The Lubricants are, as their name suggests, homosexual undertones. Like their country fellows, The Undertones, they come from Northern Ireland, but in a gayer sense. Comprised of musical journeymen, Charles Hatcher and Reggie Chamberlain-King, here working under the pseudonyms, Reggie Hatcher and King Charles Chamberlain, The Lubricants wanted to write music that conveyed their spite, without conveying their talent. And they have achieved that.
Songs Of Hate And Love, their first release, compiles the uncompromising misanthropy of Leonard Cohen alongside the uncompromising misanthropy of Luke Haines, all to the uncompromising misanthropy of tinny drums, tinny keyboards and tinny vocals.
Says Hatcher: "I wanted to create a record that doesn't speak to people in much the same way that I don't speak to people."
That's not to say that romance doesn't get a look in. After all, what is love but the lion's arse of a two-sided coin that has the crowned head of hate as its reverse? But even here there are conflicting ideologies of cynicism and romance. As King Charles puts it: "You can't spell misanthrope without a little bit of hope."
Hate is a bitter pill to swallow, but The Lubricants make it go down easy.
