Sunday, October 4, 2009
Where to put the hate?
It's not all jazz, funk and Flying Nun in the Nilpferd swamp..
Jochen Distelmeyer was the singer, guitarist and head of Hamburg indie band Blumfeld, which combined the Hamburger school with a more British sound, and was one of the most important German indie bands of the last decade. They split up in 2007, and Distelmeyer's solo debut album Heavy, released on September 25th, is an event (within Germany, at least) comparable with the release of Morrissey's Viva Hate.
The first released track from the album, "Wohin mit dem Haß", shows why.
Quite like the video, too.
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where to put the hate I feel inside
eats itself into me like rust
all I know is, I'm not like you
but where to put the hate
Do you know the rich and the powerful
let their expensive cars burn
they neither respect nor fear us
but where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
when it grows like a cancer
grows and refuses to be killed
come with all the mistrust you've nursed
and destroy something of beauty
the people on the street behave like cattle
march together and feel according to the rules
they are so used to it and hate on in silence
until someone asks them
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
all the scorn and ridicule
the envy with which you view me
all you know is, I'm not like you
It will always be so
So give me your hate, and watch
me transform it for you
when I'm finished I'll leave you alone,
alone with your hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
where to put the hate
I think that's more than one third of the lyrics... Looking forward to hearing this; I liked what I heard of Blumfeld.
Another Blumfeld fan here, have ordered the Jochen Distelmeyer album, looking forward to it....
This track isn't actually typical of the album- I made the Morrissey comparison because it reminded me musically a lot of Your Arsenal, with the almost rockabilly style guitars and the focus on mob violence, but stylistically most of the other songs on the album are quieter and more introspective.
Lyrics wise at least I translated them myself, you won't find them in that exact form anywhere else, I'd be willing to bet..
I like it, Nilpferd. Musically it reminds me of Sonic Youth a little bit. The video is good, too. THey manage to build up a lot of tension in a few minutes.
Having just described the tracks in TB's latest Task as unremarkable, I feel compelled to repeat the word here. The words and context may add to the song (a Hitler-fringed person singing about hate?) but the music is vanilla rock, isn't it? Maybe I'd get more from the 'typical' tracks on the album.
Feel free to say it as you see it, Chris, though I have no idea what vanilla rock is.
I don't really see the Hitler thing, either- Distelmeyer is doing the floppy haired German indie look, and he's not playing the role of a hate-creator, but that of a hate-absorber, or commentator. If you want to hear more, Youtube him for a more poppy song called Lass uns liebe sein, which I actually didn't like quite as much.
Poptastic, and I'm loving the slomo mo in the video, but why is it so damn familiar?
Is he a Teutonic Mark E Smith?
Sorry, nilpferd, nothing personal. 'Vanilla' means 'generic', and has the connotation of an unflavoured ice cream... which, of course, can be delicious but can also be a lot like many other makes of unremarkable ice cream. I can live without a more poppy song, I think.
Chris, I figured you meant bland, that's fine by me though, it's Jochen's song, not mine. I doubt you'd get much out of the other tracks, part of the allure for me with this track is in the lyric certainly, I like the way he pronounces the words, and the words he chooses, he's a bit like the Go-betweens' Robert Forster in that sense. But I do like this guitar sound, as Steen says, there is something dark and dramatic about it, plus the rockabilly feel reminds me of Your Arsenal, which I also still like quite a lot.
Blimpy, now you mention it, he does look a bit like Mark E Smith. The director of the video is Matthias Frier, http://www.matthiasfreier.de/musicvideos.htm#
I have seen that slo-mo thing recently too..
Steph von Beauvais is another of the good Hamburg directors,
http://www.vonbeauvais.de/
I (think I) recently posted her video Mein Ruin, a similar track by Tocotronic, with dancing boxers.
http://www.tocotronic.de/videothek/mein-ruin/
Funny too, I came across an article describing Distelmeyer as the german Mark E Smith, mainly because he has a fairly high rotation of band members at present. The German indie pop bands don't appear to be as high profile as the British ones though, most of the "bad boys" in German music are rappers, like Sido or Samy Deluxe.
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