I love a fairly obscure German band called Knorkator -- they're vaguely similar to Rammstein, but with a weirder singer, funny lyrics, and a far more varied style.
Anyway, I just recently realized that they put out an album of sort-of-traditional-German-type songs under a pseudonym, High Mud Leader. In true Knorkator fashion, this is a near homophone with the phrase "heimatlieder", which means "homeland songs", kind of folk songs about a region.
The songs are quite funny, especially since they're German folk-style songs, but realized with sequencers, and as such are completely off-kilter. Even if you don't speak German, they're quite funny.
Chorus: Deutschland ist schön, Deutschland ist schön Mit seinen schönen Flüssen und seinen schönen Seen Deutschland ist schön, Deutschland ist schön Mit seinen schönen Tälern und seinen schönen Höhn
Und die Wälder sind so schön, und die Felder sind so schön Und die Städte sind so schön, Und die Blumenbeete sind so schön Wo die schönen Bäume steh'n, kann man schön spazieren gehen Und all die schönen Mädchen sehn, so wunder wunderschön, ja
Chorus
Im Winter liegt der Schnee so schön, und im Frühling schmilzt er schön Im Sommer kann man schön baden, im Herbst kann man's schön sein lassen Es sind auch die Tomaten schön, besonders in Salaten schön Da schmeckt der Schweinebraten schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja
Chorus
Und im Bayern ist es schön, und im Schwarzwald ist es schön Und im Rheinland ist es schön, und in der Pfalz ist es schön Und in Thüringen ist es schön, und in Hessen ist es schön Und in Mecklenburg Vorpommern ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja Und in der Lüneburger Heide, da ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja Und in der letzten Ecke der Lausitz, 30 Meter vor der polnischen Grenze, ja da ist es schön, so wunder wunderschön, ja
The translation (by me, so beware), for those who don't speak German:
Chorus: Germany is beautiful, Germany is beautiful with its beautiful rivers and its beautiful lakes Germany is beautiful, Germany is beautiful with its beautiful valleys and its beautiful Höhn[*]
And the forests are so beautiful, and the fields are so beautiful And the cities are so beautiful, and the flower patches are so beautiful Where the beautiful trees stand, one can go walking beautifully And see all the beautiful girls, so wonder-wonderful, yes
Chorus
In the winter the snow lies so beautifully, and in spring it melts beautifully In the summer one can bathe beautifully, in the autumn one can lie beautifully[**] There is also the beautiful tomatoes, particularly in beautiful salads There the pig roast tastes beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes
Chorus
And in Bavaria it is beautiful, and in the Black Forest it is beautiful and in the Rhineland it is beautiful, and in Palatinate it is beautiful and in Thuringia it is beautiful, and in Hesse it is beautiful and in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern it is beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes and in Lüneberg Heath, it is beautiful there, so wonder-wonderful, yes and in the last corner of Lusatia, 30 meters before the Polish border, yes, there it is beautiful, so wonder-wonderful, yes
So, I don't really know whether anyone but me will find this funny, but the fact that they keep smashing shit in there at the end just kills me every time. But then, i like Weird Al, too.
[*] I can't for the life of me figure this out (which is also par for the course with this band). It's an area of Germany, but I can't see that it's a German word outside of that name. Is that where they're from? Some other reference? Who knows. They throw a lot of German region names at the end; maybe it's a precursor of that....
[**] I don't quite understand this line either. So much for fluency.
i played the "naughty or nice" show on saturday. not bad overall, though the detroit techno militia isnt really my thing. stinden played some dnb to start us off, then me with the electro, then vinny bricks with the hard techno (also not really my thing).
the librarian killed it as usual with his dark minimal, followed by the DTM guys. as i said not bad overall.
Would you please do me a huge favor? Would you please vote Ruckus Roboticus as the best guest mix of 2007 on Solid Steel Radio? It should only take a minute. The deadline is Friday, December 14th, so if you are willing to help, don't delay!
Simply email this address:
solidsteel@ninjatune.net
With this subject:
Re: Solid Steel Best Mix of 2007 Competition
And in the body, state that the best guest mix of 2007 was by Ruckus Roboticus. Include your name and mailing address because by voting you are entered into a drawing to win free music & records from Solid Steel radio.
And if you happened to miss the guest mixes of 2007, you can rest assured that Ruckus Roboticus indeed had the best mix of 2007 ; ).
I hope I can count on your support! Sincerely, Dan "Ruckus Roboticus" Haug
Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone: great post-rock. it hasn't grabbed be enough to be a top 10 contender, but i do quite enjoy this album, especially with the remix disc.
Uusitalo (a.k.a. Vadislav Delay), Karunainen: this record is hot shit. vadislav delay is one of those producers i've never really bothered to look into, but this record is excellent techno, not quite minimal, but on its way there. there was a period of about a week where this was all i listened to in the car, and now that i've put it on again, i can remember why. pretty pretty good. (hanging out with the racecar guys has really opened me up to techno.)
Ocean Ghosts, Pepperoni Lovers (download it!): i like the record, but it doesn't hit the top 10 (sorry guys!). HOWEVER, "Stay Away from Gangs and Drugs" is effing amazing. click the link and find the mp3s there. for real.
Type O Negative, Dead Again: more of the same from these guys, which means a good album but not top 10 material. they're showing their beatles influence even more nowadays, especially on the tracks "tripping a blind man".
Pristbird, In Your Time: slightly mellow stoner/post-rock. i like it a lot, but it's not top 10.
Skinny Puppy, Mythmaker: this one's really good. thing is, does it make the top 10? it might, actually. it's a little bit too similar to the greater wrong of the right (and for that matter the Ohgr record) to be a shoo-in, but i do like it a lot.
Symphony X, Paradise Lost: i've been on this quest to find another band like dream theater, whom i really like. admittedly, DT's vocals are a bit cheesy, as any vox with that much vibrato in a rock/metal context will be (see: bruce dickinson). so, i sort of place DT at one end of the prog metal spectrum, and yngwie at the other. symphony x is somewhere between -- musically, i love it, but vocally, not so much. the singer sounds like a cross between gus chambers and joe lynn turner. neither are vocalists i particularly like, and man, does this find the worst of both. too bad, because the music fairly well rules. ;)
i'm going through my hd to see what other 07 records i may have forgotten.
Boom Bip, Sacchrilege: quite good (go, Cinci!) but not quite top ten material. if he continues on this tack though, he may be a contender for next year....
Buckethead, Pepper's Ghost: a good record, to be sure, but as i've mentioned before, Buckethead's at his best when collaborating. the title track, though, is pretty pretty good.
Clutch From Beale Street to Oblivion: good, but as with Buckethead, it's a bit "more of the same" -- good but not remarkable.
Mark DeNardo Lion, Tiger, Bear: a cute 8-bit EP, enjoyable but not remarkable.
Holy Fuck EP: not bad at all. i think they came out with a second LP this year too; maybe i should find it....
Johnnytwentythree, JXXIII: a very nice cincinnati post-rock record. very good but it doesn't grab me for top 10.
loads of good singles came out that don't have associated albums: andrea doria's "YaoO!", JMJ's "Teo & Tea", komonazmuk vs whiteboi "shankstep".... and tons more.
talkig to a new desi friend of mine tonight, the topic of daler mehndi came up, and we both started sing his hit:
he pretty much rules. you can't look at that dude and think anything other than he's loving life.
of course, i dont speak hindi, so i was just sort of faking it, but whatever. :)
i got home and was thinking about it, and i know daler is known for his videos as well as his songs, so i thought i'd look a couple up. some of these things are so brutally pixelated that it's almost painful, but still. for example, i quit like this song, but man.... that shit is terrible quality.
anyway, i'm tired. here's one of him on a tv show.
