It’s been a long time since I got into any wretched '90s industrial, as I’ve been overloaded with old-skool death/drone stuff like Paradise Lost and Christdriver for the longest time.
Lately, I’d been getting a lot of random Die Warzau videos on my recommended list, so I gave 'em a listen. Hot damn, this is some good stuff.
Did my homework on these guys and found out why I like what I’ve heard so much: Jim Marcus, a key ingredient in early Sister Machine Gun and “Notes From Thee Underground”-era Pigface. Tasty.
Gonna be snagging a copy of Disco Rigido soon, as “Strike to the Body” and “Jackhammer” won’t shut the fuck UP and get outta my head.
Any more recommendations? Favorites? Cool stories?
Yeah, one of my favorites. Back in the day, when I wanted to show someone how varied industrial music was, they always made the list. I actually saw them live back in 95, and oddly enough, absolutely hated them. FOr some reason the live band really didn’t click with me. I randomly tried our Engine a while after and that was what it took to really click with me.
So if you don’t have Engine, that’s absolutely the place to start. There’s some great stuff on there. Sadly, that was also their last album for 10 years, since good old TVT refused to promote it and even produced 2 singles for the album and then refused to release them. I’d go Engine/Disco Rigido/BEMBF/Convenience/Vinyl 88. There are actually some pretty good B-sides and mixes on the singles as well, so don’t overlook them. Especially I’ve Got To Make Sense (2 totally different mixes), Jesus Killer and the singles off BEMBF.
An innovative and wildly under-appreciated band from the late 1980s/1990s scene. By the time “Engine” came out, Jim Marcus and Van Christie were so far ahead of their contemporaries because of their diverse production aesthetic and focus on real songwriting. Jim’s highly politicized lyrics were far more nuanced and probing than most of their contemporaries, also (and still are). I, for one, am very happy they’re back in the picture.
In the early-1990s (I can’t recall exactly when), Jim and Van opened a recording studio on Larrabee Street in Chicago that they called Warzone (appropriately, next door to the brutal Cabrini Green public housing projects.) This became their production hub for the next few years, and a lot of bands from that era came through… Sister Machine Gun tracked “The Torture Technique,” Haloblack did “Tension Filter,” and Jim and Van did a lot of remixes for KMFDM, Machines Of Loving Grace, etc. There is even a “lost” Die Warzau album called “Republic” that they recorded prior to “Engine” but then scrapped. Some of the songs intended for that record (including “Hole In The Ground”) were later recorded by Sister Machine Gun and released on “Burn” in 1995.
At some point in the mid-1990s (again, I can’t recall exactly when), Chicago Trax moved from its original location on Halstead Street next door to Warzone. Warzone eventually shut down when Die Warzau went on hiatus, and Chicago Trax took over some (if not all) of their space.
Yeah, they were absolutely ahead of their time. I really miss all that old Warzone stuff. Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if good old TVT hadn’t screwed them up.
They were supposedly going to release Republic a couple years ago. They even set a date for it on the old Pulseblack site. Sadly, that date came and went, just like the release date for Supergangbang, the Everplastic album and even the much touted 12/1/99 live date for DieWarzau.com way back when. A real shame, as I would love to get a decent copy of their version of Hole In The Ground.
I’m listening to “Liberated” now and it’s a really good song. I don’t listen to much of the EBM type stuff where the people can actually sing (I prefer the more gritty, tough guy Industrial) but this is really great.
What is their connection to Sister Machine Gun? I get depressed sometimes thinking of all the amazing music I’m missing out on over the years and I want to just go out and grab every record and band I keep meaning to listen to.
I barely have enough time for new music these days being so focused on my own stuff, but my new guitarist Jon is introducing me to all kinds of stuff I hadn’t heard before (the new Portishead album for instance) and that’s been cool.
Maybe I’ll start a thread on that, like a list of stuff I’ve been meaning to check out and other people can post their lists and we can circle jerk in a round table discussion of the bands…
EDIT - Listening to more songs from ‘Engine’. This album really is great! The production is really interesting and the songs sound good even on laptop speakers. Very cool.
Portishead is genius! The wife picked them up on a whim a while ago and now we’re both hooked! kinda sound like james bond music (obviously not the main theme but those chicks that usually sing in the beginning from back in the 60’s and 70’s)
Late,
grmpysmrf
Yeah, they were absolutely ahead of their time. I really miss all that old Warzone stuff. Kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if good old TVT hadn’t screwed them up.
They were supposedly going to release Republic a couple years ago. They even set a date for it on the old Pulseblack site. Sadly, that date came and went, just like the release date for Supergangbang, the Everplastic album and even the much touted 12/1/99 live date for DieWarzau.com way back when. A real shame, as I would love to get a decent copy of their version of Hole In The Ground.
One of the Die Warzau guys used to post on fark.com. If I ever see him on there again I’ll threadjack and ask him to stop by prongs.
While Bisquit and others may disagree, I think the essential Die Warzau release other than Engine is their recent greatest hits set, Vinyl88. This is so well compiled and so much more than a rote greatest hits; every single track was re-worked or remixed from its original version, and the production is tough as hell. The whole album is strung together like a seamless DJ set, with transitions between tracks. There are also four or five new songs.
Speaking of new, if you go to the Die Warzau Facebook page and scroll down to the player on the lefthand side, they posted six songs from a limited edition, friends only-EP titled Borghild that came out last year. Very few physical copies exist (I don’t have one), but as far as I know, all the tracks on the EP are posted to Facebook. And yes, they’re amazing.
While Bisquit and others may disagree, I think the essential Die Warzau release other than Engine is their recent greatest hits set, Vinyl88.
I don’t disagree. Vinyl 88 is quite good as well.
And thanks for the tip off to the Borghild EP. Kind of strange that they remixed everything to 10 minutes each. There’s some cool stuff in that 10 minute version of Insect - though it’ll blow your speakers if you don’t watch it.
For people who were into nin (you’d have to be to know who these people were) Podboy-c.vrenna (a nick name al gave him actually) played alot with them around the time nin did lolla and j. ward drummed for them(nin) with james woolley nin live keyboard player around 90-94 i know they at least played on disco that was the only tape (yeah back then) i owned from d.w. i remember it being not very memorable
Pick up “The Torture Technique” by Sister Machine Gun. The Die Warzau influence is pretty obvious! Jim Marcus even makes an appearance in the video for “Wired.”