Glitter Gutter Trash
Issue 205 / January 2006 More from this Issue
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A psychotic candyland full of glam glitz, trashy pop, new wave, post-everything, retrofuturisms and distorted beauty
From the broken mind of Ryan Michael Painter rien@davidbowie.com
Bauhaus
Shadow of Light/Archive (DVD)
Beggars Banquet
Street: 12.06
Bauhaus = Godfathers of Goth (Bowie/Eno/Bolan + Hammer horror films)
While there may be debate over who was more important in the post-punk era, Joy Division or Bauhaus, my vote is, was and always will be for the boys in black. The evidence is here in the long overdue release of Bauhaus' two video collections Shadow of Light and Archive packaged on one DVD. While most promo videos shot in the early 80s come across as fashionable kitsch, Bauhaus avoided looking ridiculous by making art films with abstract lighting and imagery that not only referenced the band's live performances but their sense of humor. Duran Duran may have been fashionable but Bauhaus are timeless; a detail only more emphasized by both band's recent reunions. Even the live footage from a performance at London's Old Vic Theater in 1982 (interspersed on Shadow and dominating Archive) is edited in such a way that one wonders why so many concerts from the same period couldn't capture the raw energy found here. Then again as last year's Coachella festival proved, no one can hold a candle to Bauhaus' live show. Oh, and by the way, their music is still as vibrant and shocking as it was when "Bela Lugosi's Dead" first droned into the adolescent minds of London's youth. The 5.1 surround mix, well that's just candy.
New York Dolls
All Dolled Up (DVD)
MVD
Street: 12.06
New York Dolls = glam + punk + New York youth
If ever there were a band that deserved to be shot in full Technicolor it was the New York Dolls; unfortunately All Dolled Up only comes in black and white, but considering how lucky we are to have the footage at all it's hard to complain and in an unintentional way, the lack of color plays homage to the cover of their first album (if we could have only had a splattering of pink here and there). While technically this is a documentary culled from over 40 hours of footage shot by Bob Gruen and Nadya Beck during the Dolls' peak of success, it feels more like an unedited memoir mixed with live performances. Brilliant and unrestrained, All Dolled Up is the definitive music documentary; not because it offers a step-by-step progression (it doesn't), but because it offers the chaos that were the Dolls without explanation. Johnny Thunders and David Johanssen spout off like class clowns; Jerry Nolan and Sylvain Sylvain offer up their unsupportive banter (particularly in Sylvain's commentary recorded with Bob Gruen) while Arthur Kane mumbles in such a gentle voce that after repeated viewings I'm still not certain if he's speaking in sentences. For those less interested in the characters in the band and more passionate about the music, there are 12 full performances included in the bonus features, along with an extensive collection of photos and two commentary tracks (sadly on Johansen's the audio is rather muddled).
Edward Ka-Spel
A Long Red Ladder to the Moon &
Laugh China Doll
Beta-lactam Ring
Street: 11.01.2005
Edward Ka-Spel = Current 93 + Coil + Beat Generation Poetry
Laugh China Doll was Ka-Spel's first solo album, originally released in 1984 and A Long Red Ladder...is his most recent. Recorded 20 years apart, the recording quality and equipment are noticeably different, but it is striking how little has changed in Ka-Spel's approach to minimal electronics under abstract, perhaps nonsensical to some, poetry. With that said, I may be oversimplifying things a bit; Ka-Spel's contribution to experimental music has often gone unmentioned. While he might not garner the same praise in the electronic world as Coil or the accolades in dark-folk circles as Current 93 he, along with his cohorts in The Legendary Pink Dots, have quietly built a bridge between the two musical styles. While this combination doesn't exactly translate into the Billboard charts, it does strike a chord with the many likeminded experimentalists who make up Ka-Spel's devoted following. Neither A Long Red Ladder nor Laugh China Doll will sway those who consider Ka-Spel's work to be the inane babbling of an old hippie (drugs, peace, love) but it will blissfully add to the collection of those who know better. It's a shame really, because as inaccessible as some seem to find it, much like Kerouac and Ginsberg were disregarded as vulgar, Ka-Spel brings a sense of soft humanity to the abstraction.
From the broken mind of Ryan Michael Painter rien@davidbowie.com
Bauhaus Shadow of Light/Archive (DVD)
Beggars Banquet
Street: 12.06
Bauhaus = Godfathers of Goth (Bowie/Eno/Bolan + Hammer horror films)
While there may be debate over who was more important in the post-punk era, Joy Division or Bauhaus, my vote is, was and always will be for the boys in black. The evidence is here in the long overdue release of Bauhaus' two video collections Shadow of Light and Archive packaged on one DVD. While most promo videos shot in the early 80s come across as fashionable kitsch, Bauhaus avoided looking ridiculous by making art films with abstract lighting and imagery that not only referenced the band's live performances but their sense of humor. Duran Duran may have been fashionable but Bauhaus are timeless; a detail only more emphasized by both band's recent reunions. Even the live footage from a performance at London's Old Vic Theater in 1982 (interspersed on Shadow and dominating Archive) is edited in such a way that one wonders why so many concerts from the same period couldn't capture the raw energy found here. Then again as last year's Coachella festival proved, no one can hold a candle to Bauhaus' live show. Oh, and by the way, their music is still as vibrant and shocking as it was when "Bela Lugosi's Dead" first droned into the adolescent minds of London's youth. The 5.1 surround mix, well that's just candy.
New York Dolls
All Dolled Up (DVD)
MVD
Street: 12.06
New York Dolls = glam + punk + New York youth
If ever there were a band that deserved to be shot in full Technicolor it was the New York Dolls; unfortunately All Dolled Up only comes in black and white, but considering how lucky we are to have the footage at all it's hard to complain and in an unintentional way, the lack of color plays homage to the cover of their first album (if we could have only had a splattering of pink here and there). While technically this is a documentary culled from over 40 hours of footage shot by Bob Gruen and Nadya Beck during the Dolls' peak of success, it feels more like an unedited memoir mixed with live performances. Brilliant and unrestrained, All Dolled Up is the definitive music documentary; not because it offers a step-by-step progression (it doesn't), but because it offers the chaos that were the Dolls without explanation. Johnny Thunders and David Johanssen spout off like class clowns; Jerry Nolan and Sylvain Sylvain offer up their unsupportive banter (particularly in Sylvain's commentary recorded with Bob Gruen) while Arthur Kane mumbles in such a gentle voce that after repeated viewings I'm still not certain if he's speaking in sentences. For those less interested in the characters in the band and more passionate about the music, there are 12 full performances included in the bonus features, along with an extensive collection of photos and two commentary tracks (sadly on Johansen's the audio is rather muddled).
Edward Ka-Spel
A Long Red Ladder to the Moon &
Laugh China Doll
Beta-lactam Ring
Street: 11.01.2005
Edward Ka-Spel = Current 93 + Coil + Beat Generation Poetry
Laugh China Doll was Ka-Spel's first solo album, originally released in 1984 and A Long Red Ladder...is his most recent. Recorded 20 years apart, the recording quality and equipment are noticeably different, but it is striking how little has changed in Ka-Spel's approach to minimal electronics under abstract, perhaps nonsensical to some, poetry. With that said, I may be oversimplifying things a bit; Ka-Spel's contribution to experimental music has often gone unmentioned. While he might not garner the same praise in the electronic world as Coil or the accolades in dark-folk circles as Current 93 he, along with his cohorts in The Legendary Pink Dots, have quietly built a bridge between the two musical styles. While this combination doesn't exactly translate into the Billboard charts, it does strike a chord with the many likeminded experimentalists who make up Ka-Spel's devoted following. Neither A Long Red Ladder nor Laugh China Doll will sway those who consider Ka-Spel's work to be the inane babbling of an old hippie (drugs, peace, love) but it will blissfully add to the collection of those who know better. It's a shame really, because as inaccessible as some seem to find it, much like Kerouac and Ginsberg were disregarded as vulgar, Ka-Spel brings a sense of soft humanity to the abstraction.
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