Bauhaus: In the Flat Field

Bauhaus: In the Flat Field

1980

4 AD Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Dark Entries  2. Double Dare  3. In the Flat Field  4. God in an Alcove  5. Dive  6. Spy in the Cab  7. Small Talk Stinks  8. St. Vitus Dance  9. Stigmata Martyr  10. Nerves  11. Telegram Sam  12. Rosegarden Funeral of Sores  13. Terror Couple Kill Colonel  14. Scopes  15. Untitled  16. God in an Alcove  17. Crowds 18. Terror Couple Kill Colonel

Helloooo...My blog is down here...If you can be bothered to take your eyes off that picture of the guy's schlong pictured above for a minute...

This is the debut album by Bauhaus, the version I have also contains all the surrounding singles and b-sides. I consider this the exact point that "Goth Rock" became a fully-formed and readily identifiable thing. Pitch black songs with vocals that veer between a ghostly croon and blood-curdling shrieks...One thing its legion of imitators often overlook is the band's healthy dose of gallows humor.

Most of the tracks are...ahem...vamps...

They don't so much consist of readily identifiable verses and choruses...the song are usually constructed around a repeating serpentine bassline, while the drums pound out a menacing, primitive rhythm. The guitars scrape and claw as Peter Murphy chants some phrase over and over...  The tracks usually end using the same rhythm and  chords it starts with, but they're made interesting by the endless variations...and really in only a very few instances do the songs become the slightest bit dull...Outside of  "Spy in the Cab (which eventually drives me nuts) most of the time it's fantastic...I can't think of a better (or darker) goth-punk blast than "Dark Entries?"  If you know of one, let me know!

I also love the pounding "Double Dare." I remember me and my friend Josh used to jam out to this song in the music room my Dad built for us that we used to call "The Shed." I would play drums on it and Josh would play bass and we'd just bang out that rhythm for an hour or so at a time...It was so fun...I believe I have a recording of one of these "Double Dare" sessions on an old cassette but I can't readily find it...as soon as I come across it again I'll be sure to upload it here...In the meantime here's old photos of "The Shed" where my old band "D.C" (Deranged Chimpmunks) used to rock out and where my current band TA-80 got our start...

Here's the front door featuring a painting of some sort of pig-man...

 Here's the inside...The walls were a reddish orange and we just did paintings all over the place...Here are various monsters and a Strung Out logo that looks more like a Chevy logo...

My favorite thing here is a painting my friend Shawn did in the upper left corner of a guy peeing in another guy's mouth...Genius...

The famous "Weiner Snake head." I think there's a sixer of Coors light in the lower left...

 "The Shed" still exists in Hale, Michigan, but it's since been converted to a sewing room/guest bed-room...the walls have (of course) been painted over but sometimes in the right light you can still see some of the graffitti...

"In the Flat Field" was released in 1980. I was only 4 years old at the time but I can still remember the biggest event in my life that year was the release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back." I cannot convey to you the levels of  my "Empire" obsession...I used to especially love the trading cards that Topps used to put out...I still have some of them in a shoebox in my bedroom, here are some of my favorites I've scanned in...

Here's the outside wrapper...I unwrapped these in about 2006 and ate the gum...by gum I mean a rock hard greyish-pink slab that instantly turned to a bitter-tasting dust as soon as I bit into it...

The cards were all a pinkish blue color when I opened them...I think it the result of being packaged with the gum for 30 years years...The gum also also caused some sort of chemical reaction on the card touching it...There was a gum-shaped burn on the cards...You can't really tell from the scans though...

I think her space-suit looks even cooler in pink...

The Friday Night Record Party blog! Where it's all about the music!

The stickers were all letters of the alphabet...I only have this "Q" & "L."

 On the back they have trivia questions...Unfortunately I don't have card # 246, so I'll never find out if they're doing a sequel or not...

"Malpractice Suit" does not compute...

 Alright...That's enough Star Wars cards today...Maybe if you're lucky I'll post some more tomorrow...You should go to bed now so tomorrow will come even sooner...

Oh yea...I forgot this was supposed to be about Bauhaus..Let's tie a nice bow around things by listening to "Dark Entries" by Bauhaus...Enjoy...