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 Selig:In the middle of the 90's, Selig caused a sensation with their richly facetted, energetic music and with their wild, personal lyrics, took on the role as fore-runner for many future German speaking rock bands. Founded in Hamburg in 1993, Jan Plewka (vocals), Malte Neumann (keyboards), Christian Neander (guitar), Leo Schmidthals (bass) and Stephan "Stoppel" Eggert (drums) played in small clubs in the Hansestadt area. A demo finally forced open an eagerly expected record contract and scarcely a year later - March 1994, to be exact - the self titled debut album by Selig appeared. Thanks to countless appearances - as headliner in the smallest clubs throughout the republic or as support for the Freaky Fuckin' Weirdoz - the band gained itself a devoted audience.Rewards for their efforts: The album, "Selig", placed in the Top-40 of the German album charts and in Austria it even occupied the #12 position of the Hitparade. The clips to the singles, "Sie hat geschrien" and "Wenn ich wollte" received massive airplay by the TV music channels and the latter song was awarded with an Echo. With their debut album, Selig established themselves as a solid leader in the local rock scene. Thus the conditions were ideal for the quintet's second album. "Hier:" appeared in May 1995 and brought together all the strengths of the band: original rock songs with a 70's flair that were influenced by psychedelic and alternative as well as lyrics in which no words were minced ("Arsch einer Göttin"). On a nearly sold out headliner tour and various festivals, such as Rock am Ring and Strange Noise, Selig emphasized their live qualities with their "hippie-metal" (original sound track???? That's what my dictionary says but.... ) and "Hier:" landed in the Top-20 of the German album charts. "With the entire media fuss, the band was nearly destroyed" said keyboarder Malte in a 1997 interview. Break up or create something new was the credo - Selig opted for the latter and in the summer of 1997 the album "Blender", which was, for the most part, recorded in New York, was put into the running. The band presented itself this time in a different guise: they experimented more with loops and oriented themselves more in the direction of pop. Despite this being their most mature CD to date the band decided, in the end, to disband. Thus there's the best of album, "Für Immer und Selig" (appearing as a cD-Extra) which recalls the highlights and special status of these north Germans. The first disc naturally presents all the biggest and secret hits of Selig: There is "Bruderlos" (which was a live standard of Selig's) as well as "Sie hat geschrien", "Wenn ich wollte" and the Bob Dylan cover, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", the title song from the movie hit with Til Schweiger by the same name. The songs, "Ist es wichtig?" as well as "Popstar" are heard in new mixes by the Selig house producer Frank Plasa. The bonus CD (#2) includes live recordings, B-sides, session takes as well as 3 videos for the songs, "Wenn ich wollte", "Bruderlos" and "Ohne Dich". -Mikki 5/05 More at: |
