Oh Yeah

 

Dieter Meier, a Swiss conceptual artist, musician and entrepreneur, turns eighty today. Reason enough to honor his work, especially with Yello, a band formed in 1977 by Boris Blank and Carlos Peron. 

Legend has it that the two met in a car test lab to record engine noises to create songs. In their search for a voice to accompany their songs, they came across the professional gambler, painter and performance artist Dieter Meier, who was still playing in a band called The Assholes at the time. 

They released several songs on a Swiss indie label and Bostiche went through the roof in the United States in the early 80's and was played in many discotheques. On the following albums, they released classics of early electro-pop that became unmistakable thanks to Meier's spoken vocals.

Happy birthday, Dieter

Yello - Bostich

Yello - The Race

Yello - Oh Yeah

Purchased (Not Only) By The Cover

It is not comprehensible why Yello didn't appeared since I was running this blog. Surely not because they make bad music or I don't like them. I remember the first time I hold their first album in my hands looking at the cover this must be another punk band. A baby in a nappy and it's head looking like the head of a frog doesn't fit to a Swiss band in these days. The project by Boris Blank and Carlos Péron and added by congentital voice by Dieter Meier was radical in 1981. In times before sampling was used by many artists Yello created their on sound on using fragments of songs, tape-recordings, keyboards and percussion. Solid Pleasure was one of those records that made my start into new electronic music. It is almost 40 years ago when I bought this record and it is still a pleasure to listen to it. Bostich, a song that became famous on  dancefloor appeared the first time in a raw version on this album. The rest of their songs and success is history but they never had the verve of their first album.

Yello - Bimbo

Yello - Night Flanger

Yello - Bostich

Yello - Eternal Legs

Labeled

The title shows one of the provocative marketing slogans for a record label in the late 70's. Stiff Record was formed by Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson, both enrooted in the pub-rock scene of the early 70's by managing pub-rock legends like Dr. Feelgood or Brinsley Schwarz. The legend tells that both founded the label by a loan on £400 from Lee Brilleaux of Dr. Feelgood. So it is nearby that their first single was by a veteran of the scene: Nick Lowe. They signed a lot of artists I could agree with and I bought a lot of records only because they was released on Stiff Records. It was also a label that had open ears for the dawning of new kind of music and musicians raised in the pub-rock scene got a panel to develop a new sound. Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric on the one and The Damned, Madness and Tenpole Tudor on the other side were the bands I connect with this label. Always good to listen to them from time to time.