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New ‘visual history’ book celebrates 50 years of the Residents! Sneak peek and exclusive premiere!


‘A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1’
 
For about 50 years now, the Residents have operated in secret, hiding their identities behind masks and costumes. But now you can see the members of the band full nude!

Yes, the Residents are the subject of a handsome new coffee-table book from Melodic Virtue, the publisher of like retrospectives about the Butthole Surfers, Pixies, and Ministry. The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1 collects beautifully printed reproductions of art, photos, correspondence, press clippings and ephemera from the first 13 years of the Eye Guys’ career, opening in their humble San Mateo dwelling in 1970 and concluding on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before the triumphant 1983 Uncle Sam Mole Show
 

‘Not Available’
 
While their faces remain mostly obscured in these pages, the Residents’ bare genitals are reproduced in black and white in more than one spread, so if you ever run into a pants-less member of the group, you’ll have no trouble recognizing him! That alone is worth the price of this volume. 

But let’s suppose you’re jaded about seeing the Residents’ junk; say you’ve already got enlargements of the Delta Nudes CD cover tacked up all over your walls, and Kinko’s quality is good enough for you. Well, how about a sharp full-color photo of the Mysterious N. Senada’s saxophone and another of its case, bearing the word “COMMERCIAL” in giant red capital letters? Do you have that, Mr. Great Big Residents Fan? How about shots from inside Poor Know Graphics’ design studio circa 1972, hmm? You got pictures of Snakefinger’s wedding? I’m so sure. What about the fucking floor plans for the Residents’ old Sycamore Street headquarters in San Francisco?
 

‘Eloise’ from ‘Vileness Fats’
 
Many of the book’s contents are things I’d hoped to find inside—shots from the set of Vileness Fats, beautiful stills from Graeme Whifler’s “Hello Skinny” film, W.E.I.R.D. fan club papers—but nearly as many are treasures I didn’t know I’d been missing, such as images from a proposal for an Eskimo opera, or screenshots from a prototype Mark of the Mole video game for the Atari 2600, or a snap of a promotional packet of Residents brand Tunes of Two Cities aspirin (to treat “the newest headache” from the band). Old favorites like the black-and-white promo photo of the band shopping for groceries are accompanied by contact sheets and other prints from the shoot. Turn the page, and it’s like The Wizard of Oz: the Residents are standing in the checkout line in Technicolor.
 

‘The Act of Being Polite’
 
Peppered throughout are testimonials from the group’s many-generational cohort of colleagues and fans. Collaborators and Ralph Records alumni like Mole Show emcee Penn Jillette, members of Tuxedomoon and Yello, and all of Renaldo & The Loaf get in reminiscences. Don Preston of the Mothers of Invention tells how he came to play his Moog parts on Eskimo; Patrick Gleeson conveys his delight at the Residents’ “fuck-you-ness”; Andy Partridge of XTC (a/k/a Commercial Album guest Sandy Sandwich) apostrophizes the Eyeballs in verse.

Then there’s Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten remembering the Berlin record store that turned him on to The Third Reich ‘n Roll in the Seventies, and Les Claypool takes us to the living room in El Sobrante, California where his teenage girlfriend first played him Duck Stab on her Marantz. Danny Elfman hears a different path his own life might have taken when he listens back. And bringing down the mean age of this all-star gang are some of the Residents’ “children”: Eric André, members of Steel Pole Bath Tub, Death Grips, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum…
 

Handwritten ‘Lizard Lady’ lyrics from the ‘Duck Stab/Buster & Glen Notebook’
 
The book includes a seven-inch of “Nobody’s Nos,” an unreleased song composed for the early masterpiece Not Available. There’s also a signed deluxe edition that comes with a picture disc of “Nobody’s Nos” and a supplementary 24-page book of notes and handwritten lyrics from the making of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen. Mercy.

Below, the band Star Stunted (Sam Coomes, Rob Crow, Zach Hill, Mike Morasky, and Ego Plum, all of whom contributed to the book, along with its author, Aaron Tanner) performs the Residents’ 1972 holiday heartwarmer (heartwormer?) “Santa Dog” in an exclusive Dangerous Minds premiere.

It’s a Christmas miracle!

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Residential: Homer Flynn on the Residents’ ambitious ‘God in Three Persons’ show at MoMA
The Residents’ press conference at the Lincoln Memorial, 1983
The Residents demolish ‘We Are the World’
Take a walk around a masterpiece with the Residents’ ‘Eskimo Deconstructed’
‘Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy!’ The Residents’ first show as The Residents, 1976

Posted by Oliver Hall
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12.15.2021
05:18 am
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UNDEAD UNDEAD UNDEAD! David J talks with DM about never-before heard music from Bauhaus
11.23.2018
06:01 pm
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Though none of its constituent tropes were entirely without precedent, Goth was and is a singularly unique expression of post-punk art rock, and as a template for misfit-kid identity it’s been as durable as punk itself. Black Sabbath brought a gloom-and-doom vibe to bear on rock music; The Velvets romanticized malaise; The Misfits injected horror movie tropes into punk; Siouxsie and The Damned can claim prior art on vampire-film inspired stage wear. But none of that counts. The beginning of Goth was the August, 1979 release of the single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Bauhaus, period.

This is a truncated version of the 10-minute original, from Top Of The Pops. I’m sharing this version because it’s sufficient to convey the point, and because the announcer’s dickhead comment at the end is pretty hilarious in retrospect.
 

 

 
The song was wholly novel, and it codified almost all the elements the genre adapted from contemporary post-punk—ominous mood set by a bassist transcending mere rhythm section functionality; sparse, modulated guitars; a dramatic Bowie fan histrionically chanting UNDEAD UNDEAD UNDEAD. The song was given a global hearing when it was used in 1983, with performance footage, as the opening credits music for the vampire film The Hunger, but for the most part the black cat was already out of the bag by then. The band’s bassist David J, who wrote the lyrics, was kind enough to discuss with us in an email exchange the sources the band tapped in crafting the song:

At that time in 1978 there was a season of classic horror films which was running on late night TV.  Daniel [Ash, Bauhaus guitarist] and I had both seen ‘Dracula’ starring Bela Lugosi and the night after the screening we were in the phone, setting up our next practice / jam session. We got into talking about the film which we had both seen for the first time and loved. Campy rubber horror bat n’ all!  We were especially taken with Bela’s strong Hungarian accent which we agreed was perfectly suited to the ‘otherness’ of the character and especially as the actor delivered his lines in that weird stilted way. We also loved that the whole thing was quite subtle. The delicately implied sexuality and elegant, romantic style was most appealing. So, with that conversational dwelling on the subject the seeds had been sown. The next evening whilst riding my bicycle back home from my crushingly boring day job, working in a distribution warehouse, I was suddenly struck by the first verse:  “White on white, translucent. Black cape’s back on the rack, Bela Lugosi’s dead.” Then, every few yards, another line would come to me and by the time I got home, 20 minutes later, I had the entire lyric written out on the delivery labels that I would tie to the boxes which were to be dispatched from the warehouse. These original words included the line, ‘sleeping through the long drugged hours’ which I dropped as it didn’t really scan. At the time I was not aware of Mr. Lugosi’s morphine addiction so that pretty interesting in retrospect. Anyway, the next night we had our rehearsal and I handed the newly transcribed lyric sheet to Peter [Murphy, Bauhaus vocalist]. The epic song came together in an instant, we all got the shivers and simply knew that we were onto a winner!

 

 
Bauhaus spent four totally indispensable albums demonstrating that the genre they spawned was far too small to contain their creativity, expanding artistically while most of the rest of Goth ossified into a life-sized cartoon about trench coats, eyeliner, and ape scrotum hairdos. The band split in 1983, but all of its members remained active in various configurations, and within two years the entire lineup minus Murphy were together again in the trio Love and Rockets. Inevitable ‘90s and ‘oughts reunion tours ensued, culminating in the sadly less-than-edifying 2008 album Go Away White. Currently, J and Murphy are on tour celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary, and Ash and drummer Kevin Haskins last year sort-of resurrected Tones On Tail, their project in between Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, under the name “Poptone,” for an ongoing series of excellent performances.

And there’s one more bit of Bauhaus news—the “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” single is being reissued with some choice goodies. It’s been expanded to an EP called The Bela Session, featuring all five of the songs the band tracked during their first ever recording session, three of which have never been released. Of particular interest is “Bite My Hip,” an early song that was abandoned in 1980 only to be rewritten and issued as a single in 1982 under the title “Lagartija Nick.” It was a weird choice for the follow-up single to their wildly successful cover of “Ziggy Stardust”—it’s a spiky, tense song, laden with references to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the refrain changed from “Bite My Hip” to the somewhat more menacing “Crack The Whip.” While we had David J on the hook, we asked him about the transformation.

That was one of our very first songs, written by Peter and Daniel. Later on, we felt that the lyric was a bit too simplistic and so the song sat on the shelf for several years until we dusted it off when Peter and I came up with the revised lyric which was a description of Sadomasochism and the Devil, the latter known as “Lagartija Nick” in ancient Spain. In retrospect I think that it was all too obscure for a single and the original blatantly erotic lyric would have been a better way to go. I’m glad the original has finally seen the light of day (or maybe that should be the light of twilight?!)

The Bela Session is scheduled for release today, and to celebrate, we have here for your A/B-ing enjoyment “Lagartija Nick” and the original “Bite My Hip.”
 

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy and Skinny Puppy’s Nivek Ogre to star in horror film
That Old Black Magic: Stan Lee duets with Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy
‘Undead’: The Book Every Bauhaus Fan Will Covet is Arriving Soon

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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11.23.2018
06:01 pm
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‘Undead’: The Book Every Bauhaus Fan Will Covet is Arriving Soon
11.16.2017
08:36 am
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It’s been a busy year for former members of Bauhaus, despite there being zero actual Bauhaus activity. Bassist David J did a well-received solo tour—I saw him do a living room show in Detroit, and it was goddamn magnifique—and has signed on to join his former band’s singer Peter Murphy in performing their classic material in San Francisco this February.

Meanwhile, the band’s drummer and guitarist, Kevin Haskins and Daniel Ash, reunited under the name “Poptone” to resurrect material by one of their other former bands, Tones on Tail. I saw that too, and they killed it—bass was handled by Haskins’ daughter Diva, and damn, she’s GOOD. That tour is still ongoing though December 10, and if you get a chance to catch a show, I recommend taking it.

And now, Haskins has announced—and released pages from—a new book of Bauhaus recollections and ephemera, titled Undead, a nod to Murphy’s famous chant in the band’s debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.” (The full title is the rather unwieldy Bauhaus – Undead: The Visual History and Legacy of Bauhaus) According to the indispensable Slicing Up Eyeballs:

Haskins promises readers will be taken on a visual journey from the inception of the band…in 1978 through the group’s initial reunion in 1998 and its famed Coachella performance in 2005.

In addition to Haskins’ own writings, the book includes images from the drummer’s memorabilia collection: handmade flyers, backstage passes, ticket stubs, band artwork, letters, set lists, recording contracts, band sketches, fan club material, tour itineraries, handwritten lyrics, invoices, posters and more.

Preorders are being taken now via Cleopatra Records.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Ron Kretsch
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11.16.2017
08:36 am
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Peter Murphy stars as ‘The Dead’ in the experimental Super 8 film ‘The Grid,’ 1980
10.21.2016
09:53 am
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The VHS release of The Grid (via Tumblr)
 
In 1980, the animator Joanna Woodward (a/k/a JoWOnder) cast her boyfriend Peter Murphy in a short film called The Grid. Now I know it’s hot on planet Earth, but goddammit! If In The Flat Field-era Peter Murphy playing a character called “The Dead” doesn’t put you in the holiday spirit, then maybe somebody’s forgotten the true meaning of Halloween.

Here are JoWOnder’s own notes about her movie, which she says was projected at Bauhaus shows in the 80s. I wish she explained what T.S. Eliot is doing on the soundtrack. Typos are hers.

A story about a time traveler and the search for the first cell of one’s existence. ‘The Dead’, played by Peter Murphy searches for and finds a ‘Grid’ which enables him to watch the beginning of his life -from the moment of conception.

Tip: For a better picture view: watch using the ‘Full Screen’ Option.

Filmed when, when Peter was the boyfriend of Joanna Woodward in the 1980’s, on Super 8 Film Format. This copy has been taken by Jo from the VHS which Peter sold copies of on his, 2000, international Just for Love tour. (The original a clear picture Super 8 copy having been mislaid).

The Grid, movie toured with Bauhaus and was projected on stage in the 1980s. Jo says;’ that she was much more interested in fine art and not so much commercial art or popular music. Punk was predominant at that time and it was quite common for things to get ‘gobbed at’ as a sign of appreciation.’

The closing music here is Subhanallah by Peter Murphy however, the original concluding music track, for The Grid was Kate Bush, Lion Heart. Jo finds both concluding music tracks satisfying however, the Kate Bush track was intended to echo the opera music earlier in the film and the female ‘creator of life’ bursting through. The film’s main soundtrack Jo devised herself on a synthesizer with live playing of a recorder. The tiny sound of ‘clicks’ that can be heard are, literally the sound of switching on and off equipment as she recorded live to the film picture with an open microphone.

Watch ‘The Grid’ after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Oliver Hall
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10.21.2016
09:53 am
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Baby-faced goths: Rare photos of early Bauhaus gig in Chicago’s meatpacking district, 1980
09.22.2016
09:45 am
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Peter Murphy putting on his makeup before their first Chicago gig at ‘Space Place’ in 1980. Photo by Brian Shanley.
 
Chicago-based photographer Brian Shanley was on the scene when Bauhaus landed in Chicago for the first time (a staggering 36-years ago this month) and was was able to get up close and personal with the band during their gig at Space Place, an industrial-looking nightclub in Chicago’s meatpacking district.
 

 
According to Shanley he was allowed to photograph Bauhaus during candid moments and even got close enough to capture the Godfather of Goth, vocalist Peter Murphy, putting on his makeup. After the show Shanley partied with Bauhaus which included a rather life-defining moment in which he watched a VHS copy of John Water’s Pink Flamingos with the band, which they had never seen before. Damn.

It’s also worth mentioning that Murphy was a mere 23 years old at the time and the band had yet to release their debut album In the Flat Field. Their first single, goth blueprint “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” (you can hear a live recording of the number at Space Place, here) was already deeply implanted in their fans’ brains. If you’re a fan of Bauhaus, Shanley has a large array of gorgeous black and white photos for sale.

And since we are speaking of Bauhaus, the group’s drummer Kevin Haskins is about to publish a coffee table book titled Bauhaus - The Archives. Haskins has amassed a huge collection of Bauhaus artifacts since the late 70s including vintage setlists, fan club fodder and handwritten lyrics—most of which have never seen the light of day, like the photographs in this post. Pre-orders for Haskins’ book are going on now with an expected ship date sometimes in November, 2016.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.22.2016
09:45 am
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Ian Curtis of Joy Division, his final interview
07.15.2016
12:03 pm
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Ian Curtis would have turned 60 today. Two years ago, the website post-punk.com celebrated Curtis’ birthday with a fascinating contribution to Joy Division studies, a complete transcript of one of the few surviving interviews with Curtis that exist.

The interview took place on February 28, 1980, before JD’s gig at Preston Warehouse. (In 1999 a recording of that show was released as Preston 28 February 1980, as it happens.) “Spyda” from Burnley Musician’s Collective interviewed Curtis for a BBC Radio Blackburn program called “Spinoff.” You can actually hear the rest of the band doing a soundcheck in the background.
 

 
In 1988 the interview appeared on BBC Manchester with some previously unheard snippets. The interview is variously called the BBC Blackburn interview or the Radio Lancashire interview. This is actually considered to be the last interview Curtis ever gave.

In the interview Curtis, asked about “the current state of new wave,” replies thus:
 

Don’t know. I think it’s, a lot of it tends to have lost its edge really. There’s quite a few new groups that I’ve heard.. odd records. Record or have seen maybe such as, eh, I like, I think it’s mostly old Factory groups really, I like the groups on Factory; A Certain Ratio and Section 25. I tend not to listen, when I’m listening to records, I don’t listen to much new wave stuff, i tend to listen to the stuff I used to listen to a few years back but sort of odd singles. I know somebody who works in a record shop where I live and I’ll go in there and he’ll play me “have you heard this single?” singles by er the group called The Tights, so an obscure thing … and a group called, I think, er Bauhaus, a London group, that’s one single. There’s no one I completely like that I can say “well I’ve got all this person’s records. i think he’s great” or “this group’s records” it’s just, again, odd things

 
Bauhaus had released “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” in 1979. Aside from that, the band released “Dark Entries” in January 1980 and that was the entire Bauhaus catalog when Curtis did that interview.

More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Martin Schneider
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07.15.2016
12:03 pm
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Electrifying early-80s footage of The Cure, Bauhaus and The Smiths on the ‘Oxford Road Show’


Morrissey and Johnny Marr performing on the ‘The Oxford Road Show.’
 
A recent post that featured two-hours of “mind melting” high quality footage of Siouxsie and the Banshees performing on various music television shows such as the The Old Grey Whistle Test, Rock Goes to College, The Oxford Road Show as well as the ever popular, Top of the Pops was unsurprisingly very popular with our readers. As I was not familiar with The Oxford Road Show, I decided to take a deep-dive into YouTube land to see what other vintage delights the BBC show might have to offer.  I was not disappointed—and you won’t be either.
 

Robert Smith of The Cure in a still from ‘The Oxford Road Show.’
 
Once allegedly parodied as “Nozin’ Aroun’” on “Demolition,” the pilot episode of cult British sitcom The Young Ones, The Oxford Road Show (later known as “ORS”) was around for about four years until it marched off into the sunset. While not every band performed live (as you will see with the video of The Smiths below), many of them did and early on in their emerging careers. I cherrypicked a few highlights from The Oxford Road Show that I found most compelling such as The Cure’s 1983 appearance on the show performing “One Hundred Years” from their 1982 album, Pornography and Bauhaus in 1982 doing two of their early 80s singles, “Passion of Lovers” and an absolutely balls-out performance of “Lagartija Nick.” But what really killed me was The Smiths’ lipsynching 1984’s “What Difference Does it Make” while Moz sashays around on stage looking like he wishes he was home dancing in front of his mirror while giving zero fucks. In other words, what you are about to see is pure 80s vintage goodness that once again proves that the much maligned decade was actually pretty great.
 

The Cure performing ‘One Hundred Days’ on ‘The Oxford Road Show’ in 1983.
 

More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
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06.13.2016
11:45 am
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‘Undead, undead, undead’: The evil, alien weirdness of Bauhaus live at University of London, 1980
04.04.2016
11:12 am
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Please believe me when I tell you that I am in no way pining for the era of the VHS videotape—I lived through it, folks and it wasn’t pretty. You’ll hear no nostalgia for obsolete home entertainment formats coming from me—but I do want to convey, for our “younger readers,” something that has been lost, never to return, in this age of press play, always on, instant streaming digital video pumped directly into your home 24/7 like water or gas.

And I’m actually wincing as I compose this because what I’m about to impart seems so… I dunno… parental or heaven forfend Republican. I don’t mean to come off like that but I’m gonna say it anyway:

You appreciate things more when you have to work for them.

(Runs away).

Okay, so what do I mean by this? When something must be hunted down, or is otherwise elusive, scarce, expensive or rare, you simply appreciate it more once you finally get your hands on it. A big part of what motivates any crate digger is the thrill of the hunt. It’s just not the same when you can easily download something or have Amazon deliver it to your doorstep the next day, or sooner. Today the distance between your desire and manifesting whatever that desire is, is but a short and uncomplicated path. The Internet took all of the joy out of record and book collecting for me. I haven’t had a “holy grail” that I’ve been looking for since forever ago, if you’ll forgive me my first world problem!

Another thing that’s gotten lost along the way is any sense of something being “underground” anymore. Nothing—at least entertainment-wise—is “rare” in a digital world. Look at the films of Kenneth Anger. Once upon a time, you’d have had to have gone to a gay porno theater in New York’s Times Square to see his short films “Fireworks” or “Scorpio Rising.” You’d have to have seen them projected on celluloid and most probably under fairly seedy conditions, if you were to see them at all. That also meant physically being in a big city when they were being screened. Esoteric entertainment of this sort did not come to you then, you went to it. In 2016 YouTube might host Jack Smith’s legendarily perverse underground classic Normal Love in HD, but it’s just not the same as seeing it in a sperm-stained Times Square fleapit that smells strongly of Pine-Sol when the NYPD’s vice squad arrives uninvited, now is it?

Keep reading after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.04.2016
11:12 am
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‘The Pharmacy’ returns with David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets
09.04.2014
03:25 pm
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Gregg Foreman’s radio program The Pharmacy is a music / talk show playing heavy soul, raw funk, 60′s psych, girl groups, Krautrock. French yé-yé, Hammond organ rituals, post-punk transmissions and “ghost on the highway” testimonials and interviews with the most interesting artists and music makers of our times…

Welcome to season 2 of The Pharmacy, brought to you by Magic Monster Radio and Dangerous Minds. Coming up we’ve got interviews with Ian McLagan (Small Faces/Faces), James Sclavunos from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and a special krautrock edition featuring Can’s Irmin Schmidt and Damo Suzuki.

This week’s guest, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets:

  • Meeting David Bowie and appearing in The Hunger

  • Being advised to stay with The Jazz Butcher instead of forming Love and Rockets

  • Working with René Halkett of the Bauhaus School of art and design

  • Touring with the Birthday Party and how it was “mayhem”

  • David answers questions from Primal Scream and White Hills

  •  


     
    Mr. Pharmacy is a musician and DJ who has played for the likes of Pink Mountaintops, The Delta 72, The Black Ryder, The Meek and more. Since 2012 Gregg Foreman has been the musical director of Cat Power’s band. He started dj’ing 60s Soul and Mod 45’s in 1995 and has spun around the world. Gregg currently lives in Los Angeles, CA and divides his time between playing live music, producing records and dj’ing various clubs and parties from LA to Australia.

    Setlist:

    Intro
    Motorcycle - Love and Rockets
    Ace of Spades - Link Wray
    Grits and Cornbread
    David J Interview Part 1
    In Fear of Fear - Bauhaus
    White Light White Heat - The Velvet Underground
    Shack Up - A Certain Ratio
    Erase You - ESG
    Serge Gainsbourg
    She’s in Parties (remix) - Bauhaus/RX
    David J Interview Part 2
    Lagartija Nick - Bauhaus
    Modern Music - Don Letts
    Heard it Through the Grapevine - The Slits
    Eighties - Killing Joke
    Mother Sky (remix) - CAN / Pilooski / RX
    Pleasures of the Dance - RX / Ruts DC
    David J Interview Part 3
    Nothing - René Halkett /David J
    OK This is the Pops - Tones on Tails
    S#2 - Snapline
    YOu Got Good Taste - The Cramps
    I Can Change My Mind - Simply Saucer
    Low Life - PiL
    Echo Chamber - RX/King Tubby & Prince Jammy & Scientist
    David J Interview Part 4
    Mirror People - Love and Rockets
    Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd
    David J Interview Part 5
    Breaking Glass - David Bowie
    She is Beyond Good and Evil - The Pop Group
    Reggae and Punk - Documentary Edit
    54-46 Was My Number - Toots and the Maytals
    Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
    Harry - Bauhaus
    One Train load of Dub - RX / The Observers
    David J Interview Part 6
    Sonny’s Burning - The Birthday Party
    Heavy Duty Dub - RX / Harry Mudie meets King Tubby
    Spirit - Bauhaus
    Outro
     

     
    You can download the show in its entirety here .
     

    Posted by Tara McGinley
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    09.04.2014
    03:25 pm
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    Undead, undead, undead: Happy birthday to Peter Murphy of Bauhaus!
    07.11.2014
    08:48 am
    Topics:
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    The huge can of worms opened by the Northampton post-punk band Bauhaus when they exemplified the dark sound and cadaver-glam fashion ethos of Goth has still never been closed after 35 years.

    In the mere four years from their transformative 1979 debut single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” to their original incarnation’s final LP, Burning From the Inside, Bauhaus gave the seeds of a sonic and fashion lexicon to a romantically macabre strain of youthful angst that had never really had a name before, and out in front of that noisy doom parade was the gaunt, Bowie-ish figure of singer Peter Murphy, whose distinctively vampiric vocal affect and high-drama performance style are still imitated today. Born on July 11, 1957, Murphy celebrates his birthday today.

    In the three decades since Bauhaus’ breakup, Murphy has performed in Dali’s Car with Japan bassist Mick Karn, released several solo albums, explored Middle-Eastern mysticism, and sang on a Bauhaus reunion/last hurrah LP. More recently, he ran afoul of the law in California, and was found guilty of a hit-and-run and possession of meth. But there seems to be reason to hope he’s gotten healthy again, as just last month, Nettwerk Records released Lion, his ninth solo LP, and it’s quite good.

    Here he is in 1982, demonstrating what all the fuss was about:
     

     
    More Murphy after the jump…

    READ ON
    Posted by Ron Kretsch
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    07.11.2014
    08:48 am
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    The Triadic Ballet: Eccentric Bauhaus ballet brilliance or is it Germanic Maude Lebowski art shit?
    02.28.2014
    12:43 pm
    Topics:
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    To the layman, the legacy of the Bauhaus movement is often unfairly reduced to über-gloomy goth rockers and boxy modern architecture, but my formative years were influenced by a succession of eccentric ballet teachers, so to me, Bauhaus will always mean Oskar Schlemmer’s 1922 opus, “Das Triadisches Ballett” (The Triadic Ballet)—perhaps the least “human” dance performance ever concieved.

    Schlemmer was a painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer—that kind of factotum being par for the course in the Bauhaus ethos. When hired to teach at the Bauhaus school, Schlemmer combined his work in both sculpture and theater to create the internationally acclaimed extravaganza which toured from 1922 until 1929, when Schlemmer left an increasingly volatile Germany.

    When I showed this video to an ex-boyfriend, he described it succinctly as “some really goddamn German Maude Lebowski art shit,” and that’s not a bad way to put it. The sets are minimalist, emphasizing perspective and clean lines. The choreography is limited by the bulky, sculptural, geometric costumes, the movement stiflingly deliberate, incredibly mechanical and mathy, with a rare hints of any fluid dance. The whole thing is daringly weird and strangely mesmerizing.

    Below are a few pictures of original Bauhaus ballet performers, and the 1970 German film production of “Das Triadisches Ballett.” New music was composed for this short, and the orchestral sounds contrast nicely with such an inorganic spectacle.
     
    Bauhaus ballet
    Performers from an early run of Das Triadische Ballet, 1924
     
    Bauhaus
    Rehearsal, 1928
     
    Bauhaus
    Stelzenläufer, 1927
     
    Bauhaus
    Costume for the Neue Sachlichkeit Party, 1926
     
    Bowie and Bauhaus
    Triadic Ballet costume and David Bowie’s Kansai Yamamoto-designed Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit, for comparison
     

    Posted by Amber Frost
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    02.28.2014
    12:43 pm
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    Bauhaus, Japan, Cocteau Twins and more on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’


     
    This morning, in the course of searching for a King Crimson video, I ran across an incredible - and given the criminally low view counts, apparently undiscovered - trove of high quality New Wave and Gothic videos from the legendary British television show The Old Grey Whistle Test, few of which are to be found on the DVD collection. I’ve posted a few of my favorites here, but there’s plenty more on the profile of YouTube user ArtNoyze. Enjoy.
     

    Altered Images - ‘Insects’
     

    Japan - ‘Ghosts’
     

    Adam & The Ants - ‘Ant Invasion’
     
    The Teardrop Explodes, Cocteau Twins and Bauhaus after the jump…

    READ ON
    Posted by Ron Kretsch
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    11.23.2013
    11:57 am
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    Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy gets 3 years probation, community service for meth possession and hit and run
    10.16.2013
    02:23 pm
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    Bela Lugosi plead…

    You probably recall the trouble Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy got into back in March when he was arrested in Glendale, California for driving under the influence of drugs, hit-and-run and possessing crystal meth. Police reports said he appeared confused and even had difficulty recalling what day it was.

    Although the goth legend initially pleaded not guilty to all three charges, he changed his tune when he was sentenced on October 10 in a Los Angeles court. Murphy plead no contest to misdemeanor hit-and-run driving and guilty to the methamphetamine possession charge, as reported by Glendale News.

    The singer must also attend 45 days of Narcotics Anonymous meetings, perform ten days of community service and submit to random drug tests.
     

    Posted by Richard Metzger
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    10.16.2013
    02:23 pm
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    Bauhaus’s ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ time-stretched to a brain-melting nine hours
    04.23.2013
    03:51 pm
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    Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” or…

    The last sound a subway train hears before it dies.

    The sound of God sucking it up.

    Townsend’s tinnitus.

    The Empire State Building snoring.

    Beelzebub taking a massive bowel movement.
     

    Posted by Marc Campbell
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    04.23.2013
    03:51 pm
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    Goth king Peter Murphy doing goofy interpretive dance to ‘Hollow Hills’ by Bauhaus, 1983
    01.11.2013
    02:41 pm
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    image
     
    According to his Wikipedia entry, Peter Murphy, who in 1983 had only just recently departed Bauhaus, made “some brief dabbling with acting and dance – including a slightly odd televised performance to Bauhaus’s ‘Hollow Hills.’”

    Wha? Naturally I googled this “slightly odd televised performance” and of course, there it was… His interpretive dance here is slightly odd, I’d have to agree (“naff” is a word that comes readily to mind as well). You’d have to think his former bandmates would have found this sand dune ballet on-the-floor, coughing-with-tears-hysterically-funny to watch.

    Speaking of Peter Murphy, I heard the craziest story last night over dinner with my friend Adam Peters, a Hollywood composer who recently scored Oliver Stone’s Savages (and who arranged and played the famous cello part on Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon”).

    We had been discussing Howard Devoto’s post-punk artrock band, Magazine and he told me about seeing Bauhaus open for Magazine in Guildford in 1980. The “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” single was already out, but In The Flat Field had not been released yet. The third band was Crisis, with Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford later of Death In June and Sol Invictus, whose following included many skinheads.

    Of course the Guildford skinheads had never seen anything like Bauhaus and, as skins do, started spitting at the band, Peter Murphy in particular. Adam said that Murphy tore his shirt off, grabbed a light on a stand and made like he was being crucified at the front of the stage, provoking a steady stream of gob as he stood motionless, shining the light directly into their faces, staring them down and daring them to continue. The band continued to vamp on the slow chords of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” he told me, for about a half hour as this went on, with Murphy absolutely drenched in spit.

    Eventually it stopped and the skins left because this interaction had apparently freaked them the fuck out!

    “That would be hard to top! Did Magazine actually play after THAT?” I asked him.

    “They did, but they probably should have just tuned the house lights up. No one really cared about Magazine after that.”

    If that isn’t the most Artaud-esque thing that’s ever occurred on a concert stage, I can’t imagine what would be…

    Below, Peter Murphy’s “slightly odd televised performance” on Riverside, 1983:
     

    Posted by Richard Metzger
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    01.11.2013
    02:41 pm
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