Luke Haines, 'Das Capital'

GOD THIS ALBUM IS GOOD
particularly the run of Baader Meinhof - Lenny Valentino - Starstruck

Definitive version of Lenny Valentino. Haines doesn't agree

Showgirl and Starstruck are classics in my book, I must investigate his later stuff sometime

You bumped this in the nick of time. It prompted me to search for news on Mr. Haines and I like what I've discovered...

Issue no. 1: New album...

http://www.lukehaines.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Luke-Haines-Wrestling-1000-300x300.jpg

So, what's this new album all about?
"Well, it's pretty self-explanatory, really! These songs kept on coming out about wrestlers that I'd seen and loved when I was a kid. I thought I could make a screenplay or a book, but Simon Garfield's written a really great wrestling book and there's probably nothing I could add. It became fairly obvious to do what I actually do, which is to make records. And make a psychedelic wrestling album, that was my calling."

It follows Outsider Music, which was even more conceptual - why are you moving in that direction?
"I can do what I like! That's why. It doesn't matter. I'm at the kind of age where it really doesn't matter a crap whether I record a f**king psychedelic wig-out about horse racing, wrestling or whatever. I feel that I'm very much kind of safe within that world. There's nothing anyone can do to stop me. I will continue to spread my message of psychedelic wrestling."

21st Century Man seemed like your most personal, immediate record for years - were you tempted to take it to a major label?
"No, I wasn't interested in doing that. There's no point in going down that route. I'm not questing for a commercial breakthrough! I don't care. It's of no interest to me. Going on tour's kind of okay but I don't really imagine I'm going to go on tour again. It makes the gigs that I do play better if I don't go on tour."

Issue no. 2. This crazy recipe blog I had no idea existed...

http://hainesoutsidermusic.blogspot.com/

Everything's 'underrated' now isn't it? Elvis Presley - used to be the King Of Pop, been dead for about a thousand years, hasn't had a hit in even longer. No one knows who he is. I carried out an experiment recently where I handed out pictures of 'Elvis' to total strangers on the street. Not one of the ten thousand people I spoke to recognised the former 'King of Pop.' So yeah, Elvis, totally underrated. I'll tell you what else is 'underrated' apart from Elvis, Stereolab, and Radiohead: Rabbit stew. Actually Rabbit isn't 'underrated' at all, rabbit is probably appreciated about as much as it deserves. It's all right, it's just not as nice as fillet steak. So, fucking rabbit stew. First things first. Off you go down to the bottom of the garden, to the wabbit hutch, where your five year old daughter's beloved bunny wunny lives. Sorry Mr Flopsy Mopsy, but you had it coming.

That blog is hilarious.

The new album's out and it's good... http://t.co/uqQ6eApD (Spotify)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY_4NT01uk0&feature=share

http://hainesoutsidermusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/cry-baby-jim-breaks.html

Not a bad painter either, it seems.

C'mon lads.

Has anyone read his book? I've always been curious as I love his perspective but I think I would have to order it from the UK and wondering if it's worth it.

There's two books now, man. Get the audio MP3s. That's the way to take it if you ask me. He even plays a couple riffs here and there...

http://www.lukehaines.co.uk/bad-vibes-audiobook-available-now/

Wow I didn't even know that. Sounds great. Although my time to read books versus listening to and focusing on an audiobook thing might make this difficult.

Bad Vibes is terrific fun and I would imagine the audiobook even more so

Bad Vibes is great, book 2 (title escapes me) is ok but a bit barrel-scraping

Two of Hot Press’ favourite musical mavericks, Luke Haines and Cathal Coughlan, bring their new theatrical show to the Dublin Sugar Club on December 3, tickets for which are €20.
Developed in conjunction with journalist Andrew Mueller and cellist Audrey Ripley, The North Sea Scrolls features 14 new songs that recently took the Edinburgh Festival by storm.

“The truths contained in the scrolls are at once profoundly disturbing and peculiarly reassuring,” Cathal and Luke say in a joint communiqué. “Certainly, they answer many long-pressing questions. How did a Dublin criminal overlord become an imperial viceroy? Is England really just two counties – Northshire and Southshire? Could it be that the guttering violence of Northern Ireland is caused by terrorist tribute acts from Australia? Who is Tony Allen? How did Tim Hardin end up commanding a nationalist militia in Cornwall? Can it be true that Morris Men, far from the prancing buffoons of popular repute, are murderous vigilantes – a Cotswoldian thugee cult? Was Chris Evans really burnt at the stake? If not; why not? Is Jim Corr actually right about everything?”

Not, we suspect, your average gig.

Cathal Coughlan post-Microdisney never appealed much to me, though.

http://www.kickingagainstthepricks.org/node/59

June 1993, my group, The Auteurs have just played a tepid set to a disinterested field of punters at Glastonbury. Festivals are not my thing, you can take yer 'Glasto' and shove it up yer arse. I'm quite keen to finish our set as I know that the most important band in the world are about to begin theirs. Unfortunately I have to hot foot it 97 miles across fucking countryside to a far away place they call 'The Main Stage.' It will be worth it I know because the best band in the world, who nobody ever saw, and who split up in 1970, have got back together. I have by now got over my precious gripes about holy grail acts such as Buzzcocks (arghh fuckit) getting back together. Besides Sterl and Mo probably need the money, and who would begrudge them that? I am in fact hyperventilating in excitement at the thought of The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Fucking Underground, performing live in front of my eyes. It's a shame I have to negotiate another 60 miles of agricultural terrain before I will see them. I arrive just as The Velvets are finishing their first song. It's already clear that the Velvet Underground are breaking new ground. They are breaking new ground by being shit. Being shit is not something I had previously associated with The Velvet Fucking Underground. They already look all wrong - standing on that stupid Pyramid Stage at Fucking 'Glasto.' This was the most urban New York Fuckin' City group in the world. They are meant to be surrounded by frightening street drag queens and 'A heads', not cunts who refer to this godforsaken place that we are in as 'Glasto.' The Velvet Underground do not belong in a cowshit field in fucking Somerset, they are not the fucking Wurzels. And what is wrong with that guitar that Lou is playing? Oh, I see it's got no body and no neck. Ah, I see it's a shit guitar. But it does stay in tune very well, which is not really the point of the Velvet Underground is it? And then Lou starts singing. 'Shiny shiny, whoo hoo, shiny shiny boots of leather, Whoo yeah.' 'Venus In Furs' is not considerably improved by incorporating 'Whoo hoo, whoo yeah' into the lyric. The VU play on, people drift away, grown men weep with disappointment, children laugh, and a dog howling in pain teaches itself to read. The next day the dog will go out and buy a gun and blow its' brains out. That is how badly the Velvet Underground suck on a crappy day, in a stupid field in the countryside. When I get back home I put my Velvets records away in shame and don't play them for another twenty years.

http://thequietus.com/articles/07311-luke-haines-favourite-albums?page=2

Great list, very fun to read.

The new one with Peter Buck is great. One of the best Luke non-Auteurs LPs to date. Think having actual live drums on a Luke Haines album is a good move.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akBwe1Zl11w

This one's really been doing it for me.