Sonntag, 30. Juni 2013

Music Research, Episode 13: Polish Punk and Rock music

German-speaking readers of my blog may have noticed that I'm of east-european descent. To all people, who don't speak german and read my blog for the first time: I grew up in both, russia and poland, therefore I can speak both languages fluently. Because I always had a soft spot for "extreme" or "alternative" music, it must have come that I listened to polish/russian metal, punk, hiphop, hardcore etc. So, in this post I just wanted to introduce some of polish bands/artists who I just love to listen to now and then. The really important thing is: I'm a rootless cosmopolite and don't have any patriotical feelings to Poland or Russia(neither to the "communist"[because communism never existed] Poland or the Soviet Union)

"Big Cyc" means "Big Tit" in polish and is the name of a satirical Rockband, which was founded in 1988. Their lyrics and album titles, such as "nie wierzcie elektrykom"("Don't trust electricians" - former polish president Lech Walesa was an electrician) or many others, mocked the political situation poland. One of their biggest hits is "Makumba" which is a satirical view on polish racism which was on the rise in the 90ies(like in many former east block countries).


Big Cyc - Makumba von koszulaziom

Kazik Staszewski, singer/songwriter/rapper and lead vocalist of the band "Kult"(which was founded in 1982). The kinds of music which he was involved too are all different. There is New Wave, Punkrock, Crossover, HipHop. Actually he could have made the first polish hiphop-album. However, Kult were making some anti-government-music which was not filled endless boring paroles. It was nice to listen to. My favourite song is "Hej czy nie wiece"(Hey, don't you know) which is addressed to totalitarian leaders of the world. It asks them a question: "Hey, don't you know you don't have no power in this world".



After the fall of the iron curtain...not much changed. It was a different system, but you also had idiots in the parlament. Such idiot was president Lech Walesa who promised 100000000 zloty for every polish citizen. Of course, nobody got it. So Kazik made a song about it, where he demanded that amount of money.



Of course how I could have forgotten his rap music? "4 Pokoje" means "4 rooms". It is about the change in the system. Instead of one party you got 4 parties, who still fuck up.



Of course that was all awesome music. But as a person who found friends and interesting music and attitudes in the so called "punk" scene, I was interested in punk music. When I was listening to Oi! I wanted to know how Oi! and Streetpunk sounds in polish. Then I found The Analogs. Typical street punk hymns about the cops, being non-mainstream etc.



But that was enough. As my taste in music evolved, I began listening to crusty stuff and grindcore and such things. One of the bands I started listen to were Infekcja. It means "Infection" in polish. The vocalist is one of the most awesome drunken monkeys I ever met. We were introduced to each other by my friend Dmn, but I don't think that he might remember anything. It was in 2009, at the Paranoya Festival in Dresden. I also wanted to buy a patch at the distro-tent were Mokry(so is the vocalists name)'s was also selling stuff. I asked him how much it costed. (It costed 50 cent, btw). He answered: 50......... BUT 50 EUROS AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anyways, there is this great cover of "Uleglosc"



"Uleglosc" means "submissivness" btw. The lyrics are about being submissive to friends. As I said it was a cover. A cover from a great band called "Dezerter"(Deserteur). They were one of the smartest band in socialist poland. Their lyrics were so offensive, but they did not suffer from governmental censorship. Why? Because they were written ironically, so you could interpret them as pro-government.



One of my most favorite polish hardcore punk bands is "Homomilitia". Their style reminds me much of Aus-Rotten and any other bands with both, male and female vocals. I recommend the whole "Twoje Cialo, Twoj Wybor"(Your body, your choice)-album. Its lyrics focuse on stuff like state control, police brutal, animal rights etc.



A band that isn't that hardcore in their music, but definitely in their lyrics is Post Regiment. All I have to say is they have a rather personal then political character. But not always. Anyway, they were really intense and awesome and all that good adjectives. I love them.



I never listened to Wlochaty(the hairy one), but I once found the song "Prawo Wyboru"(right to choose) which deals with homophobia. Great tune.



"Farben Lehre"(which means color doctrine in german) sometimes mix punkrock and reggae sounds. But in my favorite song "Terrorystan"(which deals of issiues of surveilance and having video cameras everywhere) they left all the reggae stuff out:



Well, I think that was it. Thanks for reading!

Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen