Gabi Delgado has passed away a few hours after publishing this interview. He meant the world to me, and he will be terribly missed by his fans. Things indeed can come to a certain end. Gabi Delgado, March 2020 For me, you are without a question the most influental German band. Many people would name …
In Germany circa 1969, the new generation was radically changing German music away from the bland pop Schlager songs of the past towards a psychedelic rock partially influenced by the American and British counterculture, especially Pink Floyd’s first two records Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Saucerful of Secrets. Conrad Schnitzler (a musique concrete …
I’ve heard that Kim Gordon chose one of my records for this special. I’ll gladly return the favor, not just out of politeness, but with complete conviction. Sonic Youth‘s EVOL striked us Noise-Rock kids like no other record. I was 20 years old back then and studied at the University of Virginia. That was a …
I have always rejected the general notion that music was merely a listening experience or throwaway entertainment. Even at its most superficial, music feeds the intellect and the soul, for the better or worse. It informs us of the world we live in, and makes us part of the community we mentally and physically inhabit. …
People will hate me for this choice, because the record is quite a rarity that came out on Record Store Day 2013, with an edition limited to 3500. On green vinyl by the way. I’m surprised myself at how often I have listened to Stephen Malkmus‘ version of the Can album Ege Bamyasi. It’s the …
April 2020 was the 50th anniversary of the album Yeti (1970) by Amon Düül II, so I celebrated and commemorated by posting my thoughts about this album and sharing a humorous meme where Charlie Brown is about to listen to Yeti. The other character has a thought bubble (“Always Charlie plays strange records, why can’t …
You have expressed in past interviews that you prefer playing live rather than recording in a studio. This fits with your vision of music as a synergy between audience and band. Also, your lyrics and vocals emphasize improvisation and repetition. It’s not so much that I prefer one or the other–it is that the concert …
‘Krautrock’ is now the common nomenclature for German avant-garde of the 70s, although that was not always the case- the term was originally used to mock and dismiss the experimental music bursting out of Germany at the time. The German innovators of Kraftwerk, Can, Faust and Neu! were artists who sought a conscious break from …
March 24 is the birthday of two of the most legendary bassists in music history: Carol Kaye and Holger Czukay. Carol Kaye was a rarity in the male-dominated Hollywood industry of the 1960s- a female musician who could outperform most of her male counterparts. She was the go-to bassist for Los Angeles studio sessions and …
