The Leather Nun (Sweden) Re-United, New Album

Let's see if this thread sinks without trace .
The legendary Swedish rock band The Leather Nun has recorded a new album, "Whatever", released today April 17th.

Basically, the band sounds like a Swedish mix of The Stooges and Velvet Underground. They had a big underground following in the 80s in Europe and also toured the US.

Here's the wiki, edited for cohesion, for those unfamiliar with the band:
The Leather Nun are a Swedish rock group. Careening from garage rock to goth and industrial, Leather Nun became cult heroes in their native land. The Leather Nun formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1978 by radio DJ and fanzine editor Jonas Almquist (vocals) who, after getting agreement from Genesis P. Orridge to release a single on his Industrial Records label, recruited Bengt "Aron" Aronsson (guitar), Freddie Wadling (bass), and Gert Claesson (drums).

Inspired by such groups and artists like John Lee Hooker, The Mothers of Invention, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Rory Gallagher and Mick Ronson, The Leather Nun released their debut EP, Slow Death, in November 1979. John Peel played the lead song each night for two weeks on his BBC radio programme.

A handful of singles followed before The Leather Nun released their first LP, Alive, in 1985. Covering ABBA's "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" earned the group some respect in Sweden and Europe in 1986. Several successful tours followed. In 1988, The Leather Nun were reviewed in Rolling Stone and quoted to be the first rock act to sell condoms as tour merchandise. In 1986 the group's imported singles found their way onto US college radio stations, earning substantial airplay with "Pink House", a deadpan mockery of John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses".

Their second studio album International Heroes, produced by Kim Fowley, gained even more airplay and
success. Also in 1987, "Jesus Came Driving Along" appeared on the soundtrack for the film Dudes. In August 1988, the band played at the 'Glasnost Rock 88' festival in Tallinn, Estonia, the first international rock festival to be staged in the Soviet Union.While releasing third album Nun Permanent (produced by Mick Ronson) in winter 1991, their record company went bankrupt and could no longer deliver copies of the album. The group finally broke up in 1995.

Leather Nun songs have been covered by several bands, amongst them Butthole Surfers and Turbonegro. It was during a sold-out Leather Nun-show at legendary Scream club in LA, that The Cult-vocalist Ian Astbury (major Leather Nun-fan) met with Swedish Leather Nun-fan and to-be video director Jonas Åkerlund and formed a long-standing friendship. Jonas Åkerlund used music by Leather Nun in his debut movie Spun feat Mickey Rourke.

Here is a quintessential Leather Nun tune: "Primemover"

 

"The Leather Nun! From Sweden in...(long pause) Europe, right?"

Great news, their early 12-inches are landing on my turntable pretty regularly. Their stuff up to "Steel Construct" is simply untouchable, great vocals and guitar, terrific style and attitude!

 

This is a great "best of":

http://www.discogs.com/Leather-Nun-Force-Of-Habit/master/102840

 

Kind of their best album, gathering many of the classic 12' singles and the best tracks from the 'Lust Games' mini LP. The live LP 'Alive' is another fave.

 

Double like!

 

Bump.

 

Has anyone heard how the lp sounds?

 

The LP sounds was better than the cd. Less compressed.

 

The band's best album Force Of Habit has been reissued on double LP. It's also on Spotify.
This was the band's biggest release in the US, originally released in 1988. It is a compilation of their classic singles, and this 30th Anniversary re-release adds further single tracks* and one unreleased recording^

Track list:
1. I Can Smell Your Thoughts (remix)
2. Jesus Came Driving Along
3. Pink House
4. For The Love Of Your Eyes (edit)
5. 506
6. Desolation Ave (full Length Version )
7. Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man After Midnight)
8. Primemover
9. Have Sex With Me
10. No Rule
11. Ensam I Natt*
12. I'm Alive*
13. Son Of A Good Family*
14. Lust For Love (edit)^
15. Lollipop
16. Fly Angels Fly
17. Here Comes Life*
18. Slow Death*
19. Death Threats

 

That a classy and really useful extension, if I didn't have most of these on 12-inches I'd be all over this. Love these songs, complete classics

 

It's an awesome collection!
I also have all the individual 12-inches; the "new" track being the only bait, Lust For Love. It was recorded in a Peel session and released on 12', and also released in live form on a flexi in Bucketful of Brains magazine, but this seems to be a studio outtake.
On The Road is missing for some reason, I'll ask about that.

 

Too bad since "On The Road" is another great track.

 

I asked Jonas A; he said it was simply due to space limitations. Makes you wonder if he is not too fond of the song though; I could happily have replaced Death Threats with On The Road .

 

What would've been better than a straight reissue IMHO would've been a singles collection that rounds up all those 12"'s and EPs, and does so without segues. But this will do, it'll be good to have this album back out there and actually find-able.

Also: "Prime Mover" is one of the most awesome piledriving heavy rock songs out there. A 12" reissue cut for maximum full-frequency heaviness and volume wouldn't be amiss.

 

Was this un-findable? Never thought much about it since I have most of these 12-inches. The only thing I'm missing is the fantastic version of "I Can Smell Your Thoughts".

 

Maybe they felt it important to show that side of the band too? The "Slow Death" artwork is still disgusting and not in the best of tastes. In fact your post just made me google it and it's amazing that I only found articles about that 1977 Turin attack written in Italian. But then again... 1977 was 40 years ago and it was an incident concerning domestic politics so....

 

Yes, I guess they did think so - they did start out as an industrial band, connections to Throbbing Gristle etc. The 30 sec snippet of "Death Threats" on the original LP was enough for me though. Horrible artwork, but then the ability to create controversy was always part of their makeup. Or it was mostly Jonas, the others were just Gothenburg punks.

 

Apropos, would this be worth a thread?

GoFundMe Launched to Help Throbbing Gristle Founder Genesis P-Orridge During Leukemia Battle

 

Didn't know that. Yes, probably would; there are a number of TG fans on the board.

 

It wasn't easy to find at a reasonable price a few years ago - especially the CD, which is what I was after as I already had the LP and all the relevant singles - but looking at Discogs now, that doesn't seem to be so much the case anymore. It seems there are a fair number of decent copies around at reasonable prices. Still, it'll be nice to have some Nun back in print in physical media - I assume nothing else of theirs is at this point.

 

The band has a re-release program with Universal worked out, so this is only the first instalment.

 

Leather Nun seems to be one of the bands, younger people don't seem to have any knowledge of. Which is a shame as those early eps are so good.

On vinyl I see this stuff really often and never expensive, "Steel Construct" is a 5€ album. But this one Berlin dj relentlessly keeps playing "I Can Smell Your Thoughts" at his 80s punk/ goth nights And I'm usually the only one able to identify the artist

 

Having a bit of a busy day/ weekend but I just had 30 minutes to myself so I poured some red and pulled out the "Primemover" and "506" 12"s and they both are great. Love this more aggressive side of The Leather Nun, the crippling loneliness of "506", the seedy "F.F.A.", the majestic "Primemover" and the flat out rock of "I'm Alive" and "Fly Angels Fly". The latter may be a blatant Motorhead rip off but it's one of my favourite Leather Nun tracks, "They can all fok off and die!"

The sound on these old 12-inches is fantastic, nice thick vinyl too.

 

Just got the 2 lp remaster of Force of Habit.
It's a quality pressing, sounds great (except Primemover, for some reason).
Another coup is detailed recording credits for each track; the EP tracks were sometimes released years after recording, so it's nice to have an overview for the first time.
Lust for Love is an outtake from the Lust Games sessions, and it's pretty great.

 

I've been working on a recording info document to make sense of the chronology of recordings and releases, here's the first part (work in progress).


December 1978
Bagger Studio, Stockholm
Engineer: Håkan Forshult
Producer, mixer: The Leather Nun

Death Threats

Released on: "Slow Death" (Industrial Records) (1979)
Released on: "Slow Death" (Wire) (1986)


--------------------------------------------------------------

May 25, 1979
Chall Sound Studio, Gothenburg
Engineer: Håkan Forshult
Producer, mixer: The Leather Nun

Slow Death
No Rule
Ensam I Natt
Ensam I Natt (intro only)


Released on: "Slow Death" (Industrial Records) (1979) (1,2,4)
Released on: "Slow Death" (Wire) (1986) (1-3)


--------------------------------------------------------------
November 30, 1979
Music Palais, Kungsgatan, Stockholm

Primemover (live)
I'm Alive (live)
No Rule (live)
Here Comes Life (live)

Released on: "At Scala Cinema, London, Music Palais Kungsgatan" (Industrial) (1980)


--------------------------------------------------------------
February 24, 1980
Scala Cinema, London

Primemover (live)
I'm Alive (live)
No Rule (live)*
Here Comes Life (live)
506 (live)
Ensam I Natt (live)
Slow Death (live)**

Released on: "At Scala Cinema, London, Music Palais Kungsgatan" (Industrial) (1980)
* Released on: "Ensam I Natt" (Sista Bussen) (1982)
** Released on: "Slow Death" (Wire) (1986)


--------------------------------------------------------------
August 1981
Ljudspåret, Gothenburg
Engineer: Johan Vävare


Primemover
F.F.A.
Ensam I Natt (new version)
Here Comes Life

--------------------------------------------------------------
November 1981
Studio Decibel, Stockholm
Producer: Johan Vävare, Bjarne Zan, Jonas Almquist
Mixer: Johan Vävare

Here Comes Life (mix)
Ensam I Natt (new version) (mix)

Released on: "Ensam I Natt" (Sista Bussen) (1982)

--------------------------------------------------------------
September 1982
Recorded: Studio Decibel, Stockholm
Mixer, engineer: Johan Vävare

Primemover (mix)
F.F.A. (mix)

Released on: "Prime Mover" (Subterranean Records) (1983)


--------------------------------------------------------------
February 1985
Studio Decibel, Stockholm
Engineer, mixer: Dag Lundquist
Producer: The Leather Nun
Mixer: The Leather Nun*

506*
506 (Re-visited)*
Fly Angels Fly
I'm Alive
On the Road
Son Of A Good Family
Desolation Ave



--------------------------------------------------------------
September 1985
Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, Gothenburg
Mixer: Mikael Bergek, Mikael Bergek and Aron Aronson*

Desolation Ave (mix)*
Son Of A Good Family (mix)
On The Road (mix)



--------------------------------------------------------------
October 4, 1985 Ungdomshuset, Copenhagen
October 5, 1985 Told-Kammaret, Helsingor
Producer: The Leather Nun
Engineer: Renee Cambony
Mixer: Michael Bergek

Primemover
Fly Angels Fly
Son Of A Good Family
I'm Alive
Busted Kneecaps
F.F.A.
On the Road
Here Comes Life
For The Love Of Your Eyes
Lollipop

Released on: "Alive" (Wire) (1985)


--------------------------------------------------------------
February 1986
Recorded: Wave Studios, London
Producer: Mikael Dee*, Aron Aronsson**
Engineer: Ian Morrais, Ian Morrais and Bill Buchanan**
Mixer: Bill Buchanan***

Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (no mix)*
Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (Chopper Mix)***
Lollipop**

--------------------------------------------------------------
March 1986
Mistlur Studios, Stockholm
Mixer: Michael Dee and Stefan Glaumann, Stefan Glaumann*

Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (regular mix)
Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (Bonus Mix)
Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (The Rejected Version)
Lollipop*
Lollipop (Suckers Version) (remix)




--------------------------------------------------------------
May 1986
Swedish Broadcasting Corporation, Gothenburg
Engineer: Mikael Bergek

Jesus Came Driving Along
For The Love Of Your Eyes
Have Sex With Me
Lust For Love

--------------------------------------------------------------
July 1986
Recorded: Chapel Lane Studios, Hereford
Mixed: Guerilla Studios, London
Producer: Bill Buchanan
Engineer: Bill Buchanan, Bill Buchanan and Tania Hayward*
Mixer: Bill Buchanan, William Orbit

I Can Smell Your Thoughts
Jesus Came Driving Along (overdubs, mixing)*
Pink House*
For The Love Of Your Eyes (overdubs, mixing)*
Have Sex With Me (overdubs, mixing)*
Lust For Love (overdubs, mixing)*
Falling Apart
Speed of Life*
Pure Heart



--------------------------------------------------------------
July 13, 1986
BBC, London¨

Lust for Love
Pure Heart
Desolation Avenue
Primemover

Released on: "Radio 1 Sessions The Evening Show" (Strange Fruit) (1988)



--------------------------------------------------------------
August 9, 1986
Folkets Park, Hultsfred, Sweden

Lust For Love (live)

Released on: Bucketfull Of Brains magazine 22 (flexi disc) (1987)