King Køng
| King Køng | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Rock, alternative |
| founding | 1989 |
| resolution | 1993, 1999 |
| Last occupation | |
| Jan Vetter | |
Guitar, vocals |
Christian Florie-Albrecht |
| Uwe Hoffmann | |
| Ruprecht (until 1990) | |
| Hans-Jürgen Reznicek (from 1990) | |
King Køng was a German rock band. She achieved relative fame primarily through her lead singer Jan Vetter , who is a member of the band Die Ärzte .
overview
The band was founded in 1989 and effectively dissolved parallel to the reunification of the doctors in 1993. The style, text ideas and rarely entire passages of songs (see e.g. Up to you → Sometimes women have ) of King Køng's songs can be found in fragments in the doctors' albums that followed. Characteristic were the two lead voices of Jan Vetter and Christian “Flo” Florie as well as the virtuoso bass played by Jack Reznicek , especially on the last album Life Itself Is Sweet, Sweet, Sweet . In addition, the pronounced rhythmic interplay between guitar (s) and drums was a unique selling point. Usually the respective composer sang his own composition - similar to how it was and is also practiced by doctors, but only in English. King Køng was first and foremost a live band who enjoyed surprising their audience with lyrical and musical variations on the studio versions of their songs.
history
Active period (1989–1992)
The band was founded in 1989 by the previous doctors-guitarist Jan Vetter (vocals / guitar), the previous doctors-producer Uwe Hoffmann (drums), Christian “Flo” Florie-Albrecht (vocals / guitar) and Ruprecht (bass).
Jan Vetter gave up his stage name Farin Urlaub in order to distance himself from the image of doctors. In February 1990 came the first album King Who? on the market, followed by the first tour. 4 Cro-Magnon people are crushing the universe at the end of April, at which even larger venues were booked at the time. Contrary to the expectations of the management, these remained largely empty. Ruprecht left the band after completing the first tour, which lasted around a month. His only composition for King Køng called Call it a day has not been played live by the band since then. His position was taken by Hans-Jürgen Reznicek from the band Silly , whose album Whoresons was produced by Hoffmann at the time. Presumably, "Jack" Reznicek's band membership initially had the status of a guest musician, as he was not to be seen on the outer cover of the second album General Theory , released in 1991 , although he was already engaged as a bassist on the club tour that began in mid-October 1990. However, the vinyl version of General Theory shows a picture of him on the inside cover.
The band's false start left traces in their music. While King who? be cheerful, bright yellow and presented with a green monster on the cover and fast, catchy and (except for the only exception Remember , when a failed relationship is discussed) afforded carefree songs, the very title of published in 1991 successor pointed General Theory on a more introverted work. The cockroach (“Cockroach”) became the band's mascot, the new album was presented in rich black with a high-contrast portrait of the temporarily three-piece band. Although the humor represented in songs like Hello! , Idiot , Crocodile Airlines and Easy , not entirely gone, are topics such as child abuse (She smiles) , revenge (Remember) , suicidal thoughts ( No more (muddlin 'thru) , Rachel ) and fascism ( Fascist , only on the CD version ) dominating the character of the album. With the opener People the guitars are less distorted, but louder, which means that they come to the fore much more than with King who? was still the case.
The number of visitors on the subsequent Cockroaches all-over tour stagnated compared to the previous year. The records sold also fell short of expectations. As a consequence, the record company BMG Ariola King Køng canceled the record deal . With that, the King Køng project became more and more a hobby of its band members.
In 1992 King Køng released the album with the defiant name Life Itself Is Sweet Sweet Sweet as an independent band on the specially founded label "Gringo Records" . Just as defiantly on the cover all four musicians can be seen laughing, bare-chested, decorated with flowers and lying on a carpet. In addition, the album contains five more tracks than the previous two with their 13 tracks each (the vinyl version of General Theory only had 12 tracks). For cost reasons, the album was only released on CD , the booklet had to do without lyrics (the lyrics could be sent to you as a simple photocopy by the band). Stylistically, it is based more on the then modern interpretations of rock, e.g. B. Red Hot Chili Peppers or Rage Against the Machine , is therefore - at least in the first half of the sound carrier - much more rhythmic. The heaviness of General Theory is no longer noticeable, although this album also features socially critical or otherwise political themes ( Galloping Rhinos , What's Mine , Big Shot ) as well as slower songs and ballads ( Up To You , Told You Before ). Life Itself Is Sweet, Sweet, Sweet was the most versatile and most elaborately produced album by King Køng , but with a pressing of only 3000 copies it is also the most unsuccessful. Without even knowing it at the time, the band members began their last tour in October 1992 and gave their farewell concert on November 29, 1992 in the Berlin “Loft”.
Estate (since 1993)
As a result of the failure and the reunion of doctors initiated by Jan Vetter , King Køng has been on hold ever since. From 1993 Jan played again under the pseudonym Farin Urlaub with his previous band, which exceeded its successes from the 1980s several times. Hoffmann became their producer again. Years later, Jan maintained that he had not given up King Køng. Flo, who broke off contact with Jan Vetter after the doctors reunited, was not convinced to continue. In 1999 Jan alias Farin declared the band dissolved.
The King Køng albums King Who? and General Theory have been available again as a re-release since March 24, 2006. The third album is also to be re-released, although there is no release date yet. For years, a re-release of the albums, which the band members (especially Jan Vetter) tried again and again, failed due to legal reasons and the objection of BMG Ariola .
Curiosities
- The lyricists and composers of the songs were never named in plain text on the albums and singles, but instead using changing pseudonyms :
- Jan Vetter: Muff Potter , Stanley Beamish , Arthur Pewty
- Christian Florie: Sam Hawkens , Bronco Lehn, Arthur Dent
- Ruprecht: Mathieu
- All band members together: Immegin Olsepippel (alluding to "Imagine all the people" from John Lennon's Imagine )
- On each of the three published albums there was a song called Remember , which had nothing to do with the content or music of the songs of the same name on the other albums.
- Although the band was anything but successful commercially, their song Peels was voted 1393 at the listener hit parade Top 2000 D jointly initiated by SWR and DT64 in 1990 .
Discography
Albums
- 1990: King Who? (Re-Release 2006)
- 1991: General Theory (Re-Release 2006)
- 1992: Life itself Is Sweet, Sweet, Sweet!
Singles
- 1990: Peels (vinyl promo single)
- 1990: Promo CD for the album King Who?
- 1990: Money (vinyl promo single)
- 1990: Money / Underground
- 1990: The Complete Mahaze Vol. 1 (limited to 1000 copies vinyl tour single that was sold during the fall tour)
- 1991: Promo CD for the album General Theory
- 1992: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (promo CD - identical in content to "The Complete Mahaze Vol. 1" plus a short version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood")
Manta Manta soundtrack
King Køng added a song (under the pseudonym Die Motoristen ) to the soundtrack of the film Manta, Manta .
- 1991: We drive Manta Manta (also on the corresponding soundtrack album)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Top 2000d: The hit list for the German Top2000d hit parade by SDR3 and DT64. In: wagge.de. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013 ; accessed on October 21, 2016 .
- ↑ King Køng Discography (Accessed May 2012)