Four Views of Nina Hagen

1974. Nina and her band "Automobil" are the hottest act in the DDR (East Germany.) Their song "Du Hast den Farbfilm Vergessen" (You forgot the color film) is either "a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state," or a warning that Nina was shortly to don hot pink hair extensions and paint her eyebrows purple. Here's another video of the same song. Doesn't Nina look sweet?



1975. Be careful who you kiss, kids! You too may end up sneezing in bed with a red pixie 'do and a mod mod duvet.



1976. I have no idea what's going on here, but I suspect that this was very shortly before Nina's hippie parents were expelled from the DDR, and Nina herself fled to London and took up with the Sex Pistols. (I like your mustache, Nina.)



1982. By now living in LA, Nina releases her first solo album, "Nunsexmunkrock."

Maggie Mae - I'm On Fire

Warning: this will get stuck in your head.

Fire

Fire - The Lords from The Devil's Music

Küss Mich, Bitte Bitte, Küss Mich

Well, if you love the song "Donkey Serenade" half as much as I do--or if you're just curious about how a German pop choir simulates the sound of a donkey braying -- you will adore this version of the fab tune by the Botho Lucas Choir from Lounge Legends.

Sour Kraut Music

Fritz Guckenheimer and his Sour Kraut Band play German oom-pah music the way it was truly meant to be played--loud, slightly out of tune, and listing drunkenly to one side. Mr Fab, a kind reader of my blog shared a link to this album in the comments on a totally unrelated post -- Music For Non-Thinkers is available in a suitably low-fi bitrate of 128, you can snag it here.

Kommes Ein Birdie Yet:

Hula Hawaiians

There's not a lot of information that I could find about the Hula Hawaiians, other than that they were a Swiss and German band who recorded from the 40s through the 60s. In fact, here is a video that is supposed to be the Hula Hawaiians still performing not that long ago. Listen and love The Chimpanzee Rock:



If you think you'd dig hearing a Hawaiian themed song sung in German, try Zucker Lilly (from 78rpm):



And a small four song download I made just for YOU (no, not you, but YOU):

Hula Hawaiians

Doesn't their neckwear look less like leis than giant pipecleaners?

A Little Less Conversation

Hot off the presses!
Live Melodifestivalen 2010!
Dolph Lundgren!

Grabbed from nistagmus

Mendocino

Mendocino, Mendocino
Ich fahre jeden Tag nach Mendocino
An jeder Tuer klopfe ich an
Doch keiner kennt mein Girl in Mendocino



Another inadvertent hamster in the pants video for your perusal. Check out the "it" at the 2:00 minute mark averting his/her eyes in shame as he/she is filled with shame at having lingered on "Lothar's" package.

Video grabbed from Histoire de l'Oeil

She's Got VD

Incredibly likable hardcore German punk from Spermbirds, found at Good bad music for bad, bad times.

he's a normal guy just like anyone else

important information found here

Trio "Boom Boom"

Vivi and the Playboys

CINDY UND BERT - PARANOISCH

Lazyass Yuma and The Monks

Official Web Site

"1966. London was swinging, the Byrds soared on the wings of their most innovative single, "Eight Miles High," Brian Wilson labored in the studio on a legendary lost masterpiece and the Yardbirds fronted the mightiest lineup in rock n roll, with Messrs. Beck and Page on dual lead guitars. But from Germany there came dark rumblings that hadn’t been heard since the Nuremberg Rallies of the 1930s. Guitar and organ howled in orgiastic competition as a thunderous tribal beat bludgeoned song structures into strange forms. Rhythmic cadences echoed the slap of jackboots goose-stepping down Berlin’s boulevards. There were also strained and shrill vocals, eerily reminiscent of a sputtering orator disposed of only 20 years before in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery’s garden."

Does America Have Any Culture?

" ... Here's what happened: I'm teaching a class on twentieth-century popular culture at the University of Leipzig. I don't know why the school asked me to do this, but it did. And it turns out that any seminar on U. S. consumer culture is extremely attractive to every non-American kid majoring in American studies, because ninety-six students signed up for the class in the span of three days. Due to the size of the classroom, I was forced to immediately reduce this number to twenty. I was unsure how to do that fairly, so I decided to give them a competitive online essay test before the first day of class. The question was this: "Who do you consider the most interesting twentieth-century American -- not necessarily the most historically important, but the individual you find most personally compelling?" The responses were well written, habitually understated, and devoid of any pattern whatsoever.
...
Since my arrival in Leipzig, I have continually been reminded about the way many Germans view American culture. They essentially feel it does not exist. One grad student only half jokingly told me that an entire semester of American cultural studies "should probably take about twenty-five minutes." But this, of course, is crazy. Now more than ever, I feel certain that the United States is as good at manufacturing culture as the rest of the world combined, probably because we often do so accidentally. A lack of culture is not our problem. The problem is we've become too effective at distributing that culture -- at the same time, in the same way, and with the same velocity. It all ends up feeling interchangeable, which makes it all marginally irrelevant. As it turns out, my initial question was beyond impossible. There are no interesting twentieth-century Americans. There can't be, because they all are."

Chuck Klosterman (for Esquire) goes to Germany to teach a class. His students teach him a lesson about how the world views us: Does America Have Any Culture? (via Unpop)

Who's Chucky?

How about some German pop music by German actress Uschi Glas? The English-spoken Wikipedia article about her doesn't even mention her singing career. But here's a proof of it:
I probably got it from Dans Mon Café and with Spiked Candy you'll have some more.

Simply die Wurst

From 1987: Stephan Remmler's Alles Hat Ein Ende Nur Die Wurst Hat Zwei (Everything Has an Ending, But a Sausage Has Two)

Uh, thanks, orangeguru...

Was in den Loss, Thomas?

What is up with filmtagebuch? Anyone knows?

German farm tractors

Porsche Diesel: Image gallery and the ephemeral collection: Porsche Diesel and the Competitors (like the Holder A12 PS shown above at top). (via Martin Klasch)
Note: Site in German

German Punks

1983, Katharina
Found in Punkszene Hannover 1978-86.

720 photographies of german punk rockers (made available by Karl Nagel). Their lives and love. (via The Cartoonist)