Mit „Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt„, dem Opener ihres Debütalbums von 2005, waren We Are Scientists eine der wenigen amerikanischen Bands, die mit in der Franz Ferdinand / Bloc Party / Maximo Park – Ecke tanzten. Genau 20 Jahre später veröffentlicht die Band nun ihr neuntes Studioalbum „Qualifying Miles“ und ist damit – etwas überraschend – weltweit auf dem von Herbert Grönemeyer gegründeten, deutschen Label Grönland Records gelandet, das sich normalerweise ja mehr auf Krautrock & Co. spezialisiert. Die Scientists machen aber immer noch ihren Indierock, wie man ihn in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten schätzen gelernt hat. Zehnminütige groovebasierte Dudeleien sind also auch auf dem neuen Album nicht zu erwarten!

Jedenfalls, deutsches Label nun, dann sollten die New Yorker doch auch ein wenig deutschsprachige Musik hören, dacht ich so bei mir. Und deshalb, voilà, ein German Blind Date:

International Music – Guter Ort

Holy smokes. This makes me want to be awake at 4:00am at a really dirty Berlin nightclub, drinking my eleventh mai tai and really going crazy on a nearly-empty dance floor. The club would be super-smokey and my eyes would be burning and I’d be way too sweaty to be hugging so many strangers. How could I resist, though? This band is very funky, and I’m powerless to anything but bust a move.

The Düsseldorf Düsterboys – Teneriffa (2016 Version)

Oh, man, these guys seem like they’d be fun to be friends with. Are they actually from Düsseldorf? The next time we play there, I need to find them and ask to hang out at their apartment, with them. I feel like they’d have good wine and would want to chat for hours about cinema, and I am very interested in both of those activities. Their mastery of close harmonies gives me the sense that they think a lot about important aesthetic ideas, but then the casual, bedroom-recording sonics of the recording itself lets me know the they’re not too precious or fussy.

Are they singing about Tenerife, in the Canary Islands? That’s what Google has led me to believe. I’ll bet these two would be great to hang with on a Spanish beach, just chilling out and strumming an acoustic guitar and probably getting a little too drunk on sangria and then crying at a beautiful sunset.

Isolation Berlin – Fahr Weg

Okay, I can get down with this. It’s got a sort of 90s indie rock vibe. If I were friends with this singer when I was in high school, I would be super jealous that he was making music like this. It’s incredibly melodic, and all of the sounds are very cool, but it also comes off as quite effortless which is what makes it so enviable. This singer has a really great scream; I especially like that he uses it so sparingly. When he delivers that powerful shriek, I have no idea what he’s saying, but it’s a knockout. He could just be singing about how he has to do his laundry, but that scream makes it the most important laundry in the world.

Ja, Panik – Libertatia

There is too much English in these lyrics. I’m way more into it when the lyrics are mysterious and obscure. The German language is so sexy and compelling to me, and I just want to be awash in a sea of confusion. Although the bit about “fresh fruits” is pretty interesting, I have to admit. It’s better that I don’t understand the context of that line, though. I would probably only be disappointed if I found out what was being said about fresh fruits, right?. I hope people who don’t understand English hear my lyrics and give me this much benefit of the doubt.

Tocotronic – Bye Bye Berlin

Oh man, this is another one that was compromised for me by English lyrics. I guess I shouldn’t hold it against the band because they sing in German, but unfortunately they then went ahead and put the English translation in the video. Once again, all the romantic mystery is ruined when I know what the actual lyrics are. It’s also hard for me to agree with the sentiment that Berlin is done. I only get to be there there every once in a great while and I think that Berlin is amazing; I’m always excited to get a chance to visit. But I understand that feeling. Everybody who lives in New York City is always saying that New York City is dead, too. The grass is always greener, I guess.

Kraftklub – Songs für Liam

Yeah, see this is what I’m talking about, when I say that I want only German lyrics! If I’m being totally honest, the sound of the music is quite similar to what was going on in the UK when our first album came out in 2005 so it’s really helped out by the fact that the lyrics are impossible for me to understand. It gives it a freshness that might not be present if they were singing in English. I don’t know what that means for German listeners of this song. Maybe the lyrics are quite profound, and I’m really missing out. Maybe I’ve got this all wrong.

Oh wait I just caught the bit about the Arctic Monkeys; then they play a little Arctic Monkeys-style guitar part. I guess maybe the song is *about* the music from the UK in the mid-2000s? Now I know too much. I only want German lyrics, for the rest of my life. Please, please, please!

Das neue Album von We Are Scientists, „Qualifying Miles“, ist gerade erschienen:

Frühere Ausgaben von German Blind Date:

– Herman Dune
– Hot Chip
– die Wave Pictures
– Adam Ant
– Yeasayer
– Maximo Park
– The Stranglers
– LIARS
– We Were Promised Jetpacks
– The Walkabouts
– Los Campesinos!
– Bleached