Look, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if the chorus to one of your songs has to explicitly say, “We’re not neo-nazis or anarchists, we’re just like you…”, Something is wrong. Especially when the follow up is, “we’re from here” (as in, we’re from this country), and the preceding lines are “This is a country of idiots, they think that loving your homeland is treason”… In Germany, there are by and large two major groups of nationalists. Those who wear it on their sleeve, and those who aren’t radical. Yeah… Even if you guys aren’t, the target audience for this stuff probably is.
(P.S. wouldn’t hurt to have more than 2 basic song structures and chord progressions )
Dunno, skinheads (not the Nazi ones, skinhead punks and Oi bands like The Bruisers) have had to add the Standard Disclaimer for a long time now. Most of those guys hate Nazis and racists. Must be worse if you’re a German punk or postpunk outfit.
I read the lyrics in my rusty German and the English translation, and it reads like standard punk to me.
They have some very nationalistic stuff. Nothing explicitly racist, but there’s quite a bit of societal connotation attached to this kind of thing, especially given the right-radical origins of the lead singer, and how much they take after Bohze Onkelz. I just felt a little bugged by this, because lord knows I have to listen to this crap often enough. It’s like if you have to say “I’m not racist, but…”.
Oh please. It’s this board’s national pastime trying to track down racists. These people have a legitimate reason to distance themselves from that crap. Save your pitchforking for actual racism please.
I don’t really know frei.wild, but most of the NDW bands I know are in no way, shape or form racist, and I don’t generally see them bundled with them. So I don’t think it’s fair to tag, say, Einstürzende Neubauten or fucking Alphaville as über-nationalists. I realise the genre has evolved, but if you want to pit frei.wild, pit them, leave NDW out of it.
These guys are not German, they are from the German-speaking part of Italy. That puts the nationalistic overtones into perspective, I think. Not that I am defending these guys: they are receiving quite a bit of criticism in Germany.
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