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I’ve been asked an incredible number of times at work, “Do you guys take Euros?” Last time I checked, Viva aside, the U.S. wasn’t a member of the European Union, let alone very good friends with most of the European Union. And, different continents aside, even if we were offered a spot in the EU, I bet we’d spit on the proposal, Kyoto-style. The dollar is an American prodigy. Dolla-dolla-bill, yall. Damn straight we wouldn’t sacrifice it for any other convertible currency. We might not have good political sense, but we got good fuckin’ money. Money, drugs, Budweiser, and one other thing: rock ‘n’ roll. But last Sunday, the Notwist placed serious doubt in my mind as to whether America can still really rock harder than the rest of the world. The Notwist can rock, with IDM beats alongside a real drummer. The Notwist just saw their first stateside release, and they’re already selling out their live shows. The Notwist are from Germany. And are very German. Looks like the EU has one up on us after all. The Notwist, to put it simply, poses a significant terrorist threat to the continuation of U.S. rock ‘n’ roll imperialism. They’ve got one mean edge on the international marketplace, and they support multilateralism. If the mysterious millenarian symbol on the cover of the newest album, Neon Golden, doesn’t already convince you that this band is running an all-out coup of rock and pop, then their live show most certainly will. These crazy Germans played in Cambridge last Sunday, and while most indie-goers flocked to The Roxy to get their Godspeed on, the Notwist rocked a smaller, but loyal crowd at TT the Bear’s. The Notwist already sounds good on disc, where their production style shines and, like a pint of Ben n’ Jerry’s alongside a pint of beer, is ridiculously good. Neon Golden is an album that lives up to its name, in whatever ways that may be, consisting of ten brilliant pop songs, with catchy chord changes and melodies that never get repetitive. Samples and drum passages are spliced in and out, and little sounds appear at the end of phrases that will never be repeated. While most bands that fuse a post-punk sound with IDM end up landing themselves in the dangerously mediocre “electro” or “synth-pop” genres, the Notwist play in a completely different neighborhood. Their older release, Shrink, is a less refined yet perhaps more rockin’ (in the distorted guitars sense) album, but also a [German] national treasure. Their live show is what allows the Notwist to reserve a place within the halls of rock ‘n’ roll. Unlike numerous American indie bands who opt to simply play a set of songs that sound just like the recording, the Notwist hold truer to the classic rock tradition of never playing any of their songs exactly as they appear on the album, sans pyrotechnics and big hair. This is due partially to the participation of IDM ‘wunderman’ Arne Van Petegem, otherwise known as Styrofoam, who engineers their live shows. Styrofoam is a big bald guy with plastic-rimmed glasses, who, despite the fact that his computer crashed twice during the performance, has a nice emo voice, and garnered the most praise from the crowd, or at least from one drunk fan who screamed ‘Styrofoam!’ very gleefully throughout the evening directly into my right ear. Styrofoam’s no shabby dude himself, and has done some glitch remixes for The American Analog Set and The Mountain Goats. Notwithstanding, Arne made sure that despite a few technical difficulties, the Notwist sounded really, really good. Everything was well mixed, and the transitions between songs were literally orchestrated. All I have to say is, there’s something irresistible about a man who knows how to equalize. The best elements of the show, however, were not just the knob-twisting solos, but the incredibly tight sequences between the acoustic members of the band. Throughout the night, the Notwist used elements of shoegazing, hardcore, and dub in their noodling, proving that when it comes down to it, if you wanna rock you gotta know your roots. All the while, the members of the band were grinning ear-to-ear, and you can’t help but feel the obviously genuine love for music that is there. Go ahead, laugh at my sentimentality, you fucking cynical college person you. I don’t care what goth-emo kids say, no live show is really good unless the band is smiling. Fuck. So I bet you’re wondering where in this glowing review I’m going to come down on these kids. The truth is, I don’t really want to, because the Notwist is a great band. But I gotta say, they aren’t Bob Dylans. The lyrics actually don’t make much, if any, sense at all. Then again, these guys don’t speak perfect English, although they write their songs in the language. This may explain statements like ‘we’re off the rails’ and ‘we’re more than overwhelmed by hundreds of hugs.’ Ultimately, however, it doesn’t matter, because Markus Acher has such a nice voice that you probably won’t care what he’s saying. After all, rock music isn’t really made to be eloquent. All the same, make sure you have a few Euros in your pocket next time you go to a rock show, because the Notwist charges 10 Euros a pop, no dollars accepted. I almost didn’t get in because of it. — Jess Tierney |
copyright © 2002, The College
Hill Independent
last updated 04 10 03
