Stabbing Westward: Whatever happened to the band behind 'Save Yourself' & 'What D

Stabbing Westward: Whatever happened to the band behind 'Save Yourself' and 'What Do I have To Do,

0:00 - Pre-Band Years
2:25 - Stabbing Westward Early Years
4:13 - Ungod/Second Album
8:00 - Trent Reznor's Thoughts/Darkest Days
11:28 - Breakup/Reunion

Kiss Reunion Tour

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzEdI7eNYxA&t=2s

Sex Pistols

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYwwpZmePs8&t=3s

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#stabingwestward #christopherhall

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

’ve had a lot of people requesting this band over the past year or two and it’s finally time to tackle this subject. Before we start make sure you guys go fill out our request form in the description box below of what stories and topics you’d like to see us cover in the future on our channel. Stabbing Westward would emerge on people’s radars during the mid 90’s and be frequently compared to industrial pioneers nine Inch nails. I mean, they shared a similar sound even shared drummers, which may have been instrumental in getting the band signed and today we’re going to explore whatever happened to the band.


While Stabbing Westward wouldn’t rise to prominence in the middle part of the 90’s they formed nearly a decade prior in the 80’s. The band would be started by two musicians bassist and vocalist Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus (keyboardist, programmer, backup singer) in the city of Macomb, Illinois. Most sources said the band’s early days dated back to 1985, but one fan site that’s since archived claims the band’s origins dated back to 1981. According to the fan site the pair met at a summer music camp. Four years later they would both attend Western Illinois University pursuing degrees in music, while working at the local college radio station.. At this time forming a rock band wasn’t on their minds, at least not for Hall who would tell Cryptic Rock From the time I was five, I played the trumpet and I went to college studying Classical music. I was convinced I was going to be a trumpet player in the Chicago Symphony and be a university teacher; that was my goal.The Rock band thing was sort of a side passion that kind of took over. Hall would tell songfacts where the band’s musical inspiration came from saying As kids, Walter and I were crazy about Ministry and Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk and bands like that. Anything Al Jourgensen did we just thought was the greatest thing on earth. That was always just what we wanted to do.

The pair would play in a variety of bands before they decided they wanted to form their own project.The pair soon started recording music similar to the Cure and they bought a four track recorder, a drum machine and learned how to sequence a midi keyboard. Christopher Hall would tell Songfacts We were both in other bands – together and apart – that were mostly cover bands. One band was like a new wave cover band. I was in another band that did a lot of Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen type stuff. But Walter and I always secretly wrote industrial music in our bedroom. We would put together every keyboard and drum machine we had and bounce tracks on a four-track. That was our passion.

According to future drummer Andy Kubiszewski (Coup-bichess-kee) who told be in the loop chicago the band’s name came from and i quote “essentially when Chris and Walter were putting the band together, they had a gig and there was a deadline for a name for the band, so they pulled out a bunch of album covers and they pulled out a record cover and it had an excerpt from, I believe it was an Eisenhower speech, where he was talking about communism coming to the west and he used the phrase “stabbing westward,” and they went oh well, “Stabbing Westward”, that will work.”

In reality the phrase stabbing westward was not from eisenhower, but an unknown announcer from a 1947 newsreel. The newsreel would be included in the 1982 documentary the atomic cafe.

The pairs post secondary institution of Western Illinois University served as an inspiration for the pair with Hall stating to R&R Reported “Since we went to Western Illinois University, Stabbing Westward had a certain ‘kill everybody in the school’ vibe to it! The school’s way out in farm country and the country is really close minded. I was walking around like Robert Smith with real big hair, big baggy black clothes, black fingernail polish and eye makeup. They just didn’t get it. We hated the town.”
The pair soon moved to ch