Pitchfork

Rhino Records wants to remind you that goth isn't all about pale skin, séances, dripping black eye liner, and mall food courts...well, not completely. At one point, in the pre-Hot Topic days of yore, this dark strain of post-punk loosely constituted a serious genre (at least, in retrospect).

With A Life Less Lived: The Gothic Box, Rhino's out to recapture goth's glory days with a lavish four-disc collection, replete with packaging that appears to resemble, at least in part, a corset.

The set hits stores (including, quite possibly, Hot Topic) on September 19 and compiles 53 goth-but-not-goth songs and 12 videos onto three CDs and one DVD. Although, to be fair, most of the bands on the comp have tended to resist being boxed in by the "gothic" label.

So what exactly functions as a "goth classic," since the underground movement didn't churn out a huge number of ostensible hits? Rhino mined a twenty-year period (1978-1998) to showcase bands that, although they often eschewed genre labels, are nonetheless considered pioneers of goth music culture. These include Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Cure.

A Life Less Lived casts a relatively huge net (fishnet?) over goth, also including tracks from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, Echo & the Bunnymen, Throbbing Gristle, Fields of the Nephilim, Alien Sex Fiend, Einstürzende Neubauten, Killing Joke, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Cranes, Misfits, Ministry, the Southern Death Cult, Death Cult, the Cult, and many more. Even AFI gets tossed in with the bunch.

Recipients of the box will also find among its contents highly educational essays about goth dancing and clubbing, an explication of the word "goth" by contributing bands, and a fancy track-by-track listing penned by Dave Thompson, author of The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock.

In support of the Rhino compilation, MTV2 will air a special episode of "Subterranean" on September 17. The show will examine the history of goth music, play classic videos, and take a look at current interpretations of the style by bands like AFI and, um, Editors.

Building blocks of The Gothic Box:

Disc One:

01 Joy Division - "Dead Souls"
02 The Cure - "Charlotte Sometimes"
03 Bauhaus - "She's in Parties"
04 The Sisters Of Mercy - "Temple of Love"
05 Tones On Tail - "Christian Says"
06 The Birthday Party - "Mutiny in Heaven"
07 Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Spellbound"
08 The Southern Death Cult - "Fatman"
09 Love and Rockets - "Mirror People"
10 Fields of the Nephilim - "Power"
11 Alien Sex Fiend - "Now I'm Feeling Zombified"
12 The March Violets - "Snake Dance"
13 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - "Walking on Your Hands"
14 Specimen - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"
15 The Mission - "Wasteland"
16 Ghost Dance - "The Grip of Love"
17 Dali's Car - "His Box"

Disc Two:

01 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "The Weeping Song"
02 The Creatures - "Exterminating Angel"
03 Death Cult - "God's Zoo"
04 Gene Loves Jezebel - "Heartache"
05 Flesh For Lulu - "I Go Crazy"
06 Peter Murphy - "Cuts You Up"
07 The Lords of the New Church - "Open Your Eyes"
08 The Danse Society - "Heaven Is Waiting"
09 Echo & the Bunnymen - "All My Colours"
10 The Chameleons - "Don't Fall"
11 The Rose of Avalanche - "Dreamland"
12 The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Fall"
13 Daniel Ash - "Coming Down Fast"
14 Clan of Xymox - "Muscoviet Musquito"
15 Xmal Deutschland - "Incubus Succubus II"
16 Cranes - "Starblood"
17 Miranda Sex Garden - "Ardera Sempre"
18 Cocteau Twins - "Blood Bitch"
19 Dead Can Dance - "The Arcane"

Disc Three:

01 The Cult - "Rain"
02 The Bolshoi - "Away"
03 Rubicon - "Watch Without Pain"
04 Virgin Prunes - "Pagan Lovesong"
05 Einstürzende Neubauten - "Morning Dew"
06 Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady"
07 Kommunity FK - "To Blame"
08 The Damned - "Melody Lee"
09 Christian Death - "Romeo's Distress"
10 45 Grave - "Party Time"
11 London After Midnight - "Kiss"
12 Sex Gang Children - "Dieche"
13 Skinny Puppy - "Assimilate"
14 Misfits - "Halloween"
15 Killing Joke - "Tomorrow's World"
16 Ministry - "So What"
17 AFI - "The Hanging Garden"

DVD

01 The Cure - "Lullaby"
02 Bauhaus - "Bela Lugosi's Dead"
03 The Sisters of Mercy - "Lucretia My Reflection"
04 Fields of the Nephilim - "Moonchild"
05 The Mission - "Deliverence"
06 Love and Rockets - "Ball of Confusion"
07 The Jesus and Mary Chain - "Head On"
08 Echo & the Bunnymen - "The Killing Moon"
09 Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Where the Wild Roses Grow"
10 Ministry - "Stigmata"
11 The Cult - "Spiritwalker (Live)"
12 Siouxsie and the Banshees - "Cities in Dust"