Postpunk-Time travel: Part 1

STOCKHOLM MONSTERS

Summer 1980, An overlooked part of Manchesters Postpunk-history

What a great band and how criminally neglected. STOCKHOLM MONSTERS were birthed in the summer of 1980 in Manchester, England. The original line-up consisted of Tony France, Jed Duffy and Shan Hira. Still in their teens they were discovered by NEW ORDER bassist Peter Hook, who produced their first fantastic single „Fairy Tales“ (Factory 41, released in 1982).

Throughout their whole musical career, if one wants to call it a career, they lived a life in the shadows. It was NEW ORDER and HAPPY MONDAYS who would dominate the decade, STOCKHOLM MONSTERS were lucky enough to get a few NEW ORDER support shows in Northern England in 1981.

STOCKHOLM MONSTERS’ music was melancholic and atmospheric, bass-heavy and melodic. It was Postpunk-poetry at its best. Some claimed that in terms of musical professionalism they couldn’t really live up to their big „Factory“-brothers. That might be true, but in terms of teenage Postpunk-angst, there were not many who could create a similar live-experience. Listening to „Kan Kill!“ (from their outstanding 1984 studio album “Alma Mater”) or „Partyline“ (Factory 146), my personal favorite STOCKHOLM MONSTERS song, reminds of a time when it all began. It reminds of NEW ORDERs first record „Movement“ (still the only NEW ORDER album relevant to me), which was more or less a JOY DIVISION album without Ian. Listen to „Partyline“ and decide for yourself. Maybe you find that Tony France’s singing is out of tune, maybe you think the guitars are not sounding right. But maybe you will agree that all that makes STOCKHOLM MONSTERS sound even better.

Find a comprehensive biography here!

CRYSTAL STILTS Alight Of Night CD

All roads lead to Brooklyn

Quite recently I re-discovered SUICIDE, one of those unique bands that emerged from the early New York City Punk scene. Without any doubt their first album “Suicide” from 1977 is more than a classic. It is a musical masterpiece, that inspired generations of bands and its relevance today is bigger than ever. On SUICIDE’s second album “Dream Baby Dream” is my personal favorite, it also found its way to Swing Heil, Friedrichs Mixtape Vol.1 on Spotify

CRYSTAL STILTS  from Brooklyn, New York have a lot of SUICIDE blood running in their musical veins, combined with a noisy but somehow relaxed JESUS AND MARY CHAIN twist. Can you imagine adding a tinge of VELVET UNDERGROUND now? Well, that’s the main ingredients of  CRYSTAL STILLS’  album “Alight of Night”, which is definetly worth checking.  Released 2009 via Angular Records,”Alight of Night” amazes the listener with wonderful songs like “The SinKing” – and what a song title that is. Getting lost in CRYSTAL STILTS  minimalistic-psychedelic sound eruptions is a true relief in times of soul-less indie-boybands ruling the charts.

THE CHURCH Untitled #23 CD

True veterans

Finally I had the opportunity to interview one of my all time favorite 80ies bands. The Australian Shoegaze-Psychedelic-Rock band THE CHURCH started 1980 in the Australian city Canberra, in their first years they were probably one of the most fascinating, yet not very well-known New Wave bands. In 1988 their hitsingle “Under the Milky Way” was released and brought them some success in the charts. Their 1988 album “Starfish” is one of those fine musical moments in time that no band today will ever be able to recreate again.

Now they are back. THE CHURCH are about to release their fascinating new album “Untitled #23″. Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper continue to walk their path of athmospheric- psychedelic Pop. My personal favorite on “Untitled #23″ is definetly the wonderful epic song “anchorage”.

I had the sincere pleasure to ask Steve Kilbey a few short questions.

Steve, are you already getting bored with people asking you about the title of your new album? I mean it’s called “Untitled #23″, probably a lot of uninspired people find that worth joking about…

It’s funny that you call the album “untitled” and a lot of people ask what that means…but i don’t get bored with answering it. I usually make up some story about it.

Is there a story you would like to share concerning the  song “Anchorage”, which is probably my favourite on “Untitled #23″?

I have never been to Anchorage, so I wrote the words to this blind. I knew this piece of music should become a song about a city. And Tim suggested Anchorage when we started. I just imagined all the rest, it’s like snapshots of someones fucked up life and love.

Would you agree that it gets more and more important for you throughout the years to create an album that works more as a whole, rather than have single hits on it?

Wow, I wouldnt mind a hit and a whole…if you know what I mean…but if it has to be one or the other….god, i dont know…

Was there any particular thing that inspired you the most while doing “Untitled #23″ ?

I became re-inspired by melody and i sought to inject lots of melody into everything.

Thank you Steve, for a few of those magical musical moments in life.

ZEIT The Glued and Honeydripped EP

Bittersweet nostalgia from Gothenburg

There is something extremely intriguing about Gothenburg, when it comes to music. I experienced that some people in Gothenburg already get bored by the fact how many musicians domicile in Sweden’s second-largest city.

A quite new band from Gothenburg, which is definetly worth checking are ZEIT. Formed in June 2008, ZEIT were influenced by MY BLOODY VALENTINE and THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN. Their new EP is titled “The Glued and Honeydripped” and is dark Shoegaze at it’s best.

Erik Engblom, Erik Jonsson and Björn Alm answered my questions on their influences, ideas and feelings about the music scene in Gothenburg.

One of the characteristics that stands out with your music, is the very simple musical approach. Especially the very few chords that are used in a repetitive way. How did you find your style and how did it evolve?

Erik Engblom: As I remember it, ZEIT took shape in my brother’s sofa while talking to my good friend Erik Jonsson (whom I formed Zeit with in early June 2008). I can recall that we shared some structural ideas about music that involved simplicity and rather then focus on technicalities, such as, variation and changes in the music we wanted to capture atmosphere.    And we both grew up listening to bands like THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN and MY BLOODY VALENTINE, in a pure theoretical sense my idea with Zeit was to combine the atmosphere you can find in MY BLOODY VALENTINES sound, but with a more simplified structure that resembles in my opinion THE JESUS AND MARY CHAINS approach to music. A few days after this discussion I went to Erik Jonssons place, he had two chords that he played on his down tuned guitar that eventually became “Happiness in Times of Misery”. It was the proof for us that two chords can be enough, and I remembered thinking that this song materialized the whole concept I had in mind.

What is the song “Happiness in Times of Misery” about?

Erik Engblom: It is my reflection, or paraphrase on the famous Dante quote: “There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery”. I try to describe such sorrow, and in my opinion, the greatest sorrow is to live your life constantly contemplating over the past, and as a result you will not be able to “inhale” the present. In such state you tend (or maybe it’s just me) to see the world through a lens of a bittersweet nostalgia, you are not dead in any serious sense, but you live as if you were. That’s what I try to capture in the song

What are your feelings about Gothenburg’s music scene?

Erik Jonsson: There is lots of great music being made here and that is inspiring. There is so much good punk, noise and other experimental music coming out of Gothenburg. Stuff like Batalj, Ättestupa, Street Drinkers, Weary Nous, The Black Bug, The Fresh Weather Bomb Attack (shameless self promotion) and so much more. I don’t feel like the Gothenburg scene has alot to do with how we sound though but it’s nice to be in a city that has lots of different things going on.

Björn Alm: The music scene in Gothenburg is better than the one Stockholm. Sure there are maybe bigger bands that come to play there, but my overall feeling is that there are so many more good bands that come from Gothenburg. For example: Silverbullit, Franke, Soundtrack of our lives, The Embassy and  Convoj.

http://www.myspace.com/zeittheband

THE EXPLODING BOY Afterglow CD

Melancholic NewWave-Pop from Stockholm

Thanks to a lucky coincidence  and a colleague with great taste in music, I discovered Stockholms THE EXPLODING BOY. The Swedish Goth/NewWave-revivalists fascinate with a mix of THE CURE, INTERPOL and EDITORS. After Gothenburgs CUT CITY, the next great Swedish band that pays tribute to a genre, that found its beginning on the day when Punk died. In May 2009 their new album “AFTERGLOW” came out in Sweden, on the 3rd of August it is going to be released in Germany, France and Holland. Wonderful songs like “Heart of Glass” impress with beeing dark, mellow and catchy at the same time. Recently THE EXPLODING BOY played at the (in)famous German “Wave Gotik Treffen”- festival in Leipzig, which regulary attracts the majority of the German Goth-scene – or let’s say a scene, that considers themselves to be “Goth”, but are a bit spacy in my view.

It was in the early 1980s when gothic rock became a subgenre of the Post-Punk-movement. Bands that have to be mentioned here are foremost ADAM AND THE ANTS, BAUHAUS, SPECIMEN, SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES, THE DAMNED, THE CURE, CHRISTIAN DEATH and ofcourse JOY DIVISION. Sometimes one gets the impression that the modern Goth-scene has almost forgot about those bands and that they are only obsessed with cheesy Electro/SynthPop-hymns, which I have a hard time to understand musicwise.

I interviewed Nick and Johan from THE EXPLODING BOY on this issue and also on their influences for their new album “Afterglow” and ofcourse on their personal Post-Punk favorites.

Nick, Johan,  you played at the “Wave Gotik Treffen” in Leipzig, which is probably the biggest Gothic-festival in Germany. What kind of experience was that?

Nick: It was an amazing experience and very overwhelming that so many people showed up…

Johan: Absolutely, It was a great experience. For me, I had never been there, and was always a bit jealous of friends who went there and loved it, and suddenly we got booked there, and the friends from Stockholm was in the audience! I even heard one of them cried when we played a sad song, so that is kind of a revenge I think.
It was the biggest stage we’ve entered as well, so that felt really good. I think our music gets better at bigger stages.

Don’t you find it sometimes strange how much the modern Gothic-scene (especially in Germany) is music wise and from the outfits detached from the scenes originators, which I still consider to be bands like JOY DIVISION, BAUHAUS and SIOUXSIE?

Nick: The Gothic scene today is more about the gothic style and the clothes. It is very rare that you see an “original goth” in worn out black jeans, pointy shoes and a SIOUXSIE T-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Now it is all about plastic and everybody seems to be into this S&M thing, and that had nothing to do with the gothic scene from the beginning.

What were your biggest influences when working on “Afterglow” ?

Johan: I think since we were just me and Les who made the first album, and now all the four of us, the other guys distributed with a lot of things to the sound, and that influenced us all a lot during the recordings. Stefan with a lot of PLACEBO-vocals and punk-guitars, and Nick with a lot of SISTERS OF MERCY-feelings and a lot of keyboard playing in the making of the songs. And though we like those things from the beginning, it is more obvious in this album. I think it feels very fresh and as a great mixture.

Nick: The biggest influence was probably Stockholm and Sweden in general. We recorded the album during the cold and dark period and that probably made the record what it finally become, melancholic, but with a strong underground party feeling to it.

Do you have favorites in the PostPunk – genre and for what reasons?

Nick: The early ADAM & THE ANTS stuff has always been a big influence for me…

Johan: I really like most of those bands like THE SOUND, MAGAZINE, BAUHAUS but early THE CURE stuff has always been one of the main influences. The common thing is that they’ve got a certain feeling I love. I don’t know what it is, but since I totally love melodies in a song it has probably something to do with that.

www.myspace.com/theexplodingboyse

WAR TAPES Continental Divide CD

Doom-pop from Downtown L. A.

Saccharine-sweet melodies, catchy singalongs and apocalyptical discordant guitars converge to a – one must admit – typical US-type post-punk bombast. Honest lyrics sang by great baritone Neil Popkins satisfy all the lost New Wave-souls out there, yet WAR TAPES has an extremely modern, contemporary Pop-edge to it, almost crossing the border to more mainstream – type acts.

With „Continental Divide“ WAR TAPES manage to get the attention of a more mainstream orientated audience, but they also keep the more stubborn, conservative post-punk fans like me listening with delight.

I asked singer Neil Popkins from WAR TAPES two short questions.

Neil, one of my favorite songs on „Continental Divide“ is “dreaming of you”. Is there a story behind that song you want to share?

It’s about living out a romantic fantasy in your life solely in a dream world. Not caring about reality only because the more you dream the more it becomes a reality. You would rather sleep your life away then deal with the fact that the moment has passed ages ago and it is out of your reach.

Which bands of the Post Punk-era had the biggest influence on you and why?

THE CURE, I love how prolific they have been over the years even their new material is equally as important as their early years. The first time I heard “Boys don’t cry” I was immediately in love with their music.

JOY DIVISION, I love the romanticized story behind the band how picturesque and utterly heart breaking their demise with Ian Curtis’s suicide which led to the legend surrounding the band and the man. It’s a terrible tradgedy but it needed to happen in order for the world to unfold the way it did. They paved the way for the underground.

www.myspace.com/wartapes

Support the band and get WAR TAPES “Continental Divide” here !

WE MISS THE EARTH A New Silent Era

What means post-punk today?

Searching for “modern” post-punk bands feels sometimes like a treasure hunt: Extremely time consuming, exhausting and difficult, but in the end highly rewarding. Especially when you are searching for something aside of the INTERPOL- and EDITORS-mainstream.

Discovering WE MISS THE EARTH from Portland, Oregon was definetly more than rewarding. In 2008 they released their EP “A New Silent Era”  which came up with 6 wonderful songs, in the vein of the legendary English 80ies post-punk band THE SOUND (which never received the attention they deserved). Very soon  “New Silent Era” is to be mastered, repackaged and released as a full length record with a complete new artwork via This-A-Way Records. Something I definetly look forward to.

I interviewed Chris from WE MISS THE EARTH on his personal  icons, about post-punk today and on the DEATH IN JUNE – controversy.

Chris, which bands of the post-punk-era had the biggest influence on you and why?

If I had to pick one, I’d have to say THE SOUND. I enjoy the atmosphere of many post-punk type bands, but THE SOUND was able to deliver both mood and perfect pop simultaneously, and consistantly.

Are you familiar with the controversy about the british band DEATH IN JUNE, who are highly disputed in Germany because of their usage of Nazi-aesthetics?

I have a friend who introduced me to his music several years ago, and just recently I’ve received a copy of one of the newer albums (“Rule Of Thirds”?) from a friend who worked at a record label he’s on. It’s kind of funny you ask this, as I’ve recently tried to seek out what it is DEATH IN JUNE really represents. So many of the early punk/post-punk bands flirted with fascist imagery, but didn’t believe in that ideology at all.

I can’t fully state what I think of DIJ as I don’t know enough about it. I do however believe that people should exercise their own discretion on what they listen to and allow to influence them.

What is the song “modern violence” about?

When I come up with song ideas it usually stems from sayings or ideas I find kind of intriguing or strange. “Modern Violence” just follows in that trend. I guess I was amused by the idea of calling something archaic like violence modern or updated. Ha ha.

Do you think one can speak of a post-punk-revival these days?

Oh I dunno, didn’t that begin and end with INTERPOL?
Honestly, only a couple of modern post-punk type bands really interest me, and the one I find most immediate would have to be THE PRIDS. I believe they’re creating truly classic music, and I personally hold that above all else.

recommended song: “Incentive”

www.myspace.com/wemisstheearth

DOWN IN JUNE Covers … CD

Between symbolism and art

Authentic and true music has the potential to upset people. Good music should provoke. It can provoke emotionally or on a political level. Is there a limit? Is there anybody authorized to set a limit for how far artistic provocation can go? Since the early days of Punkrock, controversial symbolism has been used in order to provoke, to arouse and shake things up. The legendary early punk icon Siouxsie  Sioux wore not only rubber stockings, but also swastika armbands. Back then outrageous and scandalous, now a part of music history.

The Swedish Band DOWN IN JUNE  released 14 cover songs, that aim to interprete  the controversial British band DEATH IN JUNE in a complete new way. DEATH IN JUNE, a band that started in the early 80ies, originally with a quite similar sound and aesthetic as the mythical Manchester band JOY DIVISION, has been highly disputed since their very beginning.  Especially in Germany are DEATH IN JUNE and their main actor Douglas Pearce more than controversial, because of their usage of Nazi-imagery, aesthetics and lyrics.

I  interviewed the Swedish cover-band DOWN IN JUNE in order to find answers to       several questions. How far can artistic provocation go, especially when it comes          to explicit symbolism? Should there be a limit, a barrier, that must not be  crossed? How is the relationsship between art, music and politics in this matter?

I had to face a lot of discussions after I completed this interview, which I think is a  good sign. Please read and judge for yourself.

Could you describe your first contact with DEATH IN JUNE and what effect it had on you and how DOWN IN JUNE got started ?

DOWN IN JUNE is a love story. One of DOWN IN JUNEs members, Mr Catjar brought a DEATH IN JUNE song he thought we should try to cover (“Little black angel”) and we had a really good session in the studio. After that, listening to DEATH IN JUNE songs became something like a treasure hunt, but without struggle. We felt really rich from the wealth of these songs and enjoyed working with this material and the process was very fast, sometimes one song per day.

What aspects of DEATH IN JUNE did you find fascinating at first?

The quality of Douglas Pearce’s songwriting. His songs are really exceptional in modern music history. To deal with his songs changed our idea of what we do, and this still fascinates us.

DEATH IN JUNE are especially in Germany more than controversial, because of their usage of Nazi-imagery, aesthetics and lyrics. What is your opinion on that?

Our consumist culture stipulates some cliché alternatives for human subjectivity, all constructed to help us forget our history. We have no problem in understanding that DEATH IN JUNE might be controversial. Everything important must be controversial, only then may a discussion be possible. Tarrying with the negative might scratch a few scars, nonetheless, we see Douglas Pearce as a very serious artist that did some brave moves in his career.  Probably at a great personal cost sometimes, and we respect him for that.

Your record appears on the official DEATH IN JUNE Homepage. How is your relation to Douglas Pearce?

Well, Douglas P signed our record deal so off course he has an interest in marketing our record on his homepage. To what and where our collaboration will lead us in the future is yet to be explored.

Do you think its possible or necessary to find a balance between artistic/aesthetic freedom of expression and respect for – in the case of DEATH IN JUNE -  the victims of the holocaust?

The victims of the holocaust do not benefit from an understanding of art that doesn’t make room for DEATH IN JUNE. It is a stupid idea that art should serve the purpose of societal wishes to keep things in a neat order. What made the holocaust possible is still here and yet to be dealt with. Pointing out the use of controversial symbols as the disease is just a way to avoid the symptom.

The record “Roseclouds of Holocaust” is one of DEATH IN JUNEs most controversial albums. On the 31. of December 2005 it has been put on the index of the “Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien”, because of its  nationalsocialistic tendencies, especially because of the songs „Rose Clouds of Holocaust“ and „Lifebooks“. The text of the songs „Rose Clouds of Holocaust“ was supposed to portray the holocaust as fiction. Douglas Pearce claimed that this song had nothing to do with the holocaust in Nazi-Germany, but refers to the ancient greek word „holokáutoma“  (burnt offering) and was an expression for a nature experience he once had on Iceland. What is your opinion on this whole issue?

We don’t know…we don’t have the information… but the holocaust is ofcourse a “fiction” in the sense that it is the most powerful narrative of absolute evil in our times. Therefore we should have an open debate of how to use that narrative and for what purposes.

In Punk Nazi-symbolism has been often used, mostly to    provoke and as artistic means. How far do you think should/can  provocation go?

Provocation is inevitable for anyone who wants to raise a discussion. But the confirmative habits of avoiding societal antagonisms will always condemn those who provokes/raises questions. Since our times are dominated by structures that aim to hide its ideological premises, art might have a mission.

Could you describe your life performances?

We are very much a band that favours chance as we let the live situation provoke us into some uncertainty. It’s actually a question of reality and fiction. We do not represent our performance but try to become it as we go along.

What is the future for DOWN IN JUNE?

Hopefully we will go on tour through Europe and USA. That would be a dream come true! Till then we stay in our studio working on the next album with our other project BABY BLONDE & THE DOWNS. We have an album title by the way: ”Apes of a cold God”.

recommended song: “Kameradschaft”

www.myspace.com/downinjune