Part one in an occassional series when it all gets a bit too much.
Michael Rosen. Poet, writer of childrens books, public intellectual in the best meaning of the word, socialist. And not too embarrassed to act out his own stories on Youtube…
video
Hurra Hurra…
Just because some poor sod searching for the lyrics of CODO reminded me I hand’t put any Neue Deutsche Welle on for a long time. Yes, there was a time during the late seventies and early eighties when alll over Europe new generations of musicians took the punk 2-tone ans ska influences coming from Britain, embraced the d.i.y. spirit infusing the punk movement and made it their own. There had always been a certain cultural cringe in European pop music, but when punk hit the continent a whole generation of bands decided to make music in their own language as a conscious, political choice, because you could make real pop music in Dutch, or French or even German. Hence the Neue Deutsche Welle, which started in the underground but soon broke out and became incredibly popular, not just in Germany, but all over the continent. The video I opened with was one of the more succesful NDW bands, Extrabreit, with their greatest hit.
The Spider Murphy Gang with their greatest hit, Skandal im Sperrbezirk. Once heard, it stays in your head forever.
No. I can’t say I knew Geier Sturzflug either, but they turn out to have been a Bochum band, with this being their sole hit. But you’ll probably know Opus. Not quite NDW, certainly not in this version:
Solicitere
It’s back to the eighties again, considering the complete and utter collapse of the Anglo-American financial world and the sombre news from the budget in Den Haag: can mass unemployment be far behind? If so, this old classic by the Janse Bagge Bend is shockingly relevant again.
Are you watching America?
Pakistani dictator and president Pervez Musharraf resigns his position rather than face a formal impeachment process started up by his opposition. If Pakistan can do this, why can’t the United States?
Impeach Bush already!
Lazy comix video Tuesday
You know what they say (but what do they know): three videos makes a post, so let’s have it then. Three Youtube videos on a common theme: comics. The first is a very suitable song considering the date, showcasing brilliant but unknown to me until now seventies feminist funk group Isis, over a montage of seventies superchicks, to stay in the vernacular of the day. Isis sounds like a cross between Jethro Tull and Funkadelic, with a dollop of Davis, both Miles and Betty. Thanks to Palau (of Prog Gold fame) for finding this.
Another brilliant Youtube marriage of music and comics is Thor – GOD OF METAL!. No, it’s not the one you might be thinking of, the this Thor, it’s the real one, the blonde surfer dude with the faux-Shakespearian speech patterns, rocking out to some Slayer. Watch out for the Beta Ray Bill and Eric Masterson cameos.
The same people behind the first video also did a homage to secret agent/detective heroines, featuring a real find: the Kane Triplet’s version of the Mission Impossible theme tune, with lyrics. Very catchy it is as well.
Finally, something with no redeeming value at all and nothing to do with comix other than that its creator, David Campbell, is a dancer for comix:
All because Dave runs one of the more popular comics blogs and needed some scans from this man. He’s evil I tell you, evil.