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

Kurort - Miss Fitness USA

Less bleak than Stachanov, this was their "Pop" record (just listen to Resignation or Kardinal Schlachthaus). But the lightening up is only marginal, the rest makes this Platte another hard hitting monster of Moshcore. (citing Tom Araya ain't too much pop either)

The band called it quits a year later, the three instrumentals here probably indicated already, that there wasn't much more to say or do in their format.

By the way, despite the title, there's no friggin America-bashing (an evergreen in the European HC/Punk scenes) on this record , just personal politics, the usual alienation stuff and a little anti-catholicism, I assure you.

To show the references of the band and what was going on scenewise "at the times" (1996) I'll just type Miss Fitness's music related thanks list:

Graue Zellen, Those Who Survived The Plague, Fugazi, Anarcrust, Boot Down The Door, Revenge, Seein'Red, Kort Prosess, Gainsay, Cwill, Deadzibel, Trümmer Sind Steine Der Hoffnung, Useful Idiot, Maya, Desperate Cry, Strahler 80, Dissonant View, Hiroshima, Doctor Bison, Cowboy Killers, Serpico, Rubbish heap, Sargnegl, Out of Order, Tromatism, Jughead's Revenge, Hard Headed Soul, Zorn, Gurk, Konstrukt, Verbal Assault, So Much Hate, Life, But How To Live It, Artificial pesticides -



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A1-Priesterrodeo.mp3
A2-Alligator.mp3
A3-Shalalala.mp3
A4-Landvermessung.mp3
A5-Its.mp3
A6-Spaeter.mp3
B1-ImMoorland.mp3
B2-Resignation.mp3
B3-Spliff.mp3
B4-NichtKampflos.mp3
B5-GottBoxt.mp3
B6-KardinalSchlachthaus.mp3

The Passenger, no, Resignation by Kurort on box.net, the whole disc here:

Vinylrip, VBR, 4shared - back up now.
Kurort - Miss Fitness USA

Kurort - Stachanov

"Kurort" in English means health resort, bath, and actually they were from Bad Ischl, the summer resort and hunting ground of our beloved majesties Franzl and Sisi. A place preserved for nostalgia-tourism and suffocating for the casual visitor in it's sugary monarchist necrophilia.

From this locale came the flagship of austrian 90's moshcore. Kurort knew the handicraft of advanced thrash riffing as no other austrian band and embedded this in the drag-and-strain-Hardcore (Zerrcore) of the times.
Their musical proficiency never resulted in technical hick-hack virtuosity, but in well constructed and rounded songs with doomy riffs checked by high impact drumming and driving blast beats. Andreas Wimmer on strained vocals added suffering and memorable chorusses, that even showed some pop-sensibility.

In the early nineties the band toured extensively through all the European squats and youth centers and made a couple of singles and three LP's.
Stachanov, their 2nd album from 1994 is their heaviest and most uncompromising effort.


members:
Flo Sedmak - voc., guit.
Rudi Vogtenhuber - dr.
Andi Wimmer - voc.
Martin Wimmer - bs

A1-KategorischerImperativMitRevolverInDerHand.mp3
A2-GespraechMitEinemFolterer.mp3
A3-Kreis.mp3
A4-Koffeinblues.mp3
A5-Schachtelmann.mp3
B1-KreuzUeberPolen.mp3
B2-hmv.mp3
B3-Block14.mp3
B4-Lieb.mp3
B5-Brach.mp3
B6-Spinner_Immun.mp3

Try Brach on Box.net or get the whole set:

Vinylrip, VBR, on 4shared
Kurort - Stachanov

Transkript eines Anfalls um 4 Uhr morgens

Once I thought they were on to something - with their anti-romance stance they made a big impression on this frustrated adolescent.

Your kiss so sweet,
Your sweat so sour.
Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you,
But I know it's only lust.

Aber das ist doch wirklich nicht die großartige Erkenntnis, als die sie uns seit 28 Jahren verkauft wird.
Heute würde ich sagen: Ja, blöd gelaufen.
Heute würde ich sagen: Streng dich gefälligst an und tau dein Herz auf, du Arschloch!

Die ganze Generation der Gang of Fours, Slits, Au Pairs, etc., etc. hat von der Denunziation der vermeintlichen Liebeslüge gelebt und ihre nunmehrigen Wiedergänger und -käuerinnen ziehen als schick gepanzerte Roboter, 28 Jahre nachdem die entsprechenden Lektionen durchgepaukt worden sind, in den selben Krieg. Für Sauberkeit und Anstand, Wahrhaftigkeit (schau mal bei Moliere nach, was den Misanthropen ausmacht) und blasiert-glasierte Distanz!
(Ach ja, so eine Eifersucht ist wirklich ein unnützer Störenfried, die gehört ins 19. Jahrhundert, das geht auch ohne, am besten geht es ohne alles, 0% Fett, 0% Schweiß, 0% Tränen, Leichen hinter Balkenbrillen!)

Wider euch tiefgekühlte Idiotinnen legen Zeugnis ab:
Carla Bozulich, Irma Thomas, Lucinda Williams, Sylvester, Mia Zapata, Aaron Neville, Melanie, Billie Holiday, H.D. Lawrence, V. Nabokov, Conor Oberst, Sally Timms, The Mekons, Dolly Parton, Christine Lavant, Hank Williams, A Subtle Plague,...

Lucinda Williams - World without Tears

Her voice, that at the height of it´s power on Carwheels and a Gravel Road , really knew how to reach you in certain lower bodily regions and generate there these special prickling sensations, here seems mangled by years of heartache (and possibly corroded by pills + alcohol as well). It´s still all about sex, as every music of the rock persuasion that´s of any use is (with the possible exception of Burzum).

A great album with much better - more tangible - songs than the ones on the overrated Essence.

Sensuality in desperation - or some such thing -, get it here in abundance:

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Lame, VBR, Sharebee:

World without Tears

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(Don´t get distracted by the shitty opening riff in Real live bleeding Fingers)
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Some Videolinks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE2uEl_aB9E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XRVJJ42Y8&feature=related

http://www.dailymotion.com/cluster/music/video/x48j2g_lucinda-williams-still-i-long-for-y_music?from=rss

Melanie

seems to be a joke to most people, embodying all that is ridiculous about hippie culture - namely the barefoot naivety and the simple-minded desire for the unadulterated immediate real.
To most, except for Stephin Merritt and me. We know that Miss Safka's voice, if applied right, is capable of shredding the armour of cool our fellow convicts pride themselves with.
While on most of her records, especially the early ones, there's stuff you will cringe from, still you'll get plenty for avoiding her cow loving side and her "Bo Bo Parties" for Christopher Robin and the other five year olds.

Now let's go over to the record player, shall we?
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Two songs from her second album:
Any Guy is a surprisingly acrid little "I don't care" song, that's put back on its feet with it's final "is she as pretty as me, HA?".
Now, hear her roar on Tuning my Guitar. Getting goosebumps?


As the 70's progressed, she left the large Woodstock audience behind, her songs seemed to withdraw into a more private setting and got a little darker. On 1974's Madrugada you can hear both. This sombre album talks about resignation and offers resource in the consolations of a kind of humane short range devotion/submission, it's intimate songs mainly adressed at the one other.

Get saved by Melanie, Maybe not for a Lifetime, maybe for a reason. Perfect suicide prevention song with an ending that rhymes with ABBA.
Holding Out, it's never easy, hold me down. Her phrasing reminds us of Van Morrison, doesn't it?
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Ta Ta, till next time, when the brotherhood continues on it's crusade against cool.
(Remember kids, coolness is evil.)

Nico

Da ist eine Kluft zwischen den Schichten dieser Welt (keine Musik ist außerhalb), ein Spalt, den ihre Stimme für uns alle offen hält.
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There's a cleft between the layers of this world (no music is outside), a chasm her voice keeps open for us all.
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Death and the Maiden

This is a collection of bootlegs and various bits and pieces ranging from 1965 to 1987.
It starts with her wailing over the Exploding Plastic Inevitable before diving into 13 minutes of New-Age sillyness by Michel Huygen (just Google!), but then, oh then things get a little more serious - CBGB'S 1979: Miss Päffgen and her harmonium perform Secret Side and that's rather breathtaking. - This version is so strong, you should definitely hear it.
On the second side Purple Lips on French TV and a Morrison/Reed backed version of Chelsea Girls from a TV-documentary about the Chelsea Hotel.
Then there's her first Single from 1965 on Immediate - a piece of breezy folkpop, (better than Marianne Faithfull's stuff at the time - before the Austrian-Hungarian aristocrat got her own voice and was still trying to emulate Joan Baezes vibrato-siren (the horror, the horror!)) the B-Side of which a certain Jimmy Page co-wrote.

a1-improvisation.mp3
a2-vuelo_quimico.mp3
a3-secret_side-the_extension_of_the_eye.mp3a4-no_one_is_there.mp3b1-saeta.mp3
b2-purple_lips-intv.mp3
b3-childs_christmas_in_wales.mp3b4-new_york_new_york.mp3
b5-chelsea_girls-intv.mp3
b6-im_not_saying.mp3
b7-the_last_mile.mp3
b8-purple_lips.mp3

Vinyl-rip, VBR, Lame, 71 MB (The Megaupload link ist still working)
Nico - Death & The Maiden