Hammerstein schmaltz. Get 2019 started with the latest...

Hey folks, it's the last We Have a Technical of the year and the Senior Staff recorded it half in the bag and completely burned out from writing Year End coverage. You know what that means: it's the annual off-topic podcast! To be frank we scarcely remember what we talked about on this episode last week, but rest assured there's probably something about wrestling, video games, and maybe even a lit...

It's the Year End episode of We Have a Technical, and we're talking lists, honourable mentions and the broad trends of 2018 in Our Thing. If you ever wanted to hear two very tired people stumble their way through an animated but barely coherent series of observations about the year that was, this is the episode of WHaT for you! Seriously though, we were VERY tired. All on the official I Die: You D...

Our last Patreon-supoorted commentary podcast of the year has us listening to the sophomore (?) record from Ontario's The Birthday Massacre. The record's combination of darkwave and broader rock and pop sounds made it a huge hit in 2004: how does it hold up? How were the band's enduring sounds and themes cemented here? Can we talk about a band like TBM without using ugly words like "branding"? And...

As Year End coverage waits in the wings, your favourite post-industrial palookas are taking a look back at the year that was. Yes, it's a Pick Five episode with the dead simple theme of tracks from 2018. Yep, tunes which represented this year's broader trends as well as plain old earworms are being picked up and discussed, alongside recent live sets from SRSQ and HIDE on We Have A Technical! (And...

It's a very English and very apocalyptic episode of We Have A Technical as recent records by Gazelle Twin and Current 93. Be it political, personal, or religious, endings and great changes are taken up in fraught and anxious ways on "Pastoral" and "The Light Is Leaving Us All". Bruce and Alex also take a look at the just announced Mechanisms Fest and the website's impending year end coverage on th...