TRIO

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first of all, you have to listen to the whole records, not just "da da da" then you will notice that Trio rocked it like this:
1) Bassless garage punk AND teutonic proto-robot rock often AT THE SAME TIME - basically the missing link between The Monks (the cool ones) & Kraftwerk... bubblegum Suicide eg The Now Sound.
2) the other 2 members of TRIO played PING PONG onstage when the guitarist took a solo!
3) best use of a casio preprogrammed beat this side of Under Mi Sleng Teng.
4) Wrote excellent bitter fuck-you ballads worthy of "Positively 4th Street"-era meanie Bob Dylan... like "Broken Hearts for You and Me" & "Sunday You Need Love, Monday Be Alone" and even the outwardly cheery da da da's chorus is "I don't love you, you don't love me".
5) covered Little Richard, Lee Dorsey and Harry Belafonte!
6) Like The Oblivians (who covered them) , The Sex Pistols, Sonic Youth at their best, Hasil Adkins or the aforementioned Monks, Trio used anti-rock strategems to create Real Rock & Roll.
7) better than Can, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Link Wray, Esquerita & The Dead Boys.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 16 May 2003 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

and if that's not enough to convince you: Pitchfork hated it! http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/t/trio/da-da-da.shtml

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 16 May 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

come on now.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 16 May 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

tell us more fritz!

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 16 May 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

(Ryan Schreiber in ignorant-and-boneheaded attitude toward non-indierock shockah!)

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

8) produced by inventor of the moptop hairdid/revolver cover artist/plastic ono band member and all-around cool Kraut Klaus Voormann
9) cool jailhouse tattoo-style logo (2 scrawled hearts, one x-ed out)
10) loved the extendo-mix 12 inch
11) like many a great "one hit wonder" & novelty hits, they're relatively easily found in thrift store dollar bins (people who didn't generally buy records bought this record = there were lots of people who dumped it at goodwill rather than be the guy with 3 records and one of them's trio)

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

12) I bought their album back in '82 based on a review in Rolling Stone.
13) A couple of people hearing "Broken Hearts" thought they were Dire Straits.

― Curt (cgould), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

14) Oddly enough Jesus Lizard covers two of their songs, neither of which are Da Da Da.

― earlnash, Friday, 16 May 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I admittedly picked this up whenever that commercial came out but did fall in love with the full-lenghth. FWIW.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 16 May 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

15) I've seen Stereo Total do a genius cover of "Energie"

(I agree with all of the above: Trio = Best Band Evah)

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Friday, 16 May 2003 17:33 (twenty-two years ago)

the debut album 'trio' from 1981 is minimal amazing! I've had some amazing road trips. there's a great six song 12" of long remixes, has the minimal version of 'ana'. the only album to really make it out over here 'trio and error' wanders towards overproduction maybe, but a few ok songs, but you really just need the first one. it made it to CD but I haven't seen copies for sale in years. the compilations don't have nearly enough of the first album on there.

― jl, Friday, 16 May 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

'amazing road trips to this album' I mean, of course. I am sure that we have all had some amazing road trips. uhm. day job.

― jl, Friday, 16 May 2003 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I only have Trio and Error, but I think it's great. I think Chuck E. totally should have included "Ich Lieb Den Rock & Roll" in his top heavy metal singles. Great early dance/metal hybrid! Also they continued the bubblegum song title naming convention as practiced by early Sweet ("Co Co", "Chop Chop", "Tom Tom Turnaround", "Funny Funny" VS. "Da Da Da", "Ya Ya", "Boom Boom" [not a John Lee Hooker cover!], "Bye Bye").

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Friday, 16 May 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the deal with Pitchfork giving it a poor review, but it still gets an 8?

― JasonD (JasonD), Friday, 16 May 2003 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The video for "Anna" was on VH1 Classic tonight... YAY! (Followed by Lindsay Buckingham...BOO!!!)

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Thursday, 22 May 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I fell for "Da Da Da" via our local college radio station ca. 1993, because that was one of my favorite DJ's favorite songs and she liked to play it. Only much later, via the New Wave audio channel, did I discover the loveliness of "Anna".

I feel a great sense of hometown pride when it comes to Trio. Peter Behrens, the group's drummer, was born right here in San Antonio and is thus regarded [slightly] as the American of the group. That factoid, combined with the fact that Charlie Sexton was also born here, gives me a great sense of hope for our local music scene (i.e., there's nothing here in the water that would prevent a listenable musical artist from actually coming from here).

― Dee the Semi-Lurker (Dee the Lurker), Thursday, 22 May 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

"hearts are trump" is a much better song than "da-da-da"

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 14 November 2003 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Their frontman (Stefan Remmler, was it?) had a quite classy solo hit a few years later, called "Keine Sterne in Aten" (strangely translated to "I Don't Go To USA" in English)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 14 November 2003 23:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Stole everything from Der Plan and the Wirtschaftswunder and Andreas Dorau and Palais Schaumberg and die Radierer and and and. Made it palatable for Oma and Opa watching at home on ZDF. Not funny, not interesting, and certainly not important.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Saturday, 15 November 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

yikes! tell us more about der plan and the wirtschaftswunder et al, colin. sounds interesting.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 15 November 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Well I finally got ahold of the Trio S/T CD, thanks to an ILM-er who goes by These Robust Cookies who pointed me to a place I could get it cheaply. And it's really not like what I expected at all. I think I thought it would be more challenging or avant-garde, whatever, but it's actually quite accessible, and I think it sounds like contemporary U.S. indie rock at times (or at least Northwest U.S. indie rock, I may be biased here). In this case I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, though, just interesting in the sense that that's the last thing I would expect it to sound like considering where they're from and when this was recorded. Anyway, these guys really did a hell of a job copping an American accent in places, that's for sure! I don't think it will turn out to be one of my favorite albums ever, but it's definitely a lot more interesting than most things I spend the money to take a chance on.

First of all, "Ja Ja Ja" is the very first piece of music I've ever heard in my life that made me think "wait a minute - is THIS where the Pixies got their sound from after all?!?" And what about the vocal technique towards the end - Wire's "The Drill" anyone? Dugga dugga dugga.

"Sabine Sabine Sabine" has a guitar sound that is nearly a dead ringer for Durutti Column's Vini Reilly, too. Only other time I've heard something that made me think of Vini was a few tracks on Jilted John's album "True Love Stories". I consider this an acheivement in and of itself, merely to SOUND like Vini in any way at all. And what's with the church bells added to "Kummer"? What a delightfully strange thing to find in the middle of a record that's otherwise so reminiscent of U.S. indie rock?

And it dawns on me now that the noise at the beginning of The Fall's "Look, Know" might have been lifted from Da Da Da. Although my book here dates "Look Know" as 1982, so...?? Was that just some popular video game noise I'm not familiar with or something?

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Monday, 30 May 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

"Da Da Da" used a beat from the Casio VL-Tone, one of the first toy electronic keyboards (battery-powered, with line-out), probably made around 1981 or so. Don't remember "Look, Know," but it does appear in The Fall's "The Man Whose Head Expanded" (different, but similar beat--I think "da da da" was samba, "man whose head" was bossanova); hm, maybe there should be a thread about VL-Tone.

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Monday, 30 May 2005 03:24 (twenty years ago)

Thanks. And These Robust Cookies is the coolest ILM name ever.

But what do you mean "Look, Know" appeared in "The Man Who's Head Expanded"? To me, they are two different, unrelated songs.

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Monday, 30 May 2005 04:43 (twenty years ago)

i believe TRC is saying that the casio vl-tone appeared in "the man whose head exploded," not that "look, know" appeared in it.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 30 May 2005 04:47 (twenty years ago)

OH, I see. Thanks.

― The Silent Disco of Glastonbury (Bimble...), Monday, 30 May 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

Nope, wrong Fall track, sorry. It's "Fortress/Deer Park" which begins with that Casio beat and MES announcing "Today, on the Vitamin B Glandular Show..."

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 30 May 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

...and as for Trio, my favourite is "Ja Ja Ja", which does indeed rock. And one of my favourite things about it is the lyric sheet, which is pretty amusing if you don't know any German - funny to see the name "Flash Gordon" amidst all that untranslatable Teutonic verbiage and have absolutely no clue about the context!

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 30 May 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Hatin' on Oma and Opa = dud. All those bands listed are good, but Trio totally hold their own when compared to 'em IMO.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Monday, 30 May 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

where can one get Trio's first record cheaply, Cookies?

― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 30 May 2005 08:57 (twenty years ago)

I'm kind of getting into the second record "Trio & Error" more now. As kind of aptly named, not really as consistent or Lost Masterpiece-ish as the first one, but it's definitely got its moments like "Ich Lieb den Rock n Roll" and the awesome "Anna". Not as strong on the ballads as the first one though.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 30 May 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

Much as I want to like it, the third one isn't so hot. There are a couple of good songs, but I think the slick production renders it pretty charmless. I don't really imagine they stole much from Der Plan, Wirtschaftswunder, Radierer, Andreas Dorau or Palais Schaumburg - they seem grounded in another kind of rock and roll for many years before.

― Pangolino 2, Monday, 30 May 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

1. "The Man Whose Head Expanded" DOES begin with a Casio VL-Tone beat. And so does "Fortress/Deer Park". Different beats--Fortress is samba, I think, same as "Da Da Da", while "Man" is, I think, bossanova. "Look, Know" has no Casio or any other electronic beat I can hear.

2. I found Trio's first at Half.com, but didn't plan on buying it anytime soon so posted the link in a thread right here on ILM. UPC was 042281-48222-9

― These Robust Cookies (Robust Cookies), Monday, 30 May 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

Reports say that Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel, Trio's guitarist, has died.

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 14:52 (twelve years ago)

Best Allmusic review ever:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/trio-error-mw0000691496

― MarkoP, Tuesday, 18 February 2014 16:07 (twelve years ago)

Favorite live youtube of all time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcoIAIwqafM&feature=kp

― Mike Dixn, Wednesday, 19 February 2014 01:34 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

Peter Behrens (4 September 1947 – 11 May 2016)
RIP

― meisenfek, Thursday, 12 May 2016 00:16 (nine years ago)

Fritz otm