i wan't goth, i just played chess there

September 21, 2009 8:41 AM

WhatsThatSongFilter: Heard in the mid-ish 90s at a goth coffee shop, some sort of industrial/technoy song. Only lyrics I remember: "nemesis... play sega genesis...".

That's it. Do you know the artist / track title?

posted by jeffamaphone to media & arts (16 comments total)

I think that's a mondegreen, from the chorus in Shriekback's "Nemesis":

Priests and cannibals, prehistoric animals
Everybody happy as the dead come home
Big Black Nemesis, parthenogenesis
No one move a muscle as the dead come home
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:42 AM on September 21 [4 favorites]

...was this the Aurafice, by any chance?
posted by Mars Saxman at 8:43 AM on September 21

I bet Mars Saxman has it, but if not there's also Hammerfall's Riders of the Storm:

Speak the word of Nemesis
Call for thunder call for rain
Let us meet our Genesis
Save us from the unholy pain

(It's pretty awful.)
posted by rokusan at 8:51 AM on September 21

Ha! That's totally Nemesis. Based on the UK comic of the same name.

I love that song...
posted by JoanArkham at 8:51 AM on September 21

So looks like if you need a rhyme for "Nemesis" then "Genesis" is going to be top of the pile.

The whole of the Shriekback album from which this track comes, Oil and Gold, is worth a listen.
posted by rongorongo at 9:03 AM on September 21 [1 favorite]

Genesis is certainly more Goth than emesis, which is a better rhyme.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:10 AM on September 21

@Mars: No, wrong city. Though I did spend some time at Aurafice... just later.

Everyone else, thanks. I will check out those suggestions. It's totally possible I mis-heard it, but I could have sworn it was Sega Genesis...
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:21 AM on September 21

Holy crap. I remember that Shriekback song from '80s radio. I never knew the name of it but as soon as I saw the title, I knew exactly what song you were talking about and remembered the sound of the chorus that contains "nemesis." An old song I never thought I'd hear again, kind of like the recent M&Ms commercial that had "This Is The Day" in it.
posted by That takes balls. at 10:01 AM on September 21

The idea that "parthenogenesis" can be misheard as "Playing Sega Genesis" makes me smile, so please don't correct us if that turns out to be untrue.
posted by rokusan at 10:04 AM on September 21 [1 favorite]

FWIW, I thought the line was "unheard-of genesis" for years.
posted by JoanArkham at 10:13 AM on September 21

Man, I used to love that song. First heard it on a mixtape in 8th grade or so.

And yes: parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which females produce eggs that develop without fertilization.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 10:41 AM on September 21

Well, I gave it a listen and I don't think that was it. It was more industrialy. I dunno, maybe it is the right song and my memory is self-embellishing. I was pretty caffeinated.
posted by jeffamaphone at 1:39 PM on September 21

I can testify that there are more electro-industrial-y mixes of the Shriekback track floating around; it's just started getting some fresh play in the DC-area goffik clubs over the last year or so (though the mixes themselves may be older).
posted by FatherDagon at 3:06 PM on September 21

Ah ha - the 'Dangerous' mix of Nemesis. Might this be it?
posted by FatherDagon at 3:09 PM on September 21

BTW the lyrics take a couple minutes to kick in there. I'll promise to stop serial posting now.
posted by FatherDagon at 3:11 PM on September 21

That actually sounds much more like what I remembered; it has to be it.
posted by jeffamaphone at 1:43 PM on September 22