Haines, Luke
Webpages concerning "Haines, Luke"
|
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.
Wikipedia-Article "Luke Haines"
Luke Haines (born October 7, 1967) is an English musician, who has released music under a variety of names, notably The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder.
History
Haines formed numerous bands when he was at school. At college he joined The Servants who recorded two commercially unsuccessful albums. It was only when Haines formed The Auteurs with his girlfriend Alice Readman (who had also been in The Servants) and Glenn Collins in 1990 that he began to achieve some success.
Regular gigging in the London area and an NME sponsored gig brought them to the attention of Hut Records. The released their first single, "Showgirl" in January 1993, and their debut album New Wave a month later. Haines was later to claim that this was the album that started Britpop. Certainly it was ahead of its time in turning back from the acid house then popular to more traditional songwriting in the vein of The Kinks or The Small Faces. It is arguable that more commercially successful bands (such as Suede) owed much to Haines' vision. In any case, the album did well commercially (for a first album) and was nominated for a Mercury Prize.
The band toured the UK and the USA, gaining generally good reviews: however it is the opinion of the NME that the band were better in the studio than live. People who actually saw those early '90s gigs would probably disagree.
Their second album, Now I'm a Cowboy (1994) featured "Lenny Valentino" one of their most famous songs. By now the band were touring Europe and the States regularly, and were gaining a reputation as one of the best new British bands.
However, just as the band looked like 'breaking through' to the mainstream (as other British bands, such as Oasis and Blur were then doing), under pressure of constant touring Haines had had enough. "I broke both of my ankles. I jumped off a fifteen-foot wall at a particular low point in our touring, in a bid to finish the tour and get the insurance." said Haines in 1996 " It gave me a chance to slow down and take stock. ... (but) it was kind of a cop-out. I probably should have just killed myself." In a wheel chair for most of 1995, Haines wrote the very different songs that would end up becoming the Auteurs' third album, After Murder Park. Far bleaker and more introspective than previous Auteurs albums, this was just as English as his previous work but now showed very different influences: the downbeat folk of Richard Thompson, the aggression of My Bloody Valentine, the experimentalism of Wire, and the caustic lyrics of The Fall. It benefitted from spare production by Steve Albini. Recorded, ironically, at Abbey Road studios at the height of Britpop, this was the ultimate anti-Britpop album. It has stood the test of time far better than many other albums that were far more fashionable at the time.
At this point, Haines created a side project Baader-Meinhof who recorded one eponymous album. This explored themes relating to the Baader Meinhof Gang with a muted jazz-funk musical backing: German terrorism of the 1970s was to remain one of Haines' lyrical obsessions.
After this, Haines disbanded the Auteurs, only to bring them back together again for their fourth album How I Learned to Love the Boot Boys. This sounds like an amalgamation of Haines' previous styles: it is electronic, but has the same concern for pop hooks as his first two albums: on the other hand, the lyrics are brooding and obsessive, in a similar way to those on After Murder Park. From this point on, The Auteurs become merely a name for whatever musicians Haines chooses to bring together for specific projects.
After this album Haines created another side project with John Moore (formerly of The Jesus and Mary Chain) and Sarah Nixey: Black Box Recorder. With a sound clearly influenced by trip-hop and the ambient sound of French bands such as Air, the band produced three commercially successful albums, England Made Me, The Facts of Life, and Passionoia. There is also a B-sides collection, The Worst of Black Box Recorder. The Facts of Life produced the eponymous single, which has been the biggest hit of Haines' career so far.
Recently Haines has branched into film music, writing the music for Christie Malry's Own Double Entry, a British film based on the novel by B.S. Johnson.
He has also produced a number of solo albums under his own name, including The Oliver Twist Manifesto. However, perhaps realising that he will always be best known as the creative force behind The Auteurs, Haines continues to reform them and remake their songs in a variety of ways. The Auteurs 'Best of' album Das Capital (sic) consisted of Auteurs songs reworked by a classical orchestra in a typically eccentric fashion.
Luke Haines is Dead, a 3 CD box set of A-sides, B-sides, rarities, BBC sessions, unreleased tracks and classic songs by The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof, and Luke Haines was released by EMI on in the Summer of 2005.
According to his official website, Haines's new solo album (provisional title: 'Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop') will be released in April 2006.