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Re: foreign film / the industrial purists.
Edward,
I am just so suprised to see Einstürzende Neubauten having such an
impact abroad. There are few German bands who have ever had a real
music influence abroad, the only other one maybe being the 70's
avantgarde band 'Can' (excellent stuff!), which a lot of English
musicians say had a big influence on them.
In Germany, Einstürzende Neubauten is not that popular anymore, so I
am a bit surprised, really, especially since they are singing in
German. I have to say that I'm not a fan of industrial music (sorry!), though I
feel really sympathetic with the ideas behind EN's music... Maybe I
should really check them out. I am sympathetic to Goth stuff,
though (esp. Bauhaus).
I know about Einstürzende Neubauten not so much from their music but
from their cultural/historical connection to 'Ton, Steine, Scherben'
and the whole scene of alternative culture from the 80's. It brings
back fond memories from my high school days and the things going: Hausbesetzer
(squatters?), the No-nukes peace movement, the APO
('parliament-external political opposition), demonstrations, Startbahn
West, leftist terrorists, the two devided Berlins etc. There's so much connected to it and it's quite hard to describe it to
an American.
Ton, Steine, Scherben was actually the first German rock band to sing
in German. Musically I would label them as 'punk rock'/polit-rock.
They were heavily involved in providing the aggressive voice which
this culture cuture and Rio Reiser was their leader. He was an amazing
person, very charismatic (people called him 'King of Germany') and in
that sense he had a strong influence on Blixa Bargeld/EN and other
bands which were formed on the background of this culture.
Things have changed a lot now, not only in my own life (the long hair
is gone, I'm a proud BMW owner, my musical tastes have changed...) but
also in the German society (Rio Reiser is dead, East Germany is no
more, the politcal activists of this time are political leaders now
themselves). But to hear people talk about Einstürzende Neubauten and
Ton, Steine, Scherben reminds me of these long gone days.
I've heard that a while ago there were a few 'tribute' concerts for
Reiser a few weeks ago which involved former Scherben members and
Blixa Bargeld.
> Bruce Lachey brought two of his German co-workers along.
> i had some interesting conversation with them
> concerning German music, but they'd never heard of
> Neubauten(?!).
> the only band they wanted to talk about was Rammstein!
> i was nearly ashamed for them...
Now this is really ashaming. They must either be a few years youger
then me or they spend the '80 listening to Disco music...
BTW, I found the Russolo quote quite intersting, but it made me wonder
what 'noise' really is. It is such a subjective term which makes it
very difficult to say clear things about it.
Edward, you should really see Berlin, especially Kreuzberg and Eastern
parts.
Carsten
np: Billy Bragg/Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
(well, of course not when you read this...)
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