I voted crap the last time we did this

http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2693&highlight=die+kreuzen

They deserve another go around.

I'll second that.

I discovered them in 1986. No one had even heard of them where I lived, and I had to get their stuff via mail order. I wanted to check them out because I liked their name (I was really into German at the time), and I liked the album covers - basically all the motivation any 14/15-year-old kid needs. I was stunned in awe when I first heard them, and quickly gathered a group of friends over at my house to share my newest musical treasure. However, my friends did not share my enthusiasm.

Die Kreuzen's a pretty hallow subject for me. Back then, I saw them as embodying the idealism I had about indie music in the 80's, which was naive in some regards, admittedly, but not entirely clueless. Even after getting a degree in music, straying far from my intended course a few times and having had more than my fair share of disappointments and reality checks, I still look back to them as a sort of touchstone to remind me what about music and being a musician really matters to me. I tend to resent people summing them up as a "proto-grunge" band, as though they were some half-realized vision that needed a Kurt Cobain or an Ed Vedder to bring it to full fruition. I personally see them as the antithesis of all that. They were innovative, self-possessed and individualistic, whereas grunge bottlenecked creativity, suckered musicians into dumb fads and bad record deals and lumped bands together by a meaningless common denominator for easily picking by the mainstream industry.

My preference is for their first two albums - after that, they didn't really suck, but it wasn't on par with the earlier stuff. Even so, I was pretty upset when I found out they were calling it quits. To this day I have vivid memories of buying Cement, knowing there wouldn't be another band sometime in the future that could take their place. To me at least, they created their own niche and so when they disbanded, they inevitably left a void.

Matt larcombe wrote:...i'll damn you to eternal damnation---in Hell!!!

Is that like sodomy? In the ass?!!!

NC

the first LP is pure aggression and originality. it nails to a tee what i would imagine is the angst of being a midwest teen. i love the start-stop herky jerky rhythms, the propulsive bass, the sandpaper shredding your tonsils vocals, and the fucking urgency! this album came out before many of the "crossover" hardcore/metal albums i can remember- and in some ways the album seems to be the end of an era as 1985 was definitely a year that things changed. however, it has some of the definite metal and hardcore "crossover" leanings. through the thick and the thin, this is still some of the most intelligent and refined hardcore you'll hear from the early to mid-1980s and holds its own even today. nothing they did after the first album moved me as much, but it was certainly not bad. if anything, it seemed to lose some of the propulsiveness and speed as the 80's crept along. i wish i could have seen them play. not crap.

As great as their Touch and Go debut album is, I always preferred Die Kreuzen's pre-Touch and Go recordings: the Cows and Beer EP, the tracks on The Master Tape, and the Charred Remains cuts (can't recall if they were duplicated on the EP or not--lost that cassette decades ago). These amount to cleaner, simpler stabs at about 2/3 of the material that would end up on their debut LP. Unfortunately, "No Name," my all-time fave DK track, exists only on the LP.

I think that Die Kreuzen represents the apex of hardcore as a musical genre. Void did the demented thing as convincingly, Bad Brains equaled the speed and dexterity, Negative Approach got as noisy and grimy, Minor Threat perfected that anthemic quality, but nobody else put it all together in such an overwhelming package as early Die Kreuzen. I wish all of you could've seen 'em in '82-83. It makes perfect sense that they quickly evolved into some kind of Jane's Addiction pre-grunge Gothic outfit; there was nowhere else to go--they'd effectively finished hardcore off.

Not crap!

I doubt anyone's gonna back me up on this, but I think there're some very good Die Kreuzen songs on October File.

I've actually never listened to their pre-debut stuff. I'll see if I can track some down.

Since I was just a wee tyke in the early 80s, I can't really appropriately place Die Kreuzen within the context of the hardcore movement. But I can say that as someone retrospectively listening to these records, Die Kreuzen are among the very best if not the best. That much is clear.

i've seen their albums from time to time at the local vinyl shoppe but i am hesitant to pick up any records without having some basic knowledge of what my broke ass is spending money on. thanks for the advice.

DK was awesome when in HC mode, especially the Cows and Beer EP. Awesome. They were really original. I have always had a special corner of my heart reserved for the bands that played HC punk in an artier manner (Feederz, Nip Drivers, Void, Husker Du, Black Flag, Sac Trust, etc.).

Listen to DK's song 'Hate' from the C&B EP. It doesn't get any better.

I never really cared for their latter output, though I was hardly mystified by the love people gave October File.

N/C

not crap, no waffles at all...

I never got to see them but would have loved to, strangely I am now freinds with two of the guys from the band they are some of my favorite people. The guys still represent uncomprimising and innovative music, they still go out to shows and are part of the "scene". It makes me happy to see them still there and into newer bands, and still going to shows.

I have a Die Kreuzen CD around here somewhere, I think it is "October File". The only thing I can remember about it is that it was produced by Corey Rusk. The music on the CD was totally unremarkable.

Crap.