Cocaine

More than 30 years ago in Germany raised a culture of post-punk/new wave with heavy and embarrassing bands claiming this new, fresh and great sound for them to climb up the charts. 98% were rubbish and not worth to lose only one word about them. But a few bands transformed the spirit into the way making their music. There were only a few bands like Extrabreit (others were Ideal and Trio) that stood the test of time. A few days ago I stumbled through my archive and stopped by the sound of German post-punk bands. It is still a pleasure listening to them after decades. Extrabreit made songs about policemen at their depressive work and a song about S/M. It was new these days for our ears. A song about cocaine confused as at well and it is still a classic in German underground of the 80's and the band is still in a good shape when I saw them live a few years ago.

Extrabreit - Kokain

Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin:

Cocaine...

Stuttgart, Cologne, Duisburg, Vienna:

Cocaine...

I cannot sleep

I can eat nothing

it is so expensive

I become the monster

Actor, musician, politician:

Cocaine...

Prostituted, manager, dentists:

Cocaine...

I cannot sleep

I can eat nothing

it is so expensive

I who dzum monster

I am again

blank...

I am again

blank...

I am again

Cocaine...

I want more, more and more

my native country

if this is more...

The Foreign Corresondent Returns - Stories About German (Rock) Music # 50

The will be the last post in this series. As said, I couldn't imagine that this series continued until now. I offered you a big bunch of music that was made by German musicians - in a lot of different styles all over the last 40 years. How to finish this series? That was the question I asked myself a lot of times. Should I feature my favorite artist, album, song or what ever? Finally I decided to none of them. Let me show you some artists/songs that came out the last years or maybe long time ago. All of them mean a lot to me in any way. So thank you for following me during the last year in this series. And I'm sure the foreign correspondent will return again if there is something new that is worth listening to.

The Foreign Correspondent Returns - Stories About German Rock Music # 41

In the course of the unspeakable New German Wave (NDW) a band became very successful, although they were not typically for this music direction stamped by kitsch. Nevertheless, Extrabreit was no typical NDW band, but made German rock music with also critical texts. They saw itself as a punk group which had to owe it only of the NDW that they were so successful. On her website in addition they said: „Yes, we have just taken part in the shit!“

For me they never were a part of the hype, but a classical punk / rock group which has sung on in her mother tongue. About all years away have remained Extrabreit to her style loyal and have played strongly from guitars stamped songs. Unfortunately, they could never again go back to the success of her first both long-playing records, however, they succeeded over and over again in publishing above-average records for German relations.

Extrabreit - Kokain
Extrabreit - Der Präsident ist tot
Extrabreit - Polizisten
Extrabreit - Junge, wir können so heiss sein

Battle Of The Blogs ... Round 1

Alright Dirk, I will accept the challenge with great pleasure. I also don't wanna bore anyone with less details in this post - just adding a few songs to see what will happen. More stories and details will be published on my regular series. I totally agree to your intention to your post and looking also forward to some comments about our German tunes. 

So listen and enjoy, friends.

The first one in this round is from a Hamburg based band and they published their few records on the famous ZickZack-label founded by the godfather of punk and New Wave journalism Alfred Hilsberg. It's a cracking song from Geisterfahrer and means 'Heaven on earth'. 

Geisterfahrer - Himmel auf Erden

The second one in this round is from a band who was very successful all over the period of NDW although they didn't made that plastic sound lot of others did. They saw them self as a part of the punk movement. And here are Extrabreit with 'Policemen'.

Extrabreit - Polizisten

Weekly Family Table

After a busy day at the job I joined my mates for a couple of beer. Talking about useless thing like football and politics. But it is all right, if I can get down. Got home real soon to relax with some music. I decided to listen to some old German music from the eighties. It is a band still acting and making records. In their time they were known as fun-pop band amongst the others of the so called New German Wave. But they were underrated and they are still a very good band playing pure rock.

Enjoy and have a good time.

Rice and curry

After our short trip to Bangkok over the year we are back in Colombo. We found a very nice appartment in a quiet row nearby downtown with two sleeping and a big living room. Also a kitchen is there to prepare some meals or warm them up. We wish to get our friend to visit Germany during the year. It's very difficult to get a visa for him, because the expectations for a Schengen visa are very high. The main reason is, that the geman embassy don't believe, that our friend will come back to Sri Lanka again. Therefore we went to the embassy to talk to the visa officer and explain our request and also our suggestion.

It was last friday noon as we went there. The safety guard told us that  there are no business hours for public people and gave us a telephon number, so we could try our luck. I dialed the number and found myself at the switchboard. The only answer I got was the opening hours to speak our request to the officer. I begged for a couple of times to connect me to the visa officer but all she done, was disconnecting me. So I tried again and on the switchboard was a guy, who spoke a better english than the lady did and connected me with the officer. And what did the officer - he disconnected me also. I got a terrible anger. What do they think I am. These people represent my country and are not able/willing to talk to me. Fuck 'em all. So we have to wait until tomorrow to start again.

Let me write about something more enjoyable. I titled the post rice and curry beause it is the main dish for singha people. They serve it in different styles with chicken, fish or vegetarian. It's your choice if you want it with a cream of beans, lentals or other vegetable. The best curries I had was that ones you get in the shops along the mainroads. Looking the kitchen and the dining room with european eyes you might think it is dirty and rotten. But this is not the truth - it is only very simple in the cooking area and the dining room, because they haven't the money to make it luxury. Anyway: it was always tasty, cheap and we didn't got sick.

We also went to the local market to see all the business men selling fruits and vegetables. Crossing the street you get to another market where they sell all the faked clothes and watches from well known brands. Also walking through the roads where they sell all the electronic stuff is amazing. In this two hours walking around we met no other european or australian. After that we decided to swing to a new pub to get us some pitchers beer.

This is a song I discovered again last year. I think it's 30 years old now but I am still facinated about the drums and the young and rebellios voice of Anabella Lu Win.
Bow Wow Wow - Go wild in the country
Bow Wow Wow - Go wild in the countryV2
Bow Wow Wow - Go wild in the country V3

The other song I would like to feature is a german one from the times they called music 'neue deutsche Welle' - in english: new german wave. Most of the bands the reached the charts are gone and forgotten (god be blessed). But this group is still alive making records worth to listen.
Extrabreit - Kokain
Extrabreit - Kokain V2
Extrabreit - Kokain V3

Enjoy and have a good week