Dies ist ein (nostalgischer) #Katzenjammer appreciation Tröt.
Das längendere Album A Kiss before you go (live) aus #Hamburg wurde scheinbar auf allen Streamingplattformen depubliziert. Dabei ist es imho ein echter Klassiker.

Zum Glück noch auf YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bwE4pjcISU

P.S.: Ich muss echt wieder meine eigene digitale Musiksammlung aktivieren.

In praise of #kyuss

The so-called "stoner rock" era was rife with great bands. I'd perhaps include the more-recent #fugazi band.

Nonetheless. #kyuss stood out for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyuss

Not knowing any #German, I've since found out the band were called #Katzenjammer which I think literally translates as "the cat which moans". Is this correct? :)

Wikipedia suggests a similar translation, but is there some idiomatic term I'm not familiar with here?

Just found a new band to listen to called "Katzenjammer" - They're a 4 piece all-female Norweigan pop/rock and country-folk rock band and they're bloody brilliant if you ask me!

https://open.spotify.com/album/3asYFsj32ShtkeapGMQVAo?si=CSfXPoC9QaOPiU4NYC5K-w

#Katzenjammer

Calling all #Beatles songs by Paul and John for this #ThursdayFiveList #5under3

To the Sea #Katzenjammer
https://youtu.be/GY171iahhh4

Dying Blues #MamasBroke
https://youtu.be/G20hYZp1DEo

Dirty Kid Rag #RailyardGhosts
https://youtu.be/KFFRjNRxMLE

Thunderbolts and Lightning #JaykeOrvis
https://song.link/nl/i/1446238469

Malparido #AngryZeta
https://youtu.be/a3O2ZMYdeB8

#music #folkpunk #americana #blues

Listen to this track by genre-fluid Norwegian burlesque-weimar-roots-rock-cowpunk-bluegrass-soul-jazz-klezmer, etc. musical collective Katzenjammer. It’s “Land of Confusion” as taken from their 2011 album A Kiss Before You Go, their second. Known for performing songs by their songwriter friend Mats Rybø or for songs each member wrote themselves, Katzenjammer’s choice to cover a big radio hit from Genesis’ most commercial period by the mid-to-late 1980s was perhaps unexpected, at least for those familiar with the original.

This is perhaps also indicative of how little Katzenjammer seemed to care about genres, eras, categories, or any other element that traditionally divides music and musicians, and even fans. What is not so unexpected perhaps is their ability to adapt the source material so tied to the Cold War Eighties-era pop radio to fit in exactly with their musical identities so rich in soulfulness, theatricality, and with more than just a touch of DIY punk rock spirit.

The song they chose to cover might be considered out of left field. But it’s certainly thematically resonant. The state of the world that felt like it was on the edge of a precipice remained a concern in the early 2010s as much as it did in 1986 when the Genesis original came out. It certainly remains a sad reality today. But how do they bring this song to life and put their own stamp on it?

Musically speaking, kicking against the dividing lines between eras, styles, and roles in a band was the central impulse for Katzenjammer to even to exist. Each member – Marianne Sveen, Anne Marit Bergheim, Solveig Heilo, and Turid Jørgensen – displayed a wide palette of musical interest starting out as school friends studying music in Oslo. Their band is supported by proficiency on multiple instruments between them, this flexibility finding them switching instruments between (and during!) songs as they performed for audiences.

As a band, they bonded as musical iconoclasts. Each member wanted to depart from orthodoxy and try things outside of prescribed compositional and stylistic paths. The name Katzenjammer made a lot of sense to that effect, literally translated as the lament of a cat in German, used as a derisive expression to describe calamitous sounds and chaos.

With a starting point like that, the burden of deciding what kind of band to be on a stylistic level couldn’t have been much of a concern. In that respect, they’d be any and every kind of band they needed to be and make their music on any instrument the four members could lay their hands on between them. This ranged from your standard guitars and drums and keyboards, but also dobro, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, accordion, brass, woodwinds, and a weirdly oversized three-stringed triangular bass-looking thing (actually a contrabass balalaika), among others.

As for deciding on a cover version, why not go with a commercially glossy hit from the 1980s, albeit one from a band also known at one time for being strange and experimental?

Rules are for fools, man.

What remains is a vital common denominator between the band and the song. With the members of Katzenjammer being a part of a generation who experienced the economic and social shortfalls caused by neoliberalism the most keenly by the 2010s, seeing the world as a land of confusion was tragically easy for them and their audience. Also, thanks to social media that began to peak by this period, it was far easier to see the effects of late-stage capitalism on people and the environment on a daily basis, often in real time.

Type your email…

Subscribe to The Delete Bin

Singing about all that through this song written when these troubling political and economic trends first began to take hold proved to be disturbingly resonant. But its impact due to that one context shift is only a part of their success. What makes Katzenjammer’s take on this song really work is how they transform it into something they can call their own on a purely musical level. For one thing, it is very easy to believe that this band really means what they’re singing, even if it’s somebody else’s lyrics.

This is the world we live in
And these are the hands we’re given
Use them and let’s start trying
To make it a place worth living in

-Land of confusion, originally by genesis

Lead singer on this cut, Marianne Sveen, delivers a big-voiced, soulful explosion of a performance that displays that she and her peers have an essential stake in the themes found in the song. This is supported by her bandmates’ whoa-OH-oh backing vocals, sounding like a refrain sung by a whole generation as a lament of another kind. The arrangement is idiosyncratic, too, as if constructed after raiding Tom Waits’ musical scrapyard, and later building it all up into a brassy, apocalyptic crash that sounds either like the world is coming to an end, or that the people have finally risen up to prevent that very thing.

All of these elements culminate into a rendition of a song that sounds like a true protest anthem. Somehow it also suggests action in a way that the original does not. Here, it really does sound like a rallying cry to change the world, rather than just a well-crafted topical pop song. It transcends the original, while also demonstrating how well-written that original song was all along.

After their third record Rockland came out in 2015, Katzenjammer went on hiatus, and then announced their break-up soon after that. By then, they’d put over a decade of nearly constant touring behind them, all while acknowledging that their time in Katzenjammer represented a significant period for them as musicians, and as people, too.

Among other things, Katzenjammer were renowned as a stunning live act. To get a sense of their live show, check out this link to catch their Katzenjammer live in Hamburg show from 2012.

Enjoy!

https://thedeletebin.com/2024/04/22/katzenjammer-play-land-of-confusion/

#2010sMusic #coverVersions #IndieBands #Katzenjammer #ProtestSongs

Today's cooking #music is the dark-if-delightful debut album from #Katzenjammer, Le Pop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Pop).

The tour-de-force deftly ricochets musical styles from Django Reinhardt to Oompa to American Traintime to Sea Shanty and others while maintaining coherence through tight, signature vocal acrobatics and a contrabass balalaika that is practically a band member on its own.