Thursday, September 12, 2013

"Bands I've Seen Live When I Was Much Younger And Still Pretty As A Picture": # 3: Die Lassie Singers

Good evening my beauties,

I know that German music - apart from Kraftwerk, Neu and perhaps Tangerine Dream - doesn't really count pretty much to you non-Germans, this mainly is, so I suppose, because you can't understand the lyrics.

This is understandable, nevertheless it's a pity at times, because there have been some really good German bands in the past.



But one of them are Berlin's Lassie Singers, active from 1988 to 1998, and within those ten years they achieved something of a "first German girl band" - status. I won't bore you with all too much details here, because I assume that - apart from Walter - no-one will be reading this anyway in its entirety. Some short facts though:

--- Lassie Singers' first two albums are really great and I recommend them to you without reservation.
--- loads of big German names worked with the band over the years: Ejj Jott Krüger, Die Regierung, Jochen Distelmeyer, King Rocko Schamoni, Bernd Begemann
--- after they disbanded, Almut Klotz and Christiane Rösinger founded Flittchen Records and the bands Britta (Rösinger) and Parole Trixi (Klotz)
--- Almut Klotz died last month, aged 51. As someone else recently commented so wisely on a different site: fucking cancer!


I don't have all too many clear memories about the gig, sorry about that. Perhaps this is because the band's then back - catalogue wasn't very well known to me at the time I saw them, this came later. So I certainly wasn't hopping up and down like mad whilst shouting out each and every word to each and every song they played ... I suppose I was just standing in the crowd (or at the bar) and enjoying the set.

I do remember the support act though, because it was the (then) owner of the venue, the mighty Fritz Knizia aka Fritz Blitz on bass together with his two underaged nieces, which could neither play nor sing properly: they went under the moniker of Rock Monkees Of Gibraltar .... and as far as I know after this gig no-one on earth has ever heard of them again.



The Rockfabrik in Übach Palenberg (as pictured above) was - in those days - t.h.e. venue for independent gigs in our area: Fritz Blitz, due to his excellent connections, managed to bring in some really big names over the years and some of those will surely be featured here at one point.

The following is taken from Lassie Singers' second album from 1992, 'Sei Á GoGo', on Dragnet Records. Great stuff, so get it while you can, friends!

Die Lassie Singers - 'P.A.R.A.N.O.I.D.' (mp3)
Die Lassie Singers - 'Leben In Der Bar' (mp3)

Awesome tunes, I'm sure you agree, Walter?

Ta,

Dirk

5 comments:

George said...

You should credit your readers with a bit more musical knowledge. Weren't The Scorpions German? Boney M? FSK I'm pretty sure are German, and their Son of Kraut album is an absolute joy. Enjoying the tracks you posted.

Walter said...

Hi Dirk, I totally agree. I didn't watch them live but listened to their records quite often. The Lassie Singers was one of the bands that showed me the way into those new German bands that started in the early 90s. Maybe I start a new series about German bands to show our friends what they might have missed.

Have a nice weekend
Walter

TheRobster said...

Nena was German, right? And, of course, Einstürzende Neubauten, Rammsteinn, Die Toten Hosen, Accept? Das ist gute Musik, ja?

You also forgot one crucial detail in your reminiscences that you promised: what about the girls Dirk, what about the girls?

Dirk said...

Well, Robster, as always: some will agree, some will disagree: personally I think none of the above made gute Musik. The same is true for the bands George mentioned, apart from FSK.

And the girls ... yes, I agree: this factor is indeed lacking in my reviews. Perhaps I promised too much in the beginning ... will try to change this though.

XO said...

As a mexican, I could say that international german bands that are know in Mexico are: Lacrimosa, In extremo, and Rammstein. You can listen to bands as Die lassie singers and Die toten hosen only if you are a german language student, or if you are related in a certain way to Germany and her culture.