The Tennessean (4.26.99)

RICK DE YAMPERT TENNESSEAN MUSIC WRITER

If not quite anointed the Queen of Goth Rock, Siouxsie Sioux (of Siouxsie and the Banshees fame) is certainly known as a dark duchess of the late '70s and '80s Goth rock scene.

But despite projecting the ol' pale skin and eyes-of-a-corpse look, and despite crafting such songs as Halloween, Voodoo Dolly and Ju Ju with The Banshees, Siouxsie doesn't profess much affinity for the Goth aesthetic.

"That's a very cartoony idea of what my image is," she told Hot Press magazine in February. "I've never worn white pan-stick makeup. And I don't just wear black. That's a misconception. And if the external attraction is all there is, then I find it quite worthless."

She was more direct with Time Out magazine: "Goth was pantomime."

Goth fans may have finally felt Siouxsie's coolness toward things gothic when Siouxsie and the Banshees scored a very poppy, very non-goth hit in 1991 with the song Kiss Them For Me.

While the Banshees disbanded in 1995, Siouxsie and former Banshees drummer Budgie are back as The Creatures, their longtime side project. Anima Animus, the duo's new album and their third as The Creatures, is a heady mixture of ... well, sort of gothic techno rock and Budgie's tribal-meets-Y2K percussion style. It's all new-millennium cool, yet often as chillingly chic as an Anne Rice vampire hero.

The Creatures perform at 10 tonight at The Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place. $15. 321-4400.

Contributed by Jerry Burch.