Die Hitlers

This is a picture of the band Die Hitlers (The Hitlers). It was taken in Düsseldorf, at the Ratinger Hof, in 1980. It appears that the members of Die Hitlers were Markus Oehlen (drums?, also from Deutschland Terzett, Flying Klassenfeind, Mittagspause), Thomas Schwebel (guitar? also in S.Y.P.H, Fehlfarben and Mittagspause), Franz Bielmeier (guitar?, Mittagspause), Peter Hein (Fehlfarben), Jürgen Engler (Male, Die Krupps) and Xao Seffcheque.

But that is about everything I have managed to figure out so far. Good name, though. And I like the Beagle Boy look.

On my wishlist: Guter Abzug

Released in 1982 by the No Time gallery, the Guter Abzug box documents the underground scene around the turn of the decade (70->80, that is). It's a good looking, yellow box containing one large poster, two postcards, one flexidisc recorded by Xao Seffcheque and Die Krupps front man Jürgen Engler, and, most interesting, 102 photographs, capturing the Ratinger Hof scene of the time; the people, the mood, and the artists.

These are just a few pictures from the box, that I have borrowed from Punk Sei Dank, here. Click for larger versions.

Xao Seffcheque:



Der Plan + Moritz Rrr, Robert Görl, Pyrolator, Boyd Rice:



Pyrolator:



Sprung aus den wolken:



DAF:



Holger Hiller:



Liaisons Dangereuses:



Die Krupps:

Business, Numbers, Money, People, and Elin Lanto

While most of this crap song is stolen from Madonna (the song, the video), there's at least one rather obvious Kraftwerk idea incorporated - a few of the Speak & Spell spoken words are exactly the same.

Elin Lanto - "Speak 'N Spell":



Kraftwerk - "Computer World":

Club Lido, Venice, October 1978

Take a look at this! This is Kraftwerk the way I always wanted them - not a single unnecessary body movement, playback all the way, and with the robots on first row.



If you read Wolfgang Flür´s "I Am a Robot", you might have noticed this Italian TV performance being mentioned as something a bit out of the ordinary, as it was broadcasted live over parts of eastern Europe. And that Julio Inglesias was upset because someone had accidentally given his dressing room to Kraftwerk.

The songs that Kraftwerk stopped

We have written abour Audio Objekt's swedish Kraftwerk covers before. See here, here, here, here and here (ok, no, only thrice). But now, maybe, the story is over. This email popped in just a few minutes ago:

Swedish synth duo Audio Objekt’s cover of Kraftwerk’s ”Computer World” has been
stopped by Kraftwerk’s publishing representative in Germany.

The Publisher, Sony ATV, gives no specific reason why they force Audio Objekt to
withdraw the CD single immidiately and for all future. Sony had studied Audio Objekt’s Swedish translation before announcing their decision.

Not only is the CD single stopped from all distribution, also the digital distributor had
to stop all sales of Audio Objekt. All audio files on www.audioobjekt.com, on Audio Objekt’s myspace, on Audio Objekt’s youtube-site, the facebook account, has ben taken out as the song is now forbidden. The CD single also included the song ”Modellen”, a Swedish translation of ”Das Model”.

Audio Objekt is very sad about Sony ATV’s decision, but they have removed all sound files as requested.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been asked if there is any way to get the songs in spite of the decision from Sony. The answer is that while Audio Objekt cannot provide them anylonger, anyone with moderate skills on using the internet’s search engines would probably easily trace Audio Objekt’s music.

Finally Audio Objekt wishes to point out the fact that these songs was made with the deepest respect for Kraftwerk’s music and it was made by two of Kraftwerks most dedicated fans.

Objektivität Schallplatten, Lund-Stockholm, Sweden.

WEBSITE: http://www.audioobjekt.com/

Kate Nashwerk

Kate Nash, 2008:

Kraftwerk, 1974: