Virginia Jetzt!

April 24, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I don’t know an awful lot about this band except what I get from the CDs but if you’re looking for a good introduction to the current avalanche of German music then you could do a lot worse than ‘Wer Hat Angst Vor Virginia Jetzt’ (note the album is 100% German language). I would’ve given […]

Wir Sind Helden

April 23, 2005 | Leave a Comment

If you tried to form a Indie band in the UK these days with a pretty lass for a lead singer and some deadbeat-looking guys dressed from an Oxfam shop as backup you’d be laughed out of town as second-rate 90’s throwbacks. Thing is, in Germany they don’t have that Britpop baggage to carry around, […]

Sportfreunde Stiller (named after a relative, Hans Stiller) have a uniquely German take on a sound somewhat akin to early Blur by way of a slowed down version of Feeder but this 3-piece from Munich are no way second-rate Britpop clones despite their increasing tendency to look like Supergrass. I haven’t got their first album, […]

Rammstein

April 15, 2005 | 1 Comment

When it comes to Rammstein there is much misunderstanding in the UK. A few years ago Q wrote some tosh about the band’s Nazi links which thankfully, Rammstein had the good grace to ignore, while more recently Ali G. dissed the band live on air when introducing them in his capacity of MTV awards compere […]

In Extremo

April 14, 2005 | Leave a Comment

I’d love to have been a fly on the wall when the concept of pairing German rock with a liberal dosage of bagpipes was raised. In Extremo are a 7-piece band and when you consider their musical influences stretch not just to bone-stripping guitar but also to harps, horns, gongs, chimes, bodhrans, bouzoukis, tablas, shells, […]

Toten Hosen

April 4, 2005 | Comments Off on Toten Hosen

In compiling my Kraut Pop guide I wanted to introduce any English-speaking music fans to a narrow slice of German popular music. Keeping each section succint and to the point was my aim but the thing about the Hosen is that they’ve been there and done it all – two paragraphs ain’t gonna do them […]