Doch dann veränderte ein Konzert der Band Blondie sein Leben.

Kool Kings - Shocked & Amazed

Guess, I'll digress.
(from my recent mission of bringing you Punk 'n' Hardcore from Austria.)

Do you know Kristof Hahn? Well, for instance, a few years ago he translated John Peel's autobiography into german. Which could already tell you he makes the right choices.
But besides being a translator he's also a singer and guitarist with a penchant for nocturnal scenarios.
In 1989 Hahn met Michael Gira and played for a while in the Swans. Which he didn't like all that much, cause there weren't enough real songs. Luckily, the next year he met one Alex Chilton and now things gelled. This pairing produced the greatest tear-in-my-beer recording since George Jones' classic albums of the 60s and 70s. The deed was done in Memphis, TE with a band that could pound away like Crazy Horse or evoke even the faintest sigh of a broken heart. Hahn sings his laments with a frail hangoverish voice in a setting designed by Chilton - one of the stark echoey dimly lit after hours spaces that seem to haunt Chilton since the third Big Star record. (Incidentally it is also the sound of heroin.)

The four covers here are great (even "Autobahn" from those overrated Krautwerk bores catches fire in this Alan-Vega-rockabilly version), but it's the originals that are truly devastating:
Take "I Cry Your Name" with it's pitiful saxophon solo,
the amazingly simple yet powerful "Sad and Lonesome" (click and listen) or "So many Tears" (click and listen) with the classic lines:

You're not the kind of person that you wanna have around, when you're drinking and stinking and puttin her down. You're not half as cool as you think you are, when you lay down your head and fall asleep at the bar.

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musicians:
Alex Chilton
Ron Easley
Doug Garrison
Kristof Hahn
James Llamar Spake
Sven Küster
Steve Almaas

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01-cry_your_name.mp3
02-colorado_trail.mp3
03-les_lettres.mp3
04-so_many_tears.mp3
05-sad_and_lonesome.mp3
06-autobahn.mp3
07-torment.mp3
08-shocked_and_amazed.mp3
09-waiting_for_my_man.mp3
10-partygirls_aqui.mp3
11-je_taime.mp3

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Music to fall to pieces to, download it here:
Kool Kings - Shocked & Amazed


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Kristof Hahn's band in the zeroes is Les Hommes Sauvages, which moves in similar ways.
A video:

No Border Jam

+ czd -my_images.mp3
+ dlareks gallery -five.mp3
+ fetisch 69 -pumpgun_erotic.mp3
+ fleischpost -los_jetzt.mp3
+ general bomb machine -pseudorevolutions.mp3
+ gottschee -blaznost.mp3
+ grb -eys_of_ignorance.mp3
+ hello misery -tomorrow_is_mine.mp3
+ hic et nunc -drug_truck.mp3
+ in45 -escape_from_nowwhere.mp3
+ kurort -weiss_nicht.mp3
+ orange baboons -only_skin.mp3
+ polska malca -v_eni_roki_flasa.mp3
+ pridigarji -rojen_za_suznja.mp3
+ pure laine -lie.mp3
+ sleazy snails -what_you_want.mp3
+ styreo instant -ghoti_simpatico.mp3
+ the search for what -all_silver.mp3
+ veitstanz -pola_lica.mp3
+ yellow minute -monkeys_are_right.mp3
+ zelezobeton -how_do_you_like_it.mp3

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This is a sampler of slovenian and austrian bands, coming from the Maribor Front Rock label in 1993. Some misses between the hits, so the listener has still got work to do.
I'd recommend the hectic SSTish Polska Malca, the Free Rumpel of Fleischpost, the sleazy Pure Laine - Austria's Sisters Of Mercy, the sleazier Orange Baboons - Austria's Urge Overkill, Hello Misery - Slovenia's Birthday Party and of course the simply fabulous Sufferrock of Kurort. "Wohin mei Weg führt, woaß i, woaß i net."

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One track I left off to stay below the 100 MB limit, the rest - 21 songs - you can download here

Sacro Egoismo 89-92

Today, Doris Knecht is a professional young mother and writes a lifestyle column for young urban families. I don't read that crap.
Had I known what would become of this lovely smoky, dispassionate voice, I wouldn't have liked the Pirates' jangly Pop-Hardcore record as much as I did. Then. 1992. Sitting in my young person's bedroom.
On this here tape you'll find three songs from that record.

Sacro Egoismo was the main distributor of Austrian Hardcore in the early 90ies and eventually grew into a label/mailorder/shop/fanzine "empire".
Imperator Tiberiju had contacts to the scene in former (or then rather falling apart) Yugoslavia and so his first release in 1989 was the "The Return of Yugoslavia" compilation with bands from the region. Later came a Motus Lp, but that was a financial fizzer as the Australians say (as the online dictionary suggests). (Motus are still going strong in the zeroes - see here . On Corpus Delicti you can get their first demo tape)
Of the austrian bands the best known beyond our borders probably would have been Cold World - a white-undershirt clad, baseball bat wielding tuff guy troupe influenced by early grindcore.
The bigots in the austrian scene somehow missed the irony involved and consequently rather resented the band - ah, the golden era of the PC crusades. Cold World in 1992: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clJ8uUyUQFs

But Sacro Egoismo never was limited to HC as you'll find when listening to this roundup. There's more jangliness by the Bicycle Thieves, but most importantly there are three songs from the second claustrophobic Extended Versions album. Brilliant, brilliant stuff by those two total refusers of military service (as the online dictionary suggests) - freejazzer and freeform electronica master Christof Kurzmann and guitarist and drumcomputer operator Helmut Heiland.

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A01- Target Of Demand - Heaven.mp3
A02- Cold World - But Jealous Still YouAre.mp3
A03- Cold World - Disgusted.mp3
A04- Extended Versions - Ice Man.mp3
A05- No Fish On Friday - Street Sold.mp3
A06- Strelnikoff - Sayne Ikkorumovidax.mp3
A07- Pirates - Crash Through.mp3
A08- Bicycle Thieves - Liquid.mp3
A09- Motus - Hala.mp3
A10- Heiland Solo - I Talk.mp3
A11- Heiland Solo - The Truth.mp3
A12- Sons Of Ishmael - Ohio.mp3
A13- Extended Versions - Tell Me.mp3
A14- Cold World - Sailin.mp3
B01- Pirates - At The Other Side Of Ignorance.mp3
B02- Zenevski Dekret - Necu Da Budem Dlo Jebene Mase.mp3
B03- Bicycle Thieves - Losing My Religion.mp3
B04- Heiland Solo - Insanity .mp3
B05- Motus - Grad Dosade.mp3
B06- Motus - Dan Poslije.mp3
B07- Target Of Demand - Sicher Pt1.mp3
B08- Extended Versions - Mother Sky.mp3
B09- It - Tawken Hookah.mp3
B10- Heiland Solo - Retired.mp3
B11- Cold World - Cold World.mp3
B12- No Fish On Friday - Phoenix From The Dirt.mp3
B13- Pirates - Johnnys Gift.mp3


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The Pirates - Crash Through on Box.net
Get the tape, scans and all, in two parts here and here