A trip back to the 00s when male/ female duos were all the rage, often one on guitars/ vocals and the other drumming, sometimes husband and wife. Handsome Furs were from Montreal, a married couple consisting of guitarist/ singer Dan Boeckner accompanied by Alexei Perry (now a writer/ poet). This song popped into my head at some point last week, I think in connection with Russia.
The song (and the album Face Control) came out on Sub Pop in 2009, inspired by Dan's adventures in Eastern Europe and Russia. He was writing about the post- Communist Russia, a place that had adopted a kind of hyper- capitalism with 'no regard whatsoever for human beings'. In Talking Hotel Arbat Blues Dan sings about Face Control, the culture in Moscow where people could book a table in a nightclub, pay in advance, and then be denied entry by the bouncers because they weren't good looking enough (face control). Seems like small beer now in the light of Russia invading Ukraine but the line 'every little things been bought and sold' says something about the state of Russia under Putin. As does the opening line.
Talking Hotel Arbat Blues is a tremendous blast of 00s lo- fi indie/ punk- a crashing, overloaded drum machine, pounding but sparse kick drum, distorted guitar chords and an impassioned vocal. Handsome Furs called it a day in 2012 after releasing their third album Sound Kapital
