Sinister: Rudi says we've got to get wise

[Dirty Vicar]

hello again,

I've been listening to the Baader Meinhoff album lately. do you know that
one? Sadly, it's not a krautrock album turned out by Andreas Baader and
Gudrun Ensslin in between planting bombs and shooting cops, but rather a
record by Luke Haines. That's Luke Haines, once of The Auteurs, now of Black
Box Recorder. He did this record a few years ago, and it's a concept album
about those bonkers urban guerrillas who plagued West Germany in the 1970s.
My suspicion is that Haines has read the one book about the Baader Meinhoff
gang (or the Rote Arme Fraktion, as they liked to be called) I have, and in
this record he regurgitates it in musical form.

Musically it's all surprisingly funky, but it's kind of strung out white boy
faux funk, with vague Middle Eastern influences thrown in. that's somewhat
appropriate, given the RAF's trip to Jordan for training from the PLO.

The record comes tastefully illustrated with original RAF wanted posters,
pics of Carlos the Jackal (I think - it's not the famous one), Leila Khaled,
and various RAF members being arrested. It's all a very evocative portrait
of a strange time I can dimly remember.

I like this album a lot. It matches the tenor of our times, all that wacky
revolutionary rhetoric starts seeming a bit less mental when soldiers drive
bulldozers over unarmed activists. maybe the man really is out to get us?

uh, yeah. maybe.

which reminds me, the tone of my last post (or the first paragraph thereof)
was somewhat tactless and extreme, and I apologise for that. I will never
again post to Sinister after I come in from a gig with drink taken. This
evening I am posting after my yoga class, is my calmness not striking?

I still hate the war, though.

~stine mentioned St. Patrick's Day. It's a festival I don't care for much
myself, as it tends to bring out the worst elements of my compatriots. I
recommend against ever coming to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. Not unless
you want to witness a warzone without going to Gaza or Iraq. It's fine the
rest of the time. Well, usually.

one more thing - if you live in Ireland will you join me in trying to take
over the ie-indie mailing list? There aren't enough indie fans subbed to it,
and too many musos from Dublin's chin-stroking scene. You can sign up here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ie-indie

mmm, this post is a bit disjointed. but such is life.

DV





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