Die Krupps? Quit Confusing Me!
I was in Roadrunner Records last night flipping through the used vinyl when I came upon a $2.75 copy of an album by Das Damen. Das Damen? Could they be the guys that the great Chuck Eddy raved up in Stairway to Hell? The album was on the Twin/Tone label and I'm sure Das Damen were from Milwaukee so the Upper Midwest connection was adding up.
The cheap price plus my Radio K discount talked me into buying the album. That and plus hearing the workers namecheck "Willard Ikola" and "Cary Eades" while I was over in the used CD area made me want to give them my money.
After a stop at the liquor store for a sixer of Bass, I came home to my Chuck Eddy book to see what he had to say about Das Damen ... and it was ... nothing. DIE KREUZEN were the band from Milwaukee I was thinking of. D'oh! - I had mixed up my Eighties Indie American Guitar Bands Who Have German Names! Die Kreuzen = the crossing or the mixing in German; Das Damen = the ladies in German, though my high-school German tells me it should be Die Damen. (Note: Translations are not guaranteed.) Das Damen were from New York City, and the album ain't bad. Kind of like Made To Be Broken-era Soul Asylum - late eighties buzzing crunching guitar rock with a certain melodic tenderness.
As for Die Kreuzen, I know I've seen their albums in Roadrunner before and should have pounced on them when I had the chance. Eddy described them as "nakedly soulful in a way that cuts deeper every time you play (them)." He also said that their music is "scary as mortal sin, and beyond oft-arbitrary constructs like 'meaning.'" I'll brush up on my German, then the search continues.
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