Siouxsie and the Banshees' Peepshow

In the stark aftermath of the UK's most devastating storm since 1703, Siouxsie and the Banshees convened in a 17th-century mansion in the deracinated English countryside to write their ninth studio album, Peepshow. On November 5th, the band broke from preproduction for Bonfire Night festivities. As fireworks exploded into the sky, the bonfire procession marched a fifteen-foot Guy Fawkes effigy toward the colossal fire. Sioux later recalled, 'It was as if we were doing the whole thing on the set of The Wicker Man.'

Critically confined to rock's too hard basket, Siouxsie and the Banshees were always an awkward musical fit, shoehorned into punk history as 'also rans' then lazily mislabeled post-punk 'goths.' In a last-ditch attempt to resurrect their flailing career, the self-proclaimed 'non-musicians' recruited a classically trained cellist to embellish their modern, experimental soundscapes. Subsequently, in creating a record akin to a Hollywood film score, the Banshees 'broke America,' were adopted into the US alt-rock canon and scored a Billboard number-one hit.

Starring Roger Corman, Bernard Herrmann, Walt Disney, and Louise Brooks, also featuring Hammer Horror and Hitchcock, Peepshow is the soundtrack to all the films Siouxsie and the Banshees ever saw. Or it might have been the soundtrack to the greatest film they never made.