WIZO (band)
| WIZO | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 WIZO, Berlin 2019 |
|
| General information | |
| origin |
Sindelfingen , Germany
|
| Genre (s) | Political Punk , Fun Punk , Punk Rock |
| founding | 1986, 2009 |
| resolution | 2005 |
| Website | www.wizo.de |
| Founding members | |
| Axel Kurth | |
| Jörn Genserowski (until 2005) | |
| Jochen Bix (until 1988) | |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, guitar |
Axel Kurth |
| Alex Stinson (since 2015) | |
| Ralf Dietel (since 2014) | |
| former members | |
Drums |
Ralf "Ratz" Plapp |
Drums |
Karlheinz "Charly" Zaske |
Drums |
Ingo Hahn |
bass |
Jörn Genserowski |
bass |
Thorsten Schwämmle |
Drums |
Thomas Guhl (until December 2015) |
WIZO [ VIZO ] is a punk - band from Sindelfingen . It was formed in 1986 and released six studio albums before breaking up in 2005. The group has been active again since 2009 and released two more studio albums.
Band history
1986-2005
Bassist Jörn Genserowski, guitarist Axel Kurth and singer Jochen Bix founded the group under the name Wiso in 1986. Until drummer Ratz got on board, they rehearsed with a drum computer . In the same year they changed their previous name from “Wiso” to “WIZO” and in 1987 they appeared in public for the first time.
WIZO's first appearance was followed by appearances in Sindelfingen and the surrounding area. In 1988 they recorded the demo tape Nobody is Smaller in the Hammer Sound Studio in Nebring . Drummer Ratz was later replaced by Charly. Jochen left the band and moved to Berlin-Friedrichshain . Axel took over the singing.
Together with Andreas "Fratz" Thum, WIZO founded their own label called " Hulk Räckorz ". They recorded their first EP in 1989 in a basement studio in Stuttgart. The first record Für'n Arsch was recorded in 1991 in the Stuttgart studio of a friend of Wizo's. In the same year, the band gained attention through an illegal live performance in Calw at a court hearing against the actor Manfred Krug . The band played on a delivery truck outside the courthouse while the trial was ongoing.
In 1993, WIZO covered the pop song All that she wants by the Swedish group Ace of Base and the self-produced video for the song was even played on MTV . The single for the song finally made the group known nationwide. In 1992 a parodic treatise on Roy Black was published . The single with the title Roy Black is dead was named the "worst single of 1992" by the picture .
After the album “Bleib brave” (1992), UUAARRGH followed in 1994 ! . This album sold well over 100,000 times within a very short time. In addition, WIZO played a concert at the Chaostage in Hanover and hit the headlines again, including the Tagesschau .
In 1995, the year of the mini album Herrénhandtasche , the band caused a sensation again: Because of the song Kein Gerede from the debut album, the group was charged by the public prosecutor's office with "inciting criminal acts". The song was then indexed . Für'n Arsch and the Rerelease Bleib brave / Für'n Arsch were taken off the market and re-released with a karaoke version of the controversial song.
In addition, WIZO was on the Vans Warped Tour in the USA in the summer of 1995 . Among other things, she moderated the VIVA program “Wah Wah” there. After the tour, the opening act for the punk rock band Die Ärzte went on their tour “A question of honor” in autumn .
In 1996 WIZO gave a concert as part of the Bizarre Festival in Cologne in front of around 35,000 people, which was recorded by MTV and WDR . When the band asked the cameramen not to block the viewers' view, the recording was stopped. Singer Kurth and bassist Genserowski then damaged some of the cameras. The band was rumored to have been taken into police custody following the performance .
At the end of 1998 Thomas Guhl became a drummer at WIZO.
In 1998 a Bavarian vicar general filed a lawsuit against the depiction of a pig hanging on a cross in the booklet of UUAARRGH! a. WIZO agreed to stop selling the T-shirt when the church was ready to put a plaque on the Judensau at Regensburg Cathedral with information about its background. In 2005, a notice board was actually set up (but without any action from WIZO). The pig image in the booklet is censored in more recent pressings of the album, with reference to a decision by the Regensburg District Court of June 2, 1999 that it fulfills the offense of "insulting religious beliefs" and therefore had to be censored.
In 2004, after eight years without an album, the Anderster album was released . The plate was mainly cut from older pieces by Axel Kurth. It sold over 20,000 copies within a few days, even though the band went without advertising. The only clue was a note in the band's newsletter. In the same year WIZO released a "Stick EP" as a publicity stunt. The music pieces were saved on a USB stick with 64 MB in MP3 format. In addition, some bonus material was added.
In 2005 the band separated. Their farewell tour included 38 concerts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Hungary.
Reunion
After Wizo, singer Axel Kurth released several solo pieces under his pseudonym XLQ. a. a song for the German championship of VfB Stuttgart with the melody of the WIZO song Kadett B , as well as cover versions of As I went away by Dirk Michaelis and Pour Un Flirt by Michel Delpech . Most recently (since the end of 2008) XLQ devoted itself entirely to music for other performers and, among other things, recorded the guitar parts for a German boy band, was heard with a piece in the making-of of the film Die Welle , was heard several times as a Ghostsinger and also involved in Schnuffel . For 2009 XLQ announced various projects of its own as well as support for the upcoming album of the punk band Chefdenker .
At the end of 2009 the band announced their return on their homepage. In the new line-up, the previous bass player Jörn Genserowski has been replaced by Thorsten Schwämmle. On Pentecost Sunday 2010 the band appeared for the first time with a new line-up as one of the two headliners at the punk festival Ruhrpott Rodeo at Hünxe. Furthermore, in August 2010 they appeared with Ralf Dietel from Krashkarma as guest guitarist at seven other festivals, including Rock am See 2010 near Konstanz. On October 18, 2010, a recording of the AREA4 festival on August 21, 2010 in Lüdinghausen was shown on WDR3 television in the Rockpalast , and the indexed title “Kein Gerede” was broadcast uncensored.
On December 13, 2013, bassist Thorsten “Karachoo” Schwämmle announced on his Facebook page that he was no longer working as a bassist at WIZO.
On June 13th, 2014 the band released a new album called Punk is not for free! (Part III) and announced an extensive tour for autumn. Ralf Dietel joined as the new bass player. Although Dietel is already listed as a band member in the album's booklet, all bass tracks on the album come either from Axel Kurth (who recorded some songs completely alone) or from Thorsten Schwämmle. One song on the album, Unpoliddish , sung by Axel Kurth in a heavily disguised voice and a dialect based on Saxon, was published in 2012 under the false name Total Verboilt .
In December 2015 Guhl left the band for "family reasons" and was replaced by Alex Stinson , who is also on the drums at Start A Fire .
On June 25, 2016, the band presented the new single Adagio at the Amnesia Rockfest in Montebello (Québec) and announced a new album that should be released in August. The song Verwesung was released on June 21, 2016, followed by the album DER on August 12 .
occupation
Discography
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Demo tapes
- 1988 - Nobody is smaller (MC)
- 1990 - Good Friends (MC)
Studio albums
- 1991 - For the Ass (LP)
- 1992 - Stay Brave (LP)
- 1992 - Stay brave / for the ass (CD / MP3)
- 1994 - UUAARRGH! (DLP / CD / MP3)
- 1995 - men's handbag (MLP / CD / MP3)
- 2004 - Anderster (CD / LP / MP3)
- 2014 - Punk isn't free! (Part III) (CD / DLP / MP3)
- 2016 - DER (CD / LP / MP3)
Best of albums
- 1997 - Mindhalálig Punk (CD / MC - Split with Aurora )
- 1998 - Kraut & Rüben (CD / LP)
Singles
- 1991 - glue (7 ")
- 1992 - Roy Black is dead (7 "/ 7" special edition)
- 1993 - All that she wants (7 "/ 12" / Maxi-CD / Single-CD)
- 1994 - The Golden Piece of Shit (7 "-Picture Disc)
- 1994 - Hey Thomas (Maxi-CD)
- 1996 - Goofy as Shit (7 ")
- 1998 - Christmas stinks! (7 "/ Maxi-CD - Split with Hi-Standard )
- 2016 - Adagio (MP3)
- 2018 - I was, I am and I will be (7 "/ Digital)
Other publications
- 1988 - Sterntalern Live in Herrenberg (cassette; demo and live recordings)
- 1994 - Uuaarrgh! (Promo CD, not released)
- 1996 - WIZO rarities (MC, only for fan club members)
- 2004 - Stick-EP (USB stick) (world's first EP on a USB stick)
Sampler contributions
- 1989 Embarrassing Embarrassing Everything Is Here (cassette)
- 1992 - Battle cries FRG II
- 1992 - Welcome to the nightmare melody
- 1993 - vitamin pills
- 1994 - Bring back the vinyl
- 1995 - Punk Uprisings
- 1995 - Flashing in the pit
- 1995 - Pogo Strut Slam Swivel and Mosh
- 1995 - Survival of the fattest
- 1996 - Partisans III
- 1996 - Punk Chartbusters
- 1997 - GötterDÄmmerung (Doctors' Tribute)
- 1997 - Stay Wild!
- 1998 - Moto XXX soundtrack
- 1998 - Short music for short people
- 1999 - Life in the fat lane
- 2000 - Rock Explosion
- 2002 - Live fat, Die Young
- 2002 - Pankerknacker radio play CD (audio book contribution)
- 2002 - Uncontrollable Fatulance
- 2003 - Aggropop Now
- 2003 - Punk Rock BRD Punkhistory
- 2004 - Nazis Out!
- 2004 - undercover
- 2004 - Punk Rock BRD II Punkhistory
- 2009 - Rotten Fagot Sampler (Gay Edge Liberation)
- 2009 - Wreckrospective
- 2014 - Don't feel like Nazis samplers (free, limited to 30,000 copies)
Other pieces
- 1992 - Kein Gerede - Live (Battle Calls BRD II)
- 1994 - OK Fred (Bring back the Vinyl, Aggropop Now!)
- 1997 - Anneliese Schmidt (cover version of the doctors song on the sampler Götterdämmerung )
- 1999 - The Count ( Short Music for Short People )
- 2001 - RAF (Live fat, Die Young)
- 2002 - I Hate You (Uncontrollable Fatulance)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas York: Stars, then black curtain . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1991 ( online ).
- ↑ a b c d Frank Patalong: Music to delete. Spiegel online , October 6, 2004, accessed November 20, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c biography. Laut.de , accessed on November 20, 2010 .
- ^ Wizo - laut.de - Band. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Sign on Regensburg Cathedral - dispute over “Judensau” continues. n-tv.de , March 29, 2005, accessed on March 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Compilation of press reports on the vicar's complaint. Punkrock.de, accessed on November 20, 2010 .
- ↑ August 21, 2010 - Area4 - Lüdinghausen, Borkenberge Airfield. WDR.de , August 21, 2010, accessed November 20, 2010 .
- ↑ youtube.com
- ↑ WIZO. In: facebook.com. Retrieved June 14, 2016 .
- ↑ WIZO - Adagio (official video). June 30, 2016, accessed July 6, 2016 .
- ↑ WIZO - decomposition (official video). July 21, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016 .
- ↑ Chart sources: Germany - Austria - Switzerland
- ↑ Rock 'N' Roll against Nazis. Not in the mood for Nazis , August 2014, accessed August 23, 2014 .