Ex-boogie man, Bela Lugosi man
Jul. 28th, 2005 08:58 amIt's Friday! It's three o'clock! It's time to Boogie At Your Desk!
( You what? )
Today you were invited to Boogie At Your Desk to:
Luke Haines and the Auteurs - Lenny Valentino (Das Capital version)
Lenny Valentino is, I think, the opening track on my favourite tape - a compilation made for me seven or eight years ago. It also holds the distinction of the being the only Auteurs track I've ever found in a jukebox (what's more, it was the jukebox of the Scream pub on the Plane in Oxford, of all the unlikely places, though possibly that was still in its Hobgoblin days).
One of the Amazon reviews of Haines' recent retrospective Das Capital (modestly subtitled "The Songwriting Genius of Luke Haines"), begins by describing him as "a man whose reputation rests on a pathological lack of sentiment and loathing of hollow nostalgia". Comments about him tend to involve words like "sneering" and "vituperative" (I had to look that one up) and, occasionally, when talking about his Baader Meinhof project, "tasteless".
There's a great article I read ages back which talks about the music of the English suburbs. The almost gentle sounds of the likes of Frazier Chorus and Prefab Sprout, and set against that the scarifying with Mr Haines gives every aspect of England. His music isn't comfortable, but, way too often, it's right. Which, actually, is why Lenny Valentino is in many ways a bad introduction to the Auteurs - it's one of the few songs which isn't all about the lyrics. Maybe that's the nature of tunes chosen to BAYD to :)
Mr Haines' work, (variously solo, with The Auteurs, as Baader Meinhof and with Black Box Recorder) ranges in sound from the almost-poppy to straight-out rock. Lenny Valentino is at one end of the scale - though I fear that if Mr Haines even heard a suggestion that people had been boogying to it, there'd be trouble. Or at least the application of crushing epithets. Das Capital with its orchestral re-recordings of songs from across his career forms an interesting if uncharacteristic introduction. I think my favourite album is After Murder Park which is as wry and well-observed as it is witty and vicious.
In theory, you should be reading this on Friday afternoon, by which time I will have been to see Luke Haines last night. I, however, am writing this on Wednesday evening, and will not see Mr Haines til tomorrow.
( You what? )
Today you were invited to Boogie At Your Desk to:
Luke Haines and the Auteurs - Lenny Valentino (Das Capital version)
Lenny Valentino is, I think, the opening track on my favourite tape - a compilation made for me seven or eight years ago. It also holds the distinction of the being the only Auteurs track I've ever found in a jukebox (what's more, it was the jukebox of the Scream pub on the Plane in Oxford, of all the unlikely places, though possibly that was still in its Hobgoblin days).
One of the Amazon reviews of Haines' recent retrospective Das Capital (modestly subtitled "The Songwriting Genius of Luke Haines"), begins by describing him as "a man whose reputation rests on a pathological lack of sentiment and loathing of hollow nostalgia". Comments about him tend to involve words like "sneering" and "vituperative" (I had to look that one up) and, occasionally, when talking about his Baader Meinhof project, "tasteless".
There's a great article I read ages back which talks about the music of the English suburbs. The almost gentle sounds of the likes of Frazier Chorus and Prefab Sprout, and set against that the scarifying with Mr Haines gives every aspect of England. His music isn't comfortable, but, way too often, it's right. Which, actually, is why Lenny Valentino is in many ways a bad introduction to the Auteurs - it's one of the few songs which isn't all about the lyrics. Maybe that's the nature of tunes chosen to BAYD to :)
Mr Haines' work, (variously solo, with The Auteurs, as Baader Meinhof and with Black Box Recorder) ranges in sound from the almost-poppy to straight-out rock. Lenny Valentino is at one end of the scale - though I fear that if Mr Haines even heard a suggestion that people had been boogying to it, there'd be trouble. Or at least the application of crushing epithets. Das Capital with its orchestral re-recordings of songs from across his career forms an interesting if uncharacteristic introduction. I think my favourite album is After Murder Park which is as wry and well-observed as it is witty and vicious.
In theory, you should be reading this on Friday afternoon, by which time I will have been to see Luke Haines last night. I, however, am writing this on Wednesday evening, and will not see Mr Haines til tomorrow.