I have come up with a number of ‘microgenres’, but this one is super-micro: songs that sound like Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

In fact, there is an entire band that is a dead ringer for early-era Siouxsie — only they’re German. Xmal Deutschland’s lead singer, Anja Huwe, REALLY sounds like Siouxsie. But they’re not imitators, they are two parallel bands with a startlingly similar idea of atmosphere and mood.

Listen for yourself:

Xmal Deutschland — Begrab Mein Herz

Or here’s another favorite of mine:

Xmal Deutschland — Young Man

Compare to:

Siouxsie and the Banshees — Hybrid

A band which reportedly named themselves in honor of one of their favorite bands is my perennial choice for best band of “la movida madrileña” — Alaska y los Pegamoides. I didn’t know a “pegamoide” was a banshee, but maybe “the y los” part is what they meant. They don’t normally sound like Sioxusie, being more of a pop-punk/new wave outfit with their own ironic blend of Franco-era kitsch and lyrics about conspicuous consumption, but they do have one song that is a dead ringer:

Alaska y los Pegamoides — Quiero Salir

Specifically, it reminds me of this:

Siouxsie and the Banshees — The Staircase (Mystery)

It’s nice to know that bands/people can sound like one another without sounding like a copy of one another.

But it also makes me want to be back there again, at the point in my life where I actually lived for what came next, because I knew it was likely to be great.

• (click to play) Liliput/Kleenex — Die Matrosen