Industrial

[Doug Alan <nessus>]

The first time I went to see Birdsongs of The Mesozoic, they were a
warm-up band for Einsturzende Neubauten.  Einsturzende Neubauten makes
some *intense* rhythms -- this is *real* hardcore, not the relatively
wimpy thrash punk that some people call "hardcore".  It's not the sort
of stuff I'd want to listen to every day, though.  A friend sent me this
letter:

From: Robert Stanzel <apollo!rps@uw-beaver.arpa>
Subject: Einsturzende Neubauten in the Wall Street Journal

Excerpts from a long front-page (!) article in today's WSJ:

``Junk Rock Appeals to Noise Lovers, but One Gets Burned''

``The demarcation line between music and noise has been erased.  We have
a new word -- sound,'' explains Louis Brunelli, and associate dean of the
Juilliard School of Music.  Fran Duffy says that young people are bored with
``the commercialized, pasteurized sound'' of run-of-the-mill rock.  ``They
want to hear something new.''

Neubauten, the German quintet considered the king of industrial rock [Oh?],
constituted itself in 1980 without the slightest intention of using junk as
instruments, but members made the switch when paying the rent required hocking
their drums.  These days, to save on transportation expenses, the group
usually gathers new ``instruments'' in trash bins outside the halls where it
performs.  ``We do it to lose control, to get beyond limitations,'' says lead
singer Blixa Bargeld, a former gravedigger, bartender and theatre manager who
appropriated his first name from a brand of German ballpoint pens.

There is something impromptu, however, about the mishaps that occur.  An
onstage fire during a Neubauten show in LA destroyed all the props for the
second act, and at the same concert, the vibrations of a power drill caused
record-company executives who were eating dinner a floor below to be showered
with plaster.  At least one fan got too close to a Neubauten bonfire and
suffered burns on his arm.  But, according to Mr. Bargeld, the fellow didn't
seem to mind at all.

SPK (Socialist Patients Collective) [Oh?] is one industrial group that has
enjoyed a modicum of commercial success.  The two-member band was signed
by Elektra to a recording contract after selling on its own more than
50,000 copies of a single called ``Metal Dance.''

Brian Chin, a music critic for Billboard magazine, is one of junk rock's
detractors.  ``I hate it,'' he says.  ``It's too damn noisy to listen to
and doesn't have much of a beat.''