A thread to discuss Hallogallo 2010/Neu! sort-of reunion

This was one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen in my life. Did anyone else see any of the dates? I only recognized one song and was sort of miffed they didn't play Hallogallo or Fur Immer (at least in any recognizable form) but the way he managed to update everything in a way that was both nostalgic and entirely modern was pretty incredible.

Does anyone have recordings of any of the dates?

ha, they really didn't play Hallogallo? Figured that was a given. But I'm glad it was good nonetheless! i think you can listen to the primavera show at wfmu.org.

Cave is playing some dates with them in Germany. Only a little jealous.

Saw them at lincoln center. Was that the date you were at or Maxwells? kind of wish I would have went to Maxwells too, because I think it would have been a different experience in a small club. i recognized ( i think) Harmonia's Deluxe, Wattusi, and Rother's Flamende Herzen, They Were Great! only complaint is at the end of the show the crowd was really starting to get into it and then it was over with no encore : (

http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/music-hub/2010/aug/10/no-cover-michael-rother-friends-play-music-neu/

^^^sounding pretty awesome

getting awesomer

I heard they'll be playing mexico city in a couple of months with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums. Not sure if it's only a rumor but it would be amazing to see him doing a motorik show.

Interview with Michael Rother, Aaron Mullan, and Steve Shelley on Brian Turner's WFMU show from the other day here:
http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/36874

Rother has a lot of great stuff to say and they play a ton of music new and old. Shelley is starting a new label and the first release is gonna be a Hallogallo 7". Really amazing listen. Seeing this at ATP in a few weeks, probably my most anticipated performance of the weekend.

I saw them at International House in Philly and it was SO HORRIBLY FUCKING AWFUL having to remain seated, like I can't even describe. Everyone just sat there and stared and I wanted to just jump up and dance.

Is that thing at WFMU streaming or is there any way to download it? I can't wait to listen to it when I get home from work tonight.

i'm sure there are ways to grab the audio from wfmu or the wnyc thing linked above ... but i don't know how? anyone?

i dont get how this is a reunion considering only one of the orig. union is still alive

WFMU site is streaming only. Grabbing it would result in a huge file that would take ages to upload and you'll probably home by then ;)
Awesome, Shelley's new label is called Vampire Blues! Clicking through this it seems Howe Gelb and John Agnello are also somehow involved (though maybe that's only with the blog?)

http://vampireblues.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/hallogallo-7-inch-cover.jpg?w=500&h=494

just dial for more information

Saw them in Edinburgh last week. Outstanding show. I caught their first show at Primavera earlier in the year and was blown away. Last weeks show was a little tighter and utterly magnificent. Really has been a dream come true and something I never imagined I'd have the opportnuity to see. I hear that Rother has been recoring all the shows with a view towards releasing something. That'd be fantastic.

Blown away at Primavera, one of the best gigs I've ever been to

New 7" sounds good, I love the new version of Hallogallo 2010 too.

(and Primavera, Lincoln Center, and ATP NY shows are all downloadable)

i'm going to this next week! so psyched already but it's assuring to hear people are liking it

and Primavera, Lincoln Center, and ATP NY shows are all downloadable
where? can you download that WNYC thing?

Looks like I'll manage to catch this at Incubate, thankfully.

They're playing here in Berlin in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. It's a seated theatre, which is normally not entirely to my liking -- but I have a seat in the middle of the second row!

http://audio.wnyc.org/news/news_20100810_nocover_neu.mp3

Hallogallo 2010 - Live at Lincoln Center, NY (2010-08-06)

Set List:

1. Hallogallo 2010 (Unreleased)
2. Neutronics 98 (A Tribute to Conny Plank)
3. Aroma Club B3
4. Deluxe
5. Veteranissimo
6. Dino

This is really great. Highlights in all the sets for me are Hallogallo 2010, Deluxe and Dino.

Absolutely splendid at ATP, although Rother's guitar was mixed slightly low if you were near the front of the room - better at the back. Still, this is a truly exhilarating thing that must be witnessed at all costs.

Thanks for avoiding the west coast completely, fellas.

the west coast Texas

Thanks for avoiding the west coast completely, fellas.

The group is an ongoing concern and they are continually booking shows.

Would have wanted to see them in Ghent at the end of the month but gig starts at 10pm - can't be bothered to drive home after that on a weeknight. lol i'm old.

That's good to hear. I do hope to see some wc dates, esp if they keep playing at art museums.

The 7" is up for ordering now on the SY webstore:
http://sonicyouth.kungfustore.com/artists/166-hallogllo/product/2463-hallogallo-2010-debut-7-comes-with-download-card-blinkgurteldrone-schlager-vb-01-sonr28-7

Pity they don't send you the download link after you buy the 7", gotta wait for the download card in the post.

They've added Negativland to the setlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyanvtJ-Puw

single is great, though the pressing is a little noisy. "drone schlager" lol

Wow, I really hope they do a Midwest show, this looks amazing. Neu!'s music is timeless so I would imagine it still sounds great today. I am a little disturbed how all this stuff (the vinyl boxset, official release of Neu! '86, this tour) is only happening since Dinger passed on...Rother always seemed like a good guy, but doesn't this seem a little opportunistic? Like, would Dinger approve of all this if he were still alive?

Perhaps, but I also think it may be Rother realizing life is short and that if people want to hear this stuff, why not get it out there again?

from what i've heard, dinger didnt' exactly ask for rother's permission w/ his own reissues?
i think rother worked with dinger's wife on these reissues too.

I understand that. However, I've always seen Neu! as more of Dinger's group. Don't get me wrong - I really did not like Dinger much as a person, he always seemed very stuck up and idealistic, and I think he lost sight of the bigger picture. A good example is his song "America" which is pretty lyrically disgusting and always made me have a grudge against the dude even though his music is usually pretty great. That said, if you listen to his La Dusseldorf albums you can see that he's really the one responsible for the bulk of the Neu! sound and does deserve a mention as one of music's great innovators. If anyone "rightfully" should be taking this type of show on the road, I would think it should be him. That said...you're right, fuck it. This show sounds amazing and personally I can't wait to see them should they come anywhere close. I mean it's not like you can't imitate the Dinger sound pretty easily.

Wow, I really hope they do a Midwest show, this looks amazing.

they played Chicago last month. Not sure what other cities they hit, but they were out here.

this was fantastic. rother just looked so happy to be up there and everything sounded great. also it's hard to think of a more suitable drummer than steve shelley. there is absolutely no need to be cynical about this, besides it's more of a rother retrospective than a neu! reunion imo.

also it's hard to think of a more suitable drummer than steve shelley.

yah, this. haven't seen them live, but i've been listening to the 45 a lot and the drumming is so right on. unshowy, driving, groovy as hell, esp on the droneschlager.

I'm not trying to be cynical...just finding it odd that we get the vinyl boxset and this tour the year after Klaus dies. But whatever...you're right, it's stupid to complain. The boxset absolutely rules. I've been waiting so long for something like that. And these shows...I just heard the bootleg posted here, it's amazing. When "Immer Weider" came on I was just overwhelmed. Can't believe I missed the Chicago show.

All I can say is that it sucks that Dinger wouldn't get involved with something like this - how great would it be if they added some La Dusseldorf tunes like "Silver Cloud", "Viva", or "Cha Cha 2000"?

I'm not trying to be cynical...just finding it odd that we get the vinyl boxset and this tour the year after Klaus dies.

the audience is definitely there, and it sounds like dinger and rother just couldn't get along, creatively, so no real surprise

Xp they did play some La Düsseldorf iirc?

So this is tonight, at the Barbican! I'm trying to be excited about it.

I'd really like to attend one of their concerts.
A band of friends is going to support them in their forthcoming Italian tour but there's no chance I can make it.

This was hot.

fuck yeah. do you know what the track after deluxe was? that was intense.

seefeel did absolutely nothing for me tho.

This was awesome.

Sad you didn't get into Seefeel, ledge - I thought they were terrific. I was doing a little dance in my seat for practically the whole set, but it's always been about the weird polyrhythm dub thing. Wasn't sure about the drummer and bassist at first - the bassist had two tremolo settings on his stompbox, neither of which seemed to be quite in synch with the laptop & drummer, but it seemed to make more sense as it went on, and the tremolo became more texture/accent than trying to set the tempo against what the samples were doing. I loved Sarah Peacock's sparkle guitars (in sound and look.)

Hallogallo were... yeah. Wow. Hot. Poor Steve Shelley, he seemed to be suffering by the end of it. I think it's been years since he had to work that hard behind the drum kit, but yeah, kudos to him, he even kept up with the shuffley circuitbent Harmonia drum machine. I almost think I liked the weird electronic pieces that Rother played between the songs as much as I liked the songs.

But Michael Rother's guitar sounds like Cathedrals. There's just no other way to describe it, that arching tone he gets when he turns on the distortion and phase and delay all at once and it's just... aaaaaahhhhhh.

Problems with the bass guitar at the beginning, looks like they had to DI it straight into the mixing desk 2 songs in.

didn't get Dino, but got Deluxe...

That's still a win in my book.

I think the song after deluxe is one on the new 7" which I picked up but only got a quick listen this morning.

Poor Steve Shelley
still a monster on drums though. saw him with SY a couple weeks ago -- awesome to see a dude who looks like he should be an IT worker at an office just killing it. really wish i could see HalloGallo! gah.

This reminds me that I still need to listen to the set you posted on your blog.

the HalloGallo? yeah, it's great.

Yeah, I dled it the other day, but still need to listen. Thanks for that!

i enjoyed it a lot, thx!

Did they come to LA, or are they coming to LA?

Just picked up my 7" from the rec store. It is orange and beautiful. The download is weirdly huge (63mb for two songs that are 4 minutes) and is in some weird format of m4a that won't play in Foobar (???) but good lord Drone Schlager is so good.

Is the name of the 7" 'W*O#' ?

xpost - mine's fluorescent green, yummie. The download's are Apple Lossless 660 kbps m4a (which is the iTunes store standard. m4a, that is. Not 660 kbps ;-), hence the size.
The ending of Blinkgürtel is very familiar, it reminds of something I can't yet name. My 7" has quite a bit of surface noise, but a quick cleaning of the vinyl should do the trick I think.

As far as I can make out, the name of the 7" is "Blinkgürtel/Drone Schlager". Not sure what "W*O#" could mean. Without the shift key it's "w8o3", which doesn't make much clearer does it?

Apple Lossless?

if you're against .WAVs on anti MIcrosoft grounds, then why use something which is just as bad but far less supported.

'Cos Apple Lossless still has a smaller filesize than .wav's?

I'm assuming they just went for those to appeal to the minority market that is iTunes Users.

Haven't downloaded them yet, but glad to hear they're in a lossless format, so I can convert them to whatever I want without a loss of quality (dbPowerAmp will do the trick there).

There's a ALAC plugin for foobar2000 that you can use to convert these losslessly to FLAC or WAV.

Mine is green too, got it from SY web store. Was wonderin about that W*O# thing too.

(and looks more yellow colour on discogs: http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=2435130 )

Well it WAS hand-screened and is also folded-over cardstock rather than a legit sleeve, so it doesn't surprise me they got creative w/ colors. I wonder how many there are? One of my fave 7"s is actually hand-screen art on the back of someone else's "sleeve" (lol)