David J
David J is an English musician best known as the bassist/vocalist for seminal gothic and alternative rock bands Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. Since the mid-'80s, he has also enjoyed a prolific solo career with highlights like 1990's Songs from Another Season, 2003's Estranged, and 2011's Not Long for This World. Also a composer and playwright, J staged his first play, Anarchy in the Gold Street Wimpy, in 2004, and has composed music for both theater and film. While working as a solo artist and collaborating with artists like Jane's Addiction and Amanda Palmer, he also participated in various Bauhaus and Love and Rockets revivals, the former of which yielded the 2006 reunion album Go Away White. A 2016 collaboration with Theatre Bizarre Orchestra saw J working under the pseudonym M.C. Nightshade and in 2022 he partnered with Mexican label No Devotion for the archival compilation What the Patrons Heard.
J (born David J. Haskins) first launched his solo career in 1983, just as Bauhaus folded. His first solo album, Etiquette of Violence, didn't gather much attention, and he began working with the Jazz Butcher. After releasing two albums (Sex and Travel and A Scandal in Bohemia) with the cult musician, David J recorded his second solo album, Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh (1985). Soon afterwards, J and his Bauhaus cohorts Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins attempted to re-form their old band; although it never blossomed into a full-fledged reunion, the trio formed Love and Rockets, releasing their first album in 1985. Love and Rockets found success in the early days of alternative rock with albums like Express (1986) and the more acoustic-oriented Earth, Sun, Moon, which yielded the J-penned college rock hit "No New Tale to Tell."
Following Love and Rockets' surprise hit single "So Alive" in 1989, J released Songs from Another Season, finding success on the newly minted Modern Rock Tracks chart with the album's lead single "I'll Be Your Chauffeur." As his band's success dimmed in the mid-'90s, J remained active as a solo artist with 1992's Urban Urbane and in collaboration with Alan Moore and Tim Perkins on a pair of 1996 releases, The Birth Caul and The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theater of Marvels. Following a 1998 Bauhaus reunion, Love and Rockets released their final album, Lift, before dissolving the band a year later.
J became active again in the early 2000s, releasing a pair of EPs, a singles collection titled Embrace Your Dysfunction, and his sixth solo LP, Estranged, in 2003. That same year he co-wrote and played on the title track of Jane's Addiction's third album, Strays. In addition to music, J began showing his art at a variety of different galleries and, in 2004, debuted his first play, Anarchy in the Gold Street Wimpy. A second Bauhaus reunion in 2005 led to an album, 2006's Go Away White, their first LP of new material since 1983. For the remainder of the decade, J remained largely dedicated to his theater work, writing and directing two more plays.
He returned to the studio in 2011 to record the dark cabaret solo album Not Long for This World, followed in 2014 by the acoustic-based An Eclipse of Ships. He also remained busy as a collaborator, working with Amanda Palmer, the Dandy Warhols, and Darwin, the latter of whose 2012 album, Starfishing, J also produced. In 2015, he published a memoir titled Who Killed Mister Moonlight? (Bauhaus, Black Magick and Benediction). Under the pseudonym M.C. Nightshade, he recorded a 2016 collaborative album with Detroit's Theatre Bizarre Orchestra called Carpe Noctem, then teamed up with Murphy for a 2018 reunion tour celebrating Bauhaus' 40th anniversary. In the early 2020s, J began working with Mexican indie label No Devotion. He contributed a song, "(I Walk Away) From the Girl in Yellow," to a label compilation album, then in 2022 issued a collection of rarities and cover songs from throughout his career titled What the Patrons Heard.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo
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Embrace Your Dysfunction
Rock - Paru chez Cleopatra Records le 4 mai 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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The Day That David Bowie Died
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez 'a' Records le 3 juin 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs From Another Season
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Beggars Banquet le 18 juin 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Etiquette of Violence (Expanded Version)
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Beggars Banquet le 25 nov. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
After We Broke Up (feat. Frawley)
Country - Paru chez Grey Area Entertainment - Sony Music Nashville le 15 déc. 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Etiquette Of Violence
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Beggars Banquet le 28 oct. 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Not Long for This World
Rock - Paru chez Cleopatra Records le 4 mai 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
What The Patrons Heard
Rock - Paru chez GIVE - TAKE le 25 mars 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Crocodile Tears And The Velvet Cosh
Pop/Rock - Paru chez Plain Recordings le 1 janv. 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Missive To An Angel From The Halls Of Infamy And Allure
Alternatif et Indé - Paru chez Glass Modern le 18 oct. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh
Rock - Paru chez Cleopatra Records le 4 mai 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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An Eclipse of Ships
Rock - Paru chez Cleopatra Records le 4 mai 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Commitment Issues
Country - Paru chez Grey Area Entertainment - Sony Music Nashville le 22 mars 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Devil's Muse (Music from the Motion Picture)
Rock - Paru chez Ebola Music le 17 janv. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oh No! Not Another Songwriter!
Rock - Paru chez Independent Project Records, LLC le 28 févr. 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I Wish I Was
Country - Paru chez Grey Area Entertainment - Sony Music Nashville le 16 déc. 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo