From my house to Bauhaus

Today I found out that Goth legends the Bauhaus are putting out their first album in 25 years: Go Away White. And how did I find out about this? National Public Radio.

I never thought I’d hear about the Bauhaus on NPR. Then again I never thought I’d go to a BEA book party dj’d by the Misshapes either. Such is life.

This interview/review/report is inadvertently hilarious; it’s worth listening to if you like to (lovingly) poke fun at NPR or Goth, both of which I do frequently. Aired on LA’s Day to Day, British journalist/musician Christian Boudeaux reports that despite some poppy tunes, “me thinks the goth cap fits pretty well” on the new album.

New album, not so great. The original stuff, though, made from 1979-1983 is not just classic goth rock, it’s pretty fucking great post punk. Not in line with their Vampire tongue-in-cheek posing, a great deal of the Bauhaus’ music was actually very indicative of the name they took from the design movement: stark, cold, and angular. And despite being arbiteurs of horror kitsch, their sound was  quite an original take on glam (Ziggy as silent film monster crossed with Artaud?). They were heavily indebted to Eno, Bowie, and T-Rex, artists the band acknowledge with several covers.

Daniel Ash’s sharp guitars and David J’s seductive bass are what always do it for me. While Peter Murphy was writhing on stage, Ash, David J, and Kevin Haskins infused heavy doses of dub-reggae and Kraut-style prog rock. What came out of only four albums (none palpably great full albums, but the compilations of singles and b-sides do them justice) is extremely idiosyncratic for such a short-lived project. 

  

 Leigh Lezark and Christian (Project Runway winner) both indebted to Bauhaus’ style?

Lead singer Peter Murphy went on to do folk-y pop albums and also converted to Muslim (making him a kind of post punk Cat Stevens); Daniel Ash made some astonishingly good music with Tones on Tail and a whole lotta hits with fellow ex-Bauhaus Kevin Haskins and David J in Love and Rockets.  

Here’s to the Bauhaus and their many offshoots.

 (all songs are Bauhaus unless indicated)

Kick in the Eye (Nice downtown NYC No Wave-era saxophone )

No New Tale to Tell—Love and Rockets

Dark Enteries

Third Uncle (Bauhaus covering Eno, very well, I might add)

Go!–Tones on Tail (A major club hit…later to become Starburst commercial background music….and a GREAT song. Very happy)

Slice of Life 

Killer Couple Kill Colonel (Ash took the lyrics straight from a newspaper…one of my favorites. Sort of like a musical version of Hanake’s Funny Games) 

Who Says Park Slope is just for babies and Bobos?

Park Slope gets a lot of slack when it comes to the social milieu that characterizes it. I’ll be the first to admit it is often merited, as walking down 7th Ave on a Sunday afternoon can be pretty awful between the screaming children and the plethora of Crocks on adults and babies alike.

However, I will argue any day that there is substance beyond style in this ‘hood, especially where I live, South Slope. South Slope is the place, as we have the best jukebox in the city at Buttermilk Bar, the best cheap dive mexican food at Tacos Nuevos Mexico and every kind of dollar store imaginable.

Park Slope Proper (north of 9th St, 5th avenue and avenues above), though, has its merits. Beyond every kind of vegan/Asian fusian cuisine known to man, this area also features some great small venues where you can catch live music. It doesn’t quite rival the Lower East Side/East Village or Williamsburg, but it is home to Union Hall, Southpaw, Bar Four, and the wonderful world music/jazz bar Barbes. Not to mention the awesome Brooklyn Academy of Music.

I often take these places for granted and venture to other spaces in less prettier places to see music. But this week, I was able to see two great bands without having to get on a train or in a cab. It was beautiful. And it served to remind me that nightlife in the neighborhood, while a bit tamer than D.I.Y venues in Bed-Sty, is certainly music-friendly even for the snobbiest of all indie folk.

Saturday, two other Park Slope residents/friends/fellow music snobs and I were charmed by the Canadian band Born Ruffians, who are the Vampire Weekend I wish I had seen a few weeks prior.

 

Then Wednesday, with another Park Slope resident/friend/music snob, I headed to see NPR darlings-of-the-moment Dengue Fever at Southpaw. The sold-out show featured adorable lead singer Chhom Nimol, a sort of Post Modern Supremes-era Diana Ross from Cambodia with an amazing unrelenting voice (I feel like I just plagerized Nick Hornby with that sentence) . The band describes their sound as a “Cambodian pop psychedlic dance party”–and they lived up this in every sense. There were even hippie girls dancing ala-Woodstock in the corner of the venue.

(photo from Prefix mag)

So if you can handle the overwhelming Couplage (nobody in this neighborhood is single, except my friends and I, I swear…) and slightly Bobo in Paradise vibe of the many of the patrons, than I highly recommend checking out the Slope for music.