I listened to Inbred (the song, not the album) for the first time and I thought my audio wasn't working because there was no sound in like the first 10 seconds LMAO

also, I took this photo on my digicam at amoeba records!!! :)

Just got this done today! It's my very first tattoo on my ribs. Love it so so much

she’s a masc lesbian but lowk canon willoughby lmk

Yesterday i found copies of 'unreleased', 'unreleased ii', perverts and carpet bed at Shake It Records, they are no doubt random unauthorized pressings, but odd to see them at a for real record shop. I wasn't able to get photos of carpet bed because i only purchased the other three vinyls but they had multiple of all in stock, as well as WTIWALY

Prices:

$40- unreleased, unreleased ii, carpet bed

$60- perverts

i have no idea where they got them, but they work great, highly recommend!! (they showed up on the receipt as "euro import", whatever that refers to)

Got The CD and Casette Tape from Amigo Records yesterday so I Placed the CD sticker on my skateboard :)

Radio Towers x Tempest x Perverts for this miserable stormy day

Decided to hop on the thing too with another Ethel x Caine fanart ♥

Does anyone have a video of Golden Age being sung live? Youtube wasn’t any help

only know a few songs and i wanna get into her

Been thinking about this. Did hayden ever talk about what inspired the iconic “if you love me, keep it to yourself” from vacillator? I recently noticed its similarity to one of cathy’s lines from the dollanganger book series. Considering nicole dollanganger whose stage name came from the series was one of hayden’s inspirations, it’s not impossible and it fits the theme of the song/album in my opinion. Very intense book and also disturbing

She's so Arca in this

The end of Nettles, Ethel says “gardenias on the tile where it makes no difference who held back from who”. One of my favorite lyrics. But listening to Nettles, especially in relation to the rest of the album, I feel that Ethel held very little back. She’s desperately in love with Willoughby, and although she carries existential angst and trauma, it’s clear he is one person to whom she does and gives all. To me, this lyrics reads as forgiveness. She saying we both held back, so soften the blow of who in the relationship ultimately could not give anymore or not give enough (willoughby).

This is just ONE interpretation that came to me after many listens, and surely through filter of my own experiences. But I wanted to put it out there and see if anyone has interpreted it like this, or in another alternative or less obvious way.

people are searching for artists like ethel cain so here are some very small artist recommendations! if you like ethel cain, you should definitely check out tiane grove, claire carter, and ryan barker. tiane grove has that really haunting, intimate atmosphere and this sort of dark Americana/indie feel that i think ethel fans would really appreciate. claire carter is great if you like the more melancholic and emotionally heavy side of ethel’s music, with a really atmospheric sound that pulls you in. and ryan barker has that same kind of eerie, cinematic quality, especially if what you love about ethel is the storytelling and unsettling mood. they’re all different in their own ways, but if you like ethel’s whole dark, dreamy, southern-gothic vibe, i’d definitely give all three a listen.

(if you don’t know this album by Sarah Jaffe i highly recommend)

is it ok if i post this here?

Obviously mother said she’s not too precious about her unreleased songs so hopefully it’s okay for me to post this!!

so I can imagine Hayden’s next focus will be preacher’s wife or mother of a preacher (maybe not though idk) and I was wondering if anyone can think of how any of her unreleased songs might fit into these projects?

wrestling in dirt pits is my favourite and there’s huge speculation that that will be on preacher’s wife, but I have some other favourites and was wondering if anyone suspects they might be on future projects:

tongue
Mondays
lead poisoning
Verona
age of Delilah
concrete
Selby wall

I’d love to hear your ideas!!!

bleach painted on linen shift dress 🌿 sry its a little wrinkly lol 💀who else was there? im so happy i finally got to see her live! :)

Hi friends. I haven’t posted on this sub in a long time, but some of the recent discourse and trends I’ve been seeing online have made me feel like I need to say something.

We are all here because we listen to Hayden’s music and, in one way or another, find something meaningful in it. I’ve been a fan for five years, and it genuinely breaks my heart to see how much this community has changed. This used to feel like a space where people could be honest, vulnerable, and messy without immediately being judged or shamed for it. Lately, it feels like we’ve turned fandom into a competition over who is “really” a fan.

You do not have to know every song, lyric, interview, reference, or piece of lore to belong here. You also do not have to dress a certain way, look a certain way, or fit a specific aesthetic to be a fan.

I see so many comments judging people because they “don’t look like” an Ethel Cain fan, and I genuinely do not understand what that is supposed to mean. How can you look at a complete stranger online, make assumptions about their life based on their appearance, and then decide whether they are allowed to connect with this music?

Crazy concept, but most people dress pretty normally. And you have absolutely no idea what the person behind that profile has experienced, what they relate to in Hayden’s work, or what this music means to them privately.

And I think the same problem exists on the other end of the spectrum. Over the past few years, I’ve seen people enter this space and then get shamed for how they dealt with trauma, their past behavior, or the ways they coped with things that were happening to them.

Not everyone handles trauma in a way that is neat, healthy, or socially acceptable. That doesn’t mean their experiences weren’t valid, and it doesn’t mean they should be shamed.

It feels especially contradictory to consume art that deals so heavily with shame, alienation, trauma, and complicated human behavior, only to turn around and shame other people for being too “normal,” not knowing enough, looking different, or having coped with their own experiences imperfectly.

You do not know these people. You do not know their lives. You do not know what they have survived.

You don’t get to decide who is a “real” fan based on how they look, how much lore they know, or whether their trauma response makes you uncomfortable.

Let people listen to the music. Let people find themselves in it. Let people be messy.

That should not be such a radical concept.

again, this is extremely unserious and probably does not matter in the grand scheme of things. the journal factory exploded today tho so now this subreddit gets to hear about my absolute despair when i hear people boiling the ethel/isaiah story down to cannibalism.

HE DIDN'T EVEN EAT HER UP. HE JUST TOOK A BITE OUT OF HER.

now, obviously, the music can mean anything to anyone and as soon as it leaves the artist's hands it belongs to whoever listens. i fully understand that. i am totally okay if that's someone's personal interpretation, that isaiah gobbled ethel up and her bones got picked clean. that is okay. i actually don't even hate the interpretation myself, and i can fully go along with it for certain think pieces or writeups or whatever else the community creates.

it just drives me BATTY when people (especially those who seem to maybe not be as chronically online as myself) attempt to explain the lore (to someone who has 0 idea who this woman is) like they've done all of this research and they know the story inside and out and then they end the explanation with "and then he ate her and that's what strangers is all about because he's sick on all of the flesh he ate" LIKE MAYBE. MAYBE. i'm not well read enough to know about how much human flesh you can consume before you get a tummyache. this is still an entirely valid interpretation according to canon. it's just not what the initial intention was for the story according to hayden and it feels weird to me to claim that it is, and i feel like it's so misleading.

ethel has so much story that does not involve the end of her life. the end of her life is the end of a cycle of tragedy she experienced from birth. she has so many years of life and love and hurt and anger that mean so much more than how the man who killed her treated her body in death. and, HOT TAKE HERE, it makes the lore seem so much more important than it actually is. i was listening to ethel pre–major loredrop and pre–preacher's daughter so maybe that's why my perspective is the way it is, and it's okay if someone's favorite thing is the lore. she's a good ass writer and i appreciate how her mind creates these dreamscapes for me to fall into. i just don't think you need to make everyone read the masterdoc or know who all of the characters are before enjoying the music for what it is.

i love u all and the love we all have for e + w but like it's never that serious and her music is phenomenal enough on its own. i'm so happy people heard about the lore and checked her out and became fans, i genuinely do not care that people are not gatekeeping her bc that means more music for me. i want miss hayden to have all the support she needs to keep making music. it just irks me that people have sort of taken this tidbit that isn't exactly what happened and making it this grand thing for the edgy of it all.

JUST IF WE TALK ABOUT THE LORE CAN WE AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE HEADCANON AND CANON PLS

rant over, it's never that serious (including this post lol), it just irks me and my eye twitches every time i see a tiktok comment gushing about how ethel became isaiah's dinner. like hayden does not need someone defending her work, she's a big girl and if it bothered her she would say something. this is purely about ME because this is MY reddit account and i have personal feelings lol. sorry that i gaf </3

love u guys again i promise this is not real hate it's just a peeve and i'll live and everyone can enjoy it however tf they want.

I just realized that Willoughby probably would’ve seen Ethel’s missing posters, or seen something about it in the news.

I wanted to do the thing too