Cool article in today's Los Angeles Times on Bauhaus



Bauhaus, which will play three nights at the Wiltern LG, is David J, left, Peter Murphy, Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins.

POP MUSIC
Goth fathers of rock
Bauhaus is back. The dress code is still black. But it doesn't mean they're rushing into anything.

By Frank Farrar, Times Staff Writer

If timing is everything, you can't do much better than having a reunited Bauhaus coming to town on Halloween weekend.

The English band established itself as a cornerstone of goth rock with its haunting, hypnotic first single, 1979's "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (in which about half of the lyrics are either "Bela," "Lugosi" or "dead").

The band — more inventive and adventurous than a simple "goth" label implies, with insidious crosscurrents of electronica, metal, glam and beyond — broke up after just four years and five albums (including a live one). All four members — singer Peter Murphy, guitarist Daniel Ash, bassist David J and his brother and drummer, Kevin Haskins — went on to further success with solo careers and, in the case of Ash, J and Haskins, as the more radio-friendly Love and Rockets.

But it's Bauhaus that left the indelible mark, the one that has inspired countless doom-and-gloom bands and delivered lasting anthems for legions of fans whose favorite color is black, and whose second-favorite color is black.

So it seems frighteningly well-timed to have the group arriving for shows at the Wiltern LG on the three eves leading up to Allhallows Eve. More than that, the band — which reunited previously for a tour in 1998 and did a well-received one-off show at Coachella earlier this year — sounds excited about emerging again from the shadows.

"It just feels right," Ash said on the phone from his home in Ojai last week, a couple of days before a 29-date tour of North America kicked off. "Because I know seven years ago we did that reunion tour and after it was done, my attitude on that was, 'OK, that's done. Something else.' But this one feels different, inasmuch as it could go on."

The big question for fans — in this age of dime-a-dozen reunion tours — is whether to expect a new album as well.

"We've been talking about it," Haskins said later that day from his home in Los Angeles. (David J has also settled in Southern California, while Murphy makes his home in Turkey.) "I think we feel we want to go on tour next year [a European swing begins in January] and as we go along hopefully start writing material and just let it happen.... I don't think it's something that should be rushed into, and I feel that it would be good for us to play more and bond more, go through that whole process."

"Once it's done," Ash said of the tour, "we'll reassess to see what's out there, what's on offer, basically, and how we feel about being together still and, you know, the usual stuff that happens with this band. And we might have a two-week break, or a two-year break, or a decades break — it's always up in the air."

During the course of two weeks of playing in an L.A. studio (and a couple of full-production rehearsals at a theater in San Pedro), the band picked through its catalog of originals and even some old covers (a version of David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" was a hit for the group in England in 1982).

"The whole set list and production kind of evolved very naturally, and I feel this time around it's more stripped down, compared with Coachella where we had a lot of production, a lot of bells and whistles going on," Haskins said. "It kind of mirrors when we first started out with Bauhaus."

Thus, don't expect a lot of new sounds and arrangements.

"We never do that," Ash said. "The thing with Bauhaus stuff is ... it doesn't sound dated, not to me anyway, and I'm hearing ... there's a whole new generation of people that are really into what we recorded years ago."

Dare we say the group was ahead of its time?

"Well, what I notice is some of the material, it could have been recorded last week," said Ash, more satisfied than boastful. "There's room for improvement as far as the technical side of it and how things were recorded and how well we played, you know, that can always be improved — with modern technology obviously stuff is a lot crisper now — but, having said that, I prefer our analog recordings to digital anyway. I mean, the White Stripes sort of proved that, the way they are. It just sounds right."

mini interview with guitarist Daniel Ash:

What, are you scared of a lil' old '70s amp?

In re-creating that Bauhaus sound of old, the secret for guitarist Daniel Ash is loud and clear.

"I still use the same old amps ... that I used then because I haven't found anything that is as sharp and piercing as this little old amplifier. It's an H&H IC 100S, which is something they used to use in the early '70s, the punk bands — well, mid-'70s."

And it's loud.

"We were setting up in a theater [last week] and — this is very 'Spinal Tap' what I'm gonna tell you," he said, in a quasi-Nigel Tufnel accent, "but I just had my amp on, it wasn't even — it goes from 1 to 10, OK, it doesn't go to 11, it goes from 1 to 10, but I didn't even have it on 1, I had it on 1/2 of 1, and the guy out front was going, 'Can you turn your amp down? It's insane. What have you done to that amp?' That's how loud this old amp is.

"That's what I use for all the Bauhaus stuff and all the Love and Rockets stuff, and I just use those amps because nothing else cuts through like these old amps. I can't believe it myself just how damn loud it is."


Bauhaus

Where: The Wiltern LG, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday

Price: $38.50 and $48.50

Info: (213) 380-5005

awesome - thanks!

they still look great. i think david j. is a robot.

Anxiety said:

He does look like a robot in that pic.With the The Pixies, Bauhaus, & Gang of Four it's been a great year for old bands reuniting, touring, & recording.

New album?

A friend of mine is travelling with them as the tour accountant. I got an e-mail from her and asked her if it was very Gothy accountancy and she responded, "Yes, we do it by candlelight."

PhilG said:

Phil - did U catch GofF atthe Wiltern earlier this month?

Hi, D.R.!

DiminutiveRocker said:

Nope, couldn't afford it .

PhilG said:

Story of my life!