"Wir fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n auf der Autobahn!" for the penultimate episode of the season we take a record out of Steve's dad's collection in memorial, we're looking at a release from German electronic pioneers KRAFTWERK and their 1974 album AUTOBAHN

Autobahn is the fourth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk, released in November 1974 by Philips Records. The album marked several personnel changes in the band, which was initially a duo consisting of Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter; later, the group added Klaus Röder on guitar and flute, and Wolfgang Flür on percussion. The album also completed the group's transition from the experimental krautrock style of their earlier work to an electronic pop sound consisting mostly of synthesizers and drum machines. Recording started at the group's own Kling Klangfacility, but was predominantly made at Conny Plank's studio. Autobahn also includes lyrics and a new look for the group that was suggested by Emil Schult, an associate of Schneider and Hütter.

Transcript

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Grunge versus Britpop. Grunge as a whole. Although grunge was starting to get stale by the time Britpop was starting to be a thing. I was going to say, because grunge was kind of on the out when Oasis came. Yeah. Like there were a lot of Pearl Jam imitators. I'm hungry. Hungry. Although that song was good. But yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of people imitating that. That was actually, wasn't that pre-Pearl Jam, though? That was, yeah. Because that was as lot of people doing that voice, and it was getting pretty stale by the time Oasis and Blur became a thing. You know, I kind of don't like Pearl Jam because I feel like I actually I despise Pearl Jam I think Pearl Jam is like the worst grunge band I never liked them their first one has some songs I like yeah Ten is good and then everything else can go fuck itself pretty much that's pretty much how I felt fun fun fun it's the Autobahn fun fun fun it's the Autobahn there's a lot of bands where it's like This is the greatest hits, man. You don't really need it anymore. Like, oh, well, Pearl Jam, you don't need it. Their greatest hits is 10. I was going to say, all you have to do is just get ten and you got the greatest hits. Because I think like every good song that they ever did is on 10. She lies and says she's in love with him. Can't find a better man. Hello and welcome to Side One, Side B. I'm Dave. I'm Steve. I'm Sean. And we have a guest today. Dylan. Dylan. Dylan is first time guest. Kind of my brother-in-law. my sister, but close enough. That's easier to say than my sister's boyfriend. We got the in-laws now. We got the in-laws. Here we go. It's the Nepo podcast. Yeah. I'm excited. I don't think we've ever had a guest that none of us know. So, yeah, it is kind of kind of the Nepo podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Dylan, I invited you on this one because I know you're into like a lot of the modern like EDM type stuff. And this is an episode that we're doing, putting together to kind of honor my dad. This is a record that's out of his collection. We used to go, like, vinyl hunting together. Like, we'd go to that place over in Council Bluffs a lot and go through that guy's insanely huge record collection. And he was always telling me, like, keep an eye out for Kraftwerk's Autobot album. I need a copy of that. I thought he lost his, but I actually have 2 of them. Like, Sean's got the more beat up copy. So I think he was just looking for a cleaner copy. But yeah, today we're taking a look at Kraftwerk's Autobahn album. And yeah, yeah. Interesting is this band doesn't remind me of my dad at all. So yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah. So yeah, what is what does everyone know about Kraftwerk? What is your relationship to Kraftwerk? That's it. Me finding this record for my dad and. And yeah, I think he liked it just because he was a car guy. So it's I remember when I was listening to it, I was like, this is probably a good one to like cruise to. So that's probably why he liked it. I know about it when I came over today and you said we're doing this album. Yeah. So you've never listened to Kraftwerk before? I've never heard of them. Have you ever listened to Big Black's songs about fucking? Yeah. You know, that's not like the third track on that where it's she's a model and she's looking good. Oh, OK. Yeah, that's perfect. It reminds me of an artist, Ninja Rochi. She has a song that's like, I fucked my computer, fucked my computer in it. It gives me like a poppy vibe almost. Yeah. Poppy. We could talk about Poppy for a while. Yeah. Who's Poppy? But, uh, Kraftford were, like, one of the first synth pop bands. Like, a lot of the, a lot of, you know, like, the big eighties ones were drawing direct influence from them. So, like, Human League, Depeche Mode, all that. You could say we're directly influenced by them. They weren't the first band to really get into synthesizers. But, like, before then, a lot of the bands who were doing, like, synth-only music were uh, were classical musicians like, uh, Wendy Carlos, that type of thing. So they were really the ones who were really bringing it into like a more popular music. They were kind of a second or even third rate, uh, kraut rock band before they really got into the synth pop thing. And then they became amazing. So they were considered kind of one of the lesser bands. In fact, like the drummer for one of my favorite kraut rock bands, Klaus Dinger, uh, from Noy, uh, uh, played with Kraftwerk on their first album and then thought they sucked and went and started his own band, Noi, which is a great band. Hallow Gallows, one of my all-time favorite songs. But, you know, like, they weren't Like, it respected a lot in the krautrock scene. The krautrock scene, briefly, I just read a great book about them called Noi Klang. It's worth checking out. And also drawing some from the No Dogs in Space series that's on the The band Zaman Duel Two and Can, they were a bunch of like young, revolutionary, angry, like German youth. They lived in communes a lot. They hated their parents. And why they hated their parents is their parents were Nazis. the denazification nazis are nazis yeah denazification uh was largely a failed product in west germany it was more successful in east germany uh why is a completely different topic but yeah it was yeah it was a failed project a lot of people who are nazis were getting back into positions of government and these were a bunch of young people who thought fuck this and some of them literally were their parents uh And they, like, started living in communes and making angry revolutionary music. A lot of it, like, a lot of it sounds a lot like jazz, but it's kind of musically all over the place. My favorite krautrock band is called Can. Yeah, they're very jazz influenced, but there's another famous one, Amandul II, which sounds like Kind of like Black Sabbath. They're, like, really heavy. And then Faust, another one, sounds a lot like The Velvet Underground. They'll need to bring a record of theirs in sometime then. Yeah. That's funny that after, like, you know, a fall of Nazism or whatever, and they were, like, all the Nazis were just coming back. That's the same thing that happened after the Civil War. Yeah. After the South fell, like, all the representatives that, like were representing the southern states they basically got re-elected yeah former confederates yeah former confederates and that's where the whole like uh if you guys remember they were talking about the traitor clause you know yeah like and that's why they were trying to get trump for being a traitor yeah Like, a lot of the krautrock bands had ties to the RAF. That is not the Royal Air Force. That's the Revolutionary Action Front that one of the better Omaha punk bands named themselves after. But they were, like, a literal militant group. Like, their logo was a star with an assault rifle in it who were trying to overthrow the government. Uh Yeah, there's a there's a channel I sometimes watch called East Germany Explained, and they recently did a video on the RAF. I think it was kind of anti RAF, but it was still very interesting to. It is. Yeah, they did kill some people. And so there might be some people might be split on whether it was worth it to kill the people they did. This is not the podcast to get into that. No, no. But yeah, this album right here, Autobahn, was the first Kraftwerk album that sounded like Kraftwerk. The early stuff sounded like it was trying to imitate Can or Tangerine Dream, other krautrock bands. And so it's like a lot of guitar and flute and organ. And this is when they just started Fuck it, we're going to do synthesizers. And that's when they kind of found their voice and they got better for it. But one of the things I think is funny about it is look at the back of the album. They still look like a kraut rock band on this. When by like a few years later, when they're doing albums like Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine, they they like are wearing like. red shirts and black ties and are purposefully moving like robots and have their faces made up in a weird way so they don't move so they look more like robots but here they they still look like people here and some of them even have like long hair and beards but yeah i was gonna say that could be pretty much any like seventies band right there yeah yeah we are kraut rock y'all yeah y'all but yeah kraut rock is a whole interesting thing to explore i saw show dylan I saw a joke online that aging punks either get into krautrock or rockabilly. I guess I'm the krautrock guy. I don't know what the hell I've gotten into. Side note, I have a small collection of Eastern Bloc-made guitars, and some of my favorite instruments are from East Germany. The Musima? Yeah, the Musima. The Tonika. Touch the Tonika. The Tonika is Russian, duh. Yeah. Yeah. What do you touch the Tonika? See, if I ever play Touch the Tonica live, and I'm doing it with my Muzima hollow body, I should probably just sing it. Touch the Muzima instead. Yeah, I'll ask you to describe the front of the record. Then we'll have Dylan describe the back a little more. It's the Autobahn. Yeah, It's the Autobahn. Yeah, Yeah, That's good. Yeah, My German teacher from high school is rolling in his grave If he's dead. I don't know if he's dead, He's alive, but you killed him. Yeah, probably, It looks like the Autobahn, which, through our extensive research, means motorway. Yes, But it's the highway through Germany. And it's got the little like rear view mirror thing. It looks like they're like. it's like the point of view of someone driving, and it's got a rear view mirror and it's got the 4 heads from the back And it's on the back. is that picture? Yeah, Amplified. it almost looks like you're looking at a cover to that seventies show. but yeah, Cleveland rocks. Oh wait, that's the Drew Carey show, And we are German, y'all. Yeah, The one guy with the white shirt. he looks very serious. Yeah, I do think. one thing that I do think is funny is it's like they're all in the same car, but it's like. is it 4 to the front? and which one of them is driving Like who's holding the steering wheel? We need those near you. yeah, The octagon is efficient and straight. Our alignment is perfect. German engineering. yeah, What do you think of the cover Dylan? I love the cover. Yeah, the front struck me like right as soon as you showed me it downstairs at the room. honestly, I'm like your dad has this. I have to imagine. my dad came across this album because he was record shopping, saw that it was

Called Autobahn and has that cover and went: 12:21

oh yeah, driving music. It is good driving music, And we will get into why. after we listen to the one song on the first side, The first side is one song It's going to be really hard to keep notes on. Yeah, it is called Autobahn. It is the title track And it's like tubular bells. Yes, Like Krautrock. a lot of it does sound a lot like prog, but it's prog with a very angry energy, so like pink floyd, oh okay. And a lot of it, though, is very minimalistic, Like when I said, Hello, Gala by Noi is one of my favorite songs of all time. No vocals, And it's a ten minute long song with one chord. It's an A chord through the whole song and it's doing like different, you know, like modulation and fade stuff with it. So it sounds cool, Like it's very. it keeps it interesting, but it's one chord for ten minutes I'd be. Yeah, We're entering the territory of German hard techno, gentlemen. Yeah, it really did inspire Like a lot of like. the German techno was inspired by a lot of this, because it's, I'm sure, Yeah. Yeah, it's been fun to have the repetition, but the German. I just want to make sure that you brought the E today. As far as your experience with electronic music, Dylan, how far do you go back? About like 2010, I would say. But, but also, I mean, I'd say, I really became a fan like in like 2005 or 4 or something, when I would go to, like roller rinks and stuff Right on Inline skating. a lot, Yeah, I would really get into, like some of the faster paced modern drum and bass music from like Nero is a really big Yeah, They were a band, Nice. Yeah, They have a song called Me and You. It's like, kind of starts off with a really like racy sound, like lots of that boop boop. so you're not really familiar with, like the, the pioneers. so this will be, uh, yeah, this will be interesting. yeah, yeah, the closest pioneer, i'd say, is yeah, like, i mean it's like, yeah, dash punk or otherwise. we'd even i'd go even more silly, modern from myself and say, like dead mouse, you know something that'll make you cringe a little. but still, i mean you know he has some good records that were, um, oh yeah, gosh, dead mouse or armin van buren. i'd say, yeah, he's a really big name in the trance, trance side of things, all right. so i'm really like. i'm really curious as to what you'll think of. think of this too, because it will. yeah, i'm excited. it's really. it's so heartwarming for you guys to let me on this. i actually i thought you guys might have already done this, but i'm like, no, no, if steve's inviting me today, i gotta get here. yeah, Thanks for waiting like this, and this time it was before there were any digital sense, so like this was before they, even like Cropwork, were like when they could start hooking these things up to computers, like in the eighties. They definitely were. they had a computer. they had an album called computer world when they started doing that. But these are all like analog machines. So these are all like knobs and wires. at this point That's so exciting. Yeah, so, Dave, let's talk about the lineup on this album. All right, At this point the lineup, I'm going to have to read the names, because I'm bad at pronouncing German.

But the lineup was: 15:42

if he gets it wrong, correct us in the comments, because that's free engagement. Yeah, Do you want me to like going into going? going going into this like they had been a four piece early on, but at this point the 4 piece had gone down to a two piece, which was Florian Schneider and Ralph Hooter. But they added Klaus Roeder and Wolfgang Fleur. It's just like every stereotypical German name. Yeah, I'm imagining the German kid from The Simpsons now. Yeah, But yeah, like. Oh, delicious. On this record they're all pretty much playing synths, although Wolfgang Fleur was the drummer and was like starting to do e-drum stuff. And you did have the other 3 all doing, like guitar, organ and flute, just not as much as Florian and Ralph had on the earlier ones. So, like, there's still some elements of the old kind of jazz-influenced krautrock in here, but it's This was a move away from that. So you'll just occasionally hear a flute in the mix. basically, Yeah, I remember hearing like guitar and flute and some other things in the mix. So that used to be what drove the band sound.

So this is: 17:06

this was a market shift. It was not as well received by critics at the time. And then, in retrospect, All right, Do we have anything else to talk about before we throw this on? You know, I kind of do. Who's the man on the far right in the back image here? Which? That guy, The long hair fella? yeah, No, I do know that He has a baby face. He's also staring very seriously. I do know that that guy in the baseball shirt is Ralph Hooter. Oh, okay, Yeah, the guy on the far right, he actually looks like a Pretty, really well-known, like synthy, but, oh gosh, electro artist, I guess I would say named Madian, Might be familiar with that name, but he's also, yeah, very modern. I mean that's as modern as you get.

I saw him, one of the most major artists I saw and Rachel would be like: 17:55

oh my God, you're right. Yeah, I saw him in 20 14, when I first went to Red Rocks, They would do a really big event called Global Dance Festival. They had a. Oh yeah, The guy in the middle right, He kind of looks like he could be like a BG. Yeah, He kind of looks like Woody Harrelson. Yeah, But like like a German Woody Harrelson. We make no jokes here. I'm American. I like that. it's got like the the English translations here. Yeah, There's a degree to which, like Americans, the records like a little later in their career, like the Man Machine and Trans Europe Express, There's a degree to which I like the English version a little more because it sounds stilted. So it makes them sound more like robots when they do it in translation. All right. Well, yeah, we got side one which is just Autobahn. So fuck us for keeping notes. Yeah, We'll find stuff to talk about, Trust me. It's kind of like when I bought Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick album. I bought it on CD and I put it in the CD player and iTunes just came up with track one and track 2, And I was like what I thought something was wrong with it. Maybe at some point we'll do Tago Mago album by Can in a different season, where it's a double album. Side 2 is all one side and side 3 is all one song too. So it's just like there's songs on the first side and the last side and then long instrumental jams on like half the record. The first Who's Your Dude? album, which is a live album, Lanspeed record. on the CD it only has track one and 2, which is basically when you bought it on record. it'd be side one, side 2. It's all just real fast, short, hardcore songs. Yeah, but you can barely tell the transitions between each song because they play so fast and they just keep going. So yeah, Oh yeah, I suppose we should also talk a little bit about the production staff. I especially like their names because we got engineer Conrad Plank. Oh yeah, Conrad, Which. that was done at Connie's studio with their mobile equipment. The mastering was done by Gilbert Kong. So that makes me think of Gilbert Godfrey as King Kong, The cover painting by Emil Schmoltz And the back cover photo was by Barbara Niemöller. Niemöller. And we've already mentioned the band. So, yeah, this album was released in 1974 by Phonogram Inc. And my copy was printed in the USA. So, yeah, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA. Fuck you, Germans. Oh, wait. Deutschland, Deutschland. All right. So I think that's it. Yeah. Time to listen. Oh, wait. Track list again. What was the track list again? I can't remember. Autobahn. Oh, OK. Don't worry, I'll remind you as the song starts. OK. And when the next song starts. I'll let you know. Oh, thank you. I feel like that's a missed opportunity. It's like you said in the Jeff Rosenberg episode. I should have talked to you first, Sean. I know. Fun, fun, fun, the Autobahn. Fun, fun, fun, fun. And we're back from fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was so fun. It was so fun. Going to get some lager and some sauerkraut. So. What do you guys think? I loved it. Fantastic song. What song was it again? This was Autobahn. Oh, I missed that. From the album Autobahn by the band. I think there's a band called Autobahn, but yeah. There is. Yeah. They popped up when I mistakenly put the helm name in. Fun, fun, fun. It's the Autobahn. What do you think, Dylan? I'm a big enjoyer. Yeah, definitely. There are some very repetitive like lulls kind of in between like the atmospheres that they try and take you through. Yeah, there's like a whole bunch of different like types of atmospheres that takes you through the course of the whole song. So there's like different movements. It's like a long road trip and the different kinds of roadway you're on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I do like how the percussion carries through in a kind of low-end way. What did you think, Sean? I thought it was relaxing. I was It's like a relaxing anthem. Yeah, it was Honestly, I was surprised because I was thinking it was going to be a little bit more You're like, oh, it's good driving music. To me, driving music is like I thought it was going to be a little more driving, but it was It was relaxing. It was like a relaxing Sunday drive on the Autobahn. Yeah. Yeah. A Sunday drive, I think, would be a good way to put it. Because there are moments where I mentioned it kind of reminds me a bit of like Queens of the Stone Age songs for the deaf. Whereas, you know, that's a that's a road trip album where they put in like radio station stuff in between kind of a similar concept here. Albeit the music is nothing similar. Yeah. I liked the music, like the repetitive nature, though, but with the changes throughout and then like the things they cycle back to did like do a lot to give a sense of forward momentum and it kept going. And at a time when the drum beat was more busy, I do want to talk about that some. That is called a motoric beat that was pioneered by a number of musicians, including the band Can, but also by Klaus Dinger, who is no longer with Kraftwerk at this time and was in Neue. It was notable in the song Hallow Gallo, the one with just the A chord through the whole thing. But it was used a lot by a lot of other krautrock bands and a lot by post-punk bands, like Motorik Beat. One song that is my go-to example of it is Road Runner by Modern Lovers, another great driving song, but another example is Mongoloid by Devo. So it's just like this very specific drum beat that's like very, it's 4 or 4, but it's very propulsive and it feels like it's moving forward and it's designed to remind you of driving. Yes. And I love that. Yes. Very cool, y'all. Yeah, it was great, y'all. Yeah, the beat was also used a lot by like Should we go song by song? Let's go song by song. So, Autobahn? It'll never work. like that as somebody that's been like in the car driving for like long periods of time, it kind of reminded me of like driving during the day and then the sun goes out and then you're driving so long that like the dusk comes up again. I like the little like noises that sounded like it was he was in like heavy traffic. Yeah, they were synths, but they sounded like cars speeding past and that kind of stuff. A lot of the synths sounded like arpeggiated or sequenced, but it's kind of like a little bit before that time, except for one part that you mentioned like towards the end. If it's like sequenced in a way that sounds like O'Reilly by The Who, that's about all sequencers could do at that time. Yeah. So, like, if it sounds like that kind of pattern, then it's a sequencer. If not, it's someone playing it live. Yeah. The first section, I think, was very happy sounding. Sean, I think you kind of described it as whimsical. Well, a different part, but that also applies. Well, no, it was the same. It was the same because it wrapped around. Okay, gotcha. It was That same part, but I was saying that like the whole song sounds a lot more whimsical than I thought it would, given like how serious the guys look on this. And it just it just kind of made me laugh because I'm sitting there imagining like these German guys, very serious. But then it's like. Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn. They were Beach Boys fans. Yeah, but it's just, like, it cracks me up to see, like, the serious face, and they're like, you know. Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn. Anyways, and, like, especially when we looked at that one picture where their hair is, like, slicked back, like Where they looked a little too German, I thought. Yeah, a little German. They looked like the chicks from the Addicted to Love video. I will face it, you're addicted to love. I wonder if that video was referencing Kraftwerk with how the chicks were dressed. Yeah, maybe. Maybe, yeah. But I did say I did like the when you're talking about the car. I liked how the it was the sense making the car noises. And then like the piano kind of made the sound of a horn and stuff like that. And like the meow, you know. What I thought was interesting, which basically only applies to my copy or any copy that's like dirty, is the vinyl pops kind of made it sound like it was raining, too. Yeah, I liked like the more industrial section that we were just talking about a lot. Like the first section, I think, didn't sound too far removed from like, I don't know, bands like Pink Floyd. Yeah. But the next section got like industrial. And the section where it gets industrial, where it's all, you know, like kind of tinny sounding drum sounds. I think part of the road trip that that is emulating is there are no radio stations in range. So now I'm just going to listen to listen to my engine make funny noises. Yeah. Should I get that looked at? Well, hopefully not anytime soon because I'm in the middle of nowhere. I remember when I got to the point where I was like leasing new cars for a while. I thought it was interesting to have a car that didn't make noises. Yeah. Dylan, what did you think of the song? I really liked it. Again, something about the just progressiveness reminded me of like anthem music and just stuff that you would like cheer to. Oh, actually, yeah, like they kind of did it sort of like kind of chanting and almost cheering the chorus towards the end. Yeah. Like a fun, fun, fun at the Autobahn. Yeah. Yeah. I really liked that the most. I really. Oh, and so it's like the. With the synths sounding like cars, I loved when it just like would blend from channel to channel. I think doing that for that time. When it sounded like it was kind of switching to the radio stations for the vocals. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was really cool. Well, yeah. And then like the pan. Yeah. The panning. Yeah. The panning. That's right. Yes. Yeah. With the filter screen. Yeah. That sounds excellent for its time in 76. Yeah. For 74. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was interesting, though, that, like, well, a lot of the ingredients of what would become synth pop are in here. It's not really that dancey. That's because, like, disco wasn't really a thing yet. So there wasn't, like, Gigi or Marotta working with Donna Summer was yet to happen. Granted, it was going to happen very soon after this, but that was not an ingredient that was in there yet. And so this was just Sounded almost more like a psychedelic record, only with almost entirely synths and the occasional piano thrown in. It did get really anthemic, too, like when like most of the time the synths sounded like synths and weren't trying to emulate other instruments. But there's a time when it sounds almost like like horns, like brass, and it's playing like a really, you know, kind of like anthemic type little melody to it, which. Yeah. It's almost like it's the theme song for Travel By Road. Fun thing to note about Kraftwerk is they have they did another album much later called Tour de France. And then like probably my favorite record of theirs from 77 Trans Europe Express, which is about trains. So they've done about all kinds of land vehicles like cars and trains and bikes. They are a. They are a band about practical material things. Very German. Very German. I'm going to try to pronounce the names of the next 4 songs. And I will give the English translation. All right. Comment Melody. Comment Melody. 1. 1. commit melody, common melody to. Nick, knock, mitten, knock, mitten, knock, mitten, knock. Yeah, midnight. Morton's frigging gang morning walk. Oh, next season, I'm going to make you all listen to a mole shot Doma, which is a Belarusian band. And so the song titles are in like acrylic on the back. Oh, nice. I love how Germans just like cram words together when they when they're like referring to a. You know what? So I actually watched some like linguistic stuff and they talk. It's weird. We do that too. Yeah. Like we do like, uh, like front yard, you know, like we, we do like that smashing of words together when like, like our, some of the words that we do like that, like they do like, uh, we have butterfly and there's this like smetterling smetterling. But, um, Words that they cram together that we don't A lot of those are actually our French words. Oh, yeah. Because we're like Because we're like 30 We're like 30 percent French and we're like 30 percent Germanic and like a smattering of other things. I think the biggest chunk is German. Well, Germanic. It's not really German. We're just like the West Germanic. Anglo-Saxon, technically. Because when I look at French and Spanish and Italian, I recognize a lot of the words just by looking at them, but German looks entirely foreign to me. German is much more closely related to us, though, because English is a Germanic language, not a Romantic language, because Romantic languages are pretty, and they rhyme a lot, and they make sense. And, like, well, that's actually, like, so Ironic. So like alliterations, the illiterates. Yeah. Like if you look at like old English poetry, they mostly use alliterations. It wasn't until like the French, the Norman invasion. in 1066 when we started incorporating french that we actually went to like rhyming schemes of poetry yeah which is funny like the sonnet they had to they had to make a distinction between italian and english sonnets and that's not the language spoken in because you can write italian sonnets in english it's just the english sonnet has a less strict rhyme scheme because it's harder to rhyme things in a germanic language than it is a romantic language yeah Have you guys ever heard that song by the Italian artist where he tried to make where he tried to make it sound like English but didn't use any English words? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fascinating. I love it. Yeah, I heard it. Yeah, yeah. But like but like but so like basically like when we now when we make new words, we make it like a dramatic thing like megabyte. yeah we do we do we do the way that germans do where they smash 2 words together like mega and bite like so like uh we still we do have that tradition but it's just like when when we were um you know, like, uh, the languages we're mixing, like some things that we were, we're, uh, making, we're naming things where we would take like the French words. So like, you know, um, It's like So, like, they're cows when they're alive, but it's a steak or beef when it's Beef is the French word. Cows is the Germanic word. Yeah, a lot of times it's a division between, like, noble and commoner language. Yeah, so, like, it So like they would they said it's like or like pig and then pork when it's on the table. Yeah. Well, it's like the commoners relationship to livestock is as a living animal while the noble is as meat to be consumed. Yeah. Not that, you know, not that the not that the commoners weren't also eating meat. They're just eating it more sparingly because they had to save it for special occasions or sell it to nobles to make their money. Yeah. Yeah. So like the nobles were the ones that were naming the dishes and the peasants were the ones that were raising the livestock. Yeah. So that's how that's why they have 2 different names. I'm looking through the Wikipedia page right here to kind of get an idea about side 2. And it says in Britain, electronic music was popularly known as Doctor Who music. The Doctor Who theme song was one of the first electronic songs. It's one of, like, the first ones people really recognize, too. Like, when that first came out, a lot of people hadn't heard anything like that yet. Yeah. The Doctor Who theme fucking slaps, by the way. Yeah. Side note. All of them. Sure. I don't know if I've ever heard. I've never watched Doctor Who. It's a mixed bag. When it's good, it's good. Most of the time, it's kind of there. I really like a lot of the modern series, but trying to get through the classic series was like a slog. I remember Star Trek seemed refreshingly modern in comparison. Star Trek's faster paced and was written for adults more like Doctor Who. The original Doctor Who was written. It was more meant to be an educational show for children at first. Oh, well, I know. I know they had a number of lost seasons or lost episodes in the early days. Yeah, I got through. I think I stopped kind of in the middle of the second doctor. So I probably should get to the third doctor. It probably starts picking up there. Yeah. Are we ready to start the side that isn't as straightforward synth pop and has a little bit more of the crowd rock in it? Yes. Here we go. Yes. fun, fun is the Apple Bomb. And we're back. Fun, fun, fun is the Apple Bomb. Of Autobahn by Kraftwerk. There was even less singing on side 2. It is kind of funny. By the Man Machine, they are writing 3minute songs that they all have, like, verse, chorus, and vocals throughout. So they did become much more structured and poppier as they got more into synths. This side reminded me more of, like, film or TV scores than I did, like, a side of, like, popular music. Yeah. And, you know, it all of these songs built up a really interesting like soundscape, which I found to be really enjoyable. It was a, it was an interesting like set of songs. Like to me, it almost like built like a, like a, you're, you're returning from the road trip kind of stuff like that. Like the first song was just like doomy and gloomy. It's like, Oh, I have to go back to work. Like at 1 point you were describing your email routine. It was something. I liked all 4 of these songs for different reasons, although the first 2 kind of paired well together and one built into 2, so those 2 I like to look at as more of a whole, but the other 2 were good standalone songs, even though one did flow from the other, but they were contrasting moods, which is how they were related, so What did you think, Dylan? I did get a little mixed up between, yeah, kind of the connection between, what is it, Comet Melody, I'll just say it, one and 2. As far as I could tell, it was the second one that had, like, the triumphant progression that kind of came in with the synths, right? Yeah, it went from Oh, I marked it as the Super Nintendo section. Yeah, isn't that right? It went from the Void of Space to the Triumph of the Comet. Triumph of the will. What? No, don't. 9. 9. So that it, like, shoots you into the atmosphere and it's all, you know, just ambient for the most part. Yeah. It's a successful side of music, I think. I liked it. It was, yeah. But it felt more like a soundtrack than putting on a pop or rock record. Yeah, I needed a drink of caffeine. Like this is the kind of stuff that I read to and like fall asleep to, But it's good reading. Oh yeah, Because it doesn't have any words. So it's like something you would listen to, while you're like Studying Or reading, Or, Which is What I do Like, I've Like Jacob, One of our other guests. He had introduced me A long time ago, Separate from the podcast John Fahey, Who's just like An acoustic guitar player, And it's like Great reading music. Anyways, Yeah, Yeah, But yeah, I would listen to this again just to read to really Yeah And also hear the fun, fun, fun on the autobahn. I'm going to be saying that all fucking week now. You're going to catch yourself singing that at work. I will. I'm just imagining my dad smoking weed and listening to this. Yeah, you know he's, he was more into like southern rock and and dad rock and that kind of stuff. so it's i have a hard time, like picturing him, like listening to this. but uh, i can. also. it's not really that far removed from things like pink floyd- and i know he liked pink floyd. this was his relaxing music, i think, Although he gave me his copy of Umaguma because he hated it, And I think this album has more in common with Umaguma than I don't know. Dark Side of the Moon. Oh yeah, All right, Track by track, Comet, Melody One. It's really slow and doomy, I could see like a band like Black Sabbath, like putting it on like right before they walk out on stage. Yeah, You were describing your work email. Yeah, You know, after the first sign it's just like all right. you're back from vacation now and you have to go back into work. So it's doomy and gloomy, And it's just like, oh, I don't want to do any of this, I'm sad. Yeah, it did sound like planetary music to me, but kind of a little more menacing than they tend to let that, like the like the. the bass especially had just kind of like a Threatening growl to it, Although they're, they cut in with a little bit of piano to lighten the mood. But yeah, there was a soft part right. Yeah, was it right at the end. Yeah, right at the end, to kind of lead it into part 2. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, there was because I thought it was in the first one. honestly, It was like one of my favorite sounds. that happened in the first one. that did. it does have that lo-fi energy. It's that like sparkle, like. I would describe it as the sparkly Disney sound, if you guys don't. Yeah, During this entire side there were multiple times where I thought of like Disney music. Yeah, Well, I guess it makes sense in such a menacing way. Yeah, Well, it makes sense that they do like a lot. They did a lot of in the years Happy soundtrack work, right, yeah, yeah. and that was that was like common in the kraut rock scene, especially with bands like uh can and tangerine dream. they love doing that kind of stuff. in that box of cassette i got like 4 tangerine dream, uh cassettes. so should go through those sometime. go through those with dan. that's like his favorite band. yeah, that. and jethro toll, i got. i got a bunch of those too. i would never imagine that his fate. one of his favorite bands is jeff roll toll, the flute guy, the flute guy, really. uh, i thought it was. i said it was pretty and menacing, but it still made me want to fall asleep. yeah, it, it's great music to put on, to read or to clean or to, uh, go to sleep. yeah, this is in general. this whole album is like something that you would put on in the background while you're doing something else. You should try the man machine sometime. That's much different. Okay, You should try the man machine. The way you said that was a little like what is the man machine there, Dave, The man machine is a dance machine. Oh, okay,

Like by the man machine is when they were getting like, disco was starting to be a thing that was using a lot of synthesizers. so they're like: 44:39

let's make a dance album. Oh, okay, I was thinking man machine. I was thinking of the prostitute robot in New Vegas. Oh yeah, The man machine, Fisto Fisto. That's why I should have named Flex, though I should have named him Fisto. Rip your dick off, We call him Fisto Roboto, but he doesn't just fist Fisto Roboto. The nice thing about Comet Melody I is how it transitions to Comet Melody II. Yes, You mentioned, Dave, that it had a payoff, that it really that really impacted you. Yeah, So, yeah, like like, kind of like a higher drone comes in and then, like bass, becomes a lot more active and then the drum kicks in, and it's just. it feels like triumphant and like uplifting, And but it like builds off of, like the, the creepy, the creeping menace from before. It all feels like a whole, pretty unified piece, but with 2 very distinct parts, which I thought was cool. I think I thought it sounded a lot like Super Nintendo music, like me and Sean were both just picturing, like Mario jumping around going. One of the things I really like about these old analog synths is like how hard it is for them to stay in tune as you play them. And so like they all have, like this kind of like slightly detuned quality as it goes, Yeah, And I think that's cool, Just like like the little, like the little analog warts to. it is really part of the appeal to me, Like I remember to like. another thing about analog synths is sometimes, if they're, if you leave them in the cold, you have to like let them warm up for like 5 or ten minutes before you start playing them. Otherwise they'll just be wildly out of tune. And that would annoy Dinger to be like Why doesn't your synth sound right. Are you playing the right notes?

It's like this: 46:44

is the middle C right here? Don't just start the song right away after I turn it on. Wait 5 minutes. It's like a tube amp. Yeah, More conflict with Dinger stories. Oh no, Not to be confused with the other Dinger we talked about earlier. Yeah, not, Klaus Dinger. Klaus Dinger, He is. uh, Dinger is also very German too. Yeah, He always. he goes to German Fest, y'all. Yeah, He, he goes, he, he goes to Oktoberfest. He, uh, he drank enough beer to get to the uh to get to to, to win the tour. One time I got drunk off of Dos Boots at one of his birthday parties and it made my girlfriend at the time not like you guys. Yeah, I think that was officially when she stopped liking me, at least because I think I think I was the only one of the music people that she tolerated until then, And then, after that, she just hated me. It was funny. She liked Rob. I think that was about it. Yeah, It's funny. like after I started dating Dana, she liked all my friends that she didn't like, And then, vice versa, she didn't like the people that she liked. Nice, I never met your other girlfriend. so I'm sure you must have You had to have ran into her at a Megaton show. But yeah, you just don't remember. And she probably didn't talk to you. She probably just glared at you. I remember, I saw. I saw somebody was talking about Ozzy's first wife on Reddit and he said that he she used to come to like Black Sabbath shows early on and would be in the corner like knitting. She had that kind of same vibe. I don't. I don't know. If you showed me a picture, I might be able to tell you if I met her, but I don't have any pictures of her. Why would you hold on to those? Why not? that's true. I don't have any pictures of my ex-girlfriends, unless, I think, unless Teresa like. uh, yeah, well, Teresa has a collection of pictures of your ex-girlfriends. yeah, that'd be weird. no, I have pictures of Teresa. yeah, she's my ex-girlfriend. yeah, yeah, she's no longer your girlfriend because she's your wife. yeah, my wife, my wife, she is dead. high 5, high 5, My wife's OnlyFans is on sale. High 5, Just 9, 90, 9 for 30 days. Get yours now while the sale goes on. It's free real estate, Free real estate. I'm a cuckold. The Austrian will start speaking. So you go look at Only Steve knows We care about nothing. Lebowski, All right. any more thoughts on Comet Melody II? Oh shit, we're only on that one. Yeah, No, but the next song was my favorite. Yeah, Midnight was my favorite on this side. Yes, very gothic and atmospheric and creepy, And it had a lot of cool sound. Oh yeah, Yeah, Had like it, like the organ at the beginning sounded like a church organ. Then there are synth bats going around like panning around up, like like they're up in the belfry. It was like haunted house music. It was fun. Yeah, this is the one that reminded me a lot of you might you guys might be familiar. It's called IDM, Intelligent Dance Music. Yeah, Yeah, that's, that's actually a pretty like. I'd say that one's kind of it's got some traction in the modern world of where I'm at with EDM and where I listen to things. A big artist is for that is G Jones, Greg Jones. Um, he, he's starting to like headline a lot of festivals and stuff actually. And he, he has so much fun with the synths. Uh, you said, I think it's, I think it is like synth bats probably really start to get, Oh, how did I even? I don't think I made a note of it. But yeah, the kind of like wobbly sound almost. Yeah, I almost sometimes thought it was going to like. Make it make its way into like its own sound. I can't like. Yeah. Then there are sounds that like could have been like wind or could have been ghosts. Then at the end, they're like, well, like synth wolves howling. This would be a good one for a Halloween mix. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we've mentioned that a few times this season. So anybody paying attention, like make that mix. And then, like, as Well, you're the one that listens to the episodes the most. Yeah, that is true. Then at some point, too, there's, like, the creepy kind of, like, percussive sound from, like, tubular bells. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I liked that. Oh, and my bad. By make its own sound, what I meant is the wobbly synth bat, like, kind of, like kind of 360 sound that you get with that almost would like work as a transition into like a different like almost progressive like you would almost start to have like percussion come in and just suddenly you have like your own sound I really like that about that's where it reminds me a lot of IDM where you'll have like a really wobbly synth actually it reminds me of like Steve's one of Steve's like recent your, your EDM song that you made, um, the sense kind of like, we'll just spin around and like hit you in the face. I really like that about like IDM and bass music. I'd say, Oh, which, which one? Do you remember which one? The, was it the one that I officially put out or it was like the one, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 song. What is, Oh, uh, beg for scraps. Yeah. Dave was on that too. Yeah. That one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. is a Loose and Fugue song. That is where, you know, the progression of bass just starts to whack you in the face, I guess. I know you mentioned you like Labor Day off of that, too. And that's the guy that wrote it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I really like that one, too. It's a great song. Yeah, that one has that like almost synth poppy groove as far as I remember. But of course with rock. Yeah. Yeah. Got that. Is that car rock? Pretty related. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Lucifer is basically anything experimental, pretty much. But yeah, like midnight highlight hidden gem on the album. Well, this entire side is the hidden gem because the first side overshadows the whole thing quite a bit. But yeah, this was the hidden gem. All right. And then we got one more here. Sean, you've figured out how to pronounce this, kind of. Yeah. You want me to do the German? Yes. Como se dice morning walk in German. All right. Morgan Spritz's gang. Spritzy gang. Morgan Spritzy gang. This one was this one was a bit of a left turn with how prominent the acoustic instruments were like the other ones you would occasionally hear like a piano or a guitar buried in the background. This after like like after like the laser birds at the beginning with the synths was largely driven. Yeah, laser birds was largely driven by like the flute and the piano. it it almost reminded me of like that uh that classical music that that like they always do for like when the character's like waking up in the morning like disney he'll do that's kind of what it felt like that that definitely is what it felt like yeah So it was good. It was, like I said, this whole album is a very This one was a lot more relaxing. Like, it was a little relaxing morning walk. Yeah. Yeah. The sense that sounded like water made me feel like I had to pee. And so you did. In your chair. Yep. I didn't get up to do it, so that means He wet him. Yeah. Yeah, this one, like, it is kind of related to Midnight, though, because you have It's like the next day. Yeah, it's like the next day. So it's. So it does flow from one to the other and that they're contrasting like opposites. Well, the comment one was was building on something, and then the first side was all things that flowed into to each other like this was the biggest left turn, but it wasn't unrelated to the previous song, which I thought was cool. It was fun, fun, fun on the Athol Bon. Yeah. well yeah i think i would say that was uh 2 really uh interesting sides of music uh i can tell that they had a lot of fun putting that together and writing it and uh i'd say uh you know if you're into prog or experimental like synthy music or sleeping yeah or sleeping or planetariums or driving uh this would be a great one to pick up uh Or if you like Mike Oldenfeld, Tubular Bells, yeah. Yeah, it is kind of interesting to hear where they were by the late seventies and early eighties in comparison to this. Because this is the first time they became notable as a band, but then just how they evolved from here and how they become even more less proggy and more poppy and how that goes is pretty interesting journey, like all like it is fun to go through like all of them and see how it progresses. But if you're going to do any of the follow up like their best 3 records are Trans Europe Express, Man Machine and Computer World, which I've talked about separately and all this. So those are definitely worth checking out, but also to see like just how the how the band changed as you know, like here's where they found their sound. And from there they developed and refined it quite a bit. Looking at the Wikipedia page for Kraftwerk, it looks like the band is still active. See, what's the last time they released an album? 2003. So probably just a touring. Yeah. Touring band at this point. I noticed that the song Autobahn has a radio cut that condenses it down to 5 minutes. Yeah. And it's worth listening to, especially if you don't have 20 minutes to listen to one song. Dylan, as a as a person that's into like modern EDM, how did you feel like like did it connect with you as far as that world goes? Oh, yeah. Ten out of 10. Nice. I can see how like I listen to a lot of modern synth pop, so I feel like I can see where the. The progression of, like, percussion especially and the buzziness behind the synths kind of, like, blends well and has a big connection. There's a lot of artists that come to mind right away. J-Wolf is a really big one right now. Shout out to him. Yeah. I remember after we did the Cabaret Voltaire episode, I recommended it to you, and I think you listened to one of their newer ones that had a pretty modern vibe to it, I thought. Yeah. Because I listened to it after you mentioned it. And isn't it like a Isn't that basically he's using that as a solo project anymore, the one guy? Yeah, he's very atmospheric with it, that's right. Yeah. Yeah, way different from Lemon Juice. Yeah. And then, like, a lot of That's a great recommendation. And a lot of this is something that electronic musicians did keep doing, which is, like, okay, yeah, you have, like You have like the melody, you have the like the chord structure, you have the bass, you have the drums. But, you know, like we have another hand here. What if we added like some like sweeping atmospheric sounds that you get by pressing a singer, a single note and then twisting a knob? which is how you, you know, like get the things, you know, like the car, the effect of the cars driving by or the synth bats circling around the balcony. Like just like how you can incorporate noise into a song. This album does a lot for and current synth artists have definitely learned and like expanded on that. So it's cool to see. And pushing a button and twisting a knob is like my favorite way of masturbating. So, yes. All right. So that's foreplay. Anyways. Yeah. This is the penultimate album of the season. We decided we need to finally wrap it up because our outro collage is getting too long. And that's that's the only reason. Yeah. And we need a break. And we had fun, fun, fun on the Apple Bond. We're going to wrap out the season by listening to an album that none of us have listened to called The Best of Bread. Yes. Out of Sean's collection. Yes. Although ironically, and now I own a copy because I inherited my dance record collection. Your copy might be better than mine. I don't know. We'll look at them both and decide which one to go for. Yeah. Well, it's funny because I remember him and Sandy were standing there after they were like flipping through my record collection. He pulls it out and he turns to Sandy, goes, Sandy, look, the best of bread. And they were both like, oh, I love this song. And I said, you know, they can totally have that album when we're done with it. I don't think I'd ever listen to it. I think the funniest thing would be if we actually liked it. That would be That would be hilarious. Hilarious. If we're like, oh, bread's pretty awesome. But they're like the most milquetoast-looking white motherfuckers you've ever seen in your life. And I'm pretty sure the music's that way, too. Yeah. We'll see. I mean, we were all surprised by Lord Such. I'm pretty sure I will like bread more than I liked Iced Earth. Well, probably. Yeah, there you go. There's your prediction. And kiss. And kiss. Yes. Not Nickelback. I think I like Nickelback better than bread. Dylan, do you do any recording projects right now that you're ready to plug? No, I wish. Okay, so we'll move on to say that. It's all tucked away for now. nickelback i i think i like nickelback better than bread dylan do you do any recording projects right now that you're ready to plug or no i wish okay so we'll uh we'll move on to say that um away for now so sounds good i appreciate it though i yeah thank you for having me on yeah i haven't i haven't really done any like online presence like this for a while i did like stream in like 2017 on twitch like forever ago but i would just like do like solo horror game streams and stuff like that of like amnesia really good game oh nice yeah yeah amnesia is a great game machine for pigs yeah i just like saying oh yeah i got really that one i got stuck on so much But all this does remind me, thank you to Jeff for ending up with this record and then having it passed on to you and you running into it. Yeah, I'm glad. I figured you'd like it, so I'm glad you joined us. I know I picture him DJing it back then. You know, he surely was like He had his fader out on his little stereo machine. If you want a copy, Steve does have 2 of them, so Oh, actually, yeah. I'm sure you could probably talk him out of one of them. He was like And then Steve's like, you motherfucker. Steve's like, don't offer my stuff. Sean, you suck. I do have also 2. He also has 2 copies of bread. Mash up Morning Lock with a bread song. Oh, my God. All right, let's go. All right. rest of us are in a band called The Illiterates. We're about to release a song on a comp called The House Came Crashing Down. So keep an eye out on our social media. We're about to be on. I need to submit it. So maybe I shouldn't say anything until I get a yes. So I'll leave that one alone. But yeah, there's a few other things coming up. Yeah. And I think that's it. Yeah, catch you on the flip side. Steven, I'm talking to you right now because I know you're recording. It's not cool that you record our conversations. And I think it's weird. That were on mic. Steven. I hear you call my name, Steven. Ducking Sally inside. Cooking for the dog. Steven, why did you go to the bathroom and treat the recording? It's weird. It's weird, Steven. You're a big disappointment to your mother and I, Steven. Side one side B is a floof goof studios production. Please check out the description for more information about the guests and the album reviewed. You can find us on blue sky under the names, kill rock music. That's K I L R a V O C K and Dave under beast master general. You can find us on Instagram under kill rock music, S W S and Dave underscore diction. And you can also find our regular contributor, Sean, under the name Boozer Slug. You can find Steve and Sean on threads with the same usernames as Instagram. Check out our post-punk band, The Illiterates, our experimental group, Lucid Fugue, and Steve's solo project, Kill Rock, on most major streaming platforms. You can visit Steve's website, killrockmusic.com, for easy access. That's K-I-L-R-A-V-O-C-K music.com. And if you want to check out Dave's past band, Gong Farmer, and their album, Pop Dada, you can do so on Bandcamp. Thanks. Everyone we've worked with is dead. I'm really ripped. I need to change my pants. Check, check, check, check, check, check. Check, check, check, check, check, check. Leonard Bernstein. I hate it so much I skipped the whole Destroyer. Allow me to play you out. Dirty Dave just pooped his pants. Hmm, yes, yes indeed. Perfect hooker brewing song. Kick out the jams, motherfucker! Yay! Are you Oh, Steve's got some cheese. Get my podcast boys ready to go. Jawobble. What a name. I'm Ivan Moody, and I'm having a psychotic break. Testicles. That is a fun fact. There's a jazz hall. What do you mean this song is called Sweet Pea? Now that we're done with Steve's Rorschach test, let's talk about the album. For fuck's sake. That's not very Vivian of you guys. It's a professional operation over here. This is Fantasia for people who had to repeat the 9th grade. Heavy metal. Yeah, hands off, Britain. We're dumping in the sea again. Shove it! Shove it! Shove it! Shove it! You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know. I love California. Cunt. I, I, I. All aboard! All right, all right, all right. Collage of noise. I'm free! Free voyage! We make no jokes here.