recorded and remixed / episode 07 - punk rock
- Series: Recorded and Remixed
Our interview partners of today have put many of their punk rock role models in their creative life working as local politicians, label manager or TV reporters. "You need good luck and great stamina", says Swen Bock about his self-conception when showing us the halls of Plastic Bomb mailorder. The warehouse is located in a remote area in one of Duisburg's courtyards. We made an appointment in this building and we are looking to discuss on punk rock with some actors from the Ruhr area.
„Punk is work"
Plastic Bomb was created in 1993 as fanzine. By now, it also consists of a mailorder service, a radio show and a label where Duisburg-based bands such as "Eisenpimmel" released their records. Ska music is closely related to punk; local bands such as "Sondaschule" from Oberhausen or "Alpha Boy School" from Wattenscheid - who also get to speak in this episode - keep up a close connection with the punk scene in the Ruhr area.
"Funding makes you stupid"
The protagonists of this episode don't correspond to the rough "canned beer drinker" cliché from the pedestrian area yet it is important to them to hold their punk roots high. Ede Wolff is the guitarist of the band Schließmuskel which was formed in 1983. Today, he works as a reporter for formats such as "Lokalzeit" or "west.art" - a flagship of German public-service WDR TV programme. He learned a lot from the „Do It Yourself“-ideology which made bands such as the Buzzcocks or the Dead Kennedys popular in the late 1970s. "You have to take things into your own hands", says Ede - "those who only wait will be lost at some point".
"Punk has to be AGAINST it, but punk may not be dogmatic."
Ede soon starts a conversation with Crocker of the Upright Citizens and Wölfi of Die Kassierer while we are setting up lights and cameras between the fully stocked shelves. The singer of "Die Kassierer" - whose common name is Wolfgang Wendland - has meanwhile joined the party "Die Linke" as independent candidate in the city parliament of Wattenscheid. During the parliamentary elections in 2005, the former philosophy student was still running for the APPD fraction. "To me, culture still has something to do with education and democracy and not just with entertainment", Wölfi says assiduously while bumming a cigarette. His concepts seem to fall on fertile ground. At the last election for local representatives, Wendland received more votes than the FDP. The song "Das politische Lied" which was released by Die Kassierer in 2003 might have been a prophetic blueprint for his own political work: "Who betrayed us?" The Social Democrats. Who was also on board? "The green party." Crocker - whose common name is Christoph Jess - works roughly 30 kilometres north of Wölfi's constituency. The fan of football club Schalke 04 works as label manager at H'Art Musik in Marl, an internationally-exporting distribution label. H'Art released the first label sampler named "H'Artcore" in 1981. The compilation united 15 regional punk bands such as Clox and The Idiots from Dortmund, Bluttat from Mülheim/Ruhr, Hass from Recklinghausen or the Upright Citzens for example. The release was an important starting point for the punk scene of the Ruhr area, and the original copy is now a sought-for collector's item. Since the early 1980s, many contacts and even more enthusiasm helped Crocker and his band colleagues to play an extensive US tour in 1985.
"It's every band's dream to make a living with their music"
As counterweight to this sturdy round of men, we visited Pristine in their practice bunker. Here in Dortmund's north, not far from the scene bar subrosa, the four girls meet on a regular basis in order to practice new songs behind the thick walls of cement. Guitar player Maren Volkmann graduated as Cultural Scientist at the University of Bochum on the topic of Pop Literature. "This music business is harder for girls", said punk icon Johnny Ramone during an interview. This also applies to Pristine who define their sound as "garage punk galore". Within the spam of ten years, they had to change vocalists four times but they simply kept on going. The passion for their art and the sense of community with the other "thinkalikes" makes them continue similar to a happy Sisyphos.
Text: Peter Hesse
„Punk is work"
Plastic Bomb was created in 1993 as fanzine. By now, it also consists of a mailorder service, a radio show and a label where Duisburg-based bands such as "Eisenpimmel" released their records. Ska music is closely related to punk; local bands such as "Sondaschule" from Oberhausen or "Alpha Boy School" from Wattenscheid - who also get to speak in this episode - keep up a close connection with the punk scene in the Ruhr area.
"Funding makes you stupid"
The protagonists of this episode don't correspond to the rough "canned beer drinker" cliché from the pedestrian area yet it is important to them to hold their punk roots high. Ede Wolff is the guitarist of the band Schließmuskel which was formed in 1983. Today, he works as a reporter for formats such as "Lokalzeit" or "west.art" - a flagship of German public-service WDR TV programme. He learned a lot from the „Do It Yourself“-ideology which made bands such as the Buzzcocks or the Dead Kennedys popular in the late 1970s. "You have to take things into your own hands", says Ede - "those who only wait will be lost at some point".
"Punk has to be AGAINST it, but punk may not be dogmatic."
Ede soon starts a conversation with Crocker of the Upright Citizens and Wölfi of Die Kassierer while we are setting up lights and cameras between the fully stocked shelves. The singer of "Die Kassierer" - whose common name is Wolfgang Wendland - has meanwhile joined the party "Die Linke" as independent candidate in the city parliament of Wattenscheid. During the parliamentary elections in 2005, the former philosophy student was still running for the APPD fraction. "To me, culture still has something to do with education and democracy and not just with entertainment", Wölfi says assiduously while bumming a cigarette. His concepts seem to fall on fertile ground. At the last election for local representatives, Wendland received more votes than the FDP. The song "Das politische Lied" which was released by Die Kassierer in 2003 might have been a prophetic blueprint for his own political work: "Who betrayed us?" The Social Democrats. Who was also on board? "The green party." Crocker - whose common name is Christoph Jess - works roughly 30 kilometres north of Wölfi's constituency. The fan of football club Schalke 04 works as label manager at H'Art Musik in Marl, an internationally-exporting distribution label. H'Art released the first label sampler named "H'Artcore" in 1981. The compilation united 15 regional punk bands such as Clox and The Idiots from Dortmund, Bluttat from Mülheim/Ruhr, Hass from Recklinghausen or the Upright Citzens for example. The release was an important starting point for the punk scene of the Ruhr area, and the original copy is now a sought-for collector's item. Since the early 1980s, many contacts and even more enthusiasm helped Crocker and his band colleagues to play an extensive US tour in 1985.
"It's every band's dream to make a living with their music"
As counterweight to this sturdy round of men, we visited Pristine in their practice bunker. Here in Dortmund's north, not far from the scene bar subrosa, the four girls meet on a regular basis in order to practice new songs behind the thick walls of cement. Guitar player Maren Volkmann graduated as Cultural Scientist at the University of Bochum on the topic of Pop Literature. "This music business is harder for girls", said punk icon Johnny Ramone during an interview. This also applies to Pristine who define their sound as "garage punk galore". Within the spam of ten years, they had to change vocalists four times but they simply kept on going. The passion for their art and the sense of community with the other "thinkalikes" makes them continue similar to a happy Sisyphos.
Text: Peter Hesse
Thu, 09.12.2010
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These days, more than 5 million inhabitants do experience the transformation of their post- industrial Ruhr area in the western part of Germany to an exciting European „place to be“, a budding metropolis in a post-Capital of Culture 2010 identification process with its industrial culture as part of a collective memory being a characteristic feature – and an orchestrated mass event.
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