The Foreign Correspondent Returns - Stories About German Rock Music # 43

Today I like to feature a band that exists since 30 years. I don't know many German bands that exists this long time and being true to their ideas. One is Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Dirk from Sexy Loser mentioned them weeks ago - the other one are Die Goldenen Zitronen (The Golden Lemons). They started as a punk rock band in Hamburg that are know for their entertaining and politically relevant style. When they formed in 1984 they were just another part of the Fun-Punk movement combined hard rock'n'roll with the 70th annual punk rock and humorous, partly bad, hit-like lyrics. Over the years the band added more experimental musical forms, with which different styles were combined. Their lyrics are political and take a critical view of society from a loft to left-radical perspective.

In 1994 they presented themselves with the album Das bißchen Totschlag (This to a little manslaughter) in a new musical style, to her usual power rock came elements from Garage-Trash, Electro beats, hip-hop and Noise rock pop. In the title song the band refers to the arson attacks in Mölln and Hoyerswerda, the politically motivated murders of blacks in Germany and the following increase of the asylum law as well as the murder of the squatter and anti-fascist Silvio Meier.In the course of the years they changed once more her music style and the instrumentation became more electronic. A certain slope to the avant-garde continued in theirs next works which was completed with Lenin one. There has come out once more, in the end, a collage of modern punk music off pop-cultural commonness. I love this band for being straight and going their very own way and not getting corrupted by the music industry like other nowadays still called punk bands like Die Ärzte or Die Toten Hosen.

Die Goldenen Zitronen - Für immer Punk
Die Goldenen Zitronen - Das bißchen Totschlag
Die Goldenen Zitronen - Lenin
Die Goldenen Zitronen - Der Bürgermeister

Inflammable Material - First Records That Impressed Me Much # 2

Back in 1978 a lot of band appeared with new sounds. It was the time when everything new was accepted and we were hungry for it. We heard a lot of punk and new wave these days. It was these days when everything was possible for everyone who tried to start as a band - the so called Do it yourself.  A lot of bands tried to cover their idols but less were capable of doing it quite as well. Edinburgh's The Rezillos, however,were one of those bands that brought us back the fun in music. Some may say that they just tried to be the British Ramones plundering Rock and Roll history. But not for me. When I bought this record is was in heavy rotation. I liked the hyperactive tempo in their songs, their raging guitar and their pop melodies. They were maybe the first of the new bands that showed us how old songs could be played in a new and exciting way. The Rezillos were able to put their own spin on the template. They were a bit poppier and willing to get a few notches sillier than the others. But the key to this record is that they kept it simple. I still love this record with some of the greatest (cover) versions ever done until this time. I think albums like this can only be made when you get the right kind of lunatics together at just the right time, with just the right support - it's inevitably a one off. If you got this record - get it out, play it, sing along with it and enjoy again.

The Rezillos - Destination Venus (not on this record but worth to be show it up here)
The Rezillos - Flying Saucer Attack
The Rezillos - Glad All Over
The Rezillos - I Like It