A Repost from "Voodoo Waggon" / "Floppy Boot Stomp"portraying the so called "Hinterwald Scene", in a small german town Püttlingen/Köllerbach, where in the mid 70ies the younger ones took up their chances and layed the groundwork for a scene with a lot of bands, magazines and a free festival that should have this year its 41th birthday ... if there weren't obstacles like a damned pandemia or poisonous dumb animals stopping the whole show in 2019
when this was planned but didn't happen
So I repost some stuff as kind of surrogate to this years festival portraying the now almost 50 years of what we call the "hínterwald" and the "wald & wiesen cowboys" (forrest & plains cowboys). I suggest taking a look at the site I prepared in waiting for the 40th festival, enjoy the fine art of "snoid studios", to whom this blog is a bit dedícated celebrating him here every sunday - his art isn't published yet even I'm trying to "nudge" him a bit to do it.
Enjoy his festival posters (to be found under Snoid Studios -> Plakate) and all the portraits of folks who are part of the scene then.
Two years ago an old friend of mine, maybe the most beloved of my old friends, passed away after long being very sick - which gave me the chance to say "goodbye" and express my deepest feelings for that guy before he died after a long period we didn't met.
In the world of arts, volker 7 (german page with a great collection) created a fine corpus of images, mostly inspired by the artwork of Captain Beefheart. But he also were a great singer and a wild man at the keyboards.
So I take the opportunity to remember him here with some of the bands from the local scene we both were part of - the so called "Hinterwald", and hope you're fine with that. The portrait will take 3 parts, this one specialized on him and the bands he played, a 2nd one with more "Hinterwald" stuff - and a third on the scene in the eldest german town, where I moved in the mid 80ies and which is completely different to the "Hinterwald".
When I first met Volker he just became member of "Sinalco Fluor S", a band I tried to popularize the last 3 decades - and now finding their music in foreign countries in South America ie. Sinalco, which is a german non alcohol drink like "Fanta" combined with "Fluor S", were a punk outfit inspired by Ian Hunter, T Rex and Talking Heads. Rough & fiery.
Yep, that screaming and yelling announcer must be a version of myself some 40 years ago. And the guy singing our favourite Ian Hunter song and treating the piano as a dog, that's Volker. Followed by a version of the T Rex classic "20th century boy" with solo guitar works and also the voice of Stefan Warten (in the video the guy with the mask)
But playing covers alone wasn't what made Sinalco Fluor S great. There circulated a tape ("Sinalco Fluor S - Greatest Hits from Yesterday"). A year before Volker died, I sent him a fine FLAC version of that tape, he released it as LP in a very small amount of copies and gave it a new cover in his style.
A copy of that FLAC is part of this post - I know, that's german punk stuff - hope you like it as well as a slowly grewing community of fans even in Brazil or Russia seems to do.
When he left Sinalco he became member of bands like "The Five Babies Pisseuses", more kinda inspired by B52's (in the files there is their set on the 3rd Hinterwald Free & Outside Festival and also the great Demo-Tape) and of "Safari Grünspan" (also in the files, also with a well known announcer) together with Stefan Warten, playing punk inspired by the Stray Cats ie.
Sinalco then became more Postpunk and Reggae influenced, a soundboard and almost dub-version of "Haschisch (Do you like it as I do?)" can be heard in the files collection of this post shows our "Sly & Robbie" rhythm section, Dirk on bass & Wilmar on drums, members of all Sinalco Fluor S variations. Mike Schwisteg, the guitar player and founder of Sinalco will also appear in the 2nd post with "Les Hommes Volants"
In the end, they finally realized a longplayer, "Klon", the band had a saxophone player who (afaik) financed the project ... it offers a song "Ohne Titel" (Without a title) which is remarkable even I prefer listen to the demo-version of that song without the sax and to be found on a "Wartungsfrei" sampler, a local tape-release label being portrayed a bit in the next post with Andi Arroganti ie. The 2nd guitar player, the solo, that's Jose, who also played for "Triebwagen" and other Hinterwald bands.
So for now, I leave you with this little "memorial" to an old friend who deserved to be remembered two years later. See you up there, Volker, when we meet again, we will listen to a lot of "The Can", "Captain Beefheart" and "Kevin Coyne" stuff.
Their 2nd LP "No Destination" is listed in "1001" and understood as "Krautrock" (funny, this label is utter b#llsh#t sometimes) but in fact it's more "Beat"
Another band from Püttlingen may deserve that label more even (imho) it has more of early Deep Purple than it has to do with "real" Krautrock as "The Can", "Kraftwerk", "Neu", "Amon Düül II" for instance.
Fun fact: in the early days of the net I was in contact with a guy I traded CDs with and when he sent me his list, I found "Gäa - Auf der Bahn zum Uranus" in it and I laughed out loud "Are you kidding me? That's a band from my hometown and I can't imagine, that there's a CD of their only record. I purchased a copy at a show in the early 70ies standing behind me in my collection".
It was then at him to laugh out loud at me "Hey, bro, you have 'Blue Mauritius'" Turns out, they sold 300 copies of the LP and then became so frustrated they kicked the rest in the garbage. So now my LP were a present to my "middle" daughter, when she became 18. I didn't needed it, because Egbert Hoffman (aka Novalis at Compuserve Music Forum, a copy of the condolencebook can be found at the end of a "quixiot"-post dedicated to werner 'goldi' balzert) - a real kind person as almost everyone in those long gone days, when the net belonged to the hippies, sent me his CD copy, released by an obscure label at munich. (Part of this post will be a perfect FLAC rip at highest quality from another one of the 300 resting copies by a friend with professional equipment. Out of print stuff)
Which leads us to "Goldi" as part of the "Pre-Hinterwald"-scene who organized concerts in our small town as "JuSo" (young socialist) and so kickstarted a bit what later became this long-living Hinterwald-Thing, a scene that this year will present the 40th in a series of annual "Free & Outside" festivals (we hope that damned virus will then be not a reason to kick that event).
A self-managed youth center was founded (and closed because of ... hmmm ... you know, the guys & gals loved to smoke weed).
Being ousted from their fav place (I have to say "their", because there's one part of the scene in Köllerbach, the smaller part of the town, and one from Püttlingen. Even our youth center also were closed ... you may guess why. Well you're damned right!) ... we grabbed a place in the wood and from then on everyday that place was populated by longhaired hippies in tie-dyes ... smoking weed and used it as a place to go tripping in the forest - or playing football stoned on tuesdays with a soundtrack of Bob Marley shows.
In the beginning of the 80ies the first free festival took place, not right there, where we were "at home", but also on a very small place in our part of town, the original place is now occupied by a big festival "rocco del schlacko". Fun fact: There are now with "Little Woodstock" 3 (!) festivals in that small town every year.
'nough talking on that, let's go back to 1981, when the first festival took place, poster artworked every by "snoid studios" offering the just presented Sinalco Fluor S, Triebwagen and ... wow! ... the great "Bladie Mae", hookers & junkies with a really disturbing set.
There are 2 tracks in the files, first "Mohnblumenfeld" (a guy high on every drug available lies dreaming in a field of poppies ...) followed by the damned classic "ABC Alarm" (refrain: "ABC Alarm, ABC Alarm and I don't have a mask to wear on!" and "yellow protein in my ass", whatever that means ...)
There's a helicopter in the beginning. It's real - it's the police flying over the place what the damned drug users on the ground may do ... Perfect!
Also part of that first festival was "Triebwagen" (= railcar) which is one of the greatest band we had ... buuuut. Sorry, their lyrics are in a stangest german dialect, but base for some real great artworks by "Snoid studios" who made comics on the lyrics
In the files collection you'll find four songs.
It starts with "Schuh voll Batsch" in the radio recorded version with the sweetest and never seem to end guitar solo, Jose (imho) ever played. Have some patience with the sax and the german lyrics you may not be disappointed with Jose
It was part of the sampler that celebrated 10 years of free festival
The lyrics complain on living in a dead town, where nothing ever happens and you have the wish to leave it all behind. ("Schuh voll Batsch" = Having mud in the shoes or as they say over here "ich honn de flemm" = dialect for "I have the blues" and "mei hut, der passt mir nimme" = and my hat doesn't fit anymore)
The song ends with our hero sitting in a bar in front of a lady who looks him straight in the eyes - but he can't get his mouth open. Which is the perfect description of feelings you can't express - because you're stoned.
Great Comic by Mr Snoid on that btw. Time to realize that as a video as well.
Then from the soundcheck of the 2nd festval "Nix wie huddel mit de Fraue" (Nothing but trouble with the girls, first you're attracted by them and then you don't know how to go further - as I said, the pure sentiment of our hero) an announcement by a known guy ("rotz rock reggae" = "snot rock reggae") and "Was isn hia los?" ("What the fucking hell is going on here" where our hero comes back to town, finding his grandma ruling the trafic while the mayor working on the trash can, police & thieves making a basecap/coke deal and a lady in a grocery presenting her breast ... don't panic, just a dream! )
Triebwagen was kinda mother to a lot of bands then following also singing that dialect, go to the Hinterwald-Page, check "Bands" and you may listen to some more. But Triebwagen is essential. The singer ("Mohla") was by the way then working "under the ground" in a coal mine (Saarland had coal & steel) and .... chef de grill - the guy on the left. On the right the bassist of triebwagen ;)
Sorry, mucho words, but ... there's some more to be told of. Like "Les hommes volants", another band, Mike Schwisteg of Sinalco became member of later.
But most of all I have to add Andi Arroganti and his Casio VL 1.
He was member of the "Wartungsfrei"-Tape-Label from the near town Saarbrücken and he deserved then and now to be well remembered doing tat all alone at his home with a minimum of equipment but a maximum output.
His stuff is just great, his topics are mostly the experience of being gay ("Homo-Hetero", "Ruf doch mal an" which talks on gay phone sex in the early eighties, being "Krank & Pervers" = Sick & perverted) but my favourites are "Na jete trop po pro" and the funny "Alle Leute fallen um" = If I pull that red button, it will make BOOM in europe, radioactive fog, all the people will fall to the ground!
I remember my first contact with Andi, he was sitting in a bus in front of me and held this "It's A Beautyful Day" LP in his hands. I dunno why we didn't became friends, it became more of the opposite and I speculate a bit on sexual orientation. But as if for Volker I had the chance some decades later via internet to express my full admiration on his work.
All in all: A wide field in styles and stories ... for a small town like that.
Sorry for the wall of words and all of the anecdote-stuff, I hope I didn't bored you to much and you enjoyed a bit the ride. My part on that is more the one of the observer and the man with the archive, never played in one of the bands or wrote some lyrics for them - even I was befriended with the real essential guys and it's my job to tell that - because if I don't nobody will. The Hinterwald has some strange codices and not making a big thing of it or - god! beware! - making money or having success, are part of that. But moving to the date, when the 40th festival will take place, Snoid Studios and I are a bit working on telling the whole story.
In the mid 80ies, when they constructed an "autobahn" near our favourite place and destroyed it this way, I left the region and moved to the oldest town in Germany, where once the roman emperor Constantine ruled the whole then known world.
A friend of mine just formed a band there and asked me for some lyrics ... but that's another story ...
 |
| Volker Jenal - when we were young, wild, beautifiul & damned ;) |
So I take the opportunity to remember him here with some of the bands from the local scene we both were part of - the so called "Hinterwald", and hope you're fine with that. The portrait will take 3 parts, this one specialized on him and the bands he played, a 2nd one with more "Hinterwald" stuff - and a third on the scene in the eldest german town, where I moved in the mid 80ies and which is completely different to the "Hinterwald".
When I first met Volker he just became member of "Sinalco Fluor S", a band I tried to popularize the last 3 decades - and now finding their music in foreign countries in South America ie. Sinalco, which is a german non alcohol drink like "Fanta" combined with "Fluor S", were a punk outfit inspired by Ian Hunter, T Rex and Talking Heads. Rough & fiery.
Yep, that screaming and yelling announcer must be a version of myself some 40 years ago. And the guy singing our favourite Ian Hunter song and treating the piano as a dog, that's Volker. Followed by a version of the T Rex classic "20th century boy" with solo guitar works and also the voice of Stefan Warten (in the video the guy with the mask)
But playing covers alone wasn't what made Sinalco Fluor S great. There circulated a tape ("Sinalco Fluor S - Greatest Hits from Yesterday"). A year before Volker died, I sent him a fine FLAC version of that tape, he released it as LP in a very small amount of copies and gave it a new cover in his style.
A copy of that FLAC is part of this post - I know, that's german punk stuff - hope you like it as well as a slowly grewing community of fans even in Brazil or Russia seems to do.
When he left Sinalco he became member of bands like "The Five Babies Pisseuses", more kinda inspired by B52's (in the files there is their set on the 3rd Hinterwald Free & Outside Festival and also the great Demo-Tape) and of "Safari Grünspan" (also in the files, also with a well known announcer) together with Stefan Warten, playing punk inspired by the Stray Cats ie.
Sinalco then became more Postpunk and Reggae influenced, a soundboard and almost dub-version of "Haschisch (Do you like it as I do?)" can be heard in the files collection of this post shows our "Sly & Robbie" rhythm section, Dirk on bass & Wilmar on drums, members of all Sinalco Fluor S variations. Mike Schwisteg, the guitar player and founder of Sinalco will also appear in the 2nd post with "Les Hommes Volants"
In the end, they finally realized a longplayer, "Klon", the band had a saxophone player who (afaik) financed the project ... it offers a song "Ohne Titel" (Without a title) which is remarkable even I prefer listen to the demo-version of that song without the sax and to be found on a "Wartungsfrei" sampler, a local tape-release label being portrayed a bit in the next post with Andi Arroganti ie. The 2nd guitar player, the solo, that's Jose, who also played for "Triebwagen" and other Hinterwald bands.
So for now, I leave you with this little "memorial" to an old friend who deserved to be remembered two years later. See you up there, Volker, when we meet again, we will listen to a lot of "The Can", "Captain Beefheart" and "Kevin Coyne" stuff.
Sinalco Fluor S: A Quick View
01 Ansage von Hardy
02 Bastard
03 Haschisch (Liebst du es so wie
04 Ohne Titel
05 20th Century Boy (SB Jung & Wild 1983)
02 Bastard
03 Haschisch (Liebst du es so wie
04 Ohne Titel
05 20th Century Boy (SB Jung & Wild 1983)
Sinalco Fluor S: The Greatest Hits Of Yesterday LP
01 T.V. Time
02 Ready For The Next War
03 Privat Privat
04 R und R
05 Wasser
06 Flugzeugentfuehrung
07 Depressionen
08 Gluehende Faeden
02 Ready For The Next War
03 Privat Privat
04 R und R
05 Wasser
06 Flugzeugentfuehrung
07 Depressionen
08 Gluehende Faeden
Safari Grünspan: A Short Mix
01 Hardy Announcing
02 Ratten
03 Stray Cat Strut
04 RAF
05 Safari Grünspan!
02 Ratten
03 Stray Cat Strut
04 RAF
05 Safari Grünspan!
The Five Babies Pisseuses
1989-08-26 Koellertaler Rockfest
01 (You Never Say) What I Wanna Hear
02 Air
03 Only I Know
04 Air
05 For You
06 Air
07 Ride My Dog
08 Air
09 I Go Shopping
10 Walking
11 Air
12 Where's My Family
13
14 Air
15
16 Garlic Addict
17 Miss Jones
18 Please Don't Shoot
19 Air
20
21
The Five Babies Pisseuses
The Demos
01 Jungle Cide
01 Only I Know
02 Do The Monkey
03 Ms Jones
04 November
02 City Cide
01 I Go Shopping
02 I Ride My Dog
03 Garlic Addict
04 Please Don't Shot
@!!@
1989-08-26 Koellertaler Rockfest
01 (You Never Say) What I Wanna Hear
02 Air
03 Only I Know
04 Air
05 For You
06 Air
07 Ride My Dog
08 Air
09 I Go Shopping
10 Walking
11 Air
12 Where's My Family
13
14 Air
15
16 Garlic Addict
17 Miss Jones
18 Please Don't Shoot
19 Air
20
21
The Five Babies Pisseuses
The Demos
01 Jungle Cide
01 Only I Know
02 Do The Monkey
03 Ms Jones
04 November
02 City Cide
01 I Go Shopping
02 I Ride My Dog
03 Garlic Addict
04 Please Don't Shot
@!!@
pw: fbsvw
Püttlingen, a very small town (20.000 folks) in Saarland, near the french border, was at times a real boring city to live in - but, to my surprise turns out that 2 records from here found their way to the "1001 record collector dreams" collection. That's "The Blackbirds", a more beat related band who had a single hit ("Sherry baby") - fun fact: a friend once purchased his copy in a Record Store in London.
Their 2nd LP "No Destination" is listed in "1001" and understood as "Krautrock" (funny, this label is utter b#llsh#t sometimes) but in fact it's more "Beat"
Another band from Püttlingen may deserve that label more even (imho) it has more of early Deep Purple than it has to do with "real" Krautrock as "The Can", "Kraftwerk", "Neu", "Amon Düül II" for instance.
Fun fact: in the early days of the net I was in contact with a guy I traded CDs with and when he sent me his list, I found "Gäa - Auf der Bahn zum Uranus" in it and I laughed out loud "Are you kidding me? That's a band from my hometown and I can't imagine, that there's a CD of their only record. I purchased a copy at a show in the early 70ies standing behind me in my collection".
Which leads us to "Goldi" as part of the "Pre-Hinterwald"-scene who organized concerts in our small town as "JuSo" (young socialist) and so kickstarted a bit what later became this long-living Hinterwald-Thing, a scene that this year will present the 40th in a series of annual "Free & Outside" festivals (we hope that damned virus will then be not a reason to kick that event).
A self-managed youth center was founded (and closed because of ... hmmm ... you know, the guys & gals loved to smoke weed).
Being ousted from their fav place (I have to say "their", because there's one part of the scene in Köllerbach, the smaller part of the town, and one from Püttlingen. Even our youth center also were closed ... you may guess why. Well you're damned right!) ... we grabbed a place in the wood and from then on everyday that place was populated by longhaired hippies in tie-dyes ... smoking weed and used it as a place to go tripping in the forest - or playing football stoned on tuesdays with a soundtrack of Bob Marley shows.
In the beginning of the 80ies the first free festival took place, not right there, where we were "at home", but also on a very small place in our part of town, the original place is now occupied by a big festival "rocco del schlacko". Fun fact: There are now with "Little Woodstock" 3 (!) festivals in that small town every year.
'nough talking on that, let's go back to 1981, when the first festival took place, poster artworked every by "snoid studios" offering the just presented Sinalco Fluor S, Triebwagen and ... wow! ... the great "Bladie Mae", hookers & junkies with a really disturbing set.
There are 2 tracks in the files, first "Mohnblumenfeld" (a guy high on every drug available lies dreaming in a field of poppies ...) followed by the damned classic "ABC Alarm" (refrain: "ABC Alarm, ABC Alarm and I don't have a mask to wear on!" and "yellow protein in my ass", whatever that means ...)
There's a helicopter in the beginning. It's real - it's the police flying over the place what the damned drug users on the ground may do ... Perfect!
Also part of that first festival was "Triebwagen" (= railcar) which is one of the greatest band we had ... buuuut. Sorry, their lyrics are in a stangest german dialect, but base for some real great artworks by "Snoid studios" who made comics on the lyrics
In the files collection you'll find four songs.
It starts with "Schuh voll Batsch" in the radio recorded version with the sweetest and never seem to end guitar solo, Jose (imho) ever played. Have some patience with the sax and the german lyrics you may not be disappointed with Jose
It was part of the sampler that celebrated 10 years of free festival
The lyrics complain on living in a dead town, where nothing ever happens and you have the wish to leave it all behind. ("Schuh voll Batsch" = Having mud in the shoes or as they say over here "ich honn de flemm" = dialect for "I have the blues" and "mei hut, der passt mir nimme" = and my hat doesn't fit anymore)
The song ends with our hero sitting in a bar in front of a lady who looks him straight in the eyes - but he can't get his mouth open. Which is the perfect description of feelings you can't express - because you're stoned.
Great Comic by Mr Snoid on that btw. Time to realize that as a video as well.
Then from the soundcheck of the 2nd festval "Nix wie huddel mit de Fraue" (Nothing but trouble with the girls, first you're attracted by them and then you don't know how to go further - as I said, the pure sentiment of our hero) an announcement by a known guy ("rotz rock reggae" = "snot rock reggae") and "Was isn hia los?" ("What the fucking hell is going on here" where our hero comes back to town, finding his grandma ruling the trafic while the mayor working on the trash can, police & thieves making a basecap/coke deal and a lady in a grocery presenting her breast ... don't panic, just a dream! )
Triebwagen was kinda mother to a lot of bands then following also singing that dialect, go to the Hinterwald-Page, check "Bands" and you may listen to some more. But Triebwagen is essential. The singer ("Mohla") was by the way then working "under the ground" in a coal mine (Saarland had coal & steel) and .... chef de grill - the guy on the left. On the right the bassist of triebwagen ;)
Sorry, mucho words, but ... there's some more to be told of. Like "Les hommes volants", another band, Mike Schwisteg of Sinalco became member of later.
But most of all I have to add Andi Arroganti and his Casio VL 1.
He was member of the "Wartungsfrei"-Tape-Label from the near town Saarbrücken and he deserved then and now to be well remembered doing tat all alone at his home with a minimum of equipment but a maximum output.
His stuff is just great, his topics are mostly the experience of being gay ("Homo-Hetero", "Ruf doch mal an" which talks on gay phone sex in the early eighties, being "Krank & Pervers" = Sick & perverted) but my favourites are "Na jete trop po pro" and the funny "Alle Leute fallen um" = If I pull that red button, it will make BOOM in europe, radioactive fog, all the people will fall to the ground!
I remember my first contact with Andi, he was sitting in a bus in front of me and held this "It's A Beautyful Day" LP in his hands. I dunno why we didn't became friends, it became more of the opposite and I speculate a bit on sexual orientation. But as if for Volker I had the chance some decades later via internet to express my full admiration on his work.
All in all: A wide field in styles and stories ... for a small town like that.
Sorry for the wall of words and all of the anecdote-stuff, I hope I didn't bored you to much and you enjoyed a bit the ride. My part on that is more the one of the observer and the man with the archive, never played in one of the bands or wrote some lyrics for them - even I was befriended with the real essential guys and it's my job to tell that - because if I don't nobody will. The Hinterwald has some strange codices and not making a big thing of it or - god! beware! - making money or having success, are part of that. But moving to the date, when the 40th festival will take place, Snoid Studios and I are a bit working on telling the whole story.
In the mid 80ies, when they constructed an "autobahn" near our favourite place and destroyed it this way, I left the region and moved to the oldest town in Germany, where once the roman emperor Constantine ruled the whole then known world.
A friend of mine just formed a band there and asked me for some lyrics ... but that's another story ...
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