There’s so much to cover on the blog, I’m only catching up and there has been already an announcement of a new Paris Popfest! After seeing the lineup, I must say I’m very interested in attending. If only I could!

The festival will be held at the venue Le Hasard Ludique on September 21st and 22nd. The lineup is pretty impressive for the two nights: Go-Kart Mozart, The Orchids, Cocoanut Groove, Birdie (!), Soft Science, Peaness, Beach Youth and Xavier Boyer (Tahiti 80). Plus the DJs Popnews and Section 26.

Most of these bands I know, but Beach Youth, so I’ll explore. But what about the DJs? Who are they? And how good is this venue? Would be great to know more details about the festival.

Beach Youth: a band from Caen, France. That must be a first on the blog. Their latest release seems to be “Singles” which is a compilation of their debut songs. It was released last September on 10″ vinyl. It sounds quite hip, catchy and fun. There are 5 songs in total in the EP, “Days”, “Memories”, “Young”, “Closer” and “Diary”. The band is formed by Etienne Froidure, Simon Dumottier, Louis-Antonin Lesieur and Gautier Caignaert. I would like a copy too!

And 4 more findings so you have a good middle of the week!

Verbludes: I have recommended in the past this Moscow, Russia, band. Actually, I raved about them. They sound GREAT to me. Well, there is a new EP on their Bandcamp, one called “Supernova” and I’m eager to listen to it. Of course I wonder if it will be released physically, and the answer is that probably not, or maybe just on cassette. Anyways, now I’m listening, and even though I don’t understand anything, I’m hooked. The first song sounds a bit rockier than their previous releases, but it is still very enjoyable! The thing I really like about this Russian band is their girl/boy vocals. They combine perfectly. Which is my favourite song? At first listen I could say: “кошмары”, but in due honesty, I suggest listening to all six songs!

Nos Miran: I have recommended the “Humo” 10″ that Elefant is to release by this superb band. I shared one video too. Now it is time for a second video, one for the song “La Montaña del Amor”. And it sounds great. Should try to get this record soon.

Putochinomaricón: another video from another Elefant Records band. I had recommended the new 10″ mini-album by Chenta Tsai Tseng that is quite a sensation already on social networks. Now a video for the song “Tú No Eres Activista” is available on Youtube to promote the record, and I’m loving it, especially the fun and poignant lyrics.

Pale Blue Morning: had recommended their song “Eleanor” some time ago on the blog. It was their only song available on SoundCloud then. Well, now the Quezon City, Philippines, band have a new song, one called “Haze” and it is terribly good!

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The bee hunters.

What do I know about them? Barely anything. I must say I just discovered their songs on Youtube. The few that are available there. They sound good. They sound jangly. They sound 80s. They are in German. I need to investigate.

Discogs tell me that the band was formed by Jochen Distelmeyer, Mirko Breder and Thomas Wenzel. And worst of all, that they had no releases. Just two compilation appearances. That’s a bummer. I suppose though it it not the worst case scenario, at least two compilations meant that there songs were out there somehow.

These two compilations were cassettes. Both on the German label Fast Weltweit. This label was originally based in Bad Salzuflen and would play an important part of what would later be called the Hamburg School. The label was founded in 1985 by Michael Girke, Andreas Henning, Achim Knorr, Bernd Begemann, Frank Spilker and Frank Werner. A lot of people according to the German Wikipedia. Later it seems Jochen Distelmeyer and Bernadette La Hengst would join to run the label. So the question is then, was Jochen running the label when his songs appeared on the compilation? Or what came first? The chicken or the egg?

The first compilation tape was called “Fast Welweit Präsentiert” and was released in 1988. It included a bunch of important bands from the time like Die Time Twisters, Die Sterne or Jetzt!. The artwork was created by Frank Spilker and Frank Werner and all songs are credited to be recorded by Frank Werner between 1987 and 1988 at Klangforschung Studio. Here Die Bienenjäger appear with two songs: “Große Städte, Flaches Land” and “Das Herz Ist Ein Einsamer Jäger”

The second compilation tape was called “Fast Weltweit Nr. 2” and was released the same year, 1988. We see again the same bands on the compilation. This time around two knew songs are included by Die Bienenjäger, “Was Werden Sie Finden’ and “Tatjana Traurig”. Again, the same people credited for artwork, same people and same studio for the recording.

I wonder if Tatjana Traurig was a real person. The truth is that there is actually a video for this song, “Tatjana Traurig”. That is quite surprising. It looks like a video from that time. Would be interesting to know more about it.

The website Indiepedia.de has a bit more information about the band. It mentions that they recorded between 15 to 20 demos at Frank Werner’s studio. 4 of them we know from the tapes. Where are the rest? Would love to listen. The band split when Jochen moved to Hamburg in 1989 where he founded the band Arm and later Laut. And even later the most famous of his bands, the fantastic Blumfeld.

We also know thanks to this website that the name of the band actually comes from a book of the same name by James Fenimore Cooper.

Then there is a link to the lyrics of the 4 songs that were published! Now you can sing along.

Jochen as I was saying was part of the Hamburg Schule band Blumfeld, they are quite popular and probably you can find a lot of information on the web. He also released some solo records. He was actually not from Hamburg originally but from Bielefeld. On the other hand, Mirko Breder was part of the band Die Sterne and also played in a band called The Discount. Thomas Wenzel played in a lot of bands, Amon Ra, 3 Normal Beatles, Calamity Jane & The Amazing Seven, Cow, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Die Stars, Die Sterne, N.R.F.B. and Naked Navy.

I can’t seem to find any more information about the band. All of the mentions are always the same, that it was the predecessor band to Blumfeld. Nothing of Die Bienenjäger on its own. I understand that Blumfeld was big, but because of that I would have expected someone must have been interested in what happened before. In those 15, 20, demos. Why there were no releases? At least some gigs should be mentioned, right? But there’s not much at all on the web. And I’ve been quite thorough with the German-language websites.

I’m hoping then my German friends will fill in the blanks.

Edit (same day thanks to Frank Werner’s link):

An interview by Christoph Koch on the Headspin zine volume 13 from December 1995. Christoph interviews Jochen about Blumfeld and actually asks him some questions about Die Bienenjäger! Will we find more information about them? Let’s thanks Google Translate here, I hope it is understandable. If you know German it is probably better to click the link!

Headspin: Actually just a little bit, a few individual songs, but maybe you can tell how it all was then, with your old band Bienenjäger, Bad Salzuflen and the ominous Fast Weitwelt  …

Jochen: I believe that Michael Girke and Bernd Begemann founded the label together, whereby Bernd then actually said goodbye again from this context, because he wanted to make music in Hamburg with his band “Die Antwort” at a major label. Otherwise there were from the beginning: Frank Spilker of the Sternen, Achim Knorr as theDer Fremde, Die Time Twisters, I found out about them only two years later through an article in the magazine Spex. They all came from Bad Salzuflen / Herford and I’m from Bielefeld, so I did not have the direct connection to the people and when I read that article, I contacted them because that sounded pretty much like what I was was interested at the time and where relatively little was found in Bielefeld.

Headspin: And you were then at the start under the sonorous name of Die Bienenjäger?

Jochen: At first it was called Die Bienenjäger, then it was called Arm, until we realized – I already lived in Hamburg – that there was already a band in Hamburg with the name, they were so hardcore and in the end we were called, but I know not at all, if under the name what appeared on one of these Fast Weitwelt cassette sampler. Back then, we always did such exceptional sessions and released tape samplers. Michael Girke was at the beginning together with Thomas Schwebel as Jetzt! released a single, the Sternen and Der Fremde and Die Time Twistersthen made even real records, singles and so a sampler.

Headspin: I actually only know two pieces of the bee hunters, but I really like them, on the one hand “Tatjana Traurig”, on the other hand with the “Brief von weit weg” …

Jochen: That with the letter is actually called “Was werden sie finden?” and was just like the other just a demo recording and as far as I know never appeared anywhere. [But it’s on the red or the blue cassette sampler that Achim Knorr kindly sent me a short time later] But actually the cassette samplers were also demo recordings somewhere. I still remember how we went to the Berlin Independence Days and Popkomm and thought we had the hottest stuff ever, the hottest thing so far, just from the lyrics and the attitude behind it. Michael, for example, based on “Cappuccino Kid” (as Paul Weller has always signed the liner notes on his albums) under the name “Nescafé Boy” written on the back of the first sampler, the plate stalls abolished, the plates should be heard and not bought. So for some of the people who were there at that time, there was always, albeit nebulous, a political connotation. For Michael and for me in any case, for Frank Spilker I think so, but for example for Achim, Bernadette and Die Time Twisters barely. When I made music together with Thomas Wenzel, I always said. “You play bass” and he said “I do not feel like playing bass”, so some people used to play bass and drums at concerts. So we always played in cities where we knew someone, then sent a tape to them. Then came ‘ A time when I separated myself from Thomas and did not even bother to play music anymore and at some point I met André, Christof Leich of the Colossal Youth, and we did a jam session together with Thomas Wenzel and Frank Spilker. But that was not the thing, but then André said he knew another bass player and so we called Eike and with that he did a great job. From this jam session but then the new cast of the stars has emerged and after Thomas’ shared apartment Peta lived and I knew Bernadette from before, then resulted from this connection again with the “Die Braut haut ins Auge”

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Listen
Die Bienenjäger – Große Städte Flaches Land