They're Legendary

There's a lot going on right now, but I hope you have a chance to read my story on The Legendary Pink Dots, which streets in the print edition of the LA Weekly tomorrow and is online right now.

The Dots are all sorts of psychedelic madness. I've been a fan since high school and my fandom peaked in college, when I was on the prowl for just about everything related to the band, including the elusive cake box project, upon which Ka-Spel is not credited. For the record, I never found those. I took a break for a few years mostly because it got a bit expensive. However, thanks to domestic reissues and iTunes (although I lament the compressed sound of the latter, I appreciate actually being able to find some of the albums), I'm back in the game.

The Dots were more or less lumped into the goth/industrial thing (industrial, really, only with side project The Tear Garden because of the Skinny Puppy connection), but their really an everybody band, so go read the article and then proceed to get obsessed.

In case you're curious, these are my top recommendations for beginners. (I do love Plutonium Blonde, but suggest you brush up on the older material first.)

The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse (which should definitely be the first album you get)

The Maria Dimension

All The King's Horses 

The Golden Age

The Lovers

Faces in the Fire

The Tower

Also, make sure you get The Tear Garden's Tired Eyes Slowly Burning.