When was the last time I heard something like SCHÖNES WOCHENENDE? It's been quite a while. It brings back memories of the past, when I was still young and pretty, looking fresh and crisp…
Back then, it was a time when recordings were still done analog and digital technology was just slowly making its way into rehearsal rooms.
These memories are evoked by SCHÖNES WOCHENENDE.
The self-titled album was recorded gradually from 2008 to 2010. The German-speaking punk band from Cologne started recording their songs shortly after their formation. You can definitely hear that in the songs, but that's also what makes the band likable. No fat guitars, no thundering drums, but a dominant vocal and a recording style reminiscent of many punk bands from 20 years ago that couldn't record on 64 tracks (which was almost none).
This simple and raw sound allows you to focus much more on the lyrics while listening.
These are very multi-layered and meaningful.
Whether it’s “Kaufhaus,” which lyrically reminds me of “Q-Damms Börning” by Quetschenpaua and is the punk version of that song. It's a nice thing that the second song is so enjoyable, which naturally raises hopes for more good songs, as the album has a total of 15 tracks.
Song number four, “Hugo,” is a punk manifesto against factory farming, but without a raised finger, instead with a text that documentary-style lays out what a pig's life is like in short sentences. Do we find this fair, or why do we continue to eat so much meat and wonder about the meat, feed, and hormone scandals? Such things come from such things.
The text of “Demokrat” is also fine; I don’t want to withhold a small excerpt:
…The manifesto, the capital, you once believed in it.
Implementing it was very difficult, you saw that in the GDR,
so you went to a fat cat state and call yourself a social democrat.
Simple, but with a kernel of truth, although Marx and Engels certainly didn't have a dictatorship in mind, but be that as it may. Punk must also polarize, provoke, and sometimes simplify things.
“Ich wähl das, was mein Papa wählt” is also really good (and the title reminds me of the song “Mein Papa bewacht die BVG” by Terrorgruppe). Not thinking, not questioning, and making it easy. How many families does this song probably represent? I’d rather not know.
SCHÖNES WOCHENENDE reminds with their varied, albeit sometimes simple, German punk of bands like Abstürzende Brieftauben, Alice D. (from Berlin), or Terrorgruppe.
The band does what they feel like, which makes them so fresh, so free from the liver, that it’s simply fun to listen to the 15 songs.
However, SCHÖNES WOCHENENDE hasn’t had such a good time in the last two years, which is why it has been quite quiet around the band. In 2012, they want to make themselves heard again. Then maybe the self-titled CD will be available for purchase again, perhaps at least as a CD-R, and maybe there will be a few concerts again.
SCHÖNES WOCHENENDE is something every German punk fan should check out!
