PREMIERE | Philip Goth, "Teenage Anna Nicole Smith"

Emerging out of the void with Philip Goth; press photo courtesy of the artist and Team Love.

The American horror gothic narrative is something of a time honored tradition. From spine tingling tales of paranormal maneuvers in the dark, songs of psychological thrillers, to films and television programs devoted to presentations of the macabre, mysterious and menacing; the functionality of fear is something that strikes a collective chord in recognizing the mortality, fragility and vulnerability of the human condition and experience. These arts of eliciting chills, oooohs, ahhhhs, gasps and shrieks from the audience are anchored in inspirations ripped from the rawest extremities of real life. The most awe-inducing exhibitions showcase the strangest of truths cut from the conflicts and chaos and craziness that roars with a vagrancy, velocity and violence that is more vicious than fiction.

Enter Josh Rawson, formerly of The Felice Brothers who has recently been constructing a self-titled album from his Philmont, New York flat under the moniker of Philip Goth. Creating a transgressive confessional gallery collection of hard living, gutter glam hedonism and chemically addled and imbalanced antics, humor and a heavy weight of destitution. Arriving June 11 via Team Love, Rawson presents the debut of the Philip Goth electro econo-ballad "Teenage Anna Nicole Smith". Bustling with bushels of percussion and a catchy synth hook and some crunchy guitar licks, Josh illustrates the absurdity of aristocratic oddballs and meta-tales of tripped out (and tripped up) tribulation. Inspired from a narrative of being a property caretaker / courier for an upper class set, Philip Goth contrasts the pretentious elegance of the bourgeoise with scalding hot water freak accidents and prosperous dreams of starting from the earth as a groundskeeper and ascending to towering heights. Concocting an addictive stew of dirty electronic amped derelict pop, Rawson offers up a variety show of vignettes about wasted, fleeting youth and stoned-eyed hopes and dreams. “Teenage Anna Nicole Smith” is a moody, manic, morose and mystifying arrangement of short stories sung in sinewy spoken shudders with a smoky and smoldering slow burning swagger. Philip Goth highlights the growing pains and struggles of self-advancement, self-care, habits and more in a lavish and lysergic coming of age track.

Josh Rawson, aka Philip Goth, delivered a unique look at the back story behind the inception of “Teenage Anna Nicole Smith” (cw: drugs, trauma):

At the time, I was working as a groundskeeper/errand runner for the wealthy people on the edge of town. I think they thought I had something wrong with me or had done something really bad. My predecessor was 16 and I was in my thirties, so I was doing things like blowing leaves off their tennis court and power-washing their decks.

During this period of my life, I carried a giant pot of boiling water up the stairs—I was trying to unclog the drain—when I stumbled and tripped. It spilled all over me. I had second degree burns on my forehead, neck, and all along my shoulder and chest. All the skin slid off, and then giant blisters and sacs formed everywhere just hanging off my body like alien testicles. I looked like the elephant man.

Josh Rawson, aka Philip Goth press photo via Bandcamp.

So here I was, the mysterious groundskeeper of this spooky mansion, and I had all these weird burns all over my face and neck. I felt like a Boo Radley figure or the old man in Home Alone who saves Kevin in the end. I was basically a suspect in True Detective.

This is when I started writing “I Was a Teenage Anna Nicole Smith.” I realized that there weren’t any impressionistic songs I could think of, that were fever dreams of burn victims blowing leaves off of tennis courts, and thought I would get rich. It’s clear to me now, with sweet opioids no longer coursing through my blood, how wrong I was. This all really happened to me.

Philip Goth’s debut self-titled will be available June 11 via Team Love Records.