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:
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