Catherine Wheel were a four-piece alternative rock band from Great Yarmouth, England. The band was active from 1990 to 2000, experiencing fluctuating levels of commercial success, and embarking on many lengthy tours. The band comprised singer-guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. Hawes had previously played in a Joy Division-influenced band called Eternal. They took their moniker from the firework known as the Catherine wheel, which in turn had taken its name from the medieval torture device of the same name. The band was sometimes included in the shoegazing scene, characterized by bands that made extensive use of guitar feedback and droning washes of noise, as well as their continuous interaction with extensive numbers of effects pedals on the stage floor.
The band performed a Peel session in early 1991 while still unsigned; two 12″ vinyl EPs were released on the Norwich-based Wilde Club Records,named after the regular weekly Wilde Club gigs run by Barry Newman at Norwich Arts Centre. They signed to major-label Fontana Records after being courted by both Creation Records and the Brian Eno-run label Opal Records. The band’s debut album, 1991/92’s “Ferment”, made an immediate impression on the music press and introduced Catherine Wheel’s second-biggest U.S. hit, “Black Metallic”, as well as the moderate hit “I Want to Touch You”. The album features re-recorded versions of some of the Wilde Club-issued EPs. “Black Metallic” was later featured in the film S. Darko.
The more aggressive Chrome followed in 1993, produced by Gil Norton. With this album, the band began to shed its original shoegazing tag, while still making skillful use of atmospherics, such as on the song “Fripp”In a 2007 interview, Rob Dickinson said that members of Death Cab for Cutie and Interpol told him that without this album, their bands “wouldn’t exist.
1995’s Happy Days saw the band delving further into metallic hard rock, which alienated a portion of their fanbase, even as it increased their exposure in the United States during the post-grunge era. The single “Waydown”, and especially its plane-crash themed video, received heavy play in the U.S. A more sedate strain of rock known as Britpop was taking over in the UK, causing Catherine Wheel to continue to have greater success abroad than at home.
The B-sides and outtakes collection, Like Cats and Dogs, came out the following year, revealing a quieter, more contemplative side of the band, spanning the previous five years. This carried over into Adam and Eve in 1997, wherein the band scaled back the sonic force of their sound from its Happy Days levels, with clean playing on some songs that featured extensive use of keyboards and acoustic guitars. Alternately, songs like “Satellite” and “Here Comes the Fat Controller” were lush and orchestral in scope.
In 2000, Catherine Wheel re-emerged with a new record label, a new bassist (Ben Ellis); a modified name (The Catherine Wheel); and a new album, Wishville. After mixed reviews, record company turmoil and lacklustre sales, the band went on a still-continuing hiatus.
In March 2010, Ferment was re-released, containing bonus tracks and extensive sleeve notes.
Melkbelly sculpts their signature balance between subtle melody and frantic noise on new album “Pith”, their second for Carpark Records/Wax Nine. The Chicago-based foursome has made spatial dynamics central to its arrangements, reaching for weirder highs and more startling atmospherics, negative space giving way to enveloping walls of chaos. This sense of form is reflected not only in the purposeful production, but in the ceramic cover art created by Chicago artist Deborah Handler.
As with many of the groups who’ve been traversing Chicago’s underground scene for the past decade, Melkbelly are hard to classify. They’ve slowly pivoted from bizarro lo-fi noise into, well, a slightly more polished version of bizarro lo-fi noise, writing songs with titles like “Twin Lookin Motherfucker” and “Kissing Under Some Bats.” Miranda Winters’ deceptively calm vocals float alongside a largely indistinguishable wall of grunge guitar (courtesy of Bart Winters) and bass (Liam Winters), and James Wetzel’s Lightning Bolt–like percussion.
Recording in two short sessions six months apart, the band worked with longtime collaborator Dave Vettraino, this time at Bloomington, Indiana’s Russian Recording. Alongside an arsenal of rock gear and airy synth layers coaxed from a Moog Prodigy, Pith’s multidimensionality was refined by the studio’s collection of rare Russian tube mics, which were placed in every corner to capture Melkbelly’s unabashed loudness. Frontperson Miranda Winters’ charmingly bright vocals are newly effected, delayed to a menacing, mysterious thickness. Guitars, handled by Miranda and Bart Winters, interlock and separate with dizzying ease, riffs dissolving into floating trails and reappearing with metallic edges. Bassist Liam Winters’ low grooves bounce and kick along with drummer James Wetzel’s rhythmically unsettling performance, which stretches time yet never falters.
After two years touring internationally, the band felt comfortable enough to rearrange songs they knew well, their renewed closeness guiding them. Their literally familial relationship was crucial for support, as Pith was summoned from a place of mourning. “We lost an incredible friend suddenly and nostalgia always acts as a helpful tool for me in navigating difficult times,” Miranda says. “Revisiting emotionally challenging moments or significant social interactions helps shed light on confusing feelings for me. Lyrically, grief gave way to considering life.” She drew from diverse scenes—Grimm-like children’s stories too dark for kids; thorny, mossy forests—to create stories that feel distinctly Melkbellian: philosophically strange, strikingly textural, funny and sad and open-hearted.
Maturation, as well as their DIY reverence, can be heard on the tempo-shifting “Sickeningly Teeth.” It’s an homage to “feel[ing] like shit really loudly or obnoxiously. You know, in an unapologetic youthful way,” deadpans Miranda. James describes it as a “rhythmic exploration to make the song feel like it’s pulling itself apart.” Follow-up single “LCR” similarly shapes Pith’s dynamics and mood. Its shifting signatures held steady by James’ frantic beat, the track is a purgatorial homage to motion, ultimately propelled by its tangled guitars and layered vocal harmonies. “It’s about how having conversations with the dead can scoot you along in life, even when you’re really only hearing one side of the conversation or making up the other half,” says Miranda.
Since their 2017 debut Nothing Valley, the members of Melkbelly have an even better understanding of their sonic motivations. “We’re always going to sort through the past to make better sense of the present,” Miranda says, and in doing so Melkbelly continually finds ways to mutate its sound. On Pith, Melkbelly sought space, and succeeded in crafting it. What a pleasure to be let in.
1. “THC”
Miranda: This is a song about losing a friend physically versus losing a friend emotionally—it’s a sad Venn diagram. Liam: Miranda calls the bass during the verse on this track “prom bass” after the original bass line was much more aggressive. Bart: A friend of ours says he likes to get stoned and listen to this track on repeat, which to me is the highest compliment you can give. James: If there were one Melkbelly song selected for the golden record sent out on the Voyager Spacecraft, it would be “THC.”
2. “Sickeningly Teeth”
James: Teeth is a tempo experiment—it pushes and pulls itself apart as the song progresses. It once was a ten-minute song that got chopped down significantly in the recording/mixing process. Bart: Usually we kinda tear apart the melodic parts of the songs Miranda brings to the band, but we decided to lean into it on the chorus for this one. I miss the ending that just continued to slow down for another three minutes.
3. “LCR”
Bart: Not something that we overtly discussed, but on most of these tracks we tried to pull back a little during sections of songs to allow for more variety in the song. On “LCR,” one of the guitar takes is pulled from the opening verse, leaving just Miranda’s sparse rhythm guitar. Felt weird at first but ended up working, in my opinion. Miranda: This is one of those songs that just fell out super fast which usually makes me nervous. We were happy with how basic it was and fought to keep it simple.
4. “Little Bug”
Miranda: When we were in Berlin I was feeling real low and ended up at the apartment alone for a while. I was laying on my bed pitying myself when this moth showed up and wouldn’t leave me alone. The frustration inspired me to get up and start writing “Little Bug.”
5. “Humid Heart”
James: The oldest song on the record. Been playing this one for years and years and years.
6. “Kissing Under Some Bats”
Bart: This was originally not an eight-minute song, but during recording we started messing around with repeating the last note, stretching it past the point of being obnoxious or gimmicky (we hope) into a more meditative thing (Miranda still may not like this track). We are not reinventing the wheel, but, as with most Melkbelly songs, we don’t really have any goals for song genre or song length. It’s really just whatever we’ve been listening to lately or is rattling around in the back of our skulls.
7. “Season of the Goose”
Bart: We had a lot of challenges with this song. Initially it was James’ aggressive beat, then it was whether we should keep Bart’s synth-like guitar riff in the beginning. Developing this song was the complete opposite of something like “LCR.” We experimented with altering almost every aspect of the song at some point. I really like how it turned out, and its position on the album right after “Kissing Under some Bats.”James: I’m a huge advocate of “the riff” at the top of this song. It almost didn’t make the cut, but thank god it did.
8. “Mr. Coda”
James: The best song on the record. Liam’s time to shine. It was fun to experiment with the second half of this track. There’s some Moog Prodigy bass line that’s being triggered/gated by the kick drum. And some Serge synth drone wobble in the background. When we figure out how to play this one live, it will be great. Liam: Miranda had a very specific vision of the bass tone for this song. I tried a lot of different options until we agreed on something passable. I don’t think it was what she wanted, but I’m happy with how this song turned out.
9. “Stone Your Friends”
Miranda: This was a song that took a lot of playing before it felt comfortable. It’s about shopping at the mall.
10. “Take H20”
James: Oldie but goodie. Blue Man Group inspiration throughout (think “Rods and Cones”). Bart: We played this song live for the first time at the Pitchfork Music Festival. It was one of the easiest to record because we had been playing it for so dang long, but also I think we were a little bored with the song by the time we recorded it so we ended up going back to the recording and changing/adding additional instrumentation. I think we tried to channel Oozing Wound during the little jam-out.
11. “Flatness”
Bart: Just a simple song that highlights Miranda’s voice and proves James can play the drums softly.
released April 3th, 2020
Miranda Winters – Guitar, Vocals, James Wetzel – Drums, Moog, STS, Bart Winters – Guitar, Liam Winters – Bass Guitar
All songs written by Melkbelly
Lyrics by Miranda Winters
The Staatliches Bauhaus commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, the band Bauhaus released five studio albums, four live albums, three compilation albums, four extended plays (EPs), eleven singles and three video albums. Bauhaus were an English post-punk band, formed in Northampton, England in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy (vocals, occasional instruments), Daniel Ash (guitar), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass). Although they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation, the band was originally named Bauhaus 1919, in reference to the first operating year of the art school Bauhaus. Generally considered one of the first gothic rock groups, Bauhaus were known for their gloomy sound and dark image. However, musically the band was quite diverse. Throughout their career, they incorporated a variety of genres, ranging from reggae to funk.
Bauhaus broke up in 1983. Peter Murphy began a solo career while Ash and Haskins continued as Tones on Tail and, later, reunited with David J to form Love and Rockets. Both enjoyed greater commercial success in the United States than Bauhaus had, but disappeared from the charts in their homeland. Bauhaus eventually reunited for a 1998 tour and again from 2005 to 2008.
Bela Lugosi as he is better known, died in 1956, but his reputation and aura not only survive but thrive – ironically because of a song commemorating his demise.the band Bauhaus released five studio albums, four live albums, three compilation albums, four extended plays (EPs), eleven singles and three video albums. The band was formed in Northampton Daniel Ash(guitar), David J Kevin Haskins(drums) and Peter Murphy (vocals).
Namely Bauhaus’ debut single ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, inspired by the Hungarian actor who defined Count Dracula (at least until Christopher Lee’s era) in the 1931 film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel. Carved out of the same experimental, questing spirit as the best post-punk of the times, the Northampton quartet’s track was simultaneously maximalist – nine minutes long – and minimalist – sparse, often instrumental, and as much about the spaces as the notes. The epic tune was released by London indie Small Wonder in autumn 1979, and reissued several times since, On various vinyl editions.
Since Bauhaus formed, Leaving/Stones Throw have released a newly remastered 12”, spearheading The Bela Sessions EP with three unreleased tracks from the same exploratory session. By the end of 2018, Beggars Banquet reissued six Bauhaus albums.
Bauhaus almost single-handedly launched the sub-culture of goth – a sound and vision all carved in black. Once upon a time, it was ‘gothic’, a term apparently used by Factory MD Tony Wilson to describe Joy Division, but which could also apply to Siouxsie & the Banshees. But once Joy Division morphed into New Order, likewise the Banshees into psych-pop, and Bauhaus released the likes of ‘Stigmata Martyr’, they shunted themselves to the front of what followed.
Many years on from ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, did Bauhaus deserve to be saddled with a label that was applied in a fashion, and what did they achieve beyond the ‘founding father of Goth’? Perhaps their records can still say more.
“The bats are in the belfry/The victims have been bled, bled, bled.” If you’re going to talk about Goth, you might as well start towards the beginning. Bauhaus‘ chilling funerary post-punk is still death rock, but dipped in romantic Horror imagery, like ball bearings wrapped in black velvet. Plus, a young Bauhaus perform “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in The Hunger, the dead sexiest vampire movie ever made, featuring a young David Bowie and Susan Sarandon.”
The Bela Sessions
(Leaving, 2018)
Bauhaus – singer Peter Murphy, guitarist Daniel Ash and sibling rhythm David J (bass) and Kevin Haskins (drums) – had only been together a month when David J wrote a lyric after watching Lugosi’s Dracula. Matched to what Ash called “a haunting riff” and Haskins’ bossa nova beat, Murphy “recited the lyrics pretty much as you hear them on the record,” David J recalled.
Recorded very soon after the demo, ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ was a true original: intense, cavernous and spacious. (David J was a big fan of dub). In the same session, however, the band had demoed ‘Some Faces’ (power-pop), ‘Biting My Lip’ (new wave), ‘Harry’ (reggae) and ‘Boys’ (a drum-free Bowie rip-off), none of which sounded promising or visionary. “We were trying to find our voice,” said Haskins. Well, at least they found it in ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’.
Crackle
(Beggars, 1998)
Beggars’ ‘ruby’ reissue. This compilation, released to coincide with Bauhaus’ first reunion is the best way to source their early singles, though ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ is here in its ‘Tomb Raider Mix – if anything, a better version. Second single ‘Dark Entries’ was one of four 7” released simultaneously in 1980 to launch the Axis label – quickly renamed 4AD – after the label’s co-founder Peter Kent overheard the demo while it was playing in the Rough Trade shop.
From the start, the band eschewed the label ‘goth’, preferring their own description: “dark glam”. Though the enthralling ‘Dark Entries’ directly correlates to early Joy Division and Banshees, the lyric was inspired by the decadent anti-hero of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray “a story of great narcissism… A rock star’s story,” shared Murphy. Bela, Dorian… this was not the austere climate that punk, and much of post-punk, drew on – likewise with Murphy’s habit of shining a torch under his chin as he prowled across the stage. Though the stark, strutting rock-disco of their third single ‘Terror Couple Kill Colonel’ resembled PiL more than others, a cover of T. Rex’s ‘Telegram Sam’ clarified the band’s willingness to stand alone.
In A Flat Field
(4AD, 1980)
Beggars’ ‘bronze’ reissue. Bauhaus’ early singles were all, in their own way, definitive, but not their album debut. Stentorian intro ‘Double Dare’ is terrific, but this was the licensed John Peel session version because they couldn’t match it by themselves. Murphy lacked Ian Curtis and Siouxsie’s ear for melody; as a result, In A Flat Field is too stark for its own good. But Ash’s scrapes and volleys and the music’s lithe dynamic still resonates (check ‘A God In An Alcove’ or ‘The Spy In The Cab’). But with ‘St Vitus Dance’ and ‘Stigmata Martyr’ and a booming Bowie-esque delivery that could lean toward overkill, Murphy was laying the ground for ‘goth’, especially when he’d shine a light under his chin when prowling across the stage.
The Birthday Party were ‘goth’ too: they created ‘Release The Bats’ in 1981 after touring with Bauhaus, but surely Nick Cave was parodying ‘goth’. At the same time, they were ‘cool’ and Bauhaus were not. In A Flat Field won some unusually vindictive reviews. NME “Nine meaningless moans and flails bereft of even the most cursory contour of interest”). But Ian Curtis was a Bauhaus fan, and In A Flat Field was a commercial success – ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead stayed in the indie charts for two years – so it triumphed over a couple of attitudinal journalists.
Mask
(Beggars Banquet, 1981)
The ‘yellow’ reissue. ‘Telegram Sam’ wasn’t a national top 75 hit, but it suggested a view to a commercial kill, which didn’t suit 4AD’s left-field direction, but fit much better on 4AD’s parent label – Beggars Banquet, which had the necessary budget after Gary Numan’s phenomenal success. Said Murphy, “We didn’t want to be consigned to an independent music ghetto…we wanted to be massive.”
The band responded with a more nuanced and diverse second album, defined by its two singles, ‘Kick In The Eye’ – their first ‘pop’ record, like something off Bowie’s Scary Monsters, and ‘PassionOf Lovers’. ‘Of Lilies And Remains’ and ‘Dancing’ dallied in dub (David J’s is probably the era’s most underrated bassist), ‘Hollow Hill’ was eerie and slow without toppling into cliché, while the title track’s forwards/backwards blend of sound (including keyboards) was the right side of psychedelic experimentation. In other words, Mask sounded nothing like Joy Division or the Banshees, or goth stalwarts such as Sisters Of Mercy or Specimen.
Press The Eject And Give Me The Tape
(Beggars Banquet, 1982)>
The ‘white’ reissue. Press The Eject gets its title from a security official demanding a bootlegger hand over his tape; but there was an official recording of several UK shows in 1981–82. A live album also went against the post-punk grain, but it was a gift to fans, and a kind of ‘greatest hits’ of sorts, including ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, ‘Dark Entries’, ‘Kick In The Eye’, ‘The Spy In The Cab’, ‘Hollow Hill’ and ‘Dancing’ (with Ash on sax as well as guitar), plus their take on John Cale’s spooky dirge ‘Rosegarden Funeral of Sores’ (a studio version was a ‘Telegram Sam’ B-side).
An intense atmosphere on top of song selection make this one of Bauhaus’ strongest records.
The Sky’s Gone Out
(Beggars Banquet, 1982)
The ‘violet’ reissue. The Sky’s Gone Out opened with a cover of arguably Eno’s most rockin’ track – ‘Third Uncle’. Since Bauhaus had already recorded a cover of Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ for a Peel session, and then a studio version as a single that finally broke them nationally, there was no sense of shame in tapping the obvious. ‘Swing The Heartache’ aimed at a ‘Nightclubbing’ (Iggy and Bowie’s robo-disco classic) vibe, but with such a naked backdrop, Murphy’s booming vocal is Marmite. Shot in August of 1982 beneath Camden Lock market in a series of complex tunnels, known locally as The Camden Catacombs. A mock gig complete with the entire back line in situ…Bauhaus does Bowie…gloriously. directed by Mick Calvert for Standard Pictures, from the October 1982 double A sided single. The guitar work is interesting in the sense that Ashcombines distorted, discordant riffs with a clean driving bass from J and simplistic territorial beats from ,Haskins, Murphy’s disjointed surreal poetry finishes it all of nicely with a caustic nonsense that all too often, makes sense! It is “Music Hall” it is Avant Garde, it is even Bebop, but overall it is well put together and produced making it a colourful collection of soundscapes that weaves between the sharped barbs of “Silent hedges” and “In The Night”, to the almost Terpsichorean “Spirit”,hitting the quirkiness of “All I Ever Wanted Was Everything” Sandwiched between the gnarly, caustic and inventive “Three Shadows” and “Exquisite Corpse”.
A new recording of preceding single ‘Spirit’ benefitted from restraint, likewise Bauhaus’ first straightforward ballad, the gorgeous ‘All We Ever Wanted Was Everything’, and the first two parts of the triptych ‘The Three Shadows’. Album finale ‘Exquisite Corpse’ even had a reggae/ska coda. But when Bauhaus – performing ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ – provided the opening nightclub scene of Tony Scott’s vampire saga ‘The Hunger’, the Goth tag was superglued to them
Burning From The Inside
(Beggars Banquet, 1983)
The ‘blue’ reissue. Averaging one album a year, their fourth LP was released just after the band broke up. The Hunger clip resembled a Murphy solo spot, and a gulf had appeared between the singer – who described himself, immodestly, as, “raw, spontaneous, like a fine art installation, more Iggy than Iggy,” and the rest. (As Ash explained: “We all had very dominant personalities.”) Burning from the inside, indeed it’s a shame, because album intro ‘She’s In Parties’ was one of their greatest singles, showing how farMurphy had come in forging memorable melody (so much so that the outrageous Bowie-cockney impersonation is almost forgivable).The final studio album by Bauhaus is a rather fractured piece with lead singer, Peter Murphy, laid low with viral pneumonia for most of its recording. The band played on and recorded a number of songs without him, some of which rate among the finest Bauhaus have ever produced. The best of these is “Slice of Life” written and sung by guitarist Daniel Ash. After a promising start the album flops towards the end. Opening with the magnificent single “She’s in Parties” the band take us through a range of styles, from the haunting acoustic mantra of “King Volcano” to David J’s “Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?” a slow piano piece. My personal favourite is “Honeymoon Croon” a reworking of a song Bauhaus first in wrote 1979. Derided by the music press of the day for their posing and pretensions and for being David Bowie copyists, this album doesn’t escape that criticism, although it is their best work. The chords of “Kingdom Coming” are straight out of “Space Oddity”. The self-explanatory “Antonin Artaud” gives us a lecture about the Theatre and its Double and “Honeymoon Croon” draws on Oscar Wilde’s “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” for reference. The weak ending to this album is saved by the bonus tracks available on the CD. “Lagartija Nick” is a wonderful dose of pure Bauhausian energy. Peter Murphy’s alien-esque voice is at its best on “Departure”, a return to the theme previously explored on “The Man With The X-Ray Eyes”, from the album “Mask”, inspired by the 1963 Roger Corman film, about acquiring a power that proves to be a curse. The excellent “Sanity Assassin” which was to remain a limited edition single for fanclub members until the Bauhaus backlog was reissued. Thankfully this CD gives us a chance to enjoy this ode to paranoia. Overall this is the best produced, sleekest work that the band came up with. The absence of Peter Murphy on some tracks allowed the other members to take the band’s sound into other directions and this listener’s thoughts on the album are one of regret: that Bauhaus did not stay together for a bit longer to follow up this great album.
The band’s arrangement sounded if a piece with the ‘New Pop’ new wave Perhaps the death knell was Murphy’s illness that prevented him from starting the record. David J and Ash sung some lead vocals – both had already recorded solo, with two David J singles and Ash making the Tones On Tail EP with schoolmate/Bauhaus roadie Glenn Campling) – so they would have sensed the freedom of not having a third creative vision. ‘David J’s piano-led ‘Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?’, and Ash’s almost acoustic, psych-tipped ‘Slice Of Life’, for example, would never be mistaken for classic Bauhaus.
Rest In Peace: The Final Concert
(NEMO Recording, 1992)
This was the band’s stage swan song – a 5th July 1983 concert at London’s Hammersmith Palais released in 1992, and so RIP it seemed. Murphy soon pursued a solo career while Kevin Haskins joined Ash in Tones On Tail, which morphed into the (very successful, at least in the US) Love & Rockets when David J also joined. A pointed Bauhaus reunion minus Murphy. Maybe it’s the recording, or the fact the band knew they’d exhausted each other, but it often sounds dispirited. And no ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, though the finale of ‘Dark Entries’ is ragged and thrashy, as if they can’t wait to get out of the building.
Gotham
(Metropolis, 1999)
In 1998, after years of being namedropped by the likes of Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson – children of goth just as Bauhaus were Bowie’s kids – Bauhaus did reform. But only for the ‘Resurrection Tour’ as they called it, a reference to the vampirical aspect of their reputation. The only new recording wax was the lengthy, woozy ‘The Dog’s A Vapour’, subsequently included on the soundtrack to Heavy Metal 2000 and a studio version of Dead Can Dance’s ‘Severance’ bizarrely tacked onto to the end of Resurrection Tour memento Gotham.
The two silverlings “Gotham” document the celebrated return of the legendary quartet, which disbanded for the first time in 1983, to “Peter Murphy” and “Daniel Ash”, It’s a live album of the highest class recorded during the “Resurrection” tour in the venerable “Hammersmith Ballroom” in New York City in 1998. Bauhaus first performed in a club here in 1980, many of the listeners at this show were not even born at that time, this shows the importance of this band over the decades. From the grandiose and well-known 12′ Inch “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” which served as a blueprint for the “Darkwave/Gothic Scene” from 1979 up to new “Dead Can Dance” cover “Severance” included in a studio version there is (almost) everything the fan desires or wants to hear. Even the cover versions of “Ziggy Stardust” and “Telegram Sam” with which Bauhaus pay homage to their idols “David Bowie” and “Marc Bolan” (RIP), according to David J.”Haskins (bass) in his biography “Who killed Mr. Moolight”.
His brother “Kevin Haskins” on the drums completed the quartet, which in later years around 2005 released a whole series of live albums about the “Instant Live” series from the “Near the Atmospere” tour. This album is a “highlight” for the collector and fan, but which live recording is your favourite can only be decided by everyone.
The album easily trumps Rest In Peace by surfing on a wave of rabid fan reaction, plus much better technical know-how than early eighties stage sound and reproduction allowed. As the video shows, Murphy wore a cape for ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ and did his best Dracula impersonation, before the band finished with ‘Telegram Sam’, ‘ Ziggy Stardust’ and Iggy/Bowie cover ‘The Passenger’. Goth, and glam legacy, all intact.
Go Away White
(Cooking Vinyl, 2008)
Another reunion followed in 2005, with Murphy lowered upside-down to the stage at the Coachella festival while singing ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. Amazing what a difference three decades makes. This time, Bauhaus did make a new album, their first in over 20 years, one that mocked the idea of goth by eschewing post-punk-dark trademarks for a streamlined, diverse modernity.
‘International Bullet Proof Talent’ bordered on industrial/ danceable (complete with female backing vox) just as ‘Zikir’ bordered on ambient trip-hop. Even when Murphy tapped his inner Bowie on ‘Saved’ and ‘Mirror’, the arrangements were sparser, and more haunting, than even the old dub forays of the past. Murphy had been living in Istanbul, the others in California, and they now sounded nothing like grey, abrasive Britain circa 1980. Very promising, except apparently Murphy did something so unspeakable (literally, no one will say exactly what) that the band burnt out from the inside once again, before the album was released. This 2008 album from the Goth quartet, recorded before their final split. Go Away White was recorded in 18 days at Zircon Skye in Ojai, with singer Peter Murphy, bassist Daniel J, guitarist Daniel Ash and drummer Kevin Haskins playing together as a band in one room, taking first takes as final cuts. So, a new record but apparently a final one, the band having decided to release it as a posthumous swan song. Go Away White is everything you would hope Bauhaus would deliver as their final statement. Fronted by a cover photo of Bethesda, the angel of the healing waters in New York’s Central Park, the music inside is pure-cathartic renovation, a psychedelic glimpse into an enchanted moment.
Ten years on, there has been some measure of rapprochement, with David J and Murphy currently on a Ruby Anniversary tour of Bauhaus songs, while in 2017, Ash and Kevin Haskins toured as Poptone, with Haskins’ daughter Diva Dompe on bass, performing Tones on Tail and Love And Rockets tracks alongside ‘Slice Of Life’ (from Burning From The Inside). Ash says “never say never” regarding another Bauhaus reunion, but even if it never happens, Bela Lugosi lives, and so do Bauhaus, survivors of the Goth Wars.
Nordic mellow: those two words perfectly describe the music of Oslo-based indie folk artist Siv Jakobsen. It’s apropos, since that is also the title of her 2017 debut LP. Somehow this talented singer with celestial vocals has not found global stardom yet. Perhaps the release of her next album – the aptly titled A Temporary Soothing – will help the world realize what they’ve been missing. Siv’s music is beautifully mellow, much like diary-entries – filled with unfiltered thoughts and reflections. With references to Damien Rice and Ane Brun, listening to her music is like being a fly on the wall while she sings you her secrets.
If “Fight or Flight” is your introduction to Jakobsen, you are in for a treat. She just shared this single a few days ago. The melody greets your ears with fireside warmth while her crystalline voice caresses you. Every note provides comfort. Every layer complements the rest. There is a peaceful calm to her overall style that is on par with Daughter and Ane Brun. But the beauty of Jakobsen’s sound is its sun-kissed elegance. “Fight or Flight” has a early springtime quality, imbued with the hope of better things to come while still feeling the coolness of winter. This is the perfect song for these times: a tonic for our souls.
Siv Jakobsen should be on your radar. You simply do not encounter a voice this pure every day. A Temporary Soothing from Bandcamp is available on April 24th.
2020, and the scene is now: world in flames, deserts in permafrost, everyone in their own corners, looking down into their hands. Nothing in common. We can all see that the way it’s happening isn’t working, and for a lot of us, that’s okay, as long as it doesn’t rock our boat. But for people who are invested in the future, any future – like Flat Worms – they’re out there, full time living, playing to change minds. And they’re not alone.
“Antarctica” is the third Flat Worms album in the past four years. It reflects a situation that’s dire, but not hopeless. Since the release of their 2017 debut LP — even since last year’s “Into the Iris” mini-LP — the sound of the trio has hardened, with the polarities of psych and post- punk smelted into a brutal cobalt alloy. No doubt they’re aided by the Steve Albini-engineered sound rendered at Electric Audio, where the album was recorded and mixed (in collaboration with Steve Albini and Ty Segall) in six days.
The rest of the evolution is down to Flat Worms, whose world view and musical viewpoint pulse with a remorseless drive and a sense of collaborative unity. Will Ivy’s cortex-scorching guitar leads are in united space with the full-body rhythm of Tim Hellman’s bass and Justin Sullivan’s drums. Their social comment, bleak, yet earnest, is leavened with bone dry humor (the title track’s isolation conundrums: “My dog is smiling as I drive her to the park / we sit together in the kitchen after dark / I ask her questions / She just barks”) and caustic pronouncements; a vision of the chaotic, dysfunctional contemporary landscape that recalls the tragicomic expressions of 100 Flowers and the indefatigable recitations of The Fall.
Commitment. Intention. Collaboration. And a sense that we’re meant to enjoy what we’re doing. Even in the desert of Antarctica, Flat Worms are looking for the upside.
Zachary Cale is an American songwriter/musician based in NYC. False Spring is his 6th full length album. To be released May 29th, 2020
From pop to rock to hip hop to country, music is increasingly being mechanized. Autotune, synths, mixers, and laptops are the items of choice, as artists focus on creating loud, anthemic, and catchy songs. Pockets, however, exist within each genre, where a musician or band rewind the clocks and create music from bygone eras. Their music is driven by a simple but embracing melody and features stories which should be read and not just heard. Singer-songwriter Zachary Cale is one such individual, whose indie-folk approach recalls Guthrie, Dylan, and Baez. To call him a throwback would be a compliment because he is a rare breed today.
Five years ago, the Louisiana-born, Brooklyn based Cale released the masterful Duskland, which was indie-folk given the widescreen treatment. Since then, he’s released a couple of EPs, including a covers one, but otherwise he’s been relatively quiet. Earlier this week, however, he announced that his sixth full-length album will be released later in the spring, and he shared its first single, “Riverbed”.
“Riverbed” is a classic slice of indie-folk and Americana. There aren’t any bells or whistles. There are just the familiar, sweet notes of a keyboard and a couple of guitars and the steady pulses of rhythms. Cale’s soft vocals, meanwhile, rise through the sweet melody, and he’s reflects on his life. For nearly five minutes, he delivers a confession, and, in the process, he seeks redemption. It is not through the concrete streets of Manhattan that he searches for forgiveness and a resurrection. Instead, he takes us back to Louisiana and the stream behind his childhood home. Together, we dip into its waters and find salvation.
A few months ago Adam from “songsfortheday”, discovered a voice we immediately knew we would never forget. It’s rare to hit play on a track and instantly everything else around you fades away. Such is the case with the completely hypnotic and memorizing presence that Talitha Ferri presents.
Now more than ever, the world is looking for ways to escape, even just momentarily into a different headspace or mood. With each new track that is released, Ferri easily enthralls the listener in an immersive experience of unmatched beauty brushed with love, loss and pain. Even more remarkable than her powerful yet delicate vocals are the transparent and revealing nature of her lyrics, which revolve around her own struggles with mental health issues. Ferri’s third single, “Porcelain”.
The Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter uses subtlety to evoke powerful emotions. With just her acoustic harmonies, a simple guitar, and a captivating violin, “Porcelain” personifies brittle beauty. The song follows Ferri spiraling in and out of depression, and she explains the strange reality of the guilt associated with feeling bad, yet everything around her is so good.
I’m conscious that right now we need something that brightens things a little, that can be reflective but see some optimism in the world situation. Talitha Ferri seems to hit that balance pretty well with her new song ‘The Sadness Lasts Forever’, the 2nd song released in the lead up to her album which is due out in May. Talitha previously, a Danish / American songwriter based in Copenhagen, who released her track ‘Home’ through the ‘Soulpod Collective’ last month. ‘Home’ was an impressive opener, but ‘The Sadness Lasts Forever’ soars to another level, courtesy of those vocals, which have such assured purity and confidence, that I promise you will believe everything she says. ”You’ll be alright, despite the pouring rain” she tells us at the start, and that’s kind of good to know.
Instrumentally the song uses stripped back support, with just acoustic guitar and a violin, which both creep in and then build with the song, with the violin matching the vocals for their contrasting mix of melancholy and upbeat musical phrasing. The lengthy instrumental section is nice enough, and although it loses my attention slightly just before it returns to the main musical theme, overall I like the balance of Talitha Ferri’s songwriting and musical arrangements.
Talitha Ferri is joined by Joseph Ricci on lead guitar, Janus Jakobsen on bass, and Jamie Metcalfe on violin. Her debut album, Get Well Soon, will be released May 1st, 2020.
‘Protection Spells’ is the last of the three Songs: Ohia records we’re celebrating this week. Taken from around the time of the record’s release, here are Jason Molina’s own words on this unique collection of songs:
“The Protection Spells is a collection of songs recorded over a period of several Songs: Ohia tours. Presented here are nine entirely improvised pieces. The approach to these songs involved no rehearsals, no second takes, no additions and no going back. What you have here are songs that just happened in real time. The many musicians on these recordings were friends, bandmates and, at times, total strangers. I have long hoped to offer the listener a chance to have some of these great accidents on record. It is a direct look at my songwriting process, only a little more risky, and nobody has any idea what direction we are going until we all start working on it together.
I think that the years of improvised music I played in the past helped to strengthen the risk-taking with these songs. Here the the goal was to still have basic songs without falling into long freak-out noise experiments, saving that kind of exploration for live settings. You will notice the appearances and disappearances of ideas that could never be recreated, not that they are all brilliant, but they are certainly not forced. The seemingly arbitrary moments of strange repetition the lyrics, the clear lack of a preconceived system of established song parts, all are the marks of improvised songwriting. Since even the singing had no idea what the floorplan of the song was to be, there were some unanticipated troubles and some shy steps taken, but I have preserved these mappings of the dangerous musical byroads that Songs: Ohia has always depended on. I hope you enjoy this”
The brand new studio album from L.A.’s premiere psych band, The Warlocks! ,The Warlocks started because of the their mutual love of all things Rock and Roll. We love a lot of the 60s, 70s and some 80s inspired music. We are not a retro band though. We all always try new stuff and from time to time hit something great.
This ambitious album tells a single story, of two star-crossed lovers who commit a bank heist together, over the course of 10 gorgeous, dense layered guitar tracks spiced with keyboards and reinforced with powerful bass and percussion grooves!, Holy shit, I have a few versions of we don’t need money on demo and unreleased recordings, but how cool to hear it fully formed! love that heavy fuzz bass and beat. amazing! Love the whole thing.
The Rough Justice of The Warlocks’ The Chain, The longtime L.A. psych-rockers’ tenth studio album is released on April 3rd, 2020
“Creamy, dreamy, glass breaking-style storytelling” is how Bobby Hecksher describes the psychedelic-rock sound of The Warlocks’ tenth full-length studio album, The Chain, on Cleopatra Records.
“We’re telling a story this time,” Hecksher says about the album’s ripped-from-the-headlines concept, which he says had been percolating for a few years before it suddenly came to him with the delirious intensity of a fever-soaked dream, like that “out-of-body experience you get at a show when you’re drenched in sweat and suddenly feel so alive.”
That concept, Hecksher says, is based around “a Bonnie & Clyde-ish twenty-something couple who rob a bank but get caught and then are cast down the bottomless pit of our justice system. The main characters, Rocky and Diamond, come from different means and thus have very different outcomes. It’s a loose collection of ‘you got fucked and swept under the rug’-type feelings revealed amid happy songs about their relationship, provided as a kind of relief
Band Members
Bobby Hecksher,
JC Rees,
Jason “Plucky” Anchondo,
Earl V. Miller,
Chris DiPino,
Will be available on both CD and limited edition colored vinyl in your choice of PURPLE or SILVER! vinyl
released April 3rd, 2020
“Deerhoof is a weapon loaded with the future.” – Agustín Fernández Mallo, Spanish physicist and writer
Normal is never coming back. Whether by a collective dismantling or sheer collapse, our old illusions are being hollowed out. Over the past couple of years, Deerhoof has been asking themselves if there was any music they could create that expressed how the rapidly changing future might actually feel. The finished product, Future Teenage Cave Artists, finds Deerhoof in a revolutionary mood, but also haunted by memories of a lost world and every failed attempt to save it. People already cut loose from the system, already surviving with new ways of life—these hopeful heroes are Deerhoof’s inspiration. These are the Future Teenage Cave Artists.
Faithful listeners will recognize a certain alienated but transformational figure who shows up in Deerhoof songs going back to their earliest days. Take the narrator of “The Perfect Me” from 2007’s Friend Opportunity: an orphaned but eager soul attempting to entice other wounded wanderers who might lack a home, a clan, a family, a history. But on Future Teenage Cave Artists our protagonist is threatened by terror lurking around every corner. Add to that the fact that our “cast-off queen,” our “maniac,” our “terrible daughter” are watching themselves get orphaned in real time by an older generation in power that would rather see life on Earth destroyed than give up archaic systems of capital.
Like a lot of the inimitable music they have released over the last quarter-century, the Deerhoof of Future Teenage Cave Artists, Satomi Matsuzaki on bass and vocals, Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich on guitars, and Greg Saunier on drums, vocals and piano) stitches together fragments of R&B and classic rock and transforms them into a new language of revolution, forgoing verse-chorus structures for dream logic and blind intuition. But what makes this album different is its intimacy—the blues riffs and slide guitars are joined by soft, rickety pianos and whispered three-part harmonies.
In this sense, FTCA inverts the formula of Deerhoof’s last album, Mountain Moves, which invited a wide community of collaborators to band together in an open celebration of solidarity. The new one, on the other hand, is borne of self-isolation and deprivation. It’s the sound of a sparkling, manic musical intelligence being disconnected from a nourishing public and devouring itself inside its own cocoon: a desperate lunge at metamorphosis.
At times FTCA indeed sounds as if the band has retreated to the caves, recording with unreliable electricity and insecure food supplies. Guitar pedals malfunction mid-take, reverbs chop off mid-tail, drum fills collapse mid-phrase. Some musical moments, as gorgeous and touching as anything Deerhoof has ever written, stop short for no apparent reason, giving way to queasy smudges of sound. Many of the instruments and voices were recorded with nothing more than the built-in mic of a laptop. Harsh splices make no effort to hide the seams. Hard panning leaves many of these imperfections weirdly naked in the mix.
In this way FTCA joins a storied lineage of pop records that expose the insular and reclusive nature of recording itself. Like Let It Be, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, or Sister Lovers, this record is its own “making-of.” Absence is a central character in the drama. For every heartwarming melody or pile-up of parade drums or shard of loopy guitar noise, there is musical acknowledgement of the toll that a constant threat of cataclysm takes on mental health. This is a sonic and lyric funeral for a way of life that is never coming back—an afterparty, back when the doomsday clock hit midnight. There are raucous toasts to the departed in high style, as sassy and spasmodic as anything they’ve done—see Side A; there are moments of profound sadness, maximally small, descending into madness, shrieking with loss—see Side B. All funerals remind us that life goes on, somehow.
In that time after the end times, it’s not only the food systems, energy systems, and political systems that will have to be rebuilt. Myths, stories, and rituals we use to make sense of the world are up for revision, too. Might not agile networks of mutual aid be our best example of civilization, and our makeshift DIY basement shows be the real high art? One answer might be found in the two-and-a-half decades that this improbable combination of personalities and backgrounds we call Deerhoof has spent on stage, cultivating quick-wittedness and improvisation. This is a record about resilience and the persistence of hope in a future beyond any reasonable justification for it. Like so many young people today, Deerhoof seems to be already living in that future.
