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On the Shelf 123: Luke Haines
Aug. 3rd, 2014 06:59 amIf there is one thing you can say about Luke Haines is that he seems to make the music he wants.
There are dozens of indie bands that would record an album called 9 1/2 Psychedelic meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early 1980s, but Luke Haines is probably the only person who would actually, you know, write songs that fit the title.
Haines is a bit frustrating for those who want another New Wave or Now I'm A Cowboy. His recent output is fairly prolific and fairly challenging.
Besides Meditations, there was Rock & Roll Animals- not a Lou Reed homage, but an album imagining a cat named Gene Vincent, a fox named Jimmy Pursey, and a badger named Nick Lowe; and there was a collaboration with Cathal Coughlan (of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions) called the North Sea Scrolls, which was an alternate history of London.
Not the most accessible or commercial artistic moves.
This year's New York in the 70s is clearly the most straight forward type fof album he's made in a awhile.
It's also the type of album only Haines can get away with. It's a straightforward homage to CBGBs/Max's New York City punk.
If this was an indie band of any kind, I would be mocking them for the obviousness.
Choruses are ridiculously garage band simple to a Wesley Willis-ish extreme. "Lou Reed..Lou Reed..Lou Reed..Lou Reed" or "Jim Carroll..etc"; and the songs aren't much more than the choruses. Phrases like "Alan Vega says" dominate the album, and songs about William S Burroughs and the New York Dolls are the norm.
That this is Haines, there's some clever lines thrown in, and the songs are perfect mimicry of songs that could be on Transformer or the first Suicide album.
That this is Haines, you are eventually won over, despite it being a bit silly really (If you go to Youtube and listen to his talks about each song, you will be even more sold)
That this is Haines, he surely doesn't care what you think of it.
There are dozens of indie bands that would record an album called 9 1/2 Psychedelic meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early 1980s, but Luke Haines is probably the only person who would actually, you know, write songs that fit the title.
Haines is a bit frustrating for those who want another New Wave or Now I'm A Cowboy. His recent output is fairly prolific and fairly challenging.
Besides Meditations, there was Rock & Roll Animals- not a Lou Reed homage, but an album imagining a cat named Gene Vincent, a fox named Jimmy Pursey, and a badger named Nick Lowe; and there was a collaboration with Cathal Coughlan (of Microdisney and Fatima Mansions) called the North Sea Scrolls, which was an alternate history of London.
Not the most accessible or commercial artistic moves.
This year's New York in the 70s is clearly the most straight forward type fof album he's made in a awhile.
It's also the type of album only Haines can get away with. It's a straightforward homage to CBGBs/Max's New York City punk.
If this was an indie band of any kind, I would be mocking them for the obviousness.
Choruses are ridiculously garage band simple to a Wesley Willis-ish extreme. "Lou Reed..Lou Reed..Lou Reed..Lou Reed" or "Jim Carroll..etc"; and the songs aren't much more than the choruses. Phrases like "Alan Vega says" dominate the album, and songs about William S Burroughs and the New York Dolls are the norm.
That this is Haines, there's some clever lines thrown in, and the songs are perfect mimicry of songs that could be on Transformer or the first Suicide album.
That this is Haines, you are eventually won over, despite it being a bit silly really (If you go to Youtube and listen to his talks about each song, you will be even more sold)
That this is Haines, he surely doesn't care what you think of it.
