I certainly hope this still happens in some form: Your middle school friend guides you down to their Midwest basement where their infinitely cool older sister has set up her bedroom. You part the beads and clouds of clove cigarette smoke, eyes widened by black-lit Bauhaus and Cure posters on the paneled walls, and your heart stops at the cavernous yet somehow angelic sounds of “Wax and Wane” ringing out through the musty space.
She’s put on Garlands by the Cocteau Twins, the 1982 album that eventually leads you into the gorgeously eerie sonic labyrinth of the 4AD label—and lays the groups foundations as goth stalwarts paving the way for shoegaze introspection and dream pop triumphs, via a flotilla of stunning Vaughan Oliver-designed releases and singer Elizabeth Fraser’s indelible glossolalia. It’s a cosmic moment that leads yet another pre-teen reject and useless music critic into a life of glorious sonic and style communion with others of his ilk. (Yes, I got the haircut and pixie boots. And yes, I’m writing this from my own parent’s basement in Detroit.)
More than half a century—eep—after the epochal Scottish outfit’s debut, and almost 30 years after its official demise, the Cocteau magic is still deeply felt. Fraser performed this past weekend with Massive Attack in Sydney, and Pitchfork’s been flogging its nostalgic review of the group’s 1996 collaboration with Chinese pop mega-star Faye Wong. Dream pop, shoegaze, and reverberant goth are now touchstone genres for pop and hip-hop production to the point of cliche. Everyone eventually finds themselves in Heaven or Las Vegas (or at least a Cherry-Colored Funk).
And Cocteaufest, the 23-year old annual celebration of all things Twins, blessed by the group itself, is going stronger than ever, with editions all over the world from Boston, where it started, to New York, Paris, and Berlin. San Francisco, of course, with its fabulously dark undercurrent of goth reverence, is in on it all: Since 2014, DJ Xander’s darkwave Dancing Ghosts party has hosted the tribute at Cat Club, turning over an entire night to Cocteau Twins classics and rarities.
For the past three years, SF Cocteaufest has broadened into a two-day event, with a live tribute band element added for extra bliss-out. But this year for the first time in Cocteaufest history, August 21 and 22, the event is featuring an actual member of the band: bassist and Bella Union label head Simon Raymonde. Friday night August 21 sees a blowout Dancing Ghosts party with five-hour dance bonanza of Cocteau cuts and a backroom dedicated to more dream pop. Then Saturday August 22 offers a daytime meet-and-greet with Raymonde, discussing lore and his recent In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor and Me memoir. Saturday night brings live tribute bands to the Chapel with Sugar Hiccup and Mocteau Twins, plus a DJ set from Raymonde himself.
“Even though the group broke up in the ’90s, their music is a relevant as ever, ” DJ Xander said. “And San Francisco is such a highly educated and devoted city when it comes to music, that there’s a huge fanbase here. Plus, a lot of young people are getting into them from Spotify and TikTok—and their parents’ record collections, as more than a few people who are planning to attend have told me.”
A huge fan since his youth slinging CDs at Cheapo Records in the Twin Cities, Xander reached out to Raymonde himself. “He appeared at Ameoba a couple years ago to sign his memoir, as part of his book tour. I met him and had him sign my Love’s Easy Tears EP and he was such a nice guy, full of so many stories from his time with the band. I mentioned Cocteaufest and he kind of chuckled. So I took a chance and reached out to him at his Bella Union email address and offered to cover his travel expenses if he came, and he said yes. I was of course incredibly thrilled. This is such an honor for us to have him.”
The Dancing Ghosts night itself, named for a 1984 Chris and Cosey song, kicked off its very existence with a 4AD label tribute at the Stud in 2007, before moving to its third Fridays monthly slot at Cat Club. “The label really inspired me to start DJing, and it was so awesome to be able to play things like the Cocteau Twins, Clan of Xymox, Dead Can Dance, Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil, and bands of that type in a club setting. The feeling was very communal, being all together with this music,” Xander said.
That communal feeling extends even into the virtual realm. It’s long been an online truism that if you’re tired of the Internet’s corrosive ragebait, you can flee into the comments section of any Cocteau Twins Youtube video and have your faith in visual humanity restored. Cocteau fans are incredibly supportive of not just the band but fellow seekers who are lovers. “In my 20 years of DJing, Cocteaufest has been one of my most fulfilling events to host. It’s really wonderful to meet people with shared musical interests, people of different nationalities and different ages, from all different walks of life,” Xander said.
“It really underscores that this special music is a universal language.”
SF COCTEAUFEST WITH SIMON RAYMONDE, August 21 and 22. More info here.
