Zoned
(Destijl - IND068) CD $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
The first public appearance pairing Christian Henjes and Juergen Gleue (inspired by and with names derived from LSD-25, they would become CH-39 and JG-39) was in 1976, at the Dada Nova (a space occupied by Otto Mühl's AAO commune) in midtown Hannover, Germany. Dada Nova would be a space of enduring clash. From the subtlety of a shat-upon organ to the ejection from communal meetings by bodily force, the AAO displayed that the presence of the 39 Clocks was one of their constant grief. Known for pranksterism and the destruction of the clubs in which they performed, friction in every form continually followed the band. In 1979 they were thrown out of a show in Kassel at Dokumenta (their sounds had disturbed Joseph Beuys). They created an outrage (see the tune “Art Minus Idiots”) at the Filmtage Hannover with their avant-garde Super 8 movies made under the disguise of director Zachius Lipschitz. At a Hannover show at the Cafe Glocksee, they are rumored to have played the vacuum cleaner and a circular saw instead of guitars, and there was even a knife throwing incident in Bremen. Inspired, then, clearly, by protest in the broadest and most romantic sense (see the tune “Radical Student Mob In Satin Boots”), their sound was attuned to classic American punk and Nuggets, although this is not Bomp rock; the thrust of 39 Clocks purposed deconstruction and reassembly in the most modern sense. This collection was put together with the non-completeist in mind (originals of some of these records are as rare as Italian underwear), intending to display the general 39 Clocks vibe, but also some of their more curious wrinkles. And as the Clocks were always interested in where they were going and not where they'd been, the chronology here is strictly reversed. Diedrich Diedrichsen, who wrote the first review of the band in Spex, scribed liner notes.