Cynthia Von Buhler - Music Career

Music Career

At the same time she changed her name, von Buhler became involved in the music industry. She started a performance art band, Women of Sodom, which won a Best Music Poll Award from the Boston Phoenix in 1997 and became a Boston sensation. Women of Sodom headlined clubs across the country and opened for Gwar, Voivod, God Lives Underwater and Psychotica. The band performed at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom and Boston’s Avalon as part of the Sextacy Ball, with My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Lords of Acid also on the bill. “Boots” featured vocals and lyrics by von Buhler and music by Xavier Dietrich II and was released in 1997 on Pussykitty Records. At this time von Buhler and her husband started a record label named after their house with the award-winning designer Clifford Stoltze. “In the 1990s, it was impossible to walk into an Allston club or Cambridge bar without tripping over one of Cynthia von Buhler’s paintings, music projects, or a band signed to her record label. If there was ever a queen of the Boston scene, it was von Buhler.” Castle von Buhler also released a series of art and music CD compilations titled Soon, Anon, and Nigh. The artist explains the titles this way: “Soon there will be a cure for AIDS…and then we came up with Anon and Nigh which means the same thing.” In honor of von Buhler’s close college friend, William Lincoln Tisdale, who had died from the disease, proceeds from these compilations were donated to various AIDS charities. The CDs won various design awards and many of the young illustrators who created the artwork flourished. Von Buhler contributed musically and artistically to the compilations and her first work (which incorporated a live dove) was honored by Society of Illustrators in New York City. Curators began approaching von Buhler, offering her exhibits in Boston and New York City. She was she was chosen by Boston Magazine as one of the "40 Bostonians We Love" in their June 2002 cover feature article. Von Buhler was frequently featured on the covers of The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian, and many other Boston-based art and music publications. She appeared so frequently in The Boston Phoenix they named her “their unofficial mascot.” She also appeared twice on MTV; as Bettie Page in an MTV music video for the band The Amazing Crowns (which was previewed on Beavis and Butthead) and in a sitcom called Apt 3F. Von Buhler formed and managed her husband’s band Splashdown, and helped them get signed with Capitol Records. In 2001, after Splashdown angrily left Capitol Records, von Buhler’s band Countess released a rock opera record about the evils of pop stardom and the music industry. Ironically, the project was funded through a demo deal from MCA Records. Countess was nominated for a Boston Music Award. They opened for Karen Finley at Royally F***ed, a three-day event featuring visual and performance art in at The Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and the Paradise Rock Club. In 2001, the last year that von Buhler lived at Castle von Buhler, she turned the second floor into The Dietrich von Buhler Gallery “for artists who want to do things that aren’t market-driven, that aren’t necessarily for sale, that are cutting-edge. Art that you probably wouldn’t want to put in your house but is really interesting to view, and opens your mind to new ideas.”, A curator from The Whitney Museum in New York City stopped by looking for artists to be featured in their Whitney Biennial exhibit., The house became well known for von Buhler’s unique parties and art exhibits.