Since the end of World War II, more and more US soldiers have been stationed around Stuttgart. In recent years, their numbers have decreased significantly, but to this day, Kelly Barracks in a suburb is home to AFRICOM, the headquarters of the US military for operations in Africa. In the early 1980's, we often visited the barracks for the annual German-American Friendship Day. To be honest, it was mainly to buy cheap cigarettes. When we talked to the soldiers, they often complained that there was no country club like the ones they knew from home.
The Longhorn Country & Western Saloon opened in March 1984, catering to the need of US military personnel stationed in Stuttgart for an American-style bar. We became aware of this club at the end of 1984 because it was the venue for the nationwide public male striptease. At that time, the strippers were US soldiers; men were not allowed in. Other events such as mud wrestling and wet T-shirt contests are also unthinkable today. When we visited the club for the first time, we were presented with a strange competition.
From 1987 onward, local concert promoters became aware of the club because they had the opportunity to organize concerts for up to 1,000 spectators. Since then I became a regular visitor of the club and was lucky enough to The Pixies, The Levellers, The Fall, Steele Pulse, The Woodentops and George Clinton among many others.
I particularly remember The Gun Club concert in 1987. At that time, there was still a public bar and a pool table on the first floor in front of the artists' dressing rooms. We arrived quite early and passed the time playing a few games until the opening act, Dinosaur Jr., came on stage. After that, we sat down at the bar and ordered a beer. Then a young Japanese woman sat down next to me and we had a nice chat until a long-haired punk with red eyes and an open mouth came up to me, grabbed me by the collar, and told me to leave his girlfriend alone. Several security guards immediately separated us and asked me to leave the floor. How could I have known that I was talking to Romi Mori, the bassist and then-girlfriend of Jeffrey Lee Pierce? Happy that nothing more happened, I was able to enjoy the concert.
A few days back I came back to an album that I didn't listen to without any reason for many years. The Lonesome Crowded West was the second album by Modest Mouse before they signed to a big company. Modest Mouse were at these days an typical American band somewhere between the Pixies, Meat Puppets and early Pavement. Their songs cannot be assigned to any particular style. Too many musical influences can be recognized without any particular one dominating. Trucker Atlas is one of them. A rolling bass and simple drums form the basis for guitar riffs and screamed vocals. The song progresses constantly and inexorably until a break occurs and the speed is suddenly reduced and the focus is on improvisation. Probably one of the songs I would play if I were driving through America's West in a convertible.
Another new band came to my ears the recent days. I use to follow the charts of Austrian radio station fm4 because this station is far away from the mainstream in my country. This station has indebted them to be a platform for independent, electronic music and local artists as well. Not everything touches my musical taste but a lot of songs were played there for the first time. In their last chart the highest new entry were Slide, a Swedish indie-rock duo. For me this songs sounds like a mixture of their musical tastes jointed together in a pop song. They borrowed a chorus by Oasis to create a pop song like Beck would probably do and stealing the melody by Pixie's Where is my mind and you get a very nice pop song.
In the late afternoon I will go like all two weeks to the home match of my team to be able to be present after long time once again at a victory. Well knowing that it will be a hard work to beat Freiburg it might be one of the last chances to stay in contact to the teams that might think their save.
4AD was founded in 1980 by Iv Watts-Russel and Peter Kent as an alternative to their Beggars Banquet label to test something new before they were signed to BB. Kent sold his shares after a year to go his own way. The label started with the release of Bauhaus' In The Flat Fields and I noticed them as another label for new dark wave. During the next years they released bands that are totally different to their first release and found a distinctive identity of new sounds in music.
Cocteau Twins released their first record on 4AD as well. They burst onto the scene with their debut Garland with their Cure-like sound that could be described as a sum, deep heavy mood verging on doom and gloom. It is as dark as Cure's Pornography and PIL's Metal Box.
Another band riding on the gothic/doom wave came from Australia. Dead Can Dance released their first album on 4AD as well. Thinking about them now I should grab this record out again.
The first American band 4AD signed were the Throwing Muses with one of the best female voices in these days. Kristin Hersh could sing what ever she wanted - it sounded fantastic to me.
I still remember the day back in 1988 when I went to my local record shop checking the new entries I stopped when I saw Surfer Rosa by The Pixies. Some kind of topless Spanish dancer in front of an old wall made me want to listen to this record. After a few songs it was clear for me to buy, not knowing what career they will make.
While the label concentrated on American underground music they had a number one in UK-charts with a collage/sampling by M|A|R|R|S formed by A.R. Kane and Colourbox. They coined the sound of the 90's.
During the 90's I only remember the releases by Red House Painters on 4AD. I liked the sad sound of slwocore, indie and alternative sound they made these days. Especially The Rollercoaster was a record I listened often.
Then our ways didn't cross any more until 4AD released The National's High Violent in 2010. A great record that combines a lot of their early releases and the later released American alternative records.
British Sea Power are back with a new record Let The Dancers Inherit The Party. I always liked their very own sound influenced by The Cure, The Pixies and other heroes of this decade. It is still fun listening to their emphatic and emotional intensity. And not to forget their perfect rhythm section and their brilliant guitars. You can call this retro-sound but of course but sometimes it is good that some things don't change.
If you name your band Cigarettes After Sex you can be sure that you get more attention as you name them The Chairs for example. But you have to deserve this attention in your songs. And they deserved this requirement well. It's a indie/slowcore band originally located in El Paso and started again a few years ago in NYC. To describe their sound is difficult. The vocals remind me to Slowdive, the bass line seens to be an evil, dark version from The Pixies, the reluctant guitar could be played by the Cowboy Junkies and the organ to a pop version of Suicide. All in all music borrowed from great artist, mixed in a very own way and not the worst start for a Sunday morning.
As indicated in the last post it was really the last holidays Susanne and I spent together. More and more it has turned out that she had to go to life her own life. Not that we have argued much or cheated each other. The main thing was, that I was tired to keep any problems away from her and I expected her to be more independently as a own person. That's why I set her free. So the year's gone with dividing our goods, planing and fixing our both relocations. Therefore I had more time to play football with my mates. If I surely remember it was the year with our biggest results in various tournaments. We played a big football tournament in Dachau, close to Munich where we were stopped in in the final game. We were destroyed by local players 9:1. Never had a disaster like this before. And after the game the winners has comforted us with the words: 'Don't be too sad guys - you can't beat us because we are professionals, playing in the youth team of the Bundesliga association TSV 1860 Munich'. And therefor we took it as a honor have been played against them.
This year was a good year for records. Here's a small choice of the most important ones:
The Pogues - If I should fall grace with god: Their second masterpiece
Morrissey - Viva Hate: He also works very well without The Smiths
The Sugarcubes - Life's been too good: Unbelievable voice from Iceland
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: A monument of Rap
Living Colour - Vivid: A record the Rolling Stones always wanted to make
Patti Smith - Dream Of Life: Great songs once again from her
The House Of Love - same: Fantastic songs an sounds from a forgotten band
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden: Chamber rock at it's best
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation: Another monument released this year
My Bloody Valentine - Isn't Anything: Not knowing that it takes ages for their second one
Some of this song were in the charts, the others not -but all mark the year 1988:
When we went to the movie we watched films like this:
Rain Man: Dustin Hoffmann and Tom Cruise and their story of brotherhood
Die Hard: Bruce Willis first time against a bunch of criminals
The Naked Gun: Perfect comedy about the TV-series Police Squad
Beetlejuice: Tim Burtons's fantasy - beautiful
A Fish Called Wanda: The Return of Monty Python
Bird: Clint Eastwood and his tribute to Charlie Parker
The Accused: Jodi Foster gang-raped moves to the court
Dangerous Liaisons: With Stephen Frear back into the 1700s
Gorillas in the Mist: About life and work of Diane Fossey
Mississippi Burning: The best movie about rednecks and KKK
A little look into what happened in the world:
Halabja poison gas attack by Iraqi government forces kills more than 5.000 people // George H. Bush was elected to the president of the United States // The Netherlands win the European Football Cup by beating the Soviet Union 2:0 // Riots in Algeria against the leading NLF; Army killed and tortured more than 500 // The Soviet Union starts to retreat from Afghanistan //Steffi Graf wins every Grand Slam tournament
It was once more very hard to make a decision which record meant much to me this year. A monument is of course Sonic Youth and their epic album Daydream Nation that I regular listen to since then. All in all I favor Surfer Rosa from The Pixies as my personal favorite of this year (maybe I make a short series about records that missed the number one these days). I remember when I walked into my local record shop looking the novelty and I held the record in my hand looking at the cover of a topless flamenco dancer. Never heard anything before from The Pixies, only knowing the producer Steve Albini from a few records he produced. The music itself was overpowering.It unites trashy guitars, harmonies and unique lyric in a still fresh and innovative sound. Joey Santiagos's unique contact with the guitar, Black Francis psychotic loud voice, Kim Deals steady bass and lighting up song and Dave Loerings formidable contact with the percussion join to sharp punk and unique pop. "Bone Machine", "Broken Face" and "Vamos" dash and glide in a frightening tempo there without arresting, besides, the listener in much too crude kind & manner. But also the gentle, feeling-stressed side of the Pixies becomes evident on Surfer Rosa. Pieces like Kim Deals "Gigantic" and Francis "Where is My Mind" show a refreshing contrast to the ansonst glowing energy on the rest of the album. A few years later Nirvana released Nevermind - with huge references to Surfer Rosa.
