With the announcement that Firestation Records will be doing a compilation of German pop bands from the late 80s and early 90s, similar to those of the series of The Sound of Leamington Spa, I will be featuring today a German band, why not?

Now to end this week I have a few more finds that I’d love to share with you all. That with the reminder that next week, on Friday, I’m off to Mexico!

Daniel Takes a Train: Firestation has rescued this band from obscurity, first by having them on The Leamington Spa series and now releasing a proper retrospective record. The LP and CD for the aptly titled “Style, Charm and Commotion” will be out on August 3rd. In the past I was able to find a CD single by them on eBay which I believe it is all their released output. I wonder how many songs will be included? There is very little information about it. But for sure the song “The Honeymoon is Over”  as well as “I Don’t Want This Love” will be included. You can preview it now on the label’s Soundcloud.

A Strange Desire: I interviewed Yvette from the band not too long ago on the blog, I don’t know if she had plans to release a retrospective at that point, but almost immediately I saw Firestation announcing a record called “Sunny Days at Salem” by the band. It will also be released on August 3rd and will include their classic song “Promise to Lie” but there are no other details at the moment. Just that it will be released on vinyl only.

Rik Rak: and the last from this trio of Firestation releases is the “Illuminated” LP by this band. Yes, another superb compilation! The one song the label has available to stream as a preview is called “It’s Not Easy”. This record will be available on CD and LP. Hope we learn more details about all of these releases soon.

Bodega Sisters: “No Other” is a new video by this terrific and mysterious Stockholm band. I have recommended their music in the past, but I don’t think I know much about them aside that they make great guitar pop. I hope they release a proper record sometime soon!

Jetstream Pony: I believe I recommended the demo for “Self-Destruct Reality” in the past. But who cares. The thing is that the GREAT English band is releasing a new record on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, that magnificent and tasteful label from our friend Ronny in Augsburg. This 12″ will include this song (I suppose not the demo version) and four more songs: “Zipwire”, “Not the One”, “Out of Reach” and “A Tribute to Wanda and Zena”. I very much look forward to have this on my collection!

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For some reason I thought I had featured this superb obscure German band, but a I couldn’t even find a mention about them in the whole blog!

The country bumpkins, or Die Wurzelsepps, who were they? On Youtube my good friend Heinz has uploaded a few of their songs. Upon listening you’ll probably be hooked to their enthusiasm, to their poppy hooks, to those infectious choruses. But did they release anything? I can only think of compilation appearances. I should find out.

To my surprise Discogs does list one release. And guess what, it is a tape. Me and my aversion to tapes. Was it a demo tape? Perhaps. Or maybe not. It does have a label listed, Karotten Records. There is no catalog number, but we do know it was released in 1992. It is called “Das Ich Weiß Nicht – Keine Ahnung” and included 6 songs.

The A side had “Walk Through Your Fantasy”, “Das Wär Ich Gern”, “Sweet Aggression” and “Floor is Cold”. Strangely, the B side only has two songs, “All I Got” and “Interview Im New Melody Maker”.

I do have at home two of their songs, thanks to compilations. I had “Floor is Cold” on the 7″ compilation “Ein Spätsommercocktail” (Stein 2) that was released by Steinpilz Tonträger in 1994. I actually got this record through Peter Hahndorf when I visited him in Bremen about 10 years ago. How time flies! This record has already been mentioned on the blog when I featured Friends Ahoi and Mossblüten. But there are three other bands on it, worth checking out like Despite the Ties, Der Junge Im März or Space Kelly.

The other compilation I own that has a song by them is “Durch’s Schlüsselloch In Des Mondgärtners Sternenhain” that was released not too long ago, 2014, by Frishluft Tonträger (FRL 009). If you are a reader of the blog, you might know that years ago I interviewed Krischan! the man behind this super label. On this double LP the band contributes the song “Ich Wär So Gern”.

They also appeared on the first compilation on Peter Hahndorf’s brother Ulli’s label, Steinpilz Tonträger. It was a tape called “Frischer Morgentau” which actually Peter offered me a copy back in the day in that Bremen visit, and I don’t know why I turned it down. My friend Nana did take a copy with her. Now I’m sad about it, even if it was a tape and I don’t like tapes. On this tape the band appears with the song “Sweet Aggression”. It was released in 1993.

That same year on an unofficial CD released by the Pigs Can’t Fly label called “72 Minutes” the band appears with “Das Wär Ich Gern”. From what I read, this CD was given for free at the Popkomm trade fair in Cologne that year.

Lastly they also show up on a label I’ve mentioned quite a few times the last few weeks, Meller Welle Produkte. This label put out a tape called “Playing Around Sandcastles” (MEL 31), and on it the band appears with the song “Es Mag Sein”.

Now that is all their recorded output it seems. But it is time to squint my eyes and try to read what says on the tape sleeve that Heinz has uploaded on the Youtube videos. While I listen to the terrific “Sweet Aggression” that sounds like the German Chesterf!elds, I figure out that the band was formed by Sebastian Völtz on percussion and backing vocals, Wolfgang Buchholz on vocals and guitars, Matthias Pilz on bass, guitars and backing vocals and Christian Ruppel on guitars and backing vocals. Then there is also an address for Karotten Records, in Norderstedt. That is a city that is actually part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Would that mean the band hailed from there?

Norderstedt is a city in Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (Metropolregion Hamburg), the fifth largest city (with approximately 77,000 inhabitants) in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, belonging to the district (Kreis) Segeberg. Norderstedt was created by the merger of four villages on 1 January 1970: the villages of Friedrichsgabe and Garstedt, both belonging to the district Pinneberg, and the villages of Glashütte and Harksheide, both belonging to the district Stormarn. The newly created city was assigned to the district Segeberg.

I start to wonder as I love these songs so much. Are there more? Wouldn’t a compilation of all their recordings would be fantastic? I need to find out their story and how come they remain so obscure to this day. I do find that Wolfgang had been last involved in a band called Der Schöne Lutz. About the other members I can’t be sure. There is a pianist called Sebastian Völtz, might it be the same? And also a cinematographer called Matthias Pilz. May the be the same as the band members in Die Wurzelsepps? Maybe my German friends could confirm so.

That’s all there is really on the web about them. They do sound fantastic, you’ll see. You definitely start to wonder how come they went unnoticed, how no proper releases, or even how come there hasn’t been done some series of compilations documenting all these fantastic indiepop bands from Germany from that time period, the early 90s.

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Listen
Die Wurzelsepps – Walk Through Your Fantasy